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10 Most Hated Jobs

At one time or another, we have all known at least one person who has hated his or her job. That person may have suffered silently or vented constantly, but at the end of the day there was no question this person was truly unhappy with where they spent at least 40 of his or her waking hours every week, for 51 weeks a year Cisco CCNA Certification 640-802 Exam Training.


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The reasons for job dissatisfaction vary. Low pay, irregular hours, and lack of a window seat are all assumed to be culprits, and to be sure they can all contribute to a bad attitude on the job. These are actually not the primary factors driving a worker to regard tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock sharp with dread and ill will, however, according to one resource.

CareerBliss is an online resource that bases job satisfaction on multiple factors, including workplace culture, coworkers, and the boss.

According a survey of hundreds of thousands of employees conducted in 2011, CareerBliss determined the 10 most hated jobs, rated on a scale of 1 to 10. In almost all cases, respondents reported that the factors causing the most job dissatisfaction were not lousy pay or a desk near the bathroom. CareerBliss found that limited growth opportunities and lack of reward drove the misery index up more than anything else.

Read about the 10 jobs with the highest levels of employee unhappiness. The results may surprise you.

1. Director of Information Technology
For all the press that teachers and nurses get for their long hours, low pay and thankless tasks, it may be surprising to see the most hated job was that of information technology director, according to CareerBliss. After all, the salary’s pretty good and with information technology such a prevalent part of everyday business, an IT director can hold almost as much sway over the fate of some companies as a chief executive.

Still, IT directors reported the highest level of dissatisfaction with their jobs, far surpassing that of any waitress, janitor, or bellhop. Of those who responded to the survey, one simple, five-word response summed up the antipathy very well: “Nepotism, cronyism, disrespect for workers.”

2. Director of Sales and Marketing
A director of sales and marketing plans implements efforts to promote companies and generate business. Responsibilities often include budget management, public relations, and employee training.

Sales and marketing directors reported the second-highest level of job dissatisfaction of all survey respondents. The majority who responded negatively cited a lack of direction from upper management and an absence of room for growth as the main sources of their ire.

3. Product Manager
“Product manager” is a wide-ranging job title that takes on many meanings, depending on the company and its sector. In some cases, the job requires simply evaluating what products are best suited to a company’s business model, and in others marketing, resource management, and scheduling are involved.

The level of job dissatisfaction was very high for this position. One respondent complained that it restricted growth, saying that it was “very hard to grow up the ranks.” Another was less polite and said “the work is boring and there’s a lot of clerical work still at my level.”

4. Senior Web Developer
Senior web developers design, maintain, and develop applications for the Internet. With every business expected to have some kind of Internet presence these days, developers are found working in every type of company, in a full-time, part-time, or freelance capacity.

A senior developer is expected to be fluent in client-side and server-side contexts, and know his or her way around Python, Ruby, or whatever other arcane technology requires taming. Senior developers reported a high degree of unhappiness in their jobs, attributable to a perception their employers are unable to communicate coherently, and lack an understanding of the technology.

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5. Technical Specialist
A technical specialist “leads the analysis, definition, design, construction, testing, installation, and modification of medium to large infrastructures,” according to CareerBliss. This means that if a company wants to design a project, the technical specialist evaluates it to see what’s possible and what isn’t.

The job is a lead position that requires intimate knowledge of engineering; familiarity with Linux helps, too. However, technical specialists reported that for all their expertise, they were treated with a palpable level of disrespect. They cited a “lack of communication from upper management” and felt their “input was not taken seriously.”

6. Electronics Technician
Electronics technicians maintain, troubleshoot and collect monthly measurement data for electronic systems. They work in every sector and can be employed with the phone company, a chain of fast-food restaurants, or the U.S. Navy. Whatever the case, technicians work on-site and off-site, have constant contact with clients, and must have an ability to quickly solve complex technical problems under intense pressure.

Employee dissatisfaction in this job is attributable to several factors. One respondent complained of having “too little control,” while another had a litany of complaints: “Work schedule, lack of accomplishment, no real opportunity for growth, peers have no motivation to work hard, no say in how things are done, hostility from peers towards other employees.”

7. Law Clerk
Clerkships are among the most highly sought-after positions in the legal profession. A law clerk assists judges as they write opinions, and the ones who get the job are almost always near the top of their class at law school. Six justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, including Elena Kagan and current Chief Justice John Roberts, were all law clerks early in their careers.

The job clearly beefs up a resume. Yet law clerks still report high levels of dissatisfaction. The hours are long and grueling, and the clerk is subject to the whims of sometimes mercurial personalities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported the job brings in a median salary of $39,780 a year—not exactly striking it rich—and those looking for advancement within the position simply will not find it.

8. Technical Support Analyst
Technical support analysts help people with their computer issues. This typically amounts to calmly communicating technical advice to panicked individuals, often over the phone, and then going on site to find the client simply hadn’t turned the printer on.

Technical support analysts often work in a variety of environments, and they may be required to travel at a moment’s notice, sometimes on holidays or weekends. After all, there’s no telling when a client’s computer-whiz nephew might make a minor tweak to his machine, with disastrous results.

In the words of one of the respondents, “You can do better, really.”

9. CNC Machinist
CNC machinists operate computer numerical control machines. For the uninitiated, this is a machine that operates a lathe or a mill. On the upside, it renders obsolete processes that used to be performed by hand, at a slow pace and with high risk to the operator’s life and limb.

Now that the CNC operator has had most of the physical hazards of manufacturing replaced by a machine, there’s not a lot to do but push buttons and perform equipment inspections to make sure the coolant is at a safe level. Since it’s a specialized skill, the job offers no room for advancement, which caused respondents to report a high degree of dissatisfaction.

10. Marketing Manager
A marketing manager is responsible for overseeing advertising and promotion. This involves developing strategies to meet sales objectives, based on the study of such factors as customer surveys and market behavior.

According to CareerBliss, respondents in this position most often cited a lack of direction as the primary reason for job dissatisfaction. The most optimistic respondent described it as “tolerable,” and gave it the faintest praise possible by saying, “It’s a job.” (In this labor market, that’s not such a bad thing.)

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Microsoft Excel shortcuts to save you time

Tutorial: Cut down the time you spend with your spreadsheets

Start speeding up the way you use Office Excel by setting it up to reflect your personal needs 70-640 Training .

 

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Open Options from the Tools menu, File ribbon or Office button, then work your way through the options on offer. Set up how many worksheets you prefer new workbooks to contain from the General section, and choose a default format and location new files are saved to from the Save section.

When entering data, make use of the Fill Handle to dramatically speed up data entry – just type in a figure, then click and drag the fill handle down or to the right to duplicate the number or formula in each of the selected cells.

The Fill Handle can also speed up entering a row or column of consecutive dates, including days, months or years. Type the first entry as normal, then click and drag using the right mouse button – if you’ve typed Monday, for example, you can fill out weekdays or all seven days of the week as you drag by selecting the appropriate option.

The Fill Handle isn’t much use for entering the same figure in non-adjacent cells, but there’s a workaround. Select the cells you wish to include by Ctrl-clicking each, then type the cell reference, number or absolute formula before pressing Ctrl and Return.

Navigating a large spreadsheet can be a real hassle, so instead of manually scrolling to the cell in question, simply type it into the Name box and press Return to jump straight to it.

If you frequently use a specific figure, such as VAT, in your workbook calculations, save time by defining it as a constant – switch to the Formulas ribbon and choose Define Name. Type the term (VAT in our example) into the Name box and its amount (20) into the Refers to box before clicking on OK. Now just type VAT instead of 20 into your formulas, and when the VAT rate next changes, you can update the entire workbook to the new rate simply by changing the figure for VAT in the Name Manager.

The quickest way to enter an unknown formula is to click the fx button and then follow the wizard to choose the appropriate one for your needs. Office Excel 2007 and 2010 users will also find a host of formulas conveniently organised into categories on the Formulas tab.

When copying and pasting formulas from one cell to another, they’re treated as relative, which means the cell references are based on where the cells are in relation to the cell containing the formula. Quickly create absolute formula references using the $ character, so cell A1 becomes $A$1, for example.

Last, but not least, if you need to style your spreadsheet in Office Excel 2007 or 2010, make use of the Cell Styles function instead of manually highlighting or colouring cells. Select an already formatted cell, then click the Cell Styles button on the Home tab and choose New Style. Name it up and click OK – in future, click Cell Styles again to format your cells from the Custom section.

Quick-fire charts

The quickest and easiest way to create a chart in Office Excel isn’t Chart Wizard – just select the cells you wish to include in your chart and then press F11. The Chart Wizard is bypassed and a chart instantly appears on the screen.

Once that’s done, just right-click on the various elements to customise the chart.

Excel shortcuts

Alt and Return: Start a new line in the current cell instead of moving to the next one.

F11: Generate a chart from the currently selected data.

Shift/Ctrl and Space: Select the current row/column.

Alt and =: Total the selected cells.

Ctrl and Shift and $: Format selected cells as currency with two decimal places.

Ctrl and ;: Insert current date.

Ctrl and Shift and ‘: Paste value from the cell above.

Shift and F11: Insert a new worksheet.

Ctrl and PageDown/PageUp: Move between worksheets Microsoft Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training.

Ctrl and D/R: Fill cell with the contents of the cell either above (D) or to the left (R).

Microsoft reveals Windows 8 Start Menu

And talks ISO file mounting

Microsoft continues to drip feed us sneak peeks at the upcoming Windows 8 software interface, unveiling the start menu in a video that also reveals how ISO files will be natively mounted in the new OS 70-640 Training .

 

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Thrilling news on the start menu front, we think you’ll agree – and the headline is that it looks a bit like the Windows Phone interface, taking on the Metro UI stylings of the mobile system.

Hitting that familiar on-screen button currently brings up four options for Windows 8 users: settings, devices, share and search, which reiterates Microsoft’s new multi-device focus.
Let’s get it started

That may not sound like much, but don’t forget the company has also developed a tiled desktop Start Screen for quickly launching apps and other programmes, which you can just about see in the background of the video.

Windows 8 tiled menu screen

It’s not often that Start Menu fans get a story all of their very own, so we’re sorry to have to sully it with a bit of peripheral detail about the ISO files:

“An ISO file is simply a disc image stored as a file, composed of all of the contents of a CDROM or DVD disc. You can also think of an ISO file as a full-fidelity image (digital copy) of the optical disc,” explains Rajeev Nagar, Windows 8 group program manager on the storage and file systems.

“You can simply access the contents of the ISO file without needing to either burn a new disc or needing to find/download/install additional software just to logically access the ISO Microsoft Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training.”

So in Windows 8, you “just ‘mount’ the ISO file (you can select mount from the enhanced Explorer ribbon or double-click or right-click on the file), and a new drive letter appears, indicating that the contents are now readily accessible,” he concludes.

Microsoft urges people to abandon XP

Less than 1,000 days of support for OS

Microsoft has told customers that it’s time to stop using Windows XP, reminding people on its official blog that there is less than 1,000 days of support left for the ageing OS.

With an inevitable focus on migrating people and businesses to Windows 7 – its critically acclaimed latest OS – and with huge amounts of focus on its successor, Windows 8, Microsoft has made it clear that XP reliance should be drawing to a close 70-640 Training .

“Wouldn’t it be great if the glory days lasted forever?” blogged Microsoft’s Stephen Rose. “But reality is trophies get dusty, records are broken, and what it took to be the best ten years ago, just isn’t enough for today’s standards.

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Better, faster

“Things get better, faster. And eventually, it’s time to move from good enough to something much better,” he added

“Windows XP had an amazing run and millions of PC users are grateful for it. But it’s time to move on.

“Two reasons: 1) Extended support for Windows XP is running out in less than 1000 days, and 2) there’s an OS out there that’s much better than Windows XP.”

XP has been a phenomenal success for the company, despite straddling the explosion of internet use and needing a hefty update in the now famous service packs which totally overhauled the OS for the web age.

Successor Vista failed to match XP’s popularity, dogged by early criticism of driver support, a bloated footprint and a reliance on lots of RAM which made it unsuitable for netbooks which truly took hold after its arrival Microsoft Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training.

Windows 7 was, therefore, one of the software giant’s most vital releases, but a cunningly early public beta release and a much improved experience gave it a bright start, and public take-up has been good enough to reinvigorate the Windows brand.

How Microsoft SQL and Oracle Certifications Compare

Which database certification is the most marketable? It is clear when searching online job sites that Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server certifications are what employers are expecting from a qualified database administrator (DBA). Being aware of the different standards for each industry will help you decide which is best for you 70-640 Training .

 

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SQL Server 2008 is the current version and offers progressive certification levels entitled Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), IT Professional (MCITP), Master (MCM), and Architect (MCA). The MCTS Implementation and Maintenance certification is required for the MCITP DBA exam Microsoft Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training.

The MCTS Database Development certification is required for the MCITP Database Developer exam. Both the MCITP DBA and the Database Developer certifications are required for the MCM exam. The MCM certification is required to reach MCA. The MCA certification requires a review board interview conducted by Microsoft. This would be the most marketable certification for someone wanting to move into a senior DBA position at a small to medium size company.
Oracle has historically been the most popular platform for larger companies. It has a balanced presence across all platforms and currently dominates all forms of UNIX. It is a close second to SQL Server on Windows and has been the most marketable certification internationally for years. The Oracle 9i Release 2 certification has three progressive levels of advancement called Associate (OCA), Administrator (OCP), and Master (OCM). An OCM will work best for someone looking forward to joining a large company and is willing to relocate.

DB2 is the platform of choice for most mainframes. It has a significant UNIX and Linux market presence because it runs on almost any operating system. DB2 offers a highly scalable and flexible product in a setting where most of the customer interaction happens through an ATM or kiosk of some kind. These custom devices require custom software and applications that can eventually report to an Oracle or SQL database but cannot run the software themselves.

The progressive certifications for DB2 are IBM Certified Database Associate, Administrator, and Advanced DBA. The Associate level is the prerequisite to the Administrator, which includes DBA for Linux, UNIX, and Windows (LUW), Mainframe DB2 DBA for z/OS, and IBM-Certified Application Developer. These certifications are only for a dedicated DB2 and mainframe professional as DB2 is not marketable is other industries and platforms.

5 Things Microsoft should do at BUILD

Can you hear it? Can you hear it coming? Microsoft’s Windows developer conference is almost here. BUILD kicks off September 13 in Anaheim, Calif., and it’s going to be big, big, BIG. Microsoft will give Windows 8 its formal unveiling — everything else before was just movie previews. No new Windows version is really official until Microsoft presents it to developers. 70-640 Training .”

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But there’s more. Microsoft moved its annual Financial Analyst Meeting from July to September, coinciding with BUILD. It’s a colossally smart move. Wall Street geeks and technophobes will have chance to get caught up in the energy and enthusiasm of Windows 8 — and Windows Phone “Mango”, too. Microsoft really needs to energize analysts about these products and how they’re not so much the past but vital forces for the so-called post-PC era.

I present five things Microsoft should do next week. These aren’t recommendations, since it’s too close to BUILD for Microsoft to follow my lowly advice. It’s what I expect from Microsoft, if the Windows operating system teams hope to churn up the kind of positive reaction that can ignite developers and spread the fire to Windows enthusiasts and customers.

1. Give everyone Windows 8 slates. No developer, no financial analyst, no news media attendee should leave BUILD without an ultraportable or tablet PC running Windows 8 beta. Hell, Google gave participants to its I/O developer conference Samsung Chromebooks and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets. Microsoft should do even better.

There’s precedent. PDC 2009 developer attendees received free thin-and-light laptops designed by Microsoft and Acer. These portables were reference designs for developing apps. Microsoft should do at least the same next week.

“Windows 8 slates are great”. Now there’s a slogan.

2. Give all participants Mango smartphones. Why stop at ultrabooks or tablets? The first Mango smartphones are ready to ship, and Microsoft needs to rally developers. What? Microsoft should let its core use iPhones or Androids? Hell, no! Give developers phones and free cellular and data service for a year, if they personally use them. Make it hard to say no. Some wonky bloggers will scream “Bribery!” Frak them. Windows Phone is part of a larger Microsoft ecosystem of products and services (see #3).

3. Introduce a new far-reaching strategy: “Three screens and a cloud” Catchy, eh? For years Microsoft has talked about its three-screen and cloud strategies, separately and loosely connected. With the development and platform changes coming next week, Microsoft should formally and exactly tie together three screens and the cloud.

It’s clear that when looking at XNA, HTML5 and other technologies, Microsoft is rapidly unifying development around Windows 8, Windows Phone, Xbox and its cloud services. The vision must be communicated with absolute clarity and certainty next week, as much for financial analysts as anyone else. They have to see the vision of the Microsoft connected lifestyle. Too many of them drank the Apple Kool-Aid. Don’t believe that? Count how many analysts will be carrying iPhones and MacBook Airs or Pros next week.

4. Unveil a unified Windows marketplace, one place for apps of all varieties — cloud productivity, Internet Explorer 9, Windows Phone, Windows 7/8 and Xbox. Microsoft must present to developers and customers a connected business and personal lifestyle. A unified app store should be one of the experience’s pillars. Developers get the convenience and assured revenue confidence/piracy protection from a single, unified market for all Microsoft platforms.

5. Debut Metro OS. One of Windows 8’s most exciting new benefits is the tile-like Metro desktop UI, which is optimized for touchscreens. But behind it remains Windows legacy code for the seemingly zillions of enterprises and developers needing support for existing apps. Why not break out Metro instead, as a separate operating system? It would be much more than a Windows lite or embedded but much less than the legacy operating system.

Now that Windows will support ARM processors, Metro OS could be adapted for all kinds of touchscreen devices, everything from ATMs, to retail kiosks to tablets. Sure, Microsoft has Windows embedded, but Metro OS would be better because of the emphasis on touch. These third-party products could help sell Windows, too, because people would become used to the tile motif everywhere Microsoft Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training.

Metro OS also could extinguish Chrome OS. Google’s browser-based operating system has merit, but the motif is archaic in a touchscreen world. HTML5 already is core to Microsoft’s development approach for Metro UI. How hard would it really be for Metro OS to push Chrome OS into the waste bin?

Google+ Tips: 4 Tools to Boost Your Social Networking Experience

Getting the hang of Google+ and looking for more? Check out these four Google+ tools that let you easily upload photos in bulk, find new people to follow, translate posts and more.

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CIO — While rumors continue to swirl about when the Google+ API will be released to developers, that’s not stopping some people from getting in on the Google+ action.

Whether you’re just starting out on Google+ or consider yourself an advanced user, more and more Google+ enhancements and add-ons are popping up across the Web.

Here’s a look at four new ones that do everything from streamlining bulk photo-uploading to helping you increase your network reach.

1. Google+ Photo Importer for iPhone
If you store your photos on multiple sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Instagram or Photobucket, there’s a new download available in the Apple App Store that lets you upload 100 photos in less than a minute to your Google+ account. This tool is especially handy if you plan on shifting your social networking focus to Google+.

The Google Plus Photo Importer by Dropico costs 99 cents, and while uploads I tested generally took longer than the advertised 60 seconds, it was still impressively fast.

10 Google+ tips for Beginners
Google+ Privacy: 5 Settings You Need to Know

2. Find People on Google+
Looking for more connections on Google+? While its own search feature only lets you find people by name, you can dig a bit deeper to find groups of people with certain characteristics at FindPeopleOnPlus.

Here, you can not only search for people by name, but you can also search by profession, location, relationship status, gender, education, employer, occupation and more, which makes growing your network and tailoring it to your needs a lot easier.

You can also choose to add yourself to its directory. This will keep your FindPeopleOnPlus profile updated and in-synch with your Google+ profile.

3. PlusClout
Akin to Klout.com, a site that measures your social media influence, PlusClout measures the influence a user has on Google+ and rates it from 0 to 100.

When you visit the site, PlusClout will ask you to insert your Google+ ID in order to generate your score. Your ID is the string of numbers that appear in the URL of your profile page.

PlusClout says that while its formula is still evolving, right now it calculates your number based on 15 million public Google+ profiles and items shared, such as posts, comments, +1s, the number of followers you have and the frequency and volume of information sharing.

You can also browse people with the highest PlusClout in categories such as bloggers, designers, entrepreneurs and the most-followed users on Google+. Click on any of these names and you will see their current PlusClout score, a graph of their score over the last five days, and websites associated with that person.
4. Google Translate for Google+

If you want to connect with people from around the world but find that language is a barrier, this is a must-download Google Chrome extension.

Google Translate for Google+ is a powerful tool that inserts a button into your Google+ streams, letting you quickly interpret a chunk of foreign text.

 

Survey: Value of the Cloud, Telecommuting Overstated

Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Cisco, take notice: Despite the near-constant hype about cloud computing services, most mid-market companies are still viewing cloud as a complement, not a replacement Microsoft 70-640 Training .”..

 

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SWC Technology Partners surveyed 210 mid-market IT and business leaders and found that cloud computing, at least for the mid-market and even more so in the enterprise, is still very early in its evolution. The survey also revealed a few surprises about the acceptance of telecommuting in the mid-market.

The disconnect between the hype of cloud computing and the actual implementation of cloud computing reared its head in the SWC survey. Only 3.7 percent of respondents said that their company has adopted a cloud computing solution for the entire company. And, over half (54.2 percent) of the respondents indicate that their company is not pursuing a single cloud computing initiative. Privacy and security (20.9 percent) were listed as the biggest concern when considering the cloud, followed by cost (9.8 percent).

“The technology industry can be rife with hype,” said Elliott Baretz, Vice President of SWC. “Most reasons for eschewing the cloud have nothing to do with technology. Privacy and compliance and legal issues are what are keeping businesses on the sidelines.”

Of the cloud services that are in production, Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint hold a comfortable lead, an indication that e-mail, productivity tools and document management are the top candidates to go to the cloud. Almost 65 percent of respondents using a cloud service are using Microsoft Exchange Online and 48 percent are using Microsoft SharePoint Online. Google is also in the running, with 24 percent opting for Google Cloud Services (i.e. Google Apps). Surprisingly, Amazon’s EC2 cloud service only captured 7.4 percent.

Baretz says that most cloud adoption is happening at the SMB and start-up level where the cost to benefit ratio favors the cloud. “These are the companies that need to save money on infrastructure costs the most,” he says.

The mid-market and enterprise remain cautious about controlling the hardware and software, but have not ruled out the cloud and see it as a complement to on-premise technology, according to the survey Microsoft Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training.

This comment from one respondent suggests as much:

“I don’t foresee the cloud as replacing the traditional use model we have now, but rather augmenting it. The cloud is a way to share data across many devices, enabling a user to work anywhere at any time in the most efficient manner. It doesn’t replace the need for high performing, well designed, and low latency local applications and end user support.”

As for the immediate future of the cloud, it will evolve as small companies turn into big ones and compliance regulations slowly adapt to the cloud model, says Baretz. “SMBs will grow and bring with them the cloud services that they started out with.”

In addition to low cloud adoption numbers, the survey revealed another surprise: the acceptance and practice of telecommuting has remained flat over the past two years.

Intel Joins the Windows 8 Developer Push

IDF takes place at the same time as BUILD, and the Wintel alliance (for now) is linking arms to reach out to developers Microsoft 70-640 Training .”.

If you’re going to Intel’s Developer Forum next week and want to know what’s up with Windows 8, good news: you don’t have to jet down to Anaheim, Microsoft has got you covered at IDF, too.

 

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As we all know, the Microsoft BUILD conference takes place next week in Anaheim, California (just across the street from Disneyland). BUILD is a rollup of PDC and WinHEC, so it’s the show for developers to attend. At the same time, Intel is hosting the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco.

This may present a quandary for some people, but thankfully, Microsoft and Intel are coordinating this rather well. For those of you attending IDF, you can get yourself at least some info on Windows 8. As for a beta, well, we still don’t know if one will come out at BUILD (although I’d be shocked if it didn’t happen). The most likely scenario is that you can register to get the beta while at IDF.

The information comes courtesy of Intel’s IDF site, which lists a few notable sessions involving Microsoft (click on the Technical Session Catalog and search for Microsoft). The biggest one comes on Wednesday, where Microsoft will deliver a session on Windows 8 called “Microsoft Windows 8 on Intel Architecture.” This session will be the look at Windows 8 and discuss “the work both companies are undertaking to deliver this new compute experience.”

Most of the sessions are reserved for Thursday, the last day of IDF. I’ve seen how attendance falls off on day 3 of IDF and question whether that’s a good idea, but maybe it was all they had Microsoft Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training.

The two companies will host a session called “Hot Topic Q&A: Intel and Microsoft – Windows 8.” Microsoft will have three representatives, Intel will have two engineers.

Another session on Thursday will be “Microsoft Windows Platform Evolution and UEFI Requirements.” UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and will finally replace the creaky old BIOS firmware that has been in PCs for more than 30 years. The session will talk about the latest Windows 8 platform requirements including UEFI boot and security features.

The final session on Thursday will be “Integrating Intel Platform Capabilities on Microsoft Windows Security Architecture.” Intel will detail improvements in the Windows security architecture and how Intel hardware will work with the next-generation of Windows.

Sure sounds like a beta is coming, doesn’t it?

Hackers stole Google SSL certificate, Dutch firm admits

Chrome and Firefox face updates, Microsoft blacklists firm’s certs in Windows 7 and Vista, but not XP

Computerworld – The Dutch company that issued a rogue digital certificate for all Google Internet domains said today that its network had been hacked last month Microsoft 70-640 Training .”

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DigiNotar, a Dutch certificate authority (CA) that was acquired earlier this year by Chicago-based Vasco, said it was unaware of the breach for more than a week and had overlooked the in-the-wild Google certificate for over a month.

Multiple SSL (secure socket layer) certificates were stolen in the July hack, said DigiNotar.

“On July 19, 2011, DigiNotar detected an intrusion into its Certificate Authority (CA) infrastructure, which resulted in the fraudulent issuance of public key certificate requests for a number of domains, including Google.com,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

“At that time, an external security audit concluded that all fraudulently issued certificates were revoked. Recently, it was discovered that at least one fraudulent certificate had not been revoked at the time,” said DigiNotar, referring to the certificate valid for all Google properties.

The company did not provide any additional information about the intrusion, such as the origin of the attack or the number of certificates that had been issued to the intruders. DigiNotar has not replied to Computerworld’s questions.

Today, however, a DigiNotar spokesman told Jeremy Kirk of the IDG News Service — like Computerworld, part of IDG — that “several dozen” certificates had been generated by the hackers.

DigiNotar’s timeline shows that the company was unaware of the hack for over a week: The Google certificate was issued July 10, according to information posted to Pastebin.com last Saturday. DigiNotar did not revoke the Google certificate until Monday, Aug. 29.

Fraudulently-acquired certificates are dangerous because they can be used by criminals to conduct “man-in-the-middle” attacks targeting users of legitimate online services and websites. The fake Google certificate, for example, was used by attackers to target Iranian users of the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant’s services, Google said late Monday.

The DigiNotar hack was the second breach of a certificate-issuing firm since March, when Comodo admitted that hackers had used an account assigned to a company partner in southern Europe.to acquire nine certificates for some of the Web’s biggest sites, including Google and Gmail, Microsoft, Skype and Yahoo Microsoft Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training.

Initially, Comodo argued that Iran’s government may have been involved in the theft. Days later, however, a solo Iranian hacker claimed responsibility for stealing the SSL certificates.

On Monday, Google pointed a finger at Iran in the DigiNotar hack, saying that attacks using the ill-gotten certificate had targeted Iranian users.

Over the past 24 hours, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla have taken steps to block the rogue certificate.

Google will update Chrome “very soon,” said a company spokesman today, to block all DigiNotar-issued certificates “while investigations continue.”