Needy schools a priority in computer rollout

ALL secondary schools will be able to apply for commonwealth grants from March next year to boost their computer resources, but the most needy schools will be given priority.

Federal cabinet yesterday signed off on Labor's ambitious $1billion computer initiative, the first election pledge to be approved by the Rudd cabinet.

Deputy Prime Minister and federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said that under the program every secondary student in Years 9 to 12 would have access to computers and other information technology resources.

Ms Gillard said a million Australian students would benefit from the technology fund, the first step in the Rudd Government's education revolution.

"World-class ICT in schools will make a real and sustainable change in the way teaching and learning are delivered in classrooms across Australia," she said in a statement.

The fund will allow each school to apply for up to $1 million, depending on enrolments and existing technology. Funding can be used to buy computers, digital projectors, interactive whiteboards and other equipment.

"The Rudd Government will work with the school systems in every state and territory to identify schools that have the highest priority in terms of need, and assist them in making applications to the fund. Over four years, all secondary schools will have access to the fund," she said.

Ms Gillard said visits to secondary schools by Labor MPs since the election had revealed a desperate need for an increase in computer and internet access.

"Unfortunately, they found too many Australian schools don't have adequate internet access, some don't have internet access at all," Ms Gillard said after the cabinet meeting in Brisbane yesterday.

"Too many schools don't have enough computers for senior secondary students."

Ms Gillard said she was concerned that technology aids such as interactive whiteboards and digital projectors were missing from many schools.

"Today, cabinet has agreed that we will implement our $1billion fund to bring computers to Years 9 to 12 students in each Australian secondary school," she said.

An audit will be launched to establish existing resources in schools, and the Government will begin discussions with state and territory governments and independent and Catholic schools to ensure the rollout of funding.

"In the course of this financial year, there will be expenditure of $100 million in grants to schools to assist them with getting computers, internet access and other information technology aids," Ms Gillard said.

Ultimate Back-to-School Contest

iSkin has posted the Ultimate Back-to-School contest on their website. Readers can win an awesome prize package worth $2,500. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 PM EST on September 15, 2009.

Entrants must reside in the Continental US or Canada.

The contest is available at this link: www.iskin.com/backtoschool

The grand prize winner will receive:

• 1 MacBook
  
• 1 iPod Touch
  
• 1 Mighty Mouse
• 1 ProTouch Vibes for MacBook
• 1 ProTouch for Mighty Mouse
• 1 iSkin touch Vibes for iPod Touch 2G
• 1 iSkin Soho case for MacBook
• Cerulean F1 + TX Bluetooth Set

Also, ten second place winners will each receive an iSkin eGift Card valued at $50. All who enter will get 50 free downloads from emusic.

Ajax Tutorial- Loads of Information Available Online

It’s often a difficult scenario on the part of an I.T aspirant to get into a thorough analysis of the particular subject matter but since the advent of internet as a valuable source of information, there have been the emergence of tutorials that are available online related to Ajax. The first and foremost tutorial defines Ajax that stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It is the use of the nonstandard XMLHttpRequest object to communicate with server-side scripts. It can send as well as receive information in a variety of formats, including XML, HTML, and even text files. The tutorial provides with Ajax’s most appealing characteristic, of having an “asynchronous” nature, which means it can do all of this without having to refresh the page.

The Ajax tutorial gives an introduction to ECMAScript for XML (E4X), a simple extension to JavaScript that makes XML scripting very simple. The tutorial has related information on how to make asynchronous requests with JavaScript and Ajax, informative material on Ajax - Try/Catch Blocks of Code, sending requests with XMLHttpRequest to allow user to make requests and receive responses, adding AJAX to a website, Form validation with AJAX/PHP/MySQL, Callbacks and Ajax where user sets the onreadystatechange property of the XMLHttpRequest object to the name of the function to run. Then, when the server has processed the request, it will automatically call that function, to build Ajax-enabled applications using Dojo and JSON, the two very different but complementary technologies that can significantly enhance the interface and usability of web applications and more reference tutorials.

There are mini-tutorials on the black art of iframes and browser history, known to AJAX experts but rarely presented clearly, mini-tutorial on saving state across page loads on the client side, without using cookies so as to save large amounts of data beyond cookies size limits, valuable and effective resource on Easy Ajax with jQuery, Top Ajax Poller Scripts, fast introduction to the basics of Ajax for people that already know how to write the server-side part of the process using servlets and JSP, AJAX username availability checking that allows a user who is registering for your site to see if the username they want to use is taken already or not, without having to submit a form and reload the page, RadAjaxPanel that exposes a rich set of client-side events which allow for easy and flexible use in a wide range of application scenarios and tutorial that explains on how to work with the XML Response or "The X-Files" and more in line in order to enhance and learn new aspects in Ajax. Online education therefore is the most reliable and active source for gaining knowledge for I.T. aspirants through, Asp, Java and Ajax tutorial and the internet is a vast knowledge based environment making things a little more easy with downloadable and accessible information relevant to AJAX.

By: Peter Parkar

Cisco Certification: The Road to a Better IT Career

Cisco is one of the leading IT industries nowadays that concentrate on equipments and hardware for networking like network switches, routers and others. This may sound complicated for some but even IT professionals are still bothered with some latest adjustments in our technology. That is the main reason why Cisco certification is now the talk of the town. This program can greatly help IT professionals in polishing their skills and as well as in reaching greater heights. By far, Cisco gives the most difficult exams but with proper preparation and unfaltering confidence, any IT hopeful can achieve their dreams in no time.

Cisco certification is one of the best ways of building your future in the IT industry. However, you need to take multiple exams if you really want to excel in this complicated business. If you are just starting out, you can take the associate level certification first. You really need to start at the bottom in order to learn the basics and have a strong foundation about Cisco’s networking prowess. You cannot skip this exam unless you are knowledgeable enough to take the next certification. Just do not be ambitious all the time because taking the first and the most essential step is the key to pass other certifications later on.

Most IT professionals proceed to the next level and take the next Cisco certification. This is tagged as the professional level that is much harder than the first exam. You can choose either taking the CCDP or Cisco Certified Design Professional or CCNP or Cisco Certified Network Professional. Once you have chosen the kind of certification you want to, better get ready for multiple exams that you are required to pass. Everyone knows that these exams are difficult to pass but they are taking their chances just to give themselves a promising IT career and bright future.

The third Cisco certification you can take is the CCIE or Certified Internetworking Expert. Only a handful of people who have this certification since these are the toughest exams that anyone could come across within the IT business. Since the exam is hard and the job is more complicated, you can expect to receive a fat paycheck once you get this kind of certification. There are many people who aim for this certification since this is the best job you can get in the IT industry and the income is very cool.

Now that you already have an idea with the different kinds of certification programs that Cisco offers, might as well take the first exam as soon as possible. Starting at the entry-level Cisco certification is not that bad and in fact, that is the right way to deal with these exams. You really need to do one-step at a time. Perfect your craft in each of these certifications until you reach the highest level. Since the pay is good for this IT jobs, you also need to prepare yourself to a more complicated job. Rushing things will not do you any good, be patient and start at the bottom to get a more favorable result.

By: kevinnano kevinnano

Good Protect Yourself Against Viruses

These days it is a must to have a good, reliable virus protection program. There happens to be a many good free virus protection software packages out on the internet today. The only way to protect our pc today is using software that acts like a antidote to the disease. By using this software you can take preventive measures of stopping the disease before it infects the system.

Removable media such as cds, floppy disks, usb keys that are infected and used in another system can carry the virus and infect the other machine. If you computer is infected with a virus you will need to remove the virus as soon as possible otherwise it can infect the system completely and spread to others.

If a computer is infected by a virus, the computer needs to be scanned by virus scanning software. When surfing the internet most likely you been infected with a Trojan, virus, or some type of spyware, according to many virus detection agencies, the unprotected PC is infected on average within 20 minutes of normal internet usage.

Many systems get infected every day, you must take safety measures or your system might get infected, and the virus might corrupt your data on your system.

A Computer Worm is a self replicating program -- the first worm to gain wide attention was the Morris Worm this infected a large number of computers and earned its writer 400 hours of community service and over $10000 in fines.

When a virus infects you computer it can replicate itself, use up system resources, allow a user remote access, record keystrokes to the infected computer, it also has the ability to destroy personal data.

You must take precautions because when you download it may contain spyware, adware or viruses, spyware and adware can collect personal data, record your browsing habits and no more about you. Ad and Spyware are programs that are automatically installed on your computer.

When your computer is infected with a virus they are designed to alter your normal computer functions and spyware infections are used to spy on you, one way they do this is by recording your personal information. Many times adware, viruses and spyware find what is called a “back door” to install and replicated itself you in your computer.

Downloading may sometimes cause error on the system or the entire computer system may crash. Many spyware or viruses are downloaded when downloading software and music. Many viruses can lay dormant without you knowing this, since you don’t know it is there it can attack at any moment when least expect it, it could attack when typing a report and downloading important.

Whether you have learned your lesson from a past experience or not, try not to download unwanted files or open email messages sent to you by people you don’t know. Many people do all of this without any real understanding of just how vulnerable they are each time they are on the internet. Try to take precautions, find reputable software and install it to protect your system. There is free software on the web that will protect your system.

SWARAJ