New DT Research Economical Tablets

WebDT 312 Tablet 
The WebDT 312 features a 10.4-inch touchscreen display and weighs just over two pounds. It is powered by an energy-efficient Intel® Atom™ processor, 1GB RAM, and 2GB flash storage for speed and performance. It has integrated Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth® to help users stay connected while on the job. Read More... 

WebDT 390 Tablet

The WebDT 390 has an 8.9-inch touchscreen display and weighs only 2.43 pounds. It is designed to MIL-STD-810G and IP64 specifications to protect against environmental conditions and accidents, such as bumps, drops, or exposure to dust and water. The DT390 is powered by an Intel® Atom™ processor, 1GB RAM, and 2GB flash storage for speed and performance. Read More... 

WebDT 362 Tablet

The WebDT 362 features an 8.4-inch touchscreen display and weighs under two pounds. It is powered by an energy-efficient Intel® Atom™ processor, 1GB RAM, and 2GB flash storage for speed and performance. It has integrated Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth® to help users stay connected while on the job. Read More...

WebDT 372 Tablet

The WebDT 372 has a 7-inch touchscreen display and weighs just 2.43 pounds. This rugged tablet and is designed to MIL-STD-810G and to IP64 specifications to protect against environmental conditions and accidental situations, such as bumps, drops, or exposure to dust and water.  It is powered by an Intel® Atom™ processor, 2GB RAM, and 2GB flash storage for speed and performance. Read More...

Computer Science review

I commenced the (mini) review of HND Computer Science today, when I visited Napier University in Edinburgh and spoke to a couple of members of staff about this new award and how it articulates with their own degree courses.

The key questions I need to answer are:

• do you support the existence of this qualification in principle?
• does the title match the contents?
• what changes, if any, need to be made?
• what is essential to include in this award?
• if Maths needs to be included, what sort of Maths?

It was a very useful meeting and I got clear answers to each of these questions.

I plan to speak to lots of different stakeholders over the coming weeks, after which I will compose a short report to summarise my findings. Once I've done that, we (SQA) will consider the best course of action.

Contact me directly if you want to know more about this review. Contact Caroline if you want to know more about the qualification.

External Verifier meeting

There was an EV meeting on Saturday in Glasgow. Once a year, all of the EVs meet to discuss quality related issues. The meeting is led by the Senior Verifier for my subject area, David Drennan.

It's a long day, commencing at 9:30am and finishing around 4pm, but it covers a lot of issues. The topics at this meeting included CPD for EVs, the new online system called EV+, and e-assessment. David also took the opportunity to discuss his annual report with the team.

Me and my team work closely with the EVs and it's great to have an opportunity to meet them face-to-face rather than the online contact that dominates normal communications.

I give a qualification update at every meeting, which covers all of the changes that have taken place over the last year. It's important that EVs are aware of new qualifications that they may come across in centres. In fact, knowing about qualifications is part of the new system of "competency" that EVs will be required to satisfy, which David described to his team.

Ev update oct 2011 (1)

View more presentations from bobbyelliott

Qualifications development played a particularly large part of Saturday's meeting. The person leading the HN Review, Gerry Mackie, provided an update on this development, and June McCamlie updated EVs about qualifications available outside of Scotland, such as our new Computer Games awards that are available in England.

Being an EV is a great way to get a feel for standards across Scotland, and is fantastic CPD. Contact Allison Paterson if you want to know more about becoming an EV for Computing.

Online communities for Computing

A couple of months ago, I posted a message about online communities to support specific Computing awards and this is a reminder that the groups are there to help you deliver SQA qualifications.

Although the main means of support on these groups is peer-to-peer, me and my team are members of most of them and try our best to respond to queries. The membership of the groups is growing with, for example, 50 members of the National Certificate community.

So I would encourage you to subscribe to the relevant groups and participate as much as time permits. These online services have great potential to support the delivery of SQA awards - and solve many of the problems you face in your day-to-day teaching.

HN alternative assessments

I've previously mentioned the Qualification Review Team (QRT). The QRT was responsible for devising alternative assessments that could be used in place of the existing assessments to better reflect the assessments faced by students at university. The QRT for Computing met four times, after which SQA finalised the alternative assessments.

I am a member of the Project Board for this development, and the Board had its ninth meeting this morning. The purpose of the meeting was to get an update on how the project is going. We will be looking for pilot centres in the near future. These centres will trial the alternative assessments between August 2014 and June 2016. There will be a launch event (for pilot centres) early next year.

Developing these assessments has been a two stage process. The first part was creating the "assessment designs"; the second part is writing the actual Assessment Support Packs (ASPs). So far, we have produced assessment designs for:

1. HNC Computing (a project)
2. HND Computer Science (an exam)
3. HND Computing: Networking (an exam)
4. HND Computing: Software Development (an exam).

The alternative assessments combine the assessment for several outcomes. For example, the HND Networking exam covers 13 outcomes from various units in the second year of that programme. We hope that these bigger, more holistic assessments will give students a better idea of the types of assessments that will face them at university.

The next stage is to write the alternative ASPs. That should be relatively straight-forward given the level of specificity in the assessment designs (which, for example, define the duration, size and structure of the exam paper). I am looking for volunteers to do this so please don't hesitate to contact me if you are interested in finding out more.

Introducing the Panasonic Toughbook SX2

Panasonic, one of the pioneers of ruggedized laptops, just released the Toughbook SX2. The Toughbook SX2 is Panasonics latest Business Rugged Laptop. The Toughbook SX2 pairs the Intel® Core i5-3320M 2.60GHz featuring vPro technology with the Windows 7 operating system for an incredible mobile computing experience. It features a 12.1" HD+ sunlight-readable, widescreen display for easy viewing in any lighting condition. The SX2 is also equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, a built-in webcam, and a DVD drive. Add to that 4GB DDR3 RAM, a 320GB shock-mounted hard drive, and a very impressive 14.5 hours of battery life, and you get a ruggedized notebook that lets you accomplish more than you ever expected while on the go.

The Toughbook SX2's case is machined from Magnesium Alloy which allows for a durable, yet lighter weight case than other alloys. The SX2 features a spill-resistant keyboard and can withstand drops up to 30".   

Watch the Panasonic Toughbook SX2 Durability Testing Video

 Learn more about the Panasonic Toughbook SX2!

Heads of Computing Event

Just a reminder to say we have limited places available at the Heads of Computing Event on Friday 3rd December 2010 in Edinburgh.

If you are intending on coming along, please register soon here.

CISCO units

A writing team responsible for producing the updated HN units that link to the new CISCO curriculum met this morning to take forward this work. We hope to produce new units by the end of March next year. These units will fully incorporate the CISCO Explorer and Discoverer curriculum. Representatives of City of Glasgow, Motherwell, Angus, Cardonald, and Stow colleges attended.

A key part of the training was to try to produce very generic units that are fully compatible with CISCO but can also be delivered by centres not wishing to follow a specific vendor and also units that will not age too quickly and require regular updating. I appreciate that's easier said than done but the team were keen to try.

These new units will likely form part of the current HN review so Gerry Mackie, the lead developer for that project, came along and updated the team about what he is doing and what he needs from this development.

Contact Caroline for more information about this project.

General Dynamics GoBook XR-1 Display Screen Technology

BLUtube is powered by PoliceOne.com

SVQ launch event

We're planning a launch event for the new SVQs. A small "event committee" met this afternoon to take this forward. Members include people from Marketing, Custom Relations, Qualifications staff and a representative from Scottish Enterprise.



We intend to hold an event in February to launch the new SVQs for both IT User and IT Practitioner. Jack Robertson (who developed the IT User awards) and John Coleman (who developed the IT Practitioner awards) will play a major role on the day in explaining the new awards. We're also hoping to get a major employers along to explain how they plan to use the awards.



More details will follow but in the meantime don't forget to subscribe to the SVQ e-group.

Qualification Support Team for NC Computing

The Qualification Support Team (QST) responsible for supporting non-advanced awards met this afternoon in the SQA offices in Glasgow. Representatives of various colleges attended to discuss ways in which SQA can support non-advanced awards such as the National Certificate in Digital Media Computing and the various NPAs that exist at SCQF Levels 4, 5 and 6, such as PC Passport.

The main purpose of each QST meeting is to discuss the suggestions for improvement or support that we receive from centres but today we also had an interesting discussion on the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), which will have a big impact on vocational education. It was very pleasing to hear from the school representatives that Computing is already well positioned to meet the requirements of CfE through such provision as the new NPAs in Computer Games Development.

We also had a presentation from Julie Carruth, of SQA, who explained the new process for developing qualifications. The days when people like me decided (or not) to develop awards have gone and there are now formal processes that must be gone. Julie pointed out that this might slow things down a little but is more transparent and professional way to go about things.

An issue came up about the way centres sometimes ask for support. We receive requests in various formats and this can cause problems when we try to interpret what is meant (one request today had to be returned to sender because we didn't know what he actually wanted). So, we agreed, that from now on we would only accept requests for support if they were received on the proper forms, which is either an HN comment form or a QST form.

We're always looking for new blood so contact Hilary if you are interested in serving on this QST.

Incredible Savings on Group Mobile Closeouts!

Check out the special deals Group Mobile is offering. These rugged computers are in stock and ready to ship!

Motion F5v Rugged Tablet PC 

Huge Savings on a Demo Closeout! Only $1,499! 

The Motion F5v tablet PC by Motion Computing is an innovative slate tablet designed specifically for field service and mobile professionals. The Motion F5v weighs only 3.3 pounds and features a durable design to protect against environmental conditions and accidental situations and Motion's View Anywhere® technology for outdoor visibility. Learn more about the Motion F5v Closeout... 

Trimble Nomad 900L Rugged Handheld

Limited Time Pricing! Save $500! 

The Trimble Nomad 900L rugged handheld computer packs functionality into one of the most powerful and full-featured rugged handheld PCs available. The Nomad meets demanding military standards for drops, vibration, humidity, altitude, and temperature extremes. It also comes with an IP68 rating, meaning the Nomad handheld PC is completely sealed against dust, and can survive immersion in up to a meter of water for 240 minutes. This rugged handheld computer is truly ready for the outdoors! Learn more about the Trimble Nomad 900L... 

DRS ARMOR X10gx Tablet PC 

Big Discount on a Demo Closeout! 

 

The DRS ARMOR™ X10gx tablet computer is loaded with communications capabilities in a lightweight, yet fully rugged, package. The ARMOR X10gx rugged tablet is MIL-STD-810G and IP65 certified, making it perfect for jobs where shock, vibration, dust, dirt, water, and temperature extremes are present  Learn more about the DRS ARMOR X10gx...

Panasonic Toughbook 53 

Save on a Customer Return! 

The Toughbook 53 semi-rugged notebook from Panasonic (also known as the CF-53) features a 14" HD LED display, the latest Intel® Core™ processor, and an oversized multi-touch touchpad. This rugged laptop performs like a desktop. The CF-53 is one of the most versatile semi-rugged notebooks ever! Embedded wireless connectivity on the Toughbook 53 includes 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Learn more about the Panasonic Toughbook 53...

To view all of our closeouts, visit http://www.groupmobile.com/dept.asp/dept_id=186/Closeouts.html.

1st meeting of Qualification Support Team (QST)

Today we had the first meeting of the Computing and IT Qualification Support Team (QST). The key aim of QST should be to effect on-going improvements to associated HN group awards and to exemplify national standards. The meeting was held in the Jury's Inn Hotel, Glasgow. The team consists of ten members including SQA staff. We discussed the remit and had an in-depth conversation on support materials, overall the meeting was really positive.

300 followers on Twitter

I noticed that we passed the 300 threshold on Twitter this morning. We've been adding around 5-10 followers per week for the last few months. It would be great if that figure was 600, and included every Computing teacher and lecturer in Scotland.

We don't use Twitter for trivia. So, if you choose to follow us, I promise that we won't bore you with our personal opinions or what we had for breakfast this morning. But we do use it for short, sharp updates. Sometimes it's something important (such as a new qualification) and sometimes it's not so important (such as one of the team being on leave). But, I hope, it's always potentially useful to you.

You can get Twitter on your PC, smartphone and tablet, so it's a simple and convenient way of keeping up-to-date with what the team are doing. I hope you choose to follow us. If you do already, please encourage others to do so.

Computing At School

I attended the second Computing At School (CAS) event on Saturday, which was held at the University of Glasgow. This year, unlike last year, I had the pleasure of not speaking.

It's great to attend events where the sole focus is teaching and learning. In my many conversations with the many educationalists who were there, the sole topic was how best to teach Computing. I attended all of the keynotes and many of the workshops. I particularly enjoyed the workshops about what pupils find difficult about Computing (by Sue Sentance) and the workshop about the flipped classroom (Charlie Love). Sue provided concrete examples of what works (paired progamming, debugging programs, and walkthroughs of code among them) and Charlie explained how the flipped classroom can work for Computing.

It was great to be part of such an enthusiastic group, who are already planning next year's event. You can find out more about CAS Scotland here.

Operational plan for 2010/11

Like many of you, I have recently spent time on my operational plan for next year (April 2010 to March 2011). The main projects scheduled to begin next year are:

• commence the review of HNC/D Computing
• review HNC/D Computer Networking
• launch HNC/D Computer Games Development
• launch NPAs in Computer Games Development (at SCQF levels 4, 5 and 6)
• develop support materials for the refreshed PC Passport
• develop new PDAs to match Adobe and CIW certification.

It would be good to know if there is anything missing from this list. Are there any other developments that we should consider for next year?

Effective assessment workshop

I attended a workshop about assessment yesterday. It was organised by JISC and held in Glasgow. There was an excellent turn-out, with around 60 people attending from the HE and FE sectors. The title of the workshop was Effective Assessment in the Digital Age, and its key purpose was to generate ideas about how to change [assessment] practice in college.

I've had a professional interest in how technology affects assessment for a long time. My paper on modernising assessment generated some interest a few years ago. Interestingly, the event opened with the statement: "You won't here us talk about 'e-assessment' or 'computer-assisted assessment', only how technology can assist assessment". The implication being that technology is assistive, not transformational. I'm not sure that I agree.

The event was very practical, with few presentations and lots of round-table discussions. There were also a couple of case studies about how centres have used tools such as blogs and e-portfolios for assessment. The JISC publication Effective Assessment in a Digital Age [PDF] was referred to throughout the event, and it's a publication that I recommend you download and read.

There are lots of challenges around the use of technology for learning and assessment. We need to modernise teaching methods to take advantage of the new learning environment. And research has shown that we don't assess online writing consistently or, on many occasions, fairly.

JISC events are invariably good, and yesterday's event was no exception. You can get a taste of it from its Twitter feed.

Microsoft Partners in Learning

w


  There are lots of opportunities for school teachers to see good practice in ICT. We now have three Microsoft Innovative Schools in Scotland and each year Microsoft holds their Partners in Learning Conference. We have had Scottish Innovative teachers flown  to European and Global destinations as part of the Partners in Learning Innovative teachers competition.

   If you know someone who is working wonders in the classroom using ICT please pass this message on.

The 8th Microsoft UK Partners in Learning Forum is a one-day conference, free of charge to all teachers and educators who wish to attend. The workshops and keynotes this year have a STEM ‘flavour’ and address the theme of ‘Teach more, learn more, inspire more.’

This year the Forum is being held at the Microsoft Headquarters, Thames Valley Park in Reading on the 24^th Nov 2011.

We have a rich agenda that includes as Keynote speakers, the world renowned Ian Livingstone OBE, Life President ofEidos , Alex Bellos, the author of the popular science bookAlex's Adventures in Numberland and Ollie Bray, the National Adviser for Emerging Technologies at Education Scotland

In addition, delegates will be able to choose from a range of workshops. I would suggest that you sign up as soon as possible as places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Using the Kinect SDK/Kodu in the classroom	Classroom Teachers Ray Chambers from Lodge Park Technology College & Nicki Maddams fromHartsdown College, give hands-on practical guidance on how to programme and create games in the classroom
Everyone is a Maths genius, can computer science/technology prove it?	Dr Chris Imafidon – is one of the “World’s foremost scholars on leveraging informatics for learning and exceptional achievement. This workshop will discuss how computer science/technology exposed the myths of natural Intelligence, genes, gender, IQ, age, background, post-code.
Computing: The Science of Nearly Everything?	Dr Tom Crick, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC), looks at the big question: How are we developing and encouraging the next generation of technology innovators in the UK?
Be a Maker: learn to build gadgets with .NET Gadgeteer	Dr Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche from Microsoft Research.Do you like computer gadgets? Would you like to learn how to build and program gadgets to your own design? Then this workshop is for you!
Medicines and innovation – the missing link	Kandarp Thakkar - STEM Ambassador Programme - This workshop will introduce the STEM programme and give some ‘real-life’ case studies of successful use of this programme in delivering high quality university admissions.
Guerrilla Teaching & Learning	Daniel Raven-Ellison is a guerrilla educator, co-founder of The Geography Collective and creative director of Mission:Explore. Join this workshop to receive initial training in how to be a guerrilla teacher and learner.
Who’s afraid of the big bad ‘network’	Dan Roberts from saltash.net community school, presents light-hearted perspective and interactive & engaging discussion which considers the challenges & issues of schools using social networking, how these can be overcome?

Also, find out who are the recipients of this year’s Microsoft UK Partners in Learning Teacher Awards.The awards will be presented to Teachers who have submitted projects that illustrate the innovative use of technology to enhance teaching and learning. Not only will they receive award recognition, but have the chance to be invited to the next Partners in Learning Forum and win a Xbox 360 and Kinectpackage for their school. These projects will be on display at the event.

Don’t miss out, register today – Registration now open

Rugged Computers for Construction

Mobile computers are utilized in the construction industry for a variety of purposes. Often, the project foreman has a laptop in his truck that he/she can take onto the job site. Pulling up blueprints or project requirements, communicating with the office, on-site material management & timekeeping are typical mobile applications. Essential features for construction computers are: sunlight-viewable display, protection against drops, water & dust, and against in-vehicle vibrations from rough roads.

Click here to see Group Mobile’s latest models for the construction industry.

For more information regarding rugged mobile computing visit http://www.groupmobile.com/ or call us at 1-866-RUGGED-8.
Sign up for our Newsletter!

New Allegro 2 Rugged Handheld from Juniper Systems!

New Allegro 2 Field PC
Ideal for outdoor or industrial environments!

The New Allegro 2 Field PC is powered by the Microsoft Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5.3 operating system. The rugged Allegro 2 is completely sealed against dust and water, giving it an IP68 rating. It is also tested to MIL-STD-810G for water, humidity, sand and dust, vibration, altitude, shock, and temperature. The rugged Allegro 2 features a 4.2" Sun-to-Shade™ high visibility backlit LCD display with a projected capacitive touchscreen. It also has a full numeric and QWERTY keypad with 6 user-assignable keys. In addition, the Allegro 2 comes with a a 1.0GHz ARM Cortex A8 i.MX53 processor, 512MB RAM, and 8GB flash storage.

The Allegro 2 rugged handheld comes standard with integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g. An optional GPS receiver is fully integrated and offers 1-5 meter accuracy for mapping and navigation applications. The Allegro 2 rugged handheld also offers an integrated 5MP camera and a 3.75 GSM modem. It operates for an incredible 20 hours per charge, and only takes a quick 2-4 hours to fully charge. The Allegro 2 is an ideal handheld for outdoor or industrial environments. Learn more about the Allegro 2 Field PC...

Vocational Computing awards

I recently updated the list of awards in my area. It's a handy simmary of vocational Computing qualifications (excluding SVQs) available (or about to be available) to centres.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Save File: Computing Vocational Awards.doc

It can be downloaded here.

HNC/D Interactive Media

The QDT for HNC/D Interactive Media met on Saturday to make some key decisions about the revised award. The development is being led by Fiona Murnin.

The first decision we made was the title. The revised awards will be called:

1. HNC Digital Design & Web Development
2. HND Web Development
3. HND Digital Development.

The HNC will be common to both HNDs. One of the HNDs will focus on web development; the other will be more general and focus on digital platforms.

We also discussed employment opportunities, progression paths, professional recognition and vendor accreditation. It was a productive meeting that gave a lot of ideas to Fiona.

You can see the evolving Group Award Specification below.


Contact Fiona if you want more information about this development.

Graded Unit - Interim Guidance Note

Today our HN Product Team circulated an interim Guidance Note containing information on Graded Units.

The information in the guidance note has been collated responses from a preliminary evaluation of Graded Units across all sectoral areas undertaken earlier this year.

The information contained within this note provides clarification on various issues relating to Graded Units and shall be posted on the SQA website over the next week or so.

In the meantime, if you would like a copy of this e-mailed to you - please get in touch with myself.

CoderDoJo at the Scottish Parliament

I've written previously about CoderDoJo, an initiative to get young people interested in computer programming. I attended another session last night, this time held in the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh.

There was a fantastic turnout, with 27 kids in attendance, although only one girl. The classes are led by Craig Steele and are great fun. Last night Craig focused on HTML 5 programming. The kids seemed to enjoy it. The classes are a great way to get young people involved in coding.

The CoderDoJo scheme has grown significantly since it was first introduced, and is now popular in various countries throughout the world. You can follow CoderDoJo on Twitter.

DIVA event

A new initiative was launched today at the Raddison Hotel in Glasgow. DIVA is the name of the programme to promote links between SQA and vendors. Anton Collela opened the event and expressed his enthusiasm for the development. This event marks the beginning of an exciting new development in Scottish education.

Engage for education

The Scottish Government set up the Engage for Education website to stimulate discussion about education in Scotland. The associated blog has posts from various individuals about their daily work in education. I was recently invited to contribute to the blog about the new NPAs in Computer Games Development. You can see my post here.

Follow us on Twitter

The Computing team started to use Twitter around a year ago and, since then, there has been slow but steady growth in the number of people who follow us. We presently have 155 followers. But it would be better if that was 500. We use Twitter for messages that we would not normally post on the blog (such as to let you know when one of us is on leave - good to know if you are waiting for a reply to a message). The advantage of Twitter is that it is widely available on a lot of platforms from PCs to mobile phones to tablets. The team don't "tweet" very often so if you chose to follow us you would not get swamped with messages but you would be sure to know what's happening in vocational education in Computing.

Oracle developments

I met with Jane Richardson and Orla Nichorcora of Oracle yesterday afternoon.



We have recently compared SQA and Oracle curricula to try to identify common areas. I commissioned a couple of consultants to map the Oracle Academy programme with Higher Information Systems and HND Computer Networking. We discovered that the Academy programme covers one unit within the Higher course and two units within the HND award. I plan to create a document which will describe the credit transfer arrangements between these qualifications.



We also discussed the next stage in this work. We are going to look into the feasibility of creating a hybrid curriculum that covers both SQA's Higher Information Systems syllabus and Oracle's Database Design & Programming syllabus. If this is possible, this single syllabus would allow schools to deliver Higher Information Systems using the materials supplied through the Oracle Academy programme (supplemented with additional learning material) and gain two awards at the end of the course: the Higher award and Oracle's award.



Watch this blog for more information.

Vendors, children, IT skills and blogging

I've been in London this week for CompTIA's Breakaway Europe event. SQA works with a number of vendors, through our DIVA programme, and we offer CompTIA's A+ certification through some of our HN units. The event has been interesting - especially the keynote speeches.

I took the opportunity while down here to attend a few other events. On Wednesday evening I went along to the CEOP offices in London to attend the launch of their cybercafe, which is targetted at 8-11 year olds. CEOP is responsible for child safety online and has shifted the focus from teenagers to younger kids.

Yesterday afternoon I went along to a Westminster e-forum entitled A UK IT SKills Gap? While there was a disappointing lack of hard evidence, some statistics were presented: 46% decline in applications for Computer Science courses at university since 2001; 10% year-on-year decline in A Level entries for Computer Studies. There was a pretty unanimous conclusion that we're heading for an IT skill shortage unless things change.

It was interesting to note that one of these events (the CEOP one) stressed the importance of protecting children from such things as social networks, the other (the Westminster one) emphasised the need to make the school curriculum more engaging, using such things as social neworking!

Each day of the CompTIA event begins with a keynote address and two of them were particularly good - one from Steve Clayton of Microsoft and one from Adrian Webster who is a writer. Steve's talk was about the importance of engaging with customers through such things as blogs; he emphasised the importance of being honest with them. Adrian's talk was about motivation - and was hilarious - so I'm happy to plug him and his book.

Know About IPv4

What is Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)?
An IP address (version 4) is a 32-bit sequence of ones and zeros. For every 8 bits, it will be separated by a dot. One example is 11000000.10101000.00000001.00001000. However IP addresses are seldom written in binary as it is very hard for us to remember. So instead of using binary, IP addresses are normally written in decimal. So based on the example, the IP address in decimal is 192.168.1.8.

IP address is a type of OSI Layer 3 address. It is also known as logical address. The range of the IP address in decimal is from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255. So how many unique IPv4 addresses are there?

Total unique IPv4 addresses: 256 x 256 x 256 x 256 = 4,294,967,296 which is about 4.3 billions. The estimated world's population is 6.8 billions in 2009. If all the people in the world need an IP address, there won't be enough unique address for everyone.

Different classes of IPv4 addresses
There are five classes of IPv4 addresses. The above table shows the 3 commonly used classes of IPv4 addresses, namely class A, class B and class C. The range of IP addresses and other default values for each classes are also shown in the table.

As mentioned in section 5.3, ip address consists of two parts, the network number(ID) and host number(ID). For class A, the first decimal number(or first 8 bits) represents the network ID. For class B, the first and second decimal number(or first 16 bits) represents the network ID. For class C, the first, second and third decimal number(or first 24 bits) represents the network ID. For each class, the remaining number or bits that are not used for network ID will be used as host ID.

IP addresses with the same network ID are belonged to the same network.
Class A examples:
10.1.1.1 and 10.2.2.2 are in the same network
10.1.1.1 and 11.2.2.2 are in the different network
Class B examples:
129.1.1.1 and 129.1.3.3 are in the same network
129.1.1.1 and 129.3.1.1 are in the different network
Class C examples:
192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.3 are in the same network
192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1 are in the different network

Toughbook Additional Memory Installation Made Easy

Looking for memory? Click here to find the right memory for your Rugged Mobile Computer. For more information regarding rugged mobile computing visit www.groupmobile.com or call us at 1-866-RUGGED-8.

NVidia 210 VS ATI Radeon 4350

It’s the battle of the wimpy kids. Actually I already had an ATI 4350 laying around and I bought an Nvidia 210 to use in my Office PC because the board I had planned to use was built on an Nvidia chipset and I don’t care to mix Nvidia and ATI.
In the end I didn’t end up keeping the board and went back to the ATI card so now I have a useless 210 card kicking around, well I did get to pit them up against each other which is something I’m sure you wont find anywhere else since they are low budget, nobody cares, video cards.
So first I started out with the ATI Radeon 4350 card from ASUS using the latest ATI Catalyst drivers and built in Overclocking functions. I maxed out the core rather quickly while the memory kept giving more and more. I was surprised at how high I could take the memory settings before getting any artifacts or experiencing any major heat issues.
(Numbers to be updated)
Next was the Nvidia 210 card from MSI using the latest Nvidia drivers and built in Overclocking functions. I started with a nice bump on the core and went for a huge jump on the memory but was quickly halted when the PC locked up, I kept scaling back but couldn’t stop the PC from locking up so instead I worked from the bottom up and was only able to achieve a small memory overclock. While I couldn’t get much out of the memory at all I was actually able to really crank the core speed but this didn’t prove very useful in the benchmarks. Another thing I noticed is that the built in Nvidia Overclocking tools didn’t allow too much headroom for Overclocking (not like the card was capable).
(Numbers to be updated)
Towards the end of my Nvidia testing I checked the temp on the Nvidia card and thought I would run the tests again with fans directly on the cards since they were both passively cooled, Before I could even get a solid reading the board smoked at the PCI-E slot while the Nvidia card was still Overclocking and I lost the board + video card. Luckily the card was still under Newegg warranty so I sent it back but by the time I got the new one and decided I didn’t want it anyway it was too late and I was stuck with the new one.

Monitor Graphics Cards NVIDIA GeForce and AMD/ATI with GPU Shark

If you use a graphics card on your PC which is either from NVIDIA or ATI Radeon, then you can monitor them easily using GPU Shark. GPU Shark is a simple and lightweight freeware GPU monitoring tool, based on ZoomGPU, for GeForce and ATI Radeon based graphics cards. GPU Shark offers a global view of all your graphics cards in a single window. The application is portable and does not require any installation and it quickly provides you with all the details of your graphics card.

GPU Shark gives an overview of all your GPUs and has two viewing modes: simplified and detailed. In simplified mode (default), only the essential hardware information is displayed: graphics card name, temperatures (GPU, PCB) and clocks. Whereas in detailed mode all data is available: GPU codename, driver version, bios version, device ID, etc.

GPU Shark supports only NVIDIA and ATI Radeon based cards.

Download GPU Shark

Online Computer Repair Services

Today a lot of people from all over the globe are dependent on technology in general and on computers in particular. Sometimes a sudden technical default could hamper the whole working process of a business or person. Almost every computer comes with warrant, however when this warrant expires you need to have a computer expert that could be available at the spot in case of different emergencies.


In fact, online computer repairs are renowned for their on the spot and timely computer services. It is a great idea to have business relations with a reliable online computer repair, which could help you with any computer service you want or need.

Keep in mind that some small repairs could be done by searching the internet. And for this you have to find the basic problem. In fact, some problems could seem very difficult, but in fact they are easy to remove. And thus if you want to save money from computer service expert, you have to know about the basics of hardware and software. In fact, going through different help options that are available on the software you could solve different problems without computer service expert.

But if you find yourself helpless in solving a certain problem, then you can call online computer repair expert. As well they are able to offer you telephonic or oral instructions to find or solve the problem which seem easy. As a rule, at first instance experts guide the customer through the phone to find the problem. That way the expert can decide whether the problem could be solved over the phone or personal presence is required.

As well, you can find some instruction on the internet. In fact, some customers prefer written communication and instructions because they can copy-paste the emerging issues as it is displayed on the system. In both ways you can save a lot of time.