The Top 10 IT Certifications

Why do you need to be a PMP? PMP is one of the top 10 IT Certifications, so you need to earn your PMP certificate ASAP.


The IT job site Dice surveyed 17,000 technology professionals to see which of the many certifications was most beneficial. Clearly, “Not all certifications are created equal in terms of paycheck impact,” wrote Evan Lesser, Director of Dice Learning.

He noted that while nearly half of all technology professionals have at least one certification, a minority attributed pay increases to certification. To some observers, that would suggest that the expense of earning certifications might not pay for itself.

This list of top tech certifications, along with descriptions, courtesy Dice :


PMP

By earning the Project Management Professional certification, technology professionals prove they have the knowledge and skills necessary to shepherd projects to a successful conclusion, on-time, on-budget, and using the resources allocated. It's a particularly important job today, when companies are beginning to resurrect projects they'd shelved during the downturn, but want them completed as cost-efficiently and quickly as possible. There are currently 1,400 jobs on Dice with PMP certification requested.


MCSE:
Microsoft's Certified Systems Engineers

A +:
This vendor-neutral certification from the trade group CompTIA is a standard for tech-support technicians.

CCNA:
Cisco Certified Network Associates demonstrate their ability to install, configure, run and troubleshoot medium-sized routed and switched networks.

MCP
Microsoft Certified Professionals include developers, trainer, system architects and other tech professionals who want to spotlight their expertise with a range of Microsoft technologies.

Network +
The Network+ proves a technician's competency in managing, maintaining, troubleshooting, installing and configuring basic network infrastructures. It's included in certification programs of tech leaders like Microsoft, Novell, Cisco and HP.

CISSP
Globally recognized as a standard for expertise, five years of experience in information security are needed before a professional can earn this certification. Nearly 750 open available career opportunities request this certification.

MCSA
The Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator certification.
It's earned by systems administrators, network administrators, information systems administrators, network operations analysts, network technicians, and technical support specialists, among others.
It will be easier to earn than MSCE, so some people earn this certification before MCSE.

ITIL
The three-tier ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) certification demonstrates the expertise of professionals in tech management. Public and private organizations use the ITIL as compendium of IT operational best practices. You can find ITIL on requirement list of some IT manager jobs.

Security +
The CompTIA Security+ certification demonstrates knowledge of system security, network infrastructure, access control and organizational security.



For more information, please visit ePMPTOOLs Forum or ePMPTOOLS.com

How to install Fedora 9 Linux system for your PC

To install a Linux system for your PC is not as easy as Windows system. the below is the information that I used for installing the Fedora 9 for my home PC.

This guide a personal configuration of Fedora 9. This page is to provide some common installation tips that people may find useful. Keep in mind this works for me, so take care in doing proper backups to critical files whenever trying something. This guide was simultaneously authored testing a AMD64 Desktop running i386 (32-bit) Fedora and Intel DuoCore Laptop running x86_64 (64-bit) Fedora.

Installation Media

Fedora 9 is provided as either CD-ROM's or DVD-ROM's for installation. You can either download the multiple CD sets or single DVD for installation. The DVD-ROM disk is preferred and recommended method of installation. Booting the DVD or booting from CD#1 will start the installer which will allow Fedora to be installed on your computer or for you to upgrade an existing Fedora on your machine. The following steps were done with the single DVD installation.

There are also "LiveCD's" which can be booted and will run a basic Fedora 9 in memory while also providing a simpler method of installation (not as complete at the DVD or multi-CD method). The default LiveCD ships with Gnome (ex: Fedora-9-Live-i386.iso). There is a specific LiveCD that ships with KDE (this is specifically marked). Both provide an installer however they come with significantly less software than the DVD. Also they require more memory in order to be useable. The LiveCD may be useful for demonstration.

Note: To upgrade an existing Fedora installation you cannot use a Live disk.

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Physical Installation

is highly recommended you read the Fedora Release Notes and official Installation Guide before installing Fedora.

An additional recommendation is to read Common Problems before installing.

Obtain the Fedora 9 DVD image or multi-CD set images from a Fedora mirror (or use the torrent) and burn to DVD. (For more information on how to download Fedora CD's or DVD).

Boot from the DVD. If you choose to use a LiveCD please note that the following steps will differ.

I did a Custom Install of Fedora 9.

• Network Setup
  The networking options will default to dynamically configure the network using DHCP. This will work for most high speed internet users. NOTE: IPv6 - If you select Edit under Network Devices you can disable IPv6 for Fedora. This should not be necessary, however it may be helpful to disable here and re-enable later if you know you have problems with IPv6.
• Root password
  This is your "Adminstrator" or "Superuser" password that lets you access everything on your system. Pick a good password and remember it. The root account should not be used as a personal user login.
• Partitioning
  • If you have an empty hard drive or wish to delete the entire contents of your drive, then let the installer automatically partition or remove everything and partition.
  • If you wish to dual-boot or save some contents on your drive, then select custom partitioning. I recommend at least 3 partitions: an 8-12GB / main partition, a 10+GB /home partition and a 1-2GB partition. The main partition is where your applications will be installed. The /home partition will hold all your personal data (make this as large as you can). The should be at least as large as your physical memory (if you wish to support things like ACPI hibernate).
• Boot Loader
  • If you have a blank harddrive or wish Fedora to be your Primary Operating System, then leave the default options here. This also works for dual booting with other systems (ex: Windows).
  • If you wish to preserve Windows as your primary operating system, then install Grub on the / partition, NOT the MBR. To do this, select Change device on the Install boot loader screen and install to First sector of boot partition. I use Bootpart from Windows 2000/XP to load Linux. An alternative to Bootpart is the NT OS Loader + Linux mini-HOWTO (also Grub Win2K Howto). I recommend this so you do not corrupt your Windows installation in a Dual-Boot environment. [NOTE] There is an example configuration available. This does take more work, and the default option on the MBR will also work. This will work for users who are triple booting Vista/XP/Fedora (as I do).
• General Package Selection
  The primary options for installation are the following. You can select these and skip individual package selection (next step) if you plan to install most of your software from online (via YUM). It is recommended you at least pick certain applications.
  • Office and Productivity - [Highly Recommended]
  • Software Development - [Highly Recommended / Required]
  • Web Server - [Optional (useful for web developers)]

  Add Additional Software Repositories - [NOT Recommended at Install time]. You do have the option of adding helpful repositories during install. This will give access to MANY more applications than included on the CD's or DVD. However this requires a high-speed internet access that is detected by the Fedora Installer. This will also significantly increase the installation time.

  If you select Customize now you will be taken to the Individual Package Selection.

• Individual Package Selection - apx 4.5-5.0GB. - It is significantly helpful to grab a some specific important packages (to reduce unnecessary downloading later). You are free to select whatever you want. The following in my experience are common useful suggestions:
  
  • Desktop Environments
    • [Highly Recommended] - Select both GNOME Desktop Environment and KDE (K Desktop Environment)
    • [Optional] - Select XFCE - This is a less intensive environment and good for older computers.
  • Applications - The default selection of applications is sufficient. Note the following:
    • [Required] - Graphical Internet - Add libflashsupport to properly hear sound in Adobe Flash plugin.
    • [Recommended] - Graphical Internet - Add thunderbird as an email client.
    • [Recommended] - Sound and Video - Add k3b for CD/DVD creation.
  • Development
    • [Recommended] - Select GNOME Software Development, KDE Software Development and X Software Development.
    • [Recommended/Optional] - Select Fedora Packager - Useful for some software building/administration.
    • [Optional] - Fedora Eclipse and Java Development are not necessary unless you are a (Java) developer. This is NOT exactly the same as Sun's Java software.
  • Servers
    • [Highly Recommended] - Add Server Configuration Tools.
    • [Required] - Add Windows File Server (required to share files with Windows computers).
  • Base System
    • [Highly Recommended] - Add Legacy Software Support and System Tools.
    • [Optional] - Deselecting some items in Dial-up Networking Support, Fonts (lots of foreign fonts) and Hardware Support (lots of various WiFi) may reduce unwanted/unusable software depending on your location and hardware.

Install the selected packages and reboot.

For users who opted to install grub on the first sector of the / partition instead of the MBR, you will be required to setup NTLDR to boot Linux.

For the first boot:

• License - Accept any licenses for Fedora
• Create User - Create 1 user account for yourself. Always use that account DO NOT use root as your personal account. This is a cause of many mistakes, and root is not intended for personal use.
• Date and Time - Network Time Protocol - Enable this ONLY if you have an active working internet connection that is on (ex: broadband, T1, DSL). You do not need to check the time server every time the service starts.
• Hardware Profile - Fedora used smolt to provide basic non-intrusive information on your specific installation. While this may be helpful to Fedora developers, some may consider it a privacy issue. Please understand what information is being sent before you allow it to do so. I personally do not sent profile information

*The above is a collection info from some Fedora Linux web sites. If you like to see more about this technology info, you may go to web site as below:
http://www.mjmwired.net/