Monday 18 February 2013

0 Exin Green IT Foundation Certification Exam

Hello everyone! Today's topic will be slightly different than what I talk about most of the times. In this post, I will be talking about Exin Green IT Foundation exam.

The Exin Green IT Foundation exam is an entry level professional certification test geared specifically for advancing the knowledge and abilities of IT personnel to contribute to corporately responsible and economically sound organizational IT initiatives. This Exin certification exam certainly has its benefits for IT professionals, including the acquisition of highly valued skills in the job market, skills which will only become more valuable in the future as more and more organizations recognize the importance of Greener IT on business success.

Candidates for the Exin Green IT certification exam don’t just include IT professionals. In fact, the exam is applicable in the professional development plans of individuals working in a range of other capacities, including business and sustainability managers and business and financial analysts, to name just a few.

Successfully completing the Exin Green IT Foundation exam increases your value with your current employer and provides you additional clout with prospective employers or clients as well. To achieve success, you’ll need to focus your studies on the testing materials, and ideally utilize practice exams for measuring your knowledge attainment prior to taking your exam. Training options are available with Exin approved training services, and there are full length practice exams, as well as tutorials and other self study materials, offered through online prep services like TestsLive.com.

There are a total of 40 questions on the exam and you’ll need to achieve a score of 65 percent or higher to pass. Exin recommends a minimum of one year IT experience prior to taking the test, and encourages candidates to dedicate at least 30 hours of study to their exam prep. 

Saturday 9 February 2013

0 Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro Review

Hello everyone! Today I will be reviewing the external sound card I bought lately, Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro. The reason I bought this card was mainly because I wasn't satisfied with my laptop's onboard audio. Now, I also use it with my desktop computer instead of using the onboard function. I can say it's easy to feel a difference.

When you open the box, you'll see the USB stick which is the card, a pair of headphones with microphone attached, (I must say, they're a lot better than the 30-40$ Sennheisers I often picked up for my iPhone) driver CD, (you can also install the drivers on the internet if you wish) and a USB extension cable. (since the card is bigger than a usual pen drive, it might block out other ports if you don't use this)

It's pretty straight forward to install the card on your computer and start using it. Just plug it into a USB slot, install the drivers, hook your headphones up and you're good to go. It shouldn't even take you 10 minutes.

The drivers also come with Creative Entertainment Console, where you can find EAX (environmental) effects, THX effects (such as virtual surround or crystalizer), a graphic equalizer, a sound mixer (it's connected to the Windows one), and microphone effects where you can change your voice into sounding really interesting and weird.

Although I am really happy with the card and it's definitely worth the pick up if you're using onboard and looking for something better, there are known issues about X-Fi cards (not just about this one, all the X-Fi cards) such as crackling and popping sounds which happened to me as well. It makes it impossible to use the card, so if you experience issues like this, here are a few advices.

- Update your BIOS (this solved my crackling issue, it was my last resort)
- Pull your other USB cords out to see if anything causes conflict with the card
- Download the latest drivers from the internet instead of using the CD

These are the things I can think of right now, and I think there are many other alternate solutions going on around the internet (which I tried with no help, but then again a different solution might work for someone else) that you should try. You can also try to mail Creative Support if you have tried everything with no success. I found the fix to my problem before I got a reply from them, but they still sent me a really helpful e-mail where the solution I used was also included.

All in all, ignoring the little drawback which took me 2 days to fix, I definitely recommend this card. The sound is much better compared to both onboard audio on my laptop and desktop. I picked the card up for around 60$ (electronics are expensive where I live), but you can pick it up at Amazon for 30$ if you have the possibility. Considering that it also includes a pair of headphones with a microphone, (like I mentioned, better than the low tier Sennheiser earbuds I've used) it's an amazing opportunity to take.

Thanks for reading!
 

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