In addition, we’ve updated your A+ practice exams, study guides, guide content, assessment quizzes, certificate of mastery exams and more. It’s like a whole new course! The brand new A+ is available for check out right now in your Ultimate Access library.

Looking to advance your IT career? LearnSmart offers the absolute best training materials for technologies including CompTIA A+, Network+,  MCITP Certification, CCNA Training and more. The LearnSmart Cloud Classroom makes studying better and more convenient by putting your training in the Cloud and supporting compatibility with most mobile devices including the iPad 2, Android and many more.

Paul Allen–of Ancestry.com–” sampled a number of surnames from the U.S. Census Bureau data and compared it to surnames of Google+ users. By comparing surname popularity in the U.S. with the number of users on Google+ with each surname, he can guesstimate the percentage of the U.S. population that signed up for Google+. Finally, he calculated a ratio of U.S. to non-U.S. users to generate an estimate for the number of Google+ users worldwide.”

The result is over 9.5 Million users and that number increasing exponentially. While the data is unofficial, it is the most reasonable estimate to come out thus far. Google is currently quiet about the number of current users, but are expected to comment at some point in the near future. Regardless, 10 Million users can easily turn into 20 Million users considering the nature of social networking sites. Google has done a better job releasing Google+ compared to some of their other products like Wave and that traction they have gained could mean genuine competition in the social media market.

What is the fate of Social Media? We can only speculate, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with Google+. Let us know your opinions below!

Looking to advance your IT career? PrepLogic offers the absolute best training materials for technologies including CompTIA A+, Network+,  MCITP Certification, CCNA Training and more. The LearnSmart Cloud Classroom makes studying better and more convenient by putting your training in the Cloud and supporting compatibility with most mobile devices including the iPad 2, Android and many more.

It appears the pain and suffering is over. Consumers are finally moving on, at least in the United States. Windows XP still maintains a healthy lead in Global share. Windows 7 has apparently proven its worth in the US market. While some die hard XP fans will express dissatisfaction with this news, it certainly is a positive for Windows.

We have seen plenty of new interest in our Windows 7 learning products like Windows 7 Configuration and Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Support. Be sure to also check out our MCITP certification, A+ certification, CCNA certification and Cisco certification materials as well.

Like the article? Tell us what you think! Be sure to follow us on twitter @PrepLogic and to “Like” us on Facebook!

One of the most important investments you can make in life is that of your Education. Education is an incredibly powerful asset because it can lead to impressive outcomes–success, opportunity, understanding, and even happiness. When you invest in your education, you are ensuring that you have control of your life.

You must invest in yourself. Any certified IT Professional will tell you how grateful they are to have spent the time and energy to create a future for themselves. They are working in an ever expanding industry doing what they love and making a nice living doing it. Yes, they spent hours studying, learning and perhaps struggling—but now they aren’t. They are settled, knowledgeable, employed and certified.

Sometimes, making an investment can be hard. It’s easy to be short sited and only see what we are losing, rather than what we are gaining. What must be remembered is that long term gains are far greater than the short term losses involved with making the proper investments in our future. Do you think Warren Buffett regrets spending $25 to buy a Pinball machine to place in barbershops at the age of 15, only to own several more machines months later? Absolutely not. This investment preceded a long, successful career which placed him in the running as the wealthiest person in the world.

Chances are you have some things in mind already. Ideas you have been toying with. Perhaps you want to start a business or invent something. Maybe you want to build up your certifications to increase your job options. Regardless of what your investment is, don’t be afraid to make it. Get out there and give it all you got, because that is the only way to make big things happen. You have to just go out and do it. Then one day, when you reflect on your life journey, you will remember the sacrifices you made to achieve your goals and become what you always wanted to be.

What goals in life do you need to invest in? Let us know by leaving a comment!

Broadcast Details:

What: Talk2Cisco: Work Life Redesign –  What You Need to Know
This is a live, social broadcast. It will be made available for replay after the broadcast on this page.

When: Tuesday, March 15, 10:00 a.m. PT

Who: Carlos Dominguez, Senior VP, Cisco Systems & Lance Perry, VP  of Information Technology, Cisco Systems

Where: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2011/ts_031011.html

Talk2Cisco is a live, real-time, social, interactive, online video broadcast featuring Cisco leaders answering questions submitted by you, the viewer. Using Ustream.tv, Talk2Cisco puts you directly in touch with the source of the information, covers topics of interest to you and connects you with others who follow Cisco business and technology.

The action-packed event featured big news for partners, keynotes from Cisco’s top executives, breakout speakers, magicians, theater sessions, parties, a live auction, and generous donations from partners and Cisco are helping to rebuild homes and lives in New Orleans.

Cisco’s Channels Blog put together a short video slideshow with pictures highlighting Cisco Partner Summit 2011. Take a look!

PrepLogic offers Cisco training for the CCNA certification exam, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice and CCNA Wireless certification exams.

Mike Meyers, author of the best-selling A+ Certification book on the market and leading authority on IT certifications, uses his fun and goofy sense of humor in a way that makes learning about essential hardware, software and application topics entertaining and enjoyable to watch! He covers all of the topics on the A+ exams, including important on-the-job info like professionalism, communication….even hygiene!

Here’s a short sample of the CompTIA A+ Essentials LearnSmart Video Training course. In this video clip, Mike Meyers shows you the beginning steps to installing a CPU:

Submit your photos to dccablingcontest@cisco.com before 3/25/2011 for consideration.

PrepLogic offers Cisco training for the CCNA, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice and CCNA Wireless, CCIP, CCNP SWITCH, CCNP ROUTE and  CCNP TSHOOT.

Online real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp. is familiar with the talent war taking place among Internet companies. Redfin Corp., like many other companies in the on-line business, is quickly realizing attracting the best and brightest engineers comes at a price, a rather hefty price.  Redfin told the Wall Street Journal:

It has recently been up against salary-and-bonus offers of $100,000 to $150,000 a year for new college grads from social-gaming start-up Zynga, among others—far above the $80,000 or so a year Redfin would normally offer.

With investors eager to buy a piece of their rapid growth, Facebook, Zynga and Twitter have been heavily recruiting with robust job offers, raising the compensation bar for others start-ups.

Rich Skrenta, CEO of Blekko, a search-engine company in Redwood Shores, Calif faces this dilemma, telling the Wall Street Journal:

“We have people who walk in through the door and they like what we’re doing, but they’ve already got four offers from big companies.  A significant fraction of them go elsewhere. …They’ll say, I like what you’re doing, but I’m going to Twitter or Facebook.”

With these kinds of potential staring salary offers and aggressive recruiting, who’s to blame the engineers for saying, let the talent wars rage on!