Cisco CCNA Certification: Why You NEED Hands-On Practice !

Telepresence and Holography / Holograms - November 2008

Editor’s viewpoint on their differences, likenesses and future...

We all just recently viewed an historic CNN holographic interview on an historic Election Night. CNN stated this type of imaging has never been done before on National TV and I believe that. I haven’t seen anything like it. The live interview caught me by surprise and sure had the “wow” factor attached to it didn’t it? Here’s a link to the actual interview.

CNN Hologram Video

The question now has to be asked. Is it Telepresence?

I’m no expert on the subject but I’m going to throw my hat into the ring, go out on a limb and say yes, I believe it is. Although I know many video conferencing purists are rolling their eyes and grabbing their guns right about now with my statement.

While I do know that Telepresence still hasn’t been universally defined (Houston, we have a problem), here’s how I see it…. Broken down to its simplest form - “tele” (through electronic means) and “presence” (present). This is how I’m justifying my opinion by lumping holography and Telepresence together. Just as Telepresence is surely an offshoot of video conferencing, holographic imaging (like we viewed on CNN) surely has to be considered an offshoot of Telepresence. The interviewer was “telepresent” from Chicago and beamed into the CNN Election Headquarters. She was most assuredly - “telepresent”. There was negligible latency, the imaging was fantastic and both interviewers were rehearsed on what they would say. I’ve just recently read that CNN actually “downgraded” the experience to make it “movie” quality and not as good as it could have been. Maybe they thought us mere mortals would be shocked if they showed their complete hand. I have a feeling it was so big to them, they didn’t want it to get upstaged by the historic election. I’m willing to bet we’ll see the “true” power of this technology in the upcoming weeks and months when they can put the pedal to the medal and show it off without having it sidetracked.

What an amazing time for this technology (all differences and opinions aside). Telepresence Doctors, nurses, teachers, schools and healthcare (healthpresence) will benefit from the recent gains in this state-of-the-art industry whether holograms, Telepresence or holography. Airlines also have to see the threat to a portion of their business travel. Hell, who wants go through security and fly to Miami for a two-hour conference when you can look them in the eye via Telepresence?

Beam me up Scotty! Simply amazing…!

Visit the free Telepresence Forum for more information and discussion

Your Editor and Administrator - L II
"Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" TM

CCNA and CCNP candidates hear it all the time: "you have to get some hands-on experience to pass the exams".

Candidates tend to think that's just so they can solve the simulator problems, but that's only the more obvious reason.

First, I want to make it clear that I'm not bashing learning from books you have to learn theory before you can really know what's going on in the first place. The key is that to truly understand routing and switching processes, you've got to have that hands-on experience.

So if the simulator questions are the more obvious reason to get hands-on experience, what are the less obvious reasons?

Glad you asked!

You see what happens when things don't go according to the script. One of the biggest problems with learning your skills on software programs such as "router simulators" is that with simulators, things go pretty much as planned.

I have news for you: that doesn't always happen in the real world. While Cisco routers and switches are highly reliable devices, every once in a while you're going to get an unexpected result from a command. Maybe it didn't work after you typed it in maybe it has an effect on your prior configuration that you didn't expect. Maybe you don't know what happened – you just typed in that command and the router went nuts!

Sooner or later, that's going to happen to you in the real world. And as I tell my students, it's actually a good thing to have happen to you in a lab.

You don't learn to troubleshoot or fine-tune a configuration when everything works perfectly. You don't learn much at all when things go perfectly. And you're practicing to learn!

I often say that great chefs don't learn to cook on cooking simulators they learn in the kitchen, and they burn a lot of meals on the way to greatness. You need to screw up some configs on the way to greatness, and you can't do that on a computer program. You have to be on the real thing.

You build confidence by working with real Cisco routers and switches. Would you want the Super Bowl to be the first football game you ever really played in? Of course not. Then why would you take router configuration exams and be nervous about having to create a VLAN, or troubleshoot an OSPF configuration?

You cannot walk into the testing room a nervous wreck. You must have the attitude that you are already a CCNA or CCNP, and you're just there to make it official. I can tell you from firsthand experience with many students that the way you develop than confidence is to work with the real deal.

You can't buy that confidence, and you can't simulate your way to it. You've got to work with real Cisco routers and switches. By working with the real equipment, you develop the real skills and real confidence you need to pass the CCNA and CCNP exams.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage. The Bryant Advantage sells the world's best CCNA Study Guide in PDF format for only $15 and is the ONLY company specializing in CCNA and CCNP rack rentals, allowing candidates for these certifications to gain vital hands-on experience with full racks of Cisco routers and switches with labs and prices designed just for them. There are also plenty of FREE CCNA and CCNP tutorials! Visit his site at http://www.thebryantadvantage.com today!

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To learn more about Telepresence, the revolutionary new style of immersive video conferencing; visit these websites:

Telepresence - "Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" - Telepresence
Telepresence Web Portal - Telepresence Internet web portal
Telepresence Report - 24/7 breaking Telepresence related news and information
Via Telepresence - Video conferencing via Telepresence
Telepresence Forum - Free user discussion forum for everything Telepresence related
Telepresence Today - Telepresence information and editor qualified headline news
Telepresence Resource Directory - Telepresence web resource directory
Telepresence Tube - Telepresence videos, pictures and more