December 26, 2008

Cisco Certification: The Joy Of Hex

Filed under: Technology Tips — @ 6:18 pm

Cisco certification candidates, particularly CCNA candidates, must master binary math. This includes basic conversions, such as binary-to-decimal and decimal-to-binary, as well as more advanced scenarios involving subnetting and VLSM.

There’s another conversion that might rear its ugly head on your Cisco exam, though, and that involves hexadecimal numbering.

Newcomers to hexadecimal numbering are often confused as to how a letter of the alphabet can possibly represent a number. Worse, they may be intimidated – after all, there must be some incredibly complicated formula involved with representing the decimal 11 with the letter “b”, right?

Wrong.

The numbering system we use every day, decimal, concerns itself with units of ten. Although we rarely stop to think of it this way, if you read a decimal number from right to left, the number indicates how many units of one, ten, and one hundred we have. That is, the number “15″ is five units of one and one unit of ten. The number “289″ is nine units of one, eight units of ten, and two units of one hundred. Simple enough!

Hex numbers are read much the same way, except the units here are units of 16. The number “15″ in hex is read as having five units of one and one unit of sixteen. The number “289″ in hex is nine units of one, eight units of sixteen, and two units of 256 (16 x 16).

Since hex uses units of sixteen, how can we possibly represent a value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15? We do so with letters. The decimal “10″ is represented in hex with the letter “a”; the decimal 11 with “b”; the decimal “12″ with “c”, “13″ with “d”, “14″ with “e”, and finally, “15″ with “f”. (CCNA candidates will remember that a MAC address of “ffff.ffff.ffff” is a Layer 2 broadcast.)

Practice Your Conversions For Exam Success

Now that you know where the letters fall into place in the hexadecimal numbering world, you’ll have little trouble converting hex to decimal and decimal to hex – if you practice.

How would you convert the decimal 27 to hex? You can see that there is one unit of 16 in this decimal; that leaves 11 units of one. This is represented in hex with “1b” – one unit of sixteen, 11 units of one.

Converting the decimal 322 to hex is no problem. There is one unit of 256; that leaves 66. There are four units of 16 in 66; that leaves 2, or two units of one. The hex equivalent of the decimal 322 is the hex figure 142 – one unit of 256, four units of 32, and 2 units of 2.

Hex-to-decimal conversions are even simpler. Given the hex number 144, what is the decimal equivalent? We have one unit of 256, four units of 16, and four units of 4. This gives us the decimal figure 324.

What about the hex figure c2? We now know that the letter “c” represents the decimal number “12″. This means we have 12 units of 16, and two units of 2. This gives us the decimal figure 194.

Tips For Exam Day

Practice your binary and hexadecimal conversions over and over again before you take your CCNA exams. Binary math questions come in many different forms; make sure you have practiced all of them before exam day. The number one reason CCNA candidates fail their exam is that they’re not prepared for the different types of binary math questions they’re going to be asked, and that they aren’t ready for hexadecimal questions at all.

You don’t have time to learn how to do in on exam day. You’ve got to be ready before you go into the exam room, and the only way to be ready is a lot of practice.

Finally, make sure you read the question carefully. You’ve got hex, decimal, and binary numbers to concern yourself with on your CCNA exams. Make sure you give Cisco the answer in the format they’re looking for.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (http://www.thebryantadvantage.com), home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. Video courses and training, binary and subnetting help, and corporate training are also available. Pass the CCNA exam with Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933!

For a copy of his FREE “How To Pass The CCNA” or “How To Pass The CCNP” ebook, write to chris@thebryantadvantage.com!

Online Gambling Keeps Gamblers Betting

Filed under: Gambling, Sports Resources, Wagering, Betting — @ 2:46 am

Hordes of betters will certainly have come upon the term “offshore sports betting”, though a few aren’t totally savvy what it implies. An overseas betting site primarily works extrinsically to the dominion of any single nation instead it can be an web based gambling internet site that has all of its file servers in a state where internet based gaming isn’t illegitimate. Concisely then, it can be identified as a wagering website in action outside the nation of the bettor. World wide web based gambling webpages are modulated by means of three councils. These bodies are the OSGA (the Offshore Gaming Association), the IGC (Interactive Gaming Council) and the Fidelity Trust Gaming Association FTGA.

sports wagering

The Offshore Gaming Association is in fact an independent “watchdog” bureau that supervises the thriving overseas sports gambling trade, they are trying to grant the paying public the ability to quickly find fair websites to play betting games on, without concern. It tries to maintain the concerns of gamblers, and also they don’t impose any annual dues. The agency are an extremely well-qualified not to mention unbiased third party agency who assert unprejudiced info, suggested by customer feedback, impartial studies, chats, inside prompts and also offers industry information.

The Interactive Gaming Council is a nonprofit organisation. The agency was designed to allow an arena for interested individuals to discuss matters and in addition to encourage progress in the domain of mutual matters in the multinational online gaming business, in an effort to establish sincere not to mention sound industry rules and habits that heighten consumer confidence in internet sports betting merchandise and benefits, and in addition to aid as the offshore gaming industry’s extensive practise advisor and in addition the Interactive Gaming Council operates as a data hub.

The IGC have made a distinction for trustworthiness, equity and also sincerity due to the tough moral code it displays, and its appeal for honorable sports betting web sites. The IGC regularises offshore sports gambling by means of endorsing a distinctive ten step series of guidelines moreover charges gaming businesses a license fee to exhibit the council’s logo. Unfulfilled betters may, if they wish, recount their disagreements to the Interactive Gaming Council.

The Fidelity Trust Gaming Association was formed in an attempt to construct a standard to improve the procedures of networked gambling operations. The council believe that through affiliating with reputable partners, they are able to develop a federation of the most sportsmanlike and most expert internet betting operations globally. These are agencies which oversee the procedures of computer accessible sports gambling and which should through time help to allay a lot of the uneasiness due to the apprehension felt by gamblers. Computer accessible sports gaming sites are at present altogether safe, since personal details should not be requested also the remuneration and the gaming odds should be equivalent to a regular Vegas-type wager. They cut traveling, but maintain of a Nevada gambling casino, only nowadays you may wager in your home.