Tech Tidbits

No, I’m not talking about your mental state. It’s just that an article in eWeek got my interest, when they posted the top 10 certifications for IT people. You can read the full article in eWeek here, but what follows is my review of what’s hot to have.

1. PMP (Project Management Professional) from Project Management Institute – Shows knowledge and skills to manage projects to conclusion, on-time, on-budget and with the resources available
2. MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) from Microsoft (of course) – All about showing you have skills in implementation, design and admin of Windows 20XX Server and other MS server technologies.
3. A+ from CompTIA (this is not a grade, but an actual certification) – Shows that you have vendor-neutral tech support skills for installing networks and conducting maintenance and troubleshooting.
4. CNAA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) from Cisco – This certification shows that you have skills in the installation, configuration, network protocola, wireless, security and in troubleshooting medium-size networks, both routed and switched.
5. MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) – Shows that you have a wide range of expertise and skills using Microsoft technologies.
6. Network+ from CompTIA – Another vendor-neutral certification that shows you have competency in the management, maintenance, troubleshooting, installation and configuration of basic network infrastructures.
7. CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) from ISC (International Informaiton Systems Security Certification Consortium) – Shows that you have a common body of knowledge in comprehensive systems security.
8. MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) from Microsoft – Shows that you have demonstrated expertise in MS systems, troubleshooting networks in Windows Server environments.
9. ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) from the ITIL Certification Management Board – Shows that you have knowledge of IT operational best practices, with three tiers of ITIL available.
10. Security+ from CompTIA – Shows demonstrated knowledge of system security, network infrastructures, access control processes and organizational security procedures.

There you have it. If you check out the entire article, you will find out how many job openings there happen to be as of March 13, 2010. There was also a companion article in channelinsider that covered “Tech Certifications That Pay the Best Salary.” You might be surprised!

Many of us backup our data, but then what do we do with it? Backed up to a CD or DVD makes for an easy recovery at some point. Backup to a portable hard drive is a good thing, but what if that drive gets accidentally dropped (you're saying "Yeah Joe, that ain't going to happen.") Worse yet, someone picks up that drive and accidentally not recognizing it deletes a critical directory. So much for your backup.

One of the things in the business world has been multiple backups, with copies kept onsite and offsite. At one point, there were incremental backups (only what changed since the last time the file(s) were backed up) and full backups. Confusing? You better believe it. Eventually every business needed a backup management plan, with a computer just in charge of backups, and then a person just responsible for backups.

Well, on a more personal side, we need to backup data files to multiple places. Let's face it folks, what happens when your computer crashes and the drive gets reformatted by somebody before they realized (or were told) that ALL your photographs were on the drive. Talk about a sad day in history. That will go down in history with the house fire that destroyed ALL their family pictures (sometimes covering 100+ years).

Work out some kind of backup plan that preserves the good and important stuff. With all these digital cameras, there's usually not a bunch of prints floating around the country. People see what you post on some web site and "ooh and ah" about the pictures, but all that is entrusted to some kind of media (hard drive, flash, etc.) which could be gone in a flash – earthquake, tornado, hurricane, accident, you name it.

Got my January issue of IEEE Spectrum – all about the work of members of IEEE. The cover picture featured this arm – was that ever a shocker. Work is going on to make new prosthetic arms that will allow the user/wearer to touch, feel and control with their own nervous system! Reading about the work gives new meaning to "nanotechnology." This issue of Spectrum was about the "Winner and Loser Technologies of 2009".

The article begins by telling of an engineer who is playing "air guitar hero" (take off on "Guitar Hero") without a guitar! "More to the point, he is playing without his right hand, having lost it in Iraq in 2005." He quits only after beating the high score of another engineer who just happens to have two hands.

The winner had controlled the muscles in his forearm, and the electrical impulses had been wired into a sort of "Wii-like" device. This is all part of research to provide better, more realistic artificial limbs to people who have lost theirs and is all part of a U.S. Government program for veterans, but the reward will be to all amputees.

Sally Adee, writer of the article says that it is much more difficult to create artifical arm/hand combinations than artificial legs. "Legs require only 4 degrees of freedom, where an arm and hand combination needs about 22 degrees of freedom plus the ability to feel heat, texture and force."

If you can get to your library and check out the issue, I would highly recommend it. It is not a science article, and talks in non-techie terms.