CertCities.com News
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April 30, 2008: Vol. 9, Issue 19
Editor: Becky Nagel (bnagel 1105media.com)
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In this issue:
1) DULANEY ON CERTS
- Numbers Don't Lie, But...
- Codes of Conduct
- A Look at the Sun Certified Enterprise Architect
Certification
- New Novell Linux Certifications
- Book of the Week: 'Cisco Networkng Simplified'
2) ZUBAIR'S TIP O' THE WEEK: INSIDE OUTLOOK 2007'S
POSTMARKING FEATURE
3) FROM THE FORUMS: ROUTER SIMULATOR, LOOKING FOR A PLUG,
MORE
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1) DULANEY ON CERTS
By Emmett Dulaney
NUMBERS DON'T LIE, BUT...
Many of you wrote to take issue with my recent discussion of
vendor numbers: Cisco topped 1 million certifications
granted
since the beginning of its program, Microsoft is over 2
million, etc.
http://certcities.com/editorial/columns/story.
asp?EditorialsID=293
While I wholeheartedly agree that the numbers aren't
mutually
exclusive -- one individual may hold more than one Microsoft
certification, or may hold a certification from Microsoft
and Cisco,
and so on -- the key issue is that these are numbers the
vendors are
actually proud of, as witnessed by Cisco's press release
when it hit
the 1 million mark.
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2008/prod_040908d.html
Should vendors be pleased with those numbers, or should they
report
ONLY the number of certifications that are currently valid?
From a
marketing standpoint, it sounds good to say X-number of
administrators are certified by your program -- never mind
if those
administrators certified 15 years ago on a platform that has
since
lost support. From an administrator's standpoint, however,
it's
better to compete against those who have the same exact
certifications as you and to stand out from those who have
antiquated certifications.
Arguably, creating new titles is one solution (we're moving
from
"engineer" to "architect," and I'm
guessing "draftsman" isn't too
far down the road). By creating a new title, you immediately
start
with zero certification holders, and then only those with
current
skills will hold the title. One drawback to this approach,
though,
is generating enough market education -- particularly among
hiring
managers -- of the new certification.
I would think that a better solution is to simply strike
from the
record all old certifications. A Microsoft Certified Trainer
(MCT)
can't be an MCT if their skills aren't kept up-to-date, so
why
shouldn't the same be true of all other certifications? This
would
require an expiration date to be affixed to ALL
certifications, not
just the ones which currently implement it.
CODES OF CONDUCT
There seems to be a trend afoot to create or refine codes of
ethics
for all professions. CompTIA has one of the most succinct
ethics
policies that I'm aware of; instead of belaboring the point
ad
infinitum, the company takes a difficult topic and condenses
it
rather pithily:
http://certification.comptia.org/resources/conduct
_policy.aspx
Now, while CompTIA doesn't publish numbers for all of its
good-for-life certifications, it does so for three:
- The A+ certification, which has been around since 1993,
has
awarded over 700,000 certifications.
- Network+, which has been around since 1999, has awarded
over
180,000 certifications.
- Security+, which has been around since 2002, has awarded
over
45,000 certifications.
That means that over 925,000 people have agreed to CompTIA's
conduct
policy. Of those, I can't help but wonder what percentage
actually
read the policy beforehand versus how many merely agreed to
whatever
was presented to them for the sake of getting the
certification. How
many of those certified are unaware of the policy's
existence -- or
that they've even agreed to it?
And, perhaps most importantly, what's the penalty if those
policies
aren't adhered to? If you disclose confidential client
information,
does a representative from CompTIA show up at your office
and
revoke your good-for-life certificate? What if you bought
the
coffee mug with the logo on it -- do they take it back,
too?
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A LOOK AT THE SUN CERTIFIED ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT
CERTIFICATION
One of the more interesting certifications from Sun is the
Sun
Certified Enterprise Architect (SCEA), an upper-level
certification
aimed at those working with Java EE-compliant applications.
What
makes it interesting is the way you go about obtaining it.
http://www.sun.com/training/certification/java/scea.xml
To become certified, you're required to do a number of
things:
- Pass the requisite testing-center exam (CX-310-052: Sun
Certified
Enterprise Architect for the Java Platform, Enterprise
Edition 5).
Administered through Prometric, you have 120 minutes to
answer 64
multiple-choice and drag-and-drop questions and get 57
percent
correct to pass. The cost is $200.
- Pass an assignment exam (CX-310-301A). After passing the
testing-center exam, you download an assignment directly
to your
computer and then have 12 months to complete it. There
are several
parts to the exam and you must get 71 percent of the
assignment
correct in order to pass. The cost is $250.
- After successfully completing the first two requirements,
return
to a Prometric testing center and take an essay exam
(CX-310-062).
The exam consists of eight questions based on your
assignment and
you have 90 minutes to answer them. The cost is $200.
What I like most about this approach is that it's broken
into three
completely different parts, with a hands-on component to
weed out
those who only have knowledge-based skills from those who
can
actually apply what they know.
NEW NOVELL LINUX CERTIFICATIONS
Novell recently rolled out one new Linux certification:
Certified
Linux Desktop Administrator (CLDA), and is expected to soon
go live
with Certified Linux Administrator (CLA), as well. Both
consist of a
single exam on SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 that's administered
through
either Prometric or VUE testing centers. The exam numbers
are
050-708 and 050-710 (not yet available), respectively.
The CLDA focuses on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. Test
objectives
can be found here:
http://www.novell.com/training/testinfo/objectiv
es/3086tobj.html
The CLA focuses on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10. The test
objectives aren't posted yet, but the exam will focus on
topics
taught in Novell's 3071 and 3072 courses, the objectives for
which
can be found here http://tinyurl.com/4twjvt and here
http://tinyurl.com/4bseup, respectively.
BOOK OF THE WEEK: 'CISCO NETWORKNG SIMPLIFIED'
While there have always been books about how things
(computers,
machines, etc.) work, it wasn't until a few years ago that
many of
those moved away from a school-aged audience and toward
adults.
One of the first in that genre I can recall was the old Ziff
Davis
series for which Ron White wrote many of the entries --
"How
Computers Work," "How Software Works" and so
on.
The newly updated "Cisco Networking Simplified, Second
Edition"
(http://tinyurl.com/5ykq2q) is a hybrid. While the text is written
for adult readers, the graphics alternate between four-color
versions -- similar to what you'd see in a standard Cisco
Press
book -- and more cartoonish pictures. As I read through the
book,
I found myself wishing that the editors picked one format
and
stuck with it. The flow of the content is great and I'd like
to
see more of these books in the future, but after I'm done
reading
it, I'd like to know whether to pass it down to my son or
put it
on the reference shelf.
More information on the title, including some sample pages
(without the cartoonish images), can be found here:
http://www.ciscopress.com/bookstore/product.asp?i
sbn=1587201992
To comment, go to:
http://certcities.com/editorial/columns/story.
asp?editorialsid=294
Emmett Dulaney is the author of several books on Linux,
Unix, and
certification, including the Security+ Study Guide, Third
Edition. He
can be reached at edulaneyinsightbb.com.
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----
2) ZUBAIR'S TIP O' THE WEEK: INSIDE OUTLOOK 2007'S
POSTMARKING FEATURE
QUESTION:
What is the purpose of postmarking in Outlook 2007 and how
does
it work?
ANSWER:
Postmark generation is a new feature that's only available
in Outlook
2007. However, postmark validation is available in Outlook
2007,
Windows Mail in Vista, Windows Live Mail and Exchange 2007.
Basically, Outlook 2007 messages can be stamped with an
e-mail
postmark that includes the time the message was sent and a
list of the
recipients. This adds a slight overhead to the message but
it's hardly
noticeable. The recipient's e-mail application will
recognize the
postmark and won't treat the message as junk mail.
The idea is that spammers will be discouraged from using
postmarks
because they send thousands of e-mail messages at a time,
and adding
postmarks will be too much overhead for them. However, an
average user
won't have to worry about this small overhead and can take
advantage
of the postmark feature.
There are some situations where messages aren't postmarked.
For
example, messages aren't postmarked if the recipient is in
the
sender's Global Address List. Also, before sending a
message, the Junk
E-mail Filter in Outlook 2007 evaluates the message's
characteristics;
if it determines that it's not likely to be considered a
spam message
by the recipient's spam filter, it won't postmark the
message.
The postmark feature is enabled by default. If you want to
turn it
off, you can go to Tools, Options, Preferences tab, E-mail,
Junk
E-mail, and clear the check box that says, "When
sending e-mail,
Postmark the message to help e-mail clients distinguish
regular e-mail
from junk e-mail."
To comment, go to:
http://certcities.com/editorial/columns/story.
asp?editorialsid=295
-- Zubair Alexander, MCSE, MCT, MCSA and Microsoft MVP, is
the owner
of SeattlePro Enterprises, an IT training and consulting
business.
His experience covers a wide range: trainer, consultant,
systems
administrator, security architect, network engineer, author,
technical editor, college instructor and public speaker.
Zubair holds
more than 18 technical certifications and bachelor of
science
degrees in aeronautics and astronautics engineering,
mathematics
and computer information systems. His Web site,
www.techgalaxy.net,
is dedicated to technical resources for IT professionals.
Zubair may
be reached at alexandertechgalaxy.net.
------------------------------------------------------------
----
3) FROM THE FORUMS: ROUTER SIMULATOR, LOOKING FOR A PLUG,
MORE
The following posts were made to our forums recently by IT
professionals like yourself. To post your own comments,
please
register with the forums.
To respond to one of these posts or find out more, go to the
link under each post. To read our other posts and start a
thread of your own, go to http://certcities.com/f
orums/
-----------------------------------
*Router Simulator?* (CCNA/CCNP Forum)
rstein6 writes:
"Preparing for the CCENT (with no intent to work in
networking, just
want to learn a bit). What is the easiest/cheapest way to
practice
things like the Cisco CLI, SDM and the like (i.e., get a
feel for
setting up a router)?
Goal is to learn as well as better understand what I'm
reading in
Lammle's CCENT prep book."
Read the entire post and responses (13 so far) at:
http://certcities.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?tid=6079
-----------------------------------
*Searching for 'Special' RJ-45 Plug* (Cisco -- Real World
Forum)
rileymartin writes:
"I can't locate a certain type of RJ-45 plug for making
CAT5 Ethernet
cables and I was hoping someone, somewhere knows where I can
find
them. I don't know what they're called so I'll try my best
to
describe them.
The plug has the 'regular' part with latch that actually
gets plugged
into the RJ-45 receptacle of some network device. But the
plug has a
larger square plastic peice that 'sticks' out of the RJ-45
recepticle.
This larger second half of the plug has a latch that points
forward,
covering the regular latch that you have on every ethernet
cable. When
you press down on the rear latch, it in turn depresses the
front latch
making it easy to remove the CAT5 cable from whatever device
you have
it plugged into. Does anyone know where I can get this type
of
RJ-45 plug?"
Read the entire post and responses (4 so far) at:
http://certcities.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?tid=6027
-----------------------------------
*Full Screen for DOS App in Remote Desktop* (Microsoft --
Real
World Forum)
Corsair writes:
"I have this old MSDOS program that when I run it
locally on my 2003
server I can change the screen size to full screen
(Alt+Enter). When
I do a remote connection to the server and run the program,
if I do
Alt+Enter I get this error: 'The video device failed to
initialize for
full screen mode.'
What can I do to be able to run this program in full mode
when using
it through a remote connection?"
Read the entire post and responses (2 so far) at:
http://certcities.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?tid=6087
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