3/19/2008 -- A study of 3,578 IT managers commissioned by CompTIA and executed by the Center for Strategy Research Inc. found some interesting gems. Among them:
- Most people picked "RF mobile, wireless technology" as the skill they expected to grow in importance the most over the next five years.
- What positions are most likely to be open? Those for programmers/coders/developers, according to the study. On the flip side, quality assurance positions are the least likely to be open.
- When asked to rank the IT skills they considered to be the most important, people placed "security," "general networking" and "operating systems" in the top three.
- And when it comes to comparing reported skill proficiency with importance of skills, the skill with the widest "gap" in proficiency is "security/firewalls/data privacy."
More information on the study and its results can be found here.
LPI To Revise Exams
The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) is seeking volunteers to help with revisions to the LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 certification exams and programs. The first step in this process is answering a job task analysis (JTA) survey to determine which objectives are relevant today, and the weighting each should have on the exams.
After the JTA results are analyzed, LPI plans to release the new objectives in May with the updated exams going live in December. The JTA for Level 1 is now live here, and the JTA for Level 2 is expected soon.
The current Level 1 topics (what other vendors call domains) are:
- Topic 101: System Architecture
- Topic 102: Linux Installation and Package Management
- Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands
- Topic 104: Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
- Topic 105: Shells, Scripting, and Data Management
- Topic 106: User Interfaces and Desktops
- Topic 107: Administrative Tasks
- Topic 108: Essential System Services
- Topic 109: Networking Fundamentals
- Topic 110: Security
More information can be found here.
Book of the Week: 'Patterns in Network Architecture'
One of the best books I've read in quite a while is John Day's Patterns in Network Architecture: A Return to Fundamentals. Straddling the line between a history lesson and a foundational primer, this book illuminates the socioeconomic forces that took us from the ARPANET to the Internet we have today. The 10 chapters are:
- Foundations for Network Architecture
- Protocol Elements
- Patterns in Protocols
- Stalking the Upper-Level Architecture
- Naming and Addressing
- Divining Layers
- The Network IPC Model
- Making Addresses Topological
- Multihoming, Multicast, and Mobility
- Backing Out of a Blind Alley
You can choose to agree or disagree with the commentary Day offers, but there's one thing guaranteed: This book is sure to leave you thinking about it long after you've read the last chapter.
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