IT Insights Blog — certification

For most people here in the United States, during most of the calendar year, the Internal Revenue Service taketh away. Tax withholding, for nearly all Americans, is as automatic as pouring milk on cold cereal, or contributing to a 401k. It's practically the same thing as contributing to a 401k: you agree to give someone else money with the expectation of getting some back later on.

TestOut believes in constantly bettering oneself physically, emotionally, and career-wise. In support of those laudable goals, the company sponsors an annual fitness challenge called “Run, Bike, Hike.” The event takes place over several months and is open to employees and immediate family members. It consists of three separate activities: run a 5K race; bike a designated distance; and, the most challenging, hike a local mountain. The whole event is great fun. It’s a time to be out in nature with friends and family and get some needed exercise.

Some readers of the IT Insights Blog may recall being young (or at least younger) and watching the old Inspector Gadget cartoon series. At the start of each episode, the ever-intrepid Gadget would receive his instructions from Chief Quimby in the form of a note programmed — Can you program a piece of paper? Maybe we should just say booby-trapped? — to "self-destruct" after he read it.

Who doesn’t like spring? New life is everywhere. Flowers are blooming, days are longer, soccer season is underway (the under-13-year-old teams I coach are tanned, rested, and ready!), and my Warriors are, as usual, poised to win it all. Even my Los Angeles Angels look like they are going to be pennant contenders — thank you Shohei Ohtani!

The Information Age gives us something new to marvel over on such a regular basis that it's starting to feel like there's no problem in the world such that the right application of IT ingeniousness can't provide a solution. Self-driving cars are already on the road, if not yet performing in such a way that they are fully ready to be left to their own devices.