IT Insights Blog — certification

Lots of things in life are unexpected. Who would have predicted, 20 years ago, that Starburst candies would one day be sold in “miniature” form, bagged assortments of individual chews that can be popped straight into your mouth by the fistful without the hassle of removing a paper wrapper? Donald Trump probably didn’t think when he was chatting with Billy Bush on the Access Hollywood bus 11 years ago, that he might someday revisit the contents of that conversation as a widely scrutinized contender for the highest elective office in the United States.

The cheetah is the fastest land animal on earth. At a full sprint, a grown cheetah can reach speeds of 71 mph, about as fast as a car on your local interstate. Cheetahs prey on herd animals like zebra, wildebeest and gazelle. As the prey of these speedsters, you become very familiar with the principal of “survival of the fittest.”

The title of this blog post, just so you know, is a trademark violation. OK, technically it probably isn't, since we aren't using said title to market a brand or sell merchandise. Since words and phrases can be trademarked, however, we'd have to license the usage of "strength in numbers" from the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association if, for example, we wanted to charge you to read our ruminations and pontifications. Or maybe we'd only be violating the trademark if the point of charging you to read this blog post were to sell oversized foam fingers, say, or t-shirts. It's complicated.

March 29, 845 A.D. The scene is Paris. Five-thousand Viking warriors plunder and occupy the city. The French king, Charles the Bald, wanting to get rid of these unwelcome intruders, offers a ransom of 7,000 livres (5,670 pounds), payable in gold and silver, if they agree to leave. As part of the deal, the Vikings promise they’ll take the loot and never return. Charles, eager to avoid a drawn-out and destructive fight and faced with a great many other kingly problems, settles up, hopeful that he’s seen the last of his northern visitors.

Many of you reading this already have an IT certification or two (or three, or four). If you have at least one current certification, or know someone who does, then consider today's post a call to arms. We need you. We need your IT certified friend. We need everyone who has an IT certification. More precisely we need information. Not anyone's vital statistics, or their Social Security number, or the password to their bank account. And actually, it's not we or us in the sense of TestOut Continuing Education who are doing the asking. This is the classic case of asking for a friend.