IT Insights Blog

October is a big month for information security certification. For starters, it's National Cyber Security Awareness Month, also known as NCSAM. (FYI: Some people say that "NAK-sam," while others say it "NIK-sam." There is no clear consensus as to which is the preferred pronunciation.) Another major information security development for October, however, is the release of the newly revamped CompTIA Security+ certification exa

They say that it's not polite to ask people pointed questions about how much money they earn, or what they do to earn it. So for a couple of weeks every autumn, the team at Certification Magazine might as well be running around yelling in people's face, tipping over potted flowers, throwing raw eggs at the walls, and generally doing just about everything you can think of that uncouth rascals with no upbringing or manners like to get up to.

Most employees at most businesses spend most of their time focused on a couple of recurring tasks. Even IT jobs, which are frequently thought of as requiring creativity and agility in the face of changing technology, are often largely repetitive in nature. In some respects, this is why advances in artificial intelligence are seen to threaten many jobs now performed by human workers. So much of what people do now is repetitive and narrowly focused.

The leaves are changing color, an autumn chill is in the air, and there's suddenly football on television almost every day of the week. That must mean that the October-November-December holiday season is nearly upon us, beginning with ghosts and ghouls, and tricks or treats aplenty. Yet even though Halloween is still more than a month away (if only by a couple of days) ...

There's a belief among many that almost everything is better when it's bigger. Take the Washington Monument. During construction, the builders initially ran out of funds. From 1854 until 1879, the memorial to America's first president rose just 152 feet. That's more than 400 feet shorter than its current completed height. Imagine if you'd made a special trip to the nation's capital in, say, 1875? What is even the point of a 150-foot memorial obelisk?