Invariant Properties

A few people have asked what’s on my desk since I’m posting (irregularly) on unusual topics. The answer is actually pretty boring. My posts are mostly the result of some lateral thinking and being unable to find any answers in google and stack exchange searches.

Scala

I’m taking the 7 week Functional Programming Principles in Scala course at Coursera. I’m also reading the book Programming In Scala. (I have the first edition.) I’ll probably also pick up Scala in Depth and/or Scala in Action.

As a rule I’ve found that it takes about 6 months in a new language to become familiar with the standard libraries and at least two years to become familiar with the ecosystem. (That’s the difference between being familiar with java.util.* etc and being familiar with Spring/EJB3, hibernate, at least one web framework, plus whatever you need for your specific tasks.)

So do I think I’ll be fluent in Scala in two months? No, of course not, but I should be able to work in the language even if I don’t yet have a good familiarity with, e.g., Play or Akka.

Sidenote: Ruby and JRuby are popular in many shops in the Boulder area.

Information Security

I’m also taking the 10 week Information Security and Risk Management in Context course at Coursera. The Coursera class is free but you can also enroll at the University of Washington for a certification program or for graduate level credit.

I’m still on the fence on this class. I’m a techie but have been studying for PMP and CISSP certs to get a broader perspective (but see below). The first week focused on the role of the CISO (C-level executive for information security – think CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO, etc.) and that’s a bit too far from my world. But we’ll see how the next few classes go.

Do Certificates Have Value?

There are two answers to this question. The less important one is that they can get you past the HR gatekeepers. Today the tech job market is extremely hot but at times in the past, and undoubtably at times in the future, there were far more applicants than positions and the HR gatekeepers would use things like certifications to winnow the resumes. The cert wouldn’t get you the job but it might get you the interview.

The more important answer is that studying for a cert forces you to take a broader view. I’ve never used much of what I learned when studying for my Security+ and java certs… but I did use things that I would have never seen unless I had studied for those exams.

Hence studying for the PMP and CISSP exams. I don’t have the practical experience for either cert but I’ve learned a tremendous amount by studying for them. And who knows – I’m still on the fence about getting a CISSP (Assoc) cert. I could have probably passed an earlier revision of the exam but it’s a moving target.

Prep Work For Next Job

EJB3 in Action. I know the Spring framework very well but some sites use EJB3. This should go quickly since I’ve read the first edition of the book and took a 3-day class on EJB 3.1 on the Sun Oracle campus in Broomfield, CO.

PCI DSS specification. These are the security requirements for any system that manages credit card data. I’ve touched on many of them previously. Again this should go quickly (cough) since I’ve already read the specification and I’ll just be refreshing my memory.