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I took a brief vacation over the last two weeks, taking days here and there to fit around a range of family events and numerous trips to the outside world. I thought, rather foolishly, that by taking individual days that I'd be able to keep on top of the email, requests and other jobs that take a little time each day, but don't make up the bulk of my typical daily workload.

Unfortunately it's taken me the best part of a week afterwards to go through all the non-urgent emails I hadn't covered and make a new list of things that need to be done. At one point, there were so many, topics I realized that I'd have to build a list of things to do in order to build the final todo list.

I'm a CISSP, I used to be a CCNA, and soon I'll have the GIAC-GSNA (System and Network Auditor) certification.  In each case, I learned a lot in the process of becoming certified; the CCNA filled in some lower level networking knowledge gaps, the CISSP broadened my knowledge of security and forced  me to learn about encryption, and the GSNA is giving me a better understanding of the role of auditing in security. As trite as it might sound, I believe you get as much out of any certification process as you put in.

That being said, there are a lot of certificates out there that don't take much effort to get, and are worth exactly the effort you expended to get them:  not much.  Which is why some members of the certification industry are pushing for standardization; they want to know that each certification program meets with minimum requirements and that everyone is testing in the same way.  The theory is by standardizing the testing process it would make all certifications worth more.  I'm more concerned that it would make it easier for 'cram session' companies more able to standardize their own training, which is one of the main issues that the testing companies are trying to avoid.  Cramming to pass a test rather than than learning and understanding the subject matter lowers the value of the certificate for everyone.

Yes, we have no IT Blogwatch, in which a bunch of top bananas' heads roll. Not to mention Weebl and Bob getting the electric mails...

Todd R. Weiss fills us in:

As a federal review into stock options irregularities continues,

...Read more

I've seen a number of conferences over the past couple of years, and consequently I have good opportunity to look back and compare and contrast them.  So while you're making your conference list and checking it twice this year, here's my two bits on what's been good and bad lately.  We're in a nice market these days, because a tight couple of years have weeded out the losers, and most of what we have to pick from are winners.

Storage Conferences -

Storage Networking World

The best place to be to get highly technical, and expand your skillset.  The high cost to vendors keeps the number of vendors smaller, which provides good face time, but does limit some exposure to other vendors who might not be willing to pay the high price.  But the high vendor cost makes this a very nice conference for the attendees (think great food, big name keynotes, lots of sessions, and lots of equipment).

Are CIOs getting too old? Are they too concerned with the bottom line, or their expanding waistbands, to keep up with the newest technology? Gartner analyst Gene Hall says, "The number of CIOs leaving their jobs doubled this year -- that's right it doubled." Will the twentysomethings bring a new perspective to the enterprise?

I'm always fascinated when someone thinks that middle-agers aren't capable of grasping new technologies.  And I'm even more fascinated by the workings of the corporate world.  And this CW article has a little bit of both.

According to the article, Gartner analytists seem to think that middle-agers are too focused on the bottom line and not focused enough on using IT to drive growth.  That may be the case, but it seems like a case of those who conform end up being slaughtered.

In this week's episode, Computerworld's National Correspondent Rob Mitchell discusses IT Architect certifications. Also, Computerworld Associate Editor Preston Gralla gives the low-down on Windows Vista networking.

Duration: 9 minutes

Related News and opinion:

• Robert Mitchell: Forget the MCSE, IT architect certification might be the next big thing – if you can make the grade
...Read more

Mike Rothman, of Security-Incite fame, is irascible and irritating , but if you ask him his opinion, he'll give it to you without sugar coating.  He speaks his mind freely, which has been one of the many things I respect about him.  He doesn't hold back, calls things as he sees them and is willing to take the hit when he's wrong.  And all of these are things that got him in trouble with his editors at NetworkWorld.

Rick Davidson, CIO Manpower Inc., shared his Lesson in Leadership with Computerworld.

The lesson: You need a high level of personal integrity. As you move higher up in the organization, your actions gain more meaning and impact, so you need to be true to your core, which is shaped by your values, upbringing and business experiences. You’ve got to stick to that core, and when you don’t, you can get negative or undesirable outcomes.

Bill Spooner, CIO Sharp HealthCare, shared his Lesson in Leadership with Computerworld.

The lesson: The importance of employee motivation. You’ve got to do everything you can to make your employees proud to work for you and proud of what they’re doing. They need to sense the importance of what they’re doing.

Your thoughts?

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Related Blogs:

  •  Lesson: Push decisions down into the organization

David Rice, CIO Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc., shared his Lesson in Leadership with Computerworld.

The lesson: It’s important to listen to a wide variety of people, but ultimately you have to listen to your own thoughts and feelings as to what’s the right thing to do. Sometimes there’s such a cacophony of voices, and sooner or later, you have to bring the curtain down on those voices and decide for yourself the best thing to do. Otherwise, you end up with a form of cognitive dissonance. Anyone in a leadership position who thinks that someone sooner or later will present them with a golden key probably shouldn’t be in that leadership position. You have to be willing and able to take all the input, synthesize it and decide for yourself the right thing to do, even if what you think is different from all the input you’ve got. Ultimately, it’s what you’re being paid to do.

Bette Walker, CIO Delphi Corp. shared her Lesson in Leadership with Computerworld.

The lesson: It takes a long time to get a change agenda understood in a global organization. Say you want to change a project management standard and apply it consistently across the globe. It takes an average of nine months of consistent communication before the organization starts to understand and embrace it.

Many times, when I’ve started on a change agenda, I’m up to agenda item No. 4 and the organization is really just starting to internalize item No. 1.

John Dick, CIO Regions Financial Corp., shared his Lesson in Leadership with Computerworld.

The lesson: It’s important to push decisions down into the organization. Ninety percent of the time, people know what the right answer is, but they may not have the confidence — particularly when they’re junior-level — to make the call. Having decisions made lower in the organization provides a more powerful organization.

Your thoughts?

There's an interesting piece on the 10 Programming Languages You Should Learn Right Now.

The article compares the number of available jobs against the different programming languages. There's an interesting mix here, and four of those quoted are directly open source, including the big three (Perl, PHP and Python) and of course Ruby.

My only criticism of the article is that it quotes AJAX as a language (it isn't, it's a technology, and you can do AJAX with Javascript and just about any backend language you like); and Ruby on Rails is a web environment for Ruby, and probably shouldn't be considered as a different entity (they both get the same ranking).

In the DC area, where I live, I'm aware of three bloggers who lost jobs this year because of their blogs. The most recent incident happened this month.

This is how that blogger's job ended:  A company VP called her into an office.  On the VP’s desk were two folders with printed versions of her blog. 

The most incriminating evidence they could find was the fact that on occasion I did blog while I was at work. This was the reason given to me to explain why I had to resign. I stepped up to the plate and I admitted that I should never have blogged on the company dime. Honestly, I never thought it was a problem because the employee handbook stated that we were allowed to use the computers for limited personal use, and everyone else in the office did so at their own discretion. I didn’t think it would be a big deal if I used my personal computer time to write in a blog every now and then when things were slow, as opposed to say, playing solitaire or shopping like some of the other employees did.