Friday, May 16, 2003

Passed Security+

And I survived a Dave Shaw course!

This has been a fun week! Dave has been teaching other MCTs about about Security, under the guise of the MOC course 2810 (and 2830, and 2800). Dave Shaw (brought in from the US at great expense), has made it a fascinating week.

Security is, as we all know, as much about people and process as about technology. So many questions about security are answered by the simple 'what ever our agreed Policy says' - it saves so much arguing later on. Dave illustrated this very well.

The best thing was passing the CompTIA Security+ exam last night. It was not cheap £166) to take the exam, but I was pleased to have passed. The exam was straightforward, although some questions were lousy (IMHO). I'd have been given a hard time by my work colleagues had I failed, so passing was even better! The exam requires a lot of rote memorisation (what post is XXX service on) as well as the Security+ nomenclature. See my security web site more more help.

Tonight, we took Dave to a local restaurant tonight. Manzanos, in Cookham Rise. What a meal! My asparagras was perfectly cooked, and the steak was very good and his attempt at a Bernaise sauce was amazing - turns out he had no tarragon, so he improvised!. The flan con nata was out of this world. I will regret it when I test my blood next but wow! Dave's Paella (or however you spell it) looked fantastic. We tasted the squid (calamari) and it was incredibly tender. Apparently the secret of calamari is to soak them in milk for 6 hours before cooking. Learn something every day!