Recorded: August 21, 2007
Your Hosts: Keith Albright, Rich Niemeier, and Steve Murawski

Show Length: 1:11:58

Our second ‘Special Topics’ episode. We welcome Steve Murawski to the show and discuss the need for a Code of Ethics for the IT Profession. Is something like this needed in our profession and why? We close with our suggestions for hiring ethical employees.

Here is a brief outline:

• Do we need a Code of Ethics?

-Does this problem stem from the psychology of the IT professional?

-Incidents in news related to IT professionals crossing the line

-Compare with other professions

-Have laws/regulations done part of the job (HIPAA, SOX, SB 1386, etc)

-What is crossing the line? If I am to be the information steward, do I not have the right to view ALL information?

-What about personal information (that does not belong in the workplace)?

• Can it be enforced?

-With no formal sanctioning body in place (e.g. Board Of Medicine, Bar Assn.) how can it be done.

-Has anyone ever been stripped of their certifications? MCSE, CCNA, etc.

• What can a company do to ensure their employees act ethically?

-Is an employee manual enough?

-Sign contractual ethics guarantee?

-How far does loyalty go?

Links mentioned in this show:

Too many to mention. Please see show notes for links.

View the full shownotes here.

Listen Now:

Download Here

Recorded: July 31, 2007
Your Hosts: Keith Albright, Rich Niemeier, and Ted Miller
Show Length: 1:29:40

This week we cover a variety of news and other topics; We have a brief discussion on technology vendor salespeople, Instant Messaging to interview job candidates, and a new fiber-optic cable. Ted informs us of the deadly threat lurking in our laser printers. As usual, we end with our website picks and we hope you enjoy.
NOTE: I think we finally nailed the sound quality. Let us know what you think.
Links mentioned in this show:

• Digital Pictures Backup Device
• Best Buy’s Geek Squad Tech Steals Porn
• Order food At Safeco Field from your Nintendo DS Lite
• Seven Ways Tech Vendors Blow The Sale
• Corning’s New Fiber
• E-Waste
• Using Instant Messaging In The Interview Process
• Cisco Adds CCENT Certification
• Secunia Personal Software Inspector
• Laser Printer Particle Health Risk

Other podcasts mentioned in this show:

Technorama

PaulDotCom Security Weekly

See the full show notes here.

Website Picks:

Keith’s Pick: Youlicit.com
Rich’s Pick: Free Church Music
Ted’s Pick: Etsy.com

Download Here

Two days after Rich and I recorded Episode 3 where we discussed whether IT industry certification matter anymore, I found this article in NetworkWorld.  Network World asked the same question to these two IT workforce experts and each took a side on the debate.  It’s interesting that the factor of compensation (which Rich and I never thought to discuss) was an argument for negating certification value.

I’ll be honest; I got excited to see that we were discussing something that NetworkWorld also views as relevant. Hopefully we can keep on top of finding topics like these, and we hope you find them relevant and informative.

NetworkWorld Face-Off: Do Certifications Matter? 

Susan Underhill Says ‘Yes’

David Foote Says ‘No’

Thanks for listening everyone.

Keith

Recorded: April 15, 2007
Your Hosts: Keith Albright and Rich Niemeier
Show Length: 1:37:11

Rich and I discuss whether IT Industry certifications matter anymore. We discuss our own personal experiences in obtaining our own certifications as well as how we viewed them when hiring employees and vendors. Throw in a couple of news items and our website picks and you’ve got yourself a podcast. I apologize if the volume is a little low on this recording. I had planned to put a new PC (by new, I mean a used PIII I bought at a computer show) in place for the recording and load Ubuntu on the old laptop I’ve been using, but the sound card in the new PC was sounding awful. So, I put the old laptop back into the mix….and I couldn’t get Rich’s volume up through the Griffin iMic. (Luckily I hadn’t started loading Ubuntu). I’m working on the setup now and hope to have it golden by our first anniversary show.
Thanks everyone.

Links mentioned in this podcast:

ExtremeTech - Are You A Slob?

Hydrogen Pollution Story

Cloaking WEP

Windows Server Update Service RC1

ProxMox Mail Security Gateway

Pain.NET application

SANS Security Policy Project

Download Here