I've been studying for the CCNA for some time now and, to be honest, I'm about to give up on it. Have read the Cisco cert books ( from Cisco Press ) twice, attended a boot camp and watched the CCENT / CCNA training series from CBT Nuggets twice as well. Run all Cisco gear on my home network and have a few routers and switches to play with for test setups as well. In addition, I also play with Cisco's Simulation software and have a few practice tests I can take. I can build a router and or switch from scratch and understand the core concepts pretty well. I also have the CCNP level cert books on my desk so I'll peruse those eventually for the concepts I'm interested in. ( BGP, VRF and VPN mostly )

My test is already paid for ( part of the boot camp fee ) but it's likely I won't even bother to take it.

This is due to a number of reasons.

First, it will do absolutely zero for me where I work ( and have worked for 15+ years ). My pay will not increase one dime.

Second, CCNA has to be renewed every three years. CCNP is either two or three years and CCIE is every two. I really have no desire to go through all this all over again a few years from now relearning intricate details of routing protocols most don't use any longer. ( Rip ? Really ? )

Third. The practice tests are full of pointless questions that only the most OCD level folks will care about. No, I don't recall what year 802.11b became a standard and neither does anyone else :/ Unless you teach this stuff for a living, it's unlikely you can recite from memory what the default STP bridge ID's are or the joys of subnetting by hand.

My thoughts are the only way you'll pass the current Cisco Certification exams is if you walk, talk, eat, sleep and breathe this stuff. If you LIVE for deciphering Wireshark traffic or can't wait to break down some addresses into binary so you can manually summarize the routes, then you'll do well with Cisco Certifications :D

I've come to realize that you really have to like this stuff to take it to it's highest levels. Since I don't get excited about it and only do this sort of work because it pays the bills, I just can't justify the cost and stress of obtaining ( and keeping current ) certs I may never really need.

YMMV of course.

You do need the Class III license to sell, manufacture or import any Class III device. ( Machine Guns, Short Barreled Rifles, Suppressors, etc )

Civilians are not allowed to own machine guns manufactured after 1986, but are allowed to own any manufactured prior. They are, however, prohibitively expensive for anything decent and, like all other Class III devices, have special rules about who has access to them, where you can take them, prior approval from the BATFE if you travel across State lines, etc.

If you own a Class III device ( or several ) then they have to be kept in a safe or locked unit that only YOU have access to. A smaller locked safe within a larger one would work and allow others in the home to access the main safe, but not the smaller one containing the special devices. Unless the others in the home are also listed as users, they are not allowed access to the device at all. A BATFE gotcha if you're not aware of it.

Considering how much ammo costs these days, unless you have a Government budget, machine guns are prohibitively expensive to operate. I'd rather have the semi-auto variants myself. Far easier to control. If you need a dozen shots to hit your target, you need to work on your marksmanship I think.

The $500 Tax is for Dealers, Importers or Manufacturers.

Individual ownership Tax Stamps are $200 for most Class III devices. Gets attached and sent to you via a Form-4 from the BATFE. Devices that are registered to individual users need to have a copy of the Form-4 on hand at all times if the device is in use or in transport. I don't know the rules when it comes to Corporations, Agencies and the like.

I've never been harassed by any LE demanding to see the form ( don't show it to just anyone who demands to see it as it contains your name, address ( where the device lives ) and other personal info on it ) but I have been approached by them out of curiosity about the device itself.

Other categories of things civilians can own with the right paperwork and stamps include AOW ( All other weapons, such as short barreled shotguns ) and Destructive Devices ( Explosives, mini-guns, and the like ). Lots of fun paperwork to deal with. Subject to both State and Federal laws. ( Means even though the devices are legal at the Federal level, your State may not allow them )

If an AI decides to wipe us out, at least we'll quit killing each other and focus on the AI :D

Maybe the best way to end human vs human warfare is to give us something else ( bigger threat ) to shoot at.

In all likelihood though, the AI will simply view us as we do the other animal species on the planet. It'll make a note that we live here, then wipe out a city to build a server farm or something. lol

Chuckle.

Yeah, the speed limit for I-45 North or South bound out of Houston is pretty much 65mph. ( Thank the local lobbyists who convinced our less than intelligent legislature that high speed traffic is the big reason for Houston Area's air pollution problem. Is why speed limit jumps the moment you are two counties outside of Harris County :| Can't possibly be all the petro-chemical plants or the high humidity or wind patterns here . . . no no. . . it's the cars ! lol )

Doesn't matter though, no one drives 65. In fact, if you're doing less than 75 you're probably being subject to all sorts of fun road rage behaviors. ( Tailgating, folks will swerve to cut you off, jump in front of you and slam on their brakes, various gestures, folks wave guns and occasionally shoot at each other, etc. etc. ) Police have people pulled over constantly. They'll no sooner finish up one ticket, kick the radar on and be chasing down the next less than a minute later.

I can only hope self drive cars become a reality before I retire. Oy.

"As I was coming up to the crest of an overpass, everyone was doing the standard "we're all braking because there's a hill" thing that Texans do"

This is due to the fact that most Texans know that the favorite hiding spot for both local and State police are just on the other side of that hill you refer to. Zoom over it doing the usual 80mph and, if you listen closely, you can almost hear the laser / radar giggle as the officer set speed lock lets them know some more revenue is coming their way :D

It may also be to due an attention span issue or the usual rubbernecking that goes on when ANYTHING is parked on the shoulder. Or because it's raining, or not. Or because it's Monday. lol

Not to mention hand-holding a crazy zoom on a high resolution sensor would be nigh impossible without either a tripod or super-nova light levels allowing insane shutter speeds. :|

Smaller sensors also equate to higher noise levels, thus are they limited to working in lower ISO levels than the larger sensors. Fast lenses ( f2.8 and below ) only go so far. You'll need low noise high ISO capability for any less than optimal light stuff you plan on doing. ( Read that, just about anything outside of a studio )

While the point and shoots -can- shoot at higher ISO's, this is where the larger format sensors start to shine. While not all systems are equal, I can pretty much guarantee the P&S isn't even playing the same game when comparing a high ISO shot against a pro-dslr. Not even close. ( ISO 3200 and even 6400 on a Nikon D4s is pretty damned impressive noise wise )

Are DSLR's the best ? Of course not. They're big, they're heavy, expensive and a pain in the ass to carry around. If you're shooting with the big super-teles ( say 500mm and above ) then you'll need a motorcade just to haul all the gear around to support it.

They are, however, still superior to the P&S systems when it comes down to quality of the final image. Which, in the end, is really what matters.

If driving 75 vs 65 saves me 59 seconds every 8 miles, I can calculate my 49 mile one way drive to work as follows:
( assuming a five day workweek and ignoring vacation / holiday / sick days for a total of 261 working days in 2014 )

( 49 miles divided by 8 gives me 6.125 as my distance multiplier. Multiply 59 seconds with 6.125 to get one way figures )
361.37 seconds saved one way

( now double it for round trip figures )
722.75 seconds saved round-trip per day

( multiply by 261 for yearly figures )
188637.75 seconds saved per year

Assuming I've done the math right ( no guarantees ), this comes out to 52.39 hours per year that I don't have to spend on the road by
increasing my speed by 10mph. That's pretty significant actually. For fun, calculate your hourly compensation and multiply it by the hours saved to put a personal $ figure on it.

For folks who drive far less to work, then perhaps the numbers don't work out for you like mine do. Yes, I could move if I wanted to add an extra zero to the end of the price of a home ( won't even discuss taxes and insurance by doing so ) but I would rather retire early I think.

Too many US drivers have multiple ongoing distractions to even be allowed on the roads at all.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see 75mph+ speed limits. I just know the freeways are full of folks who consider driving as a secondary activity to talking, texting, watching the game, rubbernecking anything on the side of the road, etc. These people make driving at any speed stressful, annoying, and dangerous.

When we get self-drive cars deployed as the majority of vehicular traffic on the roads, go for it. Crank it up to whatever the auto-drive systems can handle. However, as long as we have to account for the Idiot Variable ( The Human Driver ), we probably shouldn't get too crazy with the upper limits. ( and should enforce minimum ones while we're at it )

For the old farts who knew the world prior to it being online 24/7, the solution is an easy one.

Get rid of the damn phone.

Get a basic phone you can pull the battery out of if you must have one to travel with, but drop the surveillance device. . . erm . . smartphone.

Until the folks who create them can get the permissions models right and truly give the end user the ability to lock them down, don't use them.

I have an old Iphone 4. It's served its purpose pretty well but every time we turn around now you hear nothing but how App X is doing something it shouldn't be. How App y is accessing and transmitting everything it can learn about you.

Want to see something fun ? Fire up a sniffer setup to watch all the wireless traffic on your network, then boot your phone and not just how many sites your phone talks with. Then note how the majority of that traffic is encrypted so you'll have quite the hard time figuring out just what is being sent out.

I've been kicking around the idea of upgrading my phone but recently, I've been tossing around the idea of just getting rid of the smartphone thing com

A few things to consider:

1) The vehicle cannot be fugly. Why is it the majority of electric and / or hybrids fall into this category ? Is it intentional ?
2) The price has to be reasonable before folks will ever take them seriously. ( Consider the median income. $80k cars are laughable to most )
3) Refueling infrastructure needs to be in place to support it.

If you can't make a car aesthetically pleasing, the specs on it will be irrelevant as no one will want one. Granted,
some folks drive around in some of the worst looking vehicles in existence, but if you want to sell a lot of them, you
need to understand performance is only part of the equation.

While a small minority have the ability to outright purchase a high end model or two, I'm not spending $60k+ on a vehicle.
They tend to devalue far too quickly, in my opinion, to pour that kind of money into something that will be worth about half
its purchase price a few years down the road. I have better things I can spend money on I think.

Most of us will be long dead and buried before the infrastructure is in place to support hydrogen based systems.

I know squat about cellular, but I'm guessing some sort of authentication system is in place to allow mobile units from a particular carrier to connect to a tower from the same carrier and only those towers ? ( ignoring roaming for the moment )

Would it be possible to ' fingerprint ' all of the carriers towers and push that information to a database kept on the phone ? I wouldn't think such a database would be all that big considering any given carrier has a few thousand towers at best. During the handshake process, the phone would query tower info and run it through some sort of hash algorithm and if it doesn't match, it doesn't connect. Or at the very least, it tells you it doesn't match.

Potential issues would then be roaming status on your phone and the Government, under the guise of terrorism and protecting the children clauses, getting the carriers to add tower authentication signatures for their double-naught-spy systems.

Chuckle. Now you're really talking about a tiny minority :D

"I use adblock but I only use it on sites that have way too much advertising."

So . . . . you're a part time freeloader ?

1) Inundate the Internet with so many Ads that folks resort to third party solutions ( Adblock, NoScript, Ghostery, etc ) to retain their sanity
2) Charge users a subscription fee to do exactly the same thing as #1
3) Make sure to guilt trip those who dare use any categories of product mentioned in #1
4) Profit ( give websites pocket change while tracking users at the same time )

I have everything in #1 active at all times since ads are transmission vectors for all sorts of nastiness. If your website comes with a $$$$ backed guarantee the ads you're serving will never become compromised and infect my system, then I'll consider unblocking your site. Until then, that's just how it is. Figure out another revenue source.

Our outrage at Big Corp is pretty irrelevant. The minority who understands the problem can protest and complain all we like. Won't make any difference. Similar to the gaming industry. Those in the know don't buy games on launch day ( or pre-order ) because we know there is a good chance it will be completely borked for a while until the patches get issued and problems resolved. The companies don't care though, because they have armies of the gullible standing by that are more than willing to hand them their money on launch day.

The ONLY way this gets fixed is when it starts impacting Big Corps bottom line. Once they begin losing enough money due to eroding trust, only then will they bother to do anything about it. Don't expect to see any Earth Shattering changes until that day happens.