I can only talk from what I have seen and done, but in the UK we have a online university called the Open university which is generally well regarded. That is not to say that all employers will provide the same respect as say a MSc from Oxford or Cambridge(Actually a side point, a MSc from Oxford or Cambridge is generally worthless since they will award you one for just staying alive after your BSc), but a lot of managers I know got their MBA's from the Open University so they know its value.

Generally most qualifications especially technical ones really show nothing about once you left university Any attempt to continue your education and extend your skills and knowledge should be valued by your present and future employer. If not you are working for the wrong company.

But still better than Red Tails

It introduces another unknown in the system and can introduce unwanted side affects. We have found software whitelisting is generally more applicable to these sort of systems than traditional AV

LOL

Ok, firstly SCADA and PLC's are two different things. SCADA is the HMI control system and PLC's are the parts that actually talk to the physical devices. While sometimes they are in the same box usually they are totally different devices. Secondly PLC's can be anything from windows PC's to low level simple processors. However they have one overriding concern and that is real time control of the plant hardware. This is why PLC's are hard to secure. Often they have not the power to run encryption algorithms required for security.

But they should not need to. Almost all of them are bespoke running closed simple OS, using proprietary languages. More importantly they should all isolated both behind physical security and network within a DMZ. That's not to say security cannot be improved, however these are not your PC's connected to the internet.

SCADA machines are more problematic Generally they are standard PC's running windows(Often quite an old version of windows). The very generic nature of the hardware and OS is its biggest weakness. As are their users. One of the problems we have encountered is viruses being stuck on PC's via USB sticks brought in from outside. We have even found games installed by bored users. So why not put antivirus software on them you may ask? Well the problem there is finding AV software which does not affect the operation of the SCADA software. Secondly is maintaining updates. To do that is either a manual process(not really feasible) or connect them to a central server or internet. This introduces an attack vector of its own.

STUXNET is always highlighted when these conversations come up, but this is misleading. If reports are to be be believed this was perpetrated by national agencies with all the resources that implies. No system is totally secure in that situation, the best you can hope for is to detect and delay. However most systems will never come under such a coordinated attack. Saying that it has concentrated the PLC industries mind on security, so thats not a bad thing, but we are no where near the Armageddon scenario that such articles seem to hint at

and of course will be an open standard(Sarcasm Alert)

I had the same quandary. I have a panasonic compact which is great,but pants in less than optimal light. I looked at 4/ 3 cameras and was tempted by both sony, panasonic, and olympus offerings. However they are expensive, poor lens choice, and are not really pocketable . In the end you would be better off with something like a sony a35 dslr. Which is comparable price, has a viewfinder but has live view and a bettee selection of lenses

One of the consistent items from the Steve Jobs Biog, was that he kept showing Bil Gates things like the iPad and the iPod and Gates just not getting it. So it does not surprise me

Microsoft over many years have built themselves a straitjacket called windows. They cannot do anything without seeing how it affects their cash cow, without realizing until recently it was strangling them.

I wonder how many other ideas generated from there in-house geniuses they hire every year has been strangled by there short-sightedness

unified automation

You can run OPC-UA over DCOM so you don'y have to throw away your legacy code. You can then evolve your system later

But I too will be so glad when I don't have to run a system over DCOM