Author: Andrew Huey

progress

I finally got through the security chapter in the 70-536 book.  And I got through chapters 13, 14, and 15 today too, so now I’ve just got one more chapter to go.  After that, I’m going to try getting through a practice test and see how I do on that. 

I have a feeling that I’m probably not going to do well on the practice test.  If that happens, I’ve got a few ideas lined up for reviewing the material and trying to get a deeper understanding.  First, I have access to some online training material from Element K through my ACM membership.  I’ll probably try working through some relevant material there and see if that helps.  Second, I’ve been compiling a list of references to coverage of exam topics in other books I own.  I will probably use that as a guide to do some supplemental reading.

crypto trouble

I just finished reading the Cryptography section of the 70-536 book.  While I do understand, conceptually, how all this stuff works, I have to say that I may be in trouble on the test if I really need to memorize the difference between, say, RIPEMD160 and HMACSHA1.  I can’t think of any reasonable mnemonic device that will help me remember that RIPEMD160 is a non-keyed hashing algorithm, and HMACSHA1 is a keyed hashing algorithm.

Scottish people are cool

I just realized that I’ve been paying a lot of attention to Scottish people lately.

I don’t have anything useful or interesting to say about this.  Just, yay for Scottish people.

.Net code access security

I got through two-thirds of chapter 11 in my 70-536 book today. This chapter covers application security, which is a pretty big topic, and one with which I’m not that familiar. Looking around for other reading material, I realized that Juval Lowy’s book Programming .NET Components has a chapter on security. I bought this book for the advanced .Net class I took at NYU last year, but never read far enough into it to get to that chapter. That seems to be the only book I have that covers application security though.

Looking around on the web, I see that Microsoft is dropping CAS in .Net 4.0, so I guess I’m learning this stuff just in time for it be replaced with something else. This blog entry at the .Net security blog has a bit more info on the .Net 4.0 CAS situation.

Big books


Big books
Originally uploaded by andyhuey

I just got the last of the three books that I need to read to get my “Web Developer on Visual Studio 2005” certification. I bought the first book at Borders, new, but the other two I got used from Amazon, really cheap. And they both still have the 15% off exam coupons in them, so I’m actually saving more money on the exams than I paid for the books. So, good deal, assuming I follow through and take all three tests!

Catcher in the Rye

I finished reading Catcher in the Rye last night. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get around to reading this book. There are a lot of other great books that I’ve never gotten around to reading. I think next up is maybe Catch-22 or For Whom the Bell Tolls. I’ve actually never read any Hemingway, and it seems like I should. I vaguely recall having a conversation with my father about a particular Hemingway novel that he liked. I can’t remember which one it was though.

Well, now that I’ve read Catcher in the Rye, and Salinger’s short story Laughing Man (which I read a year or two back), I should probably re-watch the Ghost in the Shell: SAC anime series. There are various references to Salinger throughout the series, and I think the series as a whole might make a little more sense, having read a bit of Salinger.

progress

Over the course of this week, I managed to get through chapters 6 through 9, and most of chapter 10, in the 70-536 book. I’d like to have finished chapter 10 today, but I’m feeling a little under the weather, and I can’t really concentrate on anything too complex right now. So maybe tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep.

I’m hoping I can get through the remaining chapters (11 through 16) next week, then take the exam on Saturday April 3, maybe.

Visual Studio 2010 pricing

This blog entry from Microsoft has all the details about VS 2010 pricing. As usual, it’s more confusing than it needs to be. I may actually opt to pay for the $299 upgrade from VS 2008 Standard, assuming my free copy of VS 2008 Std is eligible for the upgrade price, which I can’t really be sure of.

I don’t think I’ll really need a copy of VS 2010 right away. I think I’m actually going to do the “Web Developer on Visual Studio 2005” certification path first, so that will keep me busy for a while. Then, I’ll take the upgrade exam for VS 2008, then I’ll think about VS 2010. So, no rush. I’ve actually got quite a bit to learn before I catch up with all the current .Net stuff.

more snags with my .Net studying

I hit another little snag in my attempt to get through the self-study material for Microsoft’s exam 70-536. I’ve gotten to the section on creating a Windows service, but that only works with Visual Studio Professional, and I’ve only got Standard on both my desktop & laptop. I have a license for VS 2008 Pro, from the Dreamspark account I had last year, when I was taking a class at NYU, but I need to press the ISO to DVD, then do the install (which will hopefully work OK over VS 2008 Std), then re-apply any VS 2008 patches.

This all got me to thinking about VS 2010, and what the status was on that. I haven’t really been bothering to keep up with that lately. Turns out it’s scheduled for release April 12. If I want to buy an upgrade, it looks like it’ll cost $549, based on this page. This article, though, indicates that it might be possible to buy an upgrade for $299. I’ve managed to avoid spending money on Visual Studio so far, getting my licenses through either Dreamspark or at launch events, so we’ll see if I can wrangle a free VS 2010 license one way or another.