Between those two ends of the spectrum reside all the books, test engines, flashcards and other products intended to help you prepare.

This past week, however, I ran across one of the most unique study methods I've seen in a while, and I wonder whether the concept can be adapted to more uses. A candidate, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote a very simple Bash script. That script randomly pulls the name of a utility from a list of those you need to know for Linux Professional Institute (LPI) exams, and then accesses the man page for that utility. It takes key items from the man page (freely available in every Linux distribution, as well as online from numerous sites), parses what it finds, and presents it in a quiz format.

For example, one time the candidate would see several of the options that work with the ls command, but not what they do. He would then have to correctly identify what each option does, and check his answers by pressing a key that then revealed only that portion of the man listing for ls. Many iterations later, the same question might appear, only now it would be the description ("Which option with ls will show the index number of each file?"), and he'd have to guess the option (-i).

It wasn't a perfect script by any means -- grammatical errors and other oddities crop up when you're just parsing man pages to get your questions -- but it impressed me immensely. And that fact that the study solution he had created was free opened my eyes to thinking about other implementations.

Correlating Value and Theft
According to family lore, my uncle was once upside-down in an auto loan and unable to figure out any good way to escape it. He was proud of that car he had customized and admired it more than anything else in the world. Sadly, he had simply paid too much for it and had too little income to be able to keep making the payments on it and pay rent at the same time.

After agonizing over the situation for a considerable time, he came up with the only solution he could think of: He parked the car on the street with the windows down and the keys in the ignition.

He knew that someone would steal that car within a matter of minutes, but days actually passed and the car stayed there. Did the world suddenly become moral, he wondered, or were people just not noticing? He moved the keys from the ignition -- where they might have been obscured from view by the steering wheel -- to the driver's seat...and still, his cherry of a car remained where he left it.

He left the trunk open (but disconnected the bulb because he didn't want to run the battery down). The car stayed there.

Finally, it dawned on him: The car that he prized so highly wasn't even considered worth stealing by others.

Now, ask yourself: When is the last time you heard of a threatened braindump prosecution?

Several years ago, it was a big issue and a number of vendors were actively seeking legal action against braindumpers. Microsoft was out to shut down those who engaged in it and other vendors were waving the same flag. Then the talk stopped.

Have all the braindumpers gone away? Has the world become moral? Or is the information in most IT certification exams now attractive only to the one who paid too much for it?

CompTIA Adding Virtual Trainer Certification
On July 1, CompTIA announced that it was adding a module to its Certified Technical Trainer (CTT) certification for virtual classroom trainers.

The CTT+, a vendor-neutral certification for IT trainers, requires passing a proctored exam and creating/submitting a video presentation for grading.

Starting in August, those seeking CTT+ can choose whether they want to be certified with the virtual designation (which will include a recorded online assessment) or just the standard classroom trainer designation.

More information on this new addition to the certification can be found here.

Book of the Week: 'SSL Remote Access VPNs'
Security and virtual private networks (VPNs) go together like Southern-style chicken sandwiches and pickles. Not to be left out of that realm, Cisco markets products like concentrators and routers that are leaders in these technologies.

Jazib Frahim and Qiang Huang's new book, SSL Remote Access VPNs, looks first at the technology and then at these products (once known as WebVPN solutions, they're now known simply as Cisco SSL VPN solutions).

While this book is written as a reference (with great figures and illustrations), the first three chapters of it -- those that avoid specific products -- make an excellent study guide for anyone pursuing a security certification. The new Security+ exam from CompTIA, for example, expects you to have a good handle on the concepts discussed in the first 80 pages of this book.

Whether you're studying for a certification exam, implementing Cisco products or just looking for a great book that will keep your knowledge current, you'll find SSL Remote Access VPNs a great investment for your library.