Rocky Pufflenuggets

I had to take a test today for a certification that I need for work. Normally, this is a good thing, but the reality of this particular certification exam is that it's 'graded' by the computer and it's not using a very good algorithm for determining if the answer you provided correctly matched the expected answer. For example, do you care about the case of the answer? Do you care about whitespace? In both cases, this vendor's on-line test cared about each of these.

It tells you up-front, and when the question is very specific, that's OK. For example, if the question were about Java, then you could easily say:

Fill in the blank: To make an upper-case copy of a string you would use:

String c = aString.________;

This is easy as there's only one answer that will fit in the blank that will compile and work with regular Java. These are fair questions. But what if the user said toUpperCase and not toUpperCase() - do they get it wrong? Technically, they would because without the () it's not going to work. However, is that really necessary for the developer to get right in order to be certified on a platform? Maybe... maybe not.

But the real problems come into play when they have questions like this:

What does this describe: The native Java interprocess communication system

OK... so is it 'RMI', or is it the java.rmi package, or is it 'Remote Method Invocation'? If the computer is grading this, it needs to be pretty darn smart about it because all are valid answers to the vague question. But in fact, this vendor's online test was just this vague in parts and some answers were just this difficult to answer.

Again, the problem is you get one chance at this, and you don't know how you're doing until it's all over and you get your "grade". Thankfully, I passed just fine, but it was with the knowledge of the way they were grading this exam.

I come from a long line of teachers, and this is a horrible testing process. They need to have the test email an individual and have them look at it with a pair of eyes. That way it's not as important how you say it, as what you say. Then again... this is a crummy vendor, and not the first time I've had exceptions with online certification exams. Probably won't be the last, either.

I was chatting with my friend Smuckley Paddlehurst today and while it's been a long time since we've seen each other, we've started chatting quite a bit recently with his new job where he's able to take in his laptop and connect up to AIM. Anyway, today we were talking about a lot of little things - nothing special, and I realized that friends really are exceptionally precious.

I've known Smuckley for over twenty years, and while there have been lots of times that we haven't lived in the same state it's always been a very comfortable relationship. There's no pressure to stay in touch more. There's no grief if I don't call him on his birthday. He's my friend, and I'm his, and that's enough. We talk, enjoy each other, and when we get the chance, we get together, have a few laughs, and talk about old times. It's great.

I've had friends longer - some since second grade, and yet for one reason or another, it's Smuckley that is the purest friend I've got. There's a lot of baggage with the others - things we said when we were little, expectations... lots of things that I guess are a lot harder to look past. But since I met Smuckley after high school, it seems that all that 'kid stuff' didn't come into play.

It's great to have a friend like Smuckley.

Interesting little update from Apple this morning. The Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0 supposedly fixes the problem I was noticing with the first character typed on the keyboard after a period of inactivity being 'eaten' and not doing what it was meant to do. I saw it as more of an annoyance, but nothing terrible, but I'm glad plenty of people complained and the Apple engineers fixed this bad boy.

It wasn't that bad, but it's great to have it fixed.

Funny thing was... there was no reboot involved. I thought for sure there would be a reboot, but I guess if the update firmware is just targeting a specific subsystem that can be taken offline and updated independently then they can do it without the reboot. Bully for Apple! Slick install.

Well... I've got my home page up and I got WordPress installed and going and now I've got a second to edit my first post and make it a little more interesting.It's been a heck of a day and I know that this is going to be a lot of fun!

For now, I need to go back and clean up a few things, make sure that the site looks OK, is visible from everywhere, no spelling mistakes, all that stuff. Soon enough, I'll be back and posting again.

This is going to be fun.