[john_jcb]

When I was doing design engineering for the Navy I was expert in Fortran. Dating myself. I drifted away from pure engineering and ended up in management.

I remember one of the fun projects I worked on was to estimate how much flexure that there would be in a missile that is made up of removable sections as it navigated toward the target using finite element analysis. Dating myself again I remember stowing away box after box of punch cards each night when it was time to go home. Some of the best days of my career.

 

[MadMax]

Fun and study atm (Engineering IT&T).

Uni: C, Java, SQL, COBOL, Machine Code, Prolog
Fun: Perl, php

 

[NathanJM]

Quote:

Originally posted by neil What are some of the tasks you are trying to accomplish in regards to information security? Since you mentioned Linux, have you delved into ipchains/iptables? Or have you ever used PortSentry from Psionic Software?

Basically my goal is CISSP and then work either in consulting or some simlar role w/in a larger company. I want to do security because really it requires knowledge of everthing: programming, networking, microcomputer, business policy, etc.

Interested in / have been studying security topics such as internal policy development, cryptology (PKI, algorithms, etc), access control mechanisms, network security (IDS, firewalls, AV, securing *nix/NT).

As far as firewalls go, I've looked briefly at ipchains etc, but havent really played around with it all that closely. My last job was with a school district and really ipchains would not have been a real good solution for the needs of the network. (ended up going w/ PIX). Ipchains, as I understand it, is just a packet-filtering firewall package with simple allow/deny according the specifications in a config file (assuming support has been compiled into the kernel). While that is nice, there are ocassions when proxy services are preferred, more specific filtering criteria needed, etc, and I think ipchains is probably better suited for smaller networks / personal firewalling.

PortSentry I am not familiar with.

 

[aeberbach]

Just embedded C for me. My last C++ was over five years ago and I would have some trouble switching back now, and probably even more trouble landing a job with C++ as primary language.

 

[fredpb]

I have programmed in probably dozens of languages, including the many variations of assembler.

I did code for a living for a while. I have programmed from high level languages to doing assembler code with cpu chip simulators.

Not just coding though. That was the end result of learning things and then designing systems. A process would consist of
research, high level design, low level design, coding, then test.
That was just my job. There were marketing people and such who "created" a need.

Types of coding? Communications, operating systems, test systems, applications, big machines, pc's.

Then I had to stop working.

Miss it a bit.

I used to think that programmers who could REALLY program would be composers in earlier centuries.

 

[neil]

Quote:

Originally posted by bubbaj Basically, I help junk mailers save money.

Heheheh. Man, if you've been doing it for 29 years, we've got to get you in here. Code circles around us and have fun in the process!

 

[neil]

Quote:

Originally posted by NathanJM I think ipchains is probably better suited for smaller networks / personal firewalling.

Indeed -- ipchains/iptables is something that an entry level person can utilize; however, you can take a box with a few NICs, boot off a chip and have a Linux distro work nearly as well as those several-thousand-dollar firewall appliances out there. Make no mistake about it.

I'm a CLI guy myself, but when it comes to firewalls, the GUI interface makes me feel more comfortable (cringe). It's true though .. the thought of locking myself out of a network and having to drive up to the co-lo facilities because I read the CLI wrong is a nightmare.

 

[neil]

Java -- I've always really wanted to get in to it, but never really did. The whole MVC method of programming has caught my eye for some of the bigger web-apps we're building here because they're involving more people (in the development process).

What I'm really looking forward to doing is installing Tomcat and Struts and tooling around. Conceptually, it all seems to make so much sense.. I want to hop the fence and start making all of our server-side web-apps in Java but in all honesty, that won't happen for a while.

Any really good resources for JSP and Servlets that will help me get a really swingin' kick start?

 

[zzz]

still a student and going to be one for a while too. interned at a bunch of places like schemasoft -- small contractors company nobody knows but whose code everyone uses

, nvidia, and ms. ultimately all I worked on has been boring and useless but oh well.

frankly, I don't think I'm going to pursue computer science much further. I'll get my pure math degree and then will maybe do a master's in EE. time will tell.

 

[Duncan]

I'd like to learn C++ but I don't have the time, or the cash to put my thoughts into reality

I used to be able to program quite proficiently in machine code 15 years ago...

Completely different ballgame though