I passed Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java EE 5 exam

Today I successfully passed Sun Certified Enterprise Architect exam with the result 82%. Actually now this certificate is called Oracle Certified Master, Java EE 5 Enterprise Architect. The exam is the first step in achieving Oracle Certified Ninja title. Now I need to create the project (step 2) and write an essay about it (step 3).

I've been learning for the exam for 3 weeks (excluding the weekends which are supposed to relax with family and friends, get drunk and enjoy downhill riding). Average 2 hours of study per working day.

I used Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java EE Study Guide and WhizLabs SCEA simulator. Some people reports that WhizLabs is easier than real exam. However I disagree since questions presented in both SCEA book and WhizLabs are pretty similar to these I encountered during the exam.

Differences between WhizLabs and real SCEA exam?
• no CORBA-related questions on real exam
• easier security questions on real exam
• less general Object Oriented design questions (these easy ones)

As I expected I'm the best (100%) at "Messaging and Integration" and "Design Patterns" and worst (50%) at "Business Tier Technologies" (since I'm the Spring hacker and don't work with EJBs on regular basis).

Security considerations of a day - printers work for the CIA

• network printers can copy printed documents to their private HDD cache store. Remember that if you want to print naked photos of your girlfriend :)
• forensics can identify the printer and computer equipment that has been used to print the document. Beware the yellow dots. 
• some advanced network printers by default leave SNMP, FTP (sic!) and other interesting ports opened. And some network administrators leave default username and password for network printers.

The best Gnome borders and control elements

To make my Linux desktop shine like a deer's ass in the woods I use Gnome and Gnome-Art. At this moment I find the following combination of the window and control elements the most exciting:

• window border - Gorilla
• control elements - WarmGorilla-GTK2
• icons - Gartoon

Any competitor?

My activity on Java Black Belt JMS exam

I've fixed some questions in JMS exam on Java Black Belt. I'm in the top 5 of the exam contributors now.

Black Belt's JMS exam is quite nice place to remind some details from pure JMS specification. What in lack however is some more specific, implementation-related test. Like ActiveMQ Basics exam. Does anyone want to create one? :)

Topic wildcards patterns in JMS

Assume that you've got the JMS topic named foo.bar.baz.qux .

• pattern * matches single level of topic hierarchy (i.e. foo.*.baz.qux or foo.bar.*.*)
• pattern > matches all levels recursively (i.e. foo.> or >.qux)

Mentoring on Java Black Belt

Java Black Belt provides cool Java-related courses on-line. If you are interested in being Black Belt coach level 2 (i.e. the person who can train other people for money) you need mentor. You also need to be second level coach in order to get your black belt.

If you need Black Belt mentor to help to start your coach career, go ahead and contact me.

Black Belt finally released and I'm the one

After years of explaining why there's no black belt on Java Black Belt, we finally got it. Ladies and gentlemen - black belt has been unlocked. To get your black belt you need to be ninja coach (i.e. level 2 coach). Something like...

And I'm among of the first ones to get it :P Below is the evidence. No mercy!