security, encryption, and healthcare

Tue Feb 27 13:16:15 MST 2007

On 2/27/07, Josh Coffman <josh_coffman at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Excellent, Josh!
> Guessing my Math B.S. doesn't get me anywhere, and I'd understand that.
> It's just a B.S.; and I was too tired of being poor to accept the masters program offer. d'oh!
> Sounds like some other certifications would be helpful. Personally, I don't think I have the time. :(

  It is a telling sign that a B.S. no longer gets you anywhere...

>
> So Healthcare is growing, but how does that affect IT?

  Well, where the money goes, IT goes... but that is not necessarily
going to change things for IT people.  I would think that some
background in healthcare would be marketable, but health agencies
manage things in the same way as any other type of organization and IT
people typically arent directly involved in the administration.  One
thing I have found is that managers will sometimes view domain
specific knowledge negatively, because it is threatening to their
position.  Typically managers want highly technical people who are
just simply going to fulfill technical requests and don't have the
possibility of getting involved with the actual administration of the
particular business.

> I think it will become a bubble, and a big one...
> The large, aging sectors of our society will create an increased demand for health services. (Also, seems
> like so many people of various ages have 2-3 prescriptions for misc things.)

  so they say, but the problem is that the younger working people are
going to pay for it.  Health 'insurance' is not really insurance in
the classical sense, its a financial scheme that promotes the sale of
certain types of services, and allows for creative payment structures.
 Im not really sure why we have any more of an 'aging population' than
we have ever had( did the older generation have less kids? ).  It
always seems like healthcare hooplah to me.  Its not hard to figure
out why the Healthcare industry wants to promote this future of
millions of old people hooked up to expensive devices and taking
costly medications.  These are the types of issues that prohibit
national health care plans...  jmz

>
> I have some dreams of what I'd like to do with my career. Using some math skill and coding skills to provide security services
> to a coming Healthcare bubble could be the vehicle for me to achieve some dreams; and hopefully land safely afterwards.
>
> One of those dreams is not being dependent on Windows/MS technology for my career, and still earning the same or better income.
>
> -j
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Joshua Zeidner <jjzeidner at gmail.com>
> To: Main PLUG discussion list <plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 12:08:20 PM
> Subject: Re: security, encryption, and healthcare
>
>   Healthcare is definately growing... I would guess it will probably
> be the next bubble sector, if we have another bubble.  You can take a
> look at the Dow Jones World Developed Health Care Index:
>
>   http://finance.google.com/finance?q=INDEXDJX%3A.W3HCR
>
>   At a certain level, money and investment simply follow these growth
> curves in the various securities, futures, and stock markets,
> regardless of whether these companies are actually providing a value
> or not.  All too often the financial projections diverge from the
> worlds of regulation and policy making( and are often at odds with one
> another  ).  And given the problems in the medical and pharma worlds,
> this is certainly the case.  But that has been the character of our
> country since the 70s... will things change?  who knows!
>
>   As for Cryptography, and anything security related... if you do plan
> on operating in this area it acts a bit differently than being a
> corporate code jockey.  You need academic credentials, and a history
> of publication to be taken seriously.  If you are a self-appointed
> math genius, this will not get you very far.  You need to be able to
> convince large groups and HR departments that you have a serious and
> quantifiable background in these disciplines.  Just 'getting into'
> this field is not possible without a commitment to school or perhaps
> military.
>
>   this activity of jumping onto the next 'hot technology' is really
> not going to be a very profitable game in coming years.  The Ruby
> people I find are already jumping ship, now that every person who owns
> a laptop has become a Ruby programmer and they can no longer charge
> high rates.  Time to rewrite the resume!  "I think I'll make myself a
> Python expert this time".  The most important thing to watch is labor
> regulations( both foreign and domestic ), if the attitude at DOL
> changes, then a skills investment may make sense.  Right now, our
> policies do not favor domestic engineers on the middle level pay
> scale.  And so it goes...
>
>   Unfortunately there are no good organization that really track these
> kinds of trends for American engineers.  Why?  I'll tell you why.
> Because there is a large group of people here  in this country who
> ended up in this field who had no investment in training or
> credentials.  So naturally, they oppose any kind of opinions which
> would suggest that to be considered an engineer one must have a degree
> or some level of accreditation.  These are the types who say... "some
> of the best people I know have no degree at all".  Some of the most
> arrogant and self-serving people I know have no degree and insist,
> despite the fact that they have little ability to work with a larger
> community of people, that they are much more talented than %95 of
> people working as software developers.  They are convinced they are
> going to be the next Marc Andreeson or something.  Still though, some
> disciplines are totally off limits to code honchos, and cryptography
> and security have historically been one of them.
>
>   In general though, the trend has been towards a cheaping of all
> scientific disciplines.  Instead of computer scientists, we have
> coders.
>
>   -jmz
>
>
> ps. for a good rundown of the problems with DOL and engineering check
> out Norm Matloff or The Programmers Guild:
> http://www.programmersguild.org/
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2/27/07, Josh Coffman <josh_coffman at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> >     I'm getting the feeling there is some momentum building in a couple IT sector: Security/Cryptography & Healthcare. I read a recent article that Red Hat is getting into Healthcare. I have a friend whose primary job is application support in the Healthcare industry. Security is always a concern in the windows world, and I have a Novell friend who's been telling me the biggest buzz he hears is Security (& healthcare).
> >
> >    I like to be ahead of the curve when possible... Anyone know any good resources for those sectors? I'm more interested in the Security/Encryption arena because it plays right into my Math strengths. (And it should play a part in the healthcare arena)
> >
> > TIA,
> > -j
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
> --
> .0000. communication.
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>
> JOSHUA M. ZEIDNER
> IT Consultant
>
> ( 602 ) 490 8006
> jjzeidner at gmail.com
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