If you search for my name in quotation marks, you will quickly realise that I’m an advocate of open-source software and Linux. Just look through my site. Since my background is business-oriented, my choice of software or systems ultimately depends not on whether it is open source, but on what provides the best fit, including ROI and total cost of ownership. With that said, I thought I would share an ironic situation.

I’ve never believed that certifications necessarily increase a person’s qualifications or skills, but I do think they provide a form of assurance for employers: a candidate with a CCNA, for example, should know something about routing and at least a few IOS commands. For that reason, I decided to join a friend in pursuing an MCSE on Windows Server 2003. In light of the paragraph above, even I could question why. Luckily, I didn’t mind working with Active Directory or Server 2003, so I couldn’t complain. With that background, here is the irony:

After a little studying, and Ian can testify to how little, I scheduled my exam for the morning of my international flight back to the United States, which also happened to be September 11. At 9:00, after a restless night, I arrived at the testing centre, checked in, and began the exam.

Things went well. Most questions were straightforward, although some were a little strange. About 70% of the way through, I finished a simulation and clicked Next. Norton AntiVirus appeared with a warning in Chinese that a file had been flagged. I went to find the support staff. A staff member came in, clicked a few buttons, cleared the warning, and left.

I answered another question, pressed Next, and the warning appeared again. I went back out; staff returned, closed the box, and restarted the computer. Meanwhile, I imagined having to retake the exam. My final university exam had once been lost in the mail, so my thoughts were not especially optimistic.

The exam returned and I started again. I answered a question, pressed Next, and the antivirus box appeared once more. Another staff member came in and disabled either the notifications or the antivirus itself. I was then able to finish the exam.

That is the story of how my Windows testing computer encountered a virus warning while I was taking an exam for my MCSE. Irony defined.

By the way, I finished in an hour and a half, including the time spent resolving the antivirus warnings, and scored 860 out of 1,000, with 700 required to pass.