The Hobbyist and the Professional

Ronald Bradford
September 17, 2006

I first coined this term in February 2006 in a paper titled “Overcoming the Challenges of Establishing Service and Support Channels” for the conference “Implementing Open Source for Optimal Business Performance” View Paper.

I must have referenced this several times, time to give this topic it’s due notice. In summary it targets three areas:

the lack of appropriate database design in open source projects
the lack of coding standards
the lack of sound programming principles

Here are the bullet points from the slide in a presentation.

Hobbyist

Download-able software and examples
Online tutorials
Books like Learn in 24 hours/For Dummies

Professional

Formal Qualifications
Grounding in sound programming practices
Understanding of SDLC principles
Worked in team environment

Middle Ground Developer

Time to skill verses output productivity
Depends on environment and requirements

Tagged with: Databases General Open Source

DataEngBytes Sydney Overview

Ronald Bradford
July 31, 2026

I have just returned from my first DataEngBytes conference in Sydney. Here is a quick summary on my thoughts for the event. I plan to go into more detail on great points from presentations in later posts.

MITRE ATLAS - A 2025 Review

Ronald Bradford
July 27, 2026

The MITRE ATLAS Matrix provides a working knowledge base of adversary tactics, techniques, and real-world case studies specifically for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) systems. It adapts the established MITRE ATT&CK adversary tactics and techniques matrix which is the standard reference for traditional IT cybersecurity.

Foundational Frameworks for GenAI Security Analysis

Ronald Bradford
July 24, 2026

Three frameworks form the analytical foundation of this series’ threat analysis, selected for their complementary coverage of the GenAI security landscape and their broad adoption across enterprise security practices. The MITRE Adversarial Threat Landscape for AI Systems (MITRE ATLAS) maps tactics and techniques specific to AI systems.