AlterNet: MediaCulture: Turning a Blind Eye to Wi-Fi

AlterNet: MediaCulture: Turning a Blind Eye to Wi-Fi: "Broadband internet is the electricity of the 21st century -- and the rest of the world is poised to leave America in the dark."


I almost didn't want to post this from a leftest site like alternet.org, but it was too well writen. So read this article (kinda long) then setup a host file entry that points alternet.org to 127.0.0.1 to avoid coming back to this site.


Full Disclosure: Please ignore the moveon.org banner at the top of the site. Sorry again. But it is a well writen article.

Cisco 7200 Simulator - IPFlow Netflow Collector

Cisco 7200 Simulator - IPFlow Netflow Collector

Yeah, Yeah I know my blog is slowing down, but I just found this 7200 simulator. Not really clear on the legaity of such, but cool just the same.

Forget IPv6. We are running out of copper.

Measure of Metal Supply Finds Future Shortage


Forget IPv6. We may run out of copper for our Cat5 and 6 before we run out of IPv4 addresses.



Full Disclosure: I will be working for a firm that specializes in Wireless soon, to help the world lessen its depenance on Copper. More on that later.

Optimus keyboard

Optimus keyboard: "Every key of the Optimus keyboard is a stand-alone display showing exactly what it is controlling at this very moment."


This is really cool, but I don't see the need really. Who's keys change function so much that it would be worth the extra cost other then the cool factor?

The Young and the Restless: Ep. #8294 - TV.com

The Young and the Restless: Ep. #8294 - TV.com: "Nikki is surprised to see Brad's ring on Victoria's finger, and Sharon is furious to learn that Brad and Victoria are engaged. Scott wants to become the bait to catch Sheila, but Michael insists that Lauren wouldn't want that. J.T. is upset to find Mac and Kevin sleeping on the couch, with Kevin's head in Mac's lap. Brad is shocked to learn Ashley has been arrested for Tom Fisher's murder. John finally wakes up"

Did anybody really expect to see Brad and Victoria together? Did they even consider Sharon and Nikki feelings? And what is the deal with JT Mac and Kevin? Are Mac and Kevin really an item? But I was glad to see that John after all this time Finally woke up. He's presence was really lacking fromt the show. I sure hope he can set Brad and Victoria stright.

BGP Soft Reset Enhancement

BGP Soft Reset Enhancement

Here is a tid bit I didn't know till now. If you have a newer IOS (and I pertty sure JunOS) on both side of your BGP peering, you don't have to (and probably shouldn't) configure:
neighbor soft-reconfiguration

RFC 2918 fixed this, and this is good thing since the old way of doing 'soft-reconfiguration' wasn't very friendly to memory use.

Slashdot | Microsoft's Big Bet on Online Gaming

Slashdot :

And games designed for multiple players have a mixed record of attracting customers.' Says analyst Michael Pachter, 'At the end of the day, we don't play games for social interaction ... We play games to escape.' Microsoft's strategy is 'absolutely flawed,' he added.""

Is online gaming a wasted investment for MS and Sony? I know I tend to shy away from online opponents. Even in a simple game of chess. When I play games I do it for my entertainment, not to socialize. I don't want to bother other people and I don't want other people to bother me. If I do want to play aginst someone I want to know who the person is. I don't trust strangers. But I'm not much of a people person. Are most people like me, problably not. I'm sure MS and Sony have done research and are on the money on this one. Online gaming is going to drive broadband to the home, just like gaming drove pc devlopment over the past 15 years.

More Black helicopter stuff: NSA Caught With The Cookies

Slashdot : “"The associated press is reporting that the NSA is putting cookies on visiting computers. Apparently it is unlawful for the government to put anything but a session cookie out unless it's expressed in the site's privacy policy." From the article: "Don Weber, an NSA spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday that the cookie use resulted from a recent software upgrade. Normally, the site uses temporary, permissible cookies that are automatically deleted when users close their Web browsers, he said, but the software in use shipped with persistent cookies already on. ... In a 2003 memo, the White House's Office of Management and Budget prohibits federal agencies from using persistent cookies _ those that aren't automatically deleted right away _ unless there is a 'compelling need.' A senior official must sign off on any such use, and an agency that uses them must disclose and detail their use in its privacy policy."”


Full Disclosure:I Don't know if my site gives cookies and I don't care.

Will ISPs Quarantine You From the lnternet?

Andy Dornan :

A greater threat is that ISPs may try to restrict the customer's side by denying access to machines based on their hardware or software configuration. And far from banning that, the government may be encouraging it. Back when he was head of cybersecurity, White House terrorism advisor Richard Clarke even said it should be made mandatory to quarantine malware.

The black helicopters are coming, the black helicopters are coming!

Here is the deal. People fear what they don't understand. People don't understand the Internet and they fear it. People don't understant it isn't cost effective for ISP's to be proactive about the security state of their customers. They would have to monitor 100% of the connected computers on the off chance that 2% (my guess) of them are infected to the point such that it cost something. It will always be cheaper for ISP's to be reactive and shut down ports for free if they become such a problem.


Full Disclosure: It looks like the artticle is from the furture. Check the date under the auther's name. So maybe Andy Dorman knows something from the furture that we who are stuck in the present don't understand. Yet...

Ethernet Switch Market Share numbers

Around the office we have be talking ethernet market share numbers, and I've finally found some numbers from a trusted source online. The numbers are interesting. If someone better at math could help me reverse engineer some more cool info from this please let me know.

No supprise that Cisco is a the top of both revenue (75.7%) and ports (40.6). The wired thing is the differance between the two. Cisco has over 3 quarters of the switching revenue with only 2 fiths of the ports. That's amazing, and features/reliability aside it shows that people do pay a premium for Cisco switches.

Odder still Notel shows up as number 2 under Revenue but doesn't even make the top 5 under ports. I guess people (although fewer) are also paying a permium for Nortel switches.

Here is what my elementry math tells me based on the numbers from this report:

Cisco average cost per port sold:
$118

HP average cost per port sold:
$31

3com average cost per port sold:
$17

Industry average cost per port sold:
$63

Now keep in mind that this is all types of ports PoE 10G GigE etc. Cisco's higher price per port is in part justified buy the fact they sell more of these higher end ports.

Read more at www.gartner.com/press_r...

Full Discolsure: The above math is my own and likley to be wrong. If you want the full details you'll have to buy the gartner report for $6,995.00 If you do, may I take a peek ;)

Free McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006

Buy.com - McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006 v 8.0 Minibox - MIS80EMB1RAA

Just found this. If you are like me and havnen't ever gotten around to updating the free virus software that came with your home pc and were waiting for the right price. Here it is. Free after rebates if you ever owned anything McAfee or Norton. Just $30 bucks if you don't own either.

Full Disclosure:This isn't an ad/referal scam. Just a good deal I found and wanted to share.

Why do they keep trying to reinvent the key board?

Sure it's ugly. Sure no one is really going to buy it. So why make it? Does this guy think he is going to change the world with this keyboard?

I don't really have a problem with my keyboard. I don't know any one who works on one all day like me that wants a different keyboard. If we could turn back time, and layout the keys differently..... but alas we can't. So we are stuck with qwerty.

Are their people or bosses that are looking to get that .01% extra productity out of keyboard users? Why do we need to type faster?

Where are the numbers on this keyboard? Having to shift for numbers would slow me way down.

And who says abcdef is better then qwerty?

Full Disclosure: I nearly flunked typing in high school. But that wasn't because of the keyboard/typewriter, but because I'm tottaly unconcordaited. In H.S. band I wasn't allowed to march and play at the same time. I'm a good enough typiest now. Now all I need is a keyboard with spell check.

Juniper sues 10 John Doe's

Techdirt:Suing For Libel Isn't Always The Right Decision


From Tech Dirt:

They [Juniper] were apparently so upset by some random messages on Light Reading's message board that they've filed lawsuits against 10 unidentified users who posted disparaging remarks concerning the company. Not to knock Light Reading -- which is a fantastic resource for telecom news, by the way -- but it's quite unlikely that any random message board postings on Light Reading are taken seriously enough to really matter. The audience isn't tremendous, and most readers there probably know enough to recognize that a random anonymous posting is, well, less than trustworthy. In fact, Light Reading removed the comments soon after they were posted for violating forum rules. So, until now, almost no one even knew about these postings that called the company unethical and accused execs of various scamming activities. However, now that the story is news -- a lot more people are hearing about the accusations, whether or not they're true. In posting about the lawsuits, Light Reading itself quotes a lawyer who points out that these moves "say as much about the company suing as it does about the message board users."

Festivus - The Holiday For The Rest of Us

Since I know you all will be busy tomorrow celebrating Festivus, and not reading my blog. I wanted to take a moment and which everyone a happy Festivus Eve.

For those unfamilar with the holiday here are some more links to bring you up to speed.
http://festivusbook.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/dec/18/festivus_rest_us/

Full Disclosure: I'm not sure where my Festivus pole is.

Deploying IPv6 in a datacenter

Kevin Day:

Getting your network running IPv6 doesn't seem to be the challenge anymore. None of our L2 devices cared at all. Our L3 devices took some configuration, but moved pretty easily. it's the server and application software that needs a lot more work. I don't think we're even close to the point where an end-user can go to their provider and say "IPv6 me!" and get it working for more hassle than it's worth to them. [Click here for his full post]

Here is a great post about 1 man's experince trying to move to IPv6. The moral of his story is that getting the network IPv6 ready is the easier part (but not easy), getting applcations to work with IPv6 just isn't worth the trouble.

Anybody else have stories about deploying IPv6?

Full Discloseure: If you too would like this IPv6 headache for yourself and are a OneNet customer, give us a call and we can set you up :)

House backs compromise digital TV plan

yahoo news:

Some of the airwaves freed up by broadcasters would be given to public safety groups like police, fire and rescue workers who have had trouble communicating with each other during major crises like the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

If we let people stay on analog tv, the terriost win

Might Microsoft Want Sci-Atlanta?

Light Reading :

"After Cisco Systems Inc. announced plans to buy Scientific-Atlanta Inc. speculation bubbled over someone else stepping in to spoil the bid.

Consumer electronics types such as Sony Corp. were the favorites, and Alcatel got a mention as possibly looking to defend its turf against Cisco. And there's been talk that at least a couple of these parties were prepared to bid more than Cisco.

But how about Microsoft Corp.? The New York Post reported early this week that the Redmond empire was mulling its own bid for Scientific-Atlanta."

I think there isn't much fact to this, but interesting rumor none the less. Both have tons of cash. This may be a trial balloon sent out some some other non-micosoft 3rd party to see if Cisco is willing to get into a bidding war for SA. I don't think Cisco is willing to do that, but I could be wrong.