John Harrington
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John Harrington
Hardware – What’s the ‘holdup’?
This post discusses power supply ‘holdup’, and how it can impact network or server hardware uptime. The holdup time or ‘output holdup time’ is the length of time that a given power supply can maintain output power to the switch … Continue reading
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Planning projects instead of burning benjamins
Engineers are often unstuck by poor planning and get hit with large financial penalties as a result. Projects can become mired in delays and complications due to unforeseen costs and expenses. There are some unavoidable bumps in the road, but … Continue reading
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Hardware – Equalization and Pre-emphasis
Before we look at equalization and pre-emphasis, we should examine some fundamentals of waves and signals. A perfect square wave is a really useful way of representing a waveform in the time-domain, but it’s not the only way of looking at … Continue reading
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Hardware – Is SFP+ just a smaller version of XFP?
In the last post I discussed clock and data recovery (CDR). This post examines an application of re-timers (or CDRs) within XFP and SFP+ transceivers. I’ve previously covered the size, power and connector differences of 10G transceivers before, but this post will focus … Continue reading
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Hardware – Clock and Data Recovery
Clock and data recovery is an essential physical-layer function of modern switch and router hardware. Digging deep into the electronics of a router may not be your thing, but clock recovery is a fundamental building block for other network hardware … Continue reading
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Build a 48-port switch using a 24-port ASIC
Modern top-of-rack switches (or TORs) run at line rate and are non-oversubscribed. This means you get non-blocking [1] port-to-port throughput within the switch ASIC at the line rate of the front panel ports. Almost all TOR switches use a single switch … Continue reading
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AirConsole Review
If you need regular console port access then nothing beats a fixed console router. However there are many times when that simply isn’t an option. For occasional console connections I use a Keyspan USB/Serial adaptor with my MacBook. It’s … Continue reading
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Five selfish reasons to interview candidates
Lets be honest. It is hard to justify the time needed to interview people. It can be really hard to motivate yourself to interview potential new hires when project deadlines are looming. It is perfectly fair to ask yourself, “what’s in it for me?” I think there is a payoff for time spent on hiring. […]
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The post Five selfish reasons to interview candidates appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
Why ‘your’ project was outsourced
It’s easy to get upset when that cool new project you wanted is outsourced to an external VAR. The conversation usually goes something like, “You know the existing network and services really well so we’re going keep focused there. We’re going to engage ACME systems integrators for ‘project awesome’ and get them to give that […]
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The post Why ‘your’ project was outsourced appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
Flow
Have you ever struggled to explain to your parents or friends why you still study technical topics at night? It can be frustrating trying to explain to these people why you do what you do. Let’s be honest, it’s hard to explain ‘why’ to ourselves, never mind explain it to others. I have found a […]
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The post Flow appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
The value of Connectors in the workplace
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point [affiliate link] the author identifies key roles that individuals play in spreading knowledge and ideas. Gladwell outlines two key roles, the maven and the connector. The maven is a person who accumulates subject matter expertise and is willing to distribute that knowledge on request. Think of a maven […]
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The post The value of Connectors in the workplace appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
Invest in great tools for your engineers
Can you remember your last newly hired engineer, all shiny and happy and new? Can you also remember the look on their face when they received their corporate craptop? Or maybe they received a decent laptop, but it came in a ten dollar laptop bag. The tech industry spends a lot of time and effort […]
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The post Invest in great tools for your engineers appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
Networking Learning Paths – Route/Switch or Speciality Knowledge?
I spent the first ten years of my career in mobile telecoms. I learned a ton of lessons and I really enjoyed it, but I’ve always been drawn to networking. However I wasn’t getting hands-on exposure to data networks in my telco job so I had to teach myself. In 2002 I began the transition […]
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The post Networking Learning Paths – Route/Switch or Speciality Knowledge? appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
Consider an International Relocation
Over three years ago I saw an opportunity to take an assignment to my company HQ in Seattle. After debating this for some time with my wife we took the plunge and moved to the US. The question is, “was it worth it?”. For me the answer is an overwhelming ‘yes’. I’m moving back to […]
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The post Consider an International Relocation appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
How much are you worth per hour
[This content was originally published on thenetworksherpa.com] Have you ever sat at your desk repeating the same task again and again, getting that groundhog day feeling. Arrrghhh, this is so inefficient someone should automate this. I could even do it myself with five days of focussed work. Sadly, you don’t have five days and the […]
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The post How much are you worth per hour appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
Your Company Doesn’t Care About You
Companies are Systems for Making Money We’ve all heard corporate leadership speak about ‘human resources’ and that ‘people are our most important asset’. This is true but the words ‘resource’ and ‘asset’ were carefully chosen. A resource is something to be mined for value. Please don’t be fooled into thinking that your company cares […]
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The post Your Company Doesn’t Care About You appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
Build a Career with Relationships
Your job hunt traditionally starts with websites like monster.com or dice.com. However, some surveys suggest that between 70 to 80 percent of jobs are found through personal contacts and relationships. So why not spend your efforts building your relationships instead of surfing jobs sites? I can sense some of you getting uncomfortable already. Dont worry, […]
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The post Build a Career with Relationships appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
Tough Questions To Ask Network Vendors When Evaluating Products
Introduction In my previous post, I proposed investing in careful planning to extract the maximum value from your vendor meeting. But what happens when the presentation begins? In this post, I’ll outline a few high-level questions and lots of in-depth questions to help you get a better understanding of the ‘real’ product that’s being sold. High-level […]
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The post Tough Questions To Ask Network Vendors When Evaluating Products appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
Extracting The Most Value From Network Vendor Presentations
Vendors love nothing more than getting in front of their customers and talking about their products. You’ll always learn something from a presentation, but mostly they are an exercise in death-by-powerpoint. In this post, I’ll provide some some tips on getting the most from your time in these presentations. Vendor presentations can be really informative […]
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The post Extracting The Most Value From Network Vendor Presentations appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.