Inconsistent Blogging Ahead

I’m at the IETF this week, so blogging might be either really heavy or really light. I’m doing a daily update on Packet Pushers while I’m here, the first entry is already posted.

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Worth Reading: Rebuilding with Docker

Over the course of 10 weeks, we completely re-worked our infrastructure. We retired nearly every single instance and old config, moved our services to run in Docker containers, and switched over to use fresh AWS accounts. via high scalability

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QOTW: The Occupation of the Wise

Thus the wise man, at all times and on every road, carries a mind ripe for acquisitions that ordinary folk neglect. The humblest occupation is for him a continuation of the loftiest; his formal calls are fortunate chances of investigation; his walks are voyages of discovery, what he hears and his silent answers are a dialogue that truth carries on with herself within him.
Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life

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Worth Reading: Cloud Access Security Brokers

Widespread enterprise adoption of public cloud applications like Office 365 has not come without security and compliance concerns. Most cloud apps function like a black box, providing little visibility or control over the handling of sensitive data. … a cloud access security broker (CASB) provides a way to encrypt the data using keys that you control. A CASB also provides a central point for monitoring and managing access to those resources. via the csa

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HL: Eschew Obfuscation

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Worth Reading: Trust and Change

People want to be able to engage, comment and opt out but frequently can’t. Life is not “Field of Dreams” – just because we can build it, doesn’t mean people want it. If a customer can’t see the link between a new innovated product and their problem then the brand has a problem too. Innovation doesn’t start and stop with the “what is the new product?” but instead needs the foundational support of “how” and “why” too. Trust is an essential ingredient to innovation. -via technobabble

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Worth Reading: Making the Case for Open Home Access Devices

In a letter submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Dave Täht, co-founder of the Bufferbloat Project, and Dr. Vinton Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet, along with more than 260 other global network and cybersecurity experts, responded to the newly proposed FCC rules laid out in ET Docket No. 15-170 for RF Devices such as Wi-Fi routers by unveiling a new approach to improve the security of these devices and ensure a faster, better, and more secure Internet. via businesswire

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Sand Fence

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Worth Reading: Diffie-Hellman Case Study

So, as we approach the second anniversary of the discussion that led to RFC 7258, the IETF community has done considerable work to strengthen trust in the Internet, in line with its mission of “making Internet work better”. But, a lot of work also remains – in deploying the better versions, in building defences to new attacks, and in understanding the issues and possible improvements. via the ietf

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The Odd Hours Solution

For many years, when I worked out in the center of the triangle of runways and taxiways, I would get up at around 4, swim a mile in the indoor poor (36 laps), shower, grab breakfast, run by base weather just to check the bigger pieces of equipment out (mostly the RADAR system), and then I’d head out to the shop. We could mostly only get downtime on the airfield equipment (particularly the VOR, TACAN, and glideslopes) in the early morning hours — unless, of course, there was a war on. Then we couldn’t get downtime at all. By 2:30 I was done with my work day, and I headed home to get whatever else done.

When I left the USAF, after being trapped in some 9–5 jobs, I joined the cisco TAC. Our shift started at 8 or 8:30, when we took over the 1–800 number from Brussels, and our shift lasted until around 2 in the afternoon (it varied over time, as the caseloads and TACs were moved around). Freed from 9–5, I started getting to work at around 5:30 again. I could spend the first two or three hours following up on cases (did you know that Continue reading

HL: General Howe’s Dog

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QOTW: Obsession with Knowledge

Like Gollum’s self-destructive obsession with the ring in Tolkien’s novels, when we see knowledge as something to possess, not only do we miss out on the fulfillment of seeing that knowledge positively influence the lives of those around us, but we miss out on the rich personal growth that results from participation in a free give and take of truth.
Philip Dow, Virtuous Minds

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Worth Reading: Thoughts on the Open Internet

The FCC’s view of an “Open Internet” appears to be closely bound to the concept of “Net Neutrality,” a concept that attempts to preclude a carriage service provider from explicitly favouring (or disrupting) particular services over and above any other. via circleid

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Worth Reading: The Value of Strategic Network Design

Every organization has its own philosophy when it comes to managing its IT network. And over the years as a senior engineer, I’ve learned to recognize that philosophy almost immediately. While each company is distinct in how its network evolved and how it performs, most IT departments manage and maintain that network with some combination of a reactive and proactive mindset. via netcraftsmen

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IT/IT: Distributed OpenFlow

According to ECI, it’s a naïve view to have a single controller control large-scale networks in a reactive mode. Such a global view doesn’t scale, ECI claims. It means the first frame of each new flow is sent to the controller, where an SDN app decides on the desired behavior, derives the required network configurations and then uses the SDN controller to configure all the relevant switches. via sdxcentral

If I were a bit more snarky, I’d be tempted to say something like, “well, if you add a small hello protocol to each of the applets to monitor neighbor reachability, and a small protocol that can exchange local reachability information, and then perhaps a local algorithm to determine which path is the shortest, you can reinvent IS-IS.” But I’m not that snarky, of course…

I have come to believe that at least half of what we invent in the networking world is simply a product of not spending the time nor effort to study what’s already been invented, or the perception that what’s already been invented is “too complex,” and hence not stuff anyone wants to spend time learning nor understanding. A full three quarters of what remains is Continue reading

Buenos Aires

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Worth Reading: ISOC’s IOT White Paper

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Worth Reading: The Australian Cyber Security Report

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Multitasking, Microtasking, and Macrotasking

One of the most frustrating things in my daily life is reaching lunch and not having a single thing I can point to as “done” for the day. I’m certain this is something every engineer faces from time to time — or even all the time (like me), because even Dilbert has something to say about it.

This is all the more frustrating for me because I actually don’t have clones (contrary to rumor #1), and I actually do sleep (contrary to rumor #2). I even spend time with my wife and kids from time to time, as well as volunteer at a local church and seminary (teaching philosophy/ethics/logic/theology/worldview/apologetics to a high school class, and being a web master/all around IT resource, guest lecturer, etc., in the other). My life’s motto seems to be waste not a moment, from reading to writing to research to, well just about everything that doesn’t involve other people (I try to never be in a hurry when dealing with people, though this it’s honestly hard to do).

So, without clones, and with sleep, how can we all learn to be more productive? I’m no master of time (honestly), but my first rule is: Continue reading

QOTW: Knowledge

Knowledge depends on the direction given to our passions and on our moral habits. To calm our passions is to awaken in ourselves the sense of the universal; to correct ourselves is to bring out the sense of the true.
Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life

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