Worth Reading: Criminals getting closer to state actors

A few years ago, we saw a clear difference between state actors and criminals looking at the technologies and procedures they applied attacking an environment. Over time we have seen these two groups coming closer together. In the meantime, criminals seem to have caught up. They started to use more sophisticated and targeted malware and they do not shy away from calling their victims and helping them to run “the macro in the Word document”… —Halbheer on Security

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Worth Reading: Building Venice

What we do with Venice is support incremental upgrades of the cluster. Both of these approaches use a cluster of storage nodes. Given that our database is both sharded and replicated, we can bring down one storage node, upgrade it to the new version of the code, and bring it back online without affecting the usability of the system. Doing this one node at a time with each storage node in the cluster lets us do a zero-downtime upgrade. —LinkedIn

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Worth Reading: Building Venice

What we do with Venice is support incremental upgrades of the cluster. Both of these approaches use a cluster of storage nodes. Given that our database is both sharded and replicated, we can bring down one storage node, upgrade it to the new version of the code, and bring it back online without affecting the usability of the system. Doing this one node at a time with each storage node in the cluster lets us do a zero-downtime upgrade. —LinkedIn

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Worth Reading: Up!

Far from being a vibrant environment with an array of competitive offerings, the activity of providing so-called “last mile” Internet access appears to have been reduced to an environment where, in many markets, a small number of access providers appear to operate in a manner that resembles a cosy cartel, strenuously resisting the imposition of harsher strictures of true competition. Mobile access continues to operate at a distinct price premium and the choices for broadband wireline access are all too often limited to just one or two providers. Is there another option? If we looked up into the sky are there potential services that could alter this situation? —Potaroo

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Worth Reading: Up!

Far from being a vibrant environment with an array of competitive offerings, the activity of providing so-called “last mile” Internet access appears to have been reduced to an environment where, in many markets, a small number of access providers appear to operate in a manner that resembles a cosy cartel, strenuously resisting the imposition of harsher strictures of true competition. Mobile access continues to operate at a distinct price premium and the choices for broadband wireline access are all too often limited to just one or two providers. Is there another option? If we looked up into the sky are there potential services that could alter this situation? —Potaroo

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Worth Reading: Google’s TPU architecture

Four years ago, Google started to see the real potential for deploying neural networks to support a large number of new services. During that time it was also clear that, given the existing hardware, if people did voice searches for three minutes per day or dictated to their phone for short periods, Google would have to double the number of datacenters just to run machine learning models. —The Next Platform

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Worth Reading: Google’s TPU architecture

Four years ago, Google started to see the real potential for deploying neural networks to support a large number of new services. During that time it was also clear that, given the existing hardware, if people did voice searches for three minutes per day or dictated to their phone for short periods, Google would have to double the number of datacenters just to run machine learning models. —The Next Platform

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On the ‘net: Why a new routing stack?

In late 2016, several companies worked together to fork Quagga—that is, to pull the code based into a new Git repository, and hence into a separately maintained project. This new open source routing stack has been dubbed Free Range Routing (FRR). There is current participation in the project from Cumulus, 6Wind, LinkedIn, and others; the project is aligned with the Linux Foundation, and available on GitHub. —LinkedIn

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On the ‘net: Why a new routing stack?

In late 2016, several companies worked together to fork Quagga—that is, to pull the code based into a new Git repository, and hence into a separately maintained project. This new open source routing stack has been dubbed Free Range Routing (FRR). There is current participation in the project from Cumulus, 6Wind, LinkedIn, and others; the project is aligned with the Linux Foundation, and available on GitHub. —LinkedIn

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Worth Reading: Too big not to fail

It’s predictability that matters, not reliability. Stuff can fail… Stuff will fail. With tens of thousands of servers, lots of stuff fails every day! You just need to predict how often. … Baroque is an architectural style with a lot of ornate detail and tremendous variety. In a largescale environment, bespoke becomes baroque. The individual details of the various types of servers become overwhelming. The aggregate system with its large number of server types is full of detail and complexity. —ACM

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Worth Reading: Too big not to fail

It’s predictability that matters, not reliability. Stuff can fail… Stuff will fail. With tens of thousands of servers, lots of stuff fails every day! You just need to predict how often. … Baroque is an architectural style with a lot of ornate detail and tremendous variety. In a largescale environment, bespoke becomes baroque. The individual details of the various types of servers become overwhelming. The aggregate system with its large number of server types is full of detail and complexity. —ACM

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Worth Reading: Microsoft’s Open Approach to Networking

At Microsoft, we’re focused on enabling our customers by supporting all the technologies they depend on, and collaborating across organizational and industrial boundaries to bring the best possible experience to the cloud. Microsoft embraces open source and partner ecosystems to scale our own development efforts and accelerate innovation. Products that include Visual Studio Code, .NET, and ASP.NET are being publicly developed on GitHub with contributions from both Microsoft and non-Microsoft developers. These products are targeting Windows, Mac, and Linux. Microsoft is a contributing member of open source communities, including the Apache Software Foundation, Linux Foundation, R Consortium, and Node.js Foundation. —Microsoft Azure Blog

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Worth Reading: Microsoft’s Open Approach to Networking

At Microsoft, we’re focused on enabling our customers by supporting all the technologies they depend on, and collaborating across organizational and industrial boundaries to bring the best possible experience to the cloud. Microsoft embraces open source and partner ecosystems to scale our own development efforts and accelerate innovation. Products that include Visual Studio Code, .NET, and ASP.NET are being publicly developed on GitHub with contributions from both Microsoft and non-Microsoft developers. These products are targeting Windows, Mac, and Linux. Microsoft is a contributing member of open source communities, including the Apache Software Foundation, Linux Foundation, R Consortium, and Node.js Foundation. —Microsoft Azure Blog

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Notes on the FCC and Privacy in the US

I’ve been reading a lot about the repeal of the rules putting the FCC in charge of privacy for access providers in the US recently—a lot of it rising to the level of hysteria and “the end is near” level. As you have probably been reading these stories, as well, I thought it worthwhile to take a moment and point out two pieces that seem to be the most balanced and thought through out there.

Essentially—yes, privacy is still a concern, and no, the sky is not falling. The first is by Nick Feamster, who I’ve worked with in the past, and has always seemed to have a reasonable take on things. The second is by Shelly Palmer, who I don’t always agree with, but in this case I think his analysis is correct.

Last week, the House and Senate both passed a joint resolution that prevent’s the new privacy rules from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from taking effect; the rules were released by the FCC last November, and would have bound Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the United States to a set of practices concerning the collection and sharing of data about consumers. The rules were widely heralded Continue reading

Notes on the FCC and Privacy in the US

I’ve been reading a lot about the repeal of the rules putting the FCC in charge of privacy for access providers in the US recently—a lot of it rising to the level of hysteria and “the end is near” level. As you have probably been reading these stories, as well, I thought it worthwhile to take a moment and point out two pieces that seem to be the most balanced and thought through out there.

Essentially—yes, privacy is still a concern, and no, the sky is not falling. The first is by Nick Feamster, who I’ve worked with in the past, and has always seemed to have a reasonable take on things. The second is by Shelly Palmer, who I don’t always agree with, but in this case I think his analysis is correct.

Last week, the House and Senate both passed a joint resolution that prevent’s the new privacy rules from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from taking effect; the rules were released by the FCC last November, and would have bound Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the United States to a set of practices concerning the collection and sharing of data about consumers. The rules were widely heralded Continue reading

Worth Reading: Inside the invisible war for the open Internet

But the war for the commanding heights of the internet is far from over. There are many players on this global chess board. Governments. Telecom monopolies. Internet giants like Google and Facebook. NGOs. Startups. Hackers. And — most importantly — you. The war for the open internet is the defining issue of our time. It’s a scramble for control of the very fabric of human communication. And human communication is all that separates us from the utopia that thousands of generations of our ancestors slowly marched us toward — or the Orwellian, Huxleyan, Kafkaesque dystopia that a locked-down internet would make possible. —Free Code Camp

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Worth Reading: Seven tips to a better profile

By now, you undoubtedly know that a strong LinkedIn profile is critical for your career. LinkedIn, the business and employment-oriented social networking service, is where 94% of recruiters search for job candidates. It also serves as the online home of your professional brand. But with over 470 million LinkedIn users, how do you craft a profile that stands out? —Market Watch

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Reaction: Mend, don’t end, the IETF

Is it time for the IETF to give up? Over at CircleID, Martin Geddes makes a case that it is, in fact, time for the IETF to “fade out.” The case he lays out is compelling—first, the IETF is not really an engineering organization. There is a lot of running after “success modes,” but very little consideration of failure modes and how they can and should be guarded against. Second, the IETF “the IETF takes on problems for which it lacks an ontological and epistemological framework to resolve.”

In essence, in Martin’s view, the IETF is not about engineering, and hasn’t ever really been.

The first problem is, of course, that Martin is right. The second problem is, though, that while he hints at the larger problem, he incorrectly lays it at the foot of the IETF. The third problem is the solutions Martin proposes will not resolve the problem at hand.

First things first: Martin is right. The IETF is a mess, and is chasing after success, rather than attending to failure. I do not think this is largely a factor of a lack of engineering skill, however—after spending 20 years working in the IETF, there Continue reading

Worth Reading: We are none of us imposters

Sitting in the conference room, I looked up at the whiteboard covered in a clever design. I hadn’t understood the design immediately, but then as my mentor explained it to me, I comprehended the brilliance of it. —Ethan Banks

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DNS Glitch

Had a DNS glitch mid morning ET in switching some configurations around. It should be back up and running now, and rule11.tech should be coming up as a secondary domain soon’ish.

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