Updating to JDK 1.8 or 1.9 on Ubuntu

Trying to install OpenDaylight Nitrogen needs JDK 1.8 or later.

Needless to say, I’ve not go the right version on my Ubuntu 16.04 server – it reports 1.7.  Also needless to say, installing it isn’t a simple matter of adding the software through apt-get because the repository appears to be broken or empty (at the time of writing).  I was hoping to get away with doing this:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java


sudo apt-get update


sudo apt-get install oracle-java9-installer

Anyway, the last part failed with:

Connecting to download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)|104.86.110.251|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
2017-10-20 14:05:08 ERROR 404: Not Found.download failed
Oracle JDK 9 is NOT installed.
dpkg: error processing package oracle-java9-installer (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

So instead I downloaded it from here:  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk9-downloads-3848520.html

Unpacked the tarball with this:

cd /opt
tar -xvzf jdk-9.0.1_linux-x64_bin.tar.gz

Finally updated my environment variables to tell it where the JDK is:

 export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk-9.0.1/
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To back up or not to back up — your data has the answer

As IBM’s general manager of analytics, Rob Thomas’s job is to understand how big data can benefit industries all around the world. In his book The End of Tech Companies, Thomas reported findings from Siemens AG that hold that by 2020, over 50 billion connected devices worldwide will produce 43 zettabytes of digital data. He also discusses how non-IT companies are becoming as well-versed at analytics as their IT peers.With so many connected devices “phoning home” and so much of what we do in our daily lives being tracked by someone somewhere in the ether, it’s no wonder our data centers are bursting at the seams. But do companies need to back up all of that data? Does every last byte of chatter need to become part of our disaster recovery (DR) strategy?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Decoding DOCSIS 3.1

Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification. Say that five times fast.Thankfully, we call it DOCSIS. But unless you follow the rise, fall and rise again of cable, DOCSIS sounds like just another tech industry acronym. DOCSIS 3.1 is the latest standard in the CATV industry, enabling higher data speeds for high-definition television (HDTV) and video on demand (VOD) services. The latest flavor of DOCSIS increases effective downstream data rates from 160 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps), and upstream data rates from 120 Mbps to 1 Gbps when compared to DOCSIS 3.0.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

RIPE 75 starts in Dubai next week

The RIPE 75 meeting is happening next week in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and it’s going to be a busy week for the Deploy360 team who are chairing and presenting in several sessions. Both Jan Žorž and Kevin Meynell will be there, along with our colleague Andrei Robachevsky, and we’ll also be reporting on relevant developments as usual.

Just to point out that the MANRS initiative is planning an informal BoF sometime during the week to discuss ideas for measuring the health of the Internet routing system. The aim is to develop some empirical data to strengthen the case for collaborative routing security, although the date and time of the BoF is still to be determined.

The RIPE meeting kicks off on Sunday this time, as that’s the start of the working week in Dubai. Proceedings commence with tutorials on IPv6 Deployment in Cellular networks, an Introduction to DDoS attacks, and one on Decoding the IoT ecosystem. These are followed by a Newcomers’ Introduction if you’re a first timer.

The opening plenary commences at 14.00 GST/UTC+4, and after the introductory pleasantries, one presentation not to miss is from Lee Howard (Retevia) on the State of IPv6-only. There’s also an Continue reading

GDPR Puts High Price on Security Breaches

GDPR Puts High Price on Security Breaches

[Video] Data Center Fabric Validation

Validating the expected network behavior is (according to the intent-driven pundits) a fundamental difference that makes intent-driven products more than glorified orchestration systems.

Guess what: smart people knew that for ages and validated their deployments even when using simple tools like Ansible playbooks.

Dinesh Dutt explained how he validates data center fabric deployment during the Network Automation Use Cases webinar; I’m doing something similar in my OSPF deployment playbooks (described in detail in Ansible online course).

I Don’t Need a Car

You know, having conversations with teenagers can be a little annoying sometimes. One of mine (and I’ve heard others) keeps responding to my answers with “Why”. While this gets my blood circulating a little too fast in some contexts, getting to the simplest form of the answer often has validity. John G. Miller actually wrote a book called QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability in Work and in Life. 

Circling back to the car, why do I have three of these financially draining machines if I don’t need one? The answer is simple, automobiles are a means to a necessary end for my family. We go to work, we play, we go to college, high school, and the associated extracurricular activities. Transportation is necessary for the way we conduct our daily lives. Transportation in middle America requires a car.

I often think about how it could be different and better. In major cities, and in a lot of the world, public transportation is king. In my part of the world, we’ve been spoiled with personal transportation and our public transportation has failed to develop. It is largely a timing issue and a product of prosperity. It Continue reading

Rebuttal to Daring Fireball: FreeBSD, Intel and Microsoft did save the Mac

The point of my blog post, "What the IoT industry can learn from Apple’s revival of the Mac," was to use Apple’s pivot to the Intel platform and compliance with the Open Group’s Unix standards as an example of the importance of a large vibrant ecosystem (created by Intel and Microsoft) is for the IoT industry to follow.Without the PC ecosystem, the Mac would be an obsolete machine exhibited in the Computer History Museum. The PC ecosystem eliminated much redundant development, letting component and product companies focus on their products’ differentiation. The IoT industry would benefit if it had a robust ecosystem the eliminated redundant development. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

OpenDaylight Nitrogen: We’ve Made It Work

Nitrogen includes support for Java 8 and is compliant with servlet 3.1.0.

Accessibility Needs to Be at the Heart of Internet Policy, Planning and Design

The Internet Society’s 2017 Global Internet Report: Paths to Our Digital Future shows that new digital divides are emerging. It’s not just about accessing the Internet, but our ability to make the most of it.

One only has to look at the UN DESA 2015 Global Status Report on Disability and Development to start putting the pieces together. Not only does the report show a significant gap between people with and people without disabilities when it comes to things like education, employment, and health, but also, that those who are doubly disadvantaged (women, refugees, indigenous communities) experience the lowest level of inclusion and participation in society.

What does this mean for the Internet and information communication technology (ICTs)? They’re tools that help us bridge space and time, can start a business with the spark of an idea, and help kids stay in school.

If we want to build a digital future where people come first, accessibility needs to be at the heart of Internet policy, planning and design.

This means accessibility is first in. Not last out. It is always smarter, less expensive, and more functional to build accessibility into technology at the start rather than as a second-class add Continue reading

AWS, Nokia Form Bond to Boost Cloud, 5G, and IoT Positions

The collaboration incorporates AWS' Greengrass IoT efforts with Nokia's IMPACT platform.

Verizon Says Fixed 5G Trials Are Performing Better Than Expected

Mobile 5G will not be launched in 2018, but fixed 5G might be.  

CableLabs Hints That It’s Planning an Open Source Group

The cable membership organization created its SNAPS group for network virtualization.

AI Startup Perspica Marks Cisco’s 200th Acquisition

The purchase will support AppDynamics, which Cisco acquired earlier this year for $3.7 billion.

More ways to examine network connections on Linux

The ifconfig and netstat commands are incredibly useful, but there are many other commands that can help you see what's up with you network on Linux systems. Today’s post explores some very handy commands for examining network connections.ip command The ip command shows a lot of the same kind of information that you'll get when you use ifconfig. Some of the information is in a different format – e.g., "192.168.0.6/24" instead of "inet addr:192.168.0.6 Bcast:192.168.0.255" and ifconfig is better for packet counts, but the ip command has many useful options.First, here's the ip a command listing information on all network interfaces.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

More ways to examine network connections on Linux

The ifconfig and netstat commands are incredibly useful, but there are many other commands that can help you see what's up with you network on Linux systems. Today’s post explores some very handy commands for examining network connections.ip command The ip command shows a lot of the same kind of information that you'll get when you use ifconfig. Some of the information is in a different format – e.g., "192.168.0.6/24" instead of "inet addr:192.168.0.6 Bcast:192.168.0.255" and ifconfig is better for packet counts, but the ip command has many useful options.First, here's the ip a command listing information on all network interfaces.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Why the fight over IoT data is just getting started

As the social and financial buzz around the IoT continues to grow, many savvy executives and eager entrepreneurs alike are chasing IoT investment opportunities with high expectations. In this investing frenzy, few things have garnered more attention that IoT data and its business applications, and for good reason. In big data, investors from all over the world have found their next digital gold mine.So how exactly is the fight for control over lucrative IoT data playing out, and who are its biggest movers and shakers? How can companies small and large alike benefit from IoT data, and is this valuable resource really worth all of the hubbub it ceaselessly generates? A quick dive into the world of the IoT reveals the true value of its data, and shows that this new industry is only just getting started.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

If you haven’t found the tradeoff…

This week, I ran into an interesting article over at Free Code Camp about design tradeoffs. I’ll wait for a moment if you want to go read the entire article to get the context of the piece… But this is the quote I’m most interested in:

Just like how every action has an equal and opposite reaction, each “positive” design decision necessarily creates a “negative” compromise. Insofar as designs necessarily create compromises, those compromises are very much intentional. (And in the same vein, unintentional compromises are a sign of bad design.)

In other words, design is about making tradeoffs. If you think you’ve found a design with no tradeoffs, well… Guess what? You’ve not looked hard enough. This is something I say often enough, of course, so what’s the point? The point is this: We still don’t really think about this in network design. This shows up in many different places; it’s worth taking a look at just a few.

Hardware is probably the place where network engineers are most conscious of design tradeoffs. Even so, we still tend to think sticking a chassis in a rack is a “future and requirements proof solution” to all our network design Continue reading

How the internet of sound eliminates billions of IoT sensors

The Internet of Thing’s dirty little secret is the cost of deployment. For example, adding a low-cost motion sensor and radio to a traffic light to count passing vehicles before it leaves the factory is easy and inexpensive. The incremental cost of deployment is near zero, especially if low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) coverage or other low-cost communications coverage is available. But retrofitting the traffic light with sensors and radios will cost the municipality a public works truck roll, a crew, an electrician and a police traffic detail. Retrofits are expensive.Also on Network World: IoT standards battles could get messy Retrofitting the world for IoT is a data science and a sensor engineering task to study the IoT problem and find the simplest way to acquire the data. The question for the data scientist is what minimum data resolution will provide the desired result: How many sensors per unit of area and how many readings per time interval are necessary to solve the problem? The engineer must trade off sensor costs, radio costs and network availability, and power consumption versus available power sources.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here