Worth Reading: Why the Full Time Job is Still Important

The new “rules” of the workplace are being defined as computers are frantically being programmed to take the lead in the workplace, when it comes to judgment and intuition. We humans need to be the idea generators, the motivators, the negotiators, and the trouble-shooters to fix computer errors, if we want to govern our emerging digital environments. In short, we need to get closer to our firms, be more tightly integrated and intimate with work performance than ever before… which means the role and tenure of the much-derided middle-manager in the Dilbert Cartoons could be taking on a whole new potential twist – and a whole new (potential) level of relevance. —Phil Fersht @ The Enterprise Irregulars

Cumulus content roundup: January

Got a New Year’s resolution for a data center revolution? We’ve got your back! The Cumulus content roundup is here to make sure you start out 2018 on the right foot. With a variety of blog posts, videos and networking resources at your disposal, you’ll find that upgrading your networking knowledge is an easily achievable goal (and much easier than starting a diet or going to the gym). Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone if you’ve already broken your resolution! It’s a time for new beginnings and looking to the future; let’s check out what’s in store.

Cumulus resources

Cumulus in the Cloud overview: What is Cumulus in the Cloud, and what can it do for you? In this video overview, let CTO JR Rivers walk you through the pre-built virtual data center and teach you all about the great Cumulus tech you can play with.

 
NCLU: Network Command Line Utility overview: There’s a new chapter in our how-to video series. This time, our highly qualified instructors will teach you the ins and outs of Cumulus Networks CLI, the Network Command Line Utility. Watch the tutorial to learn more.

 
Open networking drives forward with Cumulus Linux Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: How network verification differs from monitoring, and what it’s good for

In a previous post I discussed network verification, a new area of technology that applies what is known as formal verification – mathematical analysis of a complex system to determine rigorously if it meets the end-to-end goal – to network infrastructure.But what is such verification good for and how is it different from today’s common practice, whereby nearly every organization monitors its network, typically by sampling ongoing flows, events or logs. Isn’t that enough to catch problems as the organization deploys changes?To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How network verification differs from monitoring, and what it’s good for

In a previous post I discussed network verification, a new area of technology that applies what is known as formal verification – mathematical analysis of a complex system to determine rigorously if it meets the end-to-end goal – to network infrastructure.But what is such verification good for and how is it different from today’s common practice, whereby nearly every organization monitors its network, typically by sampling ongoing flows, events or logs. Isn’t that enough to catch problems as the organization deploys changes?To read this article in full, please click here

Section 10 Routing Loops

A (long) time ago, a reader asked me about RFC4456, section 10, which says:

Care should be taken to make sure that none of the BGP path attributes defined above can be modified through configuration when exchanging internal routing information between RRs and Clients and Non-Clients. Their modification could potentially result in routing loops. In addition, when a RR reflects a route, it SHOULD NOT modify the following path attributes: NEXT_HOP, AS_PATH, LOCAL_PREF, and MED. Their modification could potentially result in routing loops.

On first reading, this seems a little strange—how could modifying the next hop, Local Preference, or MED at a route reflector cause a routing loop? While contrived, the following network illustrates the principle.

Note the best path, from an IGP perspective, from C to E is through B, and the best path, from an IGP perspective, from B to D is through C. In this case, a route is advertised over eBGP from F towards E and D. These two eBGP speakers, in turn, advertise the route to their iBGP neighbors, B and C. Both B and C are route reflectors, so they both reflect the route on to A, which advertises the route to some other Continue reading

How Technology is Changing Music to fit Inside Streaming’s New Box

 

Technology shapes and forms. A Roman war chariot could still ride to battle on a modern road. Songs are typically about 3 minutes long because a 78rpm record held about three minutes of sound per side. So it shouldn't be a surprise streaming—a new technology for distributing music—pounds songs, business models, and production methods into new shapes fitting a new medium.

How would artists respond to near zero digital production costs, zero marginal distribution costs, and streaming's pay per play business model? Uniquely, as described in great detail in the podcast WS More or Less: Why Albums are Getting Longer.

Michael Jackson's Thriller album had nine tracks and runs at just over 42 minutes. Chris Brown released Heartbreak on a Full Moon, an album with 45 tracks and runs well over 2 hours. Albums are getting longer.

Why? You get what you measure.

1500 plays or streams of a track from a single album counts as a record sale. So the longer the album the fewer people have to listen to the whole thing to increase record sales. Record sales are how chart rankings are determined. Doing better in the charts gets you more exposure, which Continue reading

14,000 Incidents: a 2017 Routing Security Year in Review

How was the state of the Internet’s routing system in 2017? Let’s take a look back using data from BGPStream. Some highlights:

  • 13,935 total incidents (either outages or attacks like route leaks and hijacks)
  • Over 10% of all Autonomous Systems on the Internet were affected
  • 3,106 Autonomous Systems were a victim of at least one routing incident
  • 1,546 networks caused at least one incident

An ‘incident’ is a suspicious change in the state of the routing system that can be attributed to an outage or a routing attack, like a route leak or hijack (either intentional or due to a configuration mistake).[i] Let’s look at just a few examples of incidents picked up by the media.

March 2017. SECW Telecom in Brazil hijacked prefixes of Cloudflare, Google, and BancoBrazil causing some outage for these services in the region.

April 2017. Large chunks of network traffic belonging to MasterCard, Visa, and more than two dozen other financial services companies were briefly routed through a Russian telecom. For several minutes, Rostelecom was originating 50 prefixes for numerous other Autonomous Systems, hijacking their traffic.

August 2017. Google accidentally leaked BGP prefixes it learned from peering relationships, essentially becoming a transit provider instead Continue reading

Adminstravia 010918

I’ve reorganized the menu on the left just a little, combining some items under “reading,” and adding a new item called “topics.” Under this new item, you’ll find collections of articles on specific topics from other sources, starting with the ‘net neutrality page and the meltdown and spectre post reformatted as a page, with some new additions. I’m always trying to find new ways to organize the information here, making it easier to find things; hopefully this is a useful change.

Worth Reading: Why the FCC will prevail

At the outset, it should be noted that the Reversal Order exudes its own political blather — kissing the internet vibrancy ring, extolling the virtues of the free market, and reciting the “internet freedom” incantation. Never mind that the present internet was nothing more than a U.S. version of Pouzin’s datagram invention that was funded with many billions of taxpayer dollars, controlled, hyped, and marketed for decades by the U.S. government to gain various perceived global strategic advantages that have largely proven illusory if not national security liabilities. —Anthony Rutkowski @ CircleID

Say Hello to Zpark, my Cisco Spark Bot

For a long while now I’ve been brainstorming how I could leverage the API that’s present in the Cisco Spark collaboration platform to create a bot. There are lots of goofy and fun examples of bots (ie, Gifbot) that I might be able to draw inspiration from, but I wanted to create something that would provide high value to myself and anyone else that choose to download and use it. The idea finally hit me after I started using Zabbix for system monitoring. Since Zabbix also has a feature-rich API, all the pieces were in place to create a bot that would act as a bit of middle-ware between Zabbix and Spark. I call the bot: Zpark.

Instead of relying on Zabbix to initiate an email or SMS to alert me of a new issue, I now route all notifications through Zpark and get notified right within my Cisco Spark client. And since I have the Spark client on all of my devices, I can receive alerts no matter where I am or what I’m doing.

Zpark alerts:

Example of Zpark Alert & Clear Messages
Features
  • Relays new Zabbix alerts (which are generated from Zabbix events) to Spark Continue reading

Sonos Play:1 Is Discounted $62 Right Now On Amazon

Sonos has designed the Play:1 wireless speaker to look and sound great in any space, whether it's a kitchen counter or the bookshelf in your bedroom. It contains two Class D amplifiers, one 3.5" mid–woofer for mid–range frequencies and deep bass, and one tweeter for crisp and accurate high–frequency response. Pair multiple speakers together in the same room for a more immersive experience, or add speakers in different rooms. When connected to an Amazon Alexa-enabled device, you can control the Sonos experience hands-free using Alexa voice commands. To read this article in full, please click here

Improved telepresence: In your face with the new BeamPro 2

For those of us intrigued by telepresence technology, the new BeamPro 2 might be what Santa should have left under our trees — except, well, that it wouldn’t have fit. But on other scales, the release of this new and improved device promises more realistic visits with colleagues, customers, patients, and others with respect to video, audio and maneuverability.Available this summer, the BeamPro 2 provides better face-to-face interactions with its enlarged multi-touch display and vertical screen height adjustment. It has been engineered to move more easily around crowded spaces with its wide-angle cameras and additional sensors for detecting obstacles. It also provides improved audio and video.To read this article in full, please click here

Improved telepresence — in your face with the new BeamPro 2

For those of us intrigued by telepresence technology, the new BeamPro 2 might be just what Santa should have left under our trees – except, well, that it wouldn’t have fit. But on other scales, the release of this new and improved device promises more realistic visits with colleagues, customers, patients, and others with respect to video, audio and maneuverability.Available this summer, The BeamPro 2 provides better face-to-face interactions with its enlarged multi-touch display and vertical screen height adjustment. It has been engineered to move more easily around crowded spaces with its wide angle cameras and additional sensors for detecting obstacles. It also provides improved audio and video.To read this article in full, please click here

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