8 most intriguing gadgets of 2015

A new generationA new generation of gadgets is poised to hit the market in 2015. In fact, some launched with limited shipping just before Christmas. Others are highly anticipated, but won’t be out until later in the year. Some will change the world. Others will end up in the tech scrap heap. Here’s a preview of what’s coming.Amazon Echo (Siri in a can)Ship date: Began shipping right before ChristmasTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook, other tech firms face pressure from drivers over work conditions

Facebook and other tech companies in Silicon Valley are facing increasing pressure from its shuttle drivers to improve working conditions, amid concern about growing inequality in the area.Loop Transportation drivers, who transfer Facebook employees to and from the company’s Menlo Park, California campus, have reached an agreement with the contractor that, among other benefits, will increase their average pay to US$24.50 an hour from the current $18 an hour, International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Sunday.The agreement will have to first be submitted to Facebook for approval as the paying client. The company could not be immediately reached for comment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour wins Oscar

A documentary on whistleblower Edward Snowden won the Oscar for the best documentary feature, in a shot in the arm for people worldwide protesting against alleged U.S. intrusions into the privacy of people in the country and abroad.The 87th Academy Awards were held Sunday in Los Angeles and presents film awards in 24 categories.Snowden, a former contractor of the U.S. National Security Agency, shook up the security establishment starting in June 2013, when he disclosed through newspapers that the agency was collecting in bulk phone data of Verizon’s U.S. customers, the first of many revelations by him.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lenovo hit with lawsuit over Superfish snafu

Lenovo admitted to pre-loading the Superfish adware on some consumer PCs, and unhappy customers are now dragging the company to court on the matter.A proposed class-action suit was filed late last week against Lenovo and Superfish, which charges both companies with “fraudulent” business practices and of making Lenovo PCs vulnerable to malware and malicious attacks by pre-loading the adware.Plaintiff Jessica Bennett said her laptop was damaged as a result of Superfish, which was called “spyware” in court documents. She also accused Lenovo and Superfish of invading her privacy and making money by studying her Internet browsing habits.The lawsuit was filed after Lenovo admitted to pre-loading Superfish on some consumer PCs. The laptops affected by Superfish include non-ThinkPad models such as G Series, U Series, Y Series, Z Series, S Series, Flex, Miix, Yoga and E Series.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lenovo hit with lawsuit over Superfish snafu

Lenovo admitted to pre-loading the Superfish adware on some consumer PCs, and unhappy customers are now dragging the company to court on the matter.A proposed class-action suit was filed late last week against Lenovo and Superfish, which charges both companies with “fraudulent” business practices and of making Lenovo PCs vulnerable to malware and malicious attacks by pre-loading the adware.Plaintiff Jessica Bennett said her laptop was damaged as a result of Superfish, which was called “spyware” in court documents. She also accused Lenovo and Superfish of invading her privacy and making money by studying her Internet browsing habits.The lawsuit was filed after Lenovo admitted to pre-loading Superfish on some consumer PCs. The laptops affected by Superfish include non-ThinkPad models such as G Series, U Series, Y Series, Z Series, S Series, Flex, Miix, Yoga and E Series.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network Automation with Cisco Nexus Switches & Ansible

Over the past few years, I’ve written quite a bit about SDN and more recently more about what can be done today with existing products, APIs, and tools in terms of improving operational efficiencies. Most of the examples have leveraged modern network devices that have some type of API because it streamlines how to integrate with 3rd party systems be it a custom application or a platform like Ansible (a platform that I’ve written about frequently). I’ve posted examples here and there on GitHub on these topics, but nothing that starts from the ground up.

With that in mind, I’ve recently created a new GitHub project that walks through step by step on how to get Ansible installed and specifically up and running ready to automate Cisco Nexus switches. Note: In full transparency, I was compensated by Cisco for this particular project. It was a no-brainer since I was already doing similar work over the past several months. That said, going forward it would be great to get others involved in any capacity from writing docs to writing code.

Network Automation with Cisco Nexus & Ansible

The README in the GitHub project repository outlines exactly how to get started. There Continue reading

Getting started with Ansible

Getting started with AnsibleThe easiest way to describe Ansible is that it’s a simple but powerful it-automation tool. In the words of its creator Michael DeHaan “I wanted a tool that I could not use for 6 months, come back later, and still remember how it worked.” and it really feels like riding a bike. Even years from now when I take a look at an Ansible Playbook I’m sure I will immediately see what it does. Playbooks, which allows you to run several tasks together, are writting in YAML making them easy to read.

This guide is too short to teach you everything about Ansible. Instead the aim is to give you an idea of how you can use Ansible, and how it can help you manage your IT environment. Even if you don’t end up using Ansible, learning tools like it as Chef or Puppet can help you to think differently about how you operate your network.

Continue reading

Life is busy

I’ve had zero time to update the blog recently. As some of you may know, I recently started a new job with Google. I’ve moved my family and I over from the UK to Dublin, Ireland. To say I’m busy right now is an understatement. Not only is there a ton of reading for me […]

Getting started with Ansible

Getting started with AnsibleThe easiest way to describe Ansible is that it’s a simple but powerful it-automation tool. In the words of its creator Michael DeHaan “I wanted a tool that I could not use for 6 months, come back later, and still remember how it worked.” and it really feels like riding a bike. Even years from now when I take a look at an Ansible Playbook I’m sure I will immediately see what it does. Playbooks, which allows you to run several tasks together, are writting in YAML making them easy to read.

This guide is too short to teach you everything about Ansible. Instead the aim is to give you an idea of how you can use Ansible, and how it can help you manage your IT environment. Even if you don’t end up using Ansible, learning tools like it as Chef or Puppet can help you to think differently about how you operate your network.
Continue reading

Solicited-node multicast address

How does Internet work - We know what is networking

Some time ago I was working on IPv6 implementation and in that period I written an article about NDP (you can read it here). After a while I received some comments that is not written well so I reviewed a huge part of it. It looks my english was far worst two years ago that I was really aware of In the reviewing process I realised that NDP usage of Solicited-Node multicast addresses was not clearly explained. This is the follow-up article which should explain how and why Solicited-Node multicast address are used in NDP. Let’s go! Solicited-node multicast address is IPv6 multicast address used on the local L2

Solicited-node multicast address

VeloCloud & Information Brokerage

VeloCloud was the first presenter at Network Field Day 9. They are one of the new breed of SD-WAN vendors. I’m impressed by what they’re doing, and and the potential it offers for re-thinking the way we do WAN connectivity. But I think the most interesting part is the increased visibility into how networks are performing.

I won’t go into the details of how it all works – Brandon covers some of it here, and you can look through VeloCloud’s site to understand it more. I want to focus on a few details around data analysis, and information brokerage.

Internet Quality Monitoring

In this video, Kangwarn Chinthammit talks about how VeloCloud is using their devices to monitor Internet quality. Because they’re installed in a wide range of locations, with many different WAN connection types, they’re building up some interesting data.

They’ve been able to do some deeper analysis of the data, and break down quality measurements by location, circuit type, hour, and day. Some of the interesting results include:

  • A good ISP in one location may not be any good in another. So you can’t just pick one ISP.
  • Quality varies during the day, and across the year. It might be Continue reading

UNICEF, Airtel team up in Africa to widen access to free health, data analysis apps

UNICEF, the U.N. Children’s Fund, has made its RapidPro suite of apps available to Airtel customers for free across the 17 African countries in which the telecom company operates.The open-source family of applications is designed to help governments deliver rapid and vital real-time information and connect communities to lifesaving services. The apps offer health, education and youth-focused content.By introducing the apps to Airtel users, UNICEF content will be more accessible and data-gathering across regions made easier. RapidPro makes data related to interactions on the platform available in Excel for analysis.RapidPro also allows organizations to create personalized messages based on information collected from users, which could in turn increase response rates.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Openstack Juno – Management interfaces

This blog is part of my series on Openstack Juno. In this blog, I will cover different management interfaces to Openstack. Following are the different management interfaces available. Horizon web interface CLI interface to each service. CLI interface is provided by Python script. Internally, the script calls the REST interface. REST interface. This is accessible … Continue reading Openstack Juno – Management interfaces →

Openstack Juno services – Swift, Glance, Heat, Ceilometer

This blog is part of my series on Openstack Juno. In this blog, I will cover the usage of Openstack services Swift, Glance, Heat, Ceilometer. Swift: Swift is used for Object based storage. Its similar to AWS S3 service. First, create a container to store objects: $ swift post mycont Upload a file to the container $ … Continue reading Openstack Juno services – Swift, Glance, Heat, Ceilometer →

Openstack Juno services – Nova, Cinder

This blog is part of my series on Openstack Juno. In this blog, I will cover the usage of Openstack services Nova, Cinder. I found this blog on Openstack services good in giving a highlevel overview of services and comparing individual Openstack services with Amazon AWS services. Nova basics: Nova is the Openstack compute service. Following … Continue reading Openstack Juno services – Nova, Cinder →
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