My mechanical keyboard

You spend all your waking time at a keyboard. This blog post is about keyboards, and can be summarized as: Buy quality, cry once.

I spend a lot of time typing on a keyboard, yet I have never looked into what keyboard would be best for me. There are natural keyboards and kinesis keyboards that people speak well of, but I spend a lot of time typing on laptops and don’t want a completely different setup for laptop and desktop.

I had the same concern before switching to Dvorak back when I was a consultant (thus often using other peoples managed machines), but happily switched after verifying that even on a locked down Windows machine as a non-admin user I could select Dvorak. Also there are adapters from Dvorak to Qwerty that I could use in extremely locked down environments such as the CCIE lab (they required a doctors note though, long story).

So it would have to be a keyboard that looks like a normal one. Preferably with Dvorak on the keycaps. It seems that mechanical keyboards are all the rage, so I thought I’d give that a go.

I ended up buying a 88 key Cherry MX brown-based Continue reading

Upcoming Apple TV will feature App Store and Siri

Amid reports that Apple is planning to roll out its own streaming TV service later this fall, we now have word regarding what Apple's fourth-gen Apple TV is going to look like.Reporting for Buzzfeed, John Paczkowski reports, that Apple plans to show off a completely revamped version of its Apple TV at WWDC sometime this June. And though previous Apple TV updates have been somewhat limited to internal upgrades, this one promises to be a doozy.First off, the next iteration of the Apple TV will reportedly include, at long last, an App Store. Just as the App Store significantly increased the value proposition of iOS devices, we can expect to see a similar transformation with respect to the Apple TV. Even more so when one considers the possibilities of using external controllers, or even one's iOS device, as a controller while playing games on a big screen HDTV.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Android’s smart lock now detects when you carry your phone

Google is adding a feature to Android’s smart lock that could significantly cut down on the number of times users need to enter a passcode to unlock their phones while they are out and about.On-body detection uses the accelerometer in the phone to detect when it’s being held or carried by a person. If enabled, the feature requires a passcode the first time the phone is accessed but then keeps the device unlocked until it is placed down.That means, for example, that someone walking down the street won’t have to unlock their phone every time they take it out of their pocket.The feature doesn’t appear to have been announced by Google, but it began appearing in some phones on Friday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Could Facebook be your next phone company?

Bare-metal switches poised to take off in data centers

Bare-metal switches that can be programmed like Linux servers aren’t just for big Web companies anymore. They may show up in a lot more average enterprises in the next few years.Cloud-based service providers like Facebook and Google have been building data-center networks out of generic hardware and homegrown software for years. Now vendors including HP and Dell are beginning to sell switches much like they do bare-metal servers. They may pre-load an operating system and provide ongoing support, but that OS is open and their customers will have much more freedom with this new kind of gear than they do with traditional switches from vendors like Cisco Systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Bare-metal switches poised to take off in data centers

Bare-metal switches that can be programmed like Linux servers aren’t just for big Web companies anymore. They may show up in a lot more average enterprises in the next few years.Cloud-based service providers like Facebook and Google have been building data-center networks out of generic hardware and homegrown software for years. Now vendors including HP and Dell are beginning to sell switches much like they do bare-metal servers. They may pre-load an operating system and provide ongoing support, but that OS is open and their customers will have much more freedom with this new kind of gear than they do with traditional switches from vendors like Cisco Systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

China discloses cyberwarfare unit, no one surprised

It came as a shock to just about no one in the cybersecurity industry that China has a cyberware unit, which was acknowledged by the government there this week.While the Chinese government has long denied attacking U.S. targets, U.S. businesses and government agencies have complained for years about attacks originating from China.The Chinese government noted the existence of the country’s cyberwarfare unit in “The Science of Military Strategy,” a publication put out by a research institute of the People’s Liberation Army, according to news reports this week. The U.S. military has acknowledged its own cyberwarfare capabilities for over a decade.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Plexxi Pulse – Bringing Data to Life at Arrow’s IoT Immersions Conference

Next week, our co-founder, CTO and EVP of products and technology, Dave Husak, will be heading to Arrow’s Internet of Things Immersions Conference to participate in two panels. The event will be held on March 26 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.

The first panel Husak will join will weigh in on the topic “Bringing Data to Life: How to Turn Data Intelligence into Actionable Sales Growth.” Husak will be joined on this panel by other industry thought leaders from Arrow, EMC, Intel, NXP and Oracle. Husak and the other panelists will analyze how to effectively harness massive amounts of sales data and turn it into something actionable and meaningful for their organization. He’ll follow up this panel with a general panel at 6:50 as part of the Innovator’s Showcase.

In case you’re in the area, you can register for the event here. If you aren’t, follow along with us on Twitter here.

Below please find a few of our top picks for our favorite news articles of the week. Have a great weekend!

Network Computing: SDN Benefits For The SME

By Tom Hollingsworth

Working in a small or medium enterprise (SME) is a constant juggling Continue reading

Monetizing medical data is becoming the next revenue stream for hackers

The personal information found in health care records fetches hefty sums on underground markets, making any company that stores such data a very attractive target for attackers.“Hackers will go after anyone with health care information,” said John Pescatore, director of emerging security trends at the SANS Institute, adding that in recent years hackers have increasingly set their sights on EHRs (electronic health records).With medical data, “there’s a bunch of ways you can turn that into cash,” he said. For example, Social Security numbers and mailing addresses can be used to apply for credit cards or get around corporate antifraud measures.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SDxCentral Weekly News Roundup — March 20, 2015

HP selling? EMC buying? This week's roundup digs into the rumor mill.

Routing on the CCIE Data Center Lab – How Deep Do We Need to Go?

Every time I teach NX-OS the same question often arises, “How good do we need to be at routing in order to pass the lab exam?” My first inkling is always to say ‘learn it all,’ but we all know that isn’t always possible. There is a ton of information to learn within the scope of this lab exam, so in order to fully understand this question, we need to look towards Cisco’s almighty guide, the blueprint!

They have gone pretty easy on us in terms of routing, but in their defense, they do have an entire lab dedicated to routing and switching. If we scan down the blueprint to Section 1.2, we see the category we are looking for:

While that comprises that entire section, I would also err on the side of caution and include Section 1.4a grouped within the L3 category, those being first-hop routing protocols such as HSRP, GLBP, and VRRP.

Look at what they ask us for here, and lets analyze it. They ask for BASIC EIGRP and OSPF, Bi-directional forwarding detection, and equal-cost multi-pathing. ECMP isn’t really its own ‘protocol’, rather something that most L3 protocols support. We will see that Continue reading

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 3/20/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

• Mario Netuschil, CCIE #47059 (Wireless)
• Morgan Chou, CCIE #46394 (Routing and Switching)
• Russ Bartsch, CCIE #45792 (Collaboration)
• Robert Hakala, CCIE #45981 (Data Center)

We Want to Hear From You!

Have you passed your CCIE lab exam and used any of iPexpert’s self-study products, or attended a CCIE Bootcamp? If so, we’d like to add you to our CCIE Wall of Fame!

Could modernized analog computers bring petaflops to the desktop?

Could updated analog computer technology – popular from about 1940-1970 –be developed to build high-speed CPUs for certain specialized applications?Researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are looking to discover -- through a program called Analog and Continuous-variable Co-processors for Efficient Scientific Simulation (ACCESS) -- what advances analog computers might have over today’s supercomputers for a large variety of specialized applications such as fluid dynamics or plasma physics.+More on Network World: Quick look: 10 cool analog computers+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Net neutrality rules: Separating fact from hype

The net neutrality debate in the U.S. over the past year has been filled with hyperbole, speculation and questionable claims, coming from both sides of the debate.Let’s look at some of the hype and compare it to what we know from the U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality order, released last week, and from other information.Four million people in favor of the rulesThere seems to be a misconception, driven as much by media coverage as actual statements by net neutrality advocates, that nearly all of the 4 million comments filed with the FCC in the proceeding were in favor of strong net neutrality rules. There’s some debate over analysis done on the final numbers, but we do know that a substantial number of comments came from people opposed to new rules.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Updates Available to Popular Repos – Update Your Images

New attacks suggest leeway for patching Flash Player is shrinking

Cybercriminals are exploiting newly patched vulnerabilities faster, a sign that users and companies need to improve their software updating habits.Researchers from both Malwarebytes and FireEye reported Thursday that drive-by download attacks using the Nuclear Exploit Kit target a vulnerability that was patched last week in Flash Player.The flaw, which is tracked as CVE-2015-0336, was fixed by Adobe on March 12. It affects all Flash Player versions older than 17.0.0.134 on Windows and Mac, 11.2.202.451 on Linux and 13.0.0.277 ESR (extended support release).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Corsa Raises $16.5M for Its Programmable Data Plane

Corsa goes to production with its programmable data plane.

Wireless router from Huawei hints at new ways to speed up LTE

In the hunt for more spectrum to offer higher wireless broadband speeds, mobile operators and equipment vendors are showing a growing interest in a new candidate.Huawei Technologies has laid the groundwork for speeds up to 220Mbps using LTE-Advanced at 3.5GHz. On Friday, the company said it has launched the world’s first device, a wireless router, that combines the speedy network technology with that frequency band.The amount of spectrum is one of the things that determines what speeds a network can offer. The 3.5GHz band is an ideal candidate for offering high speeds because it has a lot of spectrum available, according to Huawei. What the vendor does not mention is that using the higher band also means worse coverage than what mobile operators can offer with current networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco NAT Cheat Sheet

I’ve always had a difficult time when attempting to remember how to implement the different types of NAT available on ASA and IOS devices. It doesn’t help that between the two device families, there are three different syntax versions used in the configurations. I created the PDF linked below as a quick reference sheet. It […]

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John W Kerns

John is a network and systems engineer based in the Los Angeles/San Diego area. His background is in two traditionally stovepiped skill sets; systems administration and switching/routing/security. Most of his time is spent as an implementation engineer for a medium sized SoCal VAR. You can visit his blog at blog.packetsar.com or follow him on twitter @PackeTsar

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The post Cisco NAT Cheat Sheet appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John W Kerns.

Surprise! IBM Actually Has a Huge Team on SDN

Despite key losses, IBM is expanding SDN.