Financialness, or not

I've read a lot of financial books.  They all say pretty much the same thing.  The ideas are all pretty much the same.  Each one has a bit they think is different.  But at least a bunch of them realize what they're saying is not unique. 

Short answer: buy things that make money while you sleep. 

That's pretty much it.

Big shocker.  But yeah, that's it.  The path to that answer is always different, but it's roughly the same regardless of what choice you make.  Many will suggest you start buying that thing while you are still in debt.  Others will tell you to get out of debt first.  Others will tell you to use debt.  But it's all the same: buy something that makes money while you sleep.

Continue buying things that make money while you sleep until you make enough money to where you don't need to work, and then you are rich. 

Could be businesses.  Could be stocks.  Could be bonds.  Could be houses. 

So, before you read your next financial book go look for something you can buy that will make you money while you sleep.   Because that's what the financial book is going to tell you anyways. 

The only difference is when and what method. 

Truthfully, I was thinking of a longer version of this article.  It seemed like a good place to go in to the differences between Robert Kiyosaki, Dave Ramsey, Mr Money Mustache, and Suze Ormann.  But it's pretty much the same thing over and over again.  A lot depends on where you are in your journey and your risk tolerance. 

From Kiyosaki, I learned that you should have multiple plans.  From Ramsey, I learned the psychology of getting out of debt.  Mr. Money Mustache provided an end game idea.  Suze Ormann didn't teach me all that much. 

Hardgaining part 2

This the followup to something  I wrote about being a so-called hardgainer. These are the scrawny guys who can't seem to put on weight. 

I've found it's pretty simple.  But the simplicity is confusing.  See, all you have to do is eat more. 

But the average hardgainer generally knows about when to quit.  As a general rule, I used to average about 2,000 calories a day.  I never gained weight.  

See, gaining strength and weight is not really about lifting weights.  You can spend a considerably shorter amount of time lifting weights than you do eating. 

Eating is a 3-4 time a day action.  You have to do this every single day. 

In comparison,

Yeah, 3 exercises a day.  And only 7 times in a month. Lifting is a considerably smaller amount of time.  Yet there are still obvious gains. 

My average weight in the last month has gone from 135 to 140. 

Granted, that's not a colossal gain.  But it's considerably better than what it used to be.  5 pounds in a month, and it only took an extra 1,000 calories a day. 

Essentially, eating is the primary thing you need to work on in order to solve your problems with gaining weight.  You don't need to spend more time in the gym.  You need to spend more time in the kitchen.

It's going to be uncomfortable eating all that food.  Sucking down another protein shake sucks.  You end up feeling bloated.  It's not fun.  But it's what you're going to have to do. 

Remember: 3-4 meals a day, and add another 1,000 calories a day.  My average went from 2,000 to 3,000.  And that resulted in a one month gain of 5 pounds. 

Learning the Right Lesson

I finally set a date to take the CCNA.  Actually, it's the part of the CCENT.  So I'm doing the two part CCNA thing.  Anyways, now that I have a date I have a limited time left to learn everything that I could possibly need to pass this thing.

And I'm doing everything different again.

See, success is a bad teacher.  I think I heard that from Bill Gates.

So far, I've had success.  But there were certain places that I had limitations.  Mental gaps in the knowledge.  I should be strong in all the information, not just sections.  But there are sections and specific information that I needed that just wasn't making it into my head in the correct manner.

It's funny.  At one point I was turning my CCENT notes into a book to sell.  That project was abandoned for various reasons.  But the main one being that what did good for the CCENT may not be good for the CCNA.  How can I know?

So I've been using Mnemosyne.  It's a flash card program that allows you to create your own flash cards.  So you end up getting a lot of flash cards that you study.  It seems I heard about flash cards for years, but always avoided them.

I didn't avoid them because they were complicated.

I avoided them because they were work.  I didn't need to work to learn everything.  Until I did.  And the methods I was doing weren't working.  And they didn't work for years.  YEARS.

So now, it's time to quit avoiding work.  Because that's what all this searching has been about.  Avoiding work.  And flash cards are work.

You are what you repeatedly do.

I think Aristotle said that.

Success is a bad teacher.

So if you want success, you must repeatedly do something.  And it's probably going to be work.  And it is going to suck.

And you can either do it now, or spend the rest of your life avoiding the work.

And you will keep ending up in the same scenario: wondering why you only get so far.

You are what you repeatedly do.  Excellence then, is not an act but a habit.
Success is a bad teacher.


Strangeness indeed.

Why I homeschool

Something I've been thinking about lately.  One of the local schools here said they were going to have to release teachers after the senior year because they didn't have enough students.

Good.

I feel sorry for the individuals.  But for the school?  I'm happy.  Why should the populace accept such failure as we get at public education?  There needs to be a culling.  For people who's only answer is "spend more" it's time they learned to deal with the inadequacies of their methods.

For some reason, whenever I think of this I imagine either a teacher meeting with a dozen teachers lined up like the inquisition.  That occasionally vacillates towards a giant room full of people.

So, let's talk about the socialization program in school.  Let's discuss ages, curriculum, and time spent.  Well, there's speech class.  So socialization is taught in school at the very end to people who by and large are now phoning their effort in?   Great teaching job.  So if school isn't teaching proper social behavior, who is?  That would be the other students.  So you send your kids to school to learn how to socialize.  They are then taught by people who are also learning how to socialize.  And the teachers are doing what?

Guess no one ever thought of teaching power distance at an early age?   Yet that's more of a defining characteristic for success than intelligence.  Malcolm Gladwell spends an entire chapter on it in Outliers.  That is one of the greater definers of a person's ability to succeed in life.

I know a person who was trying to get into college.  Power distance defeated him until I gave him a pep talk.  The college kept telling him he couldn't go, but he didn't understand why.  I got him to ask until he know the answer and could explain it.  After all that fight, turns out his FAFSA was turned in late so he couldn't get federal aid.  If he couldn't get federal aid, he couldn't afford college (at least in his eyes).  Now there is an answer.  All it took was a little persistence and understanding of power distance.

And why is someone having to learn how to deal with people of greater authority at 20 as opposed to 5?  Why all the deferral?  Couldn't this have been easily taught in kindergarten?

It could have been taught.  But that's not the purpose of school.

So we've beaten up on the first idea of public school.  What about the rest of it?

What about those schools who profess their "quality of teaching"?  

And I ask: in comparison to what?  The children and adults of today have to compete on a global scale for many things.  Being the only shoemaker in town doesn't benefit you anymore.  Anyone can go on the web and order any individual item they want.  Unless your profession is in the trades, you need the ability to compete globally.  Even the trades aren't a good example.

Let me illustrate.  Company A has a preferred electrician.  The electrician does good work, and always fills the order as requested.  Unless that electrician stops performing, Company A will continue to hire that electrician anywhere that electrician is licensed.  150 miles away?  Pay the trip charge.  300 miles away?  Pay the trip charge.  Why?  Because you know the quality of work you are going to get out of that electrician.  And quality work is worth the extra expense.  So hometown electrician isn't competing on those big jobs with Company A because Company A is going to hire the same person over and over again.  Until that subcontractor pisses off Company A.  And the subcontractor knows it.  So that person makes Company A happy.

Once again, in comparison to what?  To the local schools?  According to Pearson, the United States is 14th overall, 11th in Cognitive Skills, and 20th in Educational Attainment.  So "best of the best" in America is still pretty pathetic in comparison to South Korea.  Or Japan. Or Singapore.

Unless you are being compared to the best, you are not the best.  The cream of the crap is still crap.

How do you solve that problem?  Pretty simple.  Eliminate stuff in the daily class load, and spend more time in teaching each skill.  Math goes from 45 minutes a day to 2 hours a day.  When was the last time a student was at the board solving a problem in American public school?   Once a week?  Once a month?  With homeschooling, that child is answering questions and getting direct solutions to problems every single class period.

What happens if one student falls behind in public school?   Nothing.  What about a lack of understanding?  Also nothing.

Until the student fails school and can't move on because they didn't understand material that built on other material.

In home schooling, the class never has to go on until the student understands.  Period.


There's probably more.  I'm sure there is.  But I'm done with the hippy failure mindset of the US.  Go out.  Be more than a conquer.

Opportunity abounds everywhere, yet many can't get beyond minimum wage.  What has the education system taught those people?  Why are they failing?

passivity.

The more I read, the more I realize that there is a wide variation between knowledge and action.  Reading is a very passive action.  Despite the vast potential of knowledge, most of the knowledge is just a gathering.  The gathering system usually doesn't have an output.  And without the output, the knowledge becomes a cesspool.  It goes in and just festers.

But that's just what successful seem to disagree with.  The system of input only doesn't really work.  It's just like the system of consuming TV.  Just a content input with no output towards any greater good.  And that output is what improves society.

I guess that's why someone said the greatest pile of innovation is found in the graveyard.  Most innovation dies without creation.  What could possibly happen if everyone created?

Who knows.  Really, it's a large pipe dream.  Too many people content to live with what others will give them, as opposed to working on creating something different and unique.  They are far too content to accept handouts.

The mass producers will continue to produce.  The consumers will continue to consume.

Perhaps there a chance that all this will change.

But that's unlikely.  The stakeholders have no motivation to change the system and in order to make it work better.

The other question is simple: how do you get the average person out of the consumption mentality and in to a creation mentality?

Accomplishments

So, a few weeks ago I started reading my goals twice a day.   You can read about that here.  So I've been reading them.  And making some progress.  But not the progress I want.  See, reading is just a simple action.  It requires little effort.  You are effectively done reading your goals in a few minutes.   But reading goals and accomplishing goals are two different things.

So I've started to keep track of my goal accomplishment in a spread sheet.  I just started today.  I'm not sure how well this setup is going to work, so I may tweak it.  But at the moment its something.  The end result is to start accomplishing goals more.  To do the work to accomplish the goal.  Which is a lot harder than just writing the things down.

I have to admit.  Writing them down and reviewing them on a daily basis is causing me to  put some effort in.  Just not the effort level I want to put.  The hope is small accomplishments spread out over time resulting in a big goal being accomplished.  Not some giant, one time step to accomplish the thing.  There's no exoneration in this plan.    Just straight up dirty labor.  Never ending dirty labor.  But that's what gets things done.

Now, back to reading.  I've got 6 more pages on one goal today, and I want to get those knocked out.

It's always easy

I was going to write something on a subject I conjecture about, but really know nothing about. So I decided to scrap that and go with something else.  Perhaps this.  This might get scrapped before I finish writing it.  If not, lucky you!

I'm struck by how everything is always described as being "easy" as long as you use the correct method.  Which seems really strange because you need to know the correct method in order to use the correct method, and learning the correct method is generally trial and error.

Anyways.  I really see two variations in this theme.  One sells books, and the other is the truth.  The first is that everything is always easy.  Which is strange, because I can't describe anything I do as easy.  Sure, I make it look easy.  But I've got 5 years of hard experience in my job.  I've also done an okay job at learning how to learn.  I also understand that the primary way to learn is something I call blunt force trauma.  The goal with blunt force trauma is simple.  Beat a subject into your brain until it sticks.  Keep doing it over and over and over again. I've heard of plenty of shortcuts, but none of them work as well as blunt force trauma.  That's how I've passed my Cisco classes.

Because really, learning is work.  And work by and large is hard.  But it is fulfilling.  But it's hard.  It's a lot easier to kick back and use some passive method of studying.  I could watch videos all day long and not gain anything out of them.  Nor could I tell you what I read.  It just doesn't stick.  Because it requires no interaction and no concentration on my part.  Perhaps if I'd trained my brain differently, then I would instantly start learning the instant I sat in front of a TV.  But in reality I've spent years telling my brain to sit down and shut up when I'm in front of a TV.  And usually, my brain rebels.  So I watch about 30 minutes of TV a week.  There's far too many other things that I find interesting and would like to engage my brain in besides passive non-interaction.

At the moment, I happen to be reading Peak Learning by Ronald Gross.  He has a tendency to use the "it's so easy" method quite a bit.  But I've also covered 1/6 of the book, and he has yet to begin discussing learning how to learn.  And that's the purpose of the book, right?  So the question becomes when does the author try to get into the material so I can start learning how to learn?  In general, I'll probably gain 2-3 good insights out of the book.

I also happen to be reading Computer Vision by Dana H Ballard and Christopher Brown.  In comparison, I haven't heard anything described as "easy".  In comparison, it's better described as dense and/or heavily packed.  There is little room for fluff in this book.  Unfortunately, there's not really an easy way to go through that book.

Before work, kitchen table thoughts

I came up with an idea to teach my kids reading.  They are 5, 4, and 1.  I know I want to teach all three of them the same way.  That means I'll be repeating the same content three times.

The computer part of me says rebuilding the same content three times is ridiculous.  And it is.  So all I have to do is build the content the correct way once, and then start the next kid on their lesson.  In many ways, I think Khan Academy is revolutionary in the academic space.  I would love to see something like that for English.

The program I'm writing is based on Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Steps by Siegfried Engelmann.  It's been a pretty awesome book so far, even though I've only made it through lesson 20 with my oldest child.

So the goal is to create something like Khan Academy for English, based on Englemann.  It's going to be interesting.

Circling the globe (the thoughts in my head)

I went on vacation this last week.  I didn’t spend any time working.  It was wonderful.  Now, it’s Saturday and I’m back to getting ready for work.  The mental processes are starting to grind away, and get back to what I was working on.  At the moment, I’m updating Visual Studio so I can work on the program I was writing in C#.  I know I’ve heard a lot of disparaging things about C#, but I’m not terribly concerned.  There are too many purists in the world. 

C# is a tool.  Nothing more.  If it’s not the tool you need for the job, then don’t use C#.  C++ is a tool.  Java is a tool.  Visual Basic is a tool.  They are all tools.  Nothing more, nothing less. 

Each tool out there has a specific use, and some tools are better for certain applications.  I can’t say C# is any better a tool than Java in this case, but it’s a tool I can manipulate easier.  I also spend a lot less time fighting the interface and more time working on what I’m interested in working on.  As such, the thing already reads XML files, runs threads, and generally works like I want it to.  It’s not complete by any means, but it’s on its way there. 

In the period since I started writing this (it’s been about a week) I read Seth Godin’s Small in the New Big.  It’s quite a remarkable book, and there’s a lot I’d like to say about it.  I’m really not sure what to say, though.  There truly has been a paradigm shift and in the world, and those trying to follow the old paradigm seem to be getting left behind.  It’s much easier to follow the new paradigm.

But what is the new paradigm?  I think the answer is release early, release often, and benchmark everything.  Quit trying to make something perfect, and make something you can release. 

So I think I’m going to go with that, and make something I can release.  I’ve already started working on it, but it’s neither groundbreaking nor amazing.  But it’s something. 

When you release often, you end up basically throwing a lot of stuff up, and hoping some of it sticks.  I’m not sure if that makes sense, but it does to me.  If I release something in the next month or so, then I’m doing better than I have in the last few years.  Too much thinking and trying to come up with the perfect idea.  Too little time releasing. 

I think I also realized the background for the past few months (maybe a year) has been chemistry related.  I like the picture, but this has nothing to do with chemistry.  I should probably change that.

Antiquated, Arbitrary Systems

I home school my children.  Why I do that is a subject of a different post.  The subject of this post is to understand the contrast between public, private, and home schools.  It is fairly obvious to me that public schools as we know it are a way of the past.  The need to learn more material at a faster rate needs better methods of teaching that are more reproducible.  The herd mentality isn't going to work as a system much longer.

Think of the average public school.  You have a collection of subjects taught in a micro landscape with no tie to the rest of the world.  Secondly, you have students at differing levels of interest being forced in with those students who have no interest.  Third, you have an arbitrary knowledge level system that forces every student, regardless of ability, into a group.  Tackling these issues has been something home schooling has never had to deal with.

And before I move on, class size doesn't matter.  I had a high school size of 140 and no class I took had more than 20 people.  And yet there were still people who passed high school barely capable of reading.

Now, I'm thinking the answer is going to be a combination of software and hardware.  Software provides the basis and the consistency of the system, while hardware produces the interaction.  Would an hour of class be as bad if the student spent their entire time standing, working on the board?

Secondly, you could have the program tailor itself to each individuals skills and abilities.  No more passing because the teacher just doesn't want to deal with you any more.  Computer programs have infinitely more patience than the average teacher.  The converse to that is now the gifted students will move at the pace that keeps them challenged as well.  If they learn a subject in five minutes and can prove competence in the next twenty, then there would be no need to keep going on for another fifty minutes.  Move on to the next subject so that gifted mind can keep up.

And when the mind hits a roadblock, the system slows down and doesn't let them move on until they have mastered the subject.

I think I envision the next generation being raised by computers in individual rooms or cubicles.  The teacher still exists in this environment, but their purpose is to help frustrated kids and give the hands on approach to the child that needs it.

I know the system we currently have does not work.  That's quite evident.  So the goal is to radically redesign the system to something that does work, and is reproducible.

I also seem to remember something years ago that stated Algebra was a college level course.  And now, it's a junior high course.  If you want the next level on movement, you have to get more people up to a higher level learning faster so those people can spend more time with the requisite knowledge to figure out the hard problems.

Rats vs Unicorns and the educational system

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about many different things.  Mostly “why” type of questions.  Perhaps I should elaborate.  Or not.  I don’t know.  I think the real problem is two-fold.  See, I don’t think I learned what I should have learned in school.  Reading, writing, and arithmetic are general subjects, but those aren’t the primary purpose of sending people though school.  As a creator of success, school is an absolute failure.  It’s been highly touted, though I’m not sure highly researched, that if you take 100 people out of any school the results will be vastly different.  Out of those 100, perhaps 10 will be moderately wealthy.  1 will be supremely wealthy.  And 90 will have zero or negative net worth. 

If that’s the case, then what are schools teaching?  Because if 90 out of 100 have a negative net worth, then that’s a fairly large failure rate.  What metric is being used to measure success?

I went through those systems.  I spent a lot of time learning the wrong thing.  And I’ve also spent a lot of time trying to learn and relearn the correct things.   The only problem with that is I don’t know what I need to be learning.  This shouldn’t be something that I have to redesign by hand.  It’s 2015.  Why haven’t we figured out how to train and teach for success yet?  Is the answer so complex that humans are incapable of understanding or developing the solution?  Or is it that our mental concept is so self-centric that we can’t think of long term solutions for education? 

I’m beginning to think the answer relates to rats and unicorns.  There’s a mental separation between those two animals.  They are more different than they are the same.  Unicorns are special, unique creatures.  They are these magical beings that are impossible to catch.

Rats are simple creatures.  There are more of them than humans.  There are rats everywhere.  There is roughly nothing unique about them.  A good 80% (assumption thrown in based on Pareto principle) of what makes a rat a rat is no different than any other rat.  It’s only via minor parts is the average rat ever special. 

So what do rats and unicorns have to do with education and technology in general? 

There aren’t any unicorns. 

There are a lot of rats.

Remember those two facts.  The next time someone discusses the uniqueness of what their selling, try to determine what is truly unique.  Mostly what you will find is a rat in a hat.  80% the same as every other alternative.  Really. 

There are no unicorns.  Just a bunch of rats with different color fur, or a hat, or something else that makes the rat not look like a rat.  

Garbage In/Garbage Out

I’ve been thinking of the concept of garbage in / garbage out.  It’s a computer science concept.  It’s an interesting concept.  The idea is that a computer is capable of processing all sorts of data, not just good data.  So if you give a computer bad data, it will spit out bad results.  Makes perfect sense in the computer world.  But what about applying the concept to life? 

Seems perfectly applicable to me, but it’s hard to interpret what constitutes good or bad information.  The basic concept I’m trying is limit the type of music I intentionally listen to.  I find that it’s hard to maintain the correct mindset when being assaulted by lyrics that preach the wrong kind of information.

Building the concept of where I want to be in relation to where I am is only limited by what my mind thinks I’m capable of.  But when you feed your mind information telling it that something can’t be done, then you are defeating yourself.  Logically, your brain is sitting there telling you that the music you are listening to is not affecting you.  But it is, and the effect is incredibly subtle.  It’s something easy to test, though it requires a bit of discipline.  What I did was eliminate music with words from my day to day listening. 

I guess I spent too much time listening to people doing bad things to other people.  Or listening to music written by people who are convinced the world is out to get them.  Or those that think the world owes them something.  I’m generally more inclined to think the world is ambivalent to individual existence.  Life is not fair, or easy.  But that doesn’t mean there is plenty of great stuff to pull out of the world.  In the grand scheme of things, the individual human life spans a very short period and has very little impact.  So really, our lives don’t matter all that much.

But mentally, people don’t want to believe that.  They want to believe in the importance and reach of their life.  But it’s simply not the case for the most part.  So you get a collection of garbage thrown in your brain that tells you the wrong thing and leads you to the wrong conclusions.  And generally, these conclusions are very logical.  Andy Andrews describes it as “thinking logically to the wrong conclusion”. 

So my recent approach has been to take in less garbage with the hopes of getting better information out.  I recently took a 4 day weekend after 17 straight days at work.  I had to work 17 straight days because I had been focusing on solving the wrong problem.  See, there’s the right problem and the wrong problem.  If you solve the wrong problem, you have to keep solving the problem over and over again.  It just doesn’t work.  What I finally realized in those last three or four days was I could have easily avoided working 17 days straight if I had done the correct thing.  What I needed to do was document better.  If I had documented better, then I could have turned anyone calling me to look at the document in question and follow it to its conclusions.  If the document was incapable of producing an answer, then there must have been some other issue.

What good does it do to create wonderful systems that have no documentation or notes? 

end of a semester

Routing and Switching is over.   Finished the final with an 85, closed book closed notes.

That should give me an A for the semester.  I need to prepare for the CCENT for the next 2-3 weeks, and then go take that.  Based on the Routing and Switching final, I need to study OSPF more.  I missed more than I would have liked on that.

Scaling Networks is next.   The book is on order.  I spent a few minutes looking through the chapter headings on the final book, and found the PPPOE section.   Yeah.  Book 4, right before the CCNA.

Moving on.   Back to site construction tomorrow, now that finals are complete.   Yay.

Java StopWatch: the down buttons

I'm still working on my Java Stop Watch.  I got the down buttons working over the course of about 20 minutes.  10 or so of was copy/pasting the code, and updating a few definitions.  The other 10 was troubleshooting what wasn't working properly.

There is a simple realization when you code: it will be wrong.  From there, you will need to fix it.  Life works much the the same way.  Anyways, here's how the buttons work.

First the mintues up button.

        ones = ones - 1;

                if(ones < 0 && tens > 0)

                {

                    ones = 9;

                    tens = tens - 1;

                }

                else if(ones < 0 && tens == 0)

                {

                    ones = 0;

                    tens = 0;

                }

Now, the explanation.  In this system, you have two separate scenarios.  One is that the number becomes negative.  We don't want that.  The other option is a reduction in place value.   I deal with them in the program in reverse order.  So we'll go with what the program covers.

The reduction in place value is a move is a dual comparison.  So...  If the ones' place is negative, and the tens place is greater than or equal to 1, then reduce the tens place by one and set the ones place to 9.

The other option is the value goes negative.   You can't measure negative time, or at least that I know of.  So, if the ones place is negative and the tens place is zero, set both places to zero.

The main point of both of these systems is the ones place reduction happens immediately.  That way, if the either comparison fails, then nothing is needed to be done and the function is complete (mostly) complete.  You still have to output the information, but that was covered earlier.

After writing the part that decrements the seconds, I changed the seconds incrementer to be consistent.  Previously, the seconds incrementer would go to from 59 to 00 and start back over.  But I didn't write the reduction to work that way, so I changed the system to stay at 59.   No rollover.  It's a personal program, so I'm not concerned about the system going in circles.


Looks like everything is working properly.  Next time, I need to write the threaded portion of the system.  Basically, during the "on tick" event, reduce the the display by 1 second until countdown is complete.

Maybe I'll get that working tonight.  Or some time.   Don't know.  We'll see.

Introduction to Networks ch 6

Introduction to Networks Chapter 6

Quiz 

     How does the network layer use the MTU value?

     A) The MTU is passed to the network layer by the data link layer.

     What are 2 functions that are provided by the network layer?

     1) providing end devices with a unique network identifier

     2) directing data packets to destination hosts on other networks

     During the boot process, in what memory location will the router bootstrap program look for the IOS image if a TFTP server is not used?  

     A) flash

          

     When transporting data from real-time applications, such as streaming audio and video, which field in the IPv6 header can be used to inform the routers and switches to maintain the same path for the packets in the same conversation

     A) Flow Label

     Within a production network, what is the purpose of configuring a switch with a default gateway address?

     A) The default gateway address is used to forward packets originating from the switch to remote networks.

Chapter 6 Notes

routing - communication between networks

Network Layer

     Provides services to allow end devices to exchange data across the network

     -OSI Layer 3

     -4 basic processes

          -Addressing (end devices)

               end device with configured IP is called a host

          -Encapsulation

               Receives PDU from transport layer.  Adds header.   Now called a Packet

          -Routing - services to direct packets to a destination host on another network

               -each route the packet takes to reach the destination is called a hop

          -Deencapsulation - process of removing headers from lower layers

               

     Operates without knowing/caring of the data being carried

     Media/Path is irrelevant.  Satelite, wireless, cable modem, serial.. doesn't matter

Network Layer protocols

     IPv4

     IPv6

 Characteristics of IP protocols    

     -low overhead

     -connectionless

     -best effort (unreliable) 

     -media independant

     Connectionless - no dedicated end to end connection created before sending.  Kind of like mail.

          -send at any time

          -unaware of the state of the recipient

          -unaware if the receiver can understand the data 

          -no error correction

          -no guarantee packets will arrive in order

Best Effort Delivery

     can't recover from failed/corrupt packets

     bad packets are dropped

     trouble with transmission handled by upper layers if the layer desires

     

Media Independent

     Data link layer responsible for transmitting over media.

     maximum size packet that can be sent is the MTU (maxium transmission unit)

          -data link layer passes the MTU value up to the network layer

          -network layer uses information to determine packet size

          -breaks packets to  fit the MTU.   

          -Fragmentation is necessary to split packet size so it will fit on a device with a smaller MTU

IPv4 Packet

     -In use since 1983

     Packet has 2 parts

          1) IP header

               Significant portions of the header

               -Version - packet version.  Constant at 0100

               -Differentiated services (formerly Type of Service) - used for QoS.   1st 6 bits used by QoS.  last 2 bits used to prevent dropping

               -TTL (Time to Live) 8 bit value to limit the lifetime of the packet.  Reduced at each hop.   If hits 0, router discards packet and returns ICMP Time Exceeded message to the source IP address

               -Protocol - indicates data payload

               -Source IP address

               -Destination IP address

               

          2) Payload

          Remaining fields of the IPv4 header

          -Internet Header Length (IHL) - 4 bit value identifying the number of 32 bit words in the header

          -total length - defines entire packet size, including header and data

          -header checksum - used for error checking IP header.  If values do not match, packet is discarded

          If the packet is fragmented, other fields are used to keep track of the data

          -Identification - unique identifier of a fragment

          -flags - identifies how a packet is fragmented

          -fragment offset - identifies the order in which to place the packet when it arrives at the destination

          

IPv6 packet

     Limitations of IPv4

     -IP address depletion   - only 4 billion available IP addresses.  Quickly running out due to always-on connections

     -Internet Routing Table Expansion - more networks, more routes, more waiting

     -Lack of end-to-end connectivity - Troublesome when NAT and PAT are used.  

     Encapsulating

          -simplification of the IPv6 header

          IPv4 had 20 octets and 12 basic header fields

          IPv6 has 40 octets and 8 basic header fields

          advantages over IPv4

               -better routing efficiency for performance and forwarding rate

               -no requirement for processing checksums

               -simplified and more efficient extension header mechanisms

               -flow label field for per-flow processing with no need to dencapsulate to identify various traffic flows

          IPv6 packet header

               -Version- 4 bit binary.  Constantly set to 0110

               -Traffic Class - equivelant of the differentiaed services field

               -flow label     - used to inform routers and switches to maintain the same path for packet flow so that packets are not reordered

               -payload length

               -next header - equivelent of the IPv4 protocol field.  indicates data being carried

               -hop limit

               -source address

               -destination address

          IPv6 addresses

          -128 bit address

          -colons separate entries into a series of 16-bit hexadecimal blocks

          

Routing

     How a host routes

          Host forwarding decision

               hosts can send a packet to ...

               -itself

               -local host

               -remote host

               local host vs remote host is based on IP address and subnet mask comparison between sender and receiver

               devices beyond the local network segment referred to as remote hosts

     

         

          Default Gateway

               the device that routes traffic from the local network to devices on remote networks

               

               if a host is sending to remote network, it sends to default gateway

               default gateway maintains a routing table 

                    -data file in RAM that stores route information from directly connected networks

                    -also knows remote networks the device has learned

                    

               host must maintain a local routing table to ensure proper delivery

               hosts routing table typically contains of...

               -direct connection

               -local network route

               -local default route

               default route only used to connect outside of the local network

IPv4 routing

               

          If a host wants to send a packet inside the local network

          1) consult the IPv4 route table

          2) match the destination IP address and identify it as being in the same network

          3) send the packet using the local interface

          If a host wants to send a packet outside the local network

          1) consult the IPv4 route table

          2) find there is no exact match for the destination IP address

          3) choose the local default route to pick the forwarding location

          4)  send the packet to the gateway using the local interface

          

IPv6 routing

          

          View routing table in Windows with netstat -r or route print

          If - lists the interface numbers from the interface list

          metric - lists the cost of each route to a destination.  Lower numbers are preferred routes

          network destination - lists the reachable networks

          gateway  - lits the address used by local host to forward outside the network

     ::/0 - IPv6 equivalent of the local default route

     ::1/128  - IPv6 equivalent of the loop back address

     200::/32 - global unicast network prefix

      fe80::/64 local link network route address;  represents all computers in the local network

      ff00::/8     multicast address

     no broadcast addresses in IPv6

Router Routing Tables

     routers store information about 

          directly connected routes

          -known from interfaces physically plugged into the router

          

          remote routes

          -routes that come from other routers.  

          -manually configured  or dynamically configured through the device learning from other routers

          routing table of a router

          -destination network

          -metric associated with the destination

          -gateway to get to the destination

          show ip route

          when a packet arrives at the router, the router examines the routing table.  if the destination network matches a route in the routing table, the router forwards the packet to that route

          if multiple paths to the same location, then lowest metric wins

     directly connected routing table entries

          routers have 2 rotus after IP address is assigned

          

          route source: - how the route was learned

               C: directly connected

               L - local route

          Destination network and how reached

               identifies the address of the network and how a packet can reach the destination

          outgoing interface

               what interface is used to connect to that network

          routers generally have multiple interfaces configured

               common codes for remote networks

               -S: route was manually created by an admin.  Static route

               -D: learned dynamically using EIGRP

               -O: learned dynamically using OSPF

          remote network routing table entries

               route source- how the route was learned

               destination network - the address of the remote network

               administrative distance - trustworthiness of the route source

               metric - value assigned to reach the remote network.  Lower wins

               next hop - ip address of the next router to forward packets to

               route timestamp - when the route was last heard from

               outgoing interface - physical interface to forward a packet

          next hop address

               address of the device that will process the packet next.

          packets can not be forwarded by the router without a route for the destination network.

          if no route, packet is dropped

          router can be configured with a gateway of last resort if the destination is unknown

          

Routers - 

     a router is a computer

     

     branch - small business, medium business, teleworkes

     WAN - large business

     Service provider - large service providers

     router CPU and OS

     

     Router memory 

          RAM  -  store applications and process including

                    -IOS - copied during bootup

                    -running config

                    -ip routing table

                    -ARP cache

                    -packet buffer

                    routers use DRAM

                    volatile memory and requires continual power to maintain information

                    all content lost when powered down

          ROM

               used to store:

               -bootup instruction

               -basic diagnostic software

               -limited IOS

               firmware embedded on an integrated circuit inside the router

               doesn't lose contents when powered down 

          NVRAM

               used as permanent storage for the startup config file

               doesn't lose contents when powered off

          flash 

               used as permanent storage for IOS and system related fields

          router backplane

               has the following connections

               -console ports

               -aux port

               -LAN interfaces

               -Enhanced high-speed WAN interface card (EHWIC) slot

                    modular enhancement slot.  Different interface, different card

          connecting to a router

               routers interconnect many devices

               connections grouped into two categories

               

               management ports - used to configure/manage/troubleshoot.  not used for packet forwarding

               in-band router interfaces - LAN and WAN interfaces configured with IP addressing to carry traffic

               two interfaces can't belong to the same network

          

router bootup

     bootset files - loaded into RAM when booted

          -IOS image file

          -start config file

     

     router bootup process

          1) perform POST and load the bootstrap program

          2) locate and load the Cisco IOS software

          3) locate and load the startup config file or enter setup mode

          locating/loading config file

               can be saved in NVRAM. 

               if not, can be loaded from a TFTP server

               

         show version 

               CPU and amount of RAM

                    some versions write the amount of ram with XXXX/YYYY.   add those two numbers together

               has config register as 0x2102.    changing to other used for password recovery

          

        general config steps

             1)give hostname

             2) set passwords 

                    -enable

                    -console

                    -VTY

                    -use service password-encryption to encrypt password

               3) setup a banner motd

               4) exit config

               5) save configuration

        configuring interfaces

               1) conf t

               2) interface whatever

               3) ip address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy   where x is IP address, y is subnet mask

               4) description blah

               5) no shutdown

               6) exit config

               7) save

        verify interface configuration

               show ip interface brief

               show ip route

               show interfaces

               show ip interface

default gateway on a switch

     1) interface blah

     2) ip address xxx yyy  (x is IP, y is subnet)

     3) no shutdown

     4) ip default-gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx   (x is IP address)

     

     IP address on a switch is only used to mange the switch

     if you want it accessible from anywhere, it needs a default gateway

Learning and marginalizing

It’s often great theory that gets me to go do certain things.  The end result seems something attainable and desirable.  Often times, I’m not wrong.  But what I’m going against now is both desirable and exceptionally time consuming.  I know what I want.  I’ve wanted it since I first started learning to program back in 1997 or 1998.  Even though the end seems in sight, it’s still a long way to go.  Maybe that’s why I keep playing “it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll”.   As far as songs go, that one is incredibly accurate. 

I don’t think before I ever contemplated a path towards achievement.  I know I didn’t in my twenties.  Now, in my thirties I have an idea of where I want to go.  I guess the interesting thing is that despite all the technological changes that have taken place in the last 15 years or so, the process towards achievement hasn’t changed.  I suppose some things never do, despite all the achievements.

Really, what I learned out of going through the CCNA material is this: despite technological achievement in learning, it’s still a lot of work.  Despite being able to memorize more or learn more, learning is still a lot of work.  And if you want to learn a decent amount of material, you will be putting in a lot of work.  There is no other option.  There is no easy way.  I can’t remember if it was Star Wars or some version of Star Trek that had students standing in learning bubbles, practicing material and waving their hands like manic crazies.  That might be the future, but such a situation is years away.

I’ve heard frequently about the greatness of technological input and the “race to the top”.  It’s the idea that students are growing smarter and smarter every generation.  The last generation won’t be able to keep up with the learning achievement of the next generation.  But there’s something inherently missing from all of those discussions.  I don’t know what it is, but it’s probably the same thing inherently wrong with the “race to the bottom”.  I find the duality strange that people can discuss both possibilities (students getting dumber and dumber, and students getting smarter and smarter) in the same breath.  So which is it? 

Or are we simply dealing with outliers?  I think that is more likely scenario.  The seconds option is one that I like to think is true.  American society has marginalized male achievement, so after being told for years that our achievements don’t mean anything the average male has given up.  It’s not that female achievement is less or less desirable.  It’s that we’ve spent a lot of time marginalizing specific groups and telling them their work is useless.  So that group is leaving the race, and dropping into things that are easy for them. 

Once again, me talking about thing things I have no empirical research on.  But it makes sense to me.