Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

or...  slapsgiving...

Introduction to Networks (non-technical)

Rather than post my typical notes from a CCNA course, I figured I'd post a non-technical description of how networks "work".  I'm going to preface this by saying this is "allegory" of TCI/IP layer 3.  This is not intended to be definitive.  

So...

You have built a company.  It's a great company.  But no one can ever find your physical location.  You live on a drab, grey, boring street.  Did I mention grey? I meant every single building is nothing but grey concrete, and the streets are bleached grey.  It is grey as far as the eye can see.

So, being the great business leader you are, you go out and buy a bucket of purple paint.  Now, purple paint is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  And because it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, it costs an arm and a leg.  To get the shade of purple you want, you buy one can of paint.  It covers the outside of the door well, but nothing else.

So, from the outside your door looks purple.  But that paint is so darn expensive, you only paint the outside.  The inside of the door is still brown.

So, a customer comes to visit.

You tell him to drive down the grey street until you see a purple door.  He find your location in minutes.  It's easy.

Back in your office, you have a discussion, and he thinks he is going to buy from you.  But he needs to talk to a few people to determine how much he wants to buy.  And he forgot how to get out of the building.

"Oh, just go out the purple door", you tell your customer.

The man spends 45 minutes wandering your halls, and finally finds you.   He curses you out, cancelling all potential business.  You are at a complete loss.  The customer can't find the purple door.

The one thing you forgot is that doors have two sides.  One side that is visible from the street, and one side that is only visible from the inside of the building.  You painted your street door purple.  It's easy to find.  But your exit door on your building?  Still just as brown as it ever was.  So telling someone to go find a purple door is an exercise in futility.

You have to name the door based off which side  you happen to be looking at.

Even though both talk about the same thing, it's a matter of which side of the door you are on.  And you have to have your discussion based on which side of the door you can see.

Ramblings that get longer

As it always does, my mind seems to be skipping back towards the ideas of Cyberpunk.  I’ve been a fan of the worlds created by various artists and authors for years.  Maybe that’s why I went into computers.  Doubtful, but it seems like a good answer.  Perhaps there’s some sort of draw to a world that is altogether completely overwhelming and interconnected.  Or maybe I’m just fascinated by urban density.  I’ve visited a few large cities, but they never strike me as dense until you reach certain parts of them.  All are strangely built up to a point, and then everything falls off.  The quicker people can get away from the density, the better they like it.  I can’t blame them.  It’s dead silent where I live, and as long as I don’t look towards the one street light on my block, I can see stars as far as the eye can see. 

It really makes me wonder.  One of the things I realize is the current education system will not keep up with the rate of growth.  One size fits all does not fit all.  Eventually, there’s going to be a separation of students.  There has to be to maintain technological ability and skill.  I was reading something earlier about the creation and production of virtual machines to segment individual computers for personal use.  It would be much like running VMWare for servers, but instead running it on desktops.  You’d have multiple virtual machines running throughout your computer, with each having a separate purpose.  Depending on what you were trying to do, you would create multiple virtual machines across your desktop.  With the ever present threat of virus and malware, it seems the only logical thing to do. 

Unfortunately, people like me would have to maintain those environments and would have to understand what was going on.  And some people are just technologically inept.  They have no interest or use in technology, much less a desire to learn it and learn how it works.  I often wonder what would have happened if I had learned and developed the skills I have now in my 20s instead of my 30s.  Would another decade of information have made that much difference in my future growth?  What about 20 years?  What if I had spent time learning this information in my teens?  Who would have taught a young kid the ins and outs of systems?  Could it be we will be slowly moving towards the archology models described by William Gibson?  In them, he describes people growing up in company towns and being taught company thoughts, with the idea of developing the best and brightest to become leaders in the company.

Gibson never really talks about the inside development thought much.  He only talks about “stealing talent”.  Perhaps the average person is just too simple and really doesn’t make a good story.  It’s only in the breakaway that people become interesting.  So what does it eventually become?  A collection of corporation-states all building great cities to develop the talent?  Or is it the artificial intelligence world where humans are essentially out of work because robots can handle most services like Dredd?  Both are possibilities.  

Monday Ramblings

Here are some ramblings for Monday.

The subcontract work fell through.  I spent about 45 minutes on the phone explaining how TCP/IP layer 3 works, and finally got them to know what they needed to know.  I guess a broad knowledge of networking helps a lot when working in an industry that is increasingly network based.  It doesn't help that most networking issues happen at layer 1.  The issue there was a layer 3 addressing issue.  Pictures don't help some people.

After messing with my current reading chart, I determined it will take me (on average) until January 17th to finish the next book.  Strange what a few excel formulas can do.  It's almost magical.   The formula here happens to be

(today's date + (estimated remaining sessions * average days between reading))

estimated remaining sessions = (total pages - current page ) / average increase in page count

So, by close to February I'll be back into an old Security+ book, Some time after that, I'll be into the book on Physics.  Progress, as it were, is happening.  After starting over with the Active Directory book, I'm about 12.7% complete with my reading goal.  That doesn't seem like much, but it more progress than I've made in years.  

It's hard to remember that progress only happens when it is intentional.  Rambling through life will not get you where you want to go.  Make a plan, and go there.  That's the only way to get to the end of the path.  And if that path takes reading 5,200 pages, then so be it.  At least you've got a plan, which is a lot more than most people have.

Finals are next Monday, so I'll finish up Introduction to Networking then and be free for a few weeks.  Fighting issues with the next class, but we'll see what happens with that.  The issue is a supply/demand problem.  The next class filled up in three days.  Every other class doesn't have the people as the one section I want to take.  Lovely stuff.

late night, post upgrade

12:35 at night.  Just finished an upgrade.  The BUYPAK 6.00.10 (Verifone Ruby/Sapphire) upgrades are done for the moment.  I'm a little bit tired and wired at the same time.

On the drive home, I started contemplating the Internet as envisioned by the likes of William Gibson.  I think it's pretty simple (in theory).  All you'd have to do is continuously ping and tracert the Internet, and use some searching algorithms to place all the live IP addresses on a globe, with a vague idea of where everything.  Merge it with Google Maps, and you could swing around a virtual globe.  Public IP addresses tied to physical locations and areas.  Sounds interesting in my head, at least.

I guess I'm still obsessed by the idea of cyberpunk and most dystopian future books.  Akira comes to mind, as does Ghost in the Shell.  Maybe a bit of Snow Crash?

Maybe the future I always envisioned is possible, and here.  Just not the way we imagined it.  Really.  I can control computers half-way around the world with a cell phone application.

I guess I should quit rambling and wander to bed.  It does seem an interesting world, though.

Random Thoughts

Seeing as how I'm behind the curve on updates, today is another day of random thoughts!

I've been finishing up an Active Directory computer roll out.  This grouping I created after creating my first set.  I should have set up a template before creating that first test machine.  Eh well.  A template is now created.  I just have to figure out why web filtering isn't working.  I think I need to read more about application deployment.  There's probably something I'm missing.

I'm looking at some subcontracting work in next couple of weeks.  More on that after the contract is over.

I'm still not registered for the next section of Cisco classes.  The class filled up in three days, and they only offer one section.  The every other section in the department has less people than the one class I want to take.

I still haven't started my Android App yet.  Listening to Seth Godin, I think I front loaded the thing with all the stuff I find fun, and now have to do the hard parts.  That, and I have to mess with the Java version on my computer in order to get Eclipse to work.  If Verifone ever upgrades off Java 6, I'll be happy as a clam.

On the plus side, I've got one more night upgrade this week, and then I should be done with upgrades until at least January.  I hope.

Other than the subcontracting stuff.

It looks like the day is calling, so I'd better go answer.

Security

Something I’m questioning quite a bit is network security.  Network security is a nebulous thing that is never really clearly defined.  I’ve read through most of a Security+ book, but that doesn’t really cover the broad scope of what needs to be done to cover the subject.

I’ve looked at the SANS website, and they might be great but SANS is too busy selling things.  Looking at Cisco, it’s one part of the subject, but it doesn’t cover the entire subject. 

Here’s the real problem: network security is so spread out, ambiguous, and poorly documented that truly learning network security has to be a personal topic.  The individual has to wander through the various resources, hoping to find some piece of information that will secure the network.  So many different possibilities of areas to cover without any real dedication.  It is no wonder that networks are broken into all the time.

I guess that’s my rant for the day.  Lots of work today, so little time to spend at home and do…  anything else.

And I’m pissed at Evernote right now.  It lost about 2-3 hours of my note taking.  There was a lot of interesting information.   And somehow, I’m back to where I was before all my Saturday/Sunday studying.