So how do we truly learn?
Theoretical knowledge does not imbue wisdom nor experience. A head full of thought can paralyse. Sometimes we need to leap with faith and not necessarily rely on hope. Our minds may spider ahead in to the future, in to uncertainty, however the expected or imagined future is rarely the one we find ourselves meeting. It is indeed wonderful to give shape to projected futures, otherwise we walk an eternal void or leading edge immediately in advance of the present moment (with nothing to guide our next decision but transcient emotions and feelings) so how far to journey ahead? Perhaps a fuzzy framework helps to guide us without locking us in? Don’t rule anything out, don’t rule anything in? But what happens when you have a very distinct desired outcome? Can one try too hard to shape that future at the detriment of the present moment and the actual end goal? When we deal with the complexities of human emotions, irrational beings, rational paths, confusing contexts and lack of reference points.. what do we fall back upon? Instinct, gut... who or what do we listen to? Does the voice inside get drowned out.. do we cave in to fear... what does experience tell us, what does it lend us especially when there is no previous similar experience to draw upon? There are many versions of ourselves e.g. those we project, those that are informed by the surroundings and company we keep, those that we keep to ourselves at all costs, only rarely letting others see inside.
Is it about trust and identity? Is it about safety and security? What is it that defines us?
If we cannot separate the environment we exist in from ourselves, does that beg the question around what decisions we consciously and unconsciously make that place us in certain environments? What happens when we are trapped? Do we convince ourselves where we are currently at is the best there is? A concept of synthetic happiness perhaps... or do we journey willfully in to the unknown to help define ourselves in our novel interactions with people, places and things? When there is too much noise, how do we gain perspective and look back inwards as a neutral observer? Can we ever even be close to neutral or objective, or is this just something we strive for...? What happens when we oscillate wildly in thought, or by virtue of not addressing basic nourishment, rest and relaxation? Why are we so good at distracting ourselves, ignoring our “real” selves? We race to the company of others, especially those that help make us feel “better”.. rather than making us uncomfortable and challenging our deeper cores.. basically give me 1 person who challenges me over 10 who agree with everything I say and do.
Do not surround me with counsel of silver tongued sycophants. Challenge the core of my being if true growth and nobility lies in improving upon my former self. What is respect?
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
ConnectCambodia
Client -> UBNT NanoM5(bat-un5-01b) <-> UBNT NanoM5(bat-un5-01a) -> GW -> internet
XM.v5.0# ping bat-un5-01a.connectcambodia.org
PING bat-un5-01a.connectcambodia.org (192.168.1.12): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=0 ttl=64 time=4.203 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.204 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.724 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.424 ms
--- bat-un5-01a.connectcambodia.org ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 1.204/2.138/4.203 ms
XM.v5.0# ping bat-un5-01b.connectcambodia.org
PING bat-un5-01b.connectcambodia.org (192.168.1.5): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.152 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.150 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.155 ms
--- bat-un5-01b.connectcambodia.org ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.150/0.178/0.255 ms
XM.v5.0#
XM.v5.0# ping bat-un5-01a.connectcambodia.org
PING bat-un5-01a.connectcambodia.org (192.168.1.12): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=0 ttl=64 time=4.203 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.204 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.724 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.424 ms
--- bat-un5-01a.connectcambodia.org ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 1.204/2.138/4.203 ms
XM.v5.0# ping bat-un5-01b.connectcambodia.org
PING bat-un5-01b.connectcambodia.org (192.168.1.5): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.152 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.150 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.155 ms
--- bat-un5-01b.connectcambodia.org ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.150/0.178/0.255 ms
XM.v5.0#
Monday, November 23, 2009
Notes from 2006
I want to help architect the future.
We are suffering from “Future Shock”, i.e. the disease of and rate of change.
Where and when are we centered in out perfect natural state?
Comission -> what is right or wrong with our current way of life?
Omission -> what is missing from our lives?
We are strangers in our own land. We are living in the external without acknowledging, accepting and adventuring in to the internal. For it is the internal that defines the external. The external has run away with itself in an ever increasing rate of change. The sleeper has awoken. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is being cultivated? Do we dare to dream? Mentally we are expending cycles worrying. Anxiety is rife. Worry drains the mind of much of its power, and, sooner or later it injures the soul. A natural reaction to insecurity or the unknown is to defend or lash out rather than to explore from a neutral standpoint. We pin our hopes on science, this so called neutral mentality of observation and hoped for understanding. Science is a framework for thought, but only supposedly practiced by trained scientists. How can one pour new thoughts and ideas in to ones mind, without first emptying the cup. Is there any absolutes? One must constantly make decisions with the data one has. *Concept of quality of data or information comes in to play*. Control the content, platforms and distribution, control the masses. Do you want to just exist or seek and explore all your human potential? I am actively re-architecting my mind. I am taking responsibility for my thoughts and actions. How does one adopt a positive paradigm about the world and all that is in it? Must we realise that mind management is the essence of life management?
Stop being a prisoner of your past, become an architect of your future.
I _had_ resigned myself to acting the way adults were supposed to act. The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. Personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Where is my natural energy and vitality? Too much worry caused a schism. Worry created a leak of mental energy and potential. My creativity, optimism and motivation was drained, leaving me exhausted. *Take the road less travelled*. I am taking the time to think. I am trying to discover my real reason for being here. Do I have the courage to act on it? Content and intent. Energy in thought. Your thoughts are your most prized possessions. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self. It doesn’t matter what others say to you or about you, it matters what you say to yourself. The purpose of life is a life of purpose. You will not find true joy in sleeping, relaxing or idling. Spirited, joyful and curious.
Never be reluctant to ask the most basic of questions no matter how stupid or irrelevant you may think they are. If they spring to mind and are unanswered, then ask! I really like this as I have thought and believed in this for a long time. Others will benefit too. Assumptions are the mother of all evil. Assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups.
Do the things you have always wanted to do but didn’t because you tricked yourself in to believing that you were too young, too old, too rich or too poor. No regrets. Grab it by the balls. What shall you do with this one wild and precious wonderful life? Fear is a mental monster you have created, a negative stream of consciousness. There is already vast reserves of knowledge available for our use. Every answer to every problem you have ever faced is in print. I need to be closer to nature. Overall reduce your needs (materialism, food, pleasure), your perceived needs.
Failure is not having the courage to try, nothing more, nothing less.
Don’t race against others, race against yourself. If you don’t take the time to control your thoughts, they will control you. I am more than I appear to be, all the worlds strength and power rests inside me.
The death of permanence, the rise of impermanence. Am I adapting myself out of a troubled existance? We must come to know and embrace transcience. Why are we so hurried? What are we racing toward? Do I want to live faster? No. Early adopter or stuck in the mud. Why are we not drawing from the wisdom of the ages? Is it still relevant? Is affecting “mass education” the way to try and influence the future for the better? Does the ecclectic internet facilitate self-learning more easily? What avenues would I have embarked upon should I have had the internet at such formative stages?
How does one take calculated risks without enumerating the negative, thus allowing objective negative thoughts in to ones head? Contrasted with only allowing positive thoughts. Can you ignore the pain, misery and suffering in the world? We all either subtract from or add to the future. What learning and inputs have brought me to this point? When did man become a virus?
It’s the stepping in to the unknown that’s the hard part. If an outcome is already known, there is no challenge. The bigger the void, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. The road less traveled is the inner road. I have been coasting. Why are people so taken with the gaze of a baby? Does it reflect the potential? Does it reflect the desire for nurture? Does it reflect the lack of worry? Pathways, patterns and habits do not facilitate growth. Neuroscience, neural pathways, feedback loops. Search wider and wider, absorb new inputs. Rates of change outstripping the generational divide. No time to educate new race. No time for them to mature. When time is divided up in to smaller and smaller pieces and travels even faster, when will we find the infinite again in the moment? How much faster can we go before we burn out? Incentives, rewards, challenges. ‘Thin slicing’ refers to the ability of our subconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviours based on very narrow slices of experience. ‘overwhelmed by the task of counting negativity’.
“lives based on having are less free than lives based either on doing or being”
In life, no one told us what to expect. Why do we let the media and advertising industry dictate our expectations. Stop the world I want to get off.
There has to be a maximum threshold for information absorption in humans. What is the maximum?
We are suffering from “Future Shock”, i.e. the disease of and rate of change.
Where and when are we centered in out perfect natural state?
Comission -> what is right or wrong with our current way of life?
Omission -> what is missing from our lives?
We are strangers in our own land. We are living in the external without acknowledging, accepting and adventuring in to the internal. For it is the internal that defines the external. The external has run away with itself in an ever increasing rate of change. The sleeper has awoken. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is being cultivated? Do we dare to dream? Mentally we are expending cycles worrying. Anxiety is rife. Worry drains the mind of much of its power, and, sooner or later it injures the soul. A natural reaction to insecurity or the unknown is to defend or lash out rather than to explore from a neutral standpoint. We pin our hopes on science, this so called neutral mentality of observation and hoped for understanding. Science is a framework for thought, but only supposedly practiced by trained scientists. How can one pour new thoughts and ideas in to ones mind, without first emptying the cup. Is there any absolutes? One must constantly make decisions with the data one has. *Concept of quality of data or information comes in to play*. Control the content, platforms and distribution, control the masses. Do you want to just exist or seek and explore all your human potential? I am actively re-architecting my mind. I am taking responsibility for my thoughts and actions. How does one adopt a positive paradigm about the world and all that is in it? Must we realise that mind management is the essence of life management?
Stop being a prisoner of your past, become an architect of your future.
I _had_ resigned myself to acting the way adults were supposed to act. The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. Personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Where is my natural energy and vitality? Too much worry caused a schism. Worry created a leak of mental energy and potential. My creativity, optimism and motivation was drained, leaving me exhausted. *Take the road less travelled*. I am taking the time to think. I am trying to discover my real reason for being here. Do I have the courage to act on it? Content and intent. Energy in thought. Your thoughts are your most prized possessions. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self. It doesn’t matter what others say to you or about you, it matters what you say to yourself. The purpose of life is a life of purpose. You will not find true joy in sleeping, relaxing or idling. Spirited, joyful and curious.
Never be reluctant to ask the most basic of questions no matter how stupid or irrelevant you may think they are. If they spring to mind and are unanswered, then ask! I really like this as I have thought and believed in this for a long time. Others will benefit too. Assumptions are the mother of all evil. Assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups.
Do the things you have always wanted to do but didn’t because you tricked yourself in to believing that you were too young, too old, too rich or too poor. No regrets. Grab it by the balls. What shall you do with this one wild and precious wonderful life? Fear is a mental monster you have created, a negative stream of consciousness. There is already vast reserves of knowledge available for our use. Every answer to every problem you have ever faced is in print. I need to be closer to nature. Overall reduce your needs (materialism, food, pleasure), your perceived needs.
Failure is not having the courage to try, nothing more, nothing less.
Don’t race against others, race against yourself. If you don’t take the time to control your thoughts, they will control you. I am more than I appear to be, all the worlds strength and power rests inside me.
The death of permanence, the rise of impermanence. Am I adapting myself out of a troubled existance? We must come to know and embrace transcience. Why are we so hurried? What are we racing toward? Do I want to live faster? No. Early adopter or stuck in the mud. Why are we not drawing from the wisdom of the ages? Is it still relevant? Is affecting “mass education” the way to try and influence the future for the better? Does the ecclectic internet facilitate self-learning more easily? What avenues would I have embarked upon should I have had the internet at such formative stages?
How does one take calculated risks without enumerating the negative, thus allowing objective negative thoughts in to ones head? Contrasted with only allowing positive thoughts. Can you ignore the pain, misery and suffering in the world? We all either subtract from or add to the future. What learning and inputs have brought me to this point? When did man become a virus?
It’s the stepping in to the unknown that’s the hard part. If an outcome is already known, there is no challenge. The bigger the void, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. The road less traveled is the inner road. I have been coasting. Why are people so taken with the gaze of a baby? Does it reflect the potential? Does it reflect the desire for nurture? Does it reflect the lack of worry? Pathways, patterns and habits do not facilitate growth. Neuroscience, neural pathways, feedback loops. Search wider and wider, absorb new inputs. Rates of change outstripping the generational divide. No time to educate new race. No time for them to mature. When time is divided up in to smaller and smaller pieces and travels even faster, when will we find the infinite again in the moment? How much faster can we go before we burn out? Incentives, rewards, challenges. ‘Thin slicing’ refers to the ability of our subconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviours based on very narrow slices of experience. ‘overwhelmed by the task of counting negativity’.
“lives based on having are less free than lives based either on doing or being”
In life, no one told us what to expect. Why do we let the media and advertising industry dictate our expectations. Stop the world I want to get off.
There has to be a maximum threshold for information absorption in humans. What is the maximum?
Maybe
A work colleague modified a chain email , I really like it!
"Maybe... life just is and you make of it what you will. Maybe being kind and generous is more genuine if it isn't driven by a fear of retribution or the promise of reward. Maybe you don't have to fear a vengeful deity to be good.
Maybe the experience from mistakes and failures is actually the foundation of all knowledge and the building blocks for success.
Maybe the people who raised and educated us were only human like us. Maybe they didn't have the same resources and experience we have today. Maybe we can step back and form our own opinions based on what we observe rather than just what we're told. Maybe we can still trust the wisdom of others, but verify what we're told and come to our own conclusions. Maybe we should embrace new knowledge and readjust our perception of the world on a daily basis. Maybe we should question who we trust. Maybe our knowledge is influenced by our beliefs. Maybe it shouldn't be. Maybe right and wrong isn't so black and white.
Maybe we don't know everything. Maybe we can't. Maybe the universe can be awe inspiring, beautiful and overwhelming without having to believe in magic. Maybe if we can't explain something it is simply unknown rather than evidence of the supernatural. Maybe discarding new evidence and sticking with our beliefs makes us the closed minded ones. Maybe praying for and finding a convenient car park won't result in a mother's unanswered prayers for her dying son. Maybe the correlation between events is just a coincidence rather than divine intervention. Maybe the small chance of an amazing coincidence is more awe inspiring than fate dictating our lives beyond our control.
Maybe you mold your perception of the world around you to your own experience. Maybe you are solely responsible for your own interpretation of that experience. Maybe you are important. Maybe the world you live in is of your own making. Maybe your right to your beliefs doesn't grant your beliefs immunity to criticism. Maybe your beliefs can result in untold misery to others. Maybe the misery you find yourself in is yours to change. Maybe your success is your reward. Maybe you don't have to thank the universe for the results of your own hard work. Maybe luck is just a combination of chance and your ability to play the hand you're dealt.
Maybe we won't live forever. Maybe we should do something with the days we have left. Maybe nothing is predestined. Maybe fate won't drop prosperity or love in our laps. Maybe we need to make it happen.
Maybe you are responsible for your own happiness.
Tristan"
Original -> MAYBE
Maybe. . we were supposed to meet the
wrong people before meeting the right
one so that, when we finally meet the
right person, we will know how to be
grateful for that gift.
Maybe . . . when the door of happiness
closes, another opens; but, often
times, we look so long at the closed
door that we don't even see the new
one which has been opened for us.
Maybe . . . it is true that we don't
know what we have until we lose it,
but it is also true that we don't know
what we have been missing until it
arrives.
Maybe . . . the happiest of people
don't necessarily have the best of
everything; they just make the most of
everything that comes along their way.
Maybe . . . the brightest future will
always be based on a forgotten past;
after all, you can't go on
successfully in life until you let go
of your past mistakes, failures and
heartaches.
Maybe . . . you should dream what you
want to dream; go where you want to
go, be what you want to be, because
you have only one life and one chance
to do all the things you dream of, and
want to do.
Maybe . . . there are moments in life
when you miss someone -- a parent, a
spouse, a friend, a child -- so much
that you just want to pick them from
your dreams and hug them for real, so
that once they are around you
appreciate them more.
Maybe . . . the best kind of friend is
the kind you can sit on a porch and
swing with, never say a word, and then
walk away feeling like it was the best
conversation you've ever had.
Maybe . . you should always try to put
yourself in others' shoes. If you feel
that something could hurt you, it
probably will hurt the other person,
too.
Maybe . . you should do something nice
for someone every single day, even if
it is simply to leave them alone.
Maybe . giving someone all your love
is never an assurance that they will
love you back. Don't expect love in
return; just wait for it to grow in
their heart; but, if it doesn't, be
content that it grew in yours.
Maybe . . . happiness waits for all
those who cry, all those who hurt, all
those who have searched, and all those
who have tried, for only they can
appreciate the importance of all the
people who have touched their lives.
Maybe . . . you shouldn't go for
looks; they can deceive; don't go for
wealth; even that fades away. Go for
someone who makes you smile, because
it takes only a smile to make a dark
day seem bright. Find the one that
makes your heart smile.
Maybe . . you should hope for enough
happiness to make you sweet, enough
trials to make you strong, enough
sorrow to keep you human, and enough
hope to make you happy
Maybe . . . you should try to live
your life to the fullest because when
you were born, you were crying and
everyone around you was smiling but
when you die, you can be the one who
is smiling and everyone around you
crying.
Maybe . . . you could send this message
to those people who mean something to
you, to those who have touched your
life, to those who can and do make you
smile when you really need it, to
those who make you see the brighter
side of things when you are really
down, and to all those whom you want
to know that you appreciate them and
their friendship.
And if you don't, don't worry; nothing
bad will happen to you. You will just
miss out on the opportunity to perhaps
brighten someone's day."
"Maybe... life just is and you make of it what you will. Maybe being kind and generous is more genuine if it isn't driven by a fear of retribution or the promise of reward. Maybe you don't have to fear a vengeful deity to be good.
Maybe the experience from mistakes and failures is actually the foundation of all knowledge and the building blocks for success.
Maybe the people who raised and educated us were only human like us. Maybe they didn't have the same resources and experience we have today. Maybe we can step back and form our own opinions based on what we observe rather than just what we're told. Maybe we can still trust the wisdom of others, but verify what we're told and come to our own conclusions. Maybe we should embrace new knowledge and readjust our perception of the world on a daily basis. Maybe we should question who we trust. Maybe our knowledge is influenced by our beliefs. Maybe it shouldn't be. Maybe right and wrong isn't so black and white.
Maybe we don't know everything. Maybe we can't. Maybe the universe can be awe inspiring, beautiful and overwhelming without having to believe in magic. Maybe if we can't explain something it is simply unknown rather than evidence of the supernatural. Maybe discarding new evidence and sticking with our beliefs makes us the closed minded ones. Maybe praying for and finding a convenient car park won't result in a mother's unanswered prayers for her dying son. Maybe the correlation between events is just a coincidence rather than divine intervention. Maybe the small chance of an amazing coincidence is more awe inspiring than fate dictating our lives beyond our control.
Maybe you mold your perception of the world around you to your own experience. Maybe you are solely responsible for your own interpretation of that experience. Maybe you are important. Maybe the world you live in is of your own making. Maybe your right to your beliefs doesn't grant your beliefs immunity to criticism. Maybe your beliefs can result in untold misery to others. Maybe the misery you find yourself in is yours to change. Maybe your success is your reward. Maybe you don't have to thank the universe for the results of your own hard work. Maybe luck is just a combination of chance and your ability to play the hand you're dealt.
Maybe we won't live forever. Maybe we should do something with the days we have left. Maybe nothing is predestined. Maybe fate won't drop prosperity or love in our laps. Maybe we need to make it happen.
Maybe you are responsible for your own happiness.
Tristan"
Original -> MAYBE
Maybe. . we were supposed to meet the
wrong people before meeting the right
one so that, when we finally meet the
right person, we will know how to be
grateful for that gift.
Maybe . . . when the door of happiness
closes, another opens; but, often
times, we look so long at the closed
door that we don't even see the new
one which has been opened for us.
Maybe . . . it is true that we don't
know what we have until we lose it,
but it is also true that we don't know
what we have been missing until it
arrives.
Maybe . . . the happiest of people
don't necessarily have the best of
everything; they just make the most of
everything that comes along their way.
Maybe . . . the brightest future will
always be based on a forgotten past;
after all, you can't go on
successfully in life until you let go
of your past mistakes, failures and
heartaches.
Maybe . . . you should dream what you
want to dream; go where you want to
go, be what you want to be, because
you have only one life and one chance
to do all the things you dream of, and
want to do.
Maybe . . . there are moments in life
when you miss someone -- a parent, a
spouse, a friend, a child -- so much
that you just want to pick them from
your dreams and hug them for real, so
that once they are around you
appreciate them more.
Maybe . . . the best kind of friend is
the kind you can sit on a porch and
swing with, never say a word, and then
walk away feeling like it was the best
conversation you've ever had.
Maybe . . you should always try to put
yourself in others' shoes. If you feel
that something could hurt you, it
probably will hurt the other person,
too.
Maybe . . you should do something nice
for someone every single day, even if
it is simply to leave them alone.
Maybe . giving someone all your love
is never an assurance that they will
love you back. Don't expect love in
return; just wait for it to grow in
their heart; but, if it doesn't, be
content that it grew in yours.
Maybe . . . happiness waits for all
those who cry, all those who hurt, all
those who have searched, and all those
who have tried, for only they can
appreciate the importance of all the
people who have touched their lives.
Maybe . . . you shouldn't go for
looks; they can deceive; don't go for
wealth; even that fades away. Go for
someone who makes you smile, because
it takes only a smile to make a dark
day seem bright. Find the one that
makes your heart smile.
Maybe . . you should hope for enough
happiness to make you sweet, enough
trials to make you strong, enough
sorrow to keep you human, and enough
hope to make you happy
Maybe . . . you should try to live
your life to the fullest because when
you were born, you were crying and
everyone around you was smiling but
when you die, you can be the one who
is smiling and everyone around you
crying.
Maybe . . . you could send this message
to those people who mean something to
you, to those who have touched your
life, to those who can and do make you
smile when you really need it, to
those who make you see the brighter
side of things when you are really
down, and to all those whom you want
to know that you appreciate them and
their friendship.
And if you don't, don't worry; nothing
bad will happen to you. You will just
miss out on the opportunity to perhaps
brighten someone's day."
Sunday, November 08, 2009
MyNewSig
--
Regards,
Donal x xxxxxx +61(0)xxx xxx xxx
xxx xxx xxxxx
- Facilitate decision making. Don't presume anything.
- Add value to email trails. One recipient, less cc'ing.
- Bring the pertinent facts to the top when forwarding.
- Call on the phone, don't clog my inbox/tasklist.
- Link me to files and use version control, don't attach!
Regards,
Donal x xxxxxx +61(0)xxx xxx xxx
xxx xxx xxxxx
- Facilitate decision making. Don't presume anything.
- Add value to email trails. One recipient, less cc'ing.
- Bring the pertinent facts to the top when forwarding.
- Call on the phone, don't clog my inbox/tasklist.
- Link me to files and use version control, don't attach!
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Troubleshooting-101
Social:
* TRUST BUT VERIFY. Information Technology is supposed to be rational. Humans are not rational. Verify both.
* You may hear people talking but don't listen to them, they will pollute your mind. Ask to see EVERYTHING for yourself.
* Only have
** device/infrastructure administrators
** one infrastructure architect
** and one application architect on a call at any time. (Anything else wastes money and mindshare!)
* Don't let anyone try a scattergun or consensus approach. In fact, don't allow any additional functions/capabilities on the call that are not technical or 100% required. More often than not the Project Manager is not required once the call starts
** Talk is most likely conjecture if it starts with "my understanding is", "I believe", "assume", "presume", etc.
* Explain you have to capture and share for audit purposes. Then capture and share.
* Always go back to first principles, including proving it's plugged in and switched on.
* Always ask to see the data/empirical evidence.
* Always get fresh data from the administrators, not stale logs.
* Never assume the admin knows how to use their tools.
Technical:
* Identify your application behaviour, if no one knows, end the call. AppFlowNow
* Ask for logs, if none, turn them on sparingly
* Separate your platform and application stacks
** the application stack is totally different from the platform/network stack
** the platform/network stack is totally different from the application stack
Warning:
All code contains bugs and every file can have configuration errors.
Humans write code, humans are fallible, code is fallible.
Testing:
* A failed application test proves absolutely nothing.
* Only a raw network test proves a data path exists.
* application stacks use many modules and functions to create messages
* application stacks may be their own protocols or use existing protocols
* application stacks can call on TCP/IP stacks on the host operating system or platform and uses device drivers to construct IP packets (or in the case of FC FC_frames etc)
* network stacks have many tunable parameters depending upon the platform
Build a matrix and diagram and use it! Make stuff or source stuff!
* build a flow diagram to contextualise relationships
* collaborate on the matrix/diagram centrally
* allow ICMP echo_request and echo_reply ICMPNow on all project flows
Identify your flows:
* end-to-end
* point-to-point
* point-to-multipoint
* mesh
Verify your endpoints and codebase(s)
* clients/servers
* Does arp complete?
* default gateway
* interface IP AND Subnet Mask
* client route table(s)
* operating system and patch levels
* device driver versions
* check the buglists for your versions, sometimes it's not a new bug nor unique (sometimes it is!)
Idenfity all your interim infrastructure nodes:
* local switch (layer 2, MAC/CAM table)
* default gateway (layer 3, FW/Router/LB)
* transit nodes (FW/Switch-Router/LB/Optimiser/IPS)
* operating system and patch levels
Verify the policies and configuration on all nodes:
* in-path
* pick one example flow and dissect it step by step
* check routes and routing on all devices
* go hop by hop
* TRUST BUT VERIFY. Information Technology is supposed to be rational. Humans are not rational. Verify both.
* You may hear people talking but don't listen to them, they will pollute your mind. Ask to see EVERYTHING for yourself.
* Only have
** device/infrastructure administrators
** one infrastructure architect
** and one application architect on a call at any time. (Anything else wastes money and mindshare!)
* Don't let anyone try a scattergun or consensus approach. In fact, don't allow any additional functions/capabilities on the call that are not technical or 100% required. More often than not the Project Manager is not required once the call starts
** Talk is most likely conjecture if it starts with "my understanding is", "I believe", "assume", "presume", etc.
* Explain you have to capture and share for audit purposes. Then capture and share.
* Always go back to first principles, including proving it's plugged in and switched on.
* Always ask to see the data/empirical evidence.
* Always get fresh data from the administrators, not stale logs.
* Never assume the admin knows how to use their tools.
Technical:
* Identify your application behaviour, if no one knows, end the call. AppFlowNow
* Ask for logs, if none, turn them on sparingly
* Separate your platform and application stacks
** the application stack is totally different from the platform/network stack
** the platform/network stack is totally different from the application stack
Warning:
All code contains bugs and every file can have configuration errors.
Humans write code, humans are fallible, code is fallible.
Testing:
* A failed application test proves absolutely nothing.
* Only a raw network test proves a data path exists.
* application stacks use many modules and functions to create messages
* application stacks may be their own protocols or use existing protocols
* application stacks can call on TCP/IP stacks on the host operating system or platform and uses device drivers to construct IP packets (or in the case of FC FC_frames etc)
* network stacks have many tunable parameters depending upon the platform
Build a matrix and diagram and use it! Make stuff or source stuff!
* build a flow diagram to contextualise relationships
* collaborate on the matrix/diagram centrally
* allow ICMP echo_request and echo_reply ICMPNow on all project flows
Identify your flows:
* end-to-end
* point-to-point
* point-to-multipoint
* mesh
Verify your endpoints and codebase(s)
* clients/servers
* Does arp complete?
* default gateway
* interface IP AND Subnet Mask
* client route table(s)
* operating system and patch levels
* device driver versions
* check the buglists for your versions, sometimes it's not a new bug nor unique (sometimes it is!)
Idenfity all your interim infrastructure nodes:
* local switch (layer 2, MAC/CAM table)
* default gateway (layer 3, FW/Router/LB)
* transit nodes (FW/Switch-Router/LB/Optimiser/IPS)
* operating system and patch levels
Verify the policies and configuration on all nodes:
* in-path
* pick one example flow and dissect it step by step
* check routes and routing on all devices
* go hop by hop
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Voting quickie
My response to a query about electronic voting to a family member:
Anonymity, trust, transitive trust and identity. The bane of my life
in IT. I agree in that if there is a boundary e.g. entry point that you
can control, then once authenticated and subsequently authorized to perform
an action/event, then the accounting should only count and not record
the authentication details (except the number of events), and the
authorisation should only record that a party of type A *was* authorised
to cast a vote, and hadn't done so before.
I would have more faith in a system run by humans with physical bags
of votes, than a system run by humans with bags of bits that represent
votes. The time, space and economics e.g. physics of digital voting
represent an order of magnitude more complexity and potential design
issues than the previous version.
We put our trust in representatives e.g. humans along the way and I
for one have more trust in humans when less things can go wrong and
there is literally more visibility in the units, tokens etc..
... Just when you think people are starting to "get it" shit like this
gets posted in professional journals.
I would however like you to think about micro-voting and technology
facilitating faster and more frequent decision making by the electorate
on a wide range of topics including electing where their tax dollars go :)
Anonymity, trust, transitive trust and identity. The bane of my life
in IT. I agree in that if there is a boundary e.g. entry point that you
can control, then once authenticated and subsequently authorized to perform
an action/event, then the accounting should only count and not record
the authentication details (except the number of events), and the
authorisation should only record that a party of type A *was* authorised
to cast a vote, and hadn't done so before.
I would have more faith in a system run by humans with physical bags
of votes, than a system run by humans with bags of bits that represent
votes. The time, space and economics e.g. physics of digital voting
represent an order of magnitude more complexity and potential design
issues than the previous version.
We put our trust in representatives e.g. humans along the way and I
for one have more trust in humans when less things can go wrong and
there is literally more visibility in the units, tokens etc..
... Just when you think people are starting to "get it" shit like this
gets posted in professional journals.
I would however like you to think about micro-voting and technology
facilitating faster and more frequent decision making by the electorate
on a wide range of topics including electing where their tax dollars go :)
Monday, August 03, 2009
Welcome to the future, now and now and now...
Videos: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/church_venter09/church_venter09_index.html
INTRODUCTION: APE AND ESSENCE
By George Dyson
Sixty-one years ago Aldous Huxley published his lesser-known masterpiece, Ape and Essence, set in the Los Angeles of 2108. After a nuclear war (in the year 2008) devastates humanity's ability to reproduce high-fidelity copies of itself, a reversion to sub-human existence had been the result. A small group of scientists from New Zealand, spared from the catastrophe, arrives, a century later, to take notes. The story is presented, in keeping with the Hollywood location, in the form of a film script.
On July 24, 2009, a small group of scientists, entrepreneurs, cultural impresarios and journalists that included architects of the some of the leading transformative companies of our time (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, PayPal), arrived at the Andaz Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, to be offered a glimpse, guided by George Church and Craig Venter, of a future far stranger than Mr. Huxley had been able to imagine in 1948.
In this future — whose underpinnings, as Drs. Church and Venter demonstrated, are here already— life as we know it is transformed not by the error catastrophe of radiation damage to our genetic processes, but by the far greater upheaval caused by discovering how to read genetic sequences directly into computers, where the code can be replicated exactly, manipulated freely, and translated back into living organisms by writing the other way. "We can program these cells as if they were an extension of the computer," George Church announced, and proceeded to explain just how much progress has already been made.
The first day's lectures took place at Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket laboratories — where the latest Merlin and Kestrel engines (built with the loving care devoted to finely-tuned musical instruments) are unchanged, in principle, from those that Theodore von Karman was building at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1948. The technology of biology, however, has completely changed.
Approaching Beverly Hills along Sunset Boulevard from Santa Monica, the first indications that you are nearing the destination are people encamped at the side of the road announcing "Star Maps" for sale. Beverly Hills is a surprisingly diverse community of interwoven lives, families, and livelihoods, and a Star Map offers only a rough approximation of where a few select people have their homes.
Synthetic Genomics is still at the Star Map stage. But it is becoming Google Earth much faster than most people think.
GEORGE DYSON, a historian among futurists, is the author of Baidarka; Project Orion; and Darwin Among the Machines.
INTRODUCTION: APE AND ESSENCE
By George Dyson
Sixty-one years ago Aldous Huxley published his lesser-known masterpiece, Ape and Essence, set in the Los Angeles of 2108. After a nuclear war (in the year 2008) devastates humanity's ability to reproduce high-fidelity copies of itself, a reversion to sub-human existence had been the result. A small group of scientists from New Zealand, spared from the catastrophe, arrives, a century later, to take notes. The story is presented, in keeping with the Hollywood location, in the form of a film script.
On July 24, 2009, a small group of scientists, entrepreneurs, cultural impresarios and journalists that included architects of the some of the leading transformative companies of our time (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, PayPal), arrived at the Andaz Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, to be offered a glimpse, guided by George Church and Craig Venter, of a future far stranger than Mr. Huxley had been able to imagine in 1948.
In this future — whose underpinnings, as Drs. Church and Venter demonstrated, are here already— life as we know it is transformed not by the error catastrophe of radiation damage to our genetic processes, but by the far greater upheaval caused by discovering how to read genetic sequences directly into computers, where the code can be replicated exactly, manipulated freely, and translated back into living organisms by writing the other way. "We can program these cells as if they were an extension of the computer," George Church announced, and proceeded to explain just how much progress has already been made.
The first day's lectures took place at Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket laboratories — where the latest Merlin and Kestrel engines (built with the loving care devoted to finely-tuned musical instruments) are unchanged, in principle, from those that Theodore von Karman was building at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1948. The technology of biology, however, has completely changed.
Approaching Beverly Hills along Sunset Boulevard from Santa Monica, the first indications that you are nearing the destination are people encamped at the side of the road announcing "Star Maps" for sale. Beverly Hills is a surprisingly diverse community of interwoven lives, families, and livelihoods, and a Star Map offers only a rough approximation of where a few select people have their homes.
Synthetic Genomics is still at the Star Map stage. But it is becoming Google Earth much faster than most people think.
GEORGE DYSON, a historian among futurists, is the author of Baidarka; Project Orion; and Darwin Among the Machines.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
SecurityShapes
Click here for larger image.
Commentary:
Please help me pin the tail on the other donkeys re:green and red icons?
Somewhere below architecture, policy, ontology, taxonomy but above distinct methods/controls? Predicated on an existing trust, zone,domain model. Prescriptive but not restrictive. A hitch-hikers guide to data-flow security!
Can this help empower the guys on the ground to make decisions and know when to escalate something to the security team?
I kinda wanted this to be a cheat sheet for Ops/BAU engineers. Something pragmatic rather than a magic 8ball for PMs and Solution "Architects" too.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Flu piece for AUSDAVOS
A few years ago I woke up hungover in a Vegas hotel room and wandered
down stairs to my conference, a conference cum cheerleading session
for which I had no real want or need. We had RFID(Radio Frequency
IDentification) tracking chips in our badges so managers could track
who went to what sessions. Technology was facilitating people
"management" akin to factory farmed battery hens. With these
micro-metrics available to our respective "managers" where was the
leadership, the humanity? I dumped my tracking chip early, pretended I
had lost it, and headed back to the pool to drink more silver rock
margaritas with my new buddies.
That was 2006. That person is gone, and springing forth from the
fertile scarred and charred earth, there is now a small green shoot; a
concept, an entity, a mission. We’ve decided that it is time to use
technology to facilitate humanity, not to constrain it. It is time to
enable the human mesh for the sake of all humans, plants and animals,
and not for profiteering. Accountability and humanity are lost in
organisational abstractions, out-sourcing, out-tasking and
off-shoring. Rather than pushing humans farther away, it's time to
bring us all closer together.
Time has indeed sped up. We are currently trying to shoehorn a new
"emergence supporting" fuzzy framework in to old legal cooperative
structures. It's hard to explain how once enough nodes or entities are
logically connected together, the new entity both mirrors the atomic
entities and creates a totally new previously unseen entity (the whole
being greater than the sum of its parts). This is nature, this is
interconnectedness, this is biomimicry.. or is it already just nature?
So what have we actually done? In 2009 we deployed free internet mesh
wireless networks to events that spread human awareness, including the
popular Future Summit and Trampoline events held in Melbourne,
Australia We continue to do so today, facilitating and helping those
who need it most. NodeCity also rebrokered a single internet
connection to provide wireless access across a temporary village built
for the displaced citizens of Flowerdale who had lost their homes in
the Victorian ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires this year.
We provide non-profit focused IT professional services, enterprise
computing and infrastructure to anyone who really needs it at a fair
and equitable price (if not gratis for good causes when feasible!).
It is this ability to access information, ideas, and to communicate
with vast pools of other people and systems outside of your normal
physical range which is so powerful. This is why we think NodeCity is
such an important project to commit to. The ability to organise is
amplified and accelerated, both locally and remotely. Dissemination of
information provides alternatives and increased numbers of options,
which facilitates real human potential. The main question however is,
are values transmitted in the same way as raw data? Does increased
information actually inform and provoke critical thought, improve
quality and benefit the world or does it detract from it? Maybe we are
seeing the next step in our shared evolution. We are a new type of
node based city, and we are going to answer the only way we can.
down stairs to my conference, a conference cum cheerleading session
for which I had no real want or need. We had RFID(Radio Frequency
IDentification) tracking chips in our badges so managers could track
who went to what sessions. Technology was facilitating people
"management" akin to factory farmed battery hens. With these
micro-metrics available to our respective "managers" where was the
leadership, the humanity? I dumped my tracking chip early, pretended I
had lost it, and headed back to the pool to drink more silver rock
margaritas with my new buddies.
That was 2006. That person is gone, and springing forth from the
fertile scarred and charred earth, there is now a small green shoot; a
concept, an entity, a mission. We’ve decided that it is time to use
technology to facilitate humanity, not to constrain it. It is time to
enable the human mesh for the sake of all humans, plants and animals,
and not for profiteering. Accountability and humanity are lost in
organisational abstractions, out-sourcing, out-tasking and
off-shoring. Rather than pushing humans farther away, it's time to
bring us all closer together.
Time has indeed sped up. We are currently trying to shoehorn a new
"emergence supporting" fuzzy framework in to old legal cooperative
structures. It's hard to explain how once enough nodes or entities are
logically connected together, the new entity both mirrors the atomic
entities and creates a totally new previously unseen entity (the whole
being greater than the sum of its parts). This is nature, this is
interconnectedness, this is biomimicry.. or is it already just nature?
So what have we actually done? In 2009 we deployed free internet mesh
wireless networks to events that spread human awareness, including the
popular Future Summit and Trampoline events held in Melbourne,
Australia We continue to do so today, facilitating and helping those
who need it most. NodeCity also rebrokered a single internet
connection to provide wireless access across a temporary village built
for the displaced citizens of Flowerdale who had lost their homes in
the Victorian ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires this year.
We provide non-profit focused IT professional services, enterprise
computing and infrastructure to anyone who really needs it at a fair
and equitable price (if not gratis for good causes when feasible!).
It is this ability to access information, ideas, and to communicate
with vast pools of other people and systems outside of your normal
physical range which is so powerful. This is why we think NodeCity is
such an important project to commit to. The ability to organise is
amplified and accelerated, both locally and remotely. Dissemination of
information provides alternatives and increased numbers of options,
which facilitates real human potential. The main question however is,
are values transmitted in the same way as raw data? Does increased
information actually inform and provoke critical thought, improve
quality and benefit the world or does it detract from it? Maybe we are
seeing the next step in our shared evolution. We are a new type of
node based city, and we are going to answer the only way we can.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
What is nodecity
Nodecity was always going to be a community; a part of the greater network of beings and entities. Essentially, interconnectedness realised and respected.
With a mixture of technological advances, instrumentation and cooperation (through efforts like http://smartenergygroups.com/), Nodecity will be both a physical and virtual destination to learn about balanced living. Nodecity will utilise philosophies (both borrowed and evolving) from permaculture, meditation, and technology, to demonstrate a different way of living.
Currently we are looking at soil maps, climate, and building regulations around Australia. We will be looking for funding and grants to build an earthship centre and business plan around our model (including providing low footprint devices and service packages to individuals and groups wishing to utlise the internet more effectively and responsibly).
This is not about eco-tourism, it is about eco-living, learning and connecting.
Non prescriptive, explorative.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
IT-in-a-box
Message passing.
Inter process communication.
Spawning processes. Process lifecycle.
Information management.
Trust, privacy, identity. Non-repudiation.
Superorganism inputs, processes, outputs.
Node inputs, processes, outputs.
Symbiotic entity node+interface+human.
Symbiotic entity human-node+network+human-node.
Symbiotic entity human-node+network+auto-node.
Symbiotic entity auto-node+network+human-node.
Flows.
Go to (Message passing)
Inter process communication.
Spawning processes. Process lifecycle.
Information management.
Trust, privacy, identity. Non-repudiation.
Superorganism inputs, processes, outputs.
Node inputs, processes, outputs.
Symbiotic entity node+interface+human.
Symbiotic entity human-node+network+human-node.
Symbiotic entity human-node+network+auto-node.
Symbiotic entity auto-node+network+human-node.
Flows.
Go to (Message passing)
Monday, April 13, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
DNS for dynamic geo-location
Using DNS as a covert channel to do lookups against non-existant A records, which are in fact your latitude and longitude coordinates!
E.g. my device registers via dynamic DNS to a domain (mine or someones service) and enters its hostname, then subsequently does a lookup against my location+device+[sub]domain. DNS server intelligently sees query and does some stuff below:
So my device asks about a non-existant A record in my subdomain or hosted domain which now happens to contain my coords; such that the DNS server is originally told by my device where I am. The DNS server updates itself to contain a record that now reflects what I asked. Others can now query my location through a DNS resource record. Quick, single packet UDP geo-location.
Now other entities on the internet can a) ask for the IP for my host's A record b) ask for the PTR for my device in that or other subdomain, and the response points to the new 'geo' location data A record.
My latitude and longitude
-037.881721,144.978032
My device called 'bob-001' with IP address 123.123.123.123
My device uses 'dynamic DNS' and registers in a domain with:
bob-001.assets.nodecity.com 123.123.123.123
My DNS server creates the A record and also a sub-domain(no PTR record yet!):
bob-001.assets.nodecity.com 123.123.123.123
.bob-001.geo.assets.nodecity.com
My device asks about the A record:
037881721144978032.bob-001.geo.assets.nodecity.com
My DNS server now knows where I am and also inserts a PTR record for
123.123.123.123.IN.ADDR.PTR. 037881721144978032.bob-001.geo.assets.nodecity.com
Hmmmm.. can also use TXT records and/or oher DNSSEC stuff. PTR idea may not work against RFC1918 address space or devices behind NAT. Maybe just use AXFR for subdomain which could also contain the last X locations for the device....
E.g. my device registers via dynamic DNS to a domain (mine or someones service) and enters its hostname, then subsequently does a lookup against my location+device+[sub]domain. DNS server intelligently sees query and does some stuff below:
So my device asks about a non-existant A record in my subdomain or hosted domain which now happens to contain my coords; such that the DNS server is originally told by my device where I am. The DNS server updates itself to contain a record that now reflects what I asked. Others can now query my location through a DNS resource record. Quick, single packet UDP geo-location.
Now other entities on the internet can a) ask for the IP for my host's A record b) ask for the PTR for my device in that or other subdomain, and the response points to the new 'geo' location data A record.
My latitude and longitude
-037.881721,144.978032
My device called 'bob-001' with IP address 123.123.123.123
My device uses 'dynamic DNS' and registers in a domain with:
bob-001.assets.nodecity.com 123.123.123.123
My DNS server creates the A record and also a sub-domain(no PTR record yet!):
bob-001.assets.nodecity.com 123.123.123.123
.bob-001.geo.assets.nodecity.com
My device asks about the A record:
037881721144978032.bob-001.geo.assets.nodecity.com
My DNS server now knows where I am and also inserts a PTR record for
123.123.123.123.IN.ADDR.PTR. 037881721144978032.bob-001.geo.assets.nodecity.com
Hmmmm.. can also use TXT records and/or oher DNSSEC stuff. PTR idea may not work against RFC1918 address space or devices behind NAT. Maybe just use AXFR for subdomain which could also contain the last X locations for the device....
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Stage 2
When I get back from San Francisco a few things are going to happen.
I am going to spread information and connectedness with http://Nodecity.com/
I have just facilitated 3 conferences.
I am going to buy cheap land and build an earthship and free myself from the system 100% to facilitate true freedom. Shelter, air, water, food, excretion, homeostasis.
This will be my next 5 years. Probably at the base of the tropics, inland somewhat and about 100m above sea level. The islands of self-sustainable communes / gardens are about to take hold. I have a vision and need to engage in something meaningful in this super grid -> it's time to build, teach and play. Otherwise there's no point.
Time to play life like a dance, music, or some nonsensical chatter. The cosmic joke. Time to laugh along, not to be too serious.. but also to take responsiblity for my own survival, only then can one truly be free. Beholden to none. Then one can serve fellow beings and ecosystem. Time to become net neutral, before net positive.
I am going to spread information and connectedness with http://Nodecity.com/
I have just facilitated 3 conferences.
I am going to buy cheap land and build an earthship and free myself from the system 100% to facilitate true freedom. Shelter, air, water, food, excretion, homeostasis.
This will be my next 5 years. Probably at the base of the tropics, inland somewhat and about 100m above sea level. The islands of self-sustainable communes / gardens are about to take hold. I have a vision and need to engage in something meaningful in this super grid -> it's time to build, teach and play. Otherwise there's no point.
Time to play life like a dance, music, or some nonsensical chatter. The cosmic joke. Time to laugh along, not to be too serious.. but also to take responsiblity for my own survival, only then can one truly be free. Beholden to none. Then one can serve fellow beings and ecosystem. Time to become net neutral, before net positive.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Senator Conroy
http://nocleanfeed.com/action.html
Dear Minister,
As an Australian and an internet user, I have serious concerns about your mandatory Internet filtering initiative.
Given the importance your Government has attached to modernising Australia's broadband network, pursuing a policy that can only slow down and increase the costs of home internet access seems misguided at best. Australian households are diverse, and most do not have young children, so mandating a one-size-fits-all clean feed approach will not serve the public well. I don't think it is the Government's role to decide what's appropriate for me or my children, and neither do most Australians.
Given the amount of Internet content available, the Government will never be able to classify it all and filters will always result in an unacceptable level of over-blocking. I feel that the time and money could be spent in better ways both to protect children and improve Australia's digital infrastructure. Australian parents need better education about the risks their children face online. Trying to rid the Internet of adult content is futile, and can only distract from that mission.
Sincerely,
Donal
City, State
Dear Minister,
As an Australian and an internet user, I have serious concerns about your mandatory Internet filtering initiative.
Given the importance your Government has attached to modernising Australia's broadband network, pursuing a policy that can only slow down and increase the costs of home internet access seems misguided at best. Australian households are diverse, and most do not have young children, so mandating a one-size-fits-all clean feed approach will not serve the public well. I don't think it is the Government's role to decide what's appropriate for me or my children, and neither do most Australians.
Given the amount of Internet content available, the Government will never be able to classify it all and filters will always result in an unacceptable level of over-blocking. I feel that the time and money could be spent in better ways both to protect children and improve Australia's digital infrastructure. Australian parents need better education about the risks their children face online. Trying to rid the Internet of adult content is futile, and can only distract from that mission.
Sincerely,
Donal
City, State
Monday, April 06, 2009
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Friday, April 03, 2009
Thursday, April 02, 2009
First Principles
IAAS (Infrastrusture as a Service)
Network architects are your friends. QED.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Google Ventures begging letter....
http://www.google.com/ventures/contact.html
To: ventures@google.com
Subject:Sustainable IT, Smart Energy Homes and modular platforms...
Hi,
I am working on a non-profit co-op startup called http://www.nodecity.com/ out of Melbourne, Australia which will scale globally as a decentralist movement; think of it as permaculture for IT. I will be at the SecurityMetrics conference in your headquarters April 20th, San Francisco, CA. -> http://www.securitymetrics.org/content/Wiki.jsp?page=Metricon3.5 e.g. visiting SF from April 18th to April 24th 09'. I would love to just chat to someone or buy them a coffee rather than pitch :) I am hingeing my plans on mesh and 3G/4G backhaul including geo-arbitrage of eco cloud services.
This is my background http://donalcv.blogspot.com/ and this is my passion http://tr.im/zentramp <--video explaining my 3 passions, as startups are about *people* and ideas methinks. The video is a rehearsal I did for a unique un-conference here in Melbourne http://trampolinemelb.com/ this past Saturday... I removed most of the 'ums' and 'ehs'... while actually speaking!
Essentially I wish to foster the coming awareness, social change, and sustainability via 'teaching people to fish'. I am sick to death of the snake-oil, silver bullet sales and profiteering by IT in general.
Thanks for reading my email and hopefully you'll take a peak at my video/cv http://tr.im/zentramp
Humble regards,
Donal
To: ventures@google.com
Subject:Sustainable IT, Smart Energy Homes and modular platforms...
Hi,
I am working on a non-profit co-op startup called http://www.nodecity.com/ out of Melbourne, Australia which will scale globally as a decentralist movement; think of it as permaculture for IT. I will be at the SecurityMetrics conference in your headquarters April 20th, San Francisco, CA. -> http://www.securitymetrics.org/content/Wiki.jsp?page=Metricon3.5 e.g. visiting SF from April 18th to April 24th 09'. I would love to just chat to someone or buy them a coffee rather than pitch :) I am hingeing my plans on mesh and 3G/4G backhaul including geo-arbitrage of eco cloud services.
This is my background http://donalcv.blogspot.com/ and this is my passion http://tr.im/zentramp <--video explaining my 3 passions, as startups are about *people* and ideas methinks. The video is a rehearsal I did for a unique un-conference here in Melbourne http://trampolinemelb.com/ this past Saturday... I removed most of the 'ums' and 'ehs'... while actually speaking!
Essentially I wish to foster the coming awareness, social change, and sustainability via 'teaching people to fish'. I am sick to death of the snake-oil, silver bullet sales and profiteering by IT in general.
Thanks for reading my email and hopefully you'll take a peak at my video/cv http://tr.im/zentramp
Humble regards,
Donal
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wikileaks:Re-post
Western internet censorship: The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?
From Wikileaks
Jump to: navigation, search
March 29, 2009
EDITORIAL (WikiLeaks)
We're arresting you for speeding.
What's the speed limit officer?
The speed limit is secret.
Cathy Wilcox
Cathy Wilcox
Shortly after 9pm on Tuesday March 24, Wikileaks related buildings in Dresden and Jena, were raided by 11 plain clothes German police.
Why?
Over the last two years, Wikileaks has exposed detailed secret government censorship lists or plans for over eight countries, including Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Germany.
Although Wikileaks' main site has been censored by the Chinese Public Security Bureau since early 2007, last week saw the site placed onto a secret list of sites "forbidden" by the Australian Media and Communications Authority, or ACMA.
The pro-censorship governments exposed by Wikileaks can be divided into three broad categories:
1. Countries with a mandatory censorship system in place: Thailand, the UAE, and Lebanon (films).
2. Countries proposing a mandatory censorship system: Australia and Germany.
3. Countries in which the internet censorship system is an unregulated agreement between several large ISPs and the police: Norway, Denmark and Finland.
Australia and Germany are the only liberal democracies proposing a mandatory internet censorship regime.
All of the schemes operate, or are proposed to operate, through multi-million dollar national networks of censorship machines.
The machines spy on the nation as each citizen attempts to read on the internet, and compares requested pages to those listed on a secret government "blacklist".
If the page is on the blacklist, the government forcibly prevents the citizen from viewing the information by intercepting his or her internet communication and diverting it to a machine controlled by the censorship system. This machine is often configured to record the identity of the person attempting to access the forbidden information. If the page is not on the blacklist, the government grants permission for the citizen to view the page.
Although originally marketed, in all countries, as a way of combating child pornography, the blacklists obtained by Wikileaks show that the systems have already been corrupted into censoring other content, including political content.
For instance, the secret blacklist for Thailand censors thousands of sites per year deemed to be critical of the Thai Monarchy, from academic books and YouTube to the Economist magazine and Wikileaks itself.
Similarly, the blacklist for Australia contains an anti-abortion site, fringe religions, a dentist clinic, gay sites, gambling sites, islamist sites, euthanasia activist sites, an astrologer's blog, misclassified material, and, like Thailand, Wikileaks itself. Even the Australian government's "Minister for censorship", Senator Stephen Conroy, has admitted that fully half of the sites on the secret list are unrelated to child pornography.
As newspapers and other publications migrate to an exclusive life on the internet, such totalizing censorship systems are able to instantly snatch "pages" from the laps of citizens across an entire nation, interdicting communications between publisher and reader, and the new civil discourse between readers and each other. The scale, speed and potential impact of this centralized intervention has no historical precedent.
Secret national censorship systems are dangerous and unaccountable. They are an afront to natural justice, due process and the balancing power of the fourth estate. They must be, and will be, stopped.
The Australian Government has stated it plans to increase the size of its blacklist list by 10 fold, from roughly 1,200 blocked pages to over 10,000, although the plan is now seems unlikely to pass the Australian Senate after the revelations of the last month.
* * * * *
To make what has happened clear to those who understand traditional book censorship, we provide the following simple analogy:
Within the libraries and book catalogues of Germany and Australia there are books (web pages) forbidden by the state.
The government of Australia has compiled a secret list of books it forbids. About 1,200 books are on the list.
Not even authors or publishers whose books are placed on the list are told their book has been banned.
Germany plans to adopt and expand a version of the Australian scheme.
Under the plans of the German and Australian governments, every attempt to borrow a book (read a web page) will be checked against the secret "forbidden books" (forbidden web pages) list.
If a book is on the list, the attempt to borrow it is noted down in another secret list and permission is refused. If the book is not on the blacklist, permission is granted.
The list of forbidden books (the blacklist) is a forbidden book.
The lists of books forbidden in other countries are also forbidden books.
Any book that mentions the title (URL) of a forbidden book is itself a forbidden book.
An international investigative newspaper (Wikileaks) reveals key internal documents on the censorship expansion plans for Germany, Australia and other countries. For Australia this expose includes the lists of forbidden books and the presence of clearly political books on the list. The newspaper warns that Australia is acting like a "democratic backwater" and risks following the censorship path of Thailand.
The article and lists, and then the entire newspaper secretly added to the list of publications banned by Australia.
The Australian "Minister for censorship", Senator Stephen Conroy, states "Any citizen who distributes [the blacklist] is at serious risk of criminal prosecution". The Minister threatens to refer the leak to the Australian Federal Police.
That same week, the newspaper releases three more articles on censorship and updates the lists of forbidden books.
Two buildings related to the newspaper in Germany are then raided by 11 plain clothed police. The police demand the keys (passwords) to a protected room (server) containing the newspaper's printing press so they can disable it. The newspaper staff refuse to comply--both the keys and the press itself have been sent to Sweden, a country with stronger legal protections for journalists.
The German police then seize what they believe to be the newspaper's archives (a hardrive) and a typewriter (laptop) "for evidence".
* * * * *
The story might end there, but 12 hours after the police raid, on Wednesday the 25th of March, the German Cabinet announced the completion of a proposed law for a nationwide, mandatory censorship system--to be pushed through before national elections in September, 2009.
For every noble human desire, in this case, the strong protective feelings most adults have towards children, opportunists such as Senator Conroy and his German equivalent, CDU Minister Ursula von der Leyen, stand ready to exploit these feelings for their own power and position.
Von der Leyen apparently hopes to raise her profile before a national election by promoting a national censorship "solution" to child pornography.
But forcibly preventing the average parent from seeing evidence of what may be an abuse against a child is not the same as stopping abuses against children. Absense of evidence is not evidence of absense.
Censoring the evidence promotes abuses by driving them underground, where they are difficult to track. Such schemes divert resources and political will away from proven policing solutions which target producers and consumers.
Children depend, even more than their parents, on the quality and viability of government. An assault against those systems and ideals which keep government honest and accountable - public oversight, natural justice, and protection from state censorship - is not just an affront to Enlightment ideals, but an assult on the long term interests of children and adults alike.
The March 24th raid is not the first time the German state has attempted to censor Wikileaks; back in December 2008, Ernst Uhrlau, former police chief and current head of the BND, Germany's equivalent to the CIA, threatened to prosecute the site unless it removed a BND dossier on corrupt officials in Kosovo and other information. The dossier was not removed. There is no evidence that the police action and the BND incident are related, but the situation, together with a recent Bundestag inquiry documenting illegal BND spying on the German press, does not paint a flattering picture of the state of German government.
From Wikileaks
Jump to: navigation, search
March 29, 2009
EDITORIAL (WikiLeaks)
We're arresting you for speeding.
What's the speed limit officer?
The speed limit is secret.
Cathy Wilcox
Cathy Wilcox
Shortly after 9pm on Tuesday March 24, Wikileaks related buildings in Dresden and Jena, were raided by 11 plain clothes German police.
Why?
Over the last two years, Wikileaks has exposed detailed secret government censorship lists or plans for over eight countries, including Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Germany.
Although Wikileaks' main site has been censored by the Chinese Public Security Bureau since early 2007, last week saw the site placed onto a secret list of sites "forbidden" by the Australian Media and Communications Authority, or ACMA.
The pro-censorship governments exposed by Wikileaks can be divided into three broad categories:
1. Countries with a mandatory censorship system in place: Thailand, the UAE, and Lebanon (films).
2. Countries proposing a mandatory censorship system: Australia and Germany.
3. Countries in which the internet censorship system is an unregulated agreement between several large ISPs and the police: Norway, Denmark and Finland.
Australia and Germany are the only liberal democracies proposing a mandatory internet censorship regime.
All of the schemes operate, or are proposed to operate, through multi-million dollar national networks of censorship machines.
The machines spy on the nation as each citizen attempts to read on the internet, and compares requested pages to those listed on a secret government "blacklist".
If the page is on the blacklist, the government forcibly prevents the citizen from viewing the information by intercepting his or her internet communication and diverting it to a machine controlled by the censorship system. This machine is often configured to record the identity of the person attempting to access the forbidden information. If the page is not on the blacklist, the government grants permission for the citizen to view the page.
Although originally marketed, in all countries, as a way of combating child pornography, the blacklists obtained by Wikileaks show that the systems have already been corrupted into censoring other content, including political content.
For instance, the secret blacklist for Thailand censors thousands of sites per year deemed to be critical of the Thai Monarchy, from academic books and YouTube to the Economist magazine and Wikileaks itself.
Similarly, the blacklist for Australia contains an anti-abortion site, fringe religions, a dentist clinic, gay sites, gambling sites, islamist sites, euthanasia activist sites, an astrologer's blog, misclassified material, and, like Thailand, Wikileaks itself. Even the Australian government's "Minister for censorship", Senator Stephen Conroy, has admitted that fully half of the sites on the secret list are unrelated to child pornography.
As newspapers and other publications migrate to an exclusive life on the internet, such totalizing censorship systems are able to instantly snatch "pages" from the laps of citizens across an entire nation, interdicting communications between publisher and reader, and the new civil discourse between readers and each other. The scale, speed and potential impact of this centralized intervention has no historical precedent.
Secret national censorship systems are dangerous and unaccountable. They are an afront to natural justice, due process and the balancing power of the fourth estate. They must be, and will be, stopped.
The Australian Government has stated it plans to increase the size of its blacklist list by 10 fold, from roughly 1,200 blocked pages to over 10,000, although the plan is now seems unlikely to pass the Australian Senate after the revelations of the last month.
* * * * *
To make what has happened clear to those who understand traditional book censorship, we provide the following simple analogy:
Within the libraries and book catalogues of Germany and Australia there are books (web pages) forbidden by the state.
The government of Australia has compiled a secret list of books it forbids. About 1,200 books are on the list.
Not even authors or publishers whose books are placed on the list are told their book has been banned.
Germany plans to adopt and expand a version of the Australian scheme.
Under the plans of the German and Australian governments, every attempt to borrow a book (read a web page) will be checked against the secret "forbidden books" (forbidden web pages) list.
If a book is on the list, the attempt to borrow it is noted down in another secret list and permission is refused. If the book is not on the blacklist, permission is granted.
The list of forbidden books (the blacklist) is a forbidden book.
The lists of books forbidden in other countries are also forbidden books.
Any book that mentions the title (URL) of a forbidden book is itself a forbidden book.
An international investigative newspaper (Wikileaks) reveals key internal documents on the censorship expansion plans for Germany, Australia and other countries. For Australia this expose includes the lists of forbidden books and the presence of clearly political books on the list. The newspaper warns that Australia is acting like a "democratic backwater" and risks following the censorship path of Thailand.
The article and lists, and then the entire newspaper secretly added to the list of publications banned by Australia.
The Australian "Minister for censorship", Senator Stephen Conroy, states "Any citizen who distributes [the blacklist] is at serious risk of criminal prosecution". The Minister threatens to refer the leak to the Australian Federal Police.
That same week, the newspaper releases three more articles on censorship and updates the lists of forbidden books.
Two buildings related to the newspaper in Germany are then raided by 11 plain clothed police. The police demand the keys (passwords) to a protected room (server) containing the newspaper's printing press so they can disable it. The newspaper staff refuse to comply--both the keys and the press itself have been sent to Sweden, a country with stronger legal protections for journalists.
The German police then seize what they believe to be the newspaper's archives (a hardrive) and a typewriter (laptop) "for evidence".
* * * * *
The story might end there, but 12 hours after the police raid, on Wednesday the 25th of March, the German Cabinet announced the completion of a proposed law for a nationwide, mandatory censorship system--to be pushed through before national elections in September, 2009.
For every noble human desire, in this case, the strong protective feelings most adults have towards children, opportunists such as Senator Conroy and his German equivalent, CDU Minister Ursula von der Leyen, stand ready to exploit these feelings for their own power and position.
Von der Leyen apparently hopes to raise her profile before a national election by promoting a national censorship "solution" to child pornography.
But forcibly preventing the average parent from seeing evidence of what may be an abuse against a child is not the same as stopping abuses against children. Absense of evidence is not evidence of absense.
Censoring the evidence promotes abuses by driving them underground, where they are difficult to track. Such schemes divert resources and political will away from proven policing solutions which target producers and consumers.
Children depend, even more than their parents, on the quality and viability of government. An assault against those systems and ideals which keep government honest and accountable - public oversight, natural justice, and protection from state censorship - is not just an affront to Enlightment ideals, but an assult on the long term interests of children and adults alike.
The March 24th raid is not the first time the German state has attempted to censor Wikileaks; back in December 2008, Ernst Uhrlau, former police chief and current head of the BND, Germany's equivalent to the CIA, threatened to prosecute the site unless it removed a BND dossier on corrupt officials in Kosovo and other information. The dossier was not removed. There is no evidence that the police action and the BND incident are related, but the situation, together with a recent Bundestag inquiry documenting illegal BND spying on the German press, does not paint a flattering picture of the state of German government.
The Plan
From: http://soli.inav.net/~catalyst/Humor/plan.htm
In the beginning was the Plan.
And then came the Assumptions.
And the assumptions were without form.
And the plan was without substance.
And darkness was upon the faces of the workers.
And they spoke among themselves saying, "It is a crock of shit and it stinks."
And the workers went unto their Supervisors and said, "It is a pail of dung and we cannot live with the smell."
And the supervisors went unto their Managers saying, "It is a container of organic waste and it is very strong such that none may abide by it."
And the managers went unto their Directors, saying, "It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide by it."
And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another, "It contains that which aids plant growth and it is very powerful."
And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him, "This new plan will actively promote growth and vigor of the company with very powerful effects."
And the president looked upon the plan and saw that it was good.
And the plan became Policy.
And this is how shit happens.
In the beginning was the Plan.
And then came the Assumptions.
And the assumptions were without form.
And the plan was without substance.
And darkness was upon the faces of the workers.
And they spoke among themselves saying, "It is a crock of shit and it stinks."
And the workers went unto their Supervisors and said, "It is a pail of dung and we cannot live with the smell."
And the supervisors went unto their Managers saying, "It is a container of organic waste and it is very strong such that none may abide by it."
And the managers went unto their Directors, saying, "It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide by it."
And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another, "It contains that which aids plant growth and it is very powerful."
And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him, "This new plan will actively promote growth and vigor of the company with very powerful effects."
And the president looked upon the plan and saw that it was good.
And the plan became Policy.
And this is how shit happens.
Friday, March 27, 2009
FEAR
Maybe you're right and I should play it safe and not express myself.
I don't think you understand what or where my mind is moving to... or the construct in which everyone is trapped. FEAR.
I'm sick to death of being sick to death of some 'future', playing it safe and bending to this future you speak of.
I am a good person, that's all anyone needs to know. My intent is honorable. Fuck em' fuck em all.
Now I am going to sleep. I think your concern is nice but misplaced, you need to try and understand fully and more deeply what you are afraid of on my behalf, what construct it is, why it scares you and not me....... and this is Donal the geek who can probably see further and faster than most in to the 'future'.
I appreciate your concern, however I will stand by my instinct and convictions.
I repeat. Fuck em' , fuck em' all, I don't want a part in any future that doesn't want a part of me. All of me. Do you understand now?
I can't live my life afraid or in fear. If it doesn't work, I will create my own reality or find others that share MY reality. Ask yourself what you are afraid of and then use the past to project a different future.
I don't think you understand what or where my mind is moving to... or the construct in which everyone is trapped. FEAR.
I'm sick to death of being sick to death of some 'future', playing it safe and bending to this future you speak of.
I am a good person, that's all anyone needs to know. My intent is honorable. Fuck em' fuck em all.
Now I am going to sleep. I think your concern is nice but misplaced, you need to try and understand fully and more deeply what you are afraid of on my behalf, what construct it is, why it scares you and not me....... and this is Donal the geek who can probably see further and faster than most in to the 'future'.
I appreciate your concern, however I will stand by my instinct and convictions.
I repeat. Fuck em' , fuck em' all, I don't want a part in any future that doesn't want a part of me. All of me. Do you understand now?
I can't live my life afraid or in fear. If it doesn't work, I will create my own reality or find others that share MY reality. Ask yourself what you are afraid of and then use the past to project a different future.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Questions for Conroy
#nocleanfeed #censorship #wikileaks
With props to Dan Geer's essay on Convergence.
With props to Dan Geer's essay on Convergence.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Censorship:Getup.org.au:Children
Dear Tim/Getup re: http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet&id=576
**** How about toddlers speaking with adult voices, with plain white backgrounds engaging in critical free speech and educational paradigms? ****
Won't someone think of the children? Well has anyone actually asked them about the internet and bad stuff? It's their future, not ours. Maybe you have a baby or child and each iteration of generation ~ 10-15 years speaks with the voice of a generation 20-25 years older? Then a very old person speaking with a toddlers voice to complete the circle and enforce the concept.
When you apply reductionist thought akin to 'give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime', unfettered access to information which provokes critical thought and enforces personal and parental responsibility is paramount. Privacy, identity, global networks with no geo-political boundaries, censorship, free speech, autodidactic education, decentralism, human organisation, publishing, commerce, literacy, all salient and prominent issues... we need to get toddlers/kids to speak on their own, and our behalf.. it will also provoke thought and positive/negative publicity to catapult this topic in to the pscyche of this fledgling nation.
As @Wadeis pointed out many moons ago a viral video "akin" to this *will* work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=0vtHwWReGU0 , albeit I see kids speaking with adult voices about important memes. Perhaps sound bytes from both sides of the debate from prominent opponents/proponents?
We need some public faces/voices and simple messaging. We need to leverage existing memes while creating a new one.
Additional:
I have been collecting internet history/safety information videos on your behalf: http://bsdosx.blogspot.com/2009/02/histornet-history-of-internet.html , for any historical or future references as unfortunately a lot of this is underpinned by technology that changes the playing field.
**** How about toddlers speaking with adult voices, with plain white backgrounds engaging in critical free speech and educational paradigms? ****
Won't someone think of the children? Well has anyone actually asked them about the internet and bad stuff? It's their future, not ours. Maybe you have a baby or child and each iteration of generation ~ 10-15 years speaks with the voice of a generation 20-25 years older? Then a very old person speaking with a toddlers voice to complete the circle and enforce the concept.
When you apply reductionist thought akin to 'give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime', unfettered access to information which provokes critical thought and enforces personal and parental responsibility is paramount. Privacy, identity, global networks with no geo-political boundaries, censorship, free speech, autodidactic education, decentralism, human organisation, publishing, commerce, literacy, all salient and prominent issues... we need to get toddlers/kids to speak on their own, and our behalf.. it will also provoke thought and positive/negative publicity to catapult this topic in to the pscyche of this fledgling nation.
As @Wadeis pointed out many moons ago a viral video "akin" to this *will* work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=0vtHwWReGU0 , albeit I see kids speaking with adult voices about important memes. Perhaps sound bytes from both sides of the debate from prominent opponents/proponents?
We need some public faces/voices and simple messaging. We need to leverage existing memes while creating a new one.
Additional:
I have been collecting internet history/safety information videos on your behalf: http://bsdosx.blogspot.com/2009/02/histornet-history-of-internet.html , for any historical or future references as unfortunately a lot of this is underpinned by technology that changes the playing field.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Internets
I spent a lot of time at the weekend talking about how information,
ideas, awareness and cirtical thought spreads; and it's all about
unfettered access and freedom/transparency of information(and/or
non-contextualised raw data).
Information pollution/signal to noise ratios are required as both a
contrast and training mechanism e.g. duality. The internet is the
largest human mirror and 'community of practice' we know. The ultimate
'connected' neural net.
Warts and all.
Fun eco links:
http://www.thecoolhunter.com.au/
http://www.inhabitat.com/
ideas, awareness and cirtical thought spreads; and it's all about
unfettered access and freedom/transparency of information(and/or
non-contextualised raw data).
Information pollution/signal to noise ratios are required as both a
contrast and training mechanism e.g. duality. The internet is the
largest human mirror and 'community of practice' we know. The ultimate
'connected' neural net.
Warts and all.
Fun eco links:
http://www.thecoolhunter.com.au/
http://www.inhabitat.com/
Monday, March 16, 2009
Back to my roots
So you know you're entering fun new territory when you see signs like this for Cassawaries!! I was heading in to one of the oldest jungles in the world for a weekend off the grid. Welcome to the Daintree
This is Dave's house. Note the solar panels on the roof. Water is running straight from one of the creeks. We swam in many of the non-croc infested creeks, hung out on beaches with sea-eagles, checked out the mangrove flora and fauna.. and sampled the Wine Doctors resveratrol enhanced wine all while eating local produce and muggins here being introduced to fruit that tasted like creme caramel (called Abiu[s]).
Many of the worlds problems were solved this weekend in Cape Tribulation; however, as the solutions weren't documented in the moment, they have unfortunately been lost to mankind. I will have to go back up soon and chill wit' da junglists once more. Cheers Dave and Sarah...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Histornet : History and Future of the Internet
Then go here for "Warriors of the Net" for a fun view of some constituent parts:
Then go here for "A Common Sense Approach to Internet Safety":
And when you're finally ready, then go here for the future (38mins in is good!):
Monday, February 09, 2009
10 laws of networking (Donal)
Remember a few simple paradigms
===============================
1) The risk profile of a network or fabric is greater than the aggregate of the risk profiles for each of its endpoint/client connected nodes or services.
2) Never underestimate physical *and* logical separation. Ask yourself what happens if the mgmt control plane goes down or gets stuck in 'flipmode'?
3) Protect your management and control plane above all else, try not to have them in-path with the data plane. IT is change management, if you can't manage your resources, you may as well not have them.
4) Where are your policy enforcement points which facilitate auditability and visibility? AAA is a must!
5) Always use subnets and NETBLOCKs to separate traffic when you can. [e.g. use good address management] QOS on subnets is easier than QOS on discrete flows.
6) Darkness is not good. Instrument and gather telemetry from your network. Inbound poll and outbound trap at a minimum. Baselining and trending helps.
7) Always look at logs, sessions and empirical data rather than listening to conjecture and hearsay.
8) Abstraction layers are a good thing such that logical resources and physical resources can move without affecting one another. Loose coupling not tight coupling is the order of the day.
9) Always use loopbacks or virtual interfaces to manage devices where possible. [see 8]
10) In-path tests are the only things that represent what a client or endpoint sees. Up isn't always up, sometimes it's down.
Note: This is evolving, please leave comments on adds, moves, and changes... including priorities!
4 Laws of Troubleshooting:
==========================
1) Get, define, refine PROBLEM STATEMENT and the 5 WHY's.
2) Always go back to basics and first principles.
3) Look for commonalities and deltas.
4) Document an end-to-end code/firmware matrix for your problem.
Hugo's take on things (Not that I specifically disagree, but I do have a slightly variying point of view to the previously released laws)
========================================
1. Lack of visibility does not constitute lack of activity. While being unable to manage a device constitutes a significant risk, it does not constitute an outage.
2. We spend a great deal of time building highly available data paths in networks. They constitute one of the most reliable ways to get around the network. It is a valid consideration for the carriage of management traffic.
3. In a redundant, highly available network, a down device does not constitute a disaster, in fact, it doesn't even constitute an outage. Delaying its recovery constitutes a risk, not a problem.
4. The weakest part of your management is your people and processes, think less technically and more simply. Sometimes an analogue phone is the best solution.
5. Focus your efforts on the areas you have problems. Management like to see rapid improvement, don't focus on what causes you 1 issue a month to the detriment of something causing you 10.
6. Before you ring for escalation support, type "show log". Or look at the appropriate logs on the device or host.
7. History is important. Nothing changes radically overnight, if you can see what has happened before, you will know better whether you are looking at a one off event or a re-occurring issue. Many other pointers come from history and trending information.
8. No matter how big a nuffer they are, the day to day or other incident staff may well have seen something important that they can tell you. Try to establish the information behind their assumptions.
9. Best practice is merely something that worked for others. Sometimes our differences necessitate divergence. The best German engineering software in the world is of little value to someone who only speaks English. The best network management software in the world adds little value if it does not gather call history and quality information on your VoIP network. Best practice is a great starting point, but usually not where you should end up.
10. Keep it simple. Networks have a way of complicating themselves, your efforts should be towards keeping it simple and reliable.
===============================
1) The risk profile of a network or fabric is greater than the aggregate of the risk profiles for each of its endpoint/client connected nodes or services.
2) Never underestimate physical *and* logical separation. Ask yourself what happens if the mgmt control plane goes down or gets stuck in 'flipmode'?
3) Protect your management and control plane above all else, try not to have them in-path with the data plane. IT is change management, if you can't manage your resources, you may as well not have them.
4) Where are your policy enforcement points which facilitate auditability and visibility? AAA is a must!
5) Always use subnets and NETBLOCKs to separate traffic when you can. [e.g. use good address management] QOS on subnets is easier than QOS on discrete flows.
6) Darkness is not good. Instrument and gather telemetry from your network. Inbound poll and outbound trap at a minimum. Baselining and trending helps.
7) Always look at logs, sessions and empirical data rather than listening to conjecture and hearsay.
8) Abstraction layers are a good thing such that logical resources and physical resources can move without affecting one another. Loose coupling not tight coupling is the order of the day.
9) Always use loopbacks or virtual interfaces to manage devices where possible. [see 8]
10) In-path tests are the only things that represent what a client or endpoint sees. Up isn't always up, sometimes it's down.
Note: This is evolving, please leave comments on adds, moves, and changes... including priorities!
4 Laws of Troubleshooting:
==========================
1) Get, define, refine PROBLEM STATEMENT and the 5 WHY's.
2) Always go back to basics and first principles.
3) Look for commonalities and deltas.
4) Document an end-to-end code/firmware matrix for your problem.
Hugo's take on things (Not that I specifically disagree, but I do have a slightly variying point of view to the previously released laws)
========================================
1. Lack of visibility does not constitute lack of activity. While being unable to manage a device constitutes a significant risk, it does not constitute an outage.
2. We spend a great deal of time building highly available data paths in networks. They constitute one of the most reliable ways to get around the network. It is a valid consideration for the carriage of management traffic.
3. In a redundant, highly available network, a down device does not constitute a disaster, in fact, it doesn't even constitute an outage. Delaying its recovery constitutes a risk, not a problem.
4. The weakest part of your management is your people and processes, think less technically and more simply. Sometimes an analogue phone is the best solution.
5. Focus your efforts on the areas you have problems. Management like to see rapid improvement, don't focus on what causes you 1 issue a month to the detriment of something causing you 10.
6. Before you ring for escalation support, type "show log". Or look at the appropriate logs on the device or host.
7. History is important. Nothing changes radically overnight, if you can see what has happened before, you will know better whether you are looking at a one off event or a re-occurring issue. Many other pointers come from history and trending information.
8. No matter how big a nuffer they are, the day to day or other incident staff may well have seen something important that they can tell you. Try to establish the information behind their assumptions.
9. Best practice is merely something that worked for others. Sometimes our differences necessitate divergence. The best German engineering software in the world is of little value to someone who only speaks English. The best network management software in the world adds little value if it does not gather call history and quality information on your VoIP network. Best practice is a great starting point, but usually not where you should end up.
10. Keep it simple. Networks have a way of complicating themselves, your efforts should be towards keeping it simple and reliable.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Sunday, February 01, 2009
The coming global Infosec freeze
Our biggest problem is we can't demonstrate shit happens effectively enough. [Outcomes]
Especially when it get's rolled up in to operational 'stability' or the 80% of self serving retards running IT suppress ripples in the space time continuum. Or the snake-oil selling vendors manage to introduce more nodes and code rather than less.
Baselines and reference points are also missing, and we all know why. We're all using the same virtual bricks but building everything from lego turing machines to traffic systems to flying machines and fighting robots.
Google just did a lot of work for us classifying *everything* on the web as evil. So maybe we can just convince the web 2.0 fanatics to go join the luddites and take part in Donal's solution called....
.... wait for it....
"SLOW IT DOWN" I am now declaring a change freeze on all production systems till 2012 when we can get our shit together :)
Especially when it get's rolled up in to operational 'stability' or the 80% of self serving retards running IT suppress ripples in the space time continuum. Or the snake-oil selling vendors manage to introduce more nodes and code rather than less.
Baselines and reference points are also missing, and we all know why. We're all using the same virtual bricks but building everything from lego turing machines to traffic systems to flying machines and fighting robots.
Google just did a lot of work for us classifying *everything* on the web as evil. So maybe we can just convince the web 2.0 fanatics to go join the luddites and take part in Donal's solution called....
.... wait for it....
"SLOW IT DOWN" I am now declaring a change freeze on all production systems till 2012 when we can get our shit together :)
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Filtering in Oz: Australia's Foray into Internet Censorship
I cannot recommend this independent paper enough! It's from the Brooklyn Law School.
S.Korean mirror: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1319466_code865180.pdf?abstractid=1319466&mirid=4
"Abstract: Australia's decision to implement Internet censorship using technological means creates a natural experiment: the first Western democracy to mandate filtering legislatively, and to retrofit it to a decentralized network architecture. But are the proposed restrictions legitimate? The new restraints derive from the Labor Party's pro-filtering electoral campaign, though coalition government gives minority politicians considerable influence over policy. The country has a well-defined statutory censorship system for on-line and off-line material that may, however, be undercut by relying on foreign and third-party lists of sites to be blocked. While Australia is open about its filtering goals, the government's transparency about what content is to be blocked is poor. Initial tests show that how effective censorship is at filtering prohibited content - and only that content - will vary based on what method the country's ISPs use. Though Australia's decisionmakers are formally accountable to citizens, efforts to silence dissenters, outsourcing of blocking decisions, and filtering's inevitable transfer of power to technicians undercut accountability. The paper argues Australia represents a shift by Western democracies towards legitimating Internet filtering and away from robust consideration of the alternatives available to combat undesirable information."
Relinked.
S.Korean mirror: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1319466_code865180.pdf?abstractid=1319466&mirid=4
"Abstract: Australia's decision to implement Internet censorship using technological means creates a natural experiment: the first Western democracy to mandate filtering legislatively, and to retrofit it to a decentralized network architecture. But are the proposed restrictions legitimate? The new restraints derive from the Labor Party's pro-filtering electoral campaign, though coalition government gives minority politicians considerable influence over policy. The country has a well-defined statutory censorship system for on-line and off-line material that may, however, be undercut by relying on foreign and third-party lists of sites to be blocked. While Australia is open about its filtering goals, the government's transparency about what content is to be blocked is poor. Initial tests show that how effective censorship is at filtering prohibited content - and only that content - will vary based on what method the country's ISPs use. Though Australia's decisionmakers are formally accountable to citizens, efforts to silence dissenters, outsourcing of blocking decisions, and filtering's inevitable transfer of power to technicians undercut accountability. The paper argues Australia represents a shift by Western democracies towards legitimating Internet filtering and away from robust consideration of the alternatives available to combat undesirable information."
Relinked.
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