Month: May 2012

Interesting Network Infrastructure Developments

I was recently asked for a few bullet points on some recent “interesting network infrastructure developments”. In the five minutes I had, I offered the following:

  • TRILL – Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links – a new layer 2 routing protocol which promises to replace STP. What’s really interesting about TRILL is that it does not need to be loop free; there are no blocking ports; and frames can take the shortest path. See http://www.ipjforum.org/?p=582 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRILL_(computing). 
  • Open Networking Foundation – https://www.opennetworking.org/ – “The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) is a non-profit consortium dedicated to the transformation of networking through the development and standardization of a unique architecture called Software-Defined Networking (SDN), which brings direct software programmability to networks worldwide. The mission of the Foundation is to commercialize and promote SDN and the underlying technologies as a disruptive approach to networking that will change how virtually every company with a network operates.” – members include Facebook, Google and Microsoft.
  • OpenFlow – http://www.openflow.org/ – “OpenFlow enables networks to evolve, by giving a remote controller the power to modify the behavior of network devices, through a well-defined “forwarding instruction set”. The growing OpenFlow ecosystem now includes routers, switches, virtual switches, and access points from a range of vendors.” – adopted by Googleand others. 
  • OpenCompute – slightly off networking but relevant – http://opencompute.org/ – “A small team of Facebook engineers spent the past two years tackling a big challenge: how to scale our computing infrastructure in the most efficient and economical way possible. … Everyone has full access to these specifications. We want you to tell us where we didn’t get it right and suggest how we could improve. And opening the technology means the community will make advances that we wouldn’t have discovered if we had kept it secret.”

Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) and PHP 5.4 (again)

My previous post, Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) and PHP 5.4, has been extremely popular but I left some work for the user to figure out.

In a nutshell, here is how you install PHP 5.4 in Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin).

1. Install the signing key for the PPA (which also adds the sources to apt):

add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php5

If the above command is not available, install it using:

apt-get install python-software-properties

2. Now update the package database and then upgrade the system. As part of upgrading, PHP 5.4 will be installed automatically:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

Now, you should have PHP 5.4 installed:

# php -v
PHP 5.4.3-4~precise+1 (cli) (built: May 17 2012 13:00:25)
Copyright (c) 1997-2012 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.4.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2012 Zend Technologies

As an aside, at the time of my previous post, PHP Memcache packages were not available from the PPA but that has since been rectified.

Joseph Mallozzi :: Remembering Joel Goldsmith

Over in his blog, Joe Mallozzi wrote a fitting remembrance to Joel Goldsmith:

Finally, we come to Joel’s last piece for the Stargate franchise, that beautiful closing theme to the SGU finale, Gauntlet.  …  When we received the director’s cut, the sequence had included a gorgeous piece that I felt was nothing short of perfect.  I loved Joel’s work, knew what he was capable of but, I have to admit, I doubted even he could trump the music that accompanied the director’s cut.  But Joel wanted to try.  He did.  And succeeded.  If that original piece was nothing shot of perfect, then the closing piece Joel came up with was beyond perfection.

As a huge Stargate fan – (can you believe it’s three series, 17 seasons, 354 episodes) – it’s fair to say that Joel also provided the soundtrack to quite a chunk of my life! Here’s that closing sequence of the final episode of Stargate Universe (and the franchise) Joe was referencing (which was perfectly paired with the opening sequence of the first episode of Universe):