Trains, planes, MPLS, and IP

I am in Maastricht at the 78th IETF meeting.In the weeks before the meeting many IETF'ers complained about the fact that there were no direct flights to the venue. The closest airports are Amsterdam and Brussels, but from there three trains had to be taken.At first I had thought that the problem was related to carrying luggage between trains, but discovered that the concerns were more about the

Succulents and (tele)protection mechanisms

My wife and I cultivate succulents, plants that store water. Cacti are succulents, but we don’t collect them – only the cuddly and outwardly types. What I find so interesting about succulents is that the various types are relatively unrelated – there was never a proto-succulent that evolved into many subspecies. Instead many different kinds of plants developed similar mechanisms to cope with the

Shaping / policing in 3G networks

This is my first blog entry on the world of traffic shaping. We have all been hearing about the need for shaping in 3G mobile networks. The subject’s popularity exploded with the publicity of network overload problems that some operators were experiencing with the introduction of the iPhone. Most of that turned out to be due to signaling overload. However, almost everyone is convinced that if

Skepticon 3

It's official. And it's awesome! Skepticon 3 will take place at MSU (in Springfield, Missouri) from Friday to Sunday this November 19th to 21st (2010). Brought to you by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. For all possible details see their official website Skepticon.org (which will be updated with more details over time as everything gets finalized).
For how amazing the last was, see my

NOE Premieres!

Quick notable note. Last year I blogged about the advance premiere of the odd doco The Nature of Existence by Roger Nygard. Revisit my remarks there to see what I knew about it then. I was interviewed extensively for it, and I have a two second appearance in the film.

I've since received a reviewer's copy and seen it. I gave it a qualified review for The Skeptical Inquirer (which I believe will

The Music of May

Taking a break from renovation and housework for a new addition to my ongoing series on music. I needn't go into too much detail how this time's collection only further proves my original thesis that we live in a glorious post-musical age (though I'll drop some hints). I'll mostly just survey what I've added to my catalog since last I wrote about it. To catch up (if you're new to all this),

Appearing in Walnut Creek

I apologize to anyone who has been wondering where I am. I've been incommuni- cado for many weeks due to Jen and I having just purchased a home. It's our first owned home in fifteen years of marriage. Being poor, we bought a fixer. And boy has it been. Like a voluntary labor camp I've been working 12 hour days seven days a week (even forgetting when weekends were passing) making the house livable