Links for April 7th, 2011

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  • Facebook Open Sources Its Servers and Data Centers: Cloud Computing News «
    Facebook has basically given away the key to being as green as possible right now, which is a very nice thing of them to do. They obviously believe their competitive advantage is not their infrastructure, whereas Google does think that.
  • The Kermit Project – Columbia University
    “Unfortunately, Columbia has determined it can no longer continue to support the Kermit Project going forward. As of July 1st, 2011, development of any new Kermit software enhancements at Columbia University will cease, as will any ability of Columbia to provide ongoing maintenance and technical support for Kermit.” I’ve needed Kermit twice in my life: transfers to my HP-48s and to transfer a copy of zmodem to a VAX. I’m guessing the dude that wrote it is retiring and nobody sees the point in taking it over.
  • World’s 1st Computer More Complex Than Originally Thought
    Proving once again that primitive != dumb when it comes to ancient cultures. You see this with the indigenous North Americans and copper smelting, or the Antikythera Mechanism, or any number of achievements. I would posit that, on the whole, we are way, way more clueless per capita than someone who lived 2,200 years ago when this thing was built.
  • Why TCP Over TCP Is A Bad Idea
    It’s bad ideas like this that make me wonder how many IT people actually understand IP networking (link courtesy of Jeremy Zawodny). I wonder how many VPNs are misconfigured this way.
  • How F*cked Is Muni?
    Ever since my friend Jesse lived in SF, right on the N/Judah, and introduced me to the PUNI comics I’ve enjoyed sites like this. I’d say it’s NSFW but, you know, a lot of people swear at work.
  • New Car Engine Sends Shock Waves Through Auto Industry : Discovery News
    This is pretty cool. We just need them in actual cars now. I volunteer to drive a prototype!
  • Security Stories We Wish Had Been April Fool’s Jokes | threatpost
    I think we’ll start seeing more and more of the hackable medical devices, and litigation around that. Medical devices can’t be updated in any sane timeframe due to stringent FDA regulations, so the net effect is that they don’t get updated at all.

3 thoughts on “Links for April 7th, 2011”

  1. I updated the TCP over TCP comment because it didn’t make any sense, upon my rereading it. I was probably thinking about something else when I wrote it.

  2. You should note that almost NO VPN technology uses TCP over TCP for this exact reason. Thus IPSEC uses UDP for data transfer (although TCP can be configured) and SSL VPNs attempt to use UDP with TLS (although TCP over SSL can be configured).

    When configuring VPN concentrators, you always configure the UDP capability first, and TCP as a backup. In many VPN clients you don’t even notice that it is happening.

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