Make a calendar entry for 21 AUG 2017

A total solar eclipse will cover much of North America as shown on this map.  Hopefully the weather will be clear where I am.  Just have to figure out what kind of photo equipment I'll need.

Travel Destination: Czech Republic

An awesome photo from Prachov Rocks, Czech Republic. 

Cheap stratum 1 NTP server

A cool project for an IT person or someone with a Raspberry Pi: build a small stratum one NTP server.

Enterprise NTP servers with GPS modules can cost thousands.  A Raspberry Pi based NTP server is a small form factor inexpensive way to get GPS based NTP time.  Other good uses, especially at small sites, remote offices, or co-location facilities:

• DHCP
• Out-of-band/management network
• Performance monitoring, troubleshooting, packet capture

Standing on the Shoulders of a Wiseass

The phrase "standing on the shoulder's of giants" has a long and interesting history, generally taken to mean building on past successes of others.

One of the most famous uses of this quote is by Sir Isaac Newton  to Robert Hooke:

What Des-Cartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, & especially in taking the colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration. If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.

While reading  Is God a Mathematician by Mario Livio, I came across an explanation for this quote I hadn't heard before.  Newton, know for his rivalries and disputes, may be been taking a swipe Hooke's stature and severe stoop.  The Wikipedia article on the quote seems to refute this by indicating that Hooke and Newton were on good terms, at least when this letter was written.

On Responsibility

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.


Herbert Spencer

Packet Capture Manipulation Tools

Haven't had a chance to play with them; putting them here so I don't forget:

TCPRePlay : UNIX tools for analyzing and manipulating pcap files
TraceWrangler: A windows program for manipulating pcapng files (such as anonimzing)

An oldy, but goodie.  This one I've many times
TCPtrace: a UNIX tool for analyzing and graphing TCP flows.

Birth Stars

The Joint Astronomy Centre at the University of Hawaii will map out a star whose light started traveling the month you were born. 

Amazingly, it can take thousands to millions of years for a photon to make it from the core of a sun to the surface, depending on many factors including density.  Once at the surface, outside the dense star, it travels at the speed of light.
Put in your birthday, and you can find a star whose light started its journey about the same time you did.  Visit the sight often, because the location of the star will change as you age.