OK, let me try to explain how this campus works to those who assume that Case just dumped tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on a fiber network in recent years.
The real answer is, we've had this fiber network in place since the late 1980s. That's right. So to those who are talking about "why not just run cat6?". Well, let me tell you, that wasn't exactly even around back then. Here's a brief (and somewhat dated) timeline of how this campus network was built: http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/tour/Tours/CWRUnet_Tour s/CWRUnet_Timeline.html
I know this because I was a student here and now a technical and facilities manager and have been on the campus for about a decade.
Also, gig fiber to the desktop *is* nice. Try pulling down a complete set of ISOs (MSDNAA, BSD, Linux, whatever). The more the better, in my opinion. The equipment really isn't that expensive.
Yes, one of our limiting factors is that currently we are uplinked at an oc-3 with only about 45 megabits partitioned off for commodity internet usage. The rest is devoted to Internet2 traffic. However, as I understand it, this will change and in the near future we will have a full gigabit uplink to our provider (maybe even more, it's been awhile).
In regards to the recommendations made, no, I don't think they were really necessary. Who outside of this school really cares anyway? However, that said, the University does get a really nice discount on some Dell products. Enough to make it worth it for most students (whom would probably buy Dell anyway based upon current market share).
So there you have it. Quit bitching about the use of fiber. I know this won't stop the arguing, but might as well not fight a decision that was made 15 YEARS AGO. Oh, and by the way, kind of nice to know that that same infrastructure has WORKED for that entire 15 years without need to repull copper and likely will continue to work for many more decades to come. A low long-term TCO is kind of a nice thing you know.
Finally, my opinions do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of my employe, Case Western Reserve University and I speak in no official public relations capacity... I simply speak as an alumnus and current employee.
I actually kind of like Cleveland. I don't know why the city gets such a bad rap these days. It's not perfect, but it certainly has a number of things going for it in relation to a conference such as:
1) Being central to many other major cities 2) Lower costs of living (which I would assume would translate to lower conference costs... maybe not) 3) Having a decent amount of stuff to do
Eh, it should be an interesting event. Are you going to be there?
To each his own. As was stated by the noble AC, we're trying to attract a somewhat different crowd. Yes, CanSecWest is an excellent conference and I would suggest it to anyone who can afford it.
By the looks at it, CanSecWest costs at a minimum CAN$1600 whereas this conference can be had for as low as US$50.
Too bad you posted as AC, but you probably expected this reply anyway:)
Actually, my rent for a two-bedroom half of a house is well below that (plus utilities). It's one of the reasons that, while I may want to fly the coop sometimes, there are a lot of good reasons to stay that many people really don't consider. Overall it's really not too bad. The people are cool at least;)
Well, let's just say that while we like heading to the west coast, too, for variosu conferences and events, we know that this area has a *lot* to offer. The problem is that most of us really don't know each other. Hopefully this event can fix that and at the same time explore new territory not covered at those other conferences.
I have received a number of funny and amusing resumes over the past year or two since I became management (*shudder*).
One of the most interesting was a gentleman applying for a Windows system administration position. It consisted of 7 pages of print, single space, 8 point type filled to the GILLS with every product he had every seen, touched, smelled or heard of. Everything from Microsoft Paint and Wordpad to a listing of at least 15 to 20 complier products. Yes, he even made the effort to let me know that he used DOS... and included every... single... version...
To top this little gem of a resume off (I had to read the whole thing, it was like watching a train-wreck), he included the following line at the end:
"This is a brief outline of my qualifications. If you would like a more detailed resume, please contact me".
PUUH.
I believe I sat dumbfounded in my chair for at least 5 minutes.
Contact me via my email address and I will reply with the appropriate information. The people you lsited I don't think hang out... the groups are now very different. However, there are a number of decent people on. It started a few years ago with just myself and two of my friends on campus who were all employees. Now the network (it's a collection of 3 servers, 2 on campus, 1 off) that, currently has about 50 people. Sometimes we hit a lot more, point being when Halder went around the PB Lewis building and started capping people.
In any case, let me know and I'll give you tha hookup, as it were.
And now that I'm about to post I see your email in message. Oh well, I'll hit submit anyway
While I feel your pain, CFN did have some serious issues, the biggest of which was the fact that the codebase was insecure, the least of which was the fact that staffing issues within ITS prevented it from being properly maintained.
Besides, and I think you could agree, in the end it really became a pretty seedy place with more and more 1337 kiddies joining in that really had no business being there. A great influx of people that really didn't care about the "community" trashed many of the SIGs and caused the IRC server to revert into a wasteland (albeit a wasteland I miss dearly, hence the reason for starting up my own IRC server at Case (the address isn't that hard to find and is well populated by Case people, alumni and other interested parties)). The MUC, it's successor, was no better.
So while I do yearn for the "good old days" so often, after actually meeting and becoming friends with some of the people that ran it, I understand a lot of the reasons why it simply had to go. It was a bitter pill to swallow and I understand now that the issue wasn't a black or white one... it was very gray indeed.
I am not intimiately involved with the project, as I work in the EECS department at Case and not ITS. However, I do know a lot of people that *do* work within ITS and keep myself informed enough to know that most of what's being spouted here is inaccurate at the least and FUD at worst.
In any case (no pun intended), here's what's going down.
Case currently has deployed 600 at last count (a few months ago) Cisco WAPs with 802.11b. By the end of the project, almost 1200 WAPs will be deployed campus wide. When Cisco starts shipping the 802.11g radios for the Aironets, all of the radios in all of the APs are going to get upgraded to g.
OK. That's done.
Next, currently it is REQUIRED that anyone wanting to use the WAPs must authenticate to a Cisco VPN server and gain access to campus network services as if they were physically on the network. HOWEVER, starting September 1st, ANYONE will be able to use another SSID on any WAP to gain access to the network AS IF they were outside of the CWRU firewall. ANYONE. Script kiddies, goofballs, terrorists... your mother... anyone. Also with that, though, are some SERIOUS controls and, I would assume, monitoring of the traffic. The first big control is bandwidth throttling. No, you wouldn't be able to park (if you could find parking at least) outside of a building and snarf down kazaa bullshit (besides, Kazaa is mostly throttled for everyone anyway. P2P is such a waste of resources, but I digress). So don't think you're going to be able to pull down at 4 to 5 Mbps on the "guest" network. What you WILL be able to do is check mail, browse the web and do activity and most "normal" people would be able to do. If you want to do high bandwidth wireless applications, you'd have to use the VPN.
So, while this is authoritative I believe I can speak with some certainty that what I have said above is correct and true.
Also, I want to state that my words here are not necessarily the official views of my employer, Case Western Reserve University and are my own based upon publically published information.
To echo some of the comments made here, buy used! You should have a REPUTABLE (and I do mean reputable) pawn shop in your area that sells diamonds and settings second hand. I purchased a beautiful 3 diamond ring in 18K white gold for my fiance for about $2500. It's value? About $4500. Also, this pawn shop guarantees an added 10% additional value per year if she ever wants to trade up (why would she?;). I didn't put any additional drain on the "new" diamon market, helped out the local economy and... here's the kicker (I hope), HOPEFULLY I helped out in some roundabout way some geek who maybe got dumped by his wife-to-be.;)
Hey, who knows the history. I don't care. I bought my woman something that's pretty, not too extravagent and used. If your woman requires that her diamond be "new", remind her that they've been in the ground for who knows how many years already. Perhaps give her some printouts explaining how purchasing new diamonds is offensive to you for social and moral reasons.
Another final idea that's been posted here... ask a relative. Yeah, it's gauche, but tactfully talking to relatives might prove very beneficial. It might save YOU money while keeping an heirloom in the family. Needless to say, try to pick a good bride-to-be first so that the sentimental treasure isn't sullied by things like divorces.;)
I've been reading a lot of the posts here and, likewise, have been posting a lot (in fact, more than I've posted in years). There's a lot of points I find that I keep making and figured I'd wrap them all up in one post to save me time. For the record, I am an employee of CWRU as well as a part-time graduate student. I work in the EECS department (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) and am currently involved with the gigabit networking upgrades in my buildings to some degree.
The article isn't clear about the fiber networking here at CWRU. The fiber network has been in place largely since the late 1980s. This isn't a new installation. New buildings are getting both Cat5 and fiber, but most of the older buildings already have both single and multi mode fiber already installed. Cat5 wasn't even a standard until after the current fiber infrastructure was already in place!
Yes, the name of the school is Case Western Reserve University.
CWRU implemented an ATM network in 1995/1996 that failed miserably. I know because I was one of the first people on it. At the time, ATM was an unproven technology. Vendor support just wasn't there. Gigabit is less of a gamble because we know it works and has much better support and a much brighter future.
The article does not mention anything of the thousands upon thousands of wireless access points that will be installed as well. While 802.11 certainly does not provide anywhere near the performance of a wired connection, most laptop users will probably find the wireless network more useful in the long run
CWRU isn't the greatest school in the world, but I know that the many people, including myself, work tireless to try to make it better. There are many bitter people (and rightly so) out there who have had negative experiences with the school in the past. However, things have changed and are continuing to move in a very positive direction. I know because I'm living it.
Presti's is still open and they still sell delicious bakery.
OK... enough ranting for now. I'm going to hop out of this discussion. If anyone has any serious questions, they can email me. I can't guarantee I'll know the answer, but I'll certainly try.
There's no Cat5 because we already have the fiber network in place. It's been in place since the late 80s for the most part.
It isn't necessarily more fragile (Ever tug too hard on a cat5 cable and have the whole thing come apart?), but, you are right, it tends to be more expensive.
Actually, all of the fiber cards to be used are still multimode. There isn't a need (yet) to use the singlemode fibers. Besides, the multimode equipment is far cheaper!
Slashdot Mirror
Don't worry, G. W. Bush will see to that given the opportunity
Actually, I've been on campus practically every day since 1995.
OK, let me try to explain how this campus works to those who assume that Case just dumped tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on a fiber network in recent years.
r s/CWRUnet_Timeline.html
The real answer is, we've had this fiber network in place since the late 1980s. That's right. So to those who are talking about "why not just run cat6?". Well, let me tell you, that wasn't exactly even around back then. Here's a brief (and somewhat dated) timeline of how this campus network was built: http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/tour/Tours/CWRUnet_Tou
I know this because I was a student here and now a technical and facilities manager and have been on the campus for about a decade.
Also, gig fiber to the desktop *is* nice. Try pulling down a complete set of ISOs (MSDNAA, BSD, Linux, whatever). The more the better, in my opinion. The equipment really isn't that expensive.
Yes, one of our limiting factors is that currently we are uplinked at an oc-3 with only about 45 megabits partitioned off for commodity internet usage. The rest is devoted to Internet2 traffic. However, as I understand it, this will change and in the near future we will have a full gigabit uplink to our provider (maybe even more, it's been awhile).
In regards to the recommendations made, no, I don't think they were really necessary. Who outside of this school really cares anyway? However, that said, the University does get a really nice discount on some Dell products. Enough to make it worth it for most students (whom would probably buy Dell anyway based upon current market share).
So there you have it. Quit bitching about the use of fiber. I know this won't stop the arguing, but might as well not fight a decision that was made 15 YEARS AGO. Oh, and by the way, kind of nice to know that that same infrastructure has WORKED for that entire 15 years without need to repull copper and likely will continue to work for many more decades to come. A low long-term TCO is kind of a nice thing you know.
Finally, my opinions do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of my employe, Case Western Reserve University and I speak in no official public relations capacity... I simply speak as an alumnus and current employee.
I actually kind of like Cleveland. I don't know why the city gets such a bad rap these days. It's not perfect, but it certainly has a number of things going for it in relation to a conference such as:
1) Being central to many other major cities
2) Lower costs of living (which I would assume would translate to lower conference costs... maybe not)
3) Having a decent amount of stuff to do
Eh, it should be an interesting event. Are you going to be there?
That was a little rude, AC. :/
To each his own. As was stated by the noble AC, we're trying to attract a somewhat different crowd. Yes, CanSecWest is an excellent conference and I would suggest it to anyone who can afford it.
:)
By the looks at it, CanSecWest costs at a minimum CAN$1600 whereas this conference can be had for as low as US$50.
Too bad you posted as AC, but you probably expected this reply anyway
Actually, my rent for a two-bedroom half of a house is well below that (plus utilities). It's one of the reasons that, while I may want to fly the coop sometimes, there are a lot of good reasons to stay that many people really don't consider. Overall it's really not too bad. The people are cool at least ;)
Well, let's just say that while we like heading to the west coast, too, for variosu conferences and events, we know that this area has a *lot* to offer. The problem is that most of us really don't know each other. Hopefully this event can fix that and at the same time explore new territory not covered at those other conferences.
- Froggy
Cox and Adelphia offer International programming here in the Cleveland area last time I checked... and I don't just mean SCOLA.
I have received a number of funny and amusing resumes over the past year or two since I became management (*shudder*).
One of the most interesting was a gentleman applying for a Windows system administration position. It consisted of 7 pages of print, single space, 8 point type filled to the GILLS with every product he had every seen, touched, smelled or heard of. Everything from Microsoft Paint and Wordpad to a listing of at least 15 to 20 complier products. Yes, he even made the effort to let me know that he used DOS... and included every... single... version...
To top this little gem of a resume off (I had to read the whole thing, it was like watching a train-wreck), he included the following line at the end:
"This is a brief outline of my qualifications. If you would like a more detailed resume, please contact me".
PUUH.
I believe I sat dumbfounded in my chair for at least 5 minutes.
Uh...
As a technician, you have full band priveleges on every band from 6m on up through the GHz ranges.
Anyone who's at least a tech. should know this.
Granted, most techs only work on these bands, but that's a different story.
kc8rwb
But who can forget Bubb Rubb?
Wooo wooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Contact me via my email address and I will reply with the appropriate information. The people you lsited I don't think hang out... the groups are now very different. However, there are a number of decent people on. It started a few years ago with just myself and two of my friends on campus who were all employees. Now the network (it's a collection of 3 servers, 2 on campus, 1 off) that, currently has about 50 people. Sometimes we hit a lot more, point being when Halder went around the PB Lewis building and started capping people.
In any case, let me know and I'll give you tha hookup, as it were.
And now that I'm about to post I see your email in message. Oh well, I'll hit submit anyway
Oops. s/authoritative/not authoritative/
Sorry about that. *blush*
While I feel your pain, CFN did have some serious issues, the biggest of which was the fact that the codebase was insecure, the least of which was the fact that staffing issues within ITS prevented it from being properly maintained.
Besides, and I think you could agree, in the end it really became a pretty seedy place with more and more 1337 kiddies joining in that really had no business being there. A great influx of people that really didn't care about the "community" trashed many of the SIGs and caused the IRC server to revert into a wasteland (albeit a wasteland I miss dearly, hence the reason for starting up my own IRC server at Case (the address isn't that hard to find and is well populated by Case people, alumni and other interested parties)). The MUC, it's successor, was no better.
So while I do yearn for the "good old days" so often, after actually meeting and becoming friends with some of the people that ran it, I understand a lot of the reasons why it simply had to go. It was a bitter pill to swallow and I understand now that the issue wasn't a black or white one... it was very gray indeed.
I am not intimiately involved with the project, as I work in the EECS department at Case and not ITS. However, I do know a lot of people that *do* work within ITS and keep myself informed enough to know that most of what's being spouted here is inaccurate at the least and FUD at worst.
In any case (no pun intended), here's what's going down.
Case currently has deployed 600 at last count (a few months ago) Cisco WAPs with 802.11b. By the end of the project, almost 1200 WAPs will be deployed campus wide. When Cisco starts shipping the 802.11g radios for the Aironets, all of the radios in all of the APs are going to get upgraded to g.
OK. That's done.
Next, currently it is REQUIRED that anyone wanting to use the WAPs must authenticate to a Cisco VPN server and gain access to campus network services as if they were physically on the network. HOWEVER, starting September 1st, ANYONE will be able to use another SSID on any WAP to gain access to the network AS IF they were outside of the CWRU firewall. ANYONE. Script kiddies, goofballs, terrorists... your mother... anyone. Also with that, though, are some SERIOUS controls and, I would assume, monitoring of the traffic. The first big control is bandwidth throttling. No, you wouldn't be able to park (if you could find parking at least) outside of a building and snarf down kazaa bullshit (besides, Kazaa is mostly throttled for everyone anyway. P2P is such a waste of resources, but I digress). So don't think you're going to be able to pull down at 4 to 5 Mbps on the "guest" network. What you WILL be able to do is check mail, browse the web and do activity and most "normal" people would be able to do. If you want to do high bandwidth wireless applications, you'd have to use the VPN.
So, while this is authoritative I believe I can speak with some certainty that what I have said above is correct and true.
Also, I want to state that my words here are not necessarily the official views of my employer, Case Western Reserve University and are my own based upon publically published information.
Please attribute properly :)
r Seuss.html
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/elz1/clocktower/D
The whole thing was created by Gene Ziegler. He gives a pretty good history of the poem as well as the full thing, which most people don't post.
Actually, the human ear has a frequency range of approximately 20 Hz to 20 KHz, not 48 KHz.
e arsens.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I swear, some people...
A lot of irony has already been pointed out, but perhaps the MOST ironic is the slashdot page about it that I'm seeing right now:
check out my screenshot:
Slashdot Screenshot
So much irony on so many levels...
To echo some of the comments made here, buy used! You should have a REPUTABLE (and I do mean reputable) pawn shop in your area that sells diamonds and settings second hand. I purchased a beautiful 3 diamond ring in 18K white gold for my fiance for about $2500. It's value? About $4500. Also, this pawn shop guarantees an added 10% additional value per year if she ever wants to trade up (why would she? ;). I didn't put any additional drain on the "new" diamon market, helped out the local economy and... here's the kicker (I hope), HOPEFULLY I helped out in some roundabout way some geek who maybe got dumped by his wife-to-be. ;)
;)
Hey, who knows the history. I don't care. I bought my woman something that's pretty, not too extravagent and used. If your woman requires that her diamond be "new", remind her that they've been in the ground for who knows how many years already. Perhaps give her some printouts explaining how purchasing new diamonds is offensive to you for social and moral reasons.
Another final idea that's been posted here... ask a relative. Yeah, it's gauche, but tactfully talking to relatives might prove very beneficial. It might save YOU money while keeping an heirloom in the family. Needless to say, try to pick a good bride-to-be first so that the sentimental treasure isn't sullied by things like divorces.
You're right... but thankfully the former VP of IS quite a couple of years back. Things are improving slowly now that he has departed.
Bye bye Uncle Neff.
- The article isn't clear about the fiber networking here at CWRU. The fiber network has been in place largely since the late 1980s. This isn't a new installation. New buildings are getting both Cat5 and fiber, but most of the older buildings already have both single and multi mode fiber already installed. Cat5 wasn't even a standard until after the current fiber infrastructure was already in place!
- Yes, the name of the school is Case Western Reserve University.
- CWRU implemented an ATM network in 1995/1996 that failed miserably. I know because I was one of the first people on it. At the time, ATM was an unproven technology. Vendor support just wasn't there. Gigabit is less of a gamble because we know it works and has much better support and a much brighter future.
- The article does not mention anything of the thousands upon thousands of wireless access points that will be installed as well. While 802.11 certainly does not provide anywhere near the performance of a wired connection, most laptop users will probably find the wireless network more useful in the long run
- CWRU isn't the greatest school in the world, but I know that the many people, including myself, work tireless to try to make it better. There are many bitter people (and rightly so) out there who have had negative experiences with the school in the past. However, things have changed and are continuing to move in a very positive direction. I know because I'm living it.
- Presti's is still open and they still sell delicious bakery.
OK... enough ranting for now. I'm going to hop out of this discussion. If anyone has any serious questions, they can email me. I can't guarantee I'll know the answer, but I'll certainly try.There's no Cat5 because we already have the fiber network in place. It's been in place since the late 80s for the most part.
It isn't necessarily more fragile (Ever tug too hard on a cat5 cable and have the whole thing come apart?), but, you are right, it tends to be more expensive.
Actually, all of the fiber cards to be used are still multimode. There isn't a need (yet) to use the singlemode fibers. Besides, the multimode equipment is far cheaper!