I must have misread the question because I could have sworn he wasn't asking for advice on how to budget his money.
I actually did the opposite of what you did. Granted it was 15 years ago, but I was in core infrastructure networking and went into software. Not for any reasons of job security, but because I really wanted to get into some of the value that the network was delivering.
However, since then a really interesting thing has happened. SDN has made the network into much more than the sorts of things a CCIE would do. There will still be jobs for network engineers in the traditional sense, but what you may want to explore is how you can use your software skills to help networks run better, because SDN is allowing networks to do things that OSPF, BGP and MPLS can only dream of. Getting an understanding of infrastructure networking (both from the LAN and WAN side) will only make you a better software engineer, and being a software engineer will also make you a better network engineer. To quote Wayne Gretzky (who was famously quoted by Steve Jobs), go where the puck will be, not where it is.
Even though (as somebody already pointed out) the $634m number doesn't represent just Healthcare.gov, the comparison to Facebook is completely fallacious. Facebook has money coming in other than just their investments; the investment money that is referenced in the Crunchbase page is in addition to any other income that they had. In other words, Facebook spent way more than $634m in that period of time.
Since when is IP the only layer 3 protocol one can run over 802.11? I personally see this as a great way to allow people to have 2.4Ghz cordless phones coexist with 802.11 stuff nicely. VoIP would be nice eventually, but VoIP is not necessary for these phones to be very useful.
You are making a few very untrue assumptions here.
With respect to the very small default free zone, that was exactly the plan for IPv4. Entities like UUnet and Genuity get huge IPv4 blocks of address space. But if you look in the core routing table, you will see tons of more-specific routes that companies multi-homing are announcing both through the provider that allocated them the space as well as the other provider[s] they multi-home to.
The problem has always been multi-homing. And guess what? Nobody has figured out (yet) how to do multi-homing with IPv6 in such a way that these problems will not re-surface again in the future.
If you have suggestions on how to deal with the IPv6 multi-homing issue, I suggest you join up and participate in the multi6 working group. There are some real issues that need to be addressed before IPv6 can be deployed.
Unfortunately this is really a no-win situation. What happens to the school system if they do nothing about this kid and then he really does go on a shooting spree? It was a stupid thing to say, and any smart kid should know better than to make that kind of a statement, especially in light of recent events.
I think the vast majority of/. readers can sympathize with being bullied in school. But the truth is that nothing the school does will get rid of bullying. All the school can do is help kids who do get bullied to better deal with it. Personally I suffered a fair amount of ridicule in school, and I feel now I am actually better for it. It has forced me to really be able to have perspective on what people may say about me and to me. Being able to deal with jerks is something that is best learned at a young age, and the people who get through school suffering through all of the bullies and jerks will be all the better for it.
But the real problem here is that there are people who think to make such a statement. What does it say about our society when kids make these kinds of statements, even if they are jokes? It used to be that the biggest threat was to have some kid who was stronger than you find you on the street and give you a bloody nose. Or maybe the meek kid would slash the bully's tires or key his car. The simple fact that that sort of statement is even considered is a huge problem in and of itself.
However, there's a lot more to it than just what you get done. Attitude plays a big part in how people view you.
I started out working in the Internet space when I was 15, and now 9 years later I am still the brunt of lots of "you're the youngest" jokes. However, there is also respect there, and a lot of that is because I am a lot more calm and rational than I used to be. You aren't going get respect by just getting lots of stuff done and forcing it in people's faces. It will happen when you aren't expecting it to happen.
Now I'm not saying you aren't rational and 'emotionally mature' (for lack of a better term), but that is the primary reason I have problems with people working in this field who are still in their teens. There are lots of really smart young people out there who are doing great things, but if they can't play well with others then said people are going to be disappointed about how the old folks treat them.
Then again, some people are just jerks who won't respect you no matter how calm and rational you are, so if that's the case then go find a new job.
Unfortunately, the prefix-length filters that Sprint originally put in place aren't enough of a deterrant any more. True, the registries (ARIN, APNIC, RIPE) only allocate blocks of certain sizes (/20 or shorter for ARIN,/19 or shorter for APNIC and RIPE), but customers who get provider assigned blocks of address space often get blocks that are/24 or longer. So, when these customers want to multi-home using provider-assigned address space, they announce the longer prefix out of the provider's aggregate. By and large, all of the recent clutter in the routing table is caused by these more-specific routes of customers that wish to multi-home using provider assigned address space.
OK, first of all, RAM is cheap. The issue is CPU cycles to process the routing table.
Second, auto-aggregation will never work, because there are networks that have legitimate reasons for de-aggregating their blocks of address space.
Then again, there are others that do it just because they can, but unfortunately there isn't a good way to tell the former from the latter.
Slashdot Mirror
I must have misread the question because I could have sworn he wasn't asking for advice on how to budget his money.
I actually did the opposite of what you did. Granted it was 15 years ago, but I was in core infrastructure networking and went into software. Not for any reasons of job security, but because I really wanted to get into some of the value that the network was delivering.
However, since then a really interesting thing has happened. SDN has made the network into much more than the sorts of things a CCIE would do. There will still be jobs for network engineers in the traditional sense, but what you may want to explore is how you can use your software skills to help networks run better, because SDN is allowing networks to do things that OSPF, BGP and MPLS can only dream of. Getting an understanding of infrastructure networking (both from the LAN and WAN side) will only make you a better software engineer, and being a software engineer will also make you a better network engineer. To quote Wayne Gretzky (who was famously quoted by Steve Jobs), go where the puck will be, not where it is.
The comparison to Facebook is complete BS.
Even though (as somebody already pointed out) the $634m number doesn't represent just Healthcare.gov, the comparison to Facebook is completely fallacious. Facebook has money coming in other than just their investments; the investment money that is referenced in the Crunchbase page is in addition to any other income that they had. In other words, Facebook spent way more than $634m in that period of time.
Lazy journalism at its best.
Amazing, this scientific report means that we have a new and innovative way to implement capital punishment. I think I will call it a 'noose'.
I need to call my lawyer and have a patent application written immediately.
Since when is IP the only layer 3 protocol one can run over 802.11? I personally see this as a great way to allow people to have 2.4Ghz cordless phones coexist with 802.11 stuff nicely. VoIP would be nice eventually, but VoIP is not necessary for these phones to be very useful.
Interesting that you should mention anycast. UltraDNS has actually been using anycast ever since the system was initially brought online (early 1999).
You are making a few very untrue assumptions here.
With respect to the very small default free zone, that was exactly the plan for IPv4. Entities like UUnet and Genuity get huge IPv4 blocks of address space. But if you look in the core routing table, you will see tons of more-specific routes that companies multi-homing are announcing both through the provider that allocated them the space as well as the other provider[s] they multi-home to.
The problem has always been multi-homing. And guess what? Nobody has figured out (yet) how to do multi-homing with IPv6 in such a way that these problems will not re-surface again in the future.
If you have suggestions on how to deal with the IPv6 multi-homing issue, I suggest you join up and participate in the multi6 working group. There are some real issues that need to be addressed before IPv6 can be deployed.
Alec
Unfortunately this is really a no-win situation. What happens to the school system if they do nothing about this kid and then he really does go on a shooting spree? It was a stupid thing to say, and any smart kid should know better than to make that kind of a statement, especially in light of recent events.
/. readers can sympathize with being bullied in school. But the truth is that nothing the school does will get rid of bullying. All the school can do is help kids who do get bullied to better deal with it. Personally I suffered a fair amount of ridicule in school, and I feel now I am actually better for it. It has forced me to really be able to have perspective on what people may say about me and to me. Being able to deal with jerks is something that is best learned at a young age, and the people who get through school suffering through all of the bullies and jerks will be all the better for it.
I think the vast majority of
But the real problem here is that there are people who think to make such a statement. What does it say about our society when kids make these kinds of statements, even if they are jokes? It used to be that the biggest threat was to have some kid who was stronger than you find you on the street and give you a bloody nose. Or maybe the meek kid would slash the bully's tires or key his car. The simple fact that that sort of statement is even considered is a huge problem in and of itself.
However, there's a lot more to it than just what you get done. Attitude plays a big part in how people view you.
I started out working in the Internet space when I was 15, and now 9 years later I am still the brunt of lots of "you're the youngest" jokes. However, there is also respect there, and a lot of that is because I am a lot more calm and rational than I used to be. You aren't going get respect by just getting lots of stuff done and forcing it in people's faces. It will happen when you aren't expecting it to happen.
Now I'm not saying you aren't rational and 'emotionally mature' (for lack of a better term), but that is the primary reason I have problems with people working in this field who are still in their teens. There are lots of really smart young people out there who are doing great things, but if they can't play well with others then said people are going to be disappointed about how the old folks treat them.
Then again, some people are just jerks who won't respect you no matter how calm and rational you are, so if that's the case then go find a new job.
I wouldn't criticize MicroSoft too harshly. After all, they aren't the only ones who have both of their DNS servers on the same segment:
;; QUERY SECTION:
;; slashdot.org, type = A, class = IN
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
slashdot.org. 2D IN NS NS1.ANDOVER.NET.
slashdot.org. 2D IN NS NS2.ANDOVER.NET.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
NS1.ANDOVER.NET. 2D IN A 209.207.224.196
NS2.ANDOVER.NET. 2D IN A 209.207.224.197
The reason this matters is because both of those were down yesterday...
Actually, Mozilla doesn't yet support encrypted or signed e-mail.
Unfortunately, the prefix-length filters that Sprint originally put in place aren't enough of a deterrant any more. True, the registries (ARIN, APNIC, RIPE) only allocate blocks of certain sizes (/20 or shorter for ARIN, /19 or shorter for APNIC and RIPE), but customers who get provider assigned blocks of address space often get blocks that are /24 or longer. So, when these customers want to multi-home using provider-assigned address space, they announce the longer prefix out of the provider's aggregate. By and large, all of the recent clutter in the routing table is caused by these more-specific routes of customers that wish to multi-home using provider assigned address space.
OK, first of all, RAM is cheap. The issue is CPU cycles to process the routing table. Second, auto-aggregation will never work, because there are networks that have legitimate reasons for de-aggregating their blocks of address space. Then again, there are others that do it just because they can, but unfortunately there isn't a good way to tell the former from the latter.
Well you may be paying $7/month, but somebody is probably also paying $10k-$20k per year for you to be there...