Blog

All of the blog posts contained within The Tech Teapot with the most recent at the top.

Code & documentation mix-up on Google Code

Google Code is a fabulous, minimalist open source development portal. I love it because there’s no faffing around and it uses lots of standard open source development tools like subversion.

List of software changes in Google Code

One of the more bizarre design decisions Google made when they developed the service was to show changes to code and changes to the wiki pages in the same place.

When I go to the history page, I just want to see a change log of software changes not changes to the wiki pages as well. Saving the wiki into subversion is a great idea, I just don’t see why it has to use the same repository as the project source code.

How will cloud computing change network management

Cloud Computing, Network Management

The big selling point with cloud computing is that computing capacity grows and shrinks depending upon the load being put upon it. You typically only pay for CPU (by the hour) and storage (by the month) you actually use.

If your website enjoys a sudden surge in traffic, by appearing on the front page of slashdot for instance, then extra servers will be provisioned automatically. Once the peak load passes and more normal traffic levels return, the extra servers are automatically de-provisioned.

The network & systems management blogosphere

Thought I’d share the network & systems management blogs I read on a daily basis in the hope that you’d share yours with me.

Network & Systems Management

Cloud Computing

Open Source

Enterprise Management

Protocol Analysis

Data Centre

Aggregators

I’m always on the look out for good systems management blogs, so if you know of any I really should be reading, I’m all ears. 😉

Distributed network monitoring interview with Robert Aronsson

Network Monitoring, Network Management

Robert Aronsson is the CEO of Intellipool AB a company with over ten years experience of the network management market. Intellipool introduced a distributed network monitor over four years ago. I interviewed Robert with a view to getting some insight into Intellipool’s experience of implementing distributed network monitoring solutions with their customers.

The interview was conducted via email. My questions are in bold with Robert’s answers underneath.

Q: What key factors determine whether you need a distributed solution?

The most obvious factor is network location, doing direct network monitoring over, for example, a branch office VPN is not something I would recommend. Depending on what you are monitoring it can be a huge resource drain on a VPN that should be used for “normal” office work.

Off Topic: Autumn switch

It was uncanny yesterday. I entered the office in summer and when I left to go buy an espresso mid-morning the air had changed to an early autumn chill. The nice summer smell had gone too, replaced by a fresher autumn bite.

Oh well, that’s summer 2008 gone. Not a classic by any means. And I’ve got my 50 miles sponsored cycle ride to do this Sunday too. That’ll be nice in the wind and rain that is currently being forecast. 😄 My time last year was four and a half hours so I’m hoping to beat that. A couple of weekends ago I rode from York to Beverley (about 30 miles each way) and back on consecutive days and I did ok. On the way back my left knee went so I’m hoping that won’t recur on Sunday. Fingers crossed. 😉

Video ahoy!

We’re in the process of producing a bunch of videos explaining the features on some of our more specialised products…what am I saying? They’re all specialised!

There are a lot of concepts in the cabling world that many IT workers haven’t come across before. We’re determined to make it as easy as possible for them to learn the dark secrets of cable testing and cable locating.