Brian Kenny

Oh ya - daddy’s got his own city

I was searching through the internet for a method of changing Safari’s integrated search box and came across this little gem on alexking.org. If you change a standard:

<input type="text" />

field to a “search” box like so:

<input type="search" />

In Safari, it is magically transformed from a standard input field to a “search box”. It can also have added functionality like remembering previous searches with an extra attribute:

<input type="search" results="5" />

Here is a screenshot:

This just in, a tux has been spotted falling about the place at an ILUG PoTD….

He was later seen with a Spanish and American (Mountain View) tux in an awful state.

Tonight is the night of an ILUG meet in Dublin’s pub, The Long Stone, and boy does it sound like it’s gonna be a great laugh.The pub is located at the back of Pearse St Garda station. Directions are readily available over the tinkerweb.

I heard about the meet through an IRC channel #linux on irc.linux.ie. Some great people have introduced me to it, and I can’t wait to meet them all. Anyone can tag along and the details are:

Venue: The Long Stone
Time:  19.00 aprox
Date: 28/02/2008

We are now down to only 42 blocks free under IPv4. Two more blocks of /8’s were assigned to the ARIN. It is only a matter of time until the end of IPv4 becomes near.

Here’s a table of the current situation:

It looks like the piece of shiny muck is coming to Ireland. Yes, I am talking about the iPhone. As if people need to speculate, it’s going to be over priced, it’s going to cost you a fortune with O2 and it’s novelty will wear off within weeks (and you sit there holding your 2 year contract!).

There’s an image being thrown around -> http://www.thoughtdifferent.com/rumormill/200208.jpg <- it doesn’t look like there is any truth in this, judging by the font but hey, I could be wrong.

My advise would be to stay away from the shiny piece of contractual wizardry. Don’t let it suck you in!

I’ve spent a long weekend in Baden Baden this week. I have been treated by my girlfriend, Lee, to head off from Thursday to Sunday. The Ryanair flights and everything went perfectly. No delays, no hassle. Perfect.

We landed in Karlsrule and took the bus to the city center. We got off at the wrong bus stop but hey, we got to walk around the city and found the hotel. Sus’ things out a little.

Once we were settled in, we checked out the spa. My god it was amazing. Indoor and outdoor heated pools, sauna, jacuzzi …. what more could I want for a relaxing weekend. The price was cheap also, the spa only cost €16 for 4 hours!

The night life is relaxed. Dinner and wine, romantic ambiance. Followed by cocktails in the local bar.

Not to mention the local casino, a definite must see. A jacket and tie must be worn by the boys but completely worth it. We managed to get €50 in chips but leave with €102!!

An all round very relaxing time. I would definitely recommend it.

All major companies need to have their data in a high redundancy, availablity and backed-up envoirnment. In order to keep the data here in such a confirguration, we use off-site backups. If the building burns down, we can start again.

The primary decision is to move the data to a data center or another costly data house. I am currently deploying one that is a little bit more cost effective. All because of Fibre to the Home (FTTH).

I have a 8Mb/s pipe into my tiny one bedroom apartment which I share with my girlfriend. It’s uncontended and costs so little it’s quiet unimaginable. I will be deploying a noise reduced server at home (to ensure TV viewing is not effected) this evening. It’s maximum capicity is 1.5TB’s.

Off course in the essence of good security, a Cisco ASA5505 will be coming home with me

It’s nice to see the increase in technological advancements reducing our IT costs.

I am currently studying the CCNA exam with the hope of passing by June. It’s more of a challenge than a requirement which makes this a little fun. A few close friends have already obtained their CCNA levels. One has achieved the CCIE level.

After reading the statistics, it seems 15,658 people have acquired the CCIE level in the world. Call it stubborn determination, but I am going to spend the next couple of weeks acquiring all the info I can to see how hard it is to get to this level.

Once I can asses the situation, I will then evaluate how much it will cost to achieve the goal if fiesable.

Total of Worldwide CCIEs:		15658 (last updated 11.14.2007)
Total of Routing and Switching CCIEs:		14329
Total of Security CCIEs:		1207
Total of Service Provider CCIEs:		650
Total of Storage Networking CCIEs:		99
Total of Voice CCIEs:		601

If it is, I am going to try achieve the CCIE level in the cheapest methods possible…

Entropy are holding a Wireless Secuirty Conference at the end of Feburary. I’m actually looking forward to it. I don’t really get to attend many conferences these days.

The venue is the Westbury Hotel and the conference has the following schedule:

8.30-9.00: Registration & breakfast
9.00-9.10: “Battle of the Airwaves” – Introduction by John Ryan, Entropy
9.10-9.35: – “Wireless Security in an increasingly regulated environment” – Conor Flynn, Rits
9.35-10.00: “Safe without wires - how to safeguard your network against Wireless threats” – Paul Lawrence, Airtight
10.00-10.15:Tea/Coffee break
10.15-10.40: “The evolution of Wireless & VoIP and the new challenges for 2008” – Jane Cox, Aruba Networks
10.40-11.05: “The Practical Issues of implementing a secure Wireless network” – Jim Smith & Billy Crowley - ESB
11.10-12.00: Aruba & Airtight demos

It’s only half a day so nothing to intense Anyone wishing to attend, I believe you can email events@entropy.ie and you should be able to attend.