Post for Friday + pics

content/blog/wk2day5.md

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+---
+title: "Week 2, Friday: Adjacencies!"
+date: 2024-08-09T20:21:19+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+draft: false
+---
+
+# Morning
+
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/noraenpure-02.png" alt="Credit: Nora en Pure, YouTube" >}}
+
+I may as well stop writing about this concept of _Morning_, because once again I got up at 10:30am
+or so. Not quite as bad as my usual, but as I had predicted yesterday I did sleep very well! I take
+a look socials while making morning coffee. That video clip from yesterday still sounds good to me :)
+
+I go to my desk and see that the webcam on my windowsil (that's overlooking my desk from the side)
+has come loose off of its duct tape. Of course it has, and I knew it when I hung it up like that. So
+I take to Fusion and draw a really simple hinge part, just some squares with some holes and a simple
+fillet so that the hinge can rotate over itself. I lob it into the printer, and forget all about it.
+
+Somebody asks about my 4-port DB9 to USB serial converter. I picked up a bunch of these on
+Aliexpress maybe 10y or so ago, and they are still available today! I take a picture and send them
+the information. They're going to pick up a few for their own rack at work. Good!
+
+# Afternoon
+
+I've been making this lunch with leek soup and veal dumplings, and this is the last portion from the
+big pot. While marina makes leftover pappardelle pasta with pulled beef, I nom on the leek soup.
+There was just a little bit _too_ much leftover, I think it's about 1.2 liters or so, so at the end
+of this meal my tummy says "stop, please, no more!".
+
+It's a little bit too hot to mow the lawn, about 32C or so, so I decide to park that task until
+later in the day. I spend my afternoon with Fred -- he is hunting BGP adjacencies and something went
+wrong a few days ago when he made a set of configuration changes, and IP-Max lost 500 adjacencies or
+so. I help him out by writing a small python program that goes over the _Routing Information Base_
+(or _RIB_) of a router to find a pattern, and I'm quickly rewarded: it's localpref!
+
+We make a plan together to normalize the localpref on internet exchanges that IP-Max is connected
+to, 52 in total. Fred spends most of the day rolling this out, and we both take turns celebrating a
+new record in reclaimed adjacencies. We started at about 2467 adjacencies, and when we were all
+done, we counted 3139 of them - that’s 700 more than when we started. That’ll do, Fred. It’ll do :)
+
+At 16:30 I go upstairs to mow the lawn. Unfortunately the weather did not exactly cool down as much
+as I had hoped (in vain) for. But, out I go, with the weed wacker and the lawn mower, and take out
+three bushels of grass and plant cuttings. A job well done, 45min later. I am drenched in sweat, and
+probably half a kilo lighter from loss of fluid. I replenish inside with a few glasses of cool
+Bert-water (reminder: our fridge is called _Bert_), and then go to the basement to cool off.
+
+# Evening
+
+At 17:30, Marina sends an IM: 🍸 so out we go, selfie in the backyard with the nicely cut grass, and
+a Gin&Tonic in hand. Today is Friday -- something that is easy to forget when on sabbatical, but
+this means that tomorrow is the Zurich Streetparade. It's expected that some one million (!) people
+visit the parade. I decide that I'm going to go check it out, bottle of water in hand and hat on
+head. Marina agrees to join!
+
+While we're out in the yard, I am reminded of [[Zurich Openair](https://zurichopenair.ch/en/)] and
+the fact that Nora en Pure is going to play a set there. I decide to _treat yo'self_ to a VIP ticket
+for Sunday 31st of August. She starts at 23:00 but I'll be lounging there the whole day listening to
+music and enjoying (hopefully) the summer weather.
+
+For dinner, we make a simple _AGV_ (Dutch: _Aardappelen, Groente, Vlees_ or "Potatoes, Vegetable and
+Meat"): pork filet, mushroom cream sauce and boiled potatoes. It all comes out pretty nice,
+especially considering the modest amount of effort it takes!
+
+After dinner, we watch a movie with popcorn. Quinn chooses: 12 Monkeys! This is a classic
+time-swicheroo from 1995 with a very good performance from Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis. We enjoy it
+and that takes us to the tail end of the evening.
+
+While writing my journal entry, my buddy John stops by on Telegram with huge news. He has been
+trying to get a simple PC based L2 transport device to replace his expensive Juniper macsec devices.
+He's been hacking on and off on this project for half a year or so, but today he nailed it: 100G +
+2x25G using 18 CPUs and QAT acceleration on a Supermicro XeonD 2796nt; he is getting about 7.3Mpps
+of IPSEC 256 GCM offloaded to the C4K QAT, excellent work. He is very pleased with the results,
+knowing that merchant silicon is an order of magnitude more costly. He's done for 5K per side for
+150Gbit of encrypted traffic (and CPU to spare), versus 85K for an Arista solution. Phenomenal
+stuff! We agree to co-author an [[IPng.ch](https://ipng.ch/)] blog post about it soon. I think many
+people can learn from this experience.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/IMG_0572.JPG" caption="The webcam at the side of my desk has come loose off of its crappy duct tape solution" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/IMG_0573.JPG" caption="A Mastodon user asks me about these cute 4xRS232 -> USB converters." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/IMG_0574.JPG" caption="Lunch is the last remaining pot of leek soup with veal dumplings" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/IMG_0575.JPG" caption="The before shot of the backyard with a bit of grassy goodness that needs to become less grassy goodness" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/IMG_0578.JPG" caption="The after shot after I mowed the lawn and weedwacked the sides. Drink time!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/IMG_0581.JPG" caption="The pork filet looks tasty, and it is accompanied by mushroom sauce and sauteed mushrooms" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/IMG_0582.JPG" caption="We watch 12 Monkeys on TV tonight, and I make popcorn" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/webcam.png" caption="The trivial design of the webcam hinge" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/IMG_0583.JPG" caption="The 3D printed part of the webcam hinge, this thing is not going to be falling down any time soon!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-08-09/openair.png" caption="I buy myself a VIP ticket to Zurich Openair on August 31st" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+