Halloween and more pics

content/blog/wk12day7.md

@@ -1,7 +1,68 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 12, Sunday:"
+title: "Week 12, Sunday: Recovering COVID"
 date: 2024-10-20T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/desiredvibes.png" alt="Credit: DesiredVibes, LoFi, YouTube" >}}
+
+Good news, everybody! This morning I woke up (almost) completely free of fever at a 37.2C (98.9F)
+and in good spirits. All that hanging out in the guest room watching Young Sheldon is paying off!
+I haven't had a coffee in three days, so I wonder what it'll be like. Curious, I wander downstairs
+to make myself a cup of Joe, and it tastes thick and rich. Yaay. Go, tastebuds!
+
+I'm feeling really behind on ~everything right now. Of course rationally I understant that this is
+not terrible because one has to be sick at some point, but at the same time it's quite out of
+character for me to do nothing but sit in bed and watch time go by one episode at a time. As a note
+to future work-returning Pim: **you need stuff to do, buddy :)**
+
+Speaking of stuff, I have not had the energy to write my journal since Tuesday, what with the
+all-day sleeping and all. But this morning, coffee on the tongue and caffeine raging through my
+veins, I'm all for it. So I spend some time writing about my drive home from Geneva on
+[[Wednesday]({{< ref wk12day3.md >}})] and my sugar run and bikeride to the airport on
+[[Thursday]({{< ref wk12day4.nd >}})]. Writing these does make me feel a bit better as well, with a
+feeling that I should do more stuff.
+
+First, I assemble the _copious_ amount of pictures (by which I mean pretty much _none_) that I took
+on Friday and Saturday. With those in hand, I decide to think a little bit about how I'm going to
+write my COVID story. I've found that writing about my day is much easier if I have a visual aid:
+where I've been, what I was doing, and so on. With pictures of the thermometer and the view from the
+guestroom bed, and so much sleep going on, that becomes much more difficult. By the way, this bed is
+super comfortable 🥰. So, I write about my weekend, and put that behind me.
+
+The rest of the afternoon is spent binge-watching the rivitting story of George, Mary and their
+kids. My heart dropped when I saw the episode of George's death, and I may have had a "Sterk spul
+he, dat Fishermans Friend" [[moment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IzKuS18umM)] or two. By the
+way, don't come to this place if you can't take spoilers.
+
+After dinner, I watch some news with Marina, but even though my fever broke, I'm still going to stay
+mostly upstairs. I decide to take another look at the FreeIX Remote project, which I got stuck on
+this last week [[Thursday]({{< ref wk12day4.md >}})]. Thinking back, this will likely have been
+because I was already coming down with COVID even on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. It would
+explain my sluggishness (beyond my usual stupidity) and sleepiness (beyond my usual laziness). 
+
+One of the things I was planning on doing in Amsterdam is deploy a fiber cross connect between my
+Coloclue hypervisor and the FrysIX switch, in order to run the AS112, IXPManager and possibly the
+RS2 virtual machine there. The SSDs in the Equinix AM3 hypervisor are slow and may fail at any time.
+However, I won't be going, and even if I would, I understand from Jelle that only Asimo and ERITAP
+are allowed to do this. So I ping my buddy Max, who lives just down the road from me, and will be
+going to NLNOG tomorrow, and ask him if he can mule this kit.  He says yes (Thanks again, Max!) so I
+mosy over to his and drop a baggie into the milkbox.
+
+Looking back at my git commit history, the refactor took about two hours and was in at 21:45, and
+generated the same configuration as it did before I started, which is good. A good fourtyfive
+minutes later, the to-members filtering was done, and a first canary for my buddy Antonios' AS210312
+was live. By midnight, I had set up a complete canary with Sam's AS35202, Jurrian's AS212635 and
+Antonios in various configurations of propagation and inhibits. Tomorrow, I plan to write an IPng
+article about the implementation. It was a fun puzzle!
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-20/IMG_2148.JPG" caption="Good Morning: I'm back in the green" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-20/IMG_2149.JPG" caption="The view from my bed: Young Sheldon on one laptop, Hugo website on the other." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-20/IMG_2151.JPG" caption="The after-dinner desert is a treat: stroopwafel! They barely fit on my tea mug :)" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-20/IMG_2152.JPG" caption="A package for Arend: 30m of fiber, 2x Intel branded SFP+, for Qupra" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day1.md

@@ -1,7 +1,53 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Monday:"
+title: "Week 13, Monday: Recovery and Relaxation"
 date: 2024-10-21T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/9T9_DnB-02.png" alt="Credit: 9T9 DnB, YouTube" >}}
+
+I took the time to sleep in late this morning, and I'm still upstairs in the guest room. There's
+something quite relaxing about this bed and the room, and also not having small interruptions in the
+night like bathroom breaks from Marina or alarm clocks from Quinn or the bustle of folks getting up
+at 05:00 in the morning. It's great to be able to sleep in late!
+
+In the morning I drink my first cup of coffee. Last night I started watching Lost In Space, a 1960s
+television series depicting the Robinson family on their epic voyage through space. Looking back at
+this stuff is nostalgic: the video quality, the story line, and the acting are all not great
+compared to the slick production quality of a good TV show in the 2000s, and it's in black and
+white. I don't remember this series being black and white growing up, but it turns out it's only
+season one, because S02/S03 are indeed in _technicolor_.
+
+In the afternoon I have a rerun bowl of soup from the weekend. Marina was so kind as to make me this
+soup as it always helps me (my spirits at least, if not as well my body) when I am under the
+weather. On Saturday, I added a lot of chicken stock, until the carton was all gone, and it was
+_still_ watery. Today, I get to taste what I really made; a quite salty soup, indeed! I've added a
+cup or two of water to it. It just reminds me how vivid the taste is, and how bland/removed the
+taste was when I was battling COVID. Lunch is this chicken soup and a few soft-boiled eggs with
+bread. They as well taste a treat.
+
+After lunch, I further launch FreeIX Remote. I add a bunch of folks from Community IX and CHIX-CH
+who could benefit, and who understand enough to be able to appreciate, what the project is doing.
+This takes me a few hours of building, pushing, and testing. I'm still taking it easy because it's a
+new configuration and I am not convinced I got all the details right. That said, things seem to
+propagate just fine, so I consider it a win.
+
+Marina made chicken and hoisin sauce with broccoli and cashews for the evening meal. Wow, that's
+great. I appreciate that she's here for me and having home cooked meals (that I do not necessarily
+have to cook myself!) is a huge help. The dinner was delicious, and I can tell that Quinn also likes
+it, because at the end of the meal, almost the whole pan has evaporated.
+
+After dinner I watch some news (there's not much going on in the world), and end up my evening with
+a few more episodes of the Robinson Family in _Lost In Space_. I've canceled my trip to Amsterdam,
+and instead will focus on Barcelona later this week. Considering I'm free of fever, tomorrow I'll
+have a test and see if my viral load is sufficiently low such that I can visit ESNOG at least.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-21/IMG_2153.JPG" caption="Lunch: Chicken soup, soft boiled eggs and bread" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-21/IMG_2154.JPG" caption="Dinner: Chicken with hoisin sauce, broccoli and cashews. Omm nom!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-21/IMG_2155.JPG" caption="Lost in Space from 1965, 4:3, analog film, black and white" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day2.md

@@ -1,7 +1,69 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Tuesday:"
+title: "Week 13, Tuesday: NLNOT"
 date: 2024-10-22T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/astralthrob.png" alt="Credit: Astral Throb, YouTube" >}}
+
+Today I got up early so that I could join NLNOG, in spirit at least. It starts at 09:00 but the
+content will be only half an hour later at 09:30. The NLNOG has a special place in my heart, as I've
+been a member of this community since the 90s and well before it was an official _thing_. The board
+are all staples and fixtures in the Dutch internet community, and I really enjoy re-connecting with
+the group as I started working more on open source routers like [[VPP](https://fd.io/)].
+
+After the opening, Yurii Polovyi of RETN discusses wavelength division multiplexing, CWDM/DWDM and
+(R)OADM solutions in the industry. It's an interesting overview. Next, Leroy de Vos (from AMS-IX
+NOC) gives a touching story about his own career from humble beginnings to the NOC of one of the
+largest internet exchanges on the planet. 
+
+In the coffee break, I start up the flight simulator and decide to fly my Cessna 172S skyhawk from
+Belp to Annecy in France. However, I'll plan a route over the alps this time, so I get to fly at
+11'000ft. In the process, I learn about the fuel mixture settings (lean during taxy, rich during
+takeoff <3'000ft, lean over 3'000ft). It's really amazing how well this simulator is programmed. As
+I touch down in Annecy with a straight in final approach, the NLNOG conference has already
+continued.
+
+On stage are Ondrej (RIPE), Arjan (Event Infra), and my buddy Andrew (Cisco) talking about how to
+make events networking uneventful. Each brings their own perspective, from outdoors venues (with
+_Datenklo's_) to huge indoors venues and a single room with 6000+ people in it. I also learned that
+the equipment sits in some storage room somewhere and weighs seven metric tonnes. Heh.
+
+Teun Vink takes us to a serious topic - specifically for those of us who have aging family members -
+and discusses our digital legacy. It's a presentation of pictures and the story it tells really
+spoke to me. Teun leads us in to lunch, and I as well have a sandwich and a cup of tea. I also fly
+my plane from Annecy to Dijon and I touch down on runway 02 and park the plane.
+
+After lunch, Rudi van Drunen shares a view into critical Dutch infrastructure with Networks at Air
+Traffic Control the Netherlands. On the heals of that, Bert Hubert brings 'part four of the
+triology' of social life lessons with Life long learning: dealing with change. We all drink some
+coffee, and I take a cup also, as I type away some of my e-mail backlog.
+
+After the break, Robin Gilijamse has a story with A Case Against Automation - I feel a little bit
+uncomfortable with the speaker venturing into aerospace investigations and drawing some conclusions
+that I would not have necessarily drawn. After Robin, Ties de Kock of RIPE NCC shares details of the
+key management of RPKI HSM. What is possibly my favorite story of the day is from Frank van Vliet,
+Debugging the impossible: the bit-flipping story. After his talk, one of the folks who lined up at
+the microphone was a senios engineer from KPN itself, saying thanks for the elaborate debugging :)
+
+I do not participate in the kahoot quiz, as doing so remotely will give me a transmission delay and
+I'll miss all of the questions. But, I do monitor it form afar, and I appreciate the quirky
+questions Peter and Pieter put in. What happens next in Amsterdam, I will have to miss: the drinks,
+food, hanging out and exchanging stories will all be for a next time.
+
+Considering I will be traveling to Barcelona tomorrow, and I have a few minutes to spare, I drive
+over to the Interxion datacenter and do some pending maintenance for IP-Max: the current 100G link
+from Interxion to Frankfurt is suffering from what seems to be _electrical_ issues in the CFP cage.
+So I move myself to the floor at 23:30 when traffic is calmer, drain the link, and move the
+connection to both another optic and as well another port. I am successful: the occasional frame
+corruption is entirely gone. So that's at lease one productive thing I did today :)
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-22/IMG_2160.JPG" caption="Flying from Bern to Annecy over the alps." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-22/IMG_2164.JPG" caption="I moved this 100G link from Zurich to Frankfurt to another router port and optic." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+

content/blog/wk13day3.md

@@ -1,7 +1,84 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Wednesday:"
+title: "Week 13, Wednesday: Zurich to Barcelona"
 date: 2024-10-23T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/cosmicgate.png" alt="Credit: Cosmic Gate, YouTUbe" >}}
+
+This afternoon we'll be on our way to Barcelona and I feel pretty good about that. Apart from a bit
+of a stuffy nose and a nasal voice, I feel fine! After a quick breakfast with coffee, I take some
+time to clean my basement. Although, now I have a Roomba so I can auto-clean, or at least
+auto-vacuum my room, and IPng's serverroom too. As the iRobot, which I've called _Suckel_, is
+zooming around, I clean up cables and optics and various bits and pieces from the maintenance I
+performed for IP-Max yesterday.
+
+After lunch, I connect a bunch of new users at [[FrysIX](https://frys-ix.net/)], a small internet
+exchange that I operate together with my buddy Arend. The users come online in the quarantine VLAN
+and start configuring their kit. Two of them have a bit of an issue, they are a _reseller_ customer,
+with its supplier transporting the FrysIX via a switch to their router. Unfortunately, that switch
+is sending ethernet frames (perhaps spanning tree, or LLDP, or some other traffic), so I cannot move
+those two new members to the peeringlan. I'm sure the reseller will eventually figure it out, so I
+move on.
+
+Marina has some news - she (and I) are avid users of a program called _Stocard_, which allows us to
+store our loyalty cards like from Migros, Coop, Safeway, and so on. When we walk into the store,
+thanks to geolocation it pops up the card automatically. It's a lot easier (and leaner for your
+wallet!) to make use of an app like this. And I liked _Stocard_ because it is _just an app_, by
+which I mean: no need for complicated accounts, logins and all of that. An account in _Stocard_ is
+optional, in case you want to make a backup of your cards in the cloud, which can be useful if you
+change phones. I myself did not have that feature, because I still have the original card of course.
+
+{{< image src="/img/dollar.png" float="left" width="6em" >}}
+
+Stocard betrayed its users. It sold itself to _Klarna_, some Swedish fintech company that provides
+online financial services. I'm sure the Stocard people made a lot of money. Klarna has now put a
+butter bar on the Stocard app (both for Marina on Android and for me on iPhone) that you **MUST**
+register with Klarna. They also inform us that our application will be destroyed in fourteen days.
+When logging in, they want _waaaay_ too much personal data: phone number, e-mail, age, gender,
+address, country, and what-not.
+
+Hey assholes: I don’t need another loan service, I don’t want another credit card, I don’t want
+unnecessary ads for stores that I don’t even know or use. And I have no idea why they decided it
+would be a good idea to get rid of the option to add loyalty cards to my Apple wallet or a widget. 
+
+A good alternative is SuperCards, Catima, or the one I chose [[Mobile
+Pocket](https://www.mobile-pocket.com/en/)] -- which, once again, is just an application for which I
+do not need to hand over my entire online history to some random fintech jackass company.  Just look
+at this utterly embarrassing "privacy" statement from that fintech bank
+[[ref](https://www.karmanow.com/privacy)].  I recommend you *never* use Stocard or any Klarna
+application, if you value your online identity and privacy.
+
+At 15:00 we make our way to the Zurich Airport. I'm still very pleased that we settled in
+Br&uuml;ttisellen, which is to the NorthEast of Zurich city, and about 8km (5mi) away from the
+airport. It's easy to get there by bus, train, car and bike. I've even jogged to and from it from
+time to time, it's that close!
+
+We have some time to kill before our flight at 18:55, but I make good use of it by writing my
+journal entries for earlier this week. The flight boards on time, leaves roughly on time, and makes
+it to Barcelona smoothly. We land there at 20:30. Instead of taking a car, Marina has scouted out
+how we might use the metro. Our hotel is in _Upper Diagonal_, which is just a few minutes walk from
+the terminal station of the T9 subway train, which goes from the airport directly to _Zona
+Universaria_ without any changes.
+
+It is a one hour commute though, and it seems SpongeBob is a bit nervous. He gently pops out his
+face from within my shoe from time to time. There's nothing to fear, little spongebuddy, and we
+arrive at 21:30, perfect time for a spot of dinner. We don't have to go far, because our hotel
+itself has a little restaurant in it. We settle down and ask for just what the Doctor ordered:
+tapas with red wine.
+
+Our hotel room is gorgeous, a king bed with a terrace! We got lucky on this one, I think! Tomorrow
+at 09:00, the ESNOG two day conferrence starts. Marina will be hanging out in the city as she has
+(pre-)bought tickets for the Picasso museum. She will visit a few museums and take in the
+architecture, while I nerd out and practice my Spanish a bit at ESNOG'32.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-23/IMG_2165.JPG" caption="Zurich Airport as seen from the inside." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-23/IMG_2170.JPG" caption="Spongebob socks, he is so cute <3" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-23/IMG_2171.JPG" caption="Our hotelroom in Upper Diagonal is not too shabby!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-23/IMG_2173.JPG" caption="Our dinner is tapas and wine - a staple for us when in Barcelona" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day4.md

@@ -1,7 +1,115 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Thursday:"
+title: "Week 13, Thursday: ESNOG'32 Day 1"
 date: 2024-10-24T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/kasger.png" alt="Credit: Kasger, YouTube" >}}
+
+We have descended upon Upper Diagonal in the North of Barcelona. It's a beautiful neighborhood, I
+can tell it's _upscale_ with large avenues lined with trees, big houses with well kept yards, and
+it's super clean. Did we land in the posh neighborhood? Our hotel is top notch, and I slept  really
+well last night. Marina will be visiting the Picasso, Miro and maybe a few others today. I will be
+joining the Spanish Network Operators Group _ESNOG_ for their 32nd rendition of a one and a half day
+meeting to exchange ideas, projects, proposals and industry updates with one another.
+
+I chose the hotel to be walking distance from the venue, which is the Barcelona university of
+technology, called the _Universitaria Politecnica de Catalunya_ or _UPC_ for short. The organizers
+have chosen a very handsome building which houses an auditorium for about two hundred people or so.
+There's a good eighty people at the venue today.
+
+I don't take breakfast at the hotel, and instead walk over to the UPC building through the park.
+It's a nice stroll and the weather is gorgeous out: light blue skies with a bright yellow Sun that
+is happy to see me. Once at the university, I am quickly checked in and take my seat. I've promised
+Carlos that I would avoid the social activity later today, just out of an abundance of caution even
+though I have tested negative for COVID'19 on the way out to Barcelona. Besides, Marina is with me
+and having a nice quiet dinner is also fun.
+
+The program is varied and quite interesting. We start off with Paolo Lucente of NTT who wants to
+share some modernization in a talk entitled Network Telemetry - Exploring Technologies and
+Advancements in Standardization. Eduardo Taboada is next - he literally _wrote the book_ on Proxmox:
+The Open Code Virtualization Solution for the Future. His narrative goes into the purpose, features,
+use cases and vision of virtualization.
+
+During the break for coffee, I meet a few of the other participants and we talk about our network,
+what we do, what we're working on. The coffee is outside in the back yard of the university, and
+there's some scones and little tartelettes: breakfast! After the break, Victor Serrano of Nokia
+disserts on "Lab as Code" with Nokia Containerlab. I realize that it may be a good idea to
+contribute VPP images to _Containerlab_, so that folks can add these machines and learn from them.
+
+Jose Antonio Montes is a telephony person - his talk is called "Put some FOSS on your VoIP". I'm
+reminded of the [[FrysIX Barbecue]({{< ref wk7day6.md >}})where I met Joran Osinga, who has built
+and shown/documented a fully working 5G radio network - we talked about it on (an upcoming episode
+of the) Fusix Podcast. Michela Galante continues with a talk showing how to update the Ripe Database
+information in an automated way using the API.
+
+As I take a quick bathroom break, I bump into Nick of Nexgen and he offers me a coffee. We sit and
+chat outside for a ltitle bit, talking about coherent optics, CWDM vs DWDM/OWDM and what new types
+of transmission in the 400GE arena are up and coming. It's super interesting to hear from Nexgen,
+and I'm sure IP-Max will be pleased as well as a new and very happy customer.
+
+Lunch is served in the yard - it's sliders, little finger food, fizzy drinks, mate, coffee/tea
+and water. I enjoy catching up with Luca Deri (the ntop tech-lead), and we talk about my current
+project in VPP to add sFlow. He's pretty excited about it, and makes me a promise: he intends to
+move the sFlow receiver to the open source [[ntopng](https://www.ntop.org/products/traffic-analysis/ntop/)]
+and I think that would be a wonderful feature! We also talk about an upcoming conference he is
+organizing in Zurich, for which he extends me an invitation to speak. Of course, Luca is still
+active at [[FOSDEM](https://fosdem.org/)] and will be kicking off the CfP for the network devroom
+soon. I may be interested to join - even though I find that FOSDEM is way too crowded and busy,
+they have significantly outgrown the capacity of the university in Brussels, but they're not
+interested in re-evaluating the attendee body "the more the merrier", but it's pretty clear to me
+that the organizers have lost touch with the situation on the ground: almost invariably if you're
+not _in_ a devroom at 08:30, you will be out of luck: moving between them is impossible, doors are
+closed because they are (over)full, and you end up watching the same talk online in the hallway.
+Really terrible user experience! But, joining the Network devroom and staying there the whole day, I
+can do that :)
+
+After lunch (which ends at 15:15, I still find that funny), Octavio Alfageme discusses a multicast
+protocol in a talk titled "What do we see tonight? BIER and the evolution of multicast distribution
+architectures.". I know that VPP has a BIER implementation - I should really look in to this a bit
+more, as multicast always was just a little bit out of reach for me. Maybe IPng Networks is a nice
+place to roll out some multicast or other.
+
+A set of peering updates is next. Maria Isabel Gandia of CATNIX is joined by Javier Achirica of
+ESPANIX. Although I've seen Isabel around, the DE-CIX slot remains empty. After these updates, we
+are joined by Christian Adell [who once gave me a book!], Design-Driven Source of Truth, the
+Complete Lifecycle which is a practical constraints-based automation to build and destroy network
+sites and point-to-point networks.
+
+Luca Deri closes out the day with a presentation (in English, _grazie mille_!) which showcases a
+range of tools and traffic inspection techniques that we have developed over the years. These
+innovations have been at the construction of a robust platform capable of delivering detailed
+network visibility at high-speed using standard, commodity hardware.
+
+At 18:15 or so I decide to take off - there's a beering session a little ways away from the
+university, and a dinner at 21:00; but I have dinner plans with Marina. We decide on a place called
+[[Casa Petra](https://www.casapetrarestaurante.com/menus)] which is not fancy, but very well done
+tapas. Our absolute favorite is a tomato tartar, which has a thick and rich flavor. I also enjoyed
+all the other dishes - boquerones (English: Anchovies) and Pan con Tomate (English: bread with
+tomato), the Jam&oacute;n Iberico (English: Iberian cured ham), and a fried artechoke with snippets
+of dried ham. And of course, the drop of wine from LaFou that went with the tapas.
+
+At 22:30 we get back to the hotel and Marina wants to finish watching her movie on the iPad. So, I
+decide to finish something I started a few days ago, and motivated by my conversation with Luca:
+completing the API for the `sFlow` plugin. Until now, we had only a few _setters_. I refator the
+code to rename them to `*_set()` calls, and accompany each with a pairing `*_get()` call. I also add
+a dumper command, to enumerate either one or all sFlow enabled interfaces. With that, I should be
+able to integrate the entire plugin cleanly in [[vppcfg](https://github.com/pimvanpelt/vppcfg.git)].
+I wrestle a little bit with the unit tests, and end up committing patchset
+[[#13](https://gerrit.fd.io/r/c/vpp/+/41680/12..13)] which still passes all integration tests.
+Whoot, Vino-Coding rocks :)
+
+Tomorrow morning there will be a tour of Mare Nostrum, a local barcelona supercomputer. Then at
+10:00, the second day of ESNOG'32 will start. I go to sleep a happy camper.
+ 
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2178.JPG" caption="A beautiful gate at the edge of Güell Pavilions in Barcelona, Catalonia." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2179.JPG" caption="ESNOG'32 will be in the University of Technology - this building is stunning." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2180.JPG" caption="The auditorium for ESNOG'32 which holds 200 or so, and has all the amenities one might wish for, including streaming capabilities" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2182.JPG" caption="Eduardo's talk about ProxMox. I will receive a book from his hand tomorrow!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2196.JPG" caption="The vegan tomato tartar which was the best thing on the menu. Delish!" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day5.md

@@ -1,7 +1,99 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Friday:"
+title: "Week 13, Friday: ESNOG'32 Day 2"
 date: 2024-10-25T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/relakzone.png" alt="Credit: Relak Zone, YouTube" >}}
+
+A few months ago, on Mastodon one Eduardo Collado approached me and he was asking about the FrysIX
+pins that I had made. If I could maybe send a couple to him, he'd gladgly distribute them at an
+upcoming ESNOG event. Upcoming event you say? How's about I come and bring them!? So I mailed the
+program committee and suggested to bring a presentation on VPP's ability to run Babel and OSPFv3
+without the need for IPv4 or IPv6 transit networks. They accepted, and here I am :)
+
+Yesterday, I lined up two opportunities to share my ongoing work on sFlow in VPP: one at FOSDEM'25,
+for which Luca Deri invited me to submit a _call for papers_; and another one about network
+telemetry and observability which Luca is organizing in Zurich. And so, it is proven once again,
+that NOGs are self-perpetuating. There's always somebody intersted in hearning nerdy stories and I'm
+always interested in telling them!
+
+This morning, a bunch of the participants went to visit the
+[[Marenostrum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MareNostrum)] supercomputer at the _BSC_ (Barcelona
+Supercomputer Center). It is the most powerful supercomputer in Spain, one of thirteen
+supercomputers in the Spanish Supercomputing Network and one of the seven supercomputers of the
+European infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe). It has ~166K CPU,
+390TB of memory and 14PB of storage and is rated to 1.3MWatt of power. The coolest thing ever: it's
+built into a former chapel named _Torre Girona_, at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, where
+our event is being hosted.
+
+At 10:30 the program kicks off with Ismael Castell's thoughtful presentation about Discovering
+databrokers - Bringing to light hidden companies. This presentation resonated with me, as there's so
+much data gathering and inappropriate use of my (and our) personal data on the Internet. This is
+also why I've taken to _selfhosting_ (Mastodon, Peertube, NextCloud, Immich, Plausible, Roundcube,
+and several more).
+
+After a coffee break, Gerhard Stein of Flexoptix brings us some theory and practice about Coherent
+optical transceivers – current capabilities and future capabilities. Then, Jovana Palibrik of Kentik
+talks about the adoption of RPKI ROV - in particular a huge step-function jump after last year
+Orange misplaced its password and found its prefixes rerouted and hijacked. Manuel Mendez shared an
+industry update from Arista with a gazillion different flavors of 400GE optics.
+
+Then we had lunch - very similar to the one yesterday, and I had a chat with the Flexoptix folks. We
+talked about _Return to Office_, my sabbatical (and Andrea's too!); and the state of optical
+engineering. I personally would never have thought in the 90s when I studied this stuff, that it
+would become such a huge industry!
+
+After lunch, I was invited on stage to bring my presentation entitled VPP: A 100Gbps/100Mpps+
+BGP/OSPF router with a single IPv4 address. It was fun to present here - in English and at a
+reasonably slow pace - and answer a few questions at the end. It was
+[[recorded](https://video.ipng.ch/w/i4ibtvEkUmEE39mkCNeDzQ)] and the slides are
+[[online](https://go.ipng.ch/esnog32)] as well. I also lay out a set of IPng ntag-pins which find
+new homes with the participants of ESNOG'32 at the University of Technology.
+
+After my talk, Maria Isabel Gandia of CATNIX and Amadeo Beck-Pecoz of ESPANIX give some tips and
+tricks on how to peer _correctly_ in a talk entitled _Como sacar el máximo provecho de los puertos
+de peering en nodos neutros_ (English: How to make the most of peering ports in neutral nodes),
+after which there's one more social-cultural activity: a kahoot!
+
+The kahoot is a quiz with fifteen questions about technology and cultural references from the
+spanish internet industry and its pioneers. I participate in the kahoot and, despite my Spanish
+sucking (and delays due to having to translate ES->EN and then my answer back EN->ES), I manage to
+make the podium together with a player called _Edu_ (_Eduardo Taboada_ who was gracious to give me
+his book on Proxmox!) and a player called _IPv6_. I am over the moon that I managed to win here! I
+take the time to thank the ESNOG organizers, as they did a fantastic job with the logistics and the
+varied program. I really enjoyed myself!
+
+Then just like that, ESNOG'32 is over. It's 17:00 or so and I make my way back to the hotel, where
+Marina is already lounging and ready for an ap&eacute;ro. First, we take a little walk through the
+park and I call my Dad, who is celebrating his birthday today. My parents are doing good, they just
+got their flu and corona shots (good for them!) and they ask me about my COVID episode last week. We
+have a good conversation and say our goodbyes - they will be visiting us in Switzerland in December.
+
+At 20:00 we make our way to the city for dinner. It's a bit of a puzzle to find a place that has
+good tapas, is not too far away, and is affordable. We find a place, honesty not that great though,
+and we have our food and a bottle of _Arienzo_ wine from the house of Marques de Riscal. On the way
+back we see a local sight: _Zurich_, the insurance company, as well has an office in the Diagonal
+area of Barcelona.
+
+Back at the hotel it's 22:00 and we're both a bit tired. Marina has done a tonne of walking and
+museum-visiting today, and I spent the day up and about at ESNOG. Interestingly, my Apple watch
+informs me that I have closed all three rings (12h of standing, 30min of exercize, 950kCal of
+activity). I would not have thought that!
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/marenostrum.png" caption="Picture of Marenostrum 4 in the chapel at UPC, Barcelona" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2203.JPG" caption="A heart-shaped formation of a bunch of IPng ntag-pins, almost all of which got a new owner today." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2205.JPG" caption="A selfie at the podium of the University of Tech, Barcelona, Catalunya." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/group.png" caption="A gorup picture of the ESNOG'32 participants." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2209.JPG" caption="A selfie at the front door of the UPC Edifici Vertex building of UPC in Barcelona." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/kahoot.png" caption="I am giggly because I did not expect to win a Spanish spoken kahoot!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2210.JPG" caption="The Pedralbes Royal Palace in Pedralbes quarter of Barcelona, Catalunya." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2211.JPG" caption="A bottle of Rioja called Arienzo, from Marques de Riscal" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2214.JPG" caption="A selfie of Marina and I in front of the Zurich insurance company in Diagonal, Barcelona." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+

content/blog/wk13day6.md

@@ -1,7 +1,78 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Saturday:"
+title: "Week 13, Saturday: Barcelona to Zurich"
 date: 2024-10-26T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/soulfulliquid-02.png" alt="Credit: Soulful Liquid, YouTube" >}}
+
+Ahhh what a wonderful few days in Barcelona. Yesterday when we went to bed, it started raining. Then
+at 02:00 or so, we both got abruptly woken up by a thunderclap just overhead. There was a bright
+flash of white and a very loud and immediate thunder. Wowza! I fell alseep pretty quickly after the
+excitement, but Marina spent a bit longer before being able to fall asleep. Stupid weather!
+
+This morning it's still raining, so we decide to take our breakfast in the hotel. It's a nice
+spread, Marina takes an _Americano_ and I take a _Mediterraneo_, and all sorts of yummy food is
+presented. We take our time eating it, as our checkout is only at noon, and we are not super keen on
+walking through the rain to the metro and then the airport.
+
+Marina sees an Aeronautical museum at the airport, but unfortunately it's open only until 13:00 on
+Saturdays. Not to worry, I have not seen much of the city on this particular trip, so I offer
+perhaps to go check out this little Gaudi wall a few blocks up from us. We find the wall and the
+statue of _Antoni Pl&agrave;cid Guillem Gaud&iacute; i Cornet_, as his full name rings. From here,
+we take our time walking through a light drizzle and decide to take a look at the museum for
+forbidden art - these are all artworks that were displayed at some point, but due to pressure,
+typically from old, straight, white, christian dudes, were demanded to be removed. I find some of it
+curious, other pieces are a bit pushy, and overall I think that old straight white christian dudes
+should just chill out more.
+
+After this small (but in my opinion, very cool) museum, it's still raining. So we walk over to a
+small cafe and have a cup of cappucino and share a red velvet cupcake. My body is sluggish and slow.
+My favorite activity would be curling into a ball and sleeping some more right now, so Marina goes
+easy on me. We slowly walk East to the _Arc de Triomf_ and from there through the promenade and into
+the park and towards the Equestrian statue of General _Joan Prim_.
+
+We have a drink at a small greek bar/restaurant, and from there it's pretty close to catch the metro
+at _Barceloneta_. We decide to minimze the rainy walk and take the metro L4 up to _Verdaguer_,
+where we descend like twelve escalators (not even kidding!) to catch the L5 metro to _Collblanc_ and
+from there it's easy: just jump onto the L9S directly to the airport. And all of this for a EUR 5.50
+train ticket. The public transport in this city is **excellent**!
+
+We are at the airport at about 17:30 for a 18:45 planeride. That means we should probably have some
+dinner before boarding. Marina insists that we eat Tapas, and since our buddy Ram&oacute;n had
+previously suggested we drink a wine from Priorat, we oblige. "One of everything!", is the order,
+and soon after there are seven dishes on our table.
+
+The food is really good - not just by "airport"-standards, but just in general: great preparation,
+nice and moist _tortilla_, crispy braised _padrones_, thinly sliced _jamon_, and six units of
+_croquetta_. We also enjoy the Priorat red wine and report back to the _Hardship Brotherhood_ on our
+progress.
+
+We finish our dinner and hop-skip to the gate, where the boarding has already started. We get into
+the plane, there is a bit of a kerfuffle on airplane seats - our assigned seat does not exist
+because they changed the aircraft. We are not alone, and one set of people even got assigned _the
+same_ seat. Hilarity ensued but in the end, everybody managed to sit.  Our flight home is
+_tranquillo_, and we land at Zurich airport at about 21:20, and are home at about 22:00 or so.
+
+We catch up with Quinn who has enjoyed the time 'off of parents', probably more so than I enjoyed
+the time 'off of son', and we open up the gazillion packages in the mail. Marina went to town on
+Aliexpress it seems. I also may have ordered a package or two :)
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2215.JPG" caption="The breakfast spread at Upper Diagonal on Saturday morning - yummy!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2216.JPG" caption="This small wall with gate made by Gaudi is a lesser known treasure of the city" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2218.JPG" caption="Gaudi's artwork in the city landscape cannot be ignored in Barcelona, Catalonia." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2220.JPG" caption="The museum of Forbidden Art shows all sorts of pieces that had been previously banned" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2221.JPG" caption="We shared a red velvet cupcake at a local bakery" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2225.JPG" caption="The Arc de Triomf in Barcelona, Catalonia" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2226.JPG" caption="Quinn loves pibbins, so I sent him a picture of a few we found in Barcelona, Catalonia" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2228.JPG" caption="The train station of Francia just north of Barceloneta, Barcelona, Catalonia." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2229.JPG" caption="In the subway we took twelve escalators down into the core of the Earth, to get to the L5 train" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2230.JPG" caption="At the airport, we go 'Baby, one more time', and drink a wine from Priorat." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2233.JPG" caption="Our tapas at the airport is delicious, and we thoroughly enjoy it, albeit quickly" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2237.JPG" caption="Our Vueling airplane has changed, so lots of folks including us no longer have valid seats" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day7.md

@@ -1,7 +1,89 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Sunday:"
+title: "Week 13, Sunday: Padel!"
 date: 2024-10-27T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/kasger-02.png" alt="Credit: Kasger, YouTube" >}}
+
+I woke up at 08:30 after a tremendous sleep. I love sleeping in my own bed, the difference between
+its comfort is most apparent just after I return from a trip abroad. This morning I have a sportsing
+date with Johhny and Mari. A while ago, maybe half a year by now, Johnny mentioned that he's into
+[[Padel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padel)], a racket sport of Mexican origin, typically played
+in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. 
+
+It feels fitting to play this game precisely today, as I understand it's the second most popular
+game in Spain, second only to football. Seeing as I just got back from Spain, I may as well :) I
+drive over to _Milandia_ and enter the Padel hall to find a jolly Mari and Johnny already there. I
+have never played this game before, but I have played both tennis and squash, so I think I will get
+the jist of it 🎾. Mari and I have to go rent a racket, and it becomes apparent that Johnny hasn't
+played particularly often with his: the price tag is still on his racket :)
+
+It's a super fun game! We are only three, so we take turns ganging up on a singleton. The trick
+seems to be moderating power. It's very easy to whack the ball against the back wall (it has to
+bounce on the court first), or thwack it out of the court, and onto the next team's court. This
+happens to us a few times, but we are not alone. We also sometimes welcome a foreign ball onto our
+court as well. 
+
+We have the court for one hour and trust me: that's plenty. I am still coughing a bit from the cold
+remaining after my long week of travels (NLNOT and ESNOG). My heart rate goes up to 160 at times,
+but is usually in the 130s which is tolerable. After the 55min of game time, I seem to have burned
+680kCal and my body is super happy. Well, it also hurts like a _mofo_,  but it is thankful that I
+have put it through its paces. And I am not alone: we set a date for next week Sunday 3rd and the
+10th as well. Mari and I debate buying a racket, but we both think we should maybe play a little bit
+more first. I make her a deal: I will buy her a racket if we play ten times. She reciprocates and
+offers to buy me a racket also. Deal!
+
+At home, Quinn is gathering a box of stuff from the basement. Next week is Hallowe'en, and we are
+practicioners. Remember we bought a few metric tonnes of candy last [[week]({{< ref wk12day4.md >}})]?
+Well, we'll be making little baggies for the kids who come to trick-or-treat at our door.  Quinn
+makes quick work of decorating the front yard with spider webs, our Elza ghoul and a bunch of
+stay-out tape. I add copious amounts of spiders to the webbing and overall think it looks wonderful.
+
+Back inside, I am reminded of a chore I gave myself: tending to my geocache called
+[[Schüracherstutz](https://coord.info/GC657NY)], the container of which has gone missing a while
+ago. I create a new one and add a logbook to it, and make my way over to the little one. Marina asks
+me on the way out to get a bottle of milk in case she needs it for tonight's dinner. I bike over to
+GZ and replace the geocache, then to the Coop Pronto to get some milk, and then through a light
+afernoon Sun back home where Marina has started making a second helping of _Vol au Vent_.
+
+Last week, we were supposed to have Jan-Christiaan and Sandra over for dinner and they were very
+much looking forward to this _Vol au Vent_. In the end, I ate some in our guest room during
+isolation when I was in the full-on [[sick period]({{< ref wk12day6.md >}})]. I couldn't taste a
+thing, and as such, had to report that I did not enjoy it. But lucky me! I get a second chance :)
+
+I prepare for us a soup of butternut pumpkin. This soup has only the pumpkin, one onion and a few
+cups of vegetable stock. I will season it with home made croutons and roasted pumpkin seeds with
+salt. It'll be great. Marina mean while makes little meatballs and cuts the chicken for the sauce.
+She will also be making mocca ice cream with little pieces of Oreo. I'm sure JC and Sandra can
+appreciate that, being the proud owners of oreo.nl.
+
+Our guests arrive at 17:00, on the dot. You can tell we're not the only ones that are _Swissing_! We
+catch up over a suitable _ap&eacute;ro_ of Mattei Cap Corsa, a corsican drink which we first enjoyed
+at their place a few months ago. Before dinner, I show them the flight simulator and take a little
+loop flight from LSMD to LSMD, showing lakes of Greiffensee and Pfaffikersee before turning around
+and landing again. It's a quick tour sharing what I've learned so far of the controls and cockpit.
+
+Dinner is enjoyed. The main course is to die for: I definitely missed out last week, as Marina says
+it tastes exactly the same [no, it doesn't]. The _Vol au Vent_ is fantastic. We chat about work,
+travel, the vacation to the northern american continent that Sandra and JC made, as well as the city
+trips that Marina and I have made over this last Fall. The desert is a mocca ice cream which Marina
+has made herself with her trusty rusty ice cream machine: a good investment!
+
+We agreed not to make it too late today; Sandra and Quinn both have to go to work tomorrow morning
+and JC will be traveling to Dublin. So we go easy on the sauce and by 21:00 or so, we say our
+goodbyes. Marina and I watch one episode of _Lilyhammer_ (my favorite episode by the way, the one
+which takes place in Gjendesheim): Roar gets saved, the brittons take a swim in lake Gjende, and you
+can just see Memurubu and [[Besseggen](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besseggen)] (which is my
+favorite place on Earth) and Jonny thugs his way through Muriburiland
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-27/IMG_2239.JPG" caption="Johny, Mari and me after an hour's worth of Padel. That was good fun, let's do it again!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-27/IMG_2241.JPG" caption="Quinn has decorated our front yeard, inviting the kids over for a trick-or-treat later this week" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-27/IMG_2243.JPG" caption="I'm doing geocaching container maintenance and need to replace my Schuracherstutz one" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-27/IMG_2245.JPG" caption="The Vol au Vent is delicious - thank you, Marina!" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk14day1.md

@@ -1,7 +1,67 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 14, Monday:"
+title: "Week 14, Monday: Last Week!"
 date: 2024-10-28T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/noraenpure-12.png" alt="Credit: Nora en Pure, YouTube" >}}
+
+I have to say I'm a little bit melancholic seeing that today, week fourteen of my sabbatical, has
+started. My journal is going to be perhaps a bit of an anti climax because I have promised myself
+that in the last week I would not do very many things, but just recompress after having been able to
+let my mind roam free for so many days.
+
+In all my years as an adult, I've never had a vacation longer than three weeks. Ever since working
+at Google, and I started in 2006 mind you, I have mostly spent school vacations traveling with my
+family - in the before times this was to the San Francisco Bay Area, sometimes as well to Sydney
+Australia. I would work mostly, and in the weekends we'd do fun stuff together as a family.
+
+I'm now looking back at the time I spent off-corp, and it's difficult to overstate how valuable it
+has been for me. I've gotten to finish a few projects that have been quietly and patiently waiting
+for my attention in the dusty corner of my work room. I've traveled quite a bit and enjoyed the
+company of many friends, family and network engineers. I also finally cleaned my room&trade;, and I
+got a Roomba vacuum robot called _Suckel_ to help me keep my room tidy. I played wiht lego, although
+not as much as I would've liked. Marina and I drank many martini's in the back yard while the Summer
+was blessing us with good weather, but I did not get to re-design and work on our garden. Tim helped
+me, as an emotional support animal and subject matter expert, to get my flight simulator up and
+running, and I've clocked 20hrs or so of flight time in it. Yesterday I ordered two 31.5" screens
+which will serve as the left and right window. I find VFR difficult without having a lateral view
+out the window of my little simplane. Would you believe those screens were only CHF 120,- apiece?
+Unbelievable!
+
+In the morning I cut a new release of my KVM image for VPP, Bird2 and FRR 10.1. I've included the
+`sFlow` plugin, a working `hsflowd` and some tools like `psampletest` and `sflowtool` in the image.
+While testing, I started an [[Akvorado](https://github.com/akvorado/akvorado)] instance to validate
+that things work. I think there's still a few small things we need to take care of, notably around
+SNMP information and perhaps a few fields in the sFlow counters (such as interface state and speed).
+And for the Akvorado data model, I'll want to feed it some BGP information using
+[[BMP](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7854)] so that things like prefixes and
+source/destination AS numbers are known. But, it's a start, and it works.
+
+In the afternoon I spent some time with the simulator. My buddy Luuk pinged me on Signal, and he'll
+be renting a plane this week, intending to fly it up from Lugano where he lives, to Wangen-Lachen,
+airport [[LSPV](https://www.flugplatzwangen.ch/)]. All we need is a bit of good weather, and today
+it's gorgeous out! In the sim, I'm doing attitude control, controlled turns and flying patterns. I
+find it very difficult to keep my altitude, perhaps also because there is no motion feedback in the
+simulator (ie, I don't feel myself going up or down). But I'll get the hang of it, eventually.
+
+There's still a flurry of requests for FreeIX Remote. Lancom in Greece has offered capacity on their
+100G wave from Thessaloniki to Amsterdam, and will be giving all of their local FreeIX Greece
+members (there are half a dozen for the moment), free access to the NIKHEF exchanges. FreeIX Remote
+is slowly growing, with currently 210K IPv4 prefixes and 64K IPv6 prefixes. Not bad for a peer :)
+
+Marina makes a non-typical but delicious meal! She takes butternut squash and onions roasted in the
+oven, with goat's cheese and cured ham on a bed of arugula with a light vinaigrette. She asks me if
+I can fry a beef _Limousin_ steak, which I happily oblige. Together, this makes for a very tasty
+dinner indeed! After dinner, we watch some news and settle down on the couch for a few episodes of
+Lilyhammer.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-28/akvorado.png" caption="Akvorado on a testbed with four VPP machines" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-28/IMG_2247.JPG" caption="Marina's delicious dinner: ham, goat cheese, squasch and rocket" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-28/IMG_2248.JPG" caption="To accompany Marina's salad: Limousin filet mignon with Chicago rub" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk14day2.md

@@ -1,7 +1,69 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 14, Tuesday:"
+title: "Week 14, Tuesday: Patches Galore"
 date: 2024-10-29T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/dreamscape-03.png" alt="Credit: Dreamscape, Kush Sessions, YouTube" >}}
+
+This morning my buddy Arend sends me a message on Telegram - and asks me if I can check the port in
+Qupra. Oh my deity, it's finally happening! After the general assembly of Coloclue approved a
+member's petition to allow members to install cross connects at Qupra, a few months of "kastje, muur"
+happened, and the networking committee and association board reached an agreement on how this would
+happen.
+
+A few months after that, Arend tried to install a crossconnect but we weren't ready paper-wise. I
+brought it back to the attention of the networking committee and we identified the missing pieces: a
+patch panel with keystones needed to be installed in each rack (and it was only available in two of
+the racks at the time), and a change to the administrative database needed to be added to document
+which members had which crossconnects.
+
+Tim took care of the first thing - he ordered the panels and keystones and went to the datacenter to
+install them. I offered to take careo f the second thing - but since the administrative database has
+need-to-know information, our treasurer Arjan preferred to add the records himself. Once these two
+things were taken care of, all I had to do is wait for a practical moment :) I had planned to deploy
+the fiber myself last week, but I had to cancel my trip to Amsterdam due to the COVID situation.
+
+So I was surprised and delighted that Arend pinged me. The Qupra FrysIX switch was pre-configured,
+and all that was left was to plug things in. Arend made quick work of it, and as well put in the
+cross connect for a few other members at Coloclue, he's such a sweetheart! For me, this link will be
+used to alleviate the hypervisor at Equinix AM3, as it is running low on disk throughput due to me
+using Samsung consumer SSDs. I shipped Arend a few enterprise SAS SSDs before, but he hasn't gotten
+around to deploying them yet. More importantly, the AM3 hypervisor runs FrysIX routeserver, LibreNMS
+and IXPManager.
+
+After the Qupra gig, Arend made his way to NIKHEF where he installed the FrysIX patch for FreeIX
+Remote, directly into the VPP router `nlams0.net.free-ix.net`. That router now has LSIX, SpeedIX,
+and FrysIX connected. I spend some time bringing FreeIX Remote AS50869 into quarantine and then into
+the production VLAN. That's a benefit of running the IXP: I get to expedite my own connections :)
+
+Now that the FreeIX Remote router is connected to FrysIX, I allocate a private VLAN between it and
+IPng's infrastructure. This allows me to create a VPWS (L2VPN, Ethernet over MPLS) on IPng's MPLS
+switches `msw0.nlams0` and `msw1.chrma0` from this router in Amsterdam to the one I already installed
+in Zurich. iBGP comes up, and there are now three routers in play (`nlams0`, `chrma0`, and
+`grskg0`), and amongst them, they know about 207K IPv4 prefixes and 64.7K IPv6 prefixes, and all of
+them can be reached via direct or routeserver peering. How cool is that?
+
+
+```
+pim@nlams0:~$ birdc show route count
+BIRD v2.15.1-4-g280daed5-x ready.
+800934 of 800934 routes for 207438 networks in table master4
+449754 of 449754 routes for 64696 networks in table master6
+1501107 of 1501107 routes for 500369 networks in table t_roa4
+364077 of 364077 routes for 121359 networks in table t_roa6
+Total: 3115872 of 3115872 routes for 893862 networks in 4 tables
+```
+
+In the evening I send a maintenance announcement out to FrysIX members: in the night of Wednesday to
+Thursday of this week, I will move the routeserver RS2 and the IXPManager over to the hypervisor
+at Qupra, which now sports a 10G connection to the FrysIX peering switch there. I have plumbed the
+management VLAN 264 and the Quarantine 2605 and the Peering LAN 2604 through to the hypervisor.
+
+I practice by moving `nms.frys-ix.net` over - this is a non-intrusive change. Using ZFS block device
+replication, I can pump over the boot disk with about 110MB/s, because the hypervisor itself has
+"only" a one gigabit connection. I boot the VM, and it comes up cleanly. Nice. I spend a few hours
+preparing the move of the other two machines (RS2 and IXPManager), which are service impacting. But
+I can start by making a snapshot of the block devices, copy their data over ahead of time, and then
+copy a final snapshot incrementally.
+
+Today was a good day for FrysIX :)

content/blog/wk14day3.md

@@ -1,7 +1,77 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 14, Wednesday:"
+title: "Week 14, Wednesday: Candy and FrysIX Moves"
 date: 2024-10-30T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/aurora.png" alt="Credit: Aurora, YouTube" >}}
+
+Today I did pretty much nothing :) I spent a bunch of time in the flight simulator flying circuits
+and trying to keep my altitude. Also I did about twenty (flyby) approaches where I would try to have
+a sink rate of 400ft/min and 60kts with flaps at 10 degrees. The airplane is sluggish at this speed,
+so there's a bit of a delay before the correct attitude is reached. Think of it as a really slow PID
+controller. I'm still pretty terrible at it, but at least I am putting the airplane down in one
+piece. Doing visual approach is really difficult by the way, because looking left and right is a bit
+awkward. Seeing as my spiffy video card has four monitor outputs, I think I'll try to get my hands
+on some cheap screens that could serve as left and right windows.
+
+After lunch I take another look at the `sFlow` plugin - for some reason it is emitting large
+interface IDs (1e9 + hw_if_index), but Neil has written it such that if a Linux Control Plane pair
+exists, it'll use the Linux vif_index. Clearly that isn't happening, and I have a pending call with
+him tonight to try to get to the bottom of it.
+
+In the late afternoon, Quinn Marina and I draw smiley faces on our halloween candy baggies, and fill
+them with an inordinate amount of candy. We make 120 baggies, as in previous years, we've often been
+able to offload 100+ of these things to the neighborhood kids, the weather is going to be good
+tomorrow, and Quinn decorated our front porch in a very inviting way: I'm sure the kids will enjoy
+it, but not as much as we will, methinks :)
+
+After dinner, Marina and I watch some news, and then I retire to the basement for my call. I futz a
+bit with the audio, but eventually am able to greet Peter and Neil. We talk about a few operational
+details, notably:
+
+1.   the ability of the `hsflowd` to send its update traffic from a network namespace different to
+the main one (because VPP wants to run in a `dataplane` netns). The tool already supports this,
+yaay!
+1.   if samples are received before the interface counters (with their respective interface IDs
+mapped to the Linux Control Plane vif_index'es, then those samples will arrive at the collector with
+these if_index values of 1000000001 and so on. This will make tools like Akvorado try to retrieve
+SNMP indexes with that - but they won't exist and this is a bug. Neil agrees, and will inhibit
+sending of samples until after the first counter for an interface is found
+1.   a propose the large numbers, they are repeatably and permanemently `1e9+idx` for me, while they
+should really be the LCP vif_index. We add some debug logging, but it doesn't trigger. Then we run
+out of time and we promise each other we'll both look into it offline.
+
+All in all, a super productive meeting, and once again I learned a tonne.
+
+At 23:00 I need to complete the move of the FrysIX virtual machines from my hypervisor at Equinix
+AM3 to another one at Qupra, which Arend connected to FrysIX infrastructure yesterday. This move is
+important, because the SSDs in the AM3 hypervisor are crappy, while the ones in Qupra are enterprise
+SAS-12 SSDs from NetApp: much faster, must higher write rate, much longer durability (famous last
+words).
+
+I take a snapshot copy of `rs2.frys-ix.net` first, and copy that VM to its new spot, but disconnect
+the FrysIX port, by moving the virtio network card from the FrysIX bridge group to an empty bridge
+group. I boot it, and upgrade it from Debian Bullseye to Debian Bookworm while I'm here. I have it
+download its config and at 23:00 exactly, I shutdown the old `rs2` and connect the virtio network
+interface to FrysIX in the new spot. Finally, I add VLAN 2604 (production) and 2605 (quarantine) to
+the port in Qupra, and a few seconds later we're fully online. The migration of `rs2` took about 150
+seconds of downtime. Not bad, eh??
+
+The IXPManager virtual machine is a bit larger, but thanks to ZFS block device snapshots I can make
+an incremental ZFS transfer, halt the old `ixpmanager` VM, quickly `zfs send | zfs recv`  the last
+bits from the penultimate snapshot to HEAD, and boot the VM on its new spot. The IXPManager comes up
+within 10 minutes or so. All in all, the maintenance window lasted from 23:00-23:35 and I was quite
+happy with the results.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-30/IMG_2249.JPG" caption="The MS Flight Simulator with an ad-hoc righthand side window, easier to see the airport when doing righthand patterns. Need another screen :)" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-30/IMG_2250.JPG" caption="We are filling candy baggies for the trick-or-treat'ers tomorrow. We expect one hundred or so kids." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-30/IMG_2253.JPG" caption="The amount of sugar we are pumping into the youth in Bruttisellen is .. significant." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-30/IMG_2254.JPG" caption="The empty distribution-sized bags from Aligro. That's ... a lot of sugar." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+

content/blog/wk14day4.md

@@ -1,7 +1,103 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 14, Thursday:"
+title: "Week 14, Thursday: Hallowe'en"
 date: 2024-10-31T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/nicky-havey.png" alt="Credit: Nicky Havey, YouTube" >}}
+
+Today is Hallowe'en! When we moved to Br&uuml;ttisellen in 2006, it was _not_ a thing. Over the
+years, a few of us would decorate our houses, but most of the kids were not really with the program:
+no trick or treating, no dressing up in scary costumes, nothing. But when we bought our place in
+2015, we we decided to really decorate in the week of Hallowe'en. These days, kids will come round,
+sometimes in small groups, sometimes in very large ones, parents and all. Many of them still don't
+really know what they are doing: ring doorbell --> get candy. The German way to say _trick or treat_
+by the way is _s&uuml;sses oder saures_ (English: sweet or sour) which I find hilarious because if
+you say "well I choose sour!", the kid will look at you as if you're crazy: "Sir, this is where you
+hand over the candy?!".
+
+> You have much to learn, Switzerland, but I love you!
+
+We have lots of candy in our baggies, we have Elza (our door-ghoul), spiders and lots of spider
+webs, and some UV lights to give them a spooky glow-in-the-dark feeling. I will be dressing up in a
+black hoodie with a _zipperface_, which takes a while to prepare for, but really hits the spot with
+freaking out the children.
+
+In the morning, the doorbell rings at 09:00 and oh look, a package! It's a rather huge package, the
+size of a small refridgerator... in it are two 32" curved screen displays, which I bought for the
+low low price of CHF 120,- apiece! It's amazing how affordable this stuff is! I unpack them, which
+takes actually quite a long time, and take care of the cardboard and styrofoam carnage that ensues.
+After my hard work, two screens are available for the flight sim.
+
+OK, this thing will need to move, because hanging off a screen on the left and right hand side of
+the main screen will make the simulator a lot wider. Luckily, I have a spot, sort of, in the server
+room. There's an unused desk there which I move out of the way. I then move the simulator into the
+room and Marina helps me measure how high the left/right screen need to be. It turns out, 96cm is
+the sweet spot.
+
+I have a few hours left before I need to change my appearance, so after a quick lunch I go to the
+Ikea, as they happen to have a 60cm x 96cm x 30cm cabinet called _Spiksmed_. Did you know that
+almost all the IKEA product names are fake Swedish words? My IKEA in Dietlikon has exactly two of
+these _Spiksmed_ units, so I grab them! The trip takes me only twenty minutes, because I don't have
+to go through the whole maze of the store, rather I can just purchase these items and move to the
+_Warenausgabe_ (English: Goods Distribution), and these little ones are quickly in hand.
+
+At home, the cabinets are pretty quickly assembled, and while I don't have time to play with the
+simulator, I do manage to connect it all and project a left- and righthand door + window on these
+two screens. It looks ... absolutely stunning. Very, very immersive!
+
+Marina interrupts my fun in the basement and suggests that I shave before dressing up, because the
+zipper-face uses latex to glue onto the skin, and I don't want to feel the burn of a brazilian
+face-wax later when removing it. So I shower and shave and put some skin lotion on my face. The plan
+is:
+
+*   15:00-15:45 Marina gives Pim a Zipper Face
+*   15:45-16:15 Pim goes to get Quinn. Marina converts into Sally (from the Nightmare before Christmas)
+*   16:15-17:00 Pim and Quinn return.
+*   17:00-18:00 Marina turns Quinn into Tate Langdon (from American Horror Story)
+*   17:30-18:00 Pim makes dinner
+*   18:00-18:15 Dinner had
+*   18:15-22:30 Freak out the neighborhood kids.
+
+For dinner I make baked beans, potatoes and a chicken schnitzel, it's a simple meal but we don't
+have much time to eat. Most of the younger kids will want to be in bed at 19:00 or so, as it's a
+school night (remember those? School nights, heh). I apply some extra bloody gore after dinner, and
+drink water through a straw. Marina puts on her Sally-wig and grabs Zero, the floating ghost-dog. 
+
+It's fair to say we freak the kids out. It's funny to me because I've seen grownups, teens and
+toddlers all keep their distance and kind of refuse to approach the door. They don't know what's
+going to happen. One set of teenage girls stood a good three meters (ten feet) from the door, and
+when Marina said they had to come get their candy, one of them said - I kid you not - "Oh, no I'm
+good over here, you can throw us the bag of candy, kthx". But we made them approach, anyway :)
+
+Marina and I take an evening stroll through the neighborhood. There's about ten houses or so that
+really put themselves out there; and about twenty houses that are approachable (although, honestly:
+if you want to participate in trick or treating, you really should decorate your house!). It's
+pretty clear to find our house, and many kids do. Some even twice. Or three times.
+
+Quinn and I also take a walk and I often ask him: "Hey Quinn, can I eat that kid over there?", and
+Quinn plays his part too, walking with a cane but then lunging at kids screaming at them. So many
+heart attacks were had. I love it.
+
+At about 22:00 we call it a night. A cute thing about Switzerland is the so called _Nachtruhe_
+(English: night rest), which is a federal law to avoid street noises after 22:00. So we turn off the
+lights and UV, and finish watching the _Adam's Family_ movie that Marina put on while Quinn and I
+were out taking a walk and scaring the neighborhood kids.
+
+We had so much fun today - I'm glad.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2257.JPG" caption="All the baggies of candy for tonight's trick-or-treating. We expect many kids." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2258.JPG" caption="The Digitec package is big enough to hold a fridge. In it: two 32 inch monitors for my flight simulator." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2262.JPG" caption="I've set up these monitors as left- and right facing doors + wings in the cockpit. I line up the horizon so that it's a smooth transition from left to center to right." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2265.JPG" caption="Marina is starting to apply the zipper to my face. The latex stinks (really bad, of ammonia, and it burns the skin We suffer for our art)." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2285.JPG" caption="Zero is ready to float around with Marina, who is going as Sally." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2286.JPG" caption="My Zipper-face and Quinn's Tate" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2287.JPG" caption="Marina's Sally and my Zipper-face" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2292.JPG" caption="Our front porch has spider webs and lots of creepy crawlies. The webs are illumated with UV light which makes them glow in the dark" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+