In 2012 and 2013 I worked for Palantir Technologies, deploying Gotham, their powerful analysis software into state and local police forces. I feel good about how Palantir Gotham helped everyone from beat cops to detectives to crime analysts find and make sense of information to solve crimes. One thing that left a sour taste in … [Read more…]
This is the final installment of a 4-part series on service function chaining. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Greed Part 3: Censorship In previous installments, I described what service functions and service function chains are, and why you should be concerned about them. The extremely brief summary is that service functions are deployed by network … [Read more…]
This article is part 3 of a 4-part series on service function chaining. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Greed In this post, I’ll be focusing on examples of service function chaining as a means of political manipulation via censorship and outright attacks on opponents. The Great Firewall of China Photo by Ryan McLaughlin – CC BY-ND … [Read more…]
This is Part 2 of a series on service function chaining. I recommend starting with Part 1 as an introduction. So let’s start talking in more detail about the kinds of things network providers and governments want to use service function chaining for. In this installment, I’ll be focusing on use cases that are primarily … [Read more…]
Photo by publik15 – CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Introduction I’m a technology optimist. I look at new technologies and most of the time, I’m excited. I see all the good they can bring and don’t often wonder too deeply about the bad. Information technology in particular, has largely been a force for good in this world. It … [Read more…]
Ars Technica reports that North America is out of IPv4 addresses, and that ARIN has activated its “unmet requests policy.” ARIN, the North American registry, isn’t totally out of addresses, but the unmet requests policy is essentially a way to get in line for the table scraps of the remaining unallocated addresses. The reality is now permanently here that … [Read more…]
I was having trouble updating my iPhone and iPad software to the latest iOS version. iTunes would download the update without a problem, but then fail while “processing” the file, claiming that the firmware file was corrupted. I tried all the usual suggestions (reinstall iTunes, try it from a different user account, turn off anti-virus, … [Read more…]
I have an idea for a course that’d be appropriate for high school or college. The basic idea is to try to distill and bring together a set of knowledge, skills, and habits that allow people to think critically about quantitative information. I’d call this course Quantitative Skepticism, which I think captures the sense of … [Read more…]
You may have heard about the Comcast/Level 3 dispute around the ‘tubes by now. If not, then a few links for background are in order. They each give a summary, so pick your favorite. NY Times – Media Encoder Blog Ars Technica Susan Crawford My summary is this: Level 3 runs a major Internet backbone … [Read more…]
This is post I’ve been meaning to write for a while, but time (as it does) has gotten away from me. I started thinking about this issue back around the end of 2008 or so when it was announced that, globally, laptop sales had exceeded desktops. It’s easy to see the appeal: setting up camp … [Read more…]