Arlon's CSUMB Intro to Computer Networks CST-311 Module 8 Learning Journal #8/#40 for the week Wed 10/19-Tues 10/26, year 2021

Arlon's CSUMB Intro to Computer Networks CST-311 Module 8 Learning Journal #8/#40 for the week Wed 10/19-Tues 10/26, year 2021

The topics this week are final, group project... That class was invaluable, I'm extremely glad to have been exposed to those topics.

That was a lot of information, and very extremely good and useful information. I still feel like it's 1/10,000th of what people that design routers and chips know. But now at least I know how to design a software defined network, and use it for testing and experimenting on network topologies. That is extremely interesting to me, although I'm still not exactly sure how to affix the SDN to my home/office network as a virtual add-on. Or... am I...if I can SSH in from localhost, maybe I can just ssh in ... to ... the sdn by using the localhost ip address to ssh in from other network areas! That's it! Instead of mininet@localhost it's going to be mininet@192.168.x.y! Ok now I'm really excited about this class, I need the sequel! I have a lot of experimenting to do and preparation for the upcoming classes.

My beloved dad has passed this week, after officially exchanging with me communication to notepad everything we could possibly think of to communicate about. He told me several weeks ago he would be passing in three days, that was three days before our midterm for this class. I said, well I have a test that day, so, pick another day! And he did, and we had plenty of time to talk and spend a lot of time together before he passed. I got to care for him, try and make him better but he was ready to go. He said his goodbyes to the entire family and gave me a last piece of advice. "Always check everything - you gotta check everything" He was a pilot, captain and navigator, for 747 commercial airliners before they became computerized, although he did have some experience with the simulators they were making. He liked Linux because there used to be a flight simulator Linux distribution on CD called FlightSim Live - I think you can still get the Linux app. His advice about always check everything goes with what pilots have to do, goes with what mechanics have to do, and goes with what computer programmers have to do, network engineers especially, and lots of other tasks too of course. It was very well recieved because he's not only said that many times before but it's so true. It's the antidote to Murphy's law. I was putting a network cord bundle under my house (I literally have physically networked the living bejebus out of my house, just for fun) and I hadn't checked the eight ends I had put on it, and as I was getting ready to put it under my house I had a little inner dialog, I thought, that's not going to work, then I thought, why not? Then I thought, because you didn't check it, that's why! It's an invitation for Murphy of Murphy's law to have his hand in things. So you check everything, make a list, add to the list, etc and eventually Murphy can't break anything!

You thought that was the end of the story. It wasn't. One of the eight connectors didn't work, just as I had mentally predicted, and I didn't find out until performing the laborious procedure of stringing them neatly and tieing them under the house. DOH! So it was an even bigger project figuring out exactly what I needed to do, the simplest possible way, to test which of the eight ends wasn't done right, or which cord didn't work, and make the repair as simply and with as few more trips under the house as possible. So I set up a lengthy tree of possibilities, and picked the first moves by what my instinct told me wasn't connected. I figured it was one of the farthest ends, but to find out by only going back under once but only once was a dance of engineering. So I go back under. I was both wrong about what I thought and wrong entirely that one of the eight ends wasn't working - it was just pressure on a patch cord because it was too short. But to find out without repeating laborious work was tricky. I would describe more, and may later, but there are people making a lot of noise around me and it's really hard to concentrate here right now. Bottom line, always check everything.

I am very thankful for this class and the knowledge, and I plan to keep studying this topic until I understand everything there is to understand about networking!

Some javascript testing for the next class:

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Thanks for reading!