The Internet Revealed: A film about IXPs

I was passed a link to this video the other day. It’s over simplified of course, but it breaks down a bit of the basics as far as how the backbone of the internet works, and what I do all day :) .

Music Mondays – “Whatcha Say” by Jason DeRulo

Yeah, I’m a slacker who hasn’t updated in a few weeks. In my defence, it’s been busy! Work, work.

Jason DeRulo

Jason DeRulo

This week, I’ve taking a liking to “Whatcha Say” by Jason DeRulo. Jason is an emerging Pop singer/songwriter from Florida. The song is a typical Pop piece, but there are a couple special bits about it. First, I quite like Jason’s voice. He’s got a good range, and he seems to have pretty good control over it. Although with advancements in editing, the long notes can be dragged out digitally, so I don’t know. The other thing that I like, is it samples “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap. This song is most popularly known for it’s use in FOX’s show “The O.C.“.

Music Mondays – “Paper Moon” by Our Lady Peace

My main reason for attending the 2009 Virgin Music Festival in Deer Lake Park was to see Our Lady Peace. I’ve been a fan of them since about 2002, when they released “Gravity“. I like most of what they’ve done, both old and new. They’re a canadian group that was formed in Toronto, Ontario.

Our Lady Peace @ Deer Lake Park (Virgin Festival)

Our Lady Peace @ Deer Lake Park (Virgin Festival)

One of the songs they played live was called “Paper Moon”. It’s a softer song, but moves into a strong passionate rock. It’s off OLP’s seventh studio album, “Burn, Burn“. So far I like quite a bit off their new album. OLP has a very unique sound, in both their style of music and of their lead vocalist, Raine Maida. They had a great performance, and despite a very easy going attitude on stage, they have such a passion for their music, it’s unmatched. During the performance, Raine even starting climbing up the stage. They continued playing even as a severe thunderstorm took over Deer Lake Park, even cracking jokes about joining the crowd in the downpour.

“I was thinking that if you know a way out, then I’d like to go with you..”

Music Mondays – “Spotlight” by MUTEMATH

In an effort to push myself to post on this thing more, I’ve decided to steal an idea from the intarwebs: Music Mondays. I’m going to try to post at least each Monday with something simple about the music that I’m currently listening to. My tastes change so much, it should be easy to come up with new topics.

To kick off Music Mondays, I’m going to introduce you to MUTEMATH.

MUTEMATH @ Deer Lake Park (Virgin Festival)

MUTEMATH @ Deer Lake Park (Virgin Festival)

I saw these guys live at the 2009 Virgin Music Festival. They are a Grammy Award nominated American rock band from New Orleans that formed in 2003. I had never heard them before, but they effing rocked the house (had there been a house, mind you). They have a very power driven sound, and you can feel the raw passion for their music. “Spotlight” is the first single off their new album “Armistice”.

By any other name..

Ready for another chestnut in the “how big of a geek am I” fire?

So this week was momentus for the NOC.. we finally got brand new workstations for the whole thing, after waiting on them for quite some time. Quite an upgrade from the Frankenstein’d boxes we were working on prior. So in this new set up, I moved to a external hard drive with my own operating system, which allows me to move my workspace around between systems. However, I had to pick a unique name for my workstation.

Naming your computers is always a big thing for a geek. It has to fit the system. Many times, you have a naming convention to stick to, while others, it’s just picking something that fits.

The result of my search?

cblecker@alexander:~$

Alexander fits this system. You wanna know in how many ways? Check this out:

  • My desktop systems usually have a male name, and mobile systems a female name.
  • Alexander is the male version of my personal laptop’s name — “Alexis”
  • It fits with the sort-of naming convention of a lot of Vancouver servers — after alcoholic beverages (such as sleeman, budwiser, shiraz, etcc), in this case, after “Alexander Keith’s India Pale Ale“.
  • It also has a fear-striking quality, in that it was also a name shared by a great king and feared army commander, “Alexander the Great“.

So you see, a lot of thought goes into a good name. And yes, I really am a big frickin geek.