Human Infrastructure 343: We Need More Connection to Reality, not Less

Author

Drew Conry-Murray
February 29, 2024

We Need More Connection to Reality, not Less

by Robert Wildauer

Earlier this month, Apple released the Apple Vision Pro wearable device. Marketed as a “revolutionary spatial computer,” the headset boasts some incredible technology that I would not have anticipated arriving during my lifetime. While similar AR/VR solutions are available, most are built around gaming. Apple is targeting both businesses and consumers with apps for work and collaboration as well as entertainment.

The product’s design and technology are impressive, but also troubling. In the developed world, we’ve undertaken what may be best characterized as a global social science experiment via smart phones, social media, etc. The results have been mixed at best. At worst, they’ve contributed to poor mental health outcomes, particularly for young people. The notion that we would consider taking technologies designed to be addictive and make them more immersive seems like a step in the wrong direction.

When someone expresses concerns about new technology, they are often dismissed as a Cassanda or Luddite. That’s because we have centuries’ worth of controversial tech including radio, TV, VHS, violent video games, endless streaming movies and pornography, social media, generative AI – and the sky hasn’t fallen. But this dismissal rests on a false dichotomy that either society flourishes or crumbles with the introduction of new tech; a faulty assumption that so long as we still wake up in (more or less) functional societies, that nothing has changed or is changing for the worse. Or that some things can worsen while others improve.

This piece is not necessarily a call for government bans or some return to a pre-Internet age. Rather, if we use the past as our guide, it may be wise to pump the brakes on the “move fast, break things” car. Here are some questions worth reflecting on as conscious consumers:

Can we say we have been responsible stewards and consumers of technology?

What are the off-ramps of the new technology once we’ve adopted it personally? How easily can we picture life without something that is likely psychologically addictive?

What kind of arms race are we joining/creating? When the “smartest person in the room” maintains that status through use of a $3,500 device, what does this do for social and economic inequality? Is “opting out” of such technology feasible when its use becomes widespread, partially thanks to our early adoption?

What does technology like this say about us? What happens to society when some of its most affluent and capable members would rather check out of it?

I’ll conclude with that final sentiment. What does this product say about us? It’s tempting to blame corporations for all our ills and certainly they should own up to more than they should. But given the laissez faire relationship businesses currently have with society, it is incumbent on us as consumers to make the change we want to see (or not see).

There are better and worse decisions we can make within the systems around us: if we continue to demand and purchase products that further isolate and cocoon us from the world, that is what businesses will deliver. The world’s problems are numerous and need collective thinking, action, and cooperation. We have risen to the occasion by isolating ourselves more and more: binge-watching content curated to our individual tastes; consuming algorithms feeding us videos and posts that will keep us coming back; ordering via contactless meal delivery; pursuing AI significant others.

Like it or not, the world will still be waiting for us outside the bubbles we craft for ourselves. We can choose to connect with that world and improve our little corner of it or turn inward and watch it fall apart. I would like for all of us to choose the former, urgently. The author Freddie DeBoer said it more elegantly than I ever could: You are you. We live here. This is now.

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Robert Wildauer is a network technician and staff supervisor for an MSP in central Pennsylvania. He has worked in the IT industry for over twelve years with a focus in Cisco networking.

THIS WEEK’S MUST-READ BLOGS 🤓

Brian Gleason explores Bridged Overlay, Central Route Bridging, and Edge Route Bridging topologies in an EVPN VXLAN data center. He compares the pros and cons of each approach, and discusses why Edge Route Bridging is his favorite choice.  - Drew

Sticking with EVPN VXLAN, this is a step-by-step look, with packet captures and diagrams, about how a packet gets from host A to host B in a VXLAN EVPN network. Daniel shows in clear detail the following:

  • How ARP suppression is used to respond to ARP Request on behalf of another host.

  • How the Leaf does a lookup in the MAC address table to find where to forward the frame to.

  • How the packets get encapsulated with additional headers like VXLAN.

  • That underlay is using ECMP to forward packets towards spine.

Another helpful entry from Daniel. - Drew

AWS VPC Lattice uses service networking to connect the disparate elements that make up a microservices application. Karim walks through the constructs of VPC Lattice and ties them back to networking terms that are probably more familiar to on-prem network engineers. He also describes the advantages of Lattice and how segmentation can be used to enhance security. - Drew

The author cites Dave Taht (hear him discuss LibreQoS on Heavy Networking Ep.666) who commented to the FCC that latency constrains network throughout. His point? What good is raising the bar for broadband speeds unless that definition of “broadband” includes a latency metric that allows the pipe to be filled and applications like VoIP and gaming to perform well? He’s exactly right. The issue Dave is pointing out isn’t just the classic “long fat network” problem. It’s also the bufferbloat problem Dave’s crusaded against for years. - Ethan

Palo Alto Networks

Forrester Consulting analyzed real-world case studies of financial efficiencies gained from implementing Prisma® SASE. They then created a dynamic calculator where you can estimate your own potential ROI. Prisma SASE offers cost savings and business benefits for organizations of any size. Check it out here.

TECH NEWS 📣

US and foreign law enforcement and national security agencies, including the FBI and NSA, have issued a joint cybersecurity advisory warning that Ubiquiti EdgeRouters are being exploited by a Russian hacking group to “facilitate malicious cyber operations worldwide.” The advisory recommends owners and/or administrators of Ubiquiti EdgeRouters perform a factory reset, update the firmware, and change default passwords, among other remediations. Bleeping Computer reports that a known hacking group associated with the Russian military, APT28, is using the compromised routers to build botnets, steal credentials, and serve as proxies for malicious attacks.  - Drew

The investments in AI and robots will continue until all of us are replaceable. Except CEOs. I’m sure we’ll still need those. - Drew

 

This investigative report suggests that Automattic (owner of the Tumblr & WordPress.com blogging platforms) is sharing data with Midjourney and OpenAI. An internal email states that the data dump heading for AI ingestion was screwed up, accidentally including private data as well as the intended public data. The way I read it, the intention was to only share public data. It’s unclear if the data is going to be shared, has already been shared, or is merely a deal being negotiated. Perhaps there’s not much story here, but there’s still a reminder for all of us. Platform owners are likely doing something with our data we’d rather they didn’t. Maybe it’s prep our words for an ML engine to ingest. Maybe it’s sell our data to health insurance companies so they can profile us. Maybe it’s screw up and leak our private information all over the Internet. Are you content with where your data is living? - Ethan

FOR THE LULZ 🤣

RESEARCH & RESOURCES 📒

If you’re new to networking or want a refresher, Dmitry has put together a high-level overview of essential networking topics including but not limited to IPv4 addressing; L2 switching; TCP, TLS, HTTP, and QUIC; DHCP; and BGP. He includes simple, clear diagrams matched with a conversational style. The video is over an hour long, but Dmitry has broken it up into chapters that make it easy to find specific topics. - Drew

For you ChatGPT 4 users, John Capobianco has released a few tools. One of them is PacketBuddy. John showed it to me the other day, and it’s a novel way of using ChatGPT tools that represents some out of the box thinking. John describes PacketBuddy this way. He says, “There is very little friction -

  • Git clone the repository

  • Add a .env file with your OPEN_API_KEY

  • docker-compose up (with Docker Desktop or Docker-Compose CLI)

  • Visit localhost:8505

  • Upload a .pcap (smaller the better; focused packet captures)

  • "Chat" with the packets!

What can you tell me about this packet? Why isn't my client getting a DHCP address? Are there any retransmissions or drops in this packet capture?” Other tools including DocumentBuddy are out from John as well. Check out John’s home on GitHub. - Ethan

In this monster video (3 hours 41 minutes!), Mason covers the process he used to build his CCIE lab for the Transports and SDN domains. Right from his notes on YouTube, this part 1 video includes MPLS VPN Service Provider Config, Internet SP Config, Dual Hub DMVPN w/ IKEv2, Cisco SD-WAN Controller Bring Up, Catalyst 8kv WAN Edge Bringups, and MPLS to Internet Handoff. Mason’s also planning a part 2 to cover SD-WAN TLOC Extension, Intra-Site Routing (combining the transports), DNAC Bringup, ISE Bringup, Bridging ISE / DNA into the topology, and  Catalyst 9kv Onboarding. Part 3 will include DNA / ISE Integration, Fabric Site Creation, Fabric Border IP Handoff, and IPv6 Dual Stack (6VPE, DMVPN v6). - Ethan

Urs is an instructor at OST Eastern Switzerland University Of Applied Sciences. He’s begun releasing his network automation lectures. This is the first in a series he plans to release over time according to comments he made in the Network Automation Forum’s Slack group (click to join). - Ethan

INDUSTRY BLOGS & VENDOR ANNOUNCEMENTS 💬 

Open source network operating system vendor VyOS has announced that version 1.4.0 has moved to “early production access” and is a new Long Term Support release. The VyOS team expected to support 1.4.x until 2026 or longer if there is sufficient demand. Here’s a rundown of the changes.

  • Site-to-site OpenVPN with pre-shared keys has been deprecated.

  • The Cluster feature has been removed as some of the underlying code is aging out--Corosync will be the eventual replacement.

  • The firewall, NAT66, and PKI features have been redesigned.

  • New features include PIM6, Linux virtual server based load balancing, firewall groups usable in NAT rules, NAT64, the Babel routing protocol, an experimental implementation of SR-MPLS, an integrated Zabbix agent, unidirectional config sync, a new SSTP client to match the already existing SSTP server (VPN protocol), and remote access IKEv2 IPSEC VPN.

Enjoy! - Ethan

NIST has released version 2.0 of their Cybersecurity Framework. NIST claims CSF 2.0 is simpler to comprehend, appropriate for organizations of any sort, and easier to implement than earlier versions. - Ethan

The Zyxel XMG1915 line offers 2.5G port speeds with 10G uplink options. Pretty cheap, too. ~$250 - $400 depending on port density. Availability “real soon now”. Some of you were looking for a switch like this in the Packet Pushers Slack, so I thought I’d share this announcement. - Ethan

You can get an on-deman version of this webinar on Wi-Fi Security at the above link (in exchange for contact details, of course). The webinar covers a variety of Wi-Fi security issues including a short version of a 3-part Wi-Fi Security Assessment methodology, and, using survey results for security recommendations, and what to think about during your design process for secure Wi-Fi. It’s hosted by Matt Starling and Mac Deryng from Ekahau, and features Jennifer “JJ” Minella, a Wi-Fi and security expert and author. And oh by the way, JJ is also co-host of the new Packet Protector podcast on Packet Pushers! - Drew

LAST LAUGH 😆