Rant: Brocade Requires Login & Service Contract to Access Foundry Manuals

So, I’m work­ing on some Foundry gear and I’d like get access to some manu­als to learn how Foundry works. Except they are hid­den behind a login for valid ser­vice con­tract hold­ers. Whats up with that ?

Rant: Which of These 10GB Adapters Is Not the Same ?

Look at the these net­work adapters. One for Server, and one for a Cisco fire­wall. One costs five times more than the other. Can you pick which one ?

Rant:Cisco — Masters of the Networking World — What’s That on Your Home Page ?

Is Cisco’s home page a com­plete FAIL today ? Or is that just me.

Rant: People Are Not Valuable or Why I Don’t Attend Office Parties

I am often asked to attend parties with my co-​​workers for people who are leav­ing, Christmas or team parties. Then I real­ised how little it really mattered and got on with my life.

Rant:Why Is the IEEE All About Secrecy ?

I’m not happy that IEEE hides much of the meet­ing and dis­cus­sions that pro­gress the stand­ards that affect all of us. Why does it have to be a secret ?

Rant:Cisco Networkers Virtual — Its Bad, Very Bad.

I went to Networkers in Barcelona last year and got a login to the Networkers Virtual. Frankly, what a pile of utterly mis­guided mar­ket­ing hype. It’s unus­able and not fit for purpose.

Rant:My Growing Dislike Of “Cross Marketing”

I pur­chase a new product /​ thing /​ soft­ware. I delight in open­ing /​ using /​ start­ing it for the first time. Then, an advert­ise­ment spews up for a related product. Lousy douchet­ards, if I wanted that, I would have bought it.

Rant: Buying From the USA — Ccbootcamp

I went to buy a writ­ten study guide from ccboot­camp yes­ter­day, cost USD$129, ship­ping USD$80. I guess busi­ness is too good for US companies.

Rant:“Investment Protection” on the Cisco C6500 — It Isn’t Quite That Simple

Claiming “invest­ment pro­tec­tion” for the Cisco C6500 is a bit rich and glib mar­ket­ing talk. I may be fond of it but more like a faith­ful old dog that really wasn’t too bright.

Rant:No Cisco Maintenance ? The Web Site Is Down for Maintenance.

A few days back I pos­ted about the TAC web sub­mis­sion wasn’t avail­able. Turns out that if you have PICA, an error mes­sage is the right way to tell you to bugger off.

Rant:Cisco Application Control Engine Version Numbering

The Cisco ACE soft­ware has a odd way of num­ber­ing ver­sions. If you think Version A2 is the next release of Version 3.0.0. phhfttt.

Dear Cisco, Stop the Lame “Meme” Marketing — It Sucks.….badly

Dear Cisco, Have you sud­denly hired too many mar­ket­ing people ?

Rant: SecureCRT — Too Expensive — Alternatives Putty, Tera Term ?

SecureCRT is a com­mon choice for SSH Client for MS Windows. I want to buy SecureCRT but its too expens­ive. Way too expens­ive. Or is it just me ?

Rant: Certguard in Computerworld — Go and Register Your Disgust

Certguard have been men­tioned in a Computerworld art­icle about exam cheats. Please go and leave a com­ment to show how dis­gust­ing that Certguard, who falsely accuse people of cheat­ing, have been used for comment.

Rant:Managing Is Easy Compared to Technical Life

Not every­one will be a good man­ager, but very few people will ever be a good, I mean _​really_​ good, tech­ni­cian or engin­eer. You should be will­ing to pay for that.

Rant:New Logos ? Tasteless Rubbish

When I first heard about the logos, I thought, fair enough. Now I have had a closer look, and taken a few days to think about it  —  they are rubbish.

Rant: I Loathe Voicemail, Its Disruptive and Inefficient

Its hard to describe how dis­rupt­ive voice mail can be to an organ­ised engin­eer­ing day. The idea that someone can leave a mes­sage which requires me to under­take a fur­ther action (usu­ally without con­firm­a­tion) is ana­thema to being organ­ised and get­ting things done.

Rant: F5 LTM and GTM Doesn’t Do External AAA Authorization

F5 BigIP LTM and GTM does not have any user author­isa­tion cap­ab­il­ity for admin­is­tra­tion by Radius or TACACS. Can you believe that?
They have been pro­du­cing F5 BigIP soft­ware for more than a dec­ade and I can­not believe that cus­tom­ers have not been ask­ing to provide external user author­isa­tion. To com­pare, I have just been con­fig­ur­ing APC Switched […]