ON THE NET – rule 11 reader

On the ‘net: Two on AI

I occasionally write over at Mind Matters on topics “other than technical.” Here are my two latest posts over there.

But what if you could steal something just as valuable as the contents of a lady’s handbag without anyone suspecting it and without impacting your user’s trust? What if you could take private information about millions of people, across the world, using that information to create what Shoshana Zuboff calls “behavioral surplus?” What if you could use that information to discover — and shape — people’s preferences without them even realizing it is happening? What if you could sell your user’s attention to the highest bidder?

While it seems evident that content created by a user prompt should not be copyrightable by the user, what about the designer and operator of the AI system? It might seem reasonable to infer the humans who create a system that, in turn, creates new “works” should be able to copyright those works.

Posted in ON THE NET

On the ‘net: Model Based Thinking

Running a little late on cross posting stuff from Packet Pushers … but I suppose better late than never. 🙂

Model-based thinking can help engineers understand protocols and networks at a fundamental level. My previous post on network models focused on the Four Things model, an alternative to the OSI model for understanding network transport. I’ll continue with the Four Things, this time with a focus on routing.

Posted in ON THE NET

On the ‘net: Building Consensus in the IETF

You cannot simply post a draft to the IETF repository and expect “someone, somewhere,” to take action. No one is going to read your draft. No one is going to send you comments. No one is going to call for your document to progress forward through the process.

Posted in ON THE NET

On the ‘net: Mediocrates and LLMs

Might I suggest a name for anyone building yet another Large Language Model (LLM)? Mediocrates would be a far more honest name than the ones big tech companies choose.

Posted in NORECENT, ON THE NET

On the ‘net: Network Models at Packet Pushers

I’ve just started a new series on network models over at Packet Pushers. The first two installments are here:

I learned the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model way back in the mid-1980s, as a part of my basic networking education. Ever since then, I’ve used the OSI model in my day-to-day work as a network engineer.

First, models are not sacrosanct. A model is just a tool. If the model you are using is not working for you, feel free to modify it.

Posted in ON THE NET

On the ‘Net: The IETF at Packet Pushers

I’ve been writing a series about working within the IETF to publish a new standard over at Packet Pushers. The most recent installments are:

There are other seemingly mystical concepts in the IETF process as well—for instance, what is a “document stream,” and what is a document’s “status?”

You’re almost ready to submit a shiny new document to the IETF for consideration, right? Not quite yet—we still need to deal with mandatory sections and language.

Posted in ON THE NET

On the ‘net: The CCIE Shuffle Podcast

The Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) exam was launched in 2007, but not many people know what the main objectives of the certification were at the time. Who better to enlighten us on some of the thought process and reasons behind the exam being created than one of the original development team? In this podcast, we are extremely humbled to be joined by networking industry legend, Russ White who spoke about his career, how he got into networking and some insights on the CCDE concept and how it came to fruition in the early 2000s!

Posted in LONG AUDIO, ON THE NET