Sabbatical 2024

Gallery

July 2024

  • See that blue background wall?
  • Boxes full of cables and schwag
  • Lots of random crap lying around
  • The serverroom is a bit .. messy
  • A stack of Mikrotik switches
  • A stack of in-development PDUs
  • Our backyard chairs beckon for an apéro
  • I am doing laundry -- of the IPng schwag polos
  • A bin with 51kg of rubbish from my basement
  • A fresh set of Kallax shelves from IKEA
  • The Kallax shelves partially built in my serverroom in the basement
  • While waiting for the Mac Studio to arrive, writing the blog post on my laptop, but with wine!
  • The serverroom storage space is ready for use!
  • Starting the day with a good buzzcut. No more itchy scalp!
  • The Mac Studio arrived -- completely undamaged
  • Biking to the datacenter in 31C weather
  • My favorite router in the world, now with +10G to Swisscom CES
  • I'm in front of a datacenter in Zurich!
  • Biking back home through the fields - Stromer ST5
  • Another package arrives: 2x100G linecard for ASR9k
  • My trusty Prusa Mk3 printing a batch of cable holders
  • A finished batch of 3D printed cable holders
  • The cable holders doing their best work
  • Prost! Drinking a Mattei with Marina
  • This P-40 Curtiss Warhawk has been in my basement since we moved in - can you believe it?
  • I'm using a paper calendar to scribble my travels; lots of fun places to visit
  • I folded the laundry - a bunch of M, L and XL IPng polos, they are pretty schmick!
  • When I clean, I CLEAN! I have sorted a few thousand screws, small, medium, large, cagenuts+bolts, and so on. It was worth it, cathartic!
  • These swiss chickens are to be eaten with Rösti Kroketten, at all times.
  • After dinner, Marina and I took a little walk through our neighborhood
  • We saw a kitty, and she was very friendly, we both spent a few minutes hanging out with each other, and then she got bored and took off!
  • Cablemanagement! I've rerouted all cabling of Summer and Jessica, and I am pretty happy with the results!

The Before and After of the basement

Before (July 29th)

After (August 4th)

August 2024

  • Heli hatchday, Marina gave her a nice flower which she gratefully gobbled up!
  • I found 200 or so hard drives in my stash, I removed them all from their caddies
  • Many of the hard drives are from 2004-2008, and only 1TB or 2TB -- I'm going to destroy these
  • But some are 3TB and Tim wanted them, so he will come pick them up in October
  • Lunch: bacon and dippy eggs, and they were yummy
  • After lunch, I finished the stack-o-disks, here there is a bunch of 4TB, 6TB and 3TB disks. And lots and lots of caddies
  • Marina broke a part of the plunger in our bathroom toilet; I tried to epoxy it together again
  • The 90min epoxy is curing (but, it immediately broke again as this plastic is not easy to glue this way)
  • For dinner, I greedily ate a taco-boat (hidden under this enormous mound of minced beef and veg and fake squirty cheese
  • The sunset was really nice, we took a walk to the Floof chickens (who were already sleeping when we got there, unless we accidentally ate them yesterday?)
  • Selfie of Marina and I walking into the sunset. It was a lovely evening!
  • We watched Stranger Things S04E07 on TV, after which Quinn turned
  • I am recovering a Centec S5648X switch which had a read-only filesystem. I reimaged it over TFTP and it came back up cleanly!
  • Speaking of clean -- just take a look at this gorgeous workroom where you can actually see the floor again!
  • Marina and I went out to lunch in Glattzentrum, we had sushi from Yooji
  • I had a bit of sashimi, which was really tasty
  • This drawer is the reason why Marina gave me this closet, some 8 years ago. It is time to fix this bug! While I was here, I weeded through all 8 drawers, sorted the contents in keep versus toss, and ended up with two empty drawers!
  • I drew a few magnet holding brackets in Fusion360
  • And then I printed a few magnet holding brackets on the Prusa Mk3
  • Some one hundred fiber optic cables, many different lengths, multimode and singlemode, MPO as well as just normal LC/PC and some older SC/PC and E2000 cables.
  • I sorted all of the SMF patch cables in lengths, from 50cm, 1m, 1.5m, 2m, 2.5m and 3m in length
  • While I was working, I also started a yeast culture, lovingly named it Dougie, and intend to bake some bread in the upcoming period!
  • With the magnetic drawer stoppers in place, and all the cables sorted by length, I am done with this task.
  • Before I went to bed I put in a Dougie-inspired full grain bread loaf, as an experiment. Would it go wild before turning on at 08:35?
  • The answer to the previous picture: yes, it went ape-shit. It bubbled over and grew unboundedly, then fell in on itself while baking. Result: a bunch of flappyfolds.
  • Marina and I ate the flappyfolds, which are not bad, and they are shaped like a heart, so what more can we want?
  • After cutting off the flappyfolds, the loaf of break looks kind of sort of like a loaf, right?
  • I am performing a VPP loadtest on a GOWIN N305 server, and fully loaded it is sipping 47.0 Watts, not bad for 2x25G!
  • This morning a package arrived - I had ordered a 2x10G + 4x2.5G switch, with one SFP+ and one RJ45 10G port for Jessica. Result: 10G to Amsterdam!
  • What is stopping you from coding like this?
  • I am writing a review of the Gowin N305 machine which I loadtested with DPDK and RDMA. Check ipng.ch for details!
  • In the afternoon, we had an Apero of Mattei Gran Reserva, before going out to dinner
  • Quinn also posed for a Mattei-picture. Kids in this country can drink before they are drafted in the military. I know, right?
  • Amuse Bouche: Pan con Tomate
  • Primi: Seedevil carpaccio with Avocato and Chicorino with mustard
  • Secondi: Cappellacci Caprese with Buffel Mozzarella and sun-dried tomato
  • Mains: Grilled Beef filet on a bed of Spinnach with pistaccio, Chianti-reduction and Taleggio cheese on young potatoes
  • Dolce: Crema Catalana and Panna Cotta with Mango and berries
  • The Gowin 19 inch rack mountable server has 2x 2.5G, 3x 1G and 2x 25G as well as RJ45 serial. It is a pretty cool machine!
  • The inside of the Gowin server is a small but very modern board, using an Intel i3-N305 with 32GB of LPDDR5 and a bunch of IO on board.
  • The case is passively cooled, with a large heatsink over the CPU, its ribs are flush with the top of the case. I'm not sure how the dissipation is with a rack full of these ...
  • They added an OCP 2.0 breakout which can house any number of 1G, 2.5G, 10G, 25G network cards. Pictured here is the Mellanox ConnectX-5 with 2x25G.
  • Brunch at Bagle Boys - our three bagles posed for a picture before being inhaled :)
  • Here is the kneeded dough ready for its first task. Like Alexander Hamilton, it will rise up!
  • The formed boules with sesame seeds, ready for their second rise.
  • The baked hamburger buns, golden brown but not crispy -- Marina demands soft buns!
  • Closeup of a hamburger bun with sesame seeds, cut in half to show the breadcrum
  • My burger with salad, cheese, onions and pickles. It was godly.
  • A screenshot of the work-in-progress IPng.ch website in Hugo. It's looking really good!
  • I'm making pins for the Frys-IX barbecue. Sssssht, don't tell anyone!
  • I made a lovely turkey sandwich for lunch with the leftover hamburger buns from yesterday
  • We went to Aligro for 'bulk' shopping, and we got a lot of food!
  • Got meat? We vacuum-sealed all twelve (!) kilos of it.
  • With all of that meat frozen, we took to a vegan dinner: Crispy tofu, glass noodles, and lots of veggies.
  • The evening walk was very relaxing today, although my left ankle hurts a little bit.
  • The sunset over the fields in our village. I love Switzerland!!
  • I made a big pot of leek soup - we'll eat this with veal dumplings and stilton cheese - you'll see!
  • The mailman came, and delivered a Rode mic arm. It's really fancy, with springs and wire guides. But my mic doesn't ... fit
  • Off I go, in Fusion360 to design a mic bracket that can clamp on the mic and then has a 3/8 inch screw socket for the mic arm to grip.
  • My first print was not exactly right - there's a bit of missing clearance so I redraw and print a second one (which is spot on)
  • We have an apero in the back yard with gin and tonic, kalamata olives and carrots with humus. It was delish!
  • After dinner, Marina and I watch Ariel (the 2023 version) - I saw it once on a plane but Marina hasn't seen it yet
  • The micstand and 3D Printed bracket are done. It sounds awesome, even if the mic is under the field of view of the camera :)
  • Another angle of the micstand. I like that it can be under the camera's view this way, with really good sound.
  • Marina has printed a bunch of IPng logos on a template with circles, 2 inches wide. I'll cut in total 120 of these.
  • The 2'' disks are quickly cut. Tomorrow, they will become pins and fridge magnets!
  • The magnets were done yesterday, and today the chore is 60pcs of IPng.ch pins!
  • The pins are going well. Coffee: check!
  • We randomly try a few hues of green and blue and purple against the (blue) car, to figure out which color contrasts well with it.
  • Marina and I are curious which color logo would look best on Tessa. Blue? Grey? Red? or Hotpink? Vote in the Mastodon and Twitter posts in today's journal entry!
  • Marina treats me to some Vecchia Torre wine today - dinner is excellent
  • On Mastodon, we discuss Micromirrors - the one I'm running at IPng is doing well!
  • I upgrade Peertube from 6.0.4 to 6.2.1 and all is well with my videos
  • The italian wine which I did not drink today (but yesterday, if that makes sense!)
  • At 01:30 I formed and set the boules into the oven for a second rise.
  • At 02:15 the loaves have been baked for 40min at 150C, this makes them prebaked, and ready for a second final bake at 225C later. You can freeze them like this for months!
  • After baking one of the two loaves for 15min at 225V, it looks delicious -- and it turns out it also tastes that way
  • A picture of the finished loaf of white bread, simply crum with reasonable holes. I think I could get used to pre-baking loaves of bread and finishing them days/weeks after!
  • After lunch I spent an hour or so cleaning the kitchen. It is spotless when I'm done. Ironically -- and Marina tells me this often -- the spotlessness lasts for only a few hours. Once we cook and have dinner in it, it's already un-spotless again the same day...
  • The streamdeck with a first set of buttons and dials. The red labels are 'with camera', the other ones without. The dials control volume, ringlights, and so on. It's really a nice system.
  • I finish the OBS setup, including mic and desktop sound suppression, and streamdeck integration, and it works like a fucking boss.
  • I also installed a side-facing webcam which I can blend in to my video calls and recordings at the push of a (streamdeck) button. Nifty!
  • The webcam at the side of my desk has come loose off of its crappy duct tape solution
  • A Mastodon user asks me about these cute 4xRS232 -> USB converters.
  • Lunch is the last remaining pot of leek soup with veal dumplings
  • The before shot of the backyard with a bit of grassy goodness that needs to become less grassy goodness
  • The after shot after I mowed the lawn and weedwacked the sides. Drink time!
  • The pork filet looks tasty, and it is accompanied by mushroom sauce and sauteed mushrooms
  • We watch 12 Monkeys on TV tonight, and I make popcorn
  • The trivial design of the webcam hinge
  • The 3D printed part of the webcam hinge, this thing is not going to be falling down any time soon!
  • I buy myself a VIP ticket to Zurich Openair on August 31st
  • Sticky, Marina's pet Chahoua Gecko, comes to say hi
  • A chewy dough which is chock-full of raisins
  • We land at Stadelhofen, ready to immerse ourselves into Zurich Street Parade 2024- there are about 920'000 people in Zurich today!
  • The main stage in Zurich's Opera square; techno is booming through the sound system here. It's quite nice to hear, see and feel music.
  • Marina and I walk over the Quaibrücke from Bellevue towards Bürkliplatz - normally I would not be able to walk here (trams and lots of cars), but today it's completely pedestrian only!
  • The Center Stage at Zurich Street Parade, with a mellow drum and bass session
  • The Clubbing Stage at Zurich Street Parade.
  • The Generations Stage, small but really good audio quality here. This is literally across the road from where my buddies Eric and Barbara live.
  • A closeup of the Opera Stage - it's a big contraption but I'm somehow missing a screen to see the DJ spin.
  • Here's what roughly ~half of the 920'000 people look like, between Zurich Opernhaus (bottom right) and General Guisanquai (center left). Credit: @streetparadeofficial on Instagram.
  • We unapologetically eat Burger King tonight.
  • Quinn stays a bit longer with his buddy Liv, and they take this rainbow colored smoke picture at dusk. It's really nice.
  • I wish Salvi a happy birthday with a cat wearing an Optimus Meow suit
  • The Kramiek (raisin-)bread loaf I made for Marina. If it tastes as good as it smells, it's going to be a good one.
  • The hand-shaped (and a little bit weirdly oven-risen) Kramiek (raisin-)bread I made for Marina. Tomorrow I will know if it was good or not!
  • A tasty, thawed, and finish-baked boule of artican white bread, from last week. Very tasty in the rebound!
  • Marina's Kramiek bread, she gave it an 8/10 while Quinn gave it a 10/10. Yaay!
  • The pizza quattro formaggio that I messed up. Still ate it though!
  • The microphone webcam bracket that I printed. It looks like a choo-choo-train
  • Emma Stone gave a wonderful performance in Poor Things.
  • Some candies while watching Emma Emma-ncipate herself. I'll see myself out ...
  • The Logitech webcam on the Rode microphone boom.
  • In the shop, I hesitate and want to buy these two adorable but otherwise useless (and non-floof) chickens. Marina talks me out of it.
  • I fork() Dougie into one parent and two child PIDs. These will become breads tomorrow.
  • I eat vegetable soup with Aromat, as I am a proud Schwyzerdutch
  • I pre-taste the new Gin we got, with Lavender and Echinacea - as if we have a cold!?
  • The approved design for the FrysIX BBQ schwag I'm making for the BBQ in Jubbega, NL
  • The new Silhouette Cameo v5 that I got for the occasion, and likely many more future occasions for arts and crafty business!
  • Takeover 2001, one of the first times I met Adrianus and the Multi Access / Freeler crew. I organized the Takeover demoparty from 1998 to 2001.
  • Aad and I, almost 25 years later, obligatory selfie-proof that we met!
  • The inside of Grossmünster with a beautiful church organ
  • A snapshot of the Fraumünster on the other side of Limmat, as seen from Grossmünster
  • A McLaren 720S parked in the middle of Bahnhofstrasse. Someone has connections to the parking police :)
  • The iconic building on the corner of Sihlstrasse and Bahnhofstrasse, one of the most expensive buildings in Switzerland, per square meter, that is
  • Back in Brüttisellen, we play with legos, yaay!
  • The first Limosine steak I make on the BBQ - it was requested bleu, and that is how the chef made it.
  • My Buurebrot (farmers bread) that I started yesterday, it came out really nice; I will store them in the fridge half-baked, and complete them over lunch
  • The second steak comes out a little bit more on the rare side, but it has a nice diamond on it. It's a-ma-zing (well, if you like rare steak, anyway). Apologies, my vegan friends!
  • Somebody left a cute looking tree trunk/log at the garbage bins, but I don't think it will be picked up, it's waaaay to big/heavy.
  • Our evening walk is to settle the BBQ meal in our stomachs. It's needed, I am stuffed! By the way, interesting picture quality, the 90s called, they want their compression artifacts back!
  • The sunset over the valley towards Dietlikon is very nice tonight, the picture doesn't quite do it justice
  • I promised myself I would keep my workroom clean, so I started off the morning with a vacuuming and deep scrub of the floor
  • Lunch time: the bread Aad and I baked has really nice holes, and I like!
  • We have a few leftover hamburger patties, so I quickly fry them up and we make a make-shift burger. Delish!
  • I am going to deploy two Arista 7280SR MPLS transport switches tonight; here they are, pre-configured and staged in IPng's lab rack
  • Our evening meal is simply a stirfry wok with lots-o-veg, and chicken and rice to go with it. It makes for a very nice summer dish.
  • Marina and I take a good look at the faulty stamping press for the 59mm pins. We think we found the problem - TAC support ticket raised :)
  • At datacenter #1, I pre-condition the 2x100G blade for AS25091 first
  • Then, I install the Arista, hook it up to some WDM channels to datacenter #2 and to the ASR9010 below. Later, these will become 100G ports (optics are underway)
  • I finish the evening at datacenter #2, my favorite one at AS25091, with the other Arista switch and a very loaded ASR9006.
  • A tasty miso and beef ramen, made from leftover veggies
  • The ES Mat that arrived, fits on the front of the Cameo, and holds paper in place using electrostatic force - it works well!
  • Look at the detailed cut of Cameo 5, it's cut out a vinyl logo of 21mm and it looks beautiful
  • I cut one red and one white logo, so I can mix and match on lighter and darker outfits. I'm such a fashionista!
  • The Gin and Tonic, with salami, was lovely today
  • Our hazel tree is a super happy camper, and grows easily three meters per season. This Fall, we'll have to pair it down a bit.
  • We watch Coppers, a belgian crimescene investigation series. It's OK, so far!
  • The frogs have cornered the two sharks, who are fearing for their life.
  • The frogs have consumed the magic mushrooms, and obliterated one shark, and half of the other one! Look at them gooooo!!
  • A picture of a WT32-ETH01 module with Wroom32 and 100Mbit Ethernet PHY. It pings!
  • Max and I are at the Thai food street festival
  • We have tasty trinks (lemongrass+honey, and berry+dates)
  • THe food festival in Bülach is happening!
  • We order and nom on a spicy noodle soup, mie and fried rice
  • Quinn and I take a walk and find this guy
  • This chef is pumping out dishes at one per minute, and they are all made-to-order. Amazing!
  • Quinn and I are being welcomed to Thailand
  • I 3D printed a case for the ESP32 device, which will sit in a PDU
  • The WT32-ETH01 modules come pre-flashed with a working ESP-IDF firmware. I'm reflashing them with a Mongoose OS app though, more on that later!
  • NFC Tools showing my first ever written nTAG215
  • Crimping power cables; each PDU will have 28 such cables
  • I 3D printed a left 'green' and right 'red' side, to show that these are two different feeds in one PDU
  • Quinn and I are making dinner - garlic soup and stuffed bellpepper
  • The finished product: 3 stuffed bellpeppers. Oone is buried,and some have grated cheese (I am not a fan)
  • We watch Wolverine and Deadpool tonight - it's a lighthearted flic, and I love it how they use the fourth wall
  • A mostly finished PDU - with the ESP32-ETH01 in its own little box, and brackets that will hold the ammeter.
  • One side of the box will be green, the other red. This is to signify that there are two 220V C13 inputs each with their own 8 C14 plugs on the front.
  • The fusion design - top right has what I call the floorplan, with the individual screw holes and pegs of the chassis. THe other things are the parts that go within.
  • We watched Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelley in Requiem for a Dream.
  • The two loaves of bread baked themselves on a timer!
  • Another tray of parts is freshly printed in black PLA. I will need to make eight batches of these.
  • The innards of the PDU are nicely placed in 3D printed parts.
  • The Rigol oscilloscope cannot see a problem with the differential RS485 signal.
  • I play around a little bit with the Sipeed NanoKVM
  • The Sipeed NanoKVM shows a 1920x1080p picture from my Linux PC, Summer
  • A screenshot of Summer's desktop as seen in a web browser, using Sipeed's NanoKVM over IP
  • We eat Flammkuchen tonight, courtesy of Marina
  • Leave your phone unattended, and there will be goofy pictures when you return...
  • UPS came! Six Celestica Seastone (DX010) switches were delivered; they are 32x100G each. That's going to be a fun afternoon exploring them.
  • There was another package - Anja sent a replacement stamp head for our 59mm pins, and it works. Yahoo!!
  • I racked the Celestica switches, three of them will be for IPng, and the other three will go on to Sandro later this month.
  • In the mean time, I start stamping out pins for Frys-IX. They look really slick, in the colors of Fryslån
  • A picture of the printing station, these pins are a bit bigger, so they fit only six to a page.
  • A picture of the cutting station. After I figured out why the cuts were offset, the Cameo did a perfect job cutting all 90 pins, yaay!
  • Marina signals success with the post office, and requires a celebratory drink. Of course, I oblige.
  • We click a few trillion cookies for Quinn.
  • I've made a few Bürli hand rolls, which are half-baked and ready for refridgeration
  • We watch a somewhat bizarre satire short-film about Donald J. Trump, played by Jonny Depp, with lots of famous actors and comedians pitching in. From 2016, no less!
  • Cookie Clicker, the web-version. I am a novice with almost 80 cookies. Quinn has a few quadrillion.
  • Quinn shows the Javascript Console builder add-on in Cookie Clicker. This baby makes 16T cookies per second, not too shabby!!
  • A roll of nTAG215 stickers, all written and locked
  • Jean-Paul and Nicole arrived, with gifts from Belgium!
  • We had a good apero today to welcome our guests
  • The FrysIX 59mm pins are all done, all 90pcs of them
  • I made flatbread for the plant-based gyros (which, speaking as a meat-eater, is really good)
  • I've installed Immich and imported ~7000 pictures and videos from my iPhone; it's chomping away proving its multithreadedness
  • Ingredients for the Kramiek - butter, milk, raisins, flour, yeast and sugar.
  • The finished Kramiek - the verdict is that it is tasty but a little bit too fluffy. I haven't won, yet!
  • We bought a pair of Portugese wines - one is a lady called Tintafina, and the other is called Machoman. The bottles and branding is fun! The wine is fair.
  • Let there be cheese - JP and Nicole bring a bunch of cheeses from France, and Marina -- obviously -- buys a bunch more from Switzerland
  • Some of the more tasty cheeses - two Morbier, one Gorgonzola, and a piece of Gauda
  • Marina also made a red beet and pickes salad, with goats cheese mouse. Good stuff!
  • Quinn and I play a game: he unties my shoe laces using only his feet. I make it more difficult as time passes, but he consistently wins!
  • Outside in the yard, this plane flew directly overhead. Perhaps a missed approach from LSZH.
  • In the evening we light the firebowl and it's nice and cozy outside.
  • Closeup of msw0.chgtg0.net.ipng.ch - IPng's transport switch at Interxion - it is running pretty full of 10G and 25G connections, the network is very well connected here.
  • I bike from Interxion to NTT and find the Zurich OpenAir fairgrounds; the stages look great, but I'll have to wait one more week before I get to be on the inside, to listen to Nora en Pure <3
  • The purple fly swatter is my new favorite tool for datacenters. It sllows me to guide fibers in tight spaces.
  • The rack at IP-Max with er01.zrh56 and the new Arista on top of it
  • THe first eight ports in bs01.zrh56 are light, and four of them are Ethernet over MPLS circuits, which is wonderful news for IP-Max.
  • I bike back home and decide randomly to take a selfie. Look at how safe I am, with a little crash helmet and everything
  • I wash my bike and grease the chains and gears. I'll spare you the before-picture, but here, the Stromer is nice-n-clean again
  • We have a rose wine today with a really funky bottle shape. Marina and I decided to keep the bottle, probably to never use again!
  • A picture of Marina's lasagna after the family has attacked it and inflicted major damage. Yet: some of it is still ready to be consumed another day!
  • Quinn's N&uuml;sslitorte was our desert today
  • The candle was fun to watch - the flames were very mesmerizing, and it burned all the way down to the bottom of the log
  • The church in Dietlikon has a mechanical clock from the 1600s - I note in passing that this clock is older than most countries!
  • The piglet race started early, so I got to catch only the tail end of it (see what I did there?)
  • The piggies are overheated and need to cool down after such an invigorating race!
  • There's a brass band playing. They sound kind of nice, even though the insdie of this tent is easily 40C. If I would play any brass instrument, it would be the tuba for sure.
  • Marina, JP and I take a selfie in the sunshine. What a great day to be out and about!
  • Juxtaposition: 900 year old festival ground paired with a CHF 100Mio jet airplane flying overhead.
  • Marina is happy - she gets artisanal icecream (melon flavored)
  • The protestant church in Dietlikon from 1698. It's a nice little place of worship.
  • Back home, our neighbors' dog, Maggie, has a gift; they went for a walk and found 300g + of black truffle. These will turn into a risotto and celery soup!
  • In the evening, we watched Annihilation and I made popcorn.
  • I put on a Freddy Mercury impression, and I want to break free! ... and vacuum my room.
  • I have this really cool Rick and Morty tea-mug, which reveals a colorful diorama when it has hot liquid in it.
  • I test this Mikrotik CRS317 switch for Antonis, it's coming in at 14.2 Watts idle. Hoping he'll be able to put it at NIKHEF in October.
  • I'm rolling out EoMPLS circuits for AS8298's IPng Site Local, between Geneva and Zurich, and Geneva and Paris. Shown here: reconfiguring the link chplo0 - frpar0, and pinging Paris VPP router on linklocal.
  • The Gin&Tonic today is with a gingerbeer tonic and a blackberry Gin which is completely colorless.
  • Marina and I give each other the white glove treatment.
  • Dinner: Luikse Salade with BBQ'd pork sausage. It tasted better than the picture gives it credit for :-)
  • Marina is cooling down her hot-watter scorched hand, with the white glove, a chickenglove and a cold compress. She'll live, don't worry.
  • Quinn passes the eyeball inspection with flying colors. In the reflection you can see that he finished his plate of Luikse Salade.
  • George and Julia play another movie together; it's Money Monster, and I enjoy it.
  • The Church of Opfikon, visited on my bike ride from Br&uuml;ttisellen to Glattbrugg and R&uuml;mlang
  • The telescopig flyswatter trick helps me again, this time for a link to Bancadati in Lugano
  • This rack is starting to really fill up, with only a handful of patch panel positions left over, and tonnes of CWDM waves lit, both to Interxion, Equinix, and several swiss and european cities.
  • The outside of the NTT building as seen from the public street.
  • The west side of the Zurich airport apron, a few private jets here and every now and again a big one takes off overhead.
  • I bike home and snap a selfie. It does appear that I'm growing a second chin.
  • The movie today is 'No Hard Feelings' with Jennifer Lawrence, who is incredibly cute.
  • Marina is also incredibly cute - and I take this picture using a wine glass to encutify her even further.
  • Marina and I inflate (and later blow up) several balloons for Moeke and Pepe, whose birthday is two days apart.
  • The ammeter is reading 2.03A while the digital current meter says 1.87A, I'll calibrate each one once I have a running firmware, but this is good progress!
  • The ESP32 microcontroller is reading the ammeter, great success!
  • The starter tonight is a beautiful buratta with beefy tomatoes and peppery rocket salad
  • The mains tonight is a bowl of chilly con carne, which really does hit the spot
  • The backup chicken coop (eg. floof no. 2) also reveals no chickens today.
  • Our local Landesheim turns 150 years old this month. So much culture in such a tiny village!
  • The kitty wants to be petted, except she does not want you to pet her.
  • Cole Sprouse also has a kitty (a stowaway just like him)
  • I am using my badge to this datacenter for the ~last time.
  • The bikeride home from the datacenter is through the fields and alongside a little river; it's a beautiful bikeride.
  • The lunch of the day is meatballs, with tomato and sauteed onions, on B&uuml;rrli
  • JP and I visit the floof chickens at the beginning of our hike around Bassersdorf.
  • JP marches through the forest in search of the trailhead on the ridge between Bassersdorf and Tagelswangen
  • A selfie at the top of the hill, overlooking our valley with Bassersdorf below us and Dietlikon on the far side of the valley.
  • We found a kitty! And we petted it :)
  • After hiking 9km or so, my hands fill with fluid, maybe also because it's 33C out; I can't really close my fist right now, but I'm sure it'll pass.
  • Our ring around Bassersdorf, 13km or so in total.
  • Apero: nicely made Aperol Spritz
  • Dinner - buffalo mozarella with beefy tomatoes, much like yesterday.
  • Dinner - Beef Tartar, with toast, egg and red onion.
  • I click a few trillion cookies for Quinn.
  • Marina and I cheers with a truffle in the morning. As the famous saying goes: One truffel a day, keeps the doctor gay!
  • Marina chauffeurs me to the datacenter in Zurich where I decommissioned stuff yesterday, to pick up the equipment. Nice trolly!
  • (part of) the haul for IP-Max: a few muxes, two ASR9001s, a Cisco 2960G and an ASR920. I think I'll loadtest this stuff later!
  • In the afternoon we take an apero with white-wine Sangria at a local Portugese watering hole
  • We have some tapanade and olives with this rather delicious sangria
  • Marina and I have an argument over whose cellphone takes better selfies. Mine has a better camera, but hers has a pop so you can hold it more comfortably. We agree to disagree.
  • In the evening, we eat fried turkey with steamed veggies and r&ouml;sti kroketten. Lekker!
  • As desert, Pepe requested (and therefor, got served) a Quarktorte, which had raisins :(
  • Marina lovingly holds the hydranchea cuttings, which we will try to propagate
  • I do a bit of emergency balloon repair of our 'Happy Birthday' balloons, the -r- is -r-ipped, and some kapton tape comes to the rescue.
  • I prepare a loadtester with 6pcs of dual 10G NIC, because the ASR9001 I am loadtesting has 12 ports.
  • Some energy and relief is given by this nice cup of espresso and creme schnitt.
  • Here's an MPA4X10G module for the A9K, we use these all over the place, but can they do 4x 14.88Mpps and 40Gbps of throughput?
  • Marina's trick to get dry tofu is to squeeze it until it stops moving.
  • We enjoy a glass (just one, today!) of ros&eacute; wine
  • After dinner, we crawl up the hill in slow motion. But it sure is pretty up here.
  • On our walk we stumbled across this BMW i8 car - I really like the shape.
  • The movie for tonight is: Mijn Papa is een Saucisse, here Zo&euml; is Ms Tofuball, don't ask.
  • The line up for the fourth and final day of Zurich Open Air 2024
  • The Main Stage at ZOA24, which is pretty impressive considering it's in the middle of a field in Opfikon.
  • The Dance Circus stage with vidi-wall behind it. I've essentially come to ZOA24 for this stage.
  • The dinner: chicken gyros with french fries in flat bread. 15 bucks, please!
  • The Sugababes on Main Stage at 17:45.
  • Proof that I wore matching shirt for the Sugababes vidi-wall.
  • The Min Stage audience, not yet everybody arrived, or they don't like the Sugababes :)
  • After the 'babes, I see a forklift retrieve a few flight cases of equipment; it's all in a day's work I suppose
  • Aurora is on the ZOA Stage, and holy moly this one has a voice in her
  • Anne-Marie is on the Main Stage, singing her distinct style
  • I think Anne-Marie is a cutie with her braids, California t-shirt and silver poofy dress
  • Marco Berto is spinning in the Dance Circus at Zurich Open Air 2024
  • The sound technicians keep a close eye out for the sound pressure, must not exceed 100dB so they flatline it at 99.x :) - for the record: that is 30 meters from the speakers, and in front of the speakers it's ... a whole new thing
  • Trettmann performs on the ZOA Stage
  • A closeup of Trettmann doing some ballad of sorts, with an overlay of cell phone lights in the background
  • Sido is at Main Stage, and he is singing about photo albumbs with silver buttons and pictures inside. Well, I took your picture, Sido!
  • A closeup of Sido, who wore a white pullover onto a stage with lights on him, while it is 30C outside. Bilder? Krank im Kopf!
  • Nora en Pure spinns in the Dance Circus at Zurich Open Air 2024
  • Although I'm maybe ten meters away, it's after dark, there are no lights on the stage (only into the audience), so I can't really take pictures of Nora en Pure playing.

Playing with OBS sound (August 8th)

My Arista configs (August 15th)

Impromptu Microphone Demo (August 31st)

September 2024

  • A screenshot of Nora en Pure playing at Armensee in Switzerland, a beautiful set from 2021.
  • Kygo is spinning on Main Stage, which is a nice cool down from the hot and loud Dance Circus I was in for 90min
  • Kygo has the benefit of an elaborate light show with his set on Main Stage at Zurich Open Air 2024
  • Quinn is wearing spikies on his wrist, and we try not to puncture a spleen.
  • Leonardo da Vinci's life work exhibit in Maag Lichthalle in Zurich
  • A Da Vinci exhibit is not complete without Mona Lisa (a replica, obviously)
  • We enter the light exhibit room, mid-video. We first sit down on ground level a little bit to take in the lights from all sides
  • Marina and I take a licht-halle-selfie while the Da Vinci movie pleys
  • You can see the pixels from the ovehard projectors on my hands - it looks like I'm wearning stockings!
  • From the balcony on the first floor, the view into the room is absolutely stunning.
  • Another view from the balcony into the room, while it's projecting Da Vinci's astronomy work. It's gorgeous.
  • Quinn and I find each other in the infinity cube. Or did we?
  • Quinn: 'Can I pet that dawg?' in southern drawl. Acceptable use of drawl.
  • We have an Aalto wine from Ribera del Douro, which is a favorite of mine
  • Our table full of tapas, version 1.0. In total there were three orders.
  • This seabass cevice was a really tasty treat.
  • After dinner, we all got some liquor to celebrate the day
  • On the way back to the station, I saw this nice bike.
  • While walking home, the skies darkened and a lightning storm formed, which was quite the sight!
  • The Prusa MK4S package arrived, and I'm wiggling on my seat to get it built.
  • I put on IP-Max socks today, as I'll be lighting a second 100G wave to Frankfurt.
  • The sad news of the Stromer display: cannot find the torque sensor, bah.
  • At the datacenter, the 100G link immediately comes up, yaay! Redundant 100G link from Zurich to Frankfurt achieved for IP-Max.
  • The Prusa MK4S kit in a disassembled state. All of these boxes and bags somehow fit together to make a full functioning 3D printer.
  • Marina is hanging out with a Venusaur pokemon, but for the moment he's friendly.
  • The broken part (Y idler) with the stuck screw, and a newly printed part (left) with two screws that cleanly go in/out of the part. Yaay for open hardware designs, you can just download these parts of the Prusa website!
  • The sliced black truffle (left) and chopped truffle (right) for our Pasta tonight.
  • A snapshot of our absolutely fantabulous tagliatelli with black truffle and aged parmesan cheese.
  • After dropping off my bike at the shop, I grabbed a Bolt scooter to transport myself to Oerlikon station. The scooter doesn't go very fast, so I manage to take a scooting-selfie.
  • The Prusa MK4S printer is halfway done. The Z and X carriage and the bottom parts are done. This is about 1/3 of the way through the build.
  • For lunch I treat myself to a Smos Gezone (a healthy sandwich) with cheese, ham, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, a bit of mayo and mustard.
  • The electronics part of the Prusa MK4S showing its xBuddy board and lots of wires for sensors and stepper motors.
  • The Audio Sensing application on my cellphone allows me to get perfect belt tension by measuring the frequency. Such a clever idea!
  • The Y belt tension is perfect when it hums at 94Hz. OK then!
  • The printer is done and booting for the first time. Literally 3 minutes later, I printed the Benchy in the videoclip on this journal. I don't think I've ever been up and running so quickly. So cool :)
  • The (modified) Benchy is printed in 14 minutes instead of 60+ on my Prusa MK3. There's a bit of trickery going on, but the end result is actually really good!
  • The new case for MK3S is printing - it'll contain a special cavity for a Raspberry Pi Zero which will hook up this printer to PrusaLink.
  • The finished parts for the new MK3 case on the MK4S printer.
  • The MK3 case is retrofitted, the Raspberry Pi is installed and the display helpfully shows 'PrusaLink' is being started.
  • I think of my buddy Pascal Bovet who goes by @bopa - he enjoys seeing the picture when I send him a DM on LinkedIn
  • The Vecchia Torre that I could've sworn we have in the basement, but Marina says we do not. She was right - damnit she's always right!!
  • A screenshot of the PrusaSlicer showing the printer stats and directly communicating with it over The Cloud (eg. somebody elses computer)
  • I added a little tube to our faucet in the basement - it somehow reminds me of a mosquitto that's ready to have dinner
  • A municipal trash bag with three boxes worth of packing foam from Sandro's switches in it. I'm quite proud on how I made that all fit. It's packed so densely that one more piece of foam and I would've created a black hole.
  • I'm working on my presentation for *NOGs around Europe this fall.
  • I cook up a set of pretty delicious Limousin filet steaks.
  • Quinn and Marina are just in awe with how long it was!
  • We watch Hope Solo vs US Soccer, a documentary on Netflix about gender pay inequality
  • The printers have been productive, in the background, Adalinda is printing.
  • Oops! Adalinda has lost her left wing. That sucks! This print goes to the bin, unfortunately, and at 94% finished!
  • The (loaner) Stromer bike en route from my house to the Interxion datacenter in Glattbrugg. I can't stop loving the views in scenic Zurich, and that I get to live here 🥰
  • A tasty bowl of Beef Udon with sesame seeds on top. Super delish lunch!
  • We drink a very nice - swiss - ice wine from Maison Gillard. This stuff is almost perfect to our palet!
  • A screenshot of Han 'I have no family: Solo' alongside Lando Calrissian and the love of his life, L3-37. I enjoyed the backstory of Han Solo and Chewbacca!
  • DDLN: One of IPng's racks at this beautiful office building with good power, great connectivity, and a raised floor.
  • DDLN: A rack full of diskfulls - I have this very machine (st0.*.ipng.ch) but these are not mine.
  • DDLN: IPng @ DDLN, the sticker on the side of my two racks at this place. If you want to host a private server in Switzerland, ping me!
  • Two dual-100G network cards, normally in IPng's hypervisors, currently swapped out for 8x10G instead.
  • The Dell R730s in the IPng laboratory have vinyl badges - I didn't buy that Cameo v5 for nothing!
  • Loadtests are fun! This is a screenshot of a losttest with and without sflow sampling enabled in its prototype from Neil McKee from Inmon. There's work to do, but so far: functionally complete!
  • Outside, we finish that beautiful white wine from yesterday.
  • A weird stink-bug with white legs shows up on my chair. He is a cutie!
  • Marina wants moar: I bike over to Coop on my own (!) Stromer and get eight more bottles. 50% off! Yaay!
  • Our salami-and-gurkin, and cheese-and-onion. So Dutch!
  • Stromer Drama continues: after charging to only 58%, it refused to drive with this obscure error. Bah.
  • I developed a strong headache behind my left eye socket, and steaming with this Vicks pellet did help a little bit, overall: half the day lost sleeping it off.
  • Quinn is making garlic bread, and wants you to see it.
  • The finished product: garlic bread with cafe de paris, and pasta with green pesto.
  • The movie for tonight: Interceptor
  • The gift Liv brought - a giant zucchini, or as the Swiss say: Zucchetti
  • I've sliced this zucchini length wise, and it's about 2kg or so. Lots of it has to be disposed of though - it looks a bit like a pumpkin in here!
  • Marina thinks that maybe the atmospheric pressure differential is what gave my sinuses the heebie-jeebies. She may be right, there was a 10mBar dip the day before... hmmm.
  • The Douglas is full of powders, potions, Eyes of Newt, Gillyweed, and so on. All Marina bought was some sunscreen and parfume, though :(
  • The Coop however is full of wine. And I like wine. And baking bread. And computers.
  • I write a default piss-off post-it note to PostFinance AG who are vulgar spammers. One Franc well spent!
  • The corp laptop is completely dead. Also, its screen is gross, so I clean it up while it charges. I then send Phreak an e-mail.
  • May I present to you: the all new and improved Frys-IX website!
  • Simple cheese melt toastie and zucchini soup (with balls!)
  • The singing that 'freed' this character Abi in Black Mirror. But because it's Black Mirror, she was not freed but got entirely messed up. No spoilers here :)
  • Cutting the Oracal vinyl IPng logos - in Grey because that's what the Twitter and Mastodon survey suggested.
  • I don't know why I took this picture, as it has nothing to do with today. But: An ASR9001 router and three Celestica DX010 switches.
  • We are listening to some music on my fancy bluetooth speaker; we do this while drinking a lovely white wine.
  • Marina and I tended to our Hortensia cuttings, and ended up potting them. Wish us luck! We're both absolutely terrible at gardening.
  • Dinner - meatloaf, boiled new potatoes, saurkraut and red cabbage. ALSO: gravy.
  • My luggage which is also a temporary holding place for our alien friends: Uhi (left) and Hey (right)
  • At 06:50, the sun is starting to rise as we start our 720km (450mi) drive of the day.
  • Just over the German border, I am writing my story for yesterday. It reminds me of the mobile blogging I have done quite often with WEiRD on roadtrips.
  • At the first supercharger they have a kiosk with a Nintendo Switch - I play a few rounds of Mario Kart, which is fun!
  • These are the v4 Superchargers, and they're quiet, nice and fast. I'm just very happy that a few years ago, WEiRD and I had the CCS charger retrofitted in this old Mennekes car. But: free charging, hellyeahb
  • We completely stopped crying and almost fell asleep when sucking on these two pacifiers.
  • Hearty filled salad and Gulasch soup for lunch in Germany. For me at least: this is roadtrip pitstop food, and mandatory on a successful commute from CH to NL.
  • At Van der Valk in Eindhoven, this statue is a Pokestop.
  • The route we took from CH, through DE and to NL.
  • Friet met Snacks. Posted without further comment.
  • The trusty rusty server hvn0.nlehv0.ipng.ch, a Pentium G630 @ 2.70GHz, 16GB DDS3, 3x1TB (new since last Christmas) Samsung EVO SSD. I've had this server for about 12 years, and still works a treat!
  • The sign at my parent's frontdoor.
  • The Odulphus Church in Best, the Netherlands
  • We see a Harryyyyyyy Vos, except I can't yell at it because that would break the rules
  • Marina and I take a selfie at the Best train station
  • The trains in the Netherlands sure are better (Sprinter) than they used to be (Hondekop)
  • The bowling pin statues at the corner of the TU/Eindhoven campus
  • Sint Katerijne Church in Stratum's Eind, Eindhoven.
  • The beginning of Stratum's Eind, Eindhoven. I have spent many a night in this street as a youngling.
  • We share a beautiful broodje filet americain from Bakker Bart
  • Although it's raining, we still humor ourselves with a selfie on the Grote Markt of Eindhoven
  • I am attacking our car with a vaccuum wand. It's a very powerful wand. I wonder what else I could do with it ...
  • We have stuck an IPng logo onto the side of the car. That Cameo v5 is cool :-)
  • The opening salvo for our family feast: Burrata!
  • I am performing my loadtests for the VPP sflow plugins to give feedback on this iterattion to Neil and colleagues
  • In the morning, Marins thinks its a good idea to try on my sunglasses. She looks like a state trooper cop, just as much as I do.
  • For lunch, we have a frikandellenbroodje from Bakker Bart. I did not like it as much, but I did not hear complaints from Marina!
  • Here's our route from Best, NL to Jubbega, FRL
  • The 'Wolkom in Frysl&acirc;n' sign when entering Friesland
  • The meadow around the Van Der Valk in Wolvega is super nice today
  • We take a walk around the pond at the hotel in Wolvega
  • The tea selection at Van Der Valk is tasty! And well prepared/served.
  • An overview picture of the three Pipowagens, we're in the green one in the middle.
  • The inside of our green and cozy Pipowagen in Jubbega, Friesland
  • Our aperitif today is a selection of olives, meats and cheese; paired perfectly with a good glass of tawny port.
  • A half-selfie of us enjoying the last sunrays of the day and our port and charcuterie
  • The Pannenkoekenhuis at De Koppenjan has all sorts of sweet and savory pancakes.
  • After dinner, the PubQuiz is the place to be - it's very competitive and the questions are in the theme 'Back to School'
  • A question in the PubQuiz: Which canal connects Amsterdam with the North Sea. NO SPOILERS!
  • My treat for the evening - a Rochefort 10, trappiste beer
  • The breakfast we made for ourselves in the Pipowagen at De Koppenjan.
  • The car is well at home in Franeker, Friesland.
  • The waterways around Franeker are serene and beautiful.
  • The planetarium is just across the road from the old townhall in Franeker, Fryslan.
  • The Martini Church, but I don't think it's that specific Martini ...
  • An overview of Eise Eisinga's beautiful hand-made mechanical planetarium
  • We visited Zurich, Friesland specifically so we could say: 'yeah, we drive from Zurich to here, it was 45min'.
  • Our not-kroketten, but declicious broodje gezond and broodje geitenkaas in Zurich, Friesland
  • Back at Jubbega, our Pipowagen is as beautiful as ever
  • I hand over 72pcs of 3TB hard disk to Tim, for a project he's working on. Second life!
  • The recording in the Fusix studio with Niels and Yulia. Such fun talking to these guys!
  • Arend had conjured up (hehe) a magician. Even though we were still sober, and we could see he was indeed fidgetting with ropes, he *sill* managed to confuse us with his trickery. Chapeau!
  • Arend takes the stage for a semi-rehearsed speech (with notes and everything!)
  • Marina and I are a little bit jealous of the Frys-IX logo on Arend's car. All I got was a picture of a fox in a mountain.
  • FrysIX was gifted this 32x100G nokia switch by Niek. Thank you so much on behalf of all new and upcoming members!
  • A Proost in the IPng.ch steins, we had quite a few of these cheers-moments.
  • Marina does her best Nora en Pure impression, in the hoodie with the beautiful blonde locks over her shoulder. 💜 💜 💜
  • A collection of congratularoty cards, signed by the FrysIX community
  • Joran does what he does best: enthuse an audience about Open 5G and telephony
  • Niels and I are amazed at this conversation which is chock full of technology which feels 'similar, but adjacent' for us IP and Ethernet nerds.
  • After midnight, this stolen F16 afterburner was used, and the tent was toasty shortly after.
  • Arend's cute kitty came to stop by - he and I are besties now.
  • And just like that, the beautiful party was over and the tent was empty. Byebye, friends, until next time!
  • We enjoy a few bitterballen at the supercharger in Breda, well deserved
  • The view from Andrew's pad in smack middle of Brussels
  • @yourtch is clearly an omnivore, and devours a pork knuckle
  • At the Cercueil we drink a few beers - it's weird because we're the only ones here (and I don't personally recall that ever happening to me before)
  • We walk back through beautiful Gallerie Royale.
  • I bump into this very huggable biker bunny. Not drunk.
  • Andrew and Pim hang out on the couch at @yourtch's place
  • We offer Andrew and Eimear a lunch at Pee Klak in Grimbergen (Stroombeek-Bever). Eimear stole it from us and paid while Marina was on the toilet - thanks again!
  • Pee Klak is well known in Brussels for his Spaghetti Bolognaise
  • We are chipper in the car driving down south through Belgium to Luxembourg
  • Arrived in Luxo city, there's a mall with a huge battery (heh) of v4 chargers. We get 110kW here, booyah
  • Driving from Luxembourg to Nancy there's a bit more traffic due to roadworks
  • Our spread for the evening - cheese, sausage, bread, tomato, olives. We watch the presidential debate. I'm thankful there will be only one of these ...
  • Marina bought these totes adorbs Pav&eacute; d'Affinois Mini (but I think they're rather Micro)
  • The totallu cute micro Pav&eacute; d'Affinois that Marina used for breakfast
  • The very last picture of the car with IPng sticker - it's coming off before we hit the Swiss border!
  • Driving from Zurich to Luzern in the afternoon, it's gorgeous weather, and the drive is about 50 minutes..
  • I'm the first in the room! It's completely switched off, with only empty racks and no IT equipment, not even the airconditioning has been turned on yet. I love it.
  • A selfie of me in the new cage with 14 racks that will be taken into service over the next few weeks. First order of business: get the IT and telecom equipment installed and configured.
  • The rear of the racks is against a curved wall. In German, Stollen are underground straight tunnels. Yes, this facility is built into a hillside along the Vierwaltst&auml;dtersee
  • IP-Max is a diamond partner of this facility, and I can see great service for the new and prospect customers in this datacenter.
  • A view of the top of the racks with the cold aisle roof in front of us, and a bright yellow fibertray that will carry the fiber trunks between the racks.
  • I order a Farmer's Size (350g) beef filet, and it smells godly. Also: R&ouml;stikroketten, just sayin'
  • Fred took a candid camera shot of me seasoning my steak. I'm in a happy place, clearly
  • The stuff we wished we had had yesterday. Fiber guides with brushes, an APU6 for IP-Max, a WiFi kit for IP-Max, and a label printer.
  • Fred and I make an enthusiastic selfie in the room, as it's almost ready for production use!
  • One of the two ASR9k+Nexus combos. There are two of these racks in the room, and each has its own management switch and terminal server, and also each has 2x10G to other datacenters. I don't expect much downtime inthis room...
  • The rack that I'm moving IPng into, as seen from the back.
  • The VPP router (top), blank (the Centec is a R-to-F device, so it's in the back), and hypervisor (below). IPng will soon be open for business here!
  • The IP-Max footprint up close. There's already quite a few fibers breaking in- and out of this router.
  • The back of IPng's small footprint. Could you believe this VPP router does 2x25G + 4x10G and easily handles 200Mpps on about 120W of power??
  • Cheers, Fred! We had a tough two days, but we delivered the room ahead of schedule, and that deserves a beer.
  • Cheers, Pim! Fred took this nice under-beer picture. We worked hard, and now we get to relax a little bit.
  • Look, Marina! I ate a salad today! And a second 350g steak. Sorry for being boring :-)
  • The beef is sizzling on a hot stone, and it really hits the spot after such a day of POP building.
  • On the way home, the full moon was shining bright over A14. The drive home was 50min or so, which is totally cool! I an be in this place pretty quickly in case of emergencies