Author: flipaoXIX

Muhammara (Roasted Red Pepper Dip)

Watched this video, and decided I had to try. My food processor is small so I can’t make that much.

Ingredients:

  • 1 jar (480g) roasted red peppers: I used all pieces but one as I wasn’t sure if my mini processor was enough
  • 120g walnuts
  • 6 tbsp breadcrumbs
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp pure pomegranate molasses (I found it in a Turskish supermarket, but not sure if it is 100% pure pomegrenate)
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cumin (I didnt have it)

Process:

  • Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Toast the walnuts, stirring from time to time.
  • Add the breadcrumbs to the walnuts, don’t burn them! Stir until brown.
  • let it cool down for a couple of minutes.
  • In the food processor, add the garlic, walnuts and breadcrumbs. Blend until getting fine crumbs.
  • Add the roasted peppers (drained!), olive oil, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, all spices and salt.
  • Pulse! don’t blend! Do several times until to get a consistency like the video.

Ready to eat. You can top it up with walnuts, pomegranate seeds, olive oil, mint, etc.

Very easy, quick and tasty!

The new new thing

This is an ebook I bought because it was an offer and I have read some other books from the author.

I didnt have a clue about the book for a start. So it is about the booming years of Silicon Valley from James Clark. It starts with Silicon Graphics, that just learned that XFS was opensource from them, and other interesting bits, then Netscape, the 1st browser, JavaScript, HTTP cookies, SSL, etc that eventually ended being Mozilla! and the idea came from Marc Andreesen (that is actually a co-founder of the VC Andreesen Horowitz). Then founded Healtheon, that I have no clue about but looked like a killing business in a 1.5T healthcare market…. it doesnt look like the healthsystem in USA is any better? And that finishes there. As well, there is a lot story about the boat Hyperion, that looks a bit boring in some part.

The good things, it how at the Healtheon startup, he wanted to make millionaires the engineers. And as well, there is an important point in the Silicon Valley boom “caused” from many Indian engineers produced by the equivalent of India MIT: IIT.

It is interesting how Micro$oft was at the end “killing” those business as they wintel platform became better at graphics and MS had a monopoly of the workstations so installing a browser from a 3rd party wasn’t going to be made easy….

It is not one of the best books from Michael Lewis, but was nice to read the Silicon Valley history from another point as we mostly remember the companies that have survived till today.

Carob Cake

This is a typical Portuguese cake. I have done it before, but some years ago so time to repeat. And this is the original recipe.

Carob can be used as a replacement for chocolate. It is a pity is not used much more.

Ingredients:

  • 6 eggs (divided into whites and yolks)
  • 200g sugar (brown if possible)
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 200g melted butter
  • 180g of self-rising cake flour (if not, normal flour)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 60g carob powder (as much pure as possible)
  • 50g chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc)
  • optional: 1 tbsp of alfarroba (carob) liquor or almond liquor (amarguinha)

Process:

  • Pre-heat oven 180C
  • Beat the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and butter until it becomes an aerated mix. You can use a hand mixer for this.
  • Shift the flours and baking powder together, and add gradually into the wet mix. Mix with a wood spoon!
  • Beat the egg whites into soft peaks, then fold into the batter.
  • Once all mixed, add the chopped nuts. Be sure they spread equally
  • Butter a cake pan. Then spread evenly the batter.
  • Bake for 30-35 minutes. The goal is to have a kind of brownie, moist. So try to not get the center fully dry. This is the most difficult part for me. So if the top is baked (with a crust) and using a toothpick doesnt come 100% clean, it is ok.
  • Take the cake and let it cool down

Before getting into the oven

Day after:

The look is quite “chocolaty” and tastes very good! But I overbaked it… the cake should be less dry.

Silva Method

Via a random youtube video I found something called the Silva Method and decided to read about it. I haven’t found any live solution. I dont want to go to the claims of the method, just wanted to focus in the meditation part and unlocking.

My goal is to improve. I want a clear, calm mind, and I want to learn more, faster and efficiently.

Shelljack, Europe RISC-V, Quantum China, 100G optics teardown, Curiosity (Going long!), SS7 hacking, Juniper Hacking

Shelljack: It is old but still interesting. At least it seems easy to implement

Europe RISC-V: Interesting report about what EU is doing about the CHIP wars and RISC-V. I guess as EU is not pouring billions like USA/China is not making to the news. It was interesting to read about the participation of Spain with UCM and the people behind openchip.

Quantum China: Another quantum chip in the mix. So far everything came from USA.

100G SR4 QSFP28: An optic teardown. There are links to other teardown like 100G QSFP28 DAC and this is more hardcore: 800G ZR+ optic.

Curiosity: This is the best definition of what curios means (and I light years from it…) Ben Jojo is a star: “Trust, but verify”

SS7 hacking: More real than I thought.

Juniper Hacking: Juniper answer. In one sense doesnt surprise me, Mikrotik is famous to feed several bootnets, so why not EOL devices from other vendors?

MCP, Manus, Brain Computer, Spectrum-X, Quantum, DC, Hung Task, Do The Work

MCP: It is “old” news news from Dec 2024 but looks like a big thing now.

Manus: new hype, but looks cool. Need to try.

Brain Computer: You have to replace the neurons….

Spectrum-X with Cisco Silicon: I dont understand this move much. You are selling your Ethernet solution is the best for AI and then you bring a different one?

Quantum Computing: Several news lately from MS Majorana (official)and AWS Ocelot. Still, is being used in real problems? Just PR?

Build your own DC: good intro, I dont think you can find many books about this in amazon?

Hung tasks in linux: nice articule for troubleshooting hung tasks in linux.

Do the work

Eggplant Parm

I watched this video and I had to try.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggplants sliced
  • flour for coating the eggplants
  • salt, honey (optional)
  • Sunflower oil for frying the eggplants
  • 700g good tomato passate
  • 3-4 garlic gloves chopped without core.
  • fresh basil or dried oregano if you dont have it
  • 2 balls of mozarrella (or smoked mozarrela if you find it)
  • Parmigiano

Process

  • Spread salt generously over the eggplants. Let is rest for 30 minutes. This is very important step to remove the acidiness.
  • The eggplants should have sweat some water. Clean all the slices with water and dried them with a towel.
  • In a sauce plan at medium heat, pour a glop of olive oil, when hot, add the garlic. Dont burnt it !!! Then add the tomato passate and basil/oregano. Add salt/pepper. Add a bit of honey, optional. Simmer for 30 minutes or so. Leave aside.
  • Heat up a pan with some sunflower oil to deep fry the eggplants. The oil is ready with you put the tip of a wood spoon and fezzes.
  • Pre-heat oven at 200C
  • Coat slightly the eggplant slices with flour and deep fry until golden in both sides. 2-3 minutes each side. This is the most tedious part. But it is worth it. After removing form the pan, use kitchen paper to absorbe excess oil.
  • In an oven dish (metal/glass), pour a bit of the tomate sauce. Add a layer of eggplant, add slices of mozarella, add some basil/oregano, grated parmigiano . Repeat: tomate, eggplant, mozarella, basil/oregano, grated parmigiano.
  • Bake in the oven at 200C for around 30 minutes of golden on top.

Really tasty!!!

Eat and Run

I completed this book after reading about Scott Jurek. Ultramarathons are more famous nowadays thanks to the Internet so it is really interesting how he managed such a feats in that field, with no much money from sponsors and being vegan at that time!

There are many vegan recipes in the book. I want to try some of them: Minnesota Winter Chilli and others sweeter.

Regarding running, he mentions specific points: stretching, speed, stride, foot landing, core, progress, interval training, breathing (nose), shoes, posture.

Stotan = Stoicism + Spartan = I love it. (from Percy Cerutty)

I like how he talks about his upbringing in nature and then becoming a professional ultramarathon. The illness of his mother calls home…

And there is this quote from Kurt Cobain:

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are

It is interesting that he mentions that ultra sports attracts a lot of ex-addicts (alcohol, drugs, etc). It is kind of a different type of addiction.

One thing I see repeated in many people/books that achieve something great. They have gone some shitty things in life one way or the other. If there is no pain in your life, you dont fight, you dont thrive.

Uzbekistan 2024

Last year I went to Uzbekistan. I wanted to visit places from the Silk Road. This is the main guide I used. And I checked a bit this one too.

Plov was best in Tashkent in the Plov center. And tried several types of local bread, I liked them. (Video about Samarkand bread)

I was surprised with the amount of pomegranates and cotton fields! There is a lot of irrigation. Mostly taxis run on propane or similar. It seems UZ is energy free. Boxing and UFC are the king sports. I was surprised to see so many tour groups and not many solo travellers. I travelled in a TALGO train too 🙂

In general, it was a nice trip.

Advance Junos Troubleshooting

SWITCHING

inter-vlan
- verify network settings for each user: ip, mac, gw
- verify gw reachability
- verify MAC table: 
       show ethernet-switching table (control plane)
       show route forwarding-table family ethernet-switching (forwarding plane - PFE) both should be in sync
- verify STP: show spanning-tree interface
- verify vlan-interface association: show vlans X [detail]
- verify interface config: show configuration interface XXX
- where is gw: show route table inet.0
- fw session: show security flow session protocol icmp source-prefix IP

Route "rejected" for irb => check vlan config has l3-interface configured

LAG not coming up but config looks ok -> show configuration chassis aggregated-devices => device-count!

EVPN

east-west

- verify network settings for each user: ip, mac, gw
- verify gw reachability

- evpn-vxlan:
-- underlay: IGP (ospf-isis) or eBGP (loopbacks exchanged, peers up, etc)
   ---show bgp summary / show route receive/advertised-protocol bgp IP table inet.0
   ---show evpn databases

-- overlay: iBGP up, EVPN peers up
   --- show evpn instance extensive
   --- show evpn database
   --- show route table inet.0 protocol evpn

-- VXLAN: VTEPs established, up, EVPN routes (typ2/5 exchanged?
   --- show interfaces vtep
     type source: for the locally attached networks
     type Remote: for remote networks
   --- show vlan (mapping vlan-vni)
   --- show vlan X details -> l3-irbs, mapped interfaces, etc

-- communication between same vlan/vni? vlan-vni mapping identical in all devices?, IRB using commong VGA, IRB bound to VLANs
   --- show ethernet-switching vxlan-tunnel-end-point source
   --- show ethernet-switching vxlan-tunnel-end-point remote
   --- show interfaces terse irb
   --- show configuration interfaces irb
   --- show configuration vlans
   --- show ethernet-switching table

show bgp summary
   - bgp.evpn.0 receives all EVPN routes (LE and SP)
   - default-switch.evpn.0 - typ1,2,3 copied here (only LE, no in SP)
   - default_evpn.evpn.0 - typ4 copied here (only LE, no in SP)

show route summary
   :vxlan.inet.0 - holds the routes to remote VTEPs and uses inet.0 for route selection (because it has : in the name)

OSPF

ospf operational
   show ospf neighbor
   show ospf interface (loopbacks are in??)
   show interfaces x | match mtu
   show ospf overview
   show ospf statistics
   set protocols ospf traceoptions file X size 5m files 3 flag all
   show log X
   show configuration interface Y
   monitor traffic interface Y detail matching "proto ospf"
   request system decrypt password "xxxx" (onlu for $8$ or $9$ hashes)

adj state full
   show ospf database (* = entries generated by the local router)
   show route protocol ospf table inet.0

spf stable: duplicate RID?, flapping links?

routes in RIB: lsdb, asbr over non-bb area, 0/0 in nssa and stubs, prefix export limit, import/export policies
   - show route table inet.0
   - abr: nssa no-summaries -> routes in that area dont see any summary LSA for other areas => you may need to advertise a default (set protocols ospf area X nssa default-lsa default-metric 1)
   - show configuration protocols ospf

ISIS

(initializing -> mtu issue (at least 1492)

isis operational
   show isis adjacency
   show isis interface (loopbacks are in??)
   show interfaces x | match mtu
   show isis overview (if attached bit evaluation disabled -> default route (sent by L1L2) is not installed
   show isis statistics
   set protocols isis traceoptions file X size 5m files 3 flag error detail flag hello detail
   show log X
   show configuration interface Y
   monitor traffic interface Y detail matching "proto isis"
   request system decrypt password "xxxx" (onlu for $8$ or $9$ hashes)

adj state full
   show isis database (* = entries generated by the local router)
   show isis route
   show route protocol isis table inet.0

spf stable: duplicate NET?, flapping links?

routes in RIB: lsdb, levels?, 0/0 in l1, prefix export limit, import/export policies
   show route table inet.0
   abr: nssa no-summaries -> routes in that area dont see any summary LSA for other areas => you may need to advertise a default (set protocols ospf area X nssa default-lsa default-metric 1)
   show configuration protocols ospf
   show isis hostname
   show route table iso.0 <-- NET addresses!

BGP

iBGP
-ibgp established: security policies, fw rules, IGP routing, local address, auth, logs
set protocols bgp group int-group traceoptions file X size 5m files 3 flap open detail
show system connections

-ibgp stable: IGP stable? MTU, TCP MSS

-ibgp adverts: export policy, inactive routes, no-advertise community, bgp family

-ibgp receives: BGP next-hop, recursive routing

-routes in RIB: import policy

ROUTING LOOPS

take several traceroute
check where route redistribution takes place
set cli timestamp
show bgp summary (several times to see flapping)
show route received-protocol bgp PEER_IP table x.0 (several times to see flapping)
show route NET/MASK (several times)
show route hidden detail table x.0

MPLS L3VPN

control plane:
- pe-ce routing protocols
   -- show route table inet.0 (for P and PE Lo)
   -- show isis database detail

- ldp/rsvp
   -- show route table inet.3 (table with ingress LSPs from this router
   -- show route table mpls.0 (next LSR in each LSP). Loop-up LSPs and VPN labels
   -- show ldp session/neighbor
   -- show ldp database
*RT mismatch -> drop (no stored neither hiddne => go to the other peer and show route advertisedd-protocol bgp PE-IP)

- bgp
   -- show bgp summary
   -- show route table X.inet.0 (l3vpn table)
   -- show route advertising-protocol bgp PE-IP
   -- show route receive-protocol bgp PE-IP (is bgp.l3vpn.0 table???)
   -- show route receive-protocol bgp PE-IP detail table bgp.l3vpn.0
   -- *vrf-table-lable -> a LSI logical interface label is created and mapped to the VRF routing table.

data plane:
   -- ping mpls
   -- traceroute mpls ldp PE-Lo

Stateful FW

srx -> session-based
- show security flow status -> flow/packet-based
- show security flow session
- set security flow traceoptions file X size 2m files 3 flag basic-datapath packet-filter f1 protocol icmp destination-prefix FW-IP/32
- show interface X -> check security zone (Null drops all packets)
- show interface x detail | find Flow
- show security zones NAME
- show security screen statistics zone untrust | except 0
- show log messages | match RT_SCREEN or RT_IDS
- show security screen ids-option untrust-screen
- show configuration security screen
- set security zones security-zone X host-inbound-traffic system-override traceroute ping …

CHASSIS CLUSTER

OOB

fxp0: oob mgmt interface
fxp1/em0 - cp interface
fab - dp interace
swfab - switching dp interface
reth - redundant interface

show chassis cluster status
show chassis cluster interfaces
show interfaces terse | grep fxp
show configuration | display set | match apply-groups
  set apply-groups ${node}
show system users

fabric link

show chassis cluster interfaces
show chassis cluster status
show chassis cluster statistics (sent/received??)
show interfaces terse | grep fab

data-plane

show chassis cluster status
show chassis cluster interfaces
show interfaces terse | grep reth
show configuration chassis cluster

*routing table is not running in secondary node

CoS

CoS-Based IPSec VPN

show security ike security-associations
show security ipsec security-associations
show security ipsec inactive-tunnels
show configuration security ipsec vpn X
show class-of-service forwarding-class

CoS implementation

show interfaces X detail | find Egress -> check counters in queues

show configuration firewall family inet -> check filtes
show interfaces filters | match X
show class-of-service interface Y
show class-of-service rewrite-rule type dscp
                      scheduler-map X | match "Scheduler|Transmit"
                      classifier type dscp name X