(*) Specktacular!

The iPod Touch is more useful than I could ever imagine. Now I can read my Cisco eBooks on it wherever/whenever I am, surf web wherever there is WiFi, enjoy YouTube videos and much more without having to lug my heavy laptop along. Jailbreaking it will even further unlock more features.

Exterior build is high in quality and more than 95% of the surface area is glossy. This could also mean that it's so easily scratched if you're not careful with it. Also, it is impossible to keep it 100% fingerprint-free. I don't feel easy when the iPod is being used 'nakedly'.

So I Google up to find out which is the highly recommended protection case for the iPod and it turned out to be the Speck PixelSkin.



Several reasons why I choose this over other brands/designs:

- Silicon material prevents scratching the iPod
- Protects from bumps and scratches
- Snug fit
- Improves grip
- Funky design

I opt for the black color so it will look virtually clean all the time. It also comes in other colors such as Blueberry Blue, Sherbet Pink, Huckelberry Purple, Marshmallow White, Spearmint Green and Corncob Yellow. I also bought Capdase ScreenGuard (Crystal Clear) along with the Speck PixelSkin from Machines at Mid Valley. Overall I'm very pleased with the purchase.

Thank You Cisco

Cisco organized an event today held at Nikko Hotel with a theme of "Cisco Data Center of the Future". Featuring the latest data center virtualization concept using a combination of Cisco, VMWare and EMC products. It's amazing to see how LAN and SAN are merged with the Cisco NEXUS while at the same time providing virtualization and automation services via Unified Fabric. The technology behind this concept is made possible by FCoE (Fiber Channel over Ethernet) on top of CNA (Converged Network Adapters). Very soon in future we'll be seeing more and more data centers going towards this virtualization technology to save space, power, cost and improve efficiencies of network.

While it's great to meet the key speaker: Damian Ryan (Regional Director for Cisco Data Center Asia) and Sal Fernando (Chief Architect of EMC South Asia); The best thing I have today is I WON AN APPLE iPOD TOUCH 8GB from the lucky draw at the end of the event! I LOVE it! Thank you Cisco!

Powered by Core i7

After spending 1.5 month to practice on the InternetworkExpert Service Provider Volume 1 workbook, I've suffered enough of sluggish response of the emulated routers on both my company laptop and desktop. For Volume 1, the maximum number of routers required is 10; Volume 2 simulates the actual CCIE SP lab, so it requires 14 units of emulated routers (R1-R9, CellModeATM, BB1, BB2, BB3 and TermServ).

Just 3 days ago I've started practicing on the 1st lab of the Volume 2 via multiserver Dynamips and this causes both the C2D 2.13GHz and DuoCore 1.73GHz's CPU utilization to shoot up to 100% fulltime. This triggered me to go ahead and upgrade my system. Here's what I bought yesterday:

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz
Intel DX58SO Motherboard
Corsair 6GB DDR3 1333MHz XMS3
Cooler Master 550W Power Supply

Unfortunately, WinXP can only support up to 4GB of memory allocation, and under the System Properties, it shows only 3.23GB of RAM with Physical Address Extension activated.

The next thing I did after setting up the PC was to load the full lab topology. I'm extremely pleased with the performance as the CPU utilization is only 14% with 14 routers up and running without any configurations. With all the common SP services (OSPF, BGP, MPLS VPN, MPLS TE, etc) turned on, the load increased to an average of 17% only. Ping response time improved from more than 1 second to less than 40ms, which is acting almost like a real life router!

Perhaps this upgrade is one of the most well spent toy (or rather tool) besides my Makita 9227C and EOS5D. Hope this tool helps to speed up my lab practice and head for the exam before the 4th quarter of this year.