Categories
fun stuff

Is this the ugliest telephone?

Rob Lister is the all singing all dancing network engineer cum sys admin for LONAP, the London Access Point Internet Exchange.

And the award for the “Ugliest telephone of the year” goes to…

This was on a shelf with some pretty ugly telephones, this one stood out as the clear winner.

Designed by committee:

“No, let’s have the buttons represent a dial arrangement, that nobody has needed for the last 30 years… ”

“Kids won’t know what this means… Do they even use land lines? Let’s focus on the older users…”

“Okay. But it must have an answering machine crammed in there”

“Now we need another “dial” for the buttons that won’t fit on the first “dial…”

“Hmm. Then it needs a display. Let’s shove it awkwardly in the middle of that dial.”

“But it has to be cheap to manufacture. Hmm. We can’t have a nice ergonomic handset, just a basic plastic thing.”

“Yeah. So that’s all good. Lunch anyone?”

Other really interesting telephone posts include:

The all new waterproof handset
I have seen the light
The birth of a handset

Categories
Engineer engineering peering

The evolution of the IXP Network Engineer… #peeringweek @lonap

Tales from the rarely sighted and lesser spotted IXP Network Engineer…

From the beginning, the principle of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is simple. It’s just a layer 2 network, to which participating service providers connect.

Most IXPs started small, and were managed by volunteer efforts, or by another organisation until they become large enough to become an independent organisation, and maybe employ network engineers.
So what do these engineers working at IXPs do?

In the beginning, we just installed the hardware, plugged in the cables, configured a few things and then went to the pub. Life was good! But those days in the pub weren’t to last!