Feature Tech | Sean Shadmand

‘Feature Tech’ Category

Super Nerdy “traceroute” fun

May 15, 2013 by sshadmand

Okay, fair warning this is, as my friend Kanad would say, “Nerdy Gigabyting” stuff.

For all you Star Wars fans out there, and even some op engineers that may not like Star Wars check out these hops in your terminal shared with me my friend and co-worker Jason P.

#> traceroute 216.81.59.173

For those of you that are curious about what the hell a traceroute is, it is a way to see the set of network hops taken to get to the destination in question. For instance, when you visit www.seanshadmand.com from your computer the request is sent to your local network, then a nearby network and then the next switching and moving between networks until it arrived at the network that holds my website. Just ike taking multiple roads to get to and from work your request must travle through different “intersection” to get to a web page.

Here is an example of doing a traceroute to my DNS www.seanshadmand.com

Sean-Shadmands-MacBook-Pro:~ seanshadmand$ traceroute seanshadmand.com
traceroute to seanshadmand.com (54.245.121.115), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  10.4.11.1 (10.4.11.1)  3.884 ms  1.013 ms  2.993 ms
 2  10.4.1.1 (10.4.1.1)  0.842 ms  0.977 ms  1.194 ms
 3  50-0-241-217.dedicated.static.sonic.net (50.0.241.217)  9.055 ms  8.422 ms  10.212 ms
 4  gig1-28.cr1.colaca01.sonic.net (70.36.228.97)  9.576 ms  6.047 ms  7.426 ms
 5  po3.cr1.lsatca11.sonic.net (75.101.33.166)  8.560 ms  9.594 ms *
 6  * * *
 7  0.xe-6-0-0.gw.equinix-sj.sonic.net (64.142.0.185)  6.043 ms * *
 8  * equinix01-sfo5.amazon.com (206.223.116.177)  13.506 ms *
 9  * 205.251.229.173 (205.251.229.173)  49.171 ms *
10  205.251.232.70 (205.251.232.70)  38.752 ms
    205.251.232.112 (205.251.232.112)  32.057 ms
    205.251.232.68 (205.251.232.68)  34.793 ms
11  205.251.232.141 (205.251.232.141)  29.312 ms  32.983 ms
    205.251.232.159 (205.251.232.159)  41.429 ms
12  205.251.232.165 (205.251.232.165)  34.375 ms  35.858 ms  64.349 ms
13  ec2-50-112-0-241.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com (50.112.0.241)  41.451 ms
    ec2-50-112-0-163.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com (50.112.0.163)  30.499 ms  28.531 ms

Here you can see the request working its way from our local network to our Sonic.net provider all the way down to the network hosting my site, Amazon.

Okay, so here is what the original traceroute I mentioned above did in 64 hops – the following is a spoiler alert, do not scroll down if you want to try it yourself

Sean-Shadmands-MacBook-Pro:~ seanshadmand$ traceroute 216.81.59.173
traceroute to 216.81.59.173 (216.81.59.173), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  10.4.11.1 (10.4.11.1)  1.586 ms  0.751 ms  0.748 ms
 2  10.4.1.1 (10.4.1.1)  0.863 ms  0.922 ms  0.976 ms
 3  50-0-241-217.dedicated.static.sonic.net (50.0.241.217)  9.179 ms  7.557 ms  11.639 ms
 4  gig1-28.cr1.colaca01.sonic.net (70.36.228.97)  9.738 ms  8.369 ms  6.678 ms
 5  po3.cr1.lsatca11.sonic.net (75.101.33.166)  7.323 ms  50.077 ms  7.756 ms
 6  0.xe-5-1-0.gw.pao1.sonic.net (69.12.211.1)  6.980 ms  12.417 ms  6.569 ms
 7  0.xe-6-0-0.gw.equinix-sj.sonic.net (64.142.0.185)  5.534 ms  5.873 ms  5.865 ms
 8  10gigabitethernet2-3.core1.sjc2.he.net (206.223.116.37)  6.746 ms  13.966 ms  12.247 ms
 9  10gigabitethernet14-7.core1.lax2.he.net (184.105.213.5)  26.900 ms  20.975 ms  22.262 ms
10  10gigabitethernet2-3.core1.phx2.he.net (184.105.222.85)  74.895 ms  40.622 ms  29.217 ms
11  10gigabitethernet5-3.core1.dal1.he.net (184.105.222.78)  56.980 ms  55.502 ms  54.686 ms
12  10gigabitethernet5-4.core1.atl1.he.net (184.105.213.114)  75.773 ms  74.998 ms  72.689 ms
13  216.66.0.26 (216.66.0.26)  73.062 ms  74.324 ms  72.802 ms
14  * * *
15  episode.iv (206.214.251.1)  116.403 ms  130.009 ms  112.626 ms
16  a.new.hope (206.214.251.6)  111.127 ms  112.484 ms  109.912 ms
17  it.is.a.period.of.civil.war (206.214.251.9)  109.559 ms * *
18  * rebel.spaceships (206.214.251.14)  112.966 ms *
19  * * striking.from.a.hidden.base (206.214.251.17)  114.395 ms
20  * have.won.their.first.victory (206.214.251.22)  114.337 ms *
21  * * against.the.evil.galactic.empire (206.214.251.25)  136.658 ms
22  during.the.battle (206.214.251.30)  116.953 ms  115.696 ms  112.170 ms
23  rebel.spies.managed (206.214.251.33)  110.094 ms  112.563 ms  114.632 ms
24  to.steal.secret.plans (206.214.251.38)  110.638 ms  109.706 ms  109.454 ms
25  to.the.empires.ultimate.weapon (206.214.251.41)  110.453 ms  114.561 ms  114.792 ms
26  the.death.star (206.214.251.46)  113.295 ms  115.245 ms  115.005 ms
27  an.armored.space.station (206.214.251.49)  163.362 ms  113.893 ms  114.685 ms
28  with.enough.power.to (206.214.251.54)  115.263 ms  111.979 ms  117.865 ms
29  destroy.an.entire.planet (206.214.251.57)  114.727 ms  113.755 ms  126.718 ms
30  pursued.by.the.empires (206.214.251.62)  115.042 ms  116.474 ms  110.436 ms
31  sinister.agents (206.214.251.65)  113.995 ms  115.831 ms  115.973 ms
32  princess.leia.races.home (206.214.251.70)  111.079 ms  131.545 ms  115.804 ms
33  aboard.her.starship (206.214.251.73)  111.702 ms  116.699 ms  113.923 ms
34  * custodian.of.the.stolen.plans (206.214.251.78)  120.468 ms  116.254 ms
35  that.can.save.her (206.214.251.81)  112.573 ms  117.197 ms  123.432 ms
36  people.and.restore (206.214.251.86)  110.282 ms  119.757 ms  114.538 ms
37  * * *
38  0-----i-------i-----0 (206.214.251.94)  134.709 ms * *
39  * 0------------------0 (206.214.251.97)  131.887 ms *
40  * * *
41  0----------------0 (206.214.251.105)  116.773 ms  114.683 ms  111.513 ms
42  0---------------0 (206.214.251.110)  114.764 ms  111.789 ms  114.402 ms
43  0--------------0 (206.214.251.113)  111.076 ms  116.629 ms  111.154 ms
44  0-------------0 (206.214.251.118)  112.852 ms  114.205 ms  111.433 ms
45  0------------0 (206.214.251.121)  115.202 ms  112.044 ms  114.663 ms
46  0-----------0 (206.214.251.126)  201.307 ms  111.747 ms  117.750 ms
47  0----------0 (206.214.251.129)  116.196 ms  111.185 ms  110.688 ms
48  0---------0 (206.214.251.134)  110.780 ms  114.799 ms  113.196 ms
49  0--------0 (206.214.251.137)  113.402 ms  115.738 ms  114.843 ms
50  0-------0 (206.214.251.142)  113.381 ms  111.589 ms  116.851 ms
51  0------0 (206.214.251.145)  116.478 ms  111.657 ms  116.318 ms
52  0-----0 (206.214.251.150)  115.002 ms  115.580 ms  116.904 ms
53  0----0 (206.214.251.153)  138.367 ms  115.620 ms *
54  0---0 (206.214.251.158)  113.654 ms  111.288 ms  111.488 ms
55  0--0 (206.214.251.161)  117.350 ms  118.801 ms  147.315 ms
56  0-0 (206.214.251.166)  114.342 ms  120.037 ms *
57  * * 00 (206.214.251.169)  118.554 ms
58  i (206.214.251.174)  117.896 ms * *
59  * by.ryan.werber (206.214.251.177)  150.234 ms *
60  blizzards.breed.ccie.creativity (206.214.251.182)  115.374 ms * *
61  * please.try.again.tracerote.to.obiwan.scrye.net (206.214.251.185)  120.250 ms  146.107 ms
62  read.more.at.beaglenetworks.net (206.214.251.190)  116.038 ms *  115.467 ms

Category Feature Tech, Humor, Style, Technology, things to do, tutorial | Tags: fun,nerdy,starward,terminal,traceroute | No Comments

Efficiently Inefficient: Processes that can improve quality and quantity of life

September 5, 2012 by sshadmand

For our latest project at Socialize Isaac and I are going to increase the release cycle even further and go from a few releases per group per week, to a few releases per day. I find moving more efficiently and quickly over the years always takes a few non-intuitive jarring mental steps. (If they didn’t we would have been way more efficient as a society way earlier on in history).

Here are a couple things that always seem to be the foundation of inching your way up the efficiency hill.

1) Get to a point at which you truly trust your results, not just feel good or secure about them, but quantitative based results that have a quantitative ”I trust this” number. This is what I call the “don’t look over your shoulder moment”, because if you’re looking over your shoulder to make sure nothing has gone wrong, you are not looking forward to make sure new things go right. This accomplished with unit/itests tests, or in our everyday lives marking your calendar or adding a reminder. Even at managing people in the office, time and time again setting up employees to be trusted and autonomous, with a simple audit system to make you aware only if something is wrong, has proven time and time again to produce happier, more creative, more productive employees in a company that can scale. Basically every one wins big when you make sure you create process that handles things that are set to let you know if you need to take action, and quite %100 otherwise.

2) Really reconsider what you’re are willing to bare in mistakes. This is usually a major brain switch moment. Sometimes people can work 100x more efficiently and productively if they just allow themselves to be wrong for a totally fixable 1 minute per year. Yes your server may go down once a year, but instead of working hard to make sure that never happens (which is impossible), work hard to make sure systems are in place to recover super quickly. The funny thing is when you accomplish #1 above, mixed with this #2 item, you start performing better than you could have imagined.

3) Remove process that is there to support the more intuitive faux “warm and fuzzy” feelings that keep 1 and 2 from happening.

4) Always push yourself, and those around you, to test process that offer efficiency gains even if you don’t feel comfortable at first. Comfort is often the foundation of slowness, and trying new things even against your “better judgement” are the only ways to break free.

For you nerds out there, here is the article from github Isaac passed on to me that sparked our latest evolution in product releases. Although this post and its sentiment are, in my book, universal throughout life and business and not code.

http://scottchacon.com/2011/08/31/github-flow.html

Category Code, Feature Tech, learning, Philosophy, Process, Technology | Tags: development,focus,life,process,startup,tips | No Comments
Nanoseconds for dummies

March 1, 2012 by sshadmand

One of our talented engineers Aseem sent this out over email this morning to the group. I really enjoyed it for a few reasons, and figured I would share it as well. First, it is a lecture from the inventor of the compiler; second, it is a lecture from someone in the military; third, she ( Grace Hopper) is very old and I find that inspirational and cute (as offensive as that feeling if mine may be to others – it’s true); lastly, and most importantly, it gives a great visual example about space, time, speed, and badnwidth.

Check-id-ouuuut…..

Category Feature Tech, Presentation & Lectures, Technology | Tags: bandwidth,compiler,Grace Hopper,lecture,nanosecond | No Comments
Google TV is finally a google TV

December 11, 2011 by sshadmand

Got home tonight and notcied my google tv wasnt responding to my harmonay iphone remote…..after some fiddling around a simple update ended up being all that was required. To my surprise it wasn’t just a minor release, like it usual ends up beeing. My google TV has changed considerably! (along with my iphone remote,) and the my Google TV finally has the Adnroid market, ergot finally a real Google TV! Yay!

I downloaded some apps, checked out the new user interface and workflow. I know have a 50 inch non-touch tablet

There is also the “allow unkown sources” option in the settings, along with enable debugging, so I guess developing for my TV is now piled onto my list of things to do.

After some googling, I found some info on the update. You can check it out here: http://www.google.com/tv/

Category Feature Tech, Technology | Tags: | No Comments
The hardware won’t stop changing

November 13, 2011 by sshadmand

When the iPhone first came about there were plenty of neh-sayers that rebeled against the native functionality on the phone and how it was destined to be doomed by more standard tech already in place on the web.

The problem when attempting to prophesize the future of new technologies is that many people forget that the technology they are predicting against is not a controlled variable. Not only will the technolgy advance that they forsee, but the technology they are basing their predictions on will change as well. That every changing system means you can never be too sure what the life time of a new product will be and how it will develop. The only good bet is: all parts of technology are ever advancing.

The mobie device epitomizes that fact. A fragmented distribution of lightweight, fairly inexpensive, devices that are constantly in use by its users and is getting completely revamped and bought up every year and by eager customers ready to upgrade. The manufactures will keep pumping more features into the device that go beyond weight, and better screen resolution. And with form factor constraints relativley out the door, compared to their laptop and PC predecessors, native device functionality will always trump what the generic standard products will pump out. Of course RF functionalities ar making their way into our everyday life, and now Andoroids may be getting a barometer: http://gizmodo.com/5851288/why-the-barometer-is-androids-new-trump-card.

As these products evolve native apps will keep going strong.

Category Feature Tech, products, Technology | Tags: | No Comments
That is a pretty freakin’ cool sphere!

November 11, 2011 by sshadmand

This is pretty awesome… A real hovering ball that seems to defy gravity and do some other neat tricks too. Yeah, we have seen some cool hovering toys these last few years, but this little doozy goes well past just hovering. Not only does it hover, but it is able to jet of in any direction lickity split, and its gyroscopes (along with its auto pilot mode) give it the ability to stay in hover state no matter how hard you try to push it down. Just when you think you got your bearing with this thing it shows off a few more tricks as it dives to the floor, rolls over better than your dog skip, andtake right back off again. It seems to master land and air, and is made by the Japan’s ministry of defense.

Category Feature Tech, products, Technology | Tags: | 2 Comments
Has the iPhone camera quality really improved?

November 6, 2011 by sshadmand

Check out the picture below made by Lisa Bettany and featured on Gizmodo that demonstrates the differences in picture quality over the many iPhone generations. From the original, all the way to the 4S. The simple answer to the titles question – you bet you a$$ it has!

Category Feature Tech, Technology | Tags: apple,camera,ios | No Comments
Are you seeing things? Instant super-imposed 3d objects on 2d pictures

November 5, 2011 by sshadmand

See that picture to the left. It is a picture taken of a room with a billards table, can you tell what part of the picture is fake? We have all hard of super imposed by now (even the talking goat from Adam Sandler’s comedy cd in the 90s is now aware of the power of superimposing.) What makes this a breakthrough is that fact that the 3d objects (by the way, the balls on the table are the fake objects) were super imposed onto a flat, 2D picture. Even more interesting is that fact that those 3D objects can interact with the 2D objects in the picture, as if they were 3D them selves. Check the demo by Kevin Karsch (below) where you can see what I mean. Basically, you can take picture of a hall with stairs, and later add a 3D virtual ball to the picture, and in seconds watch the 3D ball bounce its way down the stairs case. Pretty B.A.

Category Feature Tech, products, Technology | Tags: 3d,graphics | No Comments
Braille 2.0

November 3, 2011 by sshadmand

The iPad (tablets) is at it again. After all these years Stanford has uped the anti on what the bar is for acceptable braille reading and writing devices. The tablet system shown here calibrates through a swipe and audio queues, and sets the type pad to where ever the users fingers lie. (This solves the problem with the lack of tactile response the flat screen of an iPad provides. In essence, as descried in the video, the input points find the users fingers, not the other way around.)

Category Feature Tech, products, Style, Technology | Tags: blind,braille,ipad,tablet | No Comments
Screw watching 3D Screens, actually grab 3D objects!

November 1, 2011 by sshadmand

Microsoft is doing some cool stuff with interactive vertual 3d. No cords, or gloves, or glasses required. They are working on holograms, and not just for looking at. These holograms are able to be controlled by “touch” and simulate true interaction with virtual objects with the help of a real time physics engine. In short, it is starting to look pretty cool. If this technology continues to advance designers will be able to virtually interact with the models they create before they start need to develop any molds. At the end of the video they demo a mobile device that a user is able to pick up, interact with it, and all within a completely virtual holographic environment.

Curious to see how it’s done? At min 1:02 they show how the system recognizes real objects, such as hands, paper, or bowls, and displays how they interact with the virtual objects onto a clear glass plate. This plus the users line of site create the illusion of true interaction with the virtual objects.

I can’t wait for these technologies to find their way into meetings, to help team of engineers quickly to get on the same page by passing a prototype, modeled only moments ago, at a round table, as they literally pass the object from one person to the next.

Category Feature Tech, Technology | Tags: 3d,hologram,microsoft,prototype | No Comments

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