October 19, 2012 archive

Oct 19

“Migrating Apps To IPv6” Author And Editor Get To Meet Face-To-Face

A curious aspect of writing a book is that you never actually need to meet the people with whom you are working at a publisher. Everything can be done online with maybe an occasional phone call thrown in. Editors, production staff, publicists… all the interaction happens primarily through email.

It’s nice, though, when you do get a chance to put a face with a name. As shown below, I got a chance to catch up with Mike Loukides, the editor at O’Reilly who first approached me about the “Migrating Applications to IPv6” book project and who worked with me to make it happen:

York loukides

This was at the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference back in the beginning of the year. (Excellent conferences, by the way!) I just stumbled upon the photo and thought I should post it. I still haven’t met the other editors and staff who helped me with the book, but that is indeed the way it works.

Oct 19

In Moscow for ENOG 4 Oct 23 & 24? We’ll Be There Talking About DNSSEC

ENOG LogoWill you be in Moscow this coming week (Oct 23-24, 2012) at the Eurasia Network Operators’ Group (ENOG) 4 meeting? If so, I (Dan York) will be there to speak about DNSSEC and how it applies to network operators. My talk, titled “DNSSEC – Why Network Operators Should Care And How To Accelerate Deployment “, has the description:

Why should network operators care about DNSSEC? What advantages and opportunities can it provide? What are the best first steps an ISP can do to support DNSSEC? What are the current best operational practices for DNSSEC?

In this presentation, Dan York of the Internet Society’s Deploy360 Programme will answer these questions, discuss some new DNSSEC-related technologies such as DANE and provide some key steps that can help accelerate DNSSEC deployment within networks.

I’m very much looking forward to the event and speaking with network operators to understand how we can help them get more DNSSEC-validating DNS resolvers deployed out there.  The ENOG 4 agenda is packed with good presentations so I’m looking forward to learning a good bit. Currently showing 451 attendees, too, so the opportunity is there to get some great feedback!

Thankfully, there will also be a simultaneous translation service during the sessions. I have been learning some Russian in preparation but so far only really have the very basic traveler survival phrases down. :-)

Should be a great event – if you are there, please do say hello!

P.S. I’m also pleased to be able to meet up with my Internet Society colleague Andrei Robachevsky as he is one of the organizers of the event (and is also fluent in Russian).

Oct 19

Walking Through Setting Up A TLSA Record for DNSSEC/DANE

In a post titled “DNSSEC and Certificates” today, Shumon Huque provides a nice walk-through of the steps needed to get set up with a TLSA record in DNS to tie a SSL/TLS certificate into the global chain-of-trust created by DNSSEC. First, though, he explains very succinctly why we should care about security issues related to current certificate authorities (CAs) and how the new DANE protocol helps address this.

He then steps through what he had to do with openssl to create the appropriate TLSA record for his existing SSL certificate (and points out the availability of Paul Wouters hash-slinger tool to make this even easier).

It’s good to see posts like this explaining the process and we’ll be looking to add tutorials like this to our site as we continue to expand our DANE coverage in the weeks and months ahead.

By the way, Shumon will be one of the speakers at our ION San Diego conference on December 11th.  If you want to learn about DNSSEC and IPv6 topics and can get to San Diego, we’d definitely suggest you consider attending!

P.S. We’ve added Shumon’s site to the list of DANE test sites that developers can use to test out new DANE applications.

Oct 19

Youth Curling League Starts This Saturday at Petersham CC

Youth curlingYea! This Saturday is the first day of the youth curling league at the Petersham Curling Club down in Petersham, Massachusetts (about 45 minutes south of where I live in Keene, NH).

It will also be the start of my second year coaching as I'm helping out with the "Little Rockers" who are between the ages of 7 and 11. (Including my now 10-year-old daughter, pictured in the photo accompanying this article.) I helped out last year and didn't realize how much fun it would be to do! On a certain level it shouldn't have been a surprise given my love of teaching, but I didn't expect how much I would enjoy it.

I'm looking forward to getting back on the ice this weekend and seeing what we can do this year with the kids.

If you are interested in learning more about the youth curling league and live in the area of north central Mass. or southwest NH, you can check out the web page about the youth curling or you can contact me directly. The Little Rockers curl every Saturday from 9:30-10:30 from now through the end of March.

We'll probably be having an Open House soon where people can come and check it out... stay tuned for more info!