| Interviewer:
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Please take a minute to
provide our readers with a brief introduction/background. |
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| Author: |
I've been involved in
the networking, security, and distributed application design for
quite some time, since about 1980. My work as Director of
Engineering for Global SprintLink, one of the world's largest
international Internet backbones, and at Netscape heading the
product management of security and electronic commerce products
(including SSL/TLS), are perhaps two of the more defining aspects of
my career. I have a Masters degree from Cornell University and a
Bachelors degree from the University of Maryland, both in electrical
engineering. After finishing my book "Network Application
Frameworks" I started a consulting company called Seine
Dynamics (http://www.seinedynamics.com), a strategic consulting
company specializing in networking, security, electronic commerce,
and corporate IS/IT application architecture. |
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| Interviewer:
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Where are you from?
How--if at all--has your sense of place colored your writing? |
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| Author: |
Physically, I'm from
the Washington, DC area though I had a stint in California while
working at Netscape. I think what colors my writing most, though, is
that I've been around this industry for a while. I'm someone who
once, a long time ago, programmed mainframes using something called
punch cards-- index style cards with holes to indicate what you
wished the computer to do. I have an appreciation for the evolution
and integrated nature of everything that has transpired over a 20
year span of watching personal computers come into being and then
the networks that unleashed them along with their big brother
mainframe counterparts. I think this viewpoint definitely colors my
writing. It drives me to write with a certain completeness and
perspective on any given technology, be it BGP-4, LDAP, or what have
you. In my writing I state what network technology really means and
how it works in the real world. I avoid highly focused analyses of
less relevant details, but instead explore those that truly impact
the operation, performance, and future impact of a given network
design or distributed application architecture. |
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| Interviewer:
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When and why did you begin
writing? When did you first consider yourself a writer? |
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| Author: |
I began working on
"Network Application Frameworks" quite a while ago. It was
difficult to complete while working at places like Netscape because
we were growing so fast. I finally had to stop working all together
and focus on the book full-time. I was highly committed to finishing
it. Even as a child I hoped to write a book someday. I have a
passion for writing. |
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| Interviewer:
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Who or what has influenced
your writing, and in what way? What books have most influenced your
personal and professional life? |
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| Author: |
I think Andrew
Tanenbaum's book "Computer Networks" influenced my writing
most. He's an outstanding writer, and in writing my book, I
attempted to complement his, taking the topics beyond an
introductory networking course level as he has done so well and to
the next level. My objective was to help readers find solutions to
problems they face at this moment when running corporate networks,
the Internet, or IS/IT departments. |
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| Interviewer:
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What is the most romantic
book you've ever read? The scariest? The funniest? |
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| Author: |
I still enjoy
Shakespeare and philosophical topics like Tao. I reflect a bit on
Lao Tzu in the preface of the book-- discussing the art of seeing
the forest from the trees in today's complex network application
technology landscape. |
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| Interviewer:
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Who is the target audience
for your book? What should their level of technical knowledge be? |
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| Author: |
People seeking
certification (including MCSE's, CCIE®'s, CCNP®'s, CCDP®'s), Network
engineers/designers, information security professionals, software
application architectures, client/server folks, IS/IT managers, and
others involved in distributed computing will benefit from the book.
The book introduces all topics incrementally, so newcomers can
benefit it. At the same time, I discuss a great deal of topics not
discussed in other books, making it quite helpful for advanced
readers. Observations I make relative to how systems perform, such
as inefficient TCP/IP application network impact, SSL operation, and
BGP load sharing case studies or the overall impact of technologies
such as directory services aren't found in any single book available
today. Readers will also appreciate the integrated network
design/application architecture nature of the book |
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| Interviewer:
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How is the book organized? |
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| Author: |
The book is organized
by technology/technology provider. I first introduce basic concepts,
then have a chapter on core open standards including LDAP, SSL,
public key crypto, etc. I focus on TCP/IP, IP Routing, Microsoft,
Novell NetWare, OSF DCE, and IBM networking and mainframes in
individual chapters. |
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| Interviewer:
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Tell us how your
background and experience enabled you to write about this topic? |
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| Author: |
I designed networks
using routing protocols, such as BGP or OSPF, when they first came
available for some of the world's largest corporations and for the
Internet. I've seen these protocols evolve and have stressed them
maximally in huge networks. I worked closely with companies to
understand how their networks and their applications performed
together. Furthermore, I've always been involved in the security
aspects of a given system (network and application). All of this,
and in addition simply the time I've been working in this field
enabled me to write this book. |
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| Interviewer:
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What made you decide to
write this extensively on this topic? |
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| Author: |
I really think it's
been a mistake that people design networks and their applications in
isolation. Network designers should understand something about how
applications behave, and vice versa, application developers should
understand how their applications impact the network, and can
leverage it. And technologies like LDAP are further joining the
network and application together, providing a common repository for
information important to both. I really felt, in writing Network
Application Frameworks, that I was doing something that needed to be
done-- to write one book that considered both these topics from a
design perspective. |
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| Interviewer:
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Can your book be helpful
in preparing for Cisco certification? If so, for which
certifications or exams? |
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| Author: |
A great many people
seeking certification have purchased the book. This includes CCIE®'s,
CCDP®'s, CCNP®'s, and MCSE's. I have been told by many folks seeking
certification that they appreciate the high quality of the writing
and presentation in my book, and that they can get an intuitive and
fuller understanding of important topics from it. They comment that
many books today specifically focused on certification are not
written particularly well and focus on bulk (size), not quality. Of
course, many of the certification books are excellent, and so this
comment needs to be taken in that context. |
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| Interviewer:
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What other projects are
you planning? Will we see another book from you? If so when? |
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| Author: |
I have been recently
contemplating another book. Since it's still in the early planning
stages, I can't say anything particularly substantive about it. |
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| Interviewer:
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What did you thinking of
the writing process? How long did it take you write your book? |
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| Author: |
Writing a book is very
different from writing a short paper, memo, or similar more informal
document. Quality books require careful planning in the way
information is presented (built-up) and the standards for accuracy
and precision are very very high. I worked to maintain those
standards but also make the book very readable-- a difficult task,
since it's easy to have a precise accurate but virtually unreadable
book. My book took years to complete. I became somewhat of a
perfectionist with regard to its breadth of coverage and its
conciseness and readability. |
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| Interviewer:
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Did you learn anything
from this project? If so what? |
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| Author: |
I learned quite a bit.
I learned that writing your first book-- one that you are passionate
about-- is a monumental, arguably life changing, task |
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| Interviewer:
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If you were asked what
about what is the best way to succeed in the field of networking
what would you say? |
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| Author: |
I think the answer is,
SEE THE BIG PICTURE!!!! It's too easy to get lost in specific router
configurations, details of application programming interfaces
(API's), and the like. If you understand the bigger picture, these
details get EASIER. If you understand how a routing protocol works,
then the configuration commands for it will make much more sense to
you-- you'll learn them faster. Understand how routing protocols
really operate from a performance and functional standpoint.
Understand how applications written to the TCP/IP protocol suite
behave over the network. Maintain an appreciation for legacy
technology such as IBM mainframes and old NetWare installations--
they often aren't going anywhere and, in some cases, for good
reason. You need to design systems that accommodate both the old and
the new. Consider the security of both the network and the
application, since if one is weak, the overall system is vulnerable.
In summary, take a holistic view to networking. |
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