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3.2. ISO OSI IDRP, BGP, and the Development of Policy Routing During the decade before the widespread success of the World Wide Web, ISO was developing the communications architecture and protocol suite Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). For a considerable part of this time, OSI was seen as a possible competitor for and even a replacement for the IP suite as this basis for the Internet. The technical developments of the two protocols were quite heavily interrelated with each providing ideas and even components that were adapted into the other suite. During the early stages of the development of OSI, the IP suite was still mainly in use on the ARPANET and the relatively small scale first phase NSFNET. This was effectively a single administrative domain with a simple tree-structured network in a three-level hierarchy connected to a single logical exchange point (the NSFNET backbone). In the second half of the 1980s, the NSFNET was starting on the growth and transformation that would lead to today's Internet. It was becoming clear that the backbone routing protocol, the Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) [RFC0904], was not going to cope even with the limited expansion being planned. EGP is an "all informed" protocol that needed to know the identities of all gateways, and this was no longer reasonable. With the increasing complexity of the NSFNET and the linkage of the NSFNET network to other networks, there was a desire for policy-based routing that would allow administrators to manage the flow of packets between networks. The first version of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP-1) [RFC1105] was developed as a replacement for EGP with policy capabilities -- a stopgap EGP version 3 had been created as an interim measure while BGP was developed. BGP was designed to work on a hierarchically structured network, such as the original NSFNET, but could also work on networks that were at least partially non-hierarchical where there were links between ASs at the same level in the hierarchy (we would now call these "peering arrangements") although the protocol made a distinction between different kinds of links (links are classified as upwards, downwards, or sideways). ASs themselves were a "fix" for the complexity that developed in the three-tier structure of the NSFNET. Meanwhile, the OSI architects, led by Lyman Chapin, were developing a much more general architecture for large-scale networks. They had recognized that no one node, especially an end-system (host), could or should attempt to remember routes from "here" to "anywhere" -- this sounds obvious today, but was not so obvious 20 years ago. They were also considering hierarchical networks with independently
administered domains -- a model already well entrenched in the public-switched telephone network. This led to a vision of a network with multiple independent administrative domains with an arbitrary interconnection graph and a hierarchy of routing functionality. This architecture was fairly well established by 1987 [Tsuchiya87]. The architecture initially envisaged a three-level routing functionality hierarchy in which each layer had significantly different characteristics: 1. *End-system to intermediate system (IS) routing (host to router)*, in which the principal functions are discovery and redirection. 2. *Intra-domain IS-IS routing (router to router)*, in which "best" routes between end-systems in a single administrative domain are computed and used. A single algorithm and routing protocol would be used throughout any one domain. 3. *Inter-domain IS-IS routing (router to router)*, in which routes between routing domains within administrative domains are computed (routing is considered separately between administrative domains and routing domains). Level 3 of this hierarchy was still somewhat fuzzy. Tsuchiya says: The last two components, Inter-Domain and Inter-Administration routing, are less clear-cut. It is not obvious what should be standardized with respect to these two components of routing. For example, for Inter-Domain routing, what can be expected from the Domains? By asking Domains to provide some kind of external behavior, we limit their autonomy. If we expect nothing of their external behavior, then routing functionality will be minimal. Across administrations, it is not known how much trust there will be. In fact, the definition of trust itself can only be determined by the two or more administrations involved. Fundamentally, the problem with Inter-Domain and Inter- Administration routing is that autonomy and mistrust are both antithetical to routing. Accomplishing either will involve a number of tradeoffs which will require more knowledge about the environments within which they will operate. Further refinement of the model occurred over the next couple of years and a more fully formed view is given by Huitema and Dabbous in 1989 [Huitema90]. By this stage, work on the original IS-IS link- state protocol, originated by the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), was fairly advanced and was close to becoming a Draft
International Standard. IS-IS is of course a major component of intra-domain routing today and inspired the development of the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) family. However, Huitema and Dabbous were not able to give any indication of protocol work for Level 3. There are hints of possible use of centralized route servers. In the meantime, the NSFNET consortium and the IETF had been struggling with the rapid growth of the NSFNET. It had been clear since fairly early on that EGP was not suitable for handling the expanding network and the race was on to find a replacement. There had been some intent to include a metric in EGP to facilitate routing decisions, but no agreement could be reached on how to define the metric. The lack of trust was seen as one of the main reasons that EGP could not establish a globally acceptable routing metric: again this seems to be a clearly futile aim from this distance in time! Consequently, EGP became effectively a rudimentary path-vector protocol that linked gateways with Autonomous Systems. It was totally reliant on the tree-structured network to avoid routing loops, and the all-informed nature of EGP meant that update packets became very large. BGP version 1 [RFC1105] was standardized in 1989, but it had been in development for some time before this and had already seen action in production networks prior to standardization. BGP was the first real path-vector routing protocol and was intended to relieve some of the scaling problems as well as providing policy- based routing. Routes were described as paths along a "vector" of ASs without any associated cost metric. This way of describing routes was explicitly intended to allow detection of routing loops. It was assumed that the intra-domain routing system was loop-free with the implication that the total routing system would be loop-free if there were no loops in the AS path. Note that there were no theoretical underpinnings for this work, and it traded freedom from routing loops for guaranteed convergence. Also, the NSFNET was a government-funded research and education network. Commercial companies that were partners in some of the projects were using the NSFNET for their research activities, but it was becoming clear that these companies also needed networks for commercial traffic. NSFNET had put in place "acceptable use" policies that were intended to limit the use of the network. However, there was little or no technology to support the legal framework. Practical experience, IETF IAB discussion (centered in the Internet Architecture Task Force) and the OSI theoretical work were by now coming to the same conclusions: o Networks were going to be composed out of multiple administrative domains (the federated network),
o The connections between these domains would be an arbitrary graph and certainly not a tree, o The administrative domains would wish to establish distinctive, independent routing policies through the graph of Autonomous Systems, and o Administrative domains would have a degree of distrust of each other that would mean that policies would remain opaque. These views were reflected by Susan Hares' (working for Merit Networks at that time) contribution to the Internet Architecture (INARC) workshop in 1989, summarized in the report of the workshop [INARC89]: The rich interconnectivity within the Internet causes routing problems today. However, the presenter believes the problem is not the high degree of interconnection, but the routing protocols and models upon which these protocols are based. Rich interconnectivity can provide redundancy which can help packets moving even through periods of outages. Our model of interdomain routing needs to change. The model of autonomous confederations and autonomous systems [RFC0975] no longer fits the reality of many regional networks. The ISO models of administrative domain and routing domains better fit the current Internet's routing structure. With the first NSFNET backbone, NSF assumed that the Internet would be used as a production network for research traffic. We cannot stop these networks for a month and install all new routing protocols. The Internet will need to evolve its changes to networking protocols while still continuing to serve its users. This reality colors how plans are made to change routing protocols. It is also interesting to note that the difficulties of organizing a transition were recognized at this stage and have not been seriously explored or resolved since. Policies would primarily be interested in controlling which traffic should be allowed to transit a domain (to satisfy commercial constraints or acceptable use policies), thereby controlling which traffic uses the resources of the domain. The solution adopted by both the IETF and OSI was a form of distance vector hop-by-hop routing with explicit policy terms. The reasoning for this choice can be found in Breslau and Estrin's 1990 paper [Breslau90] (implicitly -- because some other alternatives are given such as a link state with policy suggestion, which, with hindsight, would have
even greater problems than BGP on a global scale network). Traditional distance-vector protocols exchanged routing information in the form of a destination and a metric. The new protocols explicitly associated policy expressions with the route by including either a list of the source ASs that are permitted to use the route described in the routing update, and/or a list of all ASs traversed along the advertised route. Parallel protocol developments were already in progress by the time this paper was published: BGP version 2 [RFC1163] in the IETF and the Inter-Domain Routing Protocol (IDRP) [ISO10747], which would be the Level 3 routing protocol for the OSI architecture. IDRP was developed under the aegis of the ANSI XS3.3 working group led by Lyman Chapin and Charles Kunzinger. The two protocols were very similar in basic design, but IDRP has some extra features, some of which have been incorporated into later versions of BGP; others may yet be so, and still others may be seen to be inappropriate. Breslau and Estrin summarize the design of IDRP as follows: IDRP attempts to solve the looping and convergence problems inherent in distance vector routing by including full AD (Administrative Domain -- essentially the equivalent of what are now called ASs) path information in routing updates. Each routing update includes the set of ADs that must be traversed in order to reach the specified destination. In this way, routes that contain AD loops can be avoided. IDRP updates also contain additional information relevant to policy constraints. For instance, these updates can specify what other ADs are allowed to receive the information described in the update. In this way, IDRP is able to express source specific policies. The IDRP protocol also provides the structure for the addition of other types of policy related information in routing updates. For example, User Class Identifiers (UCI) could also be included as policy attributes in routing updates. Using the policy route attributes IDRP provides the framework for expressing more fine grained policy in routing decisions. However, because it uses hop-by-hop distance vector routing, it only allows a single route to each destination per-QOS to be advertised. As the policy attributes associated with routes become more fine grained, advertised routes will be applicable to fewer sources. This implies a need for multiple routes to be advertised for each destination in order to increase the probability that sources have acceptable routes available to them. This effectively replicates the routing table per forwarding entity for each QoS, UCI, source combination that might appear in
a packet. Consequently, we claim that this approach does not scale well as policies become more fine grained, i.e., source or UCI specific policies. Over the next three or four years, successive versions of BGP (BGP-2 [RFC1163], BGP-3 [RFC1267], and BGP-4 [RFC1771]) were deployed to cope with the growing and by now commercialized Internet. From BGP-2 onwards, BGP made no assumptions about an overall structure of interconnections allowing it to cope with today's dense web of interconnections between ASs. BGP version 4 was developed to handle the change from classful to classless addressing. For most of this time, IDRP was being developed in parallel, and both protocols were implemented in the Merit gatedaemon routing protocol suite. During this time, there was a movement within the IETF that saw BGP as a stopgap measure to be used until the more sophisticated IDRP could be adapted to run over IP instead of the OSI connectionless protocol Connectionless Network Protocol (CLNP). However, unlike its intra- domain counterpart IS-IS, which has stood the test of time, and indeed proved to be more flexible than OSPF, IDRP was ultimately not adopted by the market. By the time the NSFNET backbone was decommissioned in 1995, BGP-4 was the inter-domain routing protocol of choice and OSI's star was already beginning to wane. IDRP is now little remembered. A more complete account of the capabilities of IDRP can be found in Chapter 14 of David Piscitello and Lyman Chapin's book "Open Systems Networking: TCP/IP and OSI", which is now readable on the Internet [Chapin94]. IDRP also contained quite extensive means for securing routing exchanges, much of it based on X.509 certificates for each router and public-/private-key encryption of routing updates. Some of the capabilities of IDRP that might yet appear in a future version of BGP include the ability to manage routes with explicit QoS classes and the concept of domain confederations (somewhat different from the confederation mechanism in today's BGP) as an extra level in the hierarchy of routing. 3.3. Nimrod Requirements Nimrod as expressed by Noel Chiappa in his early document, "A New IP Routing and Addressing Architecture" [Chiappa91] and later in the NIMROD working group documents [RFC1753] and [RFC1992] established a number of requirements that need to be considered by any new routing architecture. The Nimrod requirements took RFC 1126 as a starting point and went further.
The three goals of Nimrod, quoted from [RFC1992], were as follows: 1. To support a dynamic internetwork of _arbitrary size_ (our emphasis) by providing mechanisms to control the amount of routing information that must be known throughout an internetwork. 2. To provide service-specific routing in the presence of multiple constraints imposed by service providers and users. 3. To admit incremental deployment throughout an internetwork. It is certain that these goals should be considered requirements for any new domain-based routing architecture. o As discussed in other sections of this document, the rate of growth of the amount of information needed to maintain the routing system is such that the system may not be able to scale up as the Internet expands as foreseen. And yet, as the services and constraints upon those services grow, there is a need for more information to be maintained by the routing system. One of the key terms in the first requirements is "control". While increasing amounts of information need to be known and maintained in the Internet, the amounts and kinds of information that are distributed can be controlled. This goal should be reflected in the requirements for the future domain-based architecture. o If anything, the demand for specific services in the Internet has grown since 1996 when the Nimrod architecture was published. Additionally, the kinds of constraints that service providers need to impose upon their networks and that services need to impose upon the routing have also increased. Any changes made to the network in the last half-decade have not significantly improved this situation. o The ability to incrementally deploy any new routing architecture within the Internet is still an absolute necessity. It is impossible to imagine that a new routing architecture could supplant the current architecture on a flag day. At one point in time, Nimrod, with its addressing and routing architectures, was seen as a candidate for IPng. History shows that it was not accepted as the IPng, having been ruled out of the selection process by the IESG in 1994 on the grounds that it was "too much of a research effort" [RFC1752], although input for the requirements of IPng was explicitly solicited from Chiappa [RFC1753]. Instead, IPv6 has been put forth as the IPng. Without entering a discussion of the relative merits of IPv6 versus Nimrod, it is
apparent that IPv6, while it may solve many problems, does not solve the critical routing problems in the Internet today. In fact, in some sense, it exacerbates them by adding a requirement for support of two Internet protocols and their respective addressing methods. In many ways, the addition of IPv6 to the mix of methods in today's Internet only points to the fact that the goals, as set forth by the Nimrod team, remain as necessary goals. There is another sense in which the study of Nimrod and its architecture may be important to deriving a future domain-based routing architecture. Nimrod can be said to have two derivatives: o Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), in that it took the notion of forwarding along well-known paths. o Private Network-Node Interface (PNNI), in that it took the notion of abstracting topological information and using that information to create connections for traffic. It is important to note, that whilst MPLS and PNNI borrowed ideas from Nimrod, neither of them can be said to be an implementation of this architecture. 3.4. PNNI The Private Network-Node Interface (PNNI) routing protocol was developed under the ATM Forum's auspices as a hierarchical route determination protocol for ATM, a connection-oriented architecture. It is reputed to have developed several of its methods from a study of the Nimrod architecture. What can be gained from an analysis of what did and did not succeed in PNNI? The PNNI protocol includes the assumption that all peer groups are willing to cooperate, and that the entire network is under the same top administration. Are there limitations that stem from this "world node" presupposition? As discussed in [RFC3221], the Internet is no longer a clean hierarchy, and there is a lot of resistance to having any sort of "ultimate authority" controlling or even brokering communication. PNNI is the first deployed example of a routing protocol that uses abstract map exchange (as opposed to distance-vector or link-state mechanisms) for inter-domain routing information exchange. One consequence of this is that domains need not all use the same mechanism for map creation. What were the results of this abstraction and source-based route calculation mechanism?
Since the authors of this document do not have experience running a PNNI network, the comments above are from a theoretical perspective. Further research on these issues based on operational experience is required. 4. Recent Research Work 4.1. Developments in Internet Connectivity The work commissioned from Geoff Huston by the Internet Architecture Board [RFC3221] draws a number of conclusions from the analysis of BGP routing tables and routing registry databases: o The connectivity between provider ASs is becoming more like a dense mesh than the tree structure that was commonly assumed to be commonplace a couple of years ago. This has been driven by the increasing amounts charged for peering and transit traffic by global service providers. Local direct peering and Internet exchanges are becoming steadily more common as the cost of local fibre connections drops. o End-user sites are increasingly resorting to multi-homing onto two or more service providers as a way of improving resiliency. This has a knock-on effect of spectacularly fast depletion of the available pool of AS numbers as end-user sites require public AS numbers to become multi-homed and corresponding increase in the number of prefixes advertised in BGP. o Multi-homed sites are using advertisement of longer prefixes in BGP as a means of traffic engineering to load spread across their multiple external connections with further impact on the size of the BGP tables. o Operational practices are not uniform, and in some cases lack of knowledge or training is leading to instability and/or excessive advertisement of routes by incorrectly configured BGP speakers. o All these factors are quickly negating the advantages in limiting the expansion of BGP routing tables that were gained by the introduction of Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) and consequent prefix aggregation in BGP. It is also now impossible for IPv6 to realize the worldview in which the default-free zone would be limited to perhaps 10,000 prefixes. o The typical "width" of the Internet in AS hops is now around five, and much less in many cases.
These conclusions have a considerable impact on the requirements for the future domain-based routing architecture: o Topological hierarchy (e.g., mandating a tree-structured connectivity) cannot be relied upon to deliver scalability of a large Internet routing system. o Aggregation cannot be relied upon to constrain the size of routing tables for an all-informed routing system. 4.2. DARPA NewArch Project DARPA funded a project to think about a new architecture for future generation Internet, called NewArch (see http://www.isi.edu/newarch/). Work started in the first half of 2000 and the main project finished in 2003 [NewArch03]. The main development is to conclude that as the Internet becomes mainstream infrastructure, fewer and fewer of the requirements are truly global but may apply with different force or not at all in certain parts of the network. This (it is claimed) makes the compilation of a single, ordered list of requirements deeply problematic. Instead, we may have to produce multiple requirement sets with support for differing requirement importance at different times and in different places. This "meta-requirement" significantly impacts architectural design. Potential new technical requirements identified so far include: o Commercial environment concerns such as richer inter-provider policy controls and support for a variety of payment models o Trustworthiness o Ubiquitous mobility o Policy driven self-organization ("deep auto-configuration") o Extreme short-timescale resource variability o Capacity allocation mechanisms o Speed, propagation delay, and delay/bandwidth product issues Non-technical or political "requirements" include: o Legal and Policy drivers such as
* Privacy and free/anonymous speech * Intellectual property concerns * Encryption export controls * Law enforcement surveillance regulations * Charging and taxation issues o Reconciling national variations and consistent operation in a worldwide infrastructure The conclusions of the work are now summarized in the final report [NewArch03]. 4.2.1. Defending the End-to-End Principle One of the participants in DARPA NewArch work (Dave Clark) with one of his associates has also published a very interesting paper analyzing the impact of some of the new requirements identified in NewArch (see Section 4.2) on the end-to-end principle that has guided the development of the Internet to date [Clark00]. Their primary conclusion is that the loss of trust between the users at the ends of end-to-end has the most fundamental effect on the Internet. This is clear in the context of the routing system, where operators are unwilling to reveal the inner workings of their networks for commercial reasons. Similarly, trusted third parties and their avatars (mainly midboxes of one sort or another) have a major impact on the end-to-end principles and the routing mechanisms that went with them. Overall, the end-to-end principles should be defended so far as is possible -- some changes are already too deeply embedded to make it possible to go back to full trust and openness -- at least partly as a means of staving off the day when the network will ossify into an unchangeable form and function (much as the telephone network has done). The hope is that by that time, a new Internet will appear to offer a context for unfettered innovation. 5. Existing Problems of BGP and the Current Inter-/Intra-Domain Architecture Although most of the people who have to work with BGP today believe it to be a useful, working protocol, discussions have brought to light a number of areas where BGP or the relationship between BGP and the intra-domain routing protocols in use today could be improved. BGP-4 has been and continues to be extended since it was originally introduced in [RFC1771] and the protocol as deployed has been documented in [RFC4271]. This section is, to a large extent, a wish
list for the future domain-based routing architecture based on those areas where BGP is seen to be lacking, rather than simply a list of problems with BGP. The shortcomings of today's inter-domain routing system have also been extensively surveyed in "Architectural Requirements for Inter-Domain Routing in the Internet" [RFC3221], particularly with respect to its stability and the problems produced by explosions in the size of the Internet. 5.1. BGP and Auto-Aggregation The initial stability followed by linear growth rates of the number of routing objects (prefixes) that was achieved by the introduction of CIDR around 1994, has now been once again been replaced by near- exponential growth of number of routing objects. The granularity of many of the objects advertised in the default-free zone is very small (prefix length of 22 or longer): this granularity appears to be a by- product of attempts to perform precision traffic engineering related to increasing levels of multi-homing. At present, there is no mechanism in BGP that would allow an AS to aggregate such prefixes without advance knowledge of their existence, even if it was possible to deduce automatically that they could be aggregated. Achieving satisfactory auto-aggregation would also significantly reduce the non-locality problems associated with instability in peripheral ASs. On the other hand, it may be that alterations to the connectivity of the net as described in [RFC3221] and Section 2.5.1 may limit the usefulness of auto-aggregation. 5.2. Convergence and Recovery Issues BGP today is a stable protocol under most circumstances, but this has been achieved at the expense of making the convergence time of the inter-domain routing system very slow under some conditions. This has a detrimental effect on the recovery of the network from failures. The timers that control the behavior of BGP are typically set to values in the region of several tens of seconds to a few minutes, which constrains the responsiveness of BGP to failure conditions. In the early days of deployment of BGP, poor network stability and router software problems lead to storms of withdrawals closely followed by re-advertisements of many prefixes. To control the load on routing software imposed by these "route flaps", route-flap damping was introduced into BGP. Most operators have now implemented a degree of route-flap damping in their deployments of BGP. This restricts the number of times that the routing tables will be rebuilt, even if a route is going up and down very frequently.
Unfortunately, route-flap damping responds to multiple flaps by increasing the route suppression time exponentially, which can result in some parts of the Internet being unreachable for hours at a time. There is evidence ([RFC3221] and measurements by some of the Sub- Group B members [Jiang02]) that in today's network, route flap is disproportionately associated with the fine-grained prefixes (length 22 or longer) associated with traffic engineering at the periphery of the network. Auto-aggregation, as previously discussed, would tend to mask such instability and prevent it being propagated across the whole network. Another question that needs to be studied is the continuing need for an architecture that requires global convergence. Some of our studies (unpublished) show that, in some localities at least, the network never actually reaches stability; i.e., it never really globally converges. Can a global, and beyond, network be designed with the requirement of global convergence? 5.3. Non-Locality of Effects of Instability and Misconfiguration There have been a number of instances, some of which are well documented, of a mistake in BGP configuration in a single peripheral AS propagating across the whole Internet and resulting in misrouting of most of the traffic in the Internet. Similarly, a single route flap in a single peripheral AS can require route table recalculation across the entire Internet. This non-locality of effects is highly undesirable, and it would be a considerable improvement if such effects were naturally limited to a small area of the network around the problem. This is another argument for an architecture that does not require global convergence. 5.4. Multi-Homing Issues As discussed previously, the increasing use of multi-homing as a robustness technique by peripheral networks requires that multiple routes have to be advertised for such domains. These routes must not be aggregated close in to the multi-homed domain as this would defeat the traffic engineering implied by multi-homing and currently cannot be aggregated further away from the multi-homed domain due to the lack of auto-aggregation capabilities. Consequentially, the default- free zone routing table is growing exponentially, as it was before CIDR. The longest prefix match routing technique introduced by CIDR, and implemented in BGP-4, when combined with provider address allocation is an obstacle to effective multi-homing if load sharing across the
multiple links is required. If an AS has been allocated, its addresses from an upstream provider, the upstream provider can aggregate those addresses with those of other customers and need only advertise a single prefix for a range of customers. But, if the customer AS is also connected to another provider, the second provider is not able to aggregate the customer addresses because they are not taken from his allocation, and will therefore have to announce a more specific route to the customer AS. The longest match rule will then direct all traffic through the second provider, which is not as required. Example: \ / AS1 AS2 \ / AS3 Figure 1: Address Aggregation In Figure 1, AS3 has received its addresses from AS1, which means AS1 can aggregate. But if AS3 wants its traffic to be seen equally both ways, AS3 is forced to announce both the aggregate and the more specific route to AS2. This problem has induced many ASs to apply for their own address allocation even though they could have been allocated from an upstream provider further exacerbating the default-free zone route table size explosion. This problem also interferes with the desire of many providers in the default-free zone to route only prefixes that are equal to or shorter than 20 or 19 bits. Note that some problems that are referred to as multi-homing issues are not, and should not be, solvable through the routing system (e.g., where a TCP load distributor is needed), and multi-homing is not a panacea for the general problem of robustness in a routing system [Berkowitz01]. Editors' Note: A more recent analysis of multi-homing can be found in [RFC4116]. 5.5. AS Number Exhaustion The domain identifier or AS number is a 16-bit number. When this paper was originally written in 2001, allocation of AS numbers was increasing 51% a year [RFC3221] and exhaustion by 2005 was predicted.
According to some recent work again by Huston [Huston05], the rate of increase dropped off after the business downturn, but as of July 2005, well over half the available AS numbers (39000 out of 64510) had been allocated by IANA and around 20000 were visible in the global BGP routing tables. A year later, these figures had grown to 42000 (April 2006) and 23000 (August 2006), respectively, and the rate of allocation is currently about 3500 per year. Depending on the curve-fitting model used to predict when exhaustion will occur, the pool will run out somewhere between 2010 and 2013. There appear to be other factors at work in this rate of increase beyond an increase in the number of ISPs in business, although there is a fair degree of correlation between these numbers. AS numbers are now used for a number of purposes beyond that of identifying large routing domains: multi-homed sites acquire an AS number in order to express routing preferences to their various providers and AS numbers are used part of the addressing mechanism for MPLS/BGP-based virtual private networks (VPNs) [RFC4364]. The IETF has had a proposal under development for over four years to increase the available range of AS numbers to 32 bits [RFC4893]. Much of the slowness in development is due to the deployment challenge during transition. Because of the difficulties of transition, deployment needs to start well in advance of actual exhaustion so that the network as a whole is ready for the new capability when it is needed. This implies that standardization needs to be complete and implementations available at least well in advance of expected exhaustion so that deployment of upgrades that can handle the longer AS numbers, should be starting around 2008, to give a reasonable expectation that the change has been rolled out across a large fraction of the Internet by the time exhaustion occurs. Editors' Note: The Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) are planning to move to assignment of the longer AS numbers by default on 1 January 2009, but there are concerns that significant numbers of routers will not have been upgraded by then. 5.6. Partitioned ASs Tricks with discontinuous ASs are used by operators, for example, to implement anycast. Discontinuous ASs may also come into being by chance if a multi-homed domain becomes partitioned as a result of a fault and part of the domain can access the Internet through each connection. It may be desirable to make support for this kind of situation more transparent than it is at present.
5.7. Load Sharing Load splitting or sharing was not a goal of the original designers of BGP and it is now a problem for today's network designers and managers. Trying to fool BGP into load sharing between several links is a constantly recurring exercise for most operators today. 5.8. Hold-Down Issues As with the interval between "hello" messages in OSPF, the typical size and defined granularity (seconds to tens of seconds) of the "keepalive" time negotiated at start-up for each BGP connection constrains the responsiveness of BGP to link failures. The recommended values and the available lower limit for this timer were set to limit the overhead caused by keepalive messages when link bandwidths were typically much lower than today. Analysis and experiment ([Alaettinoglu00], [Sandiick00] and [RFC4204]) indicate that faster links could sustain a much higher rate of keepalive messages without significantly impacting normal data traffic. This would improve responsiveness to link and node failures but with a corresponding increase in the risk of instability, if the error characteristics of the link are not taken properly into account when setting the keepalive interval. Editors' Note: A "fast" liveness protocol has been specified in [Katz10]. An additional problem with the hold-down mechanism in BGP is the amount of information that has to be exchanged to re-establish the database of route advertisements on each side of the link when it is re-established after a failure. Currently any failure, however brief forces a full exchange that could perhaps be constrained by retaining some state across limited time failures and using revision control, transaction and replication techniques to resynchronize the databases. Various techniques have been implemented to try to reduce this problem, but they have not yet been standardized. 5.9. Interaction between Inter-Domain Routing and Intra-Domain Routing Today, many operators' backbone routers run both I-BGP and an intra- domain protocol to maintain the routes that reach between the borders of the domain. Exporting routes from BGP into the intra-domain protocol in use and bringing them back up to BGP is not recommended [RFC2791], but it is still necessary for all backbone routers to run both protocols. BGP is used to find the egress point and intra-
domain protocol to find the path (next-hop router) to the egress point across the domain. This is not only a management problem but may also create other problems: o BGP is a path-vector protocol (i.e., a protocol that uses distance metrics possibly overridden by policy metrics), whereas most intra-domain protocols are link-state protocols. As such, BGP is not optimized for convergence speed although distance-vector algorithms generally require less processing power. Incidentally, more efficient distance-vector algorithms are available such as [Xu97]. o The metrics used in BGP and the intra-domain protocol are rarely comparable or combinable. Whilst there are arguments that the optimizations inside a domain may be different from those for end- to-end paths, there are occasions, such as calculating the "topologically nearest" server when computable or combinable metrics would be of assistance. o The policies that can be implemented using BGP are designed for control of traffic exchange between operators, not for controlling paths within a domain. Policies for BGP are most conveniently expressed in Routing Policy Support Language (RPSL) [RFC2622] and this could be extended if thought desirable to include additional policy information. o If the NEXT HOP destination for a set of BGP routes becomes inaccessible because of intra-domain protocol problems, the routes using the vanished next hop have to be invalidated at the next available UPDATE. Subsequently, if the next-hop route reappears, this would normally lead to the BGP speaker requesting a full table from its neighbor(s). Current implementations may attempt to circumvent the effects of intra-domain protocol route flap by caching the invalid routes for a period in case the next hop is restored through the "graceful restart" mechanism. Editors' Note: This was standardized as [RFC4724]. o Synchronization between intra-domain and inter-domain routing information is a problem as long as we use different protocols for intra-domain and inter-domain routing, which will most probably be the case even in the future because of the differing requirements in the two situations. Some sort of synchronization between those two protocols would be useful. In the RFC "IS-IS Transient Blackhole Avoidance" [RFC3277], the intra-domain protocol side of the story is covered (there is an equivalent discussion for OSPF).
o Synchronizing in BGP means waiting for the intra-domain protocol to know about the same networks as the inter-domain protocol, which can take a significant period of time and slows down the convergence of BGP by adding the intra-domain protocol convergence time into each cycle. In general, operators no longer attempt full synchronization in order to avoid this problem (in general, redistributing the entire BGP routing feed into the local intra- domain protocol is unnecessary and undesirable but where a domain has multiple exits to peers and other non-customer networks, changes in BGP routing that affect the exit taken by traffic require corresponding re-routing in the intra-domain routing). 5.10. Policy Issues There are several classes of issues with current BGP policy: o Policy is installed in an ad hoc manner in each autonomous system. There isn't a method for ensuring that the policy installed in one router is coherent with policies installed in other routers. o As described in Griffin [Griffin99] and in McPherson [RFC3345], it is possible to create policies for ASs, and instantiate them in routers, that will cause BGP to fail to converge in certain types of topology o There is no available network model for describing policy in a coherent manner. Policy management is extremely complex and mostly done without the aid of any automated procedures. The extreme complexity means that a highly-qualified specialist is required for policy management of border routers. The training of these specialists is quite lengthy and needs to involve long periods of hands-on experience. There is, therefore, a shortage of qualified staff for installing and maintaining the routing policies. Because of the overall complexity of BGP, policy management tends to be only a relatively small topic within a complete BGP training course and specialized policy management training courses are not generally available. 5.11. Security Issues While many of the issues with BGP security have been traced either to implementation issues or to operational issues, BGP is vulnerable to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Additionally, routers can be used as unwitting forwarders in DDoS attacks on other systems.
Though DDoS attacks can be fought in a variety of ways, mostly using filtering methods, it takes constant vigilance. There is nothing in the current architecture or in the protocols that serves to protect the forwarders from these attacks. Editors' Note: Since the original document was written, the issue of inter-domain routing security has been studied in much greater depth. The rpsec working group has gone into the security issues in great detail [RFC4593] and readers should refer to that work to understand the security issues. 5.12. Support of MPLS and VPNS Recently, BGP has been modified to function as a signaling protocol for MPLS and for VPNs [RFC4364]. Some people see this overloading of the BGP protocol as a boon whilst others see it as a problem. While it was certainly convenient as a vehicle for vendors to deliver extra functionality to their products, it has exacerbated some of the performance and complexity issues of BGP. Two important problems are that, the additional state that must be retained and refreshed to support VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnels and that BGP does not provide end-to-end notification making it difficult to confirm that all necessary state has been installed or updated. It is an open question whether VPN signaling protocols should remain separate from the route determination protocols. 5.13. IPv4/IPv6 Ships in the Night The fact that service providers need to maintain two completely separate networks, one for IPv4 and one for IPv6, has been a real hindrance to the introduction of IPv6. When IPv6 does get widely deployed, it will do so without causing the disappearance of IPv4. This means that unless something is done, service providers would need to maintain the two networks in perpetuity (at least on the foreshortened timescale which the Internet world uses). It is possible to use a single set of BGP speakers with multi- protocol extensions [RFC4760] to exchange information about both IPv4 and IPv6 routes between domains, but the use of TCP as the transport protocol for the information exchange results in an asymmetry when choosing to use one of TCP over IPv4 or TCP over IPv6. Successful information exchange confirms one of IPv4 or IPv6 reachability between the speakers but not the other, making it possible that reachability is being advertised for a protocol for which it is not present.
Also, current implementations do not allow a route to be advertised for both IPv4 and IPv6 in the same UPDATE message, because it is not possible to explicitly link the reachability information for an address family to the corresponding next-hop information. This could be improved, but currently results in independent UPDATEs being exchanged for each address family. 5.14. Existing Tools to Support Effective Deployment of Inter-Domain Routing The tools available to network operators to assist in configuring and maintaining effective inter-domain routing in line with their defined policies are limited, and almost entirely passive. o There are no tools to facilitate the planning of the routing of a domain (either intra- or inter-domain); there are a limited number of display tools that will visualize the routing once it has been configured. o There are no tools to assist in converting business policy specifications into the Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL) language (see Section 5.14.1); there are limited tools to convert the RPSL into BGP commands and to check, post-facto, that the proposed policies are consistent with the policies in adjacent domains (always provided that these have been revealed and accurately documented). o There are no tools to monitor BGP route changes in real-time and warn the operator about policy inconsistencies and/or instabilities. The following section summarizes the tools that are available to assist with the use of RPSL. Note they are all batch mode tools used off-line from a real network. These tools will provide checks for skilled inter-domain routing configurers but limited assistance for the novice. 5.14.1. Routing Policy Specification Language RPSL (RFC 2622 and RFC 2650) and RIPE NCC Database (RIPE 157) Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL) [RFC2622] enables a network operator to describe routes, routers, and Autonomous Systems (ASs) that are connected to the local AS. Using the RPSL language (see [RFC2650]) a distributed database is created to describe routing policies in the Internet as described by each AS independently. The database can be used to check the consistency of routing policies stored in the database.
Tools exist [IRRToolSet] that can use the database to (among other things): o Flag when two neighboring network operators specify conflicting or inconsistent routing information exchanges with each other and also detect global inconsistencies where possible; o Extract all AS-paths between two networks that are allowed by routing policy from the routing policy database; display the connectivity a given network has according to current policies. The database queries enable a partial-static solution to the convergence problem. They analyze routing policies of a very limited part of Internet and verify that they do not contain conflicts that could lead to protocol divergence. The static analysis of convergence of the entire system has exponential time complexity, so approximation algorithms would have to be used. The toolset also allows router configurations to be generated from RPSL specifications. Editors' Note: The "Internet Routing Registry Toolset" was originally developed by the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (ISI) between 1997 and 2001 as the "Routing Arbiter ToolSet" (RAToolSet) project. The toolset is no longer developed by ISI but is used worldwide, so after a period of improvement by RIPE NCC, it has now been transferred to the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) for ongoing maintenance as a public resource. 6. Security Considerations As this is an informational document on the history of requirements in IDR and on the problems facing the current Internet IDR architecture, it does not as such create any security problems. On the other hand, some of the problems with today's Internet routing architecture do create security problems, and these have been discussed in the text above. 7. Acknowledgments The document is derived from work originally produced by Babylon. Babylon was a loose association of individuals from academia, service providers, and vendors whose goal was to discuss issues in Internet routing with the intention of finding solutions for those problems.
The individual members who contributed materially to this document are: Anders Bergsten, Howard Berkowitz, Malin Carlzon, Lenka Carr Motyckova, Elwyn Davies, Avri Doria, Pierre Fransson, Yong Jiang, Dmitri Krioukov, Tove Madsen, Olle Pers, and Olov Schelen. Thanks also go to the members of Babylon and others who did substantial reviews of this material. Specifically, we would like to acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions of the following individuals: Loa Andersson, Tomas Ahlstrom, Erik Aman, Thomas Eriksson, Niklas Borg, Nigel Bragg, Thomas Chmara, Krister Edlund, Owe Grafford, Susan Hares, Torbjorn Lundberg, David McGrew, Jasminko Mulahusic, Florian-Daniel Otel, Bernhard Stockman, Tom Worster, and Roberto Zamparo. In addition, the authors are indebted to the folks who wrote all the references we have consulted in putting this paper together. This includes not only the references explicitly listed below, but also those who contributed to the mailing lists we have been participating in for years. The editors thank Lixia Zhang, as IRSG document shepherd, for her help and her perseverance, without which this document would never have been published. Finally, it is the editors who are responsible for any lack of clarity, any errors, glaring omissions or misunderstandings. 8. Informative References [Alaettinoglu00] Alaettinoglu, C., Jacobson, V., and H. Yu, "Towards Milli- Second IGP Convergence", Work in Progress, November 2000. [Berkowitz01] Berkowitz, H. and D. Krioukov, "To Be Multihomed: Requirements and Definitions", Work in Progress, July 2001. [Breslau90] Breslau, L. and D. Estrin, "An Architecture for Network- Layer Routing in OSI", Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Communications architectures & protocols , 1990. [Chapin94] Piscitello, D. and A. Chapin, "Open Systems Networking: TCP/IP & OSI", Addison-Wesley Copyright assigned to authors, 1994, <http://www.interisle.net/OSN/OSN.html>.
[Chiappa91] Chiappa, J., "A New IP Routing and Addressing Architecture", Work in Progress, 1991. [Clark00] Clark, D. and M. Blumenthal, "Rethinking the design of the Internet: The end to end arguments vs. the brave new world", August 2000, <http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/1519>. [Griffin99] Griffin, T. and G. Wilfong, "An Analysis of BGP Convergence Properties", Association for Computing Machinery Proceedings of SIGCOMM '99, 1999. [Huitema90] Huitema, C. and W. Dabbous, "Routeing protocols development in the OSI architecture", Proceedings of ISCIS V Turkey, 1990. [Huston05] Huston, G., "Exploring Autonomous System Numbers", The ISP Column , August 2005, <http://www.potaroo.net/ispcol/2005-08/as.html>. [INARC89] Mills, D., Ed. and M. Davis, Ed., "Internet Architecture Workshop: Future of the Internet System Architecture and TCP/IP Protocols - Report", Internet Architecture Task Force INARC, 1990, <http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ database/papers/inarc.pdf>. [IRRToolSet] Internet Systems Consortium, "Internet Routing Registry Toolset Project", IRR Tool Set Website, 2006, <http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sw/IRRToolSet/>. [ISO10747] ISO/IEC, "Protocol for Exchange of Inter-Domain Routeing Information among Intermediate Systems to support Forwarding of ISO 8473 PDUs", International Standard 10747 , 1993. [Jiang02] Jiang, Y., Doria, A., Olsson, D., and F. Pettersson, "Inter-domain Routing Stability Measurement", 2002, <http://psg.com/~avri/papers/paper-yong- hpsr2002-final.pdf>. [Katz10] Katz, D. and D. Ward, "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection", Work in Progress, January 2010.
[Labovitz02] Labovitz, C., Ahuja, A., Farnam, J., and A. Bose, "Experimental Measurement of Delayed Convergence", NANOG , 2002. [NewArch03] Clark, D., Sollins, K., Wroclawski, J., Katabi, D., Kulik, J., Yang, X., Braden, R., Faber, T., Falk, A., Pingali, V., Handley, M., and N. Chiappa, "New Arch: Future Generation Internet Architecture", December 2003, <http://www.isi.edu/newarch/iDOCS/final.finalreport.pdf>. [RFC0904] Mills, D., "Exterior Gateway Protocol formal specification", RFC 904, April 1984. [RFC0975] Mills, D., "Autonomous confederations", RFC 975, February 1986. [RFC1105] Lougheed, K. and J. Rekhter, "Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)", RFC 1105, June 1989. [RFC1126] Little, M., "Goals and functional requirements for inter- autonomous system routing", RFC 1126, October 1989. [RFC1163] Lougheed, K. and Y. Rekhter, "Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)", RFC 1163, June 1990. [RFC1267] Lougheed, K. and Y. Rekhter, "Border Gateway Protocol 3 (BGP-3)", RFC 1267, October 1991. [RFC1752] Bradner, S. and A. Mankin, "The Recommendation for the IP Next Generation Protocol", RFC 1752, January 1995. [RFC1753] Chiappa, J., "IPng Technical Requirements Of the Nimrod Routing and Addressing Architecture", RFC 1753, December 1994. [RFC1771] Rekhter, Y. and T. Li, "A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 1771, March 1995. [RFC1992] Castineyra, I., Chiappa, N., and M. Steenstrup, "The Nimrod Routing Architecture", RFC 1992, August 1996. [RFC2362] Estrin, D., Farinacci, D., Helmy, A., Thaler, D., Deering, S., Handley, M., and V. Jacobson, "Protocol Independent Multicast-Sparse Mode (PIM-SM): Protocol Specification", RFC 2362, June 1998.
[RFC2622] Alaettinoglu, C., Villamizar, C., Gerich, E., Kessens, D., Meyer, D., Bates, T., Karrenberg, D., and M. Terpstra, "Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL)", RFC 2622, June 1999. [RFC2650] Meyer, D., Schmitz, J., Orange, C., Prior, M., and C. Alaettinoglu, "Using RPSL in Practice", RFC 2650, August 1999. [RFC2791] Yu, J., "Scalable Routing Design Principles", RFC 2791, July 2000. [RFC3221] Huston, G., "Commentary on Inter-Domain Routing in the Internet", RFC 3221, December 2001. [RFC3277] McPherson, D., "Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) Transient Blackhole Avoidance", RFC 3277, April 2002. [RFC3345] McPherson, D., Gill, V., Walton, D., and A. Retana, "Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Persistent Route Oscillation Condition", RFC 3345, August 2002. [RFC3618] Fenner, B. and D. Meyer, "Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP)", RFC 3618, October 2003. [RFC3765] Huston, G., "NOPEER Community for Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Route Scope Control", RFC 3765, April 2004. [RFC3913] Thaler, D., "Border Gateway Multicast Protocol (BGMP): Protocol Specification", RFC 3913, September 2004. [RFC4116] Abley, J., Lindqvist, K., Davies, E., Black, B., and V. Gill, "IPv4 Multihoming Practices and Limitations", RFC 4116, July 2005. [RFC4204] Lang, J., "Link Management Protocol (LMP)", RFC 4204, October 2005. [RFC4271] Rekhter, Y., Li, T., and S. Hares, "A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271, January 2006. [RFC4364] Rosen, E. and Y. Rekhter, "BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)", RFC 4364, February 2006. [RFC4593] Barbir, A., Murphy, S., and Y. Yang, "Generic Threats to Routing Protocols", RFC 4593, October 2006.
[RFC4601] Fenner, B., Handley, M., Holbrook, H., and I. Kouvelas, "Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM): Protocol Specification (Revised)", RFC 4601, August 2006. [RFC4724] Sangli, S., Chen, E., Fernando, R., Scudder, J., and Y. Rekhter, "Graceful Restart Mechanism for BGP", RFC 4724, January 2007. [RFC4760] Bates, T., Chandra, R., Katz, D., and Y. Rekhter, "Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4", RFC 4760, January 2007. [RFC4893] Vohra, Q. and E. Chen, "BGP Support for Four-octet AS Number Space", RFC 4893, May 2007. [RFC5772] Doria, A., Davies, E., and F. Kastenholz, "A Set of Possible Requirements for a Future Routing Architecture", RFC 5772, February 2010. [Sandiick00] Sandick, H., Squire, M., Cain, B., Duncan, I., and B. Haberman, "Fast LIveness Protocol (FLIP)", Work in Progress, February 2000. [Tsuchiya87] Tsuchiya, P., "An Architecture for Network-Layer Routing in OSI", Proceedings of the ACM workshop on Frontiers in computer communications technology , 1987. [Xu97] Xu, Z., Dai, S., and J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves, "A More Efficient Distance Vector Routing Algorithm", Proc IEEE MILCOM 97, Monterey, California, Nov 1997, <http:// www.cse.ucsc.edu/research/ccrg/publications/ zhengyu.milcom97.pdf>.
Authors' Addresses Elwyn B. Davies Folly Consulting Soham, Cambs UK Phone: +44 7889 488 335 EMail: email@example.com Avri Doria LTU Lulea, 971 87 Sweden Phone: +1 401 663 5024 EMail: email@example.com


text:
Check out Fools With You, the latest track from Chris Brown, which dropped on Sunday, May 8th, 2011. Chris Brown's movement grows stronger with each new release, and Fools With You has further strengthened that fact. It's a solid addition to the commendable body of work Chris Brown has been creating since stepping foot in the rap game, and we're definitely looking forward to what Chris Brown has on deck.
Hear more of Chris Brown on She Ain't You (Remix), featuring SWV. Check out Chris Brown's profile page for the most recent info, news, songs, and mixtapes.
How do you feel about the production here?
Quotable Lyrics
"White flag, hangs up
I ain't got no room for them, no
If love was a crime
I'd be doing way more than life
Girl I'm through, all I see is you
You're my heart
Girl I fools with you!
Tell me when, tell me where"

subset: commoncrawl


text:
If Teens Were in Charge of Thanksgiving
My brother is hosting Thanksgiving this year, and this is making my teen girls very happy. Not because they love their uncle, aunt and cousins very much (which they do), but because they know they won't be subjected to the three-day prep and cleaning frenzy that takes place every time we host a gathering here at our home. When they give thanks on Thursday it will be because the day didn't start with them having to peel potatoes for two hours.
RELATED: Sorry Kids, Mom's Never Making Turkey
Let's face it – most teens are not exactly thrilled about hosting a dinner party, and I think if they were in charge of Thanksgiving things would be a lot different. Yes it would be more casual, more spontaneous and less stressful, but there might not even be a turkey and the bathroom would be horrendous.
1. The most important thing would be the playlist
Sure the stuffing is moist and the cranberries are perfectly tangy, but what does it matter when there's terrible music playing in the background? With the teens in charge, the centerpiece would be the tunes, not the turkey. Who cares what chardonnay pairs with yams—Taylor Swift goes with everything!
2. The least important thing would be the menu
How could you think there wouldn't be pizza?
Not to say there wouldn't be any food, because we all know how teens love to eat. But the key would be ease and convenience. No one is going to be getting up at 4 a.m. to make minted peas. More than likely, the turkey and fixings would all be takeout, along with the pizza. How could you think there wouldn't be pizza?
3. There would be no need for fancy hors d'oeuvres
I remember one of the kids saying at a family get together, "Why is there so much food before the food?" I think every time I spend an entire day shopping for and then assembling a cheese and prosciutto platter, a pilgrim turns over in their grave. Teens know the beauty of a bag of chips and a bowl of onion dip, and I admire them for that.
4. Cleaning would not be a priority
Since my girls always say, "Nobody notices if the bathroom is spotless," they would only take the time to close the shower curtain and make sure there was an extra roll of toilet paper handy. Obviously they haven't developed the skill of binge-cleaning before parties to give the false impression of a well-tended home to boost one's self-esteem. I have so many things I need to teach them.
5. No one would care if the dishes didn't match
Since they abide by the theory that no one ever died because the gravy boat didn't match the vegetable platter, not a thought would be given to making sure the table setting was Martha Stewart-worthy. In fact, they might just put out some paper plates and call it a day. Of course those dishes would be the bio-degradable bamboo ones because teens are both environmentally-conscious and stylish.
RELATED: 8 Tips for Thanksgiving With a Picky Eater
So, to summarize, if teenagers were in charge of Thanksgiving there'd be an awesome soundtrack, a house that looked lived-in, an eclectic table and food that wasn't seasoned with blood, sweat and tears. Huh. Do you think these kids may be on to something? Pass the frozen peas!


text:
Facebook Unveils $6.5 Billion Revolver with JPM Led Group
Facebook announced it entered into a five-year senior unsecured revolving credit facility with a lender group led by JPMorgan Chase Bank, as administrative agent.
The 2013 revolving credit facility replaces the company's existing credit facilities and allows the company to borrow up to $6.5 billion to fund working capital and general corporate purposes.
Interest under the 2013 revolving credit facility will be payable on the borrowed amounts set at LIBOR plus 1.0%. The company paid origination fees at closing of the 2013 Revolving Credit Facility, which fees are being amortized over the term of the facility. The Company is also obligated to pay an annual commitment fee of 0.10% on the daily undrawn balance of the facility. Any amounts outstanding under this facility will be due on August 15, 2018. No amounts have been drawn under this facility as of the date hereof.
In connection with entering into the 2013 revolver, the company said it terminated its existing undrawn $5.0 billion revolving credit facility with JPMorgan Chase Bank as administrative agent, and the lenders party thereto. In addition, the company terminated its existing $1.5 billion term loan facility with JPMorgan Chase, as administrative agent, under which it had $1.5 billion principal amount outstanding.
To read the Facebook news release click here.


text:
"Where's Jelly Bean Android 4.2?" is a typical question posed by HTC One S owners, and now they've got their answer.
The Taiwanese manufacturer has confirmed that the HTC One S will not be upgraded to Jelly Bean Android 4.2 and/or Sense 5 after all, but hey: it has great audio and video, right?
The news first trickled out of HTC France's Facebook page (get your dictionaries out) and was later confirmed in a statement to The Unwired.
Said statement reads: "We can confirm that the HTC One S will not receive further Android OS updates and will remain on the current version of Android and HTC Sense.
"We realize this news will be met with disappointment by some, but our customers should feel confident that we have designed the HTC One S to be optimized with our amazing camera and audio experiences."
That's a bit like saying: "I didn't get you a birthday present, but I really like your jumper."
The HTC One S is just over a year old, but it's not like users are missing out on much. The big new feature in Jelly Bean Android 4.2 was Photo Sphere. Amazing.
And anyway, Jelly Bean Android 4.3 and Key Lime Pie Android 5.0 are just around the corner. Non-flagships and non-Nexus devices are unfortunately doomed to fall behind sooner rather than later, sadly.
Having said all that, I very much doubt that many HTC One S owners know or indeed care about Jelly Bean Android 4.2. Am I out of line? Launch your tirades below.


text:
An ideal anniversary or wedding gift, cutting boards made of durable, eco-friendly bamboo can display a couple's names and wedding date
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text:
The ACMS is happy to announce the unveiling of the new Open Access Resources for Researchers in Mongolia website. This guide is meant to provide access to open access and online material relevant to research in Mongolia in a new easy to access format. This project is an ongoing collaboration between the American Center for Mongolian Studies and the Mongolian Library Consortium.
This project was sponsored in part through the ACMS-Mongolia Field Research Fellowship Program, which is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State through a grant from the Council of American Overseas Research.


text:
A HOSPICE that helps families to make 'precious memories' despite illness has launched a new fundraising initiative.
Helen & Douglas House in East Oxford is encouraging people to host meals at their homes, and invite diners to donate the money they would have otherwise spent eating out.
Supporters have been asked to stage a Dine at Mine event on Saturday, October 13, be it for breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea or dinner.
Leanne Godfrey, whose five-year-old daughter Lily-Mae Oldham is cared for by the hospice, has backed the new campaign.
The Witney resident said: "Helen & Douglas House is so important to us.
"It is an environment that is safe and the nurses take on the carer role, so we can just be parents.
"It also provides invaluable support to parents and siblings so they have someone to talk to when losing a loved one."
Last week Lord Ian Blair, chair of trustees at the charity, said a 'new era' had started at the hospice after a period of financial struggles, which resulted in the closure of adult services at Douglas House.
Ms Godfrey encouraged people to sign up to Dine at Mine, so families can continue to make 'precious memories' at Helen House.
She added: "You will be helping parents like me make the most amazing memories, which will last a lifetime."
Lily-Mae has had care at Helen House since 2017, for a life-shortening condition called Rett Syndrome.
She is fully dependent and cannot walk or talk, and has regular seizures.
Her mum was one of six whose children use Helen House or its outreach service, who the hospice treated to a pamper day.
The gathering on June 30 launched the Dine at Mine campaign with a meal, plus massages, facials and manicures, all donated by Oxfordshire businesses.
Ms Godfrey thanked the hospice for arranging the event, adding: "It was nice to have a few hours with the other mums having a chat about normal things we have to deal with.
"The pedicure, foot massage and facial were lovely.
"It was very kind of people to take time out of their lives to give us mums a treat."
Dine at Mine can range from a small gathering at home to a black tie dinner at a hired venue, and hosts can either prepare or buy the meal or ask guests to bring a dish.
Lauren Kemp, head of events and supporter partnerships at Helen & Douglas House, said: "It was wonderful to be able to hold our first Dine at Mine meal at Helen House and invite some of our mums along to launch this great campaign.
"As a charity we need to raise £3m every year, and we cannot do this without our supporters' help."
She thanked everyone who supported the mums' afternoon, including beauty therapists from Hawkwell House Hotel in Iffley, food and raffle donations from Jury's Inn, Waitrose in Headington and Botley and Tesco in Abingdon and Bicester, as well as not-for-profit organisation Aiden's Army for providing goodie bags.
The combination of food and company has proved a success for other charities, from Macmillan's Biggest Coffee Morning to Sobell House Hospice's Come4Tea, which launched last year.
To sign up to host a Dine at Mine event, visit helenanddouglas.org.uk/event/dine-at-mine.


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Get The Power Lunch newsletter, a must-read weekday roundup of what's buzzing in Florida politics:
Happy Thursday, Power Lunch readers. Well, as I promised in yesterday's newsletter, it was an eventful day in political news yesterday, from the state Legislature to the national stage. In fact, those two items are so newsworthy that we're spending most of the Power Lunch on them today.
The Speaker is in: Before we get to the big news items from last night, one from this morning. The votes are in, and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has been elected as the 62nd Speaker of the House. The Wall Street Journal has


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Below is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,
by Dr. Walt Brown. Copyright © Center for Scientific Creation. All rights reserved.
Click here to order the hardbound 8th edition (2008) and other materials.
More than 27 billion tons of river sediments enter our oceans each year. Probably the rate of sediment transport is diminishing as looser topsoil is removed and as erosion smooths out Earth's terrain. Even if erosion has been constant, the sediments now on the ocean floor would have accumulated in only 30-million years. No process has been proposed which can remove 27-billion tons of ocean sediments each year. So, the oceans cannot be hundreds of millions of years old.a


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In the beginning of the year I told you about some exciting project we were starting to work on. Well, these days we are working hard on it and we can tell you more about it very soon. But it's related to Home and Delicious and will widen our concept! When working on such a project you need endless inspiration and I thought I might show you some beautiful images that we have in front of us at the moment, only six of hundreds... Style, colours, furniture, feeling, objects. You might get inspired too? I truly hope so. Have a nice day.
– Read more to see the images –


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Leni had chosen a '4th of July' theme and here's what I got:
A sewing supplies catalogue from 1950 - I love this, and am going to feature something from it in a future post.
K x
Oooh those target buttons are really like the ones Oobop put on her red 40's dress, how amazing! Lovely haul. This has been soooo much fun!ReplyDelete
Ay, I'm glad you like everything!ReplyDelete
So cute. I can't wait to see the shirt. It takes a brave man to wear something so bright!ReplyDelete
Sweet. Re:Current husband-do you swap out a new one each week or something?XD
Re:linking tools-just install disqus
That patriotic fabric is awesome and hilarious at the same time. It's going to make a fabulous skirt. I'm lusting over that catalogue. Looking forward to your post about it.
Thanks again for putting together an awesome swap!
I love that fabric ! Its amazing !! I too would be exciting about the rayon binding. We cant seem to find it here in the UK. Please share your experiences with it :-) I also love 'current husband'. Tres amusing ! K xxReplyDelete


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Programs & Webcasts
CLE and Other Credit Types
Published: May 2008
Published: August 2010Last Updated: August 2014
Published: November 2010Last Updated: February 2018
Published: November 2011Last Updated: November 2018
Published: October 2012Last Updated: April 2018
Published: November 2012Last Updated: October 2018
Published: November 2013Last Updated: May 2018
Published: April 2014Last Updated: February 2019
Published: May 2014Last Updated: September 2018
Published: November 2014
Published: September 2015Last Updated: October 2018
Recorded on: Mar. 7, 2017
CPE credit (NASBA QAS Self-Study) is available by completing and passing the program's CPE Review & Exam.
Lecture Topics [01:07:54]
Upon the successful completion of this program, the participant will be able to:
Recall the implementation and present status of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
Recognize key provisions contained in the final and temporary regulations issued under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) §§1471-1474 ...
Recorded on: Mar. 9, 2017
AMY TAUB: Hello. My name is Amy Taub. And I'm a program attorney with PLI, a nonprofit learning organization dedicated to keeping attorneys and other professionals at the forefront of knowledge and expertise, as well as preparing them to fulfill their pro bono responsibilities. I'd like to welcome you to today's briefing; "Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act 2017, What Financial Institutions and Withholding Agents Need to Know Now."
Before we begin, ...
Published: June 2017
Published: September 2017Last Updated: June 2018
Recorded on: Oct. 18, 2017
Taken from the briefing Leveraged Finance – Commitment Papers Basics and Best Practices recorded October 2017 in New York.
This One-Hour Briefing will provide lawyers with an understanding of the mechanics of commitment papers in leveraged acquisitions.
Lecture Topics [01:02:49]
Listen to Katarina Molnarova and Scott B. Selinger of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP as they discuss:
An overview of commitment letters, fee letters and other ...
Recorded on: Oct. 20, 2017
AMY TAUB: It is now my pleasure to turn this briefing over to Scott Selinger.
SCOTT SELINGER: Thank you, Amy. Good afternoon to everybody. Today we are going to be talking about commitment letters, with a particular focus on their interplay with an acquisition financing context. A brief note about mine and Kat's practice before we get started so that folks understand the perspective we come to this topic from, we are going to approach it, try to ...
Course Handbook from the program Banking Law Institute 2017, held December, 2017.
From the program: New Developments in Securitization 2017
Released on: Dec. 20, 2017
The securitization market continues to develop and innovate, while also being subject to new regulations. Traditional asset-backed securities (ABS) markets, including auto securitizations, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and credit card receivables continue with steady issuance volumes. New markets, such as marketplace lending, continue to be developed. Other markets, such as private-label residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), ...
Course Handbook from the program Real Estate M&A and REIT Transactions 2018, held January 2018.
Course Handbook from the program Asset Based Financing Strategies 2018, held February 2018.
Recorded on: Mar. 8, 2018
Taken from the One-Hour Briefing Recorded March 2018 in New York
Syndication Process: A Buyer's Perspective [01:04:20]
This One-Hour Briefing presented by Samantha R. Koplik, partner in Dechert LLP's global finance practice and Scott M. Zimmerman, partner and head of Dechert LLP's leveraged finance practice, provides an introduction to the syndication process in a middle-market acquisition financing. The process will be explained ...
From the program: Ethics for Financial Industry Lawyers 2018
Released on: Mar. 18, 2018
The program will review the professional responsibility issues confronting lawyers who advise clients in connection with securities and derivatives transactions, including the Dodd-Frank Act.
Lecture Topics [Total RunTime: 02:04:33]
Segments with an asterisk (*) are available only with the purchase of the entire program.
Introduction* [00:00:52]
Michael S. Sackheim, Howard Schneider
Ethics for Financial Industry Lawyers [02:03:41]
Recorded on: Mar. 15, 2018
SPEAKER: It is now my pleasure to turn this briefing over to Samantha Koplik.
SAMANTHA R. KOPLIK: Thank you very much for joining us today. I'm Sam Koplik. And I'm joined by my partner Scott Zimmerman. We are going to start today, giving an introduction to the syndication process in a middle market acquisition financing, covering some of the important topics and considerations, all from the perspective of the buyer.
For purposes of this presentation, ...
All Contents Copyright © 1996-2019 Practising Law Institute. Continuing Legal Education since 1933.
© 2019 PLI PRACTISING LAW INSTITUTE. All rights reserved. The PLI logo is a service mark of PLI.
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The photo was taken inside the ta-ta-taxi cab. ^^
Okay? What's up with the title? It just means that after a coupl'a weeks, we ate again in Pancake House! But what up with the, "without pancakes" phrase? None of us ordered pancakes. Even I. I was afraid to have vomit hardships again just like what happened when I ordered two-piece Chicken with rice plus hotcakes with egg last year. :O :-bd So I just ordered the two-piece chicken meal alone.
Before eating dinner, we shopped for some things my mom, dad and MYSELF need. Frankly, an example is the latest issue of Candy magazine. Haha. I just discovered that my crush and I are both water signs. LOL. ~
Okay, gotta go. Distribution of Cards tomorrow plus THE RELEASE. ♥
Thanks to Zet today!


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Exhibits scheduled through 2012 in Humboldt County:
* Current: We are exhibiting "Like In A Dream" at the Redwood Art Association's Fall Exhibit.
* We have an ongoing exhibit at the Victorian Inn in Ferndale.
* We continue to have a few of our boat and bay paintings at the Wharfinger Building, located at the Eureka Public Marina.
* Moonrise Herbs, G Street, Arcata - Prints and two paintings, "White Bird In The Golden Cage" and "Leaving The Golden Cage."
* Next November and December, 2012, we will be returning to Humboldt Herbals in Old Town, Eureka and will have 5 small paintings in a group show at The Wine Spot.
* Next November and December, 2012, we will also be returning to The Wine Spot on F Street in Eureka for a group exhibit of miniature paintings. We will have five 8" x 12" framed paintings which make great Christmas paintings.
Arts' Alive:
First Saturday of each Month, 6 - 9 PM Eureka, Old Town Area
We continue to have paintings and prints for sale and will be producing
new ones.
Call us if you have an interest in seeing what we are doing, visiting our home gallery or discussing a custom idea.
We have exhibited in many juried art shows sponsored by the Humboldt Art Council and the Redwood Art Association held at the Morris Graves Museum of Art and Eureka City Hall. We also exhibit in the juried art shows at the Humboldt County Fair each August in Ferndale.
We have a large restoration art piece hanging at the Oberon Restaurant, a painted montage at the Sea Grill Restaurant, and a custom photo montage at Old Town Coffee & Chocolates, all are in Old Town, Eureka.


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Consumers can enjoy new seasonal offerings for innovative Alterations die-cutting and embossing product line
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (Oct. 21, 2014) – Exploring holiday die-cutting and embossing design styles, Tim Holtz® has released his latest Sizzix® Alterations™ product assortment for his motorized Vagabond™ Machine.
Fusing both traditional and vintage design aesthetics into his winter release, Tim offers 10 versatile steel-rule Bigz™ dies that cut a variety of materials including cardstock, chipboard, grungeboard™, fabric, leather and metallic foil. Especially noteworthy are a jumbo tattered pinecone design to create dimensional pinecones and roses, and a layered snowflake with a matching Texture Fades™ Embossing Folder for enhancing its dimensional detail.
Additional angel, deer, sleigh and St. Nick shapes are perfect for creating any stylish, seasonal project. Retro gift packages and ornament Bigz dies can be used for special occasions all year-long to create numerous styles, especially when paired with their coordinating Movers & Shapers™ magnetic die designs. Completing this steel-rule grouping is a new seasonal On the Edge™ die that easily adds vibrant boughs of holly.
Expanding his new Thinlits™ die sets offerings, Tim introduces more intricate designs featuring large holiday greens, labels and paper snowflakes. Two new holiday word Thinlits die sets, in block and script, offer detailed fonts to stylize cards and other holiday-themed projects with creative phrases or sentiments.
Ideal for crafting handmade cards and other papercrafts, two new Framelits™ with cling mounted rubber stamps sets express season's greetings, along with four Texture Fades™ Embossing Folders sets with garland, greenery, holiday knit, sentiment and snowflake patterns to further inspire festivity.
Three new Christmas-themed ShadowPress™ Debossing Folders sets capture the holiday spirit with such classic phrases as "be joyful," "holly jolly," "tidings of joy" and "wonderland" by creating a letterpress look on cards, tags, photographs, scrapbook pages and more. A versatile months set includes all 12 calendar months to complement any memory keeping project.
The October collection of Tim Holtz Alterations products is now available in local craft boutiques and major retail craft chains around the country. For more information, visit www.Sizzix.com/home.
About Alterations
The Tim Holtz Alterations line of products is a creative assortment that brings together many mixed-media dies and embossing products for countless creative applications with the motorized Sizzix Vagabond Machine. Each element was specifically designed to work with Tim's other products to inspire paper crafters and mixed-media artists to discover their true creativity.
About Tim Holtz
Tim Holtz is the Creative Director for Ranger Industries, one of the leading manufacturers of innovative inks, paints and embossing products. Tim plays an integral part in the development and design of cutting-edge papercrafting products. Tim has teamed up with various key companies like Advantus, Tonic Studios, Sizzix, Stampers Anonymous and Core'dinations to bring unique products that work hand in hand. Learn more about Tim and connect to video tutorials and his blog at TimHoltz.com.
About Sizzix
Launched in 2001, Sizzix is a division of Ellison Educational Equipment Inc., the market pioneer and leader of die cutting machines and accessories. Through its portfolio of die cutting machines and die cutting products, Sizzix leverages Ellison's 37 years of proven manufacturing and technology heritage to empower creativity among its customer base with new and innovative products. Sizzix is a recognized global brand that can be found in over 100 countries and in major and specialty retailers. For more information on Sizzix and its line of craft-inspiring products, please visit www.Sizzix.com/home.
Media Contact:
Natalie Paige
949-598-8822 ext. 125


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Brother Premium - Thermal paper - Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in) - 100 sheet(s) - for PocketJet PJ-673; PocketJet 3Item#:� YYI2-45421P �|�Model#:�LB3635
Currently Out Of Stock!
You May Consider This Alternative
Brother Premium - thermal paper - 100 shee Product Details
Shipping Weight: 22.4 oz
Media Type: Thermal paper
Media Sizes: Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in)
Printing Technology: Direct thermal
Included Qty: 100 sheet(s)
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support: 90 days warranty
Compatibility Information
Compatible with: Brother PocketJet PJ-673 � Brother PocketJet 3
Manufactured by: Brother (Canada)
Warranty provided by: Brother (Canada)
UPC No: 700908000026
Mfg Part No: LB3635
Box Size:
( Length:0, Width:0, Depth:0)
Shipping Weight: 1.3300 pound(s)
Click here for full warranty and support information
- Brother (Canada) logos are registered trademarks of Brother (Canada). All others trademarks and copyrights mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.


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Welcome to The Outdoors Trader! Join today, registration is easy!You can register using your Google, Facebook, or Twitter account, just click here. Registered users also see less ads!
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Forum for Want To Buy Ads for Firearms and Everything Else
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Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision Kit Glasses And IR Emitter Needs 120Hz Monitor
Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision Kit Glasses And IR Emitter Needs 120Hz 3D Monitor
By DPD
to your specified address. |
Receive SMS with one-hour delivery window
Weekend, timed and European delivery options are available at checkout
Have your parcel delivered by DPD to your specified address. Receive SMS with one-hour delivery windowWeekend, timed and European delivery options are available at checkout
Collect instore
Collect from our Bolton store, BL6 6PE |
Order online, collect from our Bolton store (25-28 Enterprise Park, Middlebrook, Horwich, Bolton, BL6 6PE)
UPS and DPD Pickup Pickup from local convenience store |
Collect your parcel from your newsagents, petrol stations and convenience stores
Protect against installation damage for 28 days.
More info
ScanProtect is an enhanced warranty specifically designed and offered by Scan to reduce the risk of any mishap or damage to components during installation.
Our aim with ScanProtect is to encourage our customers to upgrade or build their own PC confidently. For a small additional fee our customers are provided with complete peace of mind.
Upgrade your PC to a fully immersive stereoscopic 3D experience with NVIDIA® GeForce® 3D Vision™. A combination of high-tech wireless glasses and advanced software, GeForce 3D Vision automatically transforms hundreds of PC games into full stereoscopic 3D.
Just slip on the stylish glasses and pair them with an NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU and a "GeForce 3D Vision-Ready" display to experience characters and environments come to life on the screen.
In addition, you can watch 3D movies and 3D digital photographs in eye popping, crystal-clear quality. Give your eyes something to talk about with GeForce 3D Vision. See what everyone is saying about GeForce 3D Vision or find a location to test drive for yourself.
You may be interested in this 3D Bundle
** Important **
• The Nvidia GeForce 3D glasses require a compatible 120Hz LCD Monitor or DLP projector to function.
• Requires Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX or above Graphics Card Features GeForce 3D Vision Specifications
• Wireless
-Infrared receiver: Receive signal between 1.5 and 15 feet
• Power
-Battery Life: 40 hours of stereoscopic 3D
-Power button: On button
-Rechargeable battery connector: USB 2.0 mini-B power connector
• Indicator Lights
-Battery Level: Green and red indicator lights
-Charging: Amber light
• Dimensions
-Product Dimensions: 20.3''x 16.6''x 8.2''
-Weight: 50 grams
IR Emitter
• Wireless
-Infrared transmitter: Transmit signal between 1.5 and 15 feet
• Buttons
-NVIDIA backlit button: GeForce 3D Vision on/off
-Depth Adjustment: Thumbwheel on the back of IR emitter
• Connectors
-USB 2.0 mini-B Connect to the PC for enabling GeForce 3D Vision
-VESA Stereo Cable Port - For use with DLP HDTV only
• Dimensions
-Product Dimensions: 2.5" X 2.5" X 1.5" tall
-Product Weight: 47 grams
Minimum requirements
• Microsoft® Windows® Vista 32/64-bit or Windows 7 32/64-bit
• Intel® Core™2 Duo or AMD Athlon™ X2 CPU or higher
• Graphics card supporting 3D Vision
• 1GB of system memory. (2GB is recommended)
• 100 MB free disk space
• Compatible 120Hz LCD Monitor or DLP projector
Please note your statutory rights are not affected.
For further information regarding Scan's warranty procedure please see our terms and conditions
- Duration:
- 12 months
- Type:
- Return to base
- DOA Period:
- 28 days
- RTB Period:
- 1 months
- Manufacturer:
Date Issued: 15th May 2015
Choosing a monitor is not an easy decision to make, and not just because of the large number of variations in resolution, refresh rates, sizes and connectivity options. There are also varying panel technologies used to form each display that need to be considered. These panel technologies can be grouped into three broad categories which cover the vast majority of monitors sold in the consumer market.
Date Issued: 17th Dec 2013
G-SYNC works in a surprisingly simple way - it calculates how long the present frame takes to compute and then, crucially, varies the refresh rate of the monitor to match. It works between a minimum of 33.3ms (30fps) and the maximum supported refresh of the display. The key takeaway here is that the graphics card and monitor are both synced up to one another - the monitor doesn't have the limitations imposed by a rigid, fixed-rate scanning routine.
Date Issued: 2nd Dec 2010
NVIDIA® CUDA parallel computing architecture is enabled on GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla products. Whereas GeForce and Quadro are designed for consumer graphics and professional visualization respectively, the NVIDIA® Tesla™ product family is designed ground-up for parallel computing and offers exclusive computing features.
Date Issued: 8th Oct 2010
Modern desktop computers and notebooks comprise of a CPU, motherboard, graphics, storage, and, usually an optical drive. Computers have a number of ports and sockets that enable the user to plug-in various peripherals such as a printer, USB mouse, or, perhaps most importantly of all, an Internet connection.
Date Issued: 4th Jun 2010
One of the most interesting technologies in 2010 promises to be 3D TV. Pushed by the likes of Samsung, Sony and Panasonic on their high-end sets, 3D TV will gain traction once broadcasters - such as Sky and the BBC - and movie studios increase 3D content.
Date Issued: 2nd Mar 2010
Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology is touted as the successor to LCD/Plasma displays. We explain what it is and where you'll find it.
Date Issued: 23rd Feb 2009
NVIDIA competes with ATI Technologies - now a wholly-owned subsidiary of microprocessor manufacturer AMD - in the discrete and integrated GPU market. Intel, too, has a significant presence which is currently limited to producing integrated graphics. NVIDIA and ATI design the chips that power graphics cards which are primarily used for playing games. These chips are then built on to a PCB, other necessary components such as memory and cooling are added, and then sold via a number of partners.
Date Issued: 3rd Dec 2008
Keeping in tandem with technological developments, audio/video connectors continue to evolve at a steady pace. Today, the most common digital connector comes in the form of HDMI and we're here to tell you what it is, what it does, and why you might need it.
Date Issued: 3rd Dec 2008
Blu-ray Disc is now widely regarded as the physical successor to DVD, we take a closer look at what it is, what advantages it brings, and what it could mean to you.
Date Issued: 22nd Oct 2008
CUDA technology is the world's only C language environment that enables programmers and developers to write software to solve complex computational problems in a fraction of the time by tapping into the many-core parallel processing power of GPUs.
Date Issued: 21st Oct 2008
Explaining how a modern GPU works in completeness would take a book. Or two. Per class of chip. Per vendor. They're extraordinarily complex pieces of engineering and production, and the end result contains more transistors than multiple modern x86 processors.
Date Issued: 21st Oct 2008
Now shipping with all but the cheapest complete PCs are LCD monitors. Advances in display manufacturing and associated cost reductions with economies of scale have brought LCD monitors into the mainstream, shipping with budget systems that start at just £400. LCD monitors come in all shapes and sizes, have differing resolutions and inputs. The purpose of this TekSpek is to provide a basic understanding of how LCDs work, delineate their desirable features, and to offer basic buying advice.
Date Issued: 20th Oct 2008
You'd be right to think that it's possible to carry out basic video editing on any modern PC running Windows XP - straight out of the box. XP includes the Windows Movie Maker video-editing program and, although it lacks frills, it does what it does quite well.
Date Issued: 20th Oct 2008
As you'll all likely know by now, DVI is the current standard for connection of a PC or other display generator to a digital display output. You'll recognise the multi-pin connector and know that almost all modern LCD displays have the corresponding input connector, for feeding from your PC. But do you know how DVI works? This TekSpek seeks to teach you how.
Date Issued: 20th Oct 2008
A motherboard's main job is to act as a conduit between the various hardware elements that make up a PC. It needs to be able to link the desired CPU(s), system memory, graphics card, hard drive(s), and add-in cards and enable them to work in harmony.
Date Issued: 20th Oct 2008
This TekSpek explains why you'd want to overclock your graphics board, the risks in doing so and how you can go about doing it.
Date Issued: 20th Oct 2008
If you're the least bit interested in graphics cards, we're sure that you've heard the terms SLI and CrossFire bandied about recently. Touted as a means of achieving maximum 3D performance by, effectively, using two or more graphics cards in tandem, multi-GPU technology is here to stay. With that in mind, let's take a closer look SLI and CrossFire; the two competing multi-GPU solutions from NVIDIA and ATI Technologies, respectively.
Date Issued: 20th Oct 2008
This TekSpek will assume you know the affects of applying a level of anti-aliasing (AA) on your 3D accelerator, be it via the driver control panel or via a control in your game. We assume you know the effect it has on image quality, so you can think about a before and after scenario. So this TekSpek isn't about explaining what it does as such, although it will, it's about explaining the how and why.
Date Issued: 20th Oct 2008
Explaining how a modern GPU works in completeness would take a book. Or two. Per class of chip. Per vendor. They're extraordinarily complex pieces of engineering and production, and the end result contains more transistors than multiple modern x86 processors.
Date Issued: 25th Jun 2008
Updating drivers can sometimes be a bit of a gamble. Will the drivers come with an installer? Will you need to uninstall the old drivers first? Many drivers these days do come with an installer, which simplifies the process dramatically.
Date Issued: 14th Jun 2008
Whether the broadcasters are going HD or not, TV sets and projectors are arriving thick and fast which claim to support higher resolutions than regular telly. But HDTV is far from just one standard – it incorporates a couple of different resolutions, two different scanning modes, and a number of different frame rates. In this article, we present a guide to what all the terms actually mean.
Date Issued: 14th Jun 2008
There's a lot more to High Definition than just having the ability to run your screen at the right resolution. With more than one type of connection available, and the thorny subject of signal encryption to contend with, just because your monitor and graphics are capable of 1,920 x 1,080 or better does not necessarily mean they will be able to display HDTV in all its glory.


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Okay, I'm not sure how much kissing owls do, but our local great horned owls sure did get busy this winter. Sometime last fall our local owl, Domino, began sharing our willow trees with a new owl, Lola. She is beautiful and has a white tuft of feathers just below her beak. She is also very spooky around people, so I'm not sure we've ever gotten a great picture of her by herself. Here they are together, Lola is higher and Domino is below in the background.
I knew that something was up when Lola sat in a nest all winter and never really seemed to leave. I had really hoped that she and Domino had mated and that this spring we would get to see some baby owls.
One evening in mid-April while we were watching a movie in the living room I looked over at the tree where Lolo had her nest and squealed pretty darn loud when I realized that there were two fuzz balls in the nest, but Lola wasn't there. I grabbed the binoculars and confirmed- there were two owl babies in the nest waiting for Lola to bring them dinner.
Owl TV quickly became our favorite evening activity. Every night we would check in on the owlets and see what what going on. Watching the parents come back with food was the most exciting thing to witness. We quickly realized that Domino and Lola worked together to bring the babies food, and took turns sitting on the nest. The most amazing thing was when one of the owls came back to a tree with a bird, the other owl swooped down and took the bird from the other, and then took it back to the nest to the little one's.
The entertainment only lasted a few weeks because before we knew it the owlets were perched on the edge of the nest, practicing their flapping and less than a week later had left the nest completely. Here is one of the "babies" on May 8th, still a little fluffy, but definitely grown up.
It seems that one of the parents and babies has left the area and one baby and parent remains. I'm not sure which one's are still around because the willows are quickly getting their leaves and making it easier for the owls to hid.


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Depressed About Being Diagnosed with Diabetes? (Don't Be!)
Here are some resources that may help you if you are depressed concerning your diagnosis of doabetes (or any chronic disease or condition).
Behavioral Diabetes Institute.
The world's first organization wholly dedicated to addressing the unmet emotional needs of people with diabetes. In addition to developing this booklet, the Institute has
further information available online about diabetes and depression (and other common emotional issues related to diabetes).
Visit us at www.behavioraldiabetes.org.
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
A free, confidential 24-hour hotline available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Your call will be routed to the nearest crisis center to you.
• The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance website
(www.dbsalliance.org) provides timely information on depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, and explains how doctors screen for these conditions.
This site also provides information for the newly diagnosed as well as recovery steps, and ways to help a loved one with depression and bipolar disorder.
• The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is the largest research
organization in the world that focuses on mental health diseases.
The NIMH website (www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression) provides in-depth information and the latest findings on depression.
Please feel free to pass this information on if necessary!
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