Tech Tips, Tricks & Trivia

TL;DR - Netflix embeds caches (Open Connect Appliances) in  Internet Service Provider (ISP)  networks to store popular content locally. This reduces latency by serving streams directly from the ISP, avoiding long-distance internet transit. It improves streaming quality, cuts bandwidth costs for both parties (settlement-free), and handles high traffic efficiently—benefiting users with faster, more reliable viewing. Over 1,000 ISPs partner for this. Sounds interesting? Read on... In the fast-paced world of online streaming, where every second of buffering can feel like an eternity, Netflix has been quietly building an invisible empire of data caches across India. A recent tweet by tech journalist Aroon Deep (@AroonDeep) has pulled back the curtain on this network, revealing how many of these specialized servers—known as Open Connect Appliances (OCAs) —are embedded directly into local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in major cities.  This setup isn't just tech...

The free online beginner-level self-paced course Networking Basics from the Cisco Networking Academy is of 22 hours duration with 13 labs. It has the following modules: My Knowledge Check (beta) Course Introduction Module 1: Communication in a Connected World 1.0. Introduction 1.1. Network Types 1.2. Data Transmission 1.3. Bandwidth and Throughput 1.4. Communications in a Connected World Summary Module 2: Network Components, Types, and Connections 2.0. Introduction 2.1. Clients and Servers 2.2. Network Components 2.3. ISP Connectivity Options 2.4. Network Components, Types, and Connections Summary Module 3: Wireless and Mobile Networks 3.0. Introduction 3.1. Wireless Networks 3.2. Mobile Device Connectivity 3.3. Wireless and Mobile Networks Summary Module 4: Build a Home Network 4.0. Introduction 4.1. Home Network Basics 4.2. Network Technologies in the Home 4.3. Wireless Standards 4.4. Set Up a Home Router 4.5. Build a Home Network Summary Checkpoint Exam: Build a Small Network Chec...

This Week I Learned -  * A data warehouse processes structured data, while a data lake processes structured, semi-structured, unstructured, and raw binary data. * To shift security left means to implement security measures during the entire development lifecycle, rather than at the end of the cycle. * East-west traffic , in a networking context, is the transfer of data packets from server to server within a data center. The term east-west for this type of traffic comes from network diagram drawings that usually depict local area network (LAN) traffic horizontally.  * East/west traffic is traffic flowing around the Kubernetes cluster, service-to-service or service-to-datastore. *  Tailwind CSS is an open source CSS framework. The main feature of this library is that, unlike other CSS frameworks like Bootstrap, it does not provide a series of predefined classes for elements such as buttons or tables. Tailwind is designed for use with components like React, Angular, Vue, et...