Cisco Live! (day 2)

As all of the other Cisco conferences I've attended, it is like trying to drink from a firehose. The sheer volume of technical content available here is staggering. Hundreds of technical sessions, very few marketing presentations except when they are releasing a new product. I've gotten a lot of questions answered but now have a bunch more. I did talk to the certification folks since I used to teach certification classes as part of the Cisco Academy at TVCC. The material has changed considerably and it will be a challenge if they wanted to start up the classes again. I've been out of it for three years (I think). The first session this morning was on IPv6 enterprise deployment and, like most of the other sessions, is taught by a Cisco engineer who has tons of experience with the topic working with numerous customers on their deployments. I am teaching an IPv6 workshop later this month and this really added some new information that I can use in the class. I just need to get my thoughts together on it. My free Cisco Press book was on IPv6 Security which is a topic that really needs more coverage in the workshop. Maybe I can read it on the flight back. The last session of the day was on multicast security. Another very good session with tons of real useful content. It makes me think that the material being presented in the Internet² Multicast Workshop needs revision. I was surprised at the number of service providers already using multicast but for their own use, such as video broadcasting, as opposed to making it available for their customers to get multicast content on their own. I guess I shouldn't be surprised after all it is all about revenue'

Not much walking as in "walking for exercise". I usually don't get done with the sessions until after 7:00 and I have been pretty tired. Plus I just don't feel like walking around much due to all the street traffic. The hills are a challenge but I really didn't bring enough clothes to do any serious walking. Maybe on Friday since I'm done by noon and my flight out isn't until 7:00. The iPhone has been working fine with the Nike+ transmitter though it does seem to take more time to detect the transmitter than the iPod Nano did.

Tonight is the "customer appreciation event" with entertainment being provided by bands called B-52s and Devo. I haven't heard of either but then again I'm pretty disconnected from music these days.

Wednesday evening - It was pretty cold and windy out on Treasure Island as it is located in the middle on the bay. There were a lot of bands switching out with some MTV personality as the host. A wide variety of music though all really loud. The food was so so so I didn't stay long.