Notes

Featured image for “Split DNS on Cisco IOS”

Split DNS on Cisco IOS

At home I have a Cisco 867VAE router that acts as the gateway between my home network and the Internet. It also provides site-to-site VPN between my home network and services I have inside the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. For a while now I’ve been providing DNS resolution using a BIND DNS server running on a home server as

Featured image for “Speed and latency between AWS Sydney and other regions”

Speed and latency between AWS Sydney and other regions

Since the launch of the AWS Sydney (ap-southeast-2) region in November 2012 the majority of my infrastructure has been placed here. There are however times where infrastructure or services need to exist in other regions whether that be for DR or even to bring an application closer to end users. Sometimes these applications need to be replicated either synchronously or

Featured image for “Visitors to Canada will soon require an electronic travel authorisation”

Visitors to Canada will soon require an electronic travel authorisation

Readers who travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program will no doubt be familiar with the requirement for an ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization). From March 1, 2016 Canada will be introducing a similar requirement for foreign nationals arriving by air and you’ll need to have an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) before arriving in Canada. As

Featured image for “The new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite”

The new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

On June 17, Amazon announced a new version of the Kindle Paperwhite with a high resolution 300ppi display, a new Kindle font Bookerly and a new typesetting engine. As I was long overdue for a new Kindle (my existing Kindle Touch was purchased in 2012) I decided to place a pre-order and anxiously awaited its arrival. On June 30th I

Featured image for “Qantas flights from Sydney to San Francisco now on sale”

Qantas flights from Sydney to San Francisco now on sale

Qantas customers are now able to book Qantas’ new direct flights to San Francisco for travel from December 2015. Services will initially operate on peak days only, however from late January 2016 will operate six days per week using the refurbished 747-400 aircraft with the same interiors as the A380 including the Skybed MKII. Flights will operate using the QF73

Featured image for “Qantas Q Streaming with your own device”

Qantas Q Streaming with your own device

In late April Qantas announced the availability of a Q Streaming app that lets you use your own Apple device with their onboard Q Streaming service. During the pilot phase this is limited to selected Boeing 717 aircraft. On April 26th I was given the opportunity to trial this service on a flight from Canberra to Sydney. How do I

Featured image for “Pre-Ordering your meal on Qantas with Select on Q-Eat”

Pre-Ordering your meal on Qantas with Select on Q-Eat

Select on Q-Eat is Qantas’ online meal ordering service that allows passengers travelling Business, Premium Economy and Economy on selected routes to select their chosen meal in advance of the flight. This is a fantastic option for those who want to be certain that their selected meal is available to them rather than taking whatever options are available when the

Featured image for “A look at the Qantas Apple Watch app”

A look at the Qantas Apple Watch app

As a launch day customer of the Apple Watch, I was looking forward to trying out the Qantas Apple Watch app with a flight just two days after launch. Here’s what I found. Before Departure – Glances One of the features of the Apple watch is a “glances” screen which allows you to see a small amount of content from

Featured image for “Apple Calendar not syncing with Exchange”

Apple Calendar not syncing with Exchange

I’ve been pulling my hair out recently trying to figure out why Calendar on my Mac won’t synchronise my calendar with one of my Exchange (Office 365) accounts. Mail and Contacts is working perfectly, and other accounts were synchronising just fine – with the exception of one account that was displaying an error “Calendar needs a valid email address to connect

Featured image for “Traildash: AWS CloudTrail Dashboard”

Traildash: AWS CloudTrail Dashboard

Update: Traildash has been retired as AWS offer this functionality natively now. I’ve recently discovered Traildash, a powerful dashboard to import and analyse CloudTrail events with ElasticSearch and Kibana. I need to take a more in-depth look but it at initial glance it’s very interesting and something that can be quite valuable. You can read more at https://github.com/AppliedTrust/traildash

Notes