Make your Android phone read books to you!

Update: Please see newer updated post with new video here instead: https://salmannaqvi.com/2020/04/29/how-to-get-books-websites-and-other-documents-read-out-loud-to-you-from-your-android-phone-and-pc/

I’ve read over 150 books in the last 4 years! How? I haven’t actually ‘read’ them, but have had them read out to me by my smartphone. I listened to these books while driving, riding the subway, exercising, and during other idle times. Many of these, I read even two or in some cases three times. This included various genres: fiction, psychological, technical, spiritual, business, etc. Here is a video showing how to set up your Android phone to read books to you:

Continue reading “Make your Android phone read books to you!” →

June 9, 2016 3

Learn to code in Python for only $25!

Consider learning Python. It will help you with your current job, make you more marketable for a promotion and other better jobs, and help you get ahead of the SDN curve.

programmer-working-on-the-computer_23-2147505689 — freepik.com

You don’t need to become a full-time hard-core programmer. You just need to learn enough to be able to understand and use code that the very altruistic open-source community is constantly producing – and return the favour if you end up making something useful too. Learning to code in Python will take about 100-150 hours of your time, but, in turn will save you thousands of hours in the future. After trying a few different Python courses, I discovered this one, which is I think is THE BEST networking focused Python course, and only costs $25 USD. Mihai, the instructor, starts from scratch, assuming you don’t even know how to spell Python, and goes from there.

https://www.udemy.com/python-programming-for-real-life-networking-use/
Continue reading “Learn to code in Python for only $25!” →

April 29, 2016 1

Best resources for keeping up with Networking

In one my previous blog posts, we covered “Best resources for learning Networking”. In this post, I will attempt to cover some of the best resources I’ve used to keep up with the changes in the Networking world.

This is going to be a very subjective post. Depending on your area of expertise and mix of vendors being utilized at your organization, your resources for keeping up with networking may be very different.

Continue reading “Best resources for keeping up with Networking” →

April 22, 2016 0

Learning to learn!

Learning is itself a skill – just like riding a bicycle or swimming is a skill. Treating it as a skill, and working to improve that skill is essential for almost all careers, but especially important for careers in Information Technology which require constant upkeep with new trends and technologies.

First of all, why should you listen to my advice? Actually you shouldn’t – as I wouldn’t be giving my own advice or “wisdom”. I’d instead be presenting ideas from academics and scholars who have professionally studied human memory, brain development and learning. Also, these are the ideas I used to attain two CCIEs and numerous other certifications. Continue reading “Learning to learn!” →

February 29, 2016 2

IOS and NX-OS Ping Script using TCL

There are many situations in which you may need to ping a large number of IP addresses. You can use the Tcl (usually pronounced “tickle”) shell built-in in both IOS and NX-OS to accomplish this task.

Simply replace the below IP addresses and VRF (where applicable) with your own, and copy/paste the script into your IOS or NX-OS based device.

IOS

tclsh
foreach address {

172.16.32.54
172.16.32.55
172.16.32.56
172.16.32.57
172.16.32.58
172.16.32.59

} {ping $address re 2
}

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February 4, 2016 0

Port listener / firewall rule tester

Have you ever needed to test if a particular firewall rule is enabled and actually functioning as expected? Of course you had! A great friend and a colleague passed this gem along to me that allows you to create a simple ‘port listener’ on any Windows machine using PowerShell.

Simply click Continue reading “Port listener / firewall rule tester” →

January 18, 2016 4

Best resources for learning Networking

Introduction

After completing two CCIEs and numerous other certifications over the past 10+ years, I can certainly say that I have been through my fair share of training. As many fellow CCIEs can probably appreciate, learning never stops, not even with two CCIEs, so I continue to go through training from different vendors and OEMs on different products.
Continue reading “Best resources for learning Networking” →

December 15, 2015 0

Netflow Technology, Free NetFlow Collectors and Nexus 5000 / Nexus 7000

NetFlow is an awesome technology that lets you see what type of data is transmitting through your network, in what quantity, and when. It’s supported by a variety of vendors, primarily Cisco, with variants by other vendors such as cFlow, sFlow and jFlow.

Continue reading “Netflow Technology, Free NetFlow Collectors and Nexus 5000 / Nexus 7000” →

November 30, 2015 0

OpenStack Adventures

I had an interesting and relatively tough time with OpenStack. First, the bad news: Due to change in direction/focus, I won’t be spending much time on OpenStack any more. There are still lots of other interesting topics however that have yet to be covered.

Good news: I learned a lot of lessons that may help individuals playing around with OpenStack.

Summary of lessons learned:
Continue reading “OpenStack Adventures” →

November 10, 2015 3

Technical and Non-Technical lessons learned from SDN implementation.

SDN implementation from any vendor is a big undertaking. Unlike traditional networks, where lifecycle activities individually within network, compute, storage or security teams can happen in fair bit of isolation from each other, SDN implementation requires all teams, especially network, compute, application and security teams, to work more closely with each other than ever before.

(source: http://www.imagesource.com/)

Continue reading “Technical and Non-Technical lessons learned from SDN implementation.” →

August 21, 2015 0