A Mishmosh

Some interesting things I've learned recently:

1. The tracert command traces the path from one computer to another to a maximum of 30 hops. When your Internet connection is down, the output consists of 30 lines of "* * * Request timed out."
2. Apple is run by an evil genius. If I weren't so disciplined, I could waste hours of my life on my iPod, getting stuff on the App Store, and reading Kindle books. Wait, that's what I did yesterday...
3. HTML may do a lot more now than it used to, but trying to figure out which tags are supported, which are deprecated in favor of other tags, and which are deprecated in favor of CSS is a touch annoying. For example, it's apparently okay to use bold and italic tags, but not strikethrough or underline.
4. If you have a URL, and you want to get its associated IP address, use NSLOOKUP. For Windows users, type nslookup www.website.com in the Command Prompt. When I typed in www.google.com, for example, I got 6 different IP addresses, all in the 74.125.159.* range. What I liked, though, was that the results were preceded by the words "Non-authoritative answer".

Quote of the Week:
"Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast." --Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

The OSI Model: Lower Layers

According to Networking for Dummies, the OSI Model is a description of the various parts of a computer network. There are seven layers: Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, and Application. Today, I will discuss the first three layers, which are commonly referred to as the lower layers. The lower layers deal only with the mechanics of getting data from Point A to Point B.

1. Physical Layer: the actual hardware used to connect multiple computers on a network. In this layer, the standards for connection cables, electrical signals, et cetera, are defined. Any device that merely facilitates the transport of data without checking or modifying it in any way is a Physical Layer device.
   
2. Data Link Layer: the lowest-level portion of the network that assigns meaning to data. Data Link Layer devices break data into chunks (packets) and works out how to send the packets to the intended recipient. To do this, each piece of hardware is given a Media Access Control (MAC) address. The Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayer then acts as an interface between the MAC sublayer and the Network Layer. Additionally, the Data Link Layer provides some error correction at the packet level.
   
3. Network Layer: the layer that deals with transporting "stuff" -- that's a technical term -- from one computer to another. The Network Layer performs logical addressing: the assignment of IP addresses to computers on the network. Routers are classified as Network Layer hardware. They take data from one computer and forward it on to its destination.

Quote of the Week (Second Edition!):
Vizzini: Inconceivable!
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
--"The Princess Bride"

Hello, World!

Hello, hello, hello! This is my first foray into the world of blogging, so pardon me while I learn the ropes, so to speak. In this blog, I will be discussing my point of view on topics related to the Internet, web programming, mobile application development, and other interesting and useful items. Occasionally, if I see something else online that strikes my fancy, I will post about that as well. I will be blogging at least once every week, so feel free to drop by and see what's new.

All comments are moderated, so if you leave a comment, it may take some time for it to display. I will try to approve comments as soon as possible.

Why the name, you ask? Well, I hope to have a web design business in the near future. I am also a fan of The Legend of Zelda video game series, and the two main characters in it are Link and Zelda, so I combined their names into Linzel. (Disclaimer: Any resemblance that name bears to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Also, no animals were harmed in the making of this blog.)

Quote of the Week:
"Don't answer me when I'm asking you questions. Keep your mouth shut. Do you think I'm talking just to hear myself talk? Answer me!" --Clair Huxtable, "The Cosby Show"