Netfilter and iptables

This evening I read the iptables man page and Linux iptables Pocket Reference from cover-to-cover; my notes are here: Netfilter.

I think at this point I am ready to use iptables in anger for the first time in a long time, and the first time ever on a router.

However, before I take that on, I’m going to have a quick diversion into the following books, and then sleep, and I will do my iptables programming when I wake up tomorrow.

Costume

I was chatting with my brother about my new video blog and he said I should do something to make myself distinctive, so I thought a lab coat, ID badge on lanyard, and pocket protector full of tools would do the trick.

To that end I got myself a lab coat, set of five multicolored lanyards, a pocket protector, and a screwdriver with clip.

Cosplay! I’m such a nerd. :P

My inspiration was mostly Stetmann of StarCraft II fame, although my outfit isn’t exactly the same.

I made some ID badges for myself, I figured I could give myself various job titles and choose a different one from time to time…

Critical Path != Critical Section

I always get the concepts “critical path” and “critical section” confused.

The “critical section” is the part in your algorithm which you must hold a lock for; whereas the “critical path” is an idea from hardware design which relates to the time taken for the longest combinatorial logic that needs to be processed during a clock cycle, thus limiting the frequency you can run your clock at.

Although the terminology “critical path” came from hardware, the same terminology is used in software. ChatGPT has a fairly good write-up on the two uses of the term “critical path”.

I learned a little more about this in Introduction to VHDL for FPGA and ASIC design.