What happens when the sysadmin community meets a modern developer movement? BayLISA and DevNet, that’s what😎! What is BayLISA? BayLISA stands for Bay Area Large Installation System Administrators and is a user group of system and network administrators from the San Francisco Bay Area. The user group was founded in the very early 1990s after the fourth Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference. BayLISA meets monthly to discuss topics of interest to administrators and managers of sites supporting more than 100 users and/or computers. The idea was to provide a forum for Sysadmin professionals in the San Francisco Bay area…

Dentists sometimes prescribe fluoride supplements to kids in areas that lack water fluoridation. FDA is taking action to remove such treatments from the market. Karl Tapales/Moment RF/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Karl Tapales/Moment RF/Getty Images Under the leadership of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Food and Drug Administration is seeking to remove prescription fluoride supplements for kids from the market. These are fluoride tablets, drops or lozenges that are recommended for kids who don’t get fluoridated water to help prevent cavities. The announcement Tuesday from FDA claims that ingested fluoride changes the human microbiome in a concerning…

I recently attended Smart City Expo US 2025 at New York’s Javits Center, where thought leaders, innovators, and policymakers gathered to discuss the future of smart cities. The event focused on seven key themes driving urban innovation: Artificial Intelligence Sustainable and Clean Energy Digital Economy and Assets Infrastructure and Security Transportation and Mobility Regulations, Policy, and Financing Sports and Economic Growth Paris 2024 Olympics: A Case Study in Smart City Innovation Paris 2024 Olympics CEO, Etienne Thobois, shared insights on how the city adopted sustainable and revolutionary technology for the Games. Cisco played a key role as the official Network,…

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been carrying out President Trump’s vision to shrink government. On Monday, they announced an executive order aimed at drug prices. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Since taking the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services in February, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has moved quickly to shrink the agency, firing thousands of agency staffers. He’s canceled billions in grants to universities and public health departments, purged some leadership and shaken up the norms of the scientific review process. Both the firings and grant…

Years ago I thought I didn’t like balsamic vinegar and would always opt for other salad dressing options. After finally giving it a chance, I discovered not only did I like it, but it’s downright delicious! This balsamic glaze is more concentrated than a vinaigrette and even simpler to make. We love it on veggies, meat, and even fresh fruit What is Balsamic Glaze? First, let’s start with defining what (real) balsamic vinegar even is. Aged balsamic vinegar is made in Italy from grape must and aged for at least 12 years in wooden barrels. The resulting vinegar has a…

When you first hear about MCP — Model Context Protocol, it sounds like something built for hardcore AI researchers. But here’s the reality: Network engineers and automation engineers are going to be some of the biggest users of it. In case you’re wondering why: MCP is how you make Large Language Models (LLMs) understand your network, your topology, your standards, your world. Without it? You’re just getting generic ChatGPT answers. With it? You’re creating Agentic AI that can configure, troubleshoot, and design networks with you. I have been talking to you — You! …Yes, you! — about network automation and…

Prescription drugs sit ready to be distributed to patients at 986 Pharmacy, an independent pharmacy in Alhambra, Calif. Jackie Fortiér/KFF Health News hide caption toggle caption Jackie Fortiér/KFF Health News In the dim basement of a Salt Lake City pharmacy, hundreds of amber-colored plastic pill bottles sit stacked in rows, one man’s defensive wall in a tariff war. Independent pharmacist Benjamin Jolley and his colleagues worry that tariffs aimed at bringing drug production to the United States could instead drive companies out of business while raising prices and creating more of the drug shortages that have plagued American patients for…

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are weighing spending cuts to addiction healthcare and research programs responding to the nation’s deadly overdose crisis. Activists and health workers submitted a letter to Congress on Monday protesting the proposed budget reductions. OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption toggle caption OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP via Getty Images/AFP A coalition of addiction experts said more than 300 physicians, harm reduction workers and researchers signed a letter delivered to Congress late on Monday warning of “dire consequences” if the U.S. cuts funding for programs that help communities battle the drug overdose epidemic. “[W]e are seeing drastic cuts to…

Ultraprocessed foods dominate grocery store shelves today in the form of frozen dinners, packaged snacks, and fast-food items. While they offer convenience, they are engineered to hijack your appetite and flood your system with harmful compounds. These products, stripped of real nutrition and loaded with additives, trans fats, and artificial ingredients, are slowly clogging your arteries and setting you up for a heart attack or stroke. According to a recent study, nearly 38% of all cardiovascular disease deaths in Canada are directly linked to ultraprocessed food consumption. That means over 17,400 Canadian lives are lost each year because of food…

May is Observability Month—the perfect time to learn about Splunk and Observability. Find out more in our latest episode of “What’s new with Cisco U.?” (Scroll to the end of the blog to watch now!) As part of the Cisco Infrastructure Operations team, we provide the interactive labs that users run on Cisco U. and use in instructor-led courses through Cisco and Cisco Learning Partners. We currently run two data centers that contain the delivery systems for all those labs, and we deliver thousands of labs daily. We aim to deliver a reliable and efficient lab environment to every student.…