Hybrid access as a service (HAaaS) provider Cloudbrink has created a new tool that can measure packet loss impact, revealing the deep-seated causes of network and application performance problems affecting the hybrid workforce.
Cloudbrink’s own research reveals as little as 0.0047% packet loss in conjunction with 30ms latency can cause a dramatic decline in speed, reducing effective throughput by up to 95%. This underlines how any latency increase from VPN or ZTNA services can lead to massive degradation in performance.
Cloudbrink points out that packet loss typically occurs in the “last mile” – the distance from the user to the broadband network or the nearest cell tower – or between the user’s device and Wi-Fi router.
Mimics home networking conditions
Focused on remote workforce optimization, the free Packet Loss Tool allows IT departments to see how the use of VPN or ZTNA solutions impact their essential business applications and the overall user experience.
Prakash Mana, CEO of Cloudbrink said, “The shift to hybrid work models brings new hurdles. Remote users often experience lag and connection inconsistencies (latency and jitter) that disrupt their workflow and create frustration with technology. This new tool empowers IT teams to identify these bottlenecks and implement solutions that optimize application performance and end worker frustration.”
Cloudbrink’s tool mimics the network conditions home-based workers and those on the move are projected to face on typical broadband connections, or via cellular networks and public Wi-Fi access points. It also tests the influence of varying network conditions on private and SaaS applications.
Steve Broadhead, Director of Broadband Testing said, “Seeing is believing. This tool provides a great way of enabling the CTO to witness at first hand the effects of network degradation and how it can impact application performance.”
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Packet Loss Tool is available as a free download on the Cloudbrink website. You will need to complete a short survey before gaining access to it.
When you think about how well you are sleeping, one factor that probably comes into it is the number of hours you’re clocking up each night. All of today’s best sleep trackersreport this kind of data. But focusing on these numbers could be doing more harm than good, according to Angela Kondinska, a neuroscientist and sleep specialist who works with Emma (one of our best mattressbrands).
“There’s a very strong focus on eight hours – that this is the solution for everybody,” she says. “I believe a lot of this focus is also the stress around sleep.” Rather than setting a mental timer and getting frustrated if you don’t hit your hourly goal, here’s what to do instead…
1. Explore what works for you
When working out your ideal bedtime routine, don’t get too hung up on following external ‘rules’. The best approach will always be whatever what works for you.
“It’s all about focusing away from micromanaging sleep,” she continues. “The more we say, ‘Okay, you have to do this, [the more] stress builds up, and then we end up sleeping less because of the stress. And then it creates this cascade.”
Instead she suggests trying out whatever methods appeal to you. “Allow yourself to explore in a curious way. There’s a long list of sleep tips. Try out different things… and see what works,” says Angela. “If [one thing] doesn’t work, that’s okay, because there’s something else that will work.”
2. Think about the hours either side of sleep
Rather than concentrating entirely on the time that you’re asleep for, Angela recommends widening that out to include the hours either side of bedtime. Figure out a bedtime routine that works for you – that might include saving special activities for bedtime, using music to relax you, trying a bedtime box, or even just adding some structure with something like the 10-3-2-1-0 sleep method.
And while you’re at it, take a look at your morning wakeup habits. If you’re finding you’re hanging about in bed for too long or developing an over-reliance on the snooze button, the 3-2-1 method might be the solution for you.
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A little bedtime listening can help you relax and drift off (Image credit: Getty Images)
3. Give it time
While you’re figuring out your routine, don’t expect instant results. You need to give each technique at least a few nights’ trial to give it a fair chance. “What usually brings a lot of relaxation is repetitiveness – our brains love being able to predict something,” says Angela. Sleep studies are never just one night; they’re run over a few weeks in order to see the effects.
Angela suggests repeating the same routine every night, so you become familiar with the situation, the tasks, and the order in which you do them. That will help amplify the feeling of relaxation.
4. Listen to your body
The figure of eight hours a night isn’t a hard-and-fast rule in any case. General consensus is somewhere between seven to nine hours, and how much sleep you need varies by age, too, as well as from person to person. So the best way to tell if you’ve had enough sleep is by listening to your body, suggests Angela. If you wake up after seven hours’ sleep and you feel comfortable and awake, then that’s fine. If you’re an adult and you’re sleeping a bit more than 8 hours but you’re not having the effects of oversleeping, then that’s also fine.
If you’re feeling this perky after 7 hours sleep, that’s fine (Image credit: Getty Images)
5. Don’t rely on ‘topping up’ with naps
Angela flags that the focus on hitting a certain nightly quota of sleep means some people will try and ‘top up’ with naps in the day. “[There’s a belief that] we can sleep little, overnight, and then take naps to overcome the sleep debt,” she says. “Something that is still important is to have a full night of sleep, and to not chop it up throughout the day.”
That’s important because we need our body to go through sleep cycles– starting in light sleep, moving into deep sleepand finally REM sleepto get the full physical and mental benefits. A nap can be useful on occasion, but it’s rare you’ll be getting your full 90-minute sleep cycle, so it’s not a substitute for sleeping in one long block.
6. Don’t panic over a few bad nights
No one likes a sleepless night, but it’s not the end of the world, Angela reminds us. “Sleep happens, right?” she smiles. “It’s part of life. And sometimes it’s okay to have a few nights… of bad sleep.”
For the vast majority of us, it’s only going to be temporary. “Keep in mind that a good night is coming soon. It could be the next night; it could be in a night or two. So that’s okay.”
Cillian Murphy picked up the best actor award for his portrayal of Oppenheimer.Credit: Landmark Media/Alamy
Oppenheimer won big at last night’s Oscars, scooping 7 awards out of 13 nominations, including best picture. The film has been lauded for its accurate portrayal of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life, and its examination of both the human and scientific toll of the Manhattan Project, the research programme that developed the atomic bomb in the 1940s at Los Alamos in New Mexico.
To ensure the film was as accurate as possible, director Christopher Nolan turned to several science advisers for information on Oppenheimer and his life, and the project itself, which culminated in the Trinity Bomb nuclear test on 16 July 1945 and the subsequent bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, bringing the Second World War to a close at immense human cost.
Nature spoke to three of those advisers for some behind-the-scenes insight into the film’s creation.
Why Oppenheimer has important lessons for scientists today
Robbert Dijkgraaf, a theoretical physicist and currently the Dutch minister for education, was the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, from 2012 to 2022, a job Oppenheimer had also held, from 1947 to 1966. Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is a close friend of Nolan’s and had worked with him on a number of previous projects, including the depiction of the gargantuan black hole in the film Interstellar (2014). And David Saltzberg, a physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, worked as a scientific consultant for other productions, such as The Big Bang Theory, before applying his expertise to Oppenheimer.
What was your involvement in Oppenheimer?
Dijkgraaf: In 2021, Nolan wanted to come and visit, to see the place where Oppenheimer had lived and worked for almost 20 years. I also lived in that house and, for 10 years, worked in the same office that Oppenheimer once used. We had a long discussion about Oppenheimer, but also about physics, which I loved.
Thorne: I spoke with Cillian Murphy about his portrayal of Oppenheimer for the movie. I knew Oppenheimer when I was a graduate student at Princeton, from 1962 to 1965, and a postdoc from 1965 to 1966, so there was some discussion about Oppenheimer as a person.
Saltzberg: I was called in to help out with the production in scenes that were filmed in Los Angeles. I worked mostly with the prop manager. That involved things like deciding what was on the chalkboards, or what equations Oppenheimer handed to Einstein to show whether the atmosphere would catch fire.
Tell us about some of your interactions with the director and cast
Dijkgraaf: Nolan visited Princeton twice to tour the premises. I remember we walked from the house to the institute. It’s this beautiful walk with nice trees. I remember telling him it’s the perfect commute, because Einstein and [Austrian physicist] Kurt Gödel always walked along that path. In the movie, Lewis Strauss meets Oppenheimer and he points out the house and says “it’s the perfect commute”. I thought, ‘wait a moment — this is a very familiar scene!’
I was struck that Nolan was really, really interested in what it means to be a physicist.
I also remember he really appreciated the pond at the institute. Quite a few of the scenes in the movie are shot near the pond — it’s a favourite place for many people there. It’s a place to think and contemplate.
Saltzberg: I sometimes had to explain the physics of a line of dialogue to the actors, enough that they knew the emotional truth of the line and why they were saying it. There was one particular line in the script which was incredibly complicated, about off-diagonal matrix elements and quantum mechanics. Even when I read it I had trouble understanding exactly what it was saying. Cillian really wanted me to explain it to him. We got there, I think, but it was difficult.
A similar thing happened with Josh Hartnett, who played [American nuclear physicist] Ernest Lawrence. Every time he had a spare moment, he would come and talk to me about physics. It was uncanny because he was already in makeup and costume. I never met Lawrence, but I’ve seen plenty of pictures, and it was just eerie. He looked like Lawrence walking around the room.
What did you make of the science in the movie?
Saltzberg: It was wonderfully accurate. It’s really amazing. Christopher Nolan clearly understood the science.
There’s a scene in which Oppenheimer is writing on the chalkboard explaining that nuclear fission is impossible, when Lawrence walks in and says “well, [American physicist Luis Walter] Alvarez just did it next door”. So I had some equations put on the board that Oppenheimer might have had that proved fission is impossible. Most of the audience wouldn’t recognize that, but it made me feel good.
Dijkgraaf: It was really well done. I loved that the movie consistently looks through the eyes of Oppenheimer. The physics discussions were very good — the right equations were on the blackboards!
What was Oppenheimer like as a person?
Thorne: He was just a superb mentor, extremely effective. He had enormous breadth and an extremely quick mind. He had this amazing ability to grasp things very quickly and see connections, which was a major factor in his success as the leader of the atomic bomb project.
Dijkgraaf: He was both a scientific leader and a government adviser. At that time, Einstein, who was quite crucial in starting up the atomic bomb project, really turned into a father of the peace movement. A character who wasn’t in the movie, [Hungarian-American mathematician] John von Neumann, wanted to bomb the Soviet Union, so he was completely on the opposite side. Oppenheimer was trying to walk the reasonable path between those two extremes, and he was punished for it. So I often feel his character generates these mixed feelings. It’s a fascinating example for anyone who wants to be a scientist and play a role in public debate.
Is it satisfying to see a science-based film get such recognition at the Oscars?
Thorne: It’s wonderful it’s got this level of attention. It’s a film that has messages that are tremendously important for the era we’re in. Hopefully it raises the awareness of the danger of nuclear weapons and the crucial issue of arms control.
Dijkgraaf: We often complain there’s no content in popular culture. For me, the biggest surprise was that this difficult movie about a difficult topic and a difficult man, shot in a difficult way, became a hit around the world. I feel that’s very encouraging. The hidden life of physicists has become a part of popular culture, and rightly so.
