IOS v15.0by Nickelby Thane |
Cisco released IOS v15.0 a few weeks back. There was of course the usual fan fare for this release since it is quite a major update from the v12.x series. I won’t go into details on the new features of this release and what ancient features that have been dropped since we can get that easily from the net courtesy of Dr. Google. Instead, I would like to share my opinion on why v15.0 was released after v12.x and not v13 or v14.
I cannot help but have a feeling that it was due to superstition beliefs. According to an article in Wikipedia, the number 13 is associated with bad luck in some countries, and even has a specifically recognized phobia, Triskaidekaphobia, a word which was coined in 1911. The number 13 has been considered bad luck since around the time of Ancient Mesopotamia, proof of this can be seen in the missing 13th law of King Hammurabi of Babylon. It is stated that law number 13 is missing since the number is considered evil and unlucky. Friday the 13th has been considered an unlucky day since the 1800s, as a combination between an unlucky day, Friday, and the number 13.
Religion-wise, in Christianity, the number 13 is often associated with the betrayer of Christ, Judas who is also the 13th apostle to sit at the table of the famous “Last Supper”.
However, I must caution that the number 13 is not unlucky to everyone. Again according to an article in Wikipedia, in Sikhism, the number 13 is considered a special number since 13 is tera in Punjabi, which also means "yours" (as in, "I am yours, O Lord"). The legend goes that when Guru Nanak Dev was taking stock of items as part of his employment with a village merchant, he counted from 1 to 13 (in Punjabi) as one does normally; and thereafter he would just repeat "tera", since all items were God's creation. The merchant confronted Guru Nanak about this, but found everything to be in order after the inventory was checked. April 13 also usually turns out to be Vaisakhi every year, which is the Sikh New Year and s major Sikh Holiday.
Number 13 is also commonly seen on sports players. In the NBA, Steve Nash uses this number when he was with the Phoenix Suns and so did the great Wilt Chamberlain during his entire NBA career. There are of course other players who wore this number as well at least at one time of their careers in the NBA.
What about number 14 then? Well, 14 is considered unlucky by some especially in the Asian countries partly due to the number 4 which literally means ‘death’ (‘si’ in Hokkien means death and also number 4 at the same time. The same goes for ‘sei’ in Cantonese and ‘se’ in Mandarin as well as ‘shi’ in Japanese and ‘sha’ in Korean. Yes … I am multilingual :P). Now you might ask, but this is the number 14 we are talking about and not the number 4! Well, ANY number related with 4 is usually omitted out. It is very common at least where I currently am which is Kuala Lumpur that lifts at tall buildings often skipped any numbers with 4 in it e.g. 4, 14, 24, 34, 44 (this is a double whammy!), 54, etc. The numbers with 4 are usually replaced with prior number in addition to an additional suffix e.g. 3A, 13A, 23A, 33A, 53A (some of them actually skipped the entire 40-range numbers!).
Again, the numbers with 4 in them is not unlucky to some. Instead it can be a very lucky thing. Remember that it is extremely lucky for some to find a four-leave clover?
Now, with all that superstition above, it could also be that Cisco secretly has developed ‘test’ or ‘trial’ IOS versions in their lab prior to releasing v15. It could also be a marketing scheme to have people so interested in v15.0 since it is a ‘major’ jump from v12 and have people thinking and talking and wondering what is so great about v15.0 that they just have to try it out (like yours truly). But whatever it is, please ensure that you read the caveats and bugs of v15.0 before trying it out. As the usual saying goes without a doubt, DO NOT install anything untested on a production network. You have been warned! :-)
Nickelby Thane, a self-confessed Cisco junkie who is trying hard nowadays to focus on his CCIE studies while spending time with his beloved wife and dividing his free time on his StormTrooper armour modding, his Wiresharking activities and his love and test of Ubuntu 9.10.Nickelby is also often on the lookout to know more people who shares his passion for anything Japanese so if you’re one of them, please network with Nickelby who can be reached via e-mail on Nickelby at hotmail dot com.
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