The Hedge

We are often told that if engineers who don't go "all in" on AI will be left behind. While there are a few voices who argue that AI can be a dangerous tool, impacting not only the quality of our work, but the very quality of our thinking skills. Doug Smith, a critic of using AI for engineering, joins this episode of the Hedge to argue the contrary view of AI. What are the dangers of relying on AI?

  What is AI Ops, and how can it be useful for your network? Akshay Balaganur and Sushanth Mascaren join Tom and Russ to discuss various aspects of AI Ops.

  As DNS is more widely used to distribute certificate information, proving ownership of a resource becomes more critical. The constant challenges required to prove resource ownership, however, increase delay in connecting or using a resource. DNS persists--as the name implies--creates a persistent connection between a resource and a certificate authority. Henry Birge-Lee, Michael Slaughter,...

  We all talk about how engineers deal with imposter syndrome--but we don't often talk about the experience of making things work "in the background." What is competence, and what do we do when competence isn't recognized? Justin Wilson (j2sw) joins Russ and Tom to discuss.   https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-308.mp3   download

  Many companies rely on open source, regardless of whether or not they realize it. In this best of the Hedge episode, Alistair Woodman joins Russ White and Tom Ammon to talk about not only why you should support the open source projects you use, but how you can.   https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-015.mp3 @nbsp; download $nbsp; Reposting a classic episode t...

  If you advertise routes into the default free zone (or global Internet), you might struggle with seeing and understanding what they look like "on the other side." While there are many manual tools to help operators with this process, bgproutes.io gives you visibility in the global routing table through interfaces like BMP. Listen to this episode of the Hedge to learn more.

  Synchronizing information across the Internet, at an initial glance, looks like a fairly simple problem to solve. Just copy a file to a host and create a magic protocol, right? Not really. Each kind of data has a fairly unique set of requirements--and RPKI data, used to provide security information for BGP, is no different. Job Snijders joins Tom and Russ to talk about ERIK, a protocol deve...

  We don't often hear the stories of those who move from some other IT career field into network engineering. Ayush Mishra, a student at University of Colorado Boulder, joins Tom and Russ to discuss why he moved from security to network engineering.

  If you've ever been curious about what an advanced degree in network engineering looks like, you'll want to join us for this episode of the Hedge. Levi Perigo from the University of Colorado at Boulder joins Tom and Russ to talk through what earning a Master's in Networking involves and what kinds of things you would learn.

  In this roundtable episode of the Hedge, Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ hang out and talk about data centers--why are we building all these things again? Our second topic is the FCC's ban on non-US made home routers. Was this the right thing to do? Was it the wrong thing to do? Were there any other policy options?

  What does biology have to do with computer networks? Much more than you might think. Communications systems, after all, need to solve the same problems--and they often use the same kinds of tools. In this episode of the Hedge, Emily Reeves and Joe Deweese join Russ and Tom to talk about a recent paper comparing computer communications to biological communications.

  What are networking fundamentals, and why are they important? Join us for this repost of a classic Hedge discussion with Ethan, Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ.

  What's the deal with SONiC? Is it easy to build and use, or hard? Is it something you should be looking at? Jeff Doyle joins Russ and Tom to look at the SONiC operating system, ecosystem, and deployment.

  It's episode 300, and it's roundtable time. In this episode, Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ talk about how systems can be designed to prevent injection attacks, and then the perennial unpleasantness of layoffs.

  As we discussed in the prior episode, the 6G hype is building. What's in 6G, though, and how realistic is it that a new wireless technology is going to radically change the world? In this episode of the Hedge, George Michaelson joins us from Australia to discuss the ins and outs of 6G.

  It's 2026, and it's time for a new cellular telephone hype cycle: 6G! Doug Dawson from CCG joins Russ and Tom to talk about why 5G is really 4.5G, the proposed changes for 6G, and the challenges higher frequency ranges and bandwidths face in the real world.   It's definitely worth following Doug's daily post about the telecom and wireless worlds over at Pots and Pans.

  Has MPLS really "died" because of SD-WAN services? Scott Robohon joins Tom and Russ to talk about the past and future of MPLS.

  AS-SETs (not that kind) were originally designed to simplify filtering at eBGP peering points--but they seem to have gone horribly wrong. Job Snijders and Doug Madory join Tom and Russ to discuss the history, use, problems, and (hopeful) demise of AS-SETs.

  Should network engineers focus on specializing in one technology, vendor, or solution, or should they think about building a diverse skill set? Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ discuss the advantages of each, how these options relate to the future of network engineering, and skill diversification.

  The future of network design and architecture is--based on current trends--is going to be working with and around resource constraints. How would resource constraints impact the way we design and manage networks? Mike Bushong joins Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ to ponder network engineering in a resource constrained world.

  Is there an interaction between Moore's Law and network computing? If so, what is the relationship? How do advances in silicon capabilities and network speeds and feeds rely and drive one another. Geoff Huston joins Russ on this episode of the Hedge to look at a bit of the history.

  The cost of building and maintaining a data center is rising rapidly--and not just in financial terms. George Michaelson joins Tom and Russ to discuss the wider costs of data centers.

  Nash King (@gammacapricorni) joins Russ White and Tom Ammon in a wide ranging discussion of ethics in IT, including being comfortable with standing up and saying “no” when asked to do something you consider unethical and the virtue ethic.

  As the Internet centralizes and gets "big," standards are often being sidelined or consumed. What are the possible results of abandoning standards? Is there anything "normal network engineers" can do about it?

  In this Hedge roundtable, Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ discuss The Amoeba and the Mathematician