The Hedge

In the early days of computer programming, some thought there was a difference between a coder and a programmer. Did this division ever really exist, and are there similar divisions in network engineering?

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When Starlink first went into service we heard a lot of stories about how its Internet service was slow and unreliable. We’re a few years into Starlink launching satellites–how is Starlink holding up? Is service improving? Geoff Huston joins Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ to look into Starlink’s performance today.

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Many network operators think the idea of building rather than buying is something that’s out of reach–but is it? Join Steve Dodd, Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ as we discuss the positive and negative aspects of build versus buy, what operators get wrong, and what operators don’t often expect.

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There are (at least) three different aspects of AI in network engineering: network design to support AI, AI for development, and AI for operations. J.P. Vassuer joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss AI for understanding and operating networks. What are the possibilities? What are the pitfalls? What can we expect to see?

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The massive failure resulting from a failed update to 8.5 million Windows hosts by Crowdstrike will live in Internet history for years to come. The failure will be studied by engineering teams and college classes to understand what went wrong and how we can stop this from happening in the future. Derick Winkworth (@cloudtoad), Eyvonne Sharp, Tom Ammon, and Russ White hang out at the hedge to talk about what happened and lessons learned from a network engineering perspective.

Looking at changes in the market in the last ten years, it certainly seems like vendors work less toward innovation and more towards locking customers in to revenue streams. Chris Emerick, Dave Taht, and Russ White decided it’s time to talk about. What’s wrong with vendors? And since everything can’t be wrong with vendors, where are they doing the right thing?

Eyvonne and Russ catch up with Greg Ferro one last time to talk about the permissionless Internet–a thing of the past–vendor lock in, and many other random topics on this episode of the Hedge. Greg–here’s to a grand time in the future. We’ll miss you.

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Join us as Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ hang out for another roundtable. We start the show talking about Tom’s plant (is it real or … ??). What does copyright have to do with Internet Service Providers? Should the two topics be related at all? What can the IETF do about Internet centralization?

Thanks for listening—and please reach out if you have a topic you’d like to hear about, or a guest you’d like to hear.

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We often hear about how there simply aren’t enough tech people out there–especially in cybersecurity. Rex Booth, CISO at Sailpoint, joins Tom and Russ to discuss the problem, and why we should be looking in unconventional places to find the right people.

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Data centers turn large amounts of electricity into heat. Is it possible to recover even some part of this heat rather than throwing it off into the local environment? David Krebs of masterresource.org brings his vast experience with using heat from engines to bear on the problem to propose solutions.

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