One of the "great fears" advancing AI unlocks is that most of our jobs can, and will, be replaced by various forms of AI. Join us on this episode of the Hedge as Jonathan Mast at White Beard Strategies, Tom Ammon, and Russ White discuss whether we are likely to see a net loss, gain, or wash in jobs as companies deploy LLMS, and other potential up- and down-sides.
 
https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-268.mp3
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Solving technology problems often involves breaking a problem into multiple smaller problems, build interaction surfaces between the pieces, and glue the pieces back into a larger system. We also know every technology problem is actually a people problem--whether in the past, the present, or the future.

Given these two points, can we say something like: "If technology and people problems are interchangeable, we should be able to solve people problems the way we solve technology problems--via modularization?"

Join us as Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ discuss how this might--or might not--apply to the real world. The second trend we're discussing on this episode of the Hedge is the apparent movement towards government telling data center operators to "bring your own power."

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-267.mp3

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When most people think of segment routing (SR), they think of SRv6--using IPv6 addresses as segment IDs, and breaking the least significant /64 to create microsids for service differentiation. This is not, however, the only way to implement and deploy SR. The alternative is SR using MPLS labels, or SR/MPLS. Hemant Sharma joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss SR/MPLS, why operators might choose MPLS over IPv6 SIDs, and other topics related to SR/MPLS.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-266.mp3

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You can find Hermant's recent book on SR/MPLS here.

Out of band management networks were once more common than they are today. Should we go back to building out of band management networks? Should out of band management networks be virtual or physical? How can we sell out of band management networks to the folks paying the bills? Daryll Swer joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the importance of OOB management.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-265.mp3

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On this episode of the Hedge, Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ talk about topics near and dear to every network engineer's heart--documentation, legacy, and tech debt. What should our philosophy of documentation be? What are legacy, end of life, and tech debt, really?

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-264.mp3

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How do Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, impact value and the future of all things digital? How are they different from--and similar to--blockchain? Jaime Schwarz joins Russ White and Tom Ammon to talk about what NFTs are, how they work, and how they might impact the future.
 
https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-263.mp3
 
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Many providers count on detection in the global routing table to discover and counter BGP route hijacks. What if there were a kind of BGP hijack that cannot be detected using current mechanisms? Henry Birge-Lee joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss a kind of stealthy BGP attack that avoids normal detection, and how we can resolve these attacks.
 
To find out more, check this RIPE video.
 
https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-262.mp3
 
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In the United States, the National Telecommunications and Infrastructure Administration manages spectrum and researches the current state of Internet connectivity for policy makers. Henning Schulzrinne joins Tom and Russ to discuss the role of the NTIA, spectrum management, and broadband management.
 
You can read the NTIA's reports here.
 
https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-261.mp3
 
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Trends in the global BGP table--the Default Free Zone (DFZ) table--can tell us a lot about the state of the global Internet. Is the Internet growing? Is IPv6 growing, or are we still in a world of "all things IPv4?" Geoff Huston joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to review the state of the routing table from 2024.
 
https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-260.mp3
 
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We often try to "institutionalize" things that work into repeatable processes—and most of the time, it doesn't work. The process ends up becoming unwieldy, eventually failing to prevent failures and stifling innovation. How can we get out of this rut? Differentiating between architecture and process. Far too many IT shops try to replace architecture with process. Our second topic for this episode is the destructive lies of the tool trope. Tools are not "neutral," they impact the way we think and work. A primary example of a tool that can often reshape our thinking and doing in very negative ways is ... the process.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-259.mp3

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We often think of network automation as a configuration tool, but automation can also be used for one-off, integration, and even continuous testing. Dan Wade joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to talk about pyATS and the concept of automated testing. To find out more about pyATS, check here.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-258.mp3

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Every recruiter and hiring manager wants people with five years of experience, but you cannot get experience without being hired into a position. How can you break this conundrum? Daniel Dib joins Tom and Russ to talk about how folks just coming into IT, or even those with lots of experience who are trying to shift their focus, can gain experience.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-257.mp3

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Richard Wexelblat published an article in 1980 titled: "The consequences of one's first programming language." We've all seen C code written like Python, or Python code written like C, so it's obvious a coder's first language has a long lasting effect on their style. What about network engineers? Are there times and places where the first of anything a network engineers encounters has a long lasting impact on the way they think and work? In this roundtable, Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ consider different ways this might apply to network engineering.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-256.mp3

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One of the various attack surfaces in encryption is insuring the certificates used to share the initial set of private keys are not somehow replaced by an attacker. In systems where a single server or source is used to get the initial certificates, however, it is fairly easy for an attacker to hijack the certificate distribution process.

Henry Birge-Lee joins us on this episode of the Hedge to talk about extensions to existing certificate systems where a certificate is pulled from more than one source. You can find his article here.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-255.mp3

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One of the big questions about IPv6 is: "Should you use /64's for subnets?" Tom Coffeen joins Eyvonne Sharp, Rick Graziani, and Russ as we discuss the various questions surrounding IPv6 addressing, planning, waste, and ... should you /64?

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-254.mp3

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In this episode of the Hedge, Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ talk about whether Intel will survive, centralization and industrial spying, and why you need to go touch grass and read a book.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-253.mp3

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Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) are one of the key centers of Internet infrastructure. How do IXPs work together to build this critical infrastructure? Through ICP associations, such as the African IXP Association. Ricardo Simba joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to talk about a recent meeting of the African IXP Association.
 
https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-252.mp3
 
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What impact do local regulations have on our ability to build and operate new data centers in the United States? What impact do these regulations have on local economies? Juan Londoño, from the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, joins Ned Bellavance and Russ White to discuss yet another part of the network engineering world.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-251.mp3

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It's roundtable time! Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ discuss several different topics, including the broader market implications for the changes going on at Broadcom and VMWare, balancing the cloud (they float!), reacting to the hype, and whether IP addresses will even be important in ten years.

https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-250.mp3

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Alistair Woodman joins Tom and Russ to talk about the current state of the FR Routing open source routing stack project. Like all software projects, FR Routing has entered a bit of a "middle phase," with a focus on maintenance and stability rather than new features and protocols.
 
https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-249.mp3
 
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