The Hedge

Hedge 323: AI and Liability

Who should be held liable when AI fails? Who is liable when an AI system “breaks into” a network or system, causing a major breach? Listen in as Tom and Russ discuss two articles covering these topics on this roundtable episode of the Hedge. The two articles discussed in this episode are available here and here. download

Best of the Hedge: 18, Programming Skills for Network Engineers

Network engineers do not need to become full-time coders to succeed–but some coding skills are really useful. In this episode of the Hedge, David Barrosso (you can find David’s github repositories here), Phill Simonds, and Russ White discuss which programming skills are useful for network engineers. download

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Hedge 322: AI Crash

Just about everyone is watching the financial markets, either wondering how much better they can get, or when the AI financing bubble is going to crash. Dough Dawson, from POTs and PANs, joins Tom and Russ to talk about the logic of a coming crash, and consider where engineers should be looking for potential future career fields to weather the storm. download

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Hedge 321: Sockets

There are many “unsung technologies” in the Internet. While we often think of TCP/IP, various models, Ethernet, and DNS, we don’t often think about the lowly socket interface. What is the history of the socket, and why is it important in the world of the Internet? George Michaelson joins Colin Doyle and Russ White to discuss the history and importance of sockets.

Hedge 320: Service Consolidation

Over time, services like DNS and email have been centralized, leaving the Internet itself much more centralized. In this episode of the Hedge, Doug Jacobson joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss centralization and service consolidation. download

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Hedge 319: Using AI

AI is everywhere. While there are many questions about whether AI is a bubble, the ethics of AI, and the cultural impact of AI, in this episode of the Hedge Mike Bushong joins Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ to talk about how network engineers can use AI. Are some use cases better than others? Are there pitfalls network engineers should avoid? Listen in and find out. download

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Hedge 318: Parkinson’s Law (and Bastiat)

It’s time for Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ to gather round the hedge and talk about various items of interest. In this roundtable, we consider what we can learn about product development from Bastiat, and the various ins and outs of Parkinson’s Law. download

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Hedge 317: AI Tools and Coding

How effective are AI tools–even agentic AI tools placed into a system–at building and testing software? Derick Winkworth and Donald Sharp Join Russ to discuss various projects they’ve worked on using AI tools, lessons they’ve learned, and how developers can make effective use of AI. download

Hedge 316: AI Governance

Deploying AI for AI Ops, or even just for general use in your network, is very simple–but we often forget that these kinds of new technologies need to be governed. From privacy through cost, operators need to decide how to govern their AI deployments to control costs, ensure accuracy, measure productivity, and make certain these systems are being used effectively. Colin Cosgrove joins Russ and Tom to look at AI governance. download This episode was published with a link to the wrong audio file. I’ve updated it to the corrected filed.

Hedge Classics 17: Strong Opinions Loosely Held

Strong opinions loosely held? This is probably not as good of an idea as it seems. Instead of producing confidence, it might produce overconfidence. Michael Natkin joins Tom and Russ to discuss the problems with this mantra. download

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Hedge 315: Engineering Psychology

We often talk about “human infrastructure” in network engineering–but what does this mean, and how do we help engineers “produce” while helping them to flourish as individuals? Catherine Hicks joins Tom and Russ to discuss the psychology of software engineering, and how the lessons learned apply to network engineering. download You can find Catherine’s new book on the psychology of software engineering here. If you would like to follow Catherine’s writing in this area, including the impact of AI on work, you can find her blog here. You can connect with Catherine on LinkedIn.

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Hedge 314: Questions from a New Engineer

Sometimes we can be so focused on the problems in front of us that we forget the people who are following in our footsteps. Michael McCollum, a new network engineer, joins Tom and Russ to ask questions about life as a network engineer. download

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Hedge 313: Out of Band Management Networks

Most designers and operators default to carrying all traffic–including network management traffic–across the same paths as application data, or in band. Is this the right choice, or should operators seriously consider creating an out-of-band network just for network management? If you decide to build an out-of-band network, what are some of the considerations and lessons learned? Daryll Swer joins Tom and Russ to discuss. download

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Hedge 312: Keys and DNS

The entire technology world has, for decades, treated the IP address as a shorthand host identifier. This is clearly not the way IP was designed, but what are our other choices? In this episode of the Hedge, Scott Robohn joins Russ And Tom to discuss a recent paper arguing cryptographic keys should be the primary host identifier, and another article on the centrality of DNS to the Internet. download

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Hedge 311: The Dangers of AI

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? download You can find Doug’s blog here.

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Hedge 310: AI Ops

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. download

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Hedge 309: DNS Persist

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, and Shiloh Heurich join Russ and Tom to explain how this new record type works and it’s importance to DNS. download

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Hedge 308: Hidden Competence

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. download

Best of the Hedge: Episode 15, Supporting Open Source

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. @nbsp; download $nbsp; Reposting a classic episode this week because I was out of town and didn’t get around to editing an episode.

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Hedge 307: bgproutes.io

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. You can find bgprotues.io here. download

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