Podcasts · Technology

The Hedge

Russ White

49 episodes

culture eats technology for breakfast

Episodes

  1. Hedge 323: AI and Liability

    · 31 min

    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…

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

    · 32 min

    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,…

  3. Hedge 322: AI Crash

    · 46 min

    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…

  4. Hedge 321: Sockets

    · 57 min

    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…

  5. Hedge 320: Service Consolidation

    · 36 min

    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…

  6. Hedge 319: Using AI

    · 54 min

    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…

  7. Hedge 318: Parkinson’s Law (and Bastiat)

    · 35 min

    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…

  8. Hedge 317: AI Tools and Coding

    · 50 min

    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…

  9. Hedge 316: AI Governance

    · 43 min

    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…

  10. Hedge Classics 17: Strong Opinions Loosely Held

    · 32 min

    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…

  11. Hedge 315: Engineering Psychology

    · 47 min

    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…

  12. Hedge 314: Questions from a New Engineer

    · 53 min

    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…

  13. Hedge 313: Out of Band Management Networks

    · 43 min

    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…

  14. Hedge 312: Keys and DNS

    · 48 min

    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…

  15. Hedge 311: The Dangers of AI

    · 51 min

    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…

  16. Hedge 310: AI Ops

    · 43 min

    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.…

  17. Hedge 309: DNS Persist

    · 38 min

    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…

  18. Hedge 308: Hidden Competence

    · 36 min

    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…

  19. Best of the Hedge: Episode 15, Supporting Open Source

    · 40 min

    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…

  20. Hedge 307: bgproutes.io

    · 46 min

    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…

  21. Hedge 306: RPKI Transport

    · 59 min

    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…

  22. Hedge 305: From Security to Networking

    · 31 min · Episode 305

    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…

  23. Hedge 304: Deep Dive into a Network Master’s Program

    · 36 min

    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…

  24. Hedge 303: Data Centers?

    · 32 min

    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…

  25. Hedge 302: Communications in Biological Systems

    · 55 min

    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…

  26. Best of the Hedge: Episode 30, Network Fundamentals

    · 52 min

    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.…

  27. Hedge 301: SONiC

    · 50 min

    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.…

  28. Hedge 300: Solving Injection Attacks

    · 39 min

    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.…

  29. Hedge 299: 6G

    · 56 min

    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…

  30. Hedge 298: The 6G Hype Begins

    · 44 min · Episode 298

    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…

  31. Hedge 297: MPLS

    · 53 min

    Has MPLS really “died” because of SD-WAN services? Scott Robohn joins Tom and Russ to talk about the past and future of MPLS.…

  32. Hedge 296: AS-SETs

    · 49 min

    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,…

  33. Hedge 295: Specialization

    · 38 min

    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…

  34. Hedge 294: Resource Constrained Environments

    · 48 min

    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…

  35. Hedge 293: Moore’s Law

    · 52 min · Episode 293

    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…

  36. Hedge 292: Data Center Costs

    · 54 min · Episode 292

    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.…

  37. Best of the Hedge 9: Ethics in IT

    · 32 min

    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…

  38. Hedge 291: The Assault on Standards

    · 24 min

    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?…

  39. Hedge 290: The Amoeba and the Mathematician

    · 27 min

    In this Hedge roundtable, Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ discuss The Amoeba and the Mathematician https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/media.blubrry.com/hedge/content.blubrry.com/hedge/hedge-290.mp3 download

  40. Best of the Hedge: Hedge 6 on DoH (Part 2)

    · 28 min

    In this episode of the Hedge, Geoff Huston joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to finish the discussion on the ideas behind DNS over HTTPS (DoH), and to consider the implications of its widespread adoption. Is it time to…

  41. Best of the Hedge: Episode 5 on DoH (Part 1)

    · 28 min

    In this episode of the Hedge, Geoff Huston joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the ideas behind DNS over HTTPS (DoH), and to consider the implications of its widespread adoption. Is it time to bow to our new…

  42. Hedge 289: Containerlab

    · 43 min

    If you are struggling with building labs on lighter weight systems–or if you’re just interested in what Containerlab is and does–join Rick, Roman, and Russ for this discussion of what Containerlab is, what it does, and…

  43. Hedge 288: Loneliness

    · 51 min

    Sometimes we just like to talk about “life issues” as they relate to network engineering and technology career fields. Loneliness seems to especially plague network engineering and other “small” IT fields, where…

  44. Hedge 287: IPv6 in Planned Economies

    · 50 min

    Do planned economies, like China, have an advantage in deploying IPv6? What do the numbers on the DFZ show? George Michaelson joins Russ and Tom to discuss.…

  45. Hedge 286: Roundtable

    · 42 min

    It’s time again for Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ to talk about current articles they’ve run across in their day-to-day reading. This time we talk about WiFi in the home, how often users think a global problem is really…

  46. Hedge 285: Post Quantum Crypto

    · 46 min

    Is quantum really an immediate and dangerous threat to current cryptography systems, or are we pushing to hastily adopt new technologies we won’t necessarily need for a few more years? Should we allow the quantum pie…

  47. Hedge 284: Netops and Corporate Culture

    · 46 min

    We all know netops, NRE, and devops can increase productivity, increase Mean Time Between Mistakes (MTBM), and decrease MTTR–but how do we deploy and use these tools? We often think of the technical hurdles you face in…

  48. Hedge 283: Technical Planning

    · 37 min

    We network engineers often find ourselves without a viable plan–our plans always seem to go awry, to the point that many network engineers just give up on planning. Is “giving up” the right solution? Or can we learn to…

  49. Hedge 282: Future of Operations

    · 32 min

    On this episode of the Hedge, Anil Varanasi joins Russ to talk about the complexities of network operations and what Meter is doing in this space. note: even though this is a more product-heavy episode of the Hedge…

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