The Fat Pipe - All Packet Pushers Pods

Scott Robohn welcomes Bruce Davie and Larry Peterson from Systems Approach to discuss the new edition of Computer Networks: A Systems Approach and their blog post on reality-based network operations. Together they explore the contrast between clean-slate tooling and the pragmatic realities of managing heterogeneous vendor environments. They also discuss the importance of designing networks... Read more »

Many network engineers don’t trust AI, in part because the tech is non-deterministic and can behave in unanticipated ways. Simultaneously, the networking industry is baking AI functions deeply into operations, which has proven useful, but engineers still have their misgivings. Are these misgivings still warranted, given just how far we have advanced from chatbots and... Read more »

Thanks to a listener request, today’s episode talks about how to optimize your home network for gaming. Ethan and Holly discuss key factors such as latency, connection type, and bandwidth congestion as well as how wired connections, server selection, and active queue management can directly impact responsiveness. Episode Links: Watch this episode on YouTube

Alexis and Kevin are joined by network technician and content creator Dale Wheeler to explore his career from forklift driver into IT. Together they discuss the pros and cons of traditional college degrees versus certifications, the realities of working IT in the public education sector, and the cultural differences between US and European tech conferences.... Read more »

Ned Bellavance gets to be the guest on today’s show to discuss foundational AI knowledge, inference training, and running local models with Kyler Middleton. Together, they break down practical approaches to local model execution, comparing performance trade-offs and how engineers can safely leverage open-weight models. They also explore the difference between training and inference, optimization... Read more »