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Human Infrastructure Magazine

Human Infrastructure Magazine is a free weekly newsletter about life in IT infrastructure, with a focus on enterprise data networking. It’s a personal look at issues like career development, work/life balance, learning, management, and the pleasures and struggles of an infrastructure career.

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Each issue includes an article/essay about life in IT; a curated selection of links to tech blogs, news, and new products; and a goofy meme or two. We also link to the latest podcasts, videos, and articles from the Packet Pushers–we wouldn’t want to you miss any!

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Human Infrastructure Archive

2023

Issue 313 – July 13, 2023 – Do We Really Want Creativity In IT?

Issue 312 – July 6, 2023 – Why ITIL Remains A Disaster

Issue 311 – June 29, 2023 – Radio On TV?

Issue 310 – June 15, 2023 – Packet Pushers Podcasts On YouTube?

Issue 309 – June 8, 2023 – What’s The Network G In Apple Vision Pro?

Issue 308 – June 1, 2023 – Replacing High-Touch Sales With Surveillance

Issue 307 – May 25, 2023 – How Many Podcasts Do You Want?

Issue 306 – May 18, 2023 – King Cisco And The Viptela Saga

Issue 305 – May 11, 2023 – Blue Skies Ahead?

Issue 304 – May 4, 2023 – Where Do Engineers Get Social These Days?

Issue 303 – April 27, 2023 – We Pick, You Click

Issue 302 – April 20, 2023 – The Case For IT Unionization

Issue 301 – April 13, 2023 – Will ChatGPT Make Tech Blogs Obsolete?

Issue 300 – April 6, 2023 – Holodeck Or Bust

Issue 299 – March 30, 2023 – Your Blog Buffet

Issue 298 – March 23, 2023 – Bill Gates On The Age Of AI

Issue 297 – March 16, 2023 – Sympathy For The Blockchain

Issue 296 – March 9, 2023 – Things To Read And Think About

Issue 295 – March 2, 2023 – Career Advice For The Networking Industry

Issue 294 – February 23, 2023 – Who Are The  Most Overpaid Tech CEOs?

Issue 293 – February 16, 2023 – More Than Podcasts

Issue 292 – February 9, 2023 – We Ask Too Much From Security Professionals

Issue 291 – February 2, 2023 – Can NIST Help Make AI Trustworthy?

Issue 290 – January 26, 2023 – Mastodon Poll Results And Lots Of Links

Issue 289 – January 19, 2023 – Are You Fedi-Curious?

Issue 288 – January 12, 2023 – Stop Retreating Into The Future

2022

Issue 287 – December 15, 2022 – Merry Clickmas!

Issue 286 – December 8, 2022 – Pointless Pedantry Prohibits Progress

Issue 285 – December 1, 2022 – 4 Things To Do For Your Performance Review

Issue 284 – November 17, 2022 – Layoffs, Layoffs Everywhere. What Should You Do?

Issue 283 – November 10, 2022 – A Click In Time

Issue 282 – November 3, 2022 – SalesOps And Pester Power For Lead Generation

Issue 281 – October 27 2022 – Hedgehog, Kubernetes, And The Network Automation Conundrum

Issue 280 – October 20, 2022 – All Clicks, No Bait

Issue 279 – October 13, 2022 – Meta’s Metaverse – A Folly Or The Future?

Issue 278 – October 6, 2022 – Click Here

Issue 277 – September 29, 2022 – Avoid The Institutional Death Spiral

Issue 276 – September 22, 2022 – Can A Crypto Coin Save The Planet?

Issue 275 – September 16, 2022 – Links For Your Thinking

Issue 274 – September 8, 2022 – Maintenance Window Gone Wrong

Issue 273 – September 1, 2022 – Lessons Learned Working Abroad

Issue 272 – August 25, 2022 – Should You Pivot, Transition Or Swivel To Your Next Job?

Issue 271 – August 18, 2022 – Zero Trust Is Not A Product

Issue 270 – August 11, 2022 – I, The Braggart–A Network Fable

Issue 269 – August 4, 2022 – Navigating Our Age Of Distraction

Issue 268 – July 28, 2022 – Your Essay Here

Issue 267 – July 21, 2022 – You Don’t Need Another Tool

Issue 266 – July 14, 2022 – Marketing Docs Aren’t Written For Engineers

Issue 265 – June 30, 2022 – How I Survived ‘Covid Live’

Issue 264 – June 23, 2022 – Put In The Work

Issue 263 – June 17, 2022 – Friday Night Links

Issue 262 – June 9, 2022 – Lost Connections In The Connected Workplace

Issue 261 – June 2, 2022 – Documentation Prefixes And TLDs

Issue 260 – May 26, 2022 – Making Mistakes

Issue 259 – May 19, 2022 – For Your Consideration

Issue 258 – May 12, 2022 – All Clicks, No Tricks

Issue 257 – May 5, 2022 – Climate Change And Network Infrastructure

Issue 256 – April 28, 2022 – Multicloud? We’ve Been Here Before

Issue 255 – April 21, 2022 – Navigating The Network ‘Anyverse’

Issue 254 – April 14, 2022 – Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Issue 253 – April 7, 2022 – Only Links

Issue 252 – March 31, 2022 – Who Are Conference Keynotes For? Not IT

Issue 251 – March 24, 2022 – Mindfulness-Based Leadership For IT

Issue 250 – March 17, 2022 – Satellites And Cyber Attacks

Issue 249 – March 10, 2022 – New Return-To-Office Policies

Issue 248 – March 3, 2022 – The Knowledge Paradox

Issue 247 – February 24, 2022 – Thoughts On Networked Storage And Performance

Issue 246 – February 17, 2022 – 3 Training Programs To Break Into Cyber Security

Issue 245 – February 10, 2022 – Avoiding The Pessimism Doom-Loop

Issue 244 – February 3, 2022 – All The Links Fit To Click

Issue 243 – January 27, 2022 – Technical Documentation: A Love Letter To Your Future Self

Issue 242 – January 20, 2022 – Merchant Silicon Vs. Custom ASICs

Issue 241 – January 13, 2022 – See Your Words Here

2021

Issue 240 – December 16, 2021 – See You Next Year!

Issue 239 – December 9, 2021 – They’ll Remember The Rage Monster

Issue 238 – December 2, 2021 – On Giving The Benefit Of The Doubt

Issue 237 – November 18, 2021 – A Sampler Of Links

Issue 236 – November 11, 2021 – The Changing Landscape Of Project Heroics

Issue 235 – November 4, 2021 – Tips To Reduce Your Zoom Fatigue

Issue 234 – October 28, 2021 – Quick Survey: 2022 Professional Objectives

Issue 233 – October 21, 2021 – Nudging Technologists Toward Self-Sufficiency

Issue 232 – October 14, 2021 – Get Better Results By Communicating In Business Terms

Issue 231 – October 7, 2021 – A Problem In The Supply Chain

Issue 230 – September 30, 2021 – A Bucket Of Links

Issue 229 – September 23, 2021 – Automation For The People

Issue 228 – September 16, 2021 – The Best Technologists First Try To Solve Their Own Problems

Issue 227 – September 9, 2021 – Employees Can Also Play The Ratings Game

Issue 226 – September 2, 2021 – Four Strategies For Getting Stuff Done

Issue 225 – August 26, 2021 – The Most Important Skills For Your Engineering Future

Issue 224 – August 19, 2021 – Commitment and Talent Don’t Always Win

Issue 223 – August 12, 2021 – 2021 Audience Survey Highlights

Issue 222 – August 5, 2021 – Idiots Or Attribution Error? Rethinking Workplace Irritations

Issue 221 – July 29, 2021 – A Links Letter

Issue 220 – July 22, 2021 – When Stretching Layer 2, Separate Your Fate

Issue 219 – July 15, 2021 – Preempting Gray Failures With AI/ML

Issue 218 – July 8, 2021 – Will Productivity Surveillance Ruin Remote Work?

Issue 217 – July 1, 2021 – What Makes A Senior IT Engineer ‘Senior’?

Issue 216 – June 24, 2021 – Business Travel? Yes Please

Issue 215 – June 17, 2021 – Staying Relevant In A Simplifying IT Landscape

Issue 214 – June 10, 2021 – All Links Considered

Issue 213 – June 3, 2021 – A Networking Perspective On Zero Trust Architecture

Issue 212 – May 27, 2021 – Why Don’t Tech Conferences Cater To Introverts?

Issue 211 – May 20, 2021 – Learning In Public Helps Everyone

Issue 210 – May 13, 2021 – It’s Not What You Say. It’s How You’re Heard

Issue 209 – May 6, 2021 – Public Cloud, Lego Bricks, And Metamorphosis

Issue 208 – April 28, 2021 – If You Haven’t Checked Your Backups, They Probably Aren’t Working

Issue 207 – April 21, 2021 – Uncomfortable Outcomes Of Mentoring

Issue 206 – April 15, 2021 – Why Being A Late Adopter Pays Off

Issue 205 – April 8, 2021 – Cisco’s Personal Insights – Good Intentions On The Road To Hell

Issue 204 – April 1, 2021 – New Tech Skills In Two Hours

Issue 203 – March 25, 2021 – Buying Used Cisco Gear From eBay For Your Lab

Issue 202 – March  18, 2021 – Give The Network Designer That Came Before You A Break

Issue 201 – March 11, 2021 – Betting On Virtual Events In A Post-Covid World

Issue 200 – March 4, 2021 – Lesser Known Book Recommendations For Networkers

Issue 199 – February 25, 2021 – Why Customers Always Escalate Tech Support

Issue 198 – February 18, 2021 – Learn Networking Before Automation

Issue 197 – February 11, 2021 – Happiness And Performance Reviews

Issue 196 – February 4, 2021 – You’re In A Bigger Candidate Pool Now

Issue 195 – January 28, 2021 – “Advanced” Doesn’t Mean Difficult

Issue 194 – January 21, 2021 – The Attention Economy And IT Talent Dearth

Issue 193 – January 14, 2021 – Is Secure Software Too Expensive To Build?

Issue 192 – January 7, 2021 – Covid 19 – A Crisis And Opportunity For Rural Broadband

2020

Issue 191 – December 17, 2020 – Jerome, The Cable Monster: A Network Fable

Issue 190 – December 10, 2020 – The List Of Networking Fundamentals

Issue 189 – December 3, 2020 – Why AWS’s Reputation Is Unscathed By Outages

Issue 188 – November 19, 2020 – Open Source Puppies Need Lots Of Attention

Issue 187 – November 12, 2020 – Not Enough Time For The Toilet

Issue 186 – November 5, 2020 – Heavy Strategy And 5G

Issue 185 – October 29, 2020 – No Rush

Issue 184 – October 22, 2020 – Short And Sweet

Issue 183 – October 15, 2020 – Virtual Events Need Digital Transformation

Issue 182 – October 8, 2020 – Advice For Mid-Career IT Pros

Issue 181 – October 1, 2020 – Don’t Become A Developer, But Use Their Tools

Issue 180 – September 24, 2020 – Why Change Review Always Fails

Issue 179 – September 17, 2020 – Transitioning From Junior To Senior Engineer

Issue 178 – September 10, 2020 – Being A Caretaker May Not Be Right For You

Issue 177 – September 3, 2020 – A Technology Career Is Change

Issue 176 – August 27, 2020  – Saying Yes

Issue 175 – August 21, 2020 – Who Wants Subscription-Based Hardware? Not You

Issue 174 – August 13, 2020 – Human Infrastructure 174: A Grande Burrito Of Good Reading

Issue 173 – August 7, 2020 – Why Microsoft Is Chasing TikTok

Issue 172 – July 30, 2020 – SR(x)6 – Snake Oil Or Salvation?

Issue 171 – July 23, 2020 – We Live At Work Now. Get Your Audio & Video Right

Issue 170 – July 16, 2020 – Good Stuff We Found Online

Issue 169 – July 9, 2020 – My God, It’s Full Of Links!

Issue 168 – July 2, 2020 – How To Be A Better Tech Writer

Issue 167 – June 25, 2020 – New-IP & The Future Of An Open Internet

Issue 166 – June 18, 2020 – Making Work From Home Viable Permanently

Issue 165 – June 11, 2020 – Career Advice: Know The Vendor Or The Technology?

Issue 164 – June 4, 2020 – What Does A Network Down Event Cost?

Issue 163 – May 28, 2020 – Forget Transformation. Go For Digital Stability

Issue 162 – May 21, 2020 – Live Tech Events Will Return. Here’s Why

Issue 161 – May 14, 2020 – VMC On AWS Isn’t Cloud, But That’s OK

Issue 160 – May 7, 2020 – Book Review: William Gibson’s “Agency”

Issue 159 – April 30, 2020 – Rebooting Big Tech Conferences

Issue 158 – April 23, 2020 – The Criticality Of The Proof Of Concept

Issue 157 – April 17, 2020 – Field Engineering and COVID19

Issue 156 – April 9, 2020 – Yes, You Should Buy OEM Optical Modules

Issue 155 – April 2, 2020 – Black Swans Vs. White Swans And Disaster Recovery

Issue 154 – March 26, 2020 – The All Links Issue

Issue 153 – March 19, 2020 – Silicon Valley Work-From-Home Tips

Issue 152 – March 12, 2020 – Business Without Labor, Automation Without Workers

Issue 151 – March 5, 2020 – Surveillance As A Service – Whether You Opted In Or Not

Issue 150 – February 28, 2020 – Why Vendor Products Are Unreliable And Insecure

Issue 149 – February 20, 2020 – Advice For Network Newbies

Issue 148 – February 13, 2020 – Write Detailed Plans To Reveal Complex Realities

Issue 147 – February 6, 2020 – Will Software Ever Be As Reliable As Airplanes?

Issue 146 – January 30, 2020 – Surviving A Reduction In Force

Issue 145 – January 23, 2020 – Telemetry Vs. SNMP

Issue 144 – January 16, 2020 – Ambitious Designs Vs. Common Sense

2019

Issue 143 – December 19, 2019 – Don’t Call Me – Text Me

Issue 142 – December 12, 2019 – What Makes A Good IT Leader?

Issue 141 – December 5, 2019 – Crowdsourcing Home WiFi

Issue 140 – November 21, 2019 – How Difficult Is SD-WAN?

Issue 139 – November 14, 2019 – Slippery Standards And Unintended Consequences

Issue 138 – November 7, 2019 – Sportsball Marketing And IT Vendors

Issue 137 – October 31st, 2019 – On Hiring, Degrees, And Certifications

Issue 136 – October 24, 2019 – Cloud Denial: A Network Fable

Issue 135 – October 17, 2019 – Ethics From A Position Of Weakness

Issue 134 – October 10, 2019 – The Kubernetes Special

Issue 133 – October 3, 2019 – When A Vendor Says…

Issue 132 – September 26, 2019 – Coin-Operated Evangelism

Issue 131 – September 19, 2019 – Disrupting The Afterlife – Neal Stephenson’s “Fall”

Issue 130 – September 12, 2019 – Self Investment Is A Leap Of Faith

Issue 129 – September 5, 2019 – Stay In Your Lane – A Network Fable

Issue 128 – August 28, 2019 – Toxic Achievement Culture

Issue 127 – August 23, 2019 – The Blessing Of Disconnection

Issue 126 – August 15, 2019 – Nasty Nerd Knobs Knocking On Your Network

Issue 125 – August 8, 2019 – We Need A Better Name For ‘Soft Skills’

Issue 124 – August 1, 2019 – Sympathy For The Marketing Department

Issue 123 – July 25, 2019 – The Bonus: A Network Fable

Issue 122 – July 18, 2019 – My ‘Do not use underscores in DNS’ War Story

Issue 121 – July 12, 2019 – Changes To Human Infrastructure & Ignition

Issue 120 – June 27, 2019 – How I Would Improve Certifications As A Vendor

Issue 119 – June 20, 2019 – People Are The Real Value Of Tech Conferences

Issue 118 – June 14, 2019 – The Vendor Keynote Playbook

Issue 117 – June 7, 2019 – The Bus Driver – A Network Fable

Issue 116 – May 31, 2019 – The Prefix List – A Network Fable

Issue 115 – May 24, 2019 – For And Against Shutting Down Unused Ports

Issue 114 – May 17, 2019 – The Unglamour Of Business Travel

Issue 113 – May 10, 2019 – Don’t Be Afraid Of SD-WAN Lock In

Issue 112 – May 2, 2019 – Will Networking Become Push Button Tedium?

Issue 111 – April 26, 2019 – Is Deep Networking Knowledge Still Valuable?

Issue 110 – April 19, 2019 – Is Network Engineering Dying?

Issue 109 – April 12, 2019 – How The Network Engineer Position Will Change

Issue 108 – April 5, 2019 – Upgrade Now Or Wait? The Business Case For Wi-Fi 6

Issue 107 – March 29, 2019 – The Technology Case For Wi-Fi 6

Issue 106 – March 22, 2019 – Overcoming The 5 Objections To Tech Blogging

Issue 105 – March 15, 2019 – Low Power 5G And The Enterprise

Issue 104 – March 8, 2019 – What Do Network Engineers Want?

Issue 103 – February 28, 2019 – A Glimpse At Two Approaches To Segment Routing

Issue 102 – February 21, 2019 – I Used To Think – Now I Think

Issue 101 – February 15, 2019 – Network Zen – The Duality Of Bandwidth

Issue 100 – February 8, 2019 – Questions To Ask When Buying Tech Support

Issue 099 – February 1, 2019 – High Marginal Tax Was Good For My Health

Issue 098 – January 25, 2019 – Setting Up A Python Environment

Issue 097 – January 18, 2019 – Aspects Of The Gray Market For IT Gear

Issue 096 – January 11, 2019 – Money, Prestige, Or Knowledge

2018

Issue 095 – December 14, 2018 – Etherealmind’s Networking Truths

Issue 094 – November 30, 2018 – Notes On Whois Privacy Reform

Issue 093 – November 16, 2018 – How Many Network Orchestrators Do We Need

Issue 092 – November 2, 2018 – Always Have A Career Plan B

Issue 091 – October 18, 2018 – Companies Don’t Fail Over IT Security

Issue 090 – October 4, 2018 – Nuanced Problems Deserve Nuanced Solutions

Issue 089 – September 20, 2018 – A Network Fable – For The Right Reasons

Issue 088 – September 6, 2018 – The Most Fragile Engineers I Know

Issue 087 – August 23, 2018 – A Network Fable – The Cutover Done Wrong

Issue 086 – August 3, 2018 – Overcoming Your Fear Of Change

Issue 085 – July 20, 2018 – Document So You Can Go On Vacation

Issue 084 – July 6, 2018 – Contractors As Tools Not Scapegoats

Issue 083 – June 22, 2018 – The Social Media Resume Burnout And Darth Vader’s Keynote

Issue 082 – May 24, 2018 – Who Benefits From Vendor Best Practices

Issue 081 – May 10, 2018 – Make An Extra Million In Network Engineering

Issue 080 – April 26, 2018 – A Blueprint For Integrity And Performance

Issue 079 – April 12, 2018 – Navigating Vendor Nonsense

Issue 078 – March 29, 2018 – The Limits Of Customer Use Cases

Issue 077 – March 15, 2018 – You Control Your Own Destiny

Issue 076 – March 1, 2018 – Quitting My CCIE

Issue 075 – February 15, 2018 – The Intent-Based Career

Issue 074 – February 1, 2018 – Get Out Of Your Echo Chamber

Issue 073 – January 18, 2018 – Mentor Because You’re Selfish

2017

Issue 072 – December 21, 2017 – End Of Year

Issue 071 – December 7, 2017 – What Network Stability Means

Issue 070 – November 22, 2017 – How Do You Learn?

Issue 069 – November 9, 2017 – Try Something Different

Issue 068 – October 26, 2017 – The Art Of Procrastination

Issue 067 – October 12, 2017 – Why 10 Years Of Uptime Is Bad

Issue 066 – September 28, 2017 – Be More Than Just A Line Item

Issue 065 – September 14, 2017 – Big Data Vs. Big Insight

Issue 064 – August 31, 2017 – Solving The Other IT Problem

Issue 063 – August 17, 2017 – Is The CCNA The Right Start?

Issue 062 – August 3, 2017 – Drew Isn’t Here

Issue 061 – July 20, 2017 – Story Time

Issue 060 – July 6, 2017 – The People Issue

Issue 059 – June 22, 2017 – Pain And Gain

Issue 058 – June 9, 2017 – Transformation

Issue 057 – May 25, 2017 – Let’s Get Real

Issue 056 – May 10, 2017 – Automatic For The People

Issue 055 – April 26, 2017 – Making Choices

Issue 054 – April 12, 2017 – Story Time

Issue 053 – March 30, 2017 – Rhymin’ And Stealin’

Issue 052 – March 16, 2017 – Giving And Seeking Advice

Issue 051 – March 1, 2017 – Who Can You Trust?

Issue 050 – February 16, 2017 – Time To Step Up

Issue 049 – February 3, 2017 – Stupid Management Tricks

Issue 048 – January 19, 2017 – Stupid Network

2016

Issue 047 – December 21, 2016 – ITIL Change Freeze

Issue 046 – December 8, 2016 – Changes

Issue 045 – November 23, 2016 – To Grandmother’s House We Go

Issue 044 – November 10, 2016 – Take A Deep Breath

Issue 043 – October 26, 2016 – Jobs

Issue 042 – October 14, 2016 – Answer To Life The Universe And Everything

Issue 041 – September 30, 2016 – Ranty Issue

Issue 040 – September 16, 2016 – Doing Things Differently

Issue 039 – August 31, 2016 – Complexity Is Simple

Issue 038 – August 18, 2016 – Asking When

Issue 037 – August 4, 2016 – Thinking About The Future

Issue 036 – July 21, 2016 – Control Issues

Issue 035 – July 7, 2016 – Changes Are Coming

Issue 034 – June 24, 2016 – Everything In Moderation

Issue 033 – June 9, 2016 – How Vendor Sales Teams Cost You And Resisting Social Media

Issue 032 – May 26, 2016 – Maintaining The Skills

Issue 031 – May 12, 2016 – Still In The Recovery

Issue 030 – April 26, 2016 – Interop Is Next Week

Issue 029 – April 15, 2016 – Considering Cap Theorem

Issue 028 – April 7, 2016 – We’re Trying To Be Helpful

Issue 027 – March 23, 2016 – Between March Madness And St. Patricks Day

Issue 026 – March 4, 2016 – Hyperconverged For Your Convenience

Issue 025 – February 21, 2016 – Enterprise IT Is Slowing Down Its Spending

Issue 024 – February 4, 2016 – I’m Good At Keeping My Inner Awesome Under Control

Issue 023 – January 21, 2016 – Life In IT

Issue 022 – January 12, 2016 – Predictions For 2016

2015

Issue 021 – December 23, 2015 – Christmas Change Freeze

Issue 020 – December 10, 2015 – Dealing With Layer 8

Issue 019 – November 25, 2015 – Can’t Think Of Anything Smart To Say

Issue 018 – November 12, 2015 – HP Splits And Dell EMC Merges

Issue 017 – October 27, 2015 – Too Many Things To Do And Not Enough Focus To Do Them

Issue 016 – September 21, 2015 – End Of Summer Slowdown Starts About Now

Issue 015 – September 7, 2015 – I Am A Startup

Issue 014 – August 21, 2015 – Status Reset

Issue 013 – August 10, 2015 – Making Websites Is Hard

Issue 012 – June 30, 2015 – Three Years Is An IT Lifetime

Issue 011 – June 15, 2015 – The Cloud In Education IT

Issue 010 – June 1, 2015 – On Having Favorites

Issue 009 – May 20, 2015 – Too Stupid Too Quit

Issue 008 – May 12, 2015 – Where Am I?

Issue 007 – May 4, 2015 – I Like The Interop Conference

Issue 006 – April 17, 2015 – News From The OpenCompute Project

Issue 005 – April 6, 2015 – Changing Views And Problems

Issue 004 – March 23, 2015 – Travelling To Site

Issue 003 – February 23, 2015 – Why Is Quality So Poor?

Issue 002 – January 29, 2015 – Enterprise IT Comes Last

Issue 001 – January 14, 2015 – The First Issue