2024

Mark Prosser -

It is now January 15th and I have not cobbled together my thoughts & notes to post so, f it, we're doing it live. I'm essentially going to riff off of last year's post.

In short, 2024 was a year of community & growth.

Personally Notable Achievements

Bullet list highlights from 2024:

  • I officially fought my way into a dedicated Network Automation position. I can now say I am being officially paid, full time, to program in Python.
  • I read so many stimulating articles & filled up my LinkDing instance. This is far superior to the way I was sending messages to myself in Telegram, then desperately searching for the link later.
  • I joined so many lovely communities! NAF (Network Automation Forum), Wiggle Work, re-kindled my way into Packet Pushers, I've flocked with birds in the Packet Coders community, I finally got that Lobsters invite 😄, and there is nothing quite like Jeff Triplett's amazing Office Hours. I could go on for days about how welcoming the folks in those sessions have been. Those Python Jedi really know how to welcome a Python Padawan.
  • I've taken the switch to programming as serious as I can by trying to beef up my CompSci / general systems & programming knowledge. I've essentially bought every useful Tech Book Bundle from Humble. I've had so many lovely hours skimming or diving into these books. So far, the most helpful for me have been Communication Patterns & The Missing Readme
  • This isn't tech, but I'm very proud that I have begun my journey to properly learn Spanish. I did this by crushing the Lingoda Language sprint. I got to flex my skills on a much-deserved vacation to Spain, where I held my own (without my wife there to lean on).

A Year of Conferences

A separate section I would like to highlight is that I absolutely achieved my goal of attending three conferences. These conferences proved invaluable for making the theme of community for 2024 even stronger.

Autocon 1

Autocon1 was the first conference of the year I attended. This was in Amsterdam (because I want to move to Europe) and it was an excellent trip and an excellent conference. Not only was it the exact domain I was itching to break into, Network Automation, but it was a really exciting place to be because it was only the second conference they had ever hosted (Autocon 0 being the first).

I got to meet some legends in the field, who turned out to be absolutely lovely people. A special shout-out to Dinesh Dutt – I owe you some commits very soon. I also met some folks who were also down in the valley well below Automation's Mt. Olympus. The vendor reps were not slimy, scaly or pushy. Some of them even pushed me towards someone on the floor who was not selling something.

I absolutely plan to attend Autocon3 in Prague this may! If you're reading this ahead of that, I'd love to see you there!

NANOG92


NANOG92 was here in Toronto this year, so I felt obliged to go. I'm so glad I did, because it was quite unlike the previous two NANOG's I had attended.

While at this conference, I realized that I have the tech-social confidence to properly do the hallway track. A former colleague, whom I consider a mentor, said to me, "Wow, you can really talk". I'm glad he said this because I was a quiet little mouse back at NANOG76. I remember someone waving me over to join a circle of discussion with the Verizon folk, after their powerful talk on their DC fabric design. I also remember having to force myself to work up the courage to talk to Mircea Ulinic, after being blown away by his Network Automation via Salt Stack talk (which really opened up my mind to Network Automation).

The other amazing benefit was to meet amazing folks from Toronto, as well as nearby. From our national news broadcaster, to various local banks, there were some lovely folk who attended.

Sadly, it wasn't all fun and games. NANOG, being a long-standing & successful tech conference... has quite it's share of absolute jerks. People who think that being emotionally obtuse & mean-spirited is some show of intelligence. I generally had to walk away from a few conversations. It's a weird thing, because NANOG makes such strides to work towards diversity & inclusion... I think we can let this 90's tech-macho persona go away.

With the above being said, I had an absolutely wonderful time. I'm just not sure I would prioritize NANOG for the coming years.

DENOG16

I had an absolutely incredible time at DENOG16. These folk are very passionate about Network Engineering and they were very welcoming to this particular North American, who only speaks about six words in German.

I got to meet up with some online contacts, such as Dmytro of RoutingCraft (excellent blog), and I got to see one of my favourite bloggers give a talk, Pim of IPNG. Sadly, I did not get to shake hands with Pim as I did not see him in the conference main room, nor at the Social. I also got to meet up with several folks that were at Autocon1 (Shout-out to my main guy, Dustin!)

This conference has such amazing value. The workshop I did on BNGblaster was amazing, with the main dev in attendance. After the session, I realized that I was only scratching the surface and I fell in love with open source networking all over again. The DENOG team were also amazing for being so transparent with everything. The final session was all about the cost per attendee, how they get that funding, and how they plan to engage with their members. I really want to join DENOG... even though I doubt I'll ever get the chance to live in Germany.

I will admit that I did feel a little isolated, due to the language barrier; Almost everyone spoke English but I hated to interrupt conversations.. forcing the language to switch from their native language in their native country. This is absolutely no fault of anyone at DENOG nor the attendees; it's a fault on this side of the keyboard. Maybe someday I'll take the Lingoda Language sprint for German 😏

I believed so strongly in these three conferences, that I paid my own way... which allowed me to represent myself under my Zeal Networks brand.

Looking on to 2025

My main goal for 2025 is to finish Network Automation project at work. I feel that I am so close to changing the operational game at my workplace, and I am excited to do this for the operators I feel solidarity with. I do not want to work there forever, but I would definitely like to make my mark on their potential for future success.

Beyond that, here's a non-exhaustive list:

  • Attend Autocon3 in Prague and openly plant seeds for job opportunities that move my wife and I closer to our goal of moving to Spain.
  • Establish a local NetEng community meet-up, so I don't have to wait for NANOG to come to town to see my colleagues (let alone spend $1k). TORNOG? Email me if you want in.
  • I want to add the features I want to projects I want to use, such as Suzie-Q, Netbox, Picle, and so many others. Generally, I want to take less than I give (more on that later)
  • Actively seek (a) mentor(s) so I can accelerate my programming journey. Although I love that I've switched to programming full-time... I'm working on a team of one and I've always had people to bounce ideas off of, throughout my career. Learning via Open Source contribution is probably the best solution to this.
  • Continue making the most of my large library of textbooks as well as my curated sources of articles (RSS / news aggregators).
  • Try to do whatever it takes to make sure I'm bringing the best me to my work. That's mainly exercise, diet, and less alcohol (all of which contributes to better sleep quality, thus a clearer mind and better attitude).
  • Help DBIUA through a suddenly hard time (we are at a cross-roads our BDFL is stepping down from his role).
  • Micro-blog / write more because Jeff said so.

Bonus Thought

In 2024, there has been no software that I've adored more than SQLite. Blag, an amazing blog I recently stumbled upon, wrote a wonderful write-up on neat SQLite facts. But none of them astonished me more than the anti-license they have in their code... which is a blessing:

** The author disclaims copyright to this source code.  In place of
** a legal notice, here is a blessing:
**
**    May you do good and not evil.
**    May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
**    May you share freely, never taking more than you give.

In this difficult world, I think we could all make 2025 an amazing year if we adhered to the above blessing's guidelines.

Cheers to 2025!