Great writeup even though the dots aren’t connected between a lot of the aspects presented. Didn’t know about udev exposing consistent device names for network interfaces for example, or the efforts to open source switch software, or how easy it’s become to run intra-datacenter BGP. Thanks for all the links!

And of course the brilliant use of AI and discussion of how cost-effective it is. “Hook it up to an AI to save money” is the world we can look forward to. In this case the problem is recognizing which state a thing is in from a list of known states. Once the LLM gives the state in text form, all kinds of automation are unlocked. I think that class of problem - converting a state based on an image into text form - is wildly common, and will be on the lookout for it in my own automation work!