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We're doing something dangerous, here. We're messing with the order of the universe. We're changing things up on you. I think it'll work out fine, though.

Many of you have been reading this blog since 2005 have become used to my acerbic wit and charming observations on the state of the Internet. OK, maybe you've just slogged through some boring posts for the few gems buried in among all of the garbage. I hope it has been worth it.

Now I'd like to introduce a new contributor. Earl Zmijewski (I dare you to ask him, repeatedly, how the heck he pronounces his name) has been with Renesys since last year. Many of the readers of this blog who are Renesys customers have already interacted with Earl in the context of a professional support engagement or when you've asked questions about the Market Intelligence or Routing Intelligence products. Earl has a background in large-scale enterprise networking and systems before coming to Renesys. He has been living and breathing interdomain routing since he joined us last year.

Earl is stepping up into a significantly expanded role at Renesys. He's going to be responsible for all of our Internet intelligence data products and services. He will begin posting some of the interesting findings and anecdotes here, for your enjoyment. I encourage you to welcome him with the same critical skepticism and general crankiness that most of you offer to me on a regular basis. :-)

I look forward to Earl's first post.

This is my first blog, so you'll have to bear with me. Of course, like everyone even vaguely connected to the Internet, I've been aware of blogs for a very long time. I've got lots of friends with blogs and I've even thought about starting one, but never managed to. I think I even read a blog once; or maybe not.

I admire the Net for the way in which it allows ordinary people (and a few extraordinary people) to produce content and to directly deliver that content to an audience. "Disintermediation" was what we used to call that--a long word for "cutting out the middle man". Blogs can certainly do that. But they also have a tendency to be self-centered, myopic and frequently boring. I'll try to keep those normal, human characteristics out of these posts. Blogs worth reading are typically blogs worth writing. I'm hoping that this will be one of those.