Hey all,

  I've been lurking for, it seems, a long time -- 'cause I'm in L.A. (working R & D for the City, in a communications department) and up to my ears in problem solving -- but the Bay area has a special place in my heart, from lots of years of attention to and involvement in it.

  The questions raised here are important to me.  I wish I were local enough (and free enough...) to actively participate.  I entertain similar questions regarding the Southern California region as well.

  I operate servers out of DCA Net's colo in Wilmington, Delaware and, though it's not a peering exchange, the bandwidth's pretty high.  I spent a number of years working at Avi Freedman's Netaxs in the Philly area doing system and network admin chores, and sat in on a lot of conversations about peering with the big guys on the East coast.  Avi characterized my contribution as "translating English to English", when the suits' eyes would glaze-over as he was talking tech.  I've been doing IT since before anyone heard of a computer.