HN is based around web based work, databases, webservers, load balancing, stuff that can (or does) run in VMs in clouds. If that's stuff that can be automated,

HN is based around web based work, databases, webservers, load balancing, stuff that can (or does) run in VMs in clouds. If that's stuff that can be automated, then great, you don't need to know the IP, let alone have a hostname. Most of the general purpose computers (and certainly the vast majority of devices with an IP) I deal with have real world interfaces, SDI ports and/or analog/digital audio connections. I'm not going to give my encoder in Nairobi a name that doesn't say "Nairobi Encoder" (PTR returns NRB-ENC001-obe, forward lookup for NRB-ENC001), same with encoder 2 at New Scotland Yard, and the same with the ntop/monitoring box I have in the New York office. I can't self heal equipment when a lorry drives into it, but I need to know that it's the Old Bailey monitoring box that's broken.