i are computar perfeshional. see my l33t skillz.

[rone]

Two weeks, i hit LISA for the first time in 12 years.  I can't really explain why it took me so long to return, other than the typical excuse of indolence (and, really, from a professional standpoint, that is simply bad form).  It was good to see _nicolai_, pir, gothgeekgrrl, and gallifreyan, as well as Steve VanDevender, ex-coworkers Grant Talarico and Aaron Fraser, and talk.bizarre's own George William Herbert (pure chance encounter), and i indulged in the opportunity to show them around downtown San José for lunch at Morocco's, Hanuman, and Mezcal.

One thing i learned at LISA was from ARIN regarding the imminence of IPv4 address space exhaustion; if everything breaks right, the last available /8s will be handed out by IANA to the regional internet registries sometime in the second quarter of 2012.  So, adding IPv6 is moving out of the "hardcore early adopter" stage into the "prudent proactive user" stage (but feel free to disagree and call me names).  I also picked up some good tips regarding interviewing, résumé writing, and becoming a better senior sysadmin.

As of this week, i've been working during the day, filling in for someone else in the group who's out (the group is running rather lean as of late).  It's been nice to see people and actually get to have questions answered without having to wake someone up (although i get the impression today that far too many people have checked out early for Thanksgiving).  I hope that i'll be on days permanently soon.

Comments

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

I had understood that it would have been prudent to go to IPv6 some years ago, because the point at which all namespaces are permanently allocated and exhausted would be the wrong time to actually just start thinking about this as a problem, due to the fact that it will take time to implement a switchover.

Was there some error in my thinking, or are you simply contaminated by real-world issues?

[palecur.livejournal.com]

The current theory on how IPv4 addresses are created -- by decay of subcrustal organic matter -- are demonstrably incorrect. Microorganisms in the Earth's deep, hot biosphere generates new IPv4 addresses that bubble up through cracks and pool in the places where IP is drilled for; since this supply replenishes at a constant rate, we're never going to actually run out. The current push to IPv6 is spearheaded by private interests that stand to profit.

[eagle]

I must respectfully challenge this bit of scientific justification, which completely ignores the ongoing contribution of IPv4 address consumption to global Internet warming. Each additional IPv4 address in use releases additional greenhouse electrons, which among other things is causing all of our discussion fora to become more acidic. At the current rate, all rational discussion will be dissolved within our lifetime, and our children will not know of the existence of Internet discussion more polite than 4chan.

And that's without even discussing the huge disruption caused by forced migration of web sites as parts of the Internet become inhospitable due to IPv4-induced latency change.

Switching to IPv6 as soon as possible is vital to the preservation of our communications infrastructure.

[dagon.net (from livejournal.com)]

Agreed. peak-IPv4 is vastly overblown. The cost of IPv4 routable addresses will rise over the next few years, (because they're ludicrously cheap now; so cheap that nobody is being offered serious money to give theirs up), but there's no "running out" that'll happen.

Carriers and service providers need IPv6. Large organizations have use for IPv6 for some parts of their business. Both for the same reasons: using IPv4 for many many addresses will become more expensive than using IPv6. Both of these move slowly enough that they should be in progress already.

Individuals and small businesses can currently, and for the next 3-5 years, get IPv4 addresses more cheaply than they can adopt IPv6. And they're more agile so they can wait longer to convert when it does become useful. Since this cost change will likely be continuous, even if steep, most people can simply ignore it until it's close.

For computer network professionals and aficionados, IPv6 is something you should be experimenting and playing with so you know it as well as you know IPv4 by the time you have to actually use it. And I guess I'm behind schedule. Again. Damn.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Satan put IPv4 under the earth to lead us astray.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

No error in your thinking, but i think that part of the problem was that the talk of IPv4 exhaustion has been happening for at least 10 years and thus acquired a crying-wolf edge. There is also a non-trivial investment in adopting IPv6 and thus few would take that step before it's critical. Human nature.

[epileptikitty.livejournal.com]

Every time you waste an IP address, an angel cries.

[waider.livejournal.com]

Good to see we've found something else that goes kerplunk in 2012; conspiracy theorists will no doubt find a way to show the Maya foretold this.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

I haven't been to LISA since 01. Slackers unite...