What’s your address?

Forget hardware and software upgrades, it’s time for the internet to be upgraded, claims a technophile.

AD: If the internet could run out of addresses, do you think it could happen to our neighbourhood as well?

BC: What do you mean?

AD: I’m talking about IP addresses – Internet Protocol addresses. You must have seen numbers arranged in four sets, like 192.168.1.1, for instance. Each number can vary between 0 and 255.

BC: So that’s how you get so many combinations…

AD: Absolutely. 2^32, to be precise, which leaves you with 4.3 billion addresses.

BC: That’s a lot! And we managed to use up all that?

AD: Well, the current protocol that we are following - IPv4 or Internet Protocol version 4 - was created in the ‘70s. At that time, 4.3 billion did seem like a staggering number…

BC: So what are we doing about it now?

AD: The shift is on, from IPv4 to IPv6, or Internet Protocol version 6.

BC: How’s IPv6 different?

AD: It has four digit hexadecimal numbers, arranged in sets of eight…

BC: I guess that means more options…

AD: Right! It works out to 2^128 – or 340 undecillion – addresses.

BC: 340 undecided what?

AD: Undecillion - that's 340 followed by 36 zeroes.

BC: That's huge! We'll take forever to exhaust that.

AD: Consider this – of the 4.3 billion addresses, we’ve used up the last billion in just six years, between 2006 and now. It just goes on to show the proliferation of internet devices and the number of users…

BC: I thought IP addresses referred to websites only.

AD: No, each computer and internet-enabled device are also assigned an IP address. And with millions of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets that have come into use in recent times…

BC: So does that signify the end of IPv4?

AD: No, just when everyone thought it was the end of the world, a new policy has been set in place which allows transfers of IPv4 addresses from regions where they are still available…

BC: …to regions where they’ve already been exhausted.

AD: Right, the beneficiaries mostly being from the Asia Pacific region, because they were the first to run out of IPv4 addresses…

BC: And who’s the donor? You said that the world was running out of IPv4 addresses…

AD: IPv4 addresses are distributed in blocks to regions, from where they are further distributed to service providers. So, while the blocks of addresses have been exhausted, some regions still have unused addresses. The African region for instance, has IP addresses to last them almost till the end of this decade.

BC: So while some are migrating to IPv6, the rest are buying up IPv4 addresses from wherever they are available...

AD: I guess everyone will eventually move to IPv6, but the transfer of IPv4 addresses is to help companies during the transition period.

BC: So what’s the progress made?

AD: June 8, 2011 saw the World IPv6 Day, a day when several leading companies like Cisco, Facebook, Google, Juniper Networks, Microsoft and Yahoo participated in a test run of their IPv6 websites for 24 hours.

BC: How did it go?

AD: It had a lot of support from the big names. And June 6, 2012 was the World IPv6 Launch, when IPv6 was permanently enabled globally.

BC: How about India? Are we inclined towards this new development?

AD: Not really. Reports indicate that India is still playing catch up...

BC: Well, we’ve always valued cricket more than technology...

AD: What’s the connection?

BC: After five seasons of IPL, looks like our support is more for IPL 6 than IPv6. 

Staying in focus

The old-fashioned ‘film roll’ camera? Or the new-age digital one? The argument continues...

AD: Hi, whose photo album is that? Looks pretty old…

BC: My Dad’s college photos – they were shot over 70 years ago…. Look at the texture, the clarity...

AD: Yes, but who shoots on film these days? It’s a digital world today…

BC: Perhaps, but try getting this quality, especially in black & white...

AD: I know what you’re arriving at, but a digital camera…

BC: …is suffering from an identity crisis ever since it got hitched to one end of a mobile phone.

AD: Digital cameras are so convenient – there’s no fear of running out of film in the middle of a vacation…

BC: You could still run out of batteries and memory space, with your digital camera…

AD: With rechargeable batteries and infinite storage space? Never! A digital camera is so handy, especially when you want to click a candid moment, like your kid doing something really zany. Back in your days, you would have to dig out your camera, check if it is loaded, adjust the focus manually, switch on flash if necessary, wait for the go-ahead green signal... You’re ready, but the moment has passed.  

BC: We’ve raised kids without digital cameras – and our memories are still as fresh…

AD: What about the costs? When you’re visiting new places, it’s such a relief to get trigger-happy because you can click as many snaps as you want with a digital camera… You don’t have to be weighed down by factors like cost of film and the number of shots left. Wouldn’t it be tragic to be in two minds whether or not to click another snap because you wish to save the roll for the rest of the trip?

BC: What’s the point in shooting a thousand snaps? You upload some of them online - and that’s probably the last time you see them yourself.

AD: It would be nice to look back one day...

BC: You fill a 500 GB hard disk with snaps and hope to go back to them someday? That’s like filing away all the newspapers during your working years so that you can read them in leisure once you retire…

AD: Well, you can store thousands of digital images in an area that’s the size of your thumb nail.  Imagine storing even a fraction of that as prints…

BC: But how will you find a particular snap when you have millions?

AD: It’s a lot easier to sort and index digital images - software like Picasa can do the organizing for you. Prints, on the other hand, will require some sort of a catalog or album.

BC: I’ll stick to my old Nikon, thank you. It’s a mechanical camera and doesn’t even need batteries…

AD: What about ease of use? Digital cameras are a lot simpler – anyone can handle one. Manual cameras require some level of orientation…

BC: I’ve always maintained that technology’s dumbing down everything around us…

AD: Think of the positives - having a digital camera can be pretty useful. There have been so many wrongdoings and incidents that have been reported by the media in recent times because a passerby could shoot the incident with his mobile phone camera…

BC: It’s also sad to note that technology is coming in the way of being humane.

AD: What do you mean?

BC: There was a time when, in the case of an accident or molestation, our first instinct was to rush and help. Today, people seem to be more particular about clicking pictures and posting them online...