Dad hands me the saw..or the rusty jalopy that stands in for a saw. And there I am…face down, ass up under a 14 foot tall douglas fir that I already hate. Covered in sap and needles, freezing what used to be my balls off. Of course, the tree is so thick nobody can hold it while I cut the son of a bitch down…and you just CAN'T get out of three feet of snow that quickly. So, not only do I get the honor of cutting down a tree, but I get the PRIVILEGE of dragging it a mile down a craggy hill side, in the snow, covered in what is the most hateful mix of water, shame, sap, and sharp pointy sabers masquerading as evergreen needles.

We purchase the tree, discover we forgot rope for the 10th year in a row, but $17 of rope (roughly 10 feet), strap the tree down to the roof of the car, and make our way home in the same manner we started…miserable and tired.

Let it be known that nobody's family is better than mine.

What this is

This will be a review of the Palm Pre hardware, Palm's new webOS, the Sprint network, and Sprint customer service. I will be as in-depth, specific, and un-biased as I can, and critical where I have had problems. I will also be making a comparison between the iPhone and Pre interface functions, which should help people get the idea of the paradigm each platform represents.

What this is not

This is not going to be a tit-for-tat between the iPhone and the Pre. Since comparing usability is a subjective matter, I will not be focusing energy on calling out what platform I feel does things right, and which one(s) don't. There is more than enough content online to help you decide what you like, and you can (and should) always stop by your nearest Sprint or Best Buy to compare several different smart phones for yourself.

Of Pre and Men

The Palm Pre seems to have been released as Palm's hail Mary play- a last ditch effort to retool, reorganize, and release a product that can save the company. How well it is working, and how long Palm can be sustained on the Pre has yet to be seen, and I think making early predictions would be a mistake. I don't think anybody could have seen how big the iPhone would be when Apple released the first generation, and in fact Apple, Inc. itself has been startled by our voracious appetite for smart devices.

Having said that, the underlying Operating System on the Palm Pre is known as webOS. Palm has developed webOS to be a very simple AJAX/HTML5 device that is easy to develop for if you have any web development experience. Since there seem to be an infinite number of web developers in the world, Palm seems to feel confident that this is the best choice.

As of yet, Palm has not released their Software Development Kit (SDK) to the general public, so there are few real-world experiences with development. We'll have to chalk this decision up as a "TBD". There does seem to be quite a bit of buzz in several internet forums, some of which already have "home brew" applications available for download and install. This is much like apps for Jailbroken iPhones- There is no official support, and Palm would prefer you use their distribution methods.

Body

The Palm Pre itself is a plastic body phone with a plastic screen and rubberized keyboard buttons. The phone's body slides open from bottom-to-top revealing a keyboard that extends the phone's dimensions by about 25%. When closed, the Pre is not as tall and not as wide as my iPhone, but it is thicker.

Official dimensions of the Pre are 2.3" wide, 3.9" high, and .67" thick. These numbers mean literally nothing without holding a phone in your hand. Sadly, every store in the world has their cell phones tethered with security cords, so you won't really be able to get a good feel for this unless you can hold an unbridled phone.

The device itself has a curved body and screen, which seems to lend itself very well to holding it in your hand and  single-thumb flicking. The curvature also helps the Pre disappear in your pocket, which is an added bonus. For those that carry a blackberry or iPhone in your pocket, you know how bulky it can feel. The Pre feels slightly better, though you will probably want it to be the only thing in your pocket still.

Keyboard

Several people, including myself, were concerned with the device's keyboard size. As we shrink smart phones smaller and smaller, it is clear that they keyboard will pay the ultimate price until it disappears completely. Apple is obviously the first one to recognize this fact, and they have made many non-believers change camps. For now, however, they keyboard on the Pre is absurdly small and yet somehow still functional. Each key is considerably smaller than a quarter of an inch, which means my little finger handily covers a minimum of four keys.

Even with such small keys, I can type "This is a test of how fast I can type on the palm pre. No caps. Don't judge." in 14 seconds, and only making two mistakes. First letter caps are handled by the phone, after any punctuation. Apostrophes are also placed into words where they belong automagically. So, 1 word per second for an average of 60 words per minute. This is far, FAR slower than I have become on the iPhone. Given time, I will become faster- I started at about a word every 20 seconds on Tuesday.

Screen

The Pre's screen measures 3.1" and has a resolution of 320 wide x 480 high. This is the same resolution the iPhone has, but in a screen that measures 0.4" smaller diagonally. This translates into sharper, but smaller images. For some, a smaller screen is not a plausible trade-off, so they probably won't enjoy the Pre. It isn't that the screen is noticeably smaller when using either device, but real estate is real estate.

So far, I have used the Pre in a dark room at night, direct sunlight, and literally every condition between. The brightness has always been high or low enough to comfortably view the screen, and when in direct sun there doesn't appear to be as much glare from the Pre screen when compared to the iPhone. I attribute this to the fact that  the Palm screen is curved, and the iPhone is simply flat glass.

Interestingly, the Pre screen feels a bit like the iPhone 3Gs- when you move your finger across the surface, there is very little resistance. One thing I have noticed, however, is that finger and face oil show up on the Pre's screen as though it were some kind of magnet. When looking directly at the screen, you don't notice the streaks and swipe marks, when when the device is off and you look at an angle...it's pretty bad.

As always, a screen protector is a requirement. I don't have one on my Pre just yet, and I haven't developed any scratches or blemishes on the screen or body, but every phone needs a screen protector. All of the major manufacturers have them available online and in stores, many of which are unbelievably inexpensive. I suggest invisiShield from Zagg.

Sound/Vibrate

The external speaker built into the Palm Pre has a good volume range without distortion, and can produce enough sound that it's almost too loud when turned all the way up. In a noisy environment, you will certainly hear your notification sounds...as long as they have some high pitch noises in them.

When enabled, the vibrate is actually pleasant. It's strong enough to be felt when the phone is in your pocket, but doesn't get carried away with the vibrate duration like a Nokia or and LG does. I've found that this reduces the number of "Phantom Vibrate" incidents to zero in my case, which is actually a nice thing. I enjoy not thinking my phone is ringing and I'm missing it.

Sound is, by far, one place that the Pre pulls away from the iPhone and many other competitive smart phones. Most of them do not focus on built-in sound, choosing instead to rely on headphones and Bluetooth headsets. This makes it impossible to share a Youtube video, to listen to a sound clip, or even use speaker phone in nearly any environment on anything but the Pre.

With regard to headphones, the Pre ships with earbuds like most other phones at this point. The buds themselves are decent quality- Certainly lower fidelity than my real headphones, higher than generic earbuds, and about on par with the iPod/iPhone earbuds. This is actually a relief to me, since the Apple earbuds are widely believed to be the best quality free earbuds that come with any device for consumers. If anything, I would say that the Pre earbuds produce a little more bass than the Apple ones, but I attribute this to them being smaller and therefore fitting into my ears better.

webOS

The webOS operating system introduces the concept of "cards", which are basically application windows. An application can have one or more cards, and one or more cards may be running at any given moment. To be clear, you can have multiple applications running at the same time on the Palm Pre. This is a huge departure from the iPhone and iPod Touch paradigm, where only one application is allowed to execute at a time.

In addition to cards, there is also a notifications area at the bottom of the screen. In an effort to not waste screen real estate, when there are no unchecked notifications, the area disappears. When a notification is present, the screen scales up about 1/4th of an inch, so no applications are hidden or obscured, and the notification is displayed. If the user ignores a notification, or interacts with an card in the main screen area, the notification area is shrunk to about 1/8th of an inch, and only an icon is displayed. Touching the notification area brings up the full sized notifications again. The user can touch a notification to open its corresponding application, or the notification can be "swiped" to the edge of the screen to permanently dismiss it.

For examples of these concepts, check out this Engadget Palm Pre UI demo video.

Gestures

In the new Palm webOS, we are reintroduced to an old favorite- Gestures. Palm has always tried to make life easier by assigning tasks to motions. Now, in 2009, instead of using gestures with a stylus, we simply swipe left, right, up and down with our fingers.

These motions activate several features within the webOS, most importantly the back gesture. Swiping your finger from right to left in the gesture area between the screen and button will cause your browser to go back a page, your application to go back a card, or a list of running cards to be shown for app selection. For example, if I am in the messaging application in an active conversation, and I swipe "back", I will be take back to my buddy / conversation list.

Also included in the gestures, are Cut/Copy/Paste features. Pressing the gesture area and X, C, or V will activate each function just like your computer! While this does require two-handed operation, I don't find that to be a problem as the Pre and iPhone really need two hands for any real typing anyway.

Applications

As of now, there are few applications available from the Palm apps program. As I previously mentioned, Palm has yet to officially unveil their SDK, so there aren't many sanctioned application developers. There are "homebrew" apps, and enabling them is far easier than jailbreaking an iPhone.

What applications do exist are quite well done, including the "homebrew" ones. Several big names have received early copies of the webOS SDK, which has allowed them to release a small number of helpful things. So far there is a weather app, Fandango for movies, Where and LikeME as well as a few other apps for finding local attractions and activities, a game or two, and a Twitter client.

When developers are officially allowed to write apps for the webOS, it seem there will be an influx of several hundred immediately. I don't know if Palm has any kind of approval or quality check process for apps, but if they do it should be easier than Apple apps since nothing is turned into code that can't be read by people.

There is talk of an actual Apple-like development kit, which would allow programmers to write faster apps that don't use web technologies. These apps would presumably be more powerful, allow access to more phone features, and run quicker. There is no guarantee of this, however, and thus far there aren't many features a current app can't use. This is going to have to remain a "TBD" as well.

Pitfalls

Just like the iPhone, changing some of the notification sounds is not an option. This is complete rubbish, and both Palm and Apple need to change this policy immediately. There isn't much more to discuss with this one- Offering a phone without features found in 1996 is unforgivable.

The text selection speed could be doubled. As of now, you have to swipe quite a few times to select a full line of text. This makes selection awkward and unpredictable. Granted, it is more stable than selecting text on the iPhone, it's still only half way there. Make the selector move half the distance my finger moves, and I'll be happy.

When playing music, there is no "scrubber" that would allow you to fast-forward or reverse through a song. On the iPhone, a scrubber appears during certain types of playback, but on the Pre it simply doesn't exist. The one good thing here is that Palm can simply issue an update over the air for that one component, and pretend they never made this massive mistake. Apple has to update the whole phone, which requires it ti be plugged in and sync'd first.

Giant leaps for mankind

The number one game changing feature on the Palm Pre is the automatic backup. When you first configure your phone, you are asked to create a Palm profile. This profile is a place where all your installed Apps, App data, Phone settings, and on-phone contacts are stored. You can back up your phone manually with the Backup app, or you can allow your phone to do it automatically for you on a daily basis. Never again do you have to worry about which contacts you've lost when your phone dies.

Also of huge note is the concept of "synergy". No, not the marketing buzz word. Palm Synergy allows you to have your Google, Outlook, and Palm contacts all appear on your phone. At the same time. And most impressive, when you have duplicate contacts, it merges them into one listing on the phone. It will take details from each contact source, and display them all in one item on the phone! So, if I have you as a work contact, and your cell phone number in my Google contacts list, on my phone it will be noted that I have your cell number in Google and the rest in Exchange!

This feature also works with chat contacts. When I open the messaging application, I can choose to associate your IM screen name with your Contact information, which will then allow me to change between text messaging and IM in a single conversation with you. Simply put, this feature is astonishing.

Conclusion

So, the Palm Pre is a phone built with me in mind. I use multiple apps on my computer, and I do the same on my Pre. I have contacts spread all around my online world, and the Pre keeps track of them all for me. Most importantly, the Pre focuses on me the user and making my life simpler. I don't need another distraction in my day- I already have Facebook, Twitter, News feeds, Youtube, and countless pictures people send me of cats in insane poses.

This is the end of the first part of my review. Next, I will review my support incidents with Sprint, and the network coverage. These will be significantly shorter, and there simply isn't as much to cover.

The reason for the following test scenario can be found in an article here on Ars Technica. It seems this week, several news outlets picked up a completely fabricated story and ran with it before having anyone confirm or research the subject. My opinion of journalistic integrity isn't what this post is about, though, so that's for another day.

There is a need to put certain claims to bed once and for all, and the best way to do that is a double-blind test. A test in which neither the subject nor the administrator knows anything that could give them an advantage or disadvantage in any way. For more information on double-blind tests, I suggest reading this Wikipedia article. For now, though, it's on with my concept.

Overview

This test consists of several required components- The test administrator, the test taker, an RF generator, a console with a single button, a computer to control the RF output frequency and power, and random data from http://www.random.org.

By using a single button to trigger the test condition, neither the administrator nor the subject has any influence on the other person, or the test itself. No visual or audio cues can be provided by the administrator if they don't have to adjust controls or view output from the test device.

Random data sourced from RANDOM.org has been calculated to be random to a degree far higher than a human brain can acheive. This data is collected through atmospheric noise, processed with several algorithms to assure randomness, and then provided online for the general public. Using this data will prevent a bias for or against the participants, which will provide better results in the end.

Phase 1

During phase one, the test taker will be deciding whether the RF device is on or off. The test data from RANDOM.org will simply be a stream of random binary 0 or 1, which will turn the RF device full off or full on. The test administrator will confirm the subject is ready, press the button on the test console, note the subject's answer, and release the button.

Phase 2

During phase two, the data received from RANDOM.org will be a sequence of random numbers from 0 to 250. These numbers will control the power output of the RF generator, from 0 to 250 mW. This will give an EIRP (Effective Isotropic Radiated Power) equivalent to that of most WiFi access points, and at close range should be more than enough to be detected.

The test administrator will confirm the subject is ready and press a button on the test console. The button will tell the control computer to choose the next random number in the sequence, and will command the RF generator to output a signal with the given strength. The administrator will note the participant's answer, and release the button.

Conclusion

When all tests have been concluded, the original random data will be made available on the computer console for comparison to the test taker's choices. Phase two should confirm any results seen during phase one- If phase one is passed with better-than-chance results, phase two should show a correlation between radiated power and the subject's perception.

To satisfy the requirements for the Windows SMTP service installation, you also need to install the World Wide Web service (http server), and the Internet Information Services Snap-In. The latter is obvious- Installing the Web server without any way to manage it would be bizarre. But, the fact that the SMTP service REQUIRES a web server is plain stupid!

Good server or workstation management would dictate that the fewer unnecessary services you have installed, the fewer security holes you will have to watch for. And we all know full well that Microsoft's http server is lousy with security problems when it hasn't been installed and maintained properly.

Now, if I want to manage my users' email properties from my workstation, I have to install all of this extra software that is filled with vulnerabilities and potential honey pots for SPAM bots on a network. When you consider this is a management workstation, that's a pretty scary scenario! My PC has fewer checks against it by our security devices, simply by nature of my job! Now, I'm second guessing if just logging into a server every time I need to make a change isn't a bad idea.

Either way, smarten up Microsoft. Seriously. Installing a web server on a mail server is a retarded idea in the first place. And just to make it all worse, the fact that I need to do all of this on a system that shouldn't have EITHER on it...that's unforgivable.

Block-based storage

Block-based filesystem layouts are traditional, well tested, and old. Really old. The theory behind its operation is very simple- A chunk of data is used to describe a larger chunk of file data is stored. Information such as location, permissions, creation / modification / access time, and where on the disk the actual file data is store are stored in the filesystem block, telling your computer where and how to access file data. The files actual contents are stored elsewhere on disk, typically in chunks of 4KB. Each of these 4KB chunks of file data require a filesystem block, so for a 100MB file you need 25,600 filesystem blocks! Each of these filesystem blocks needs to be read to tell the computer how to read from one end of the file to another. The more your hard disk needs to search around for the location of filesystem and data blocks, the longer this whole process takes. Usually, this all happens very quickly, but there certainly are cases where it can take a very long time.

These filesystem and file data blocks also lead to a phenomenon known as file fragmentation. Simply put, fragmentation is caused by files being modified after they were initially created, or files being created on heavily fragmented disks. Fragmentation itself is simply the separation of file data blocks with regard to each other on disk. To best envision this, imagine going on a scavenger hunt across your town, collecting pages of a book before you could read it. On that scale, it could take you months to re-assemble something like Moby Dick! Don't worry, though. There's a better way!

Extend-based storage

An filesystem extent is much the same as a filesystem block, except that it describes a collection of data bytes instead of strictly sized blocks. In other words, an extent describes a section of a file. All of the same filesystem data is contained in an extent- disk location, file name, etc. But the largest difference is that it also contains the size of the segment of a file's data it describes. So, theoretically, if there is a section of your disk drive that contains 100MB of free space, a single extent could be used to describe a 100MB file! This is so much more efficient than block-based storage that there are very few filesystems not using extents today!

Visualizing it

So, some of you may not be able to envision all of this in your head. I'll be the first to admit the fact that it's weird that I can. For you, I've made graphical representations. In the image below, imagine the green blocks are filesystem blocks- the data that describes your file's contents. The red blocks are the actual data of your file.

Block-based file layout

Here we can see that there are several chunks of data used to describe your file's content, which has also been split up into multiple chunks. Remember that the disk needs to read each green block to know where and how to find a red block.

Now we look at extent-based storage. Again, the green square represents the filesystem data that describes your file's content, which is found in the red squares.

Extent-based file layout

Instantly, you see the stark contrast. There is less data wasted describing your files contents, which are laid out in a more contiguous manner. Since disks read contiguous data faster than data that is scattered around a disk, your benefit is two fold. You have to read less descriptor blocks, and you have to search around the disk fewer times for actual file data.

Wrapping it up

So, what does it all mean to you? Well, it means you can store larger and larger files on your disk drives with less and less overhead. It also means that data can be retrieved in a much quicker manner, and finally it means someone out there cares about how you spend the milliseconds in your life. After all, it's nice to know someone cares, right?

New Features

• Package Updates - As with all distribution version updates, there are a host of packages that get version updates. These range from common utilities to linked libraries. For details about updated packages, take a look at the jaunty-changes mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/jaunty-changes.
• X.Org Server 1.6 - X.org is the underlying graphical system of Ubunbu Linux. Version 1.6 now ships with DRI2 to manage graphics rendering (including 3D), X Input 1.5 which allows automatic detection and configuration of input devices such as mice, keyboards, pens, touch screens, etc., A new pointer acceleration system, and RandR 1.3, which manages the resizing and rotation of screens. In addition to these updates, there are several smaller but no less critical changes. Many of these increase performance and stability across the board, and provide driver updates to more fully support new hardware versions.
• Optimized font sizes - Ubuntu 9.04 will detect your display settings and automatically set your font's dot-per-inch size. This will make text more easily readable and consistently sixed across an array of devices. If you prefer a customized side, you can also manually set this value.
• New notifications - I am personally excited about this feature. Ubuntu now offers a standardized notification framework to other applications, making notification messages appear and behave in a predictable way. To see a preview of these notifications, please check out this example on Mark Shuttleworth's blog.
• Updated kernel - Jaunty will ship with kernel version 2.6.28. This kernel version comes with a long list of newly supported devices, EXT4 filesystem which makes disk access in most cases faster and more reliable, and Intel's new Graphics Execution Manager (GEM), which provides a new system for managing the memory of graphics systems. Naturally, quite a bit of work went into fixing bugs, updating existing drivers, and optimizing performance.
• EXT4 filesystem - The EXT4 filesystem is an update to the EXT3 filesystem, but also so much more. EXT4 has been discussed at length on every Linux forum and benchmarking site, but the breakdown is this. Files are allocated in a new way, which makes creating and deleting significantly faster. This new allocation method also requires less data to describe files themselves. In addition, data is cataloged with 64bit addresses, which means the amount of usable storage is orders of magnitude larger than the number of devices you can attach to your system.

Unfortunately, a few features were cut. Most significant to me, personally, was the encrypted home directory. The basic rundown of this feature was that when you installed Ubuntu, it would ask you for a password and then create an encrypted directory in your home folder. This directory could be used to store sensitive documents, data, and things of the like. If your disk or computer were ever stolen, you didn't have to worry about that information getting into the wrong hands- without your password even the NSA wouldn't be able to access that data. Due to some "outstanding issues", the feature has been removed from the testing releases and will not be put into the final version for download.

In all, Ubuntu has been shaping up very nicely over the past few years that I've been using it. At this point, the system is completely ready for use by any computer user, and that is a claim I will stake my reputation on. There are very few situations where Ubuntu can not fully satisfy any need a computer user has, but just like switching from a PC to a Mac, you need to be ready to change the way you think about using computers.

If you haven't tried Ubuntu yet, I encourage you to head over to www.ubuntu.com, download a copy, and boot up a live-cd. This will allow you to try Ubuntu without installing it on your PC. If you like it, I say back up your data and take the plunge. If you don't, I'd love to hear what you feel is wrong with it.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

I will gladly admit that I have downloaded music, movies, and TV shows illegally. At one point, my sole source of music was Napster, then Kazaa, and then some admittedly shady and underground sources. Any time I heard a new song, I could be sure someone on the Internet was sharing it for free. If I missed an episode of my favorite sitcom, I was assured that someone had put it online for the taking. And these days this sort of thing is only more common, with the prevalence and ease of use of file sharing applications.

Since then, I have changed my ways drastically. I no longer scour the internet for content. I no longer have the need. Now I have a TiVO, and Amazon's MP3 service. If I need a movie, I have Netflix. Didn't record an old episode of a show? Not to worry, Hulu will have it. Since the days when I would steal content with reckless abandon, the industry has changed. They didn't want to at first. In fact, content creators fought the internet with all their might. And when your industry makes billions in revenue every year, there's quite a bit of might to go around.

Piracy, the RIAA and MPAA would have you believe, cuts directly into sales. And sales are what keeps chart-topping albums in production. Without money, no artist could afford to create an album, go on tour, get TV and radio time to promote themselves, and least of all, get actual play time. Stealing music or movies means less money for the artists, too. And what hard working artist doesn't deserve to be compensated for their work? But piracy doesn't cut into sales. In fact, many independent studies seem to show that piracy is creating sales opportunities where they didn't exist previously.

The content creation industry typically creates certain types of content for certain regions. Here in America, we have a popular TV series "Law & Order". But, "Law & Order" may not be very popular with Swedish citizens. So, "Law & Order" would never be aired in Sweden. But, what if you were a Swedish citizen, and you did enjoy "Law & Order"? You have no way of watching it! So, your only option is to steal it online. But, if the creators make the TV series available to you at a price, the consensus seems to be that the vast majority of the people surveyed would gladly pay up. Most people realize that if they pay, they get the benefits of high quality content from the studio, released on a reliable schedule, and usually through an easy-to-use service. The fact that the authorities aren't going to pound down your door and cart you off the jail is simply an added bonus.

So, when you hear horror stories about piracy, think of your own experiences. Did you recently listen to a "leaked" song? Perhaps you downloaded a screener version of the latest movie? You could even be watching TV shows that aren't available in your region. But, once that content was made available legally, did you buy it? I can honestly say that in all cases, I have. If I enjoy a new song, I will sample the album and buy if it's good. If I like a movie that I wasn't able to see in theaters, I will gladly rent or buy it. And if Top Gear were ever brought to American television sets, I would be glued to it every Sunday night.

The reality behind the move to IPv6 (the next version of the Internet Protocol) is actually about more than just addresses, though. Yes, we will have enough unique and usable addresses to pretty much connect all of the molecules in the universe to the internet. But, what about network management? Why isn't anyone discussing this facet?

Today, if you are an Internet Service Provider, you hand out an address to every customer. Customarily, businesses start with five addresses, and can request more if they need them. The way the internet was originally envisioned, though, was that every device on every network would have it's own REAL address. So, by that standard we have run out several times over. This is where NAT came in. Multiple computers could be used on a private network, and each of those computers would hide behind a single public address. Clever, simple, and problematic for software.

Now consider this- A customer has requested an additional block of five addresses, but the next five (sequentially) are already used by someone else! What do you do? You could ask someone to change their IP addresses, but most people avoid this at all costs. You could do some fancy routing to get a new address block to show up for the customer, but that's an even bigger pain! Why not assign such a high number of addresses that the customer will never run out? Ever. This is where IPv6 makes its biggest impact.

With IPv6, I could assign a customer many thousand or even hundreds of thousands of addresses. Because the global pool is so massive, those wouldn't even account for 1% of the available space! This means, no more changes, no more requesting address space from providers, no more funky routing schemes, and most of all, no more NAT! These are all GREAT things!! And best of all, they are easily attained.

For the one-time cost of updating your internet equipment, you could be granted an IPv6 block of addresses. Every computer on your network would have its own, globally reachable (if you want) address, which would make things like file sharing an IM work more reliably. The benefits are so numerous, they would literally be impossible to list here.

Many nay-sayers, however, will tell you that switching to IPv4 is costly, time consuming, and requires a new set of skills. I would like to ask who is running such outdated hardware that it couldn't access IPv6? Most of the internet is very new, and even the old parts could EASILY be updated or encapsulated in IPv6. Moreover, the world economy could certainly stand a project that would stimulate job growth.

The bottom line is this. I'm tired of hearing people talk about the impending doomsday, when we run out of internet addresses. Will it happen? Yes, of course. It technically already has. But until people stop dragging their heels on the upgrades, there isn't a thing we can do about it. Just sit back, relax, and wait for the disaster.