Andrew McLaughlin’s C-Note

The BBC story that so annoyed me  (without a shred of evidence, it predicted the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses by the end of 2005, among other sins)  has provoked a couple of other interesting corrective responses:

• The indomitable Scott Bradner devoted one of his Network World Fusion columns (“Miscounting and misunderstanding addresses“) to it.  Highlight: “I think something like IPv6 – and I expect it will be IPv6 itself – will be needed over the next decade as the Internet expands to cover many more applications such as IP-based cell phones. But there is no reason to panic. IPv6 is well along in deployment and will be there when we need it.”
  
• The RIPE NCC (the IP address registry for Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East) posted an updated on “IPv4 Address Space“. Highlight: “Based on today’s total global allocation rate of approximately 4.25 blocks per year in 2002, or 5.5 blocks in 2001, and the remaining pool of 91 blocks held by IANA, it is unrealistic to assume that there is an imminent shortage in the IPv4 address space.”
  
• Geoff Huston pointed me to an updated presentation from September (“IPv4 Address Lifetime Expectancy Revisited“) that expands upon his earlier (excellent) paper “IPv4 – How Long Have We Got?”  Huston’s latest work suggests that, if anything, 2024 may be a conservative estimate of IPv4 longevity.
  
  
  

  ‘Nuff said, for now.

  
  

   

  
  

Here’s something exciting and newsworthy:  BlogAfrica!  It’s a new initiative to increase the numbers of people blogging in and about Africa, and to highlight Africans who are writing blogs.

BlogAfrica includes a catalog of Africa-focused blogs, hosted by the good people at allafrica.com. It’s a great starting place for people interested in reading African weblogs.  Anyone writing a blog from Africa, or with a focus on Africa, is invited to list it there. BlogAfrica will also be promoting great Africa-centric blogs on the BlogAfrica site.

In addition, BlogAfrica will run workshops in Africa to bring together African bloggers with bloggers from around the world.  The first workshop will be in Ghana in January 2004.  Ethan Zuckerman (of Geekcorps and the Berkman Center), Teresa Peters (of Bridges.org), and I will be in Ghana from the 8th to the 20th of January.  Alongside a range of IT policy-related work, we’ll be offering free workshops on blogging at cybercafes and universities across Ghana.

We’re very interested in having other bloggers join us on this trip, both to help teach workshops and to share with the world their impressions of — and adventures in — Ghana. We’d love to be able to demonstrate the power of the global blogosphere to direct attention to the promise and problems of the developing world.  Plus, it’s going to be a really fun two weeks in one of the most interesting — and friendly — countries in Africa. Each blogger will have to pay for him/herself, but we will all work hard to make the trip productive, enjoyable, and memorable.  What better way to get a personal introduction to Africa, while doing something to bring the world a bit closer together?

If you think you might be interested in joining us, please read more about the trip on BlogAfrica.  Ethan has kindly agreed to be the contact person, and will happily answer queries at ethan@geekcorps.org.

If this idea captures your imagination, please check out the blogs listed on the blog catalog, and get in touch with Ethan to see how you could get involved.  Most importantly, blog about it!

Occasionally, the papers bring news that’s nothing but good.

Today’s heartening right-wing loser:  Gen. Rios Montt in Guatemala.  A former military dictator (and, dissonantly enough, evangelical clergyman), Rios Montt is now remembered for his bloody 1982 coup d’etat;  his ruthless “scorched earth” brutalities against rural Mayan villagers; his active employment of death squads and, more recently, thug squads, engaged in kidnapping, torture, and extra-judicial killings; and his flamboyant mismanagement of the economy. 

Declared the the Guatemalan Council of Catholic Bishops in 1982 about the massacres under Rios Montt: “Not even the lives of the elderly, pregnant women or innocent children were spared. We have never in our history seen such serious extremes.”  Declared Ronald Reagan in Guatemala City that same year:  Rios Montt is “a man of great personal integrity and commitment” who is “totally dedicated to democracy.”

In recent years, he has attempted to slither back to respectability, eventually becoming president of the National Congress.  In today’s presidential elections, he came in a distant third.  One word:  Woo-hoo!

Next right-winger to go down:  I’m betting on either Bobby Jindal or Chief Justice Roy Moore.