Hans Cathcart’s Homepage

Before the day is out, I thought I owed it to my friends to explain what World IPv6 Day was, what IPv6 is, and its significance. Some of my former Eagle colleagues at The American University will remember me spending days and nights running Ethernet cable around the Eagle’s office ceilings, buying Ethernet connectors and “wiring-up” the office. Initially it was simply a way to speed up the old Apple LocalTalk network so that we could play NetTrek and Marathon, but the grand plan was to get the office network connected to the Internet and ultimately start publishing the student newspaper on the Web.

To some, this may have seemed like a computer geek’s crazed addiction, but it was the thing to do in the mid-nineties. My fellow IT-savvy friends Nanther, Jamie, John, Rushi and Todd helped confirm my instinct to get connected to this thing called the Internet. One of the setup steps when attaching all the computers to the network involved giving each machine a unique number. The protocol all computers connected to the Internet speak is called IP or the Internet Protocol. The first true release of this protocol was called version 4, or IPv4. And part of this protocol involved these unique IP addresses, which are the computer equivalent of ones telephone number, and they look like this “69.171.228.13″. That’s one of Facebook’s IP addresses, btw.

When our Internet-connected computers speak with one another, they typically each have a unique IP address, and all communication relies on the fact that the messages between the computers is properly routed. Should lots of computers start using other computer’s IP addresses, the Internet could stop to work properly. The numerical representation of these IP addresses allowed for nearly 256 times 256 times 256 times 256 unique numbers. That’s a 32-bit number with over 4 billion unique IPs. Plenty, right?

Well, what happened was that people started to actually use this Internet thing, and now, believe it or not, we’ve almost run out. With all the laptops and iPhones and Web servers out there, not to mention over 6 billion people, there’s just not enough uniqueness to go around. We’ve actually been close to running out for many years, but with various routing tricks we’ve extended the inevitable — the various IP devices in your home all share a single IP belonging to your router when speaking to the Internet.

Fortunately, this problem was predictable and as early as 1999 a new version of the Internet Protocol was introduced to replace IPv4, called… (no we skipped 5)… IPv6. Among some technical changes to the protocol, the most important aspect is that the total possible number of unique IP addresses in IPv6 is 128-bits, which is approximately 340 undecillion. That’s a lot!

The problem is, with IPv4 working just fine, how do we get everyone to switch. It turns out that we don’t have to switch just yet, but that over the next several years more and more systems will be able to speak both IPv4 and IPv6, and have the ability to choose which protocol to use in communication with other computers. Chances are your MacBook or Windows PC is already capable speaking this new protocol, and in fact prefers it, but is not able to since most of the Internet is still only on IPv4.

Today, that started to change. Many of the world’s most popular web sites, including Google and Facebook, as well as the US Federal Aviation Administration and my employer Akamai Technologies enabled their web sites to be accessible via both protocols. It is a 24 hour “test run”, after which things get changed back to normal and we all review what problems happened.

Did this mean that today you were surfing the Web over IPv6? Probably not.

Although your computer is ready, the web sites you want to visit are ready, and many sections of the Internet are ready, chances are your home router, office network, Internet Service Provider and possibly some links in the middle of the Internet are not. So, your computer probably was using IPv4, like normal, all day long. If you were one of the lucky few to have full IPv6 connectivity, then you probably saw what looked like the normal Internet, but behind the scenes things were different. It was also possible that sites were breaking a bit, and likely the performance was not as good as normal. This was all expected. And the Internet Service Providers in particular are now looking at how things worked and fix what broke.

Not very exciting, I know, but a very important step in the gradual transition of the Internet to IPv6.

One rather interesting aspect (to a tech geek anyway) is that the IPv4 Internet is today much bigger, more connected, better tested, safer, and performs better than the new IPv6 Internet. So until the new IPv6 Internet comes up to speed, it’s pretty OK to stick with the tried and true stuff.

What I think is significant, however, is that as with any new change, come opportunities for inventions and changes to established processes. The large number of IPv6 addresses, along with some of IPv6’s other features, open up opportunities (and risks) for an interesting future. Just as we didn’t quite know what was awaiting us before we hooked The Eagle’s office to the Internet, we can’t know what awaits us now.

So what does one of these newfangled IP addresses look like? Well, let’s take a look at one of Facebook’s IPv6 addresses and see if you can catch the geeky sense of humor.

2620:0:1c08:4000:face:b00c:0:2

Most normal people don’t think much about the technical capabilities of their washing machines and dryers, at least not as far as communication capabilities are concerned.  The sane portion of the population thinks about how well the machines clean and dry clothing, how much energy and water they use and well — the price.  As a tech-geek however, I’m wondering why my dryer doesn’t talk to my iPhone.

My apartment in Munich came with a complete built-in kitchen, which to the surprise of most Americans is somewhat of a rarity in Germany.  Typically, you either bring your own kitchen with you, or you pay the previous renter for the value of the kitchen, which includes the stove, the fridge, the dishwasher, the cabinets and well — the kitchen sink.

So, the only real appliances I have to buy are the washer and dryer, which I started investigating today.  A “quick” stop-off at the local Saturn electronics+everything store (the BestBuy of Germany) resulted in me coming back to my apartment with a couple of Miele Wäschepflege catalogs.  I also came back with some ideas how to go massively into debt building my new Entertainment system, but we’ll get to that another day.

Wäschepflege simply means “ClothingCare”, although as with many German words “pflege” conveys a little more meaning and it’s fun to say.  Miele is, for the uninitiated, one of the great German quality brands in the appliance industry.  It is not unheard of for Miele washing machines to work without problems for 30 years.  This would seem to hurt their future business, but with revenues of nearly € 3 billion they’re probably OK.  I’m considering these high-end machines because they are high-quality, gentle on clothing and Eco-friendly (saving water and energy).  The extra cost is a worthwhile investment.

The ultra-high-end models also support a network-connectivity feature called Miele@home (how creative) which ties appliances to a central computer via the power-lines.  A wireless receiver then picks up signals from the central computer and notifies you when your clothes are dry.  My old dryer did this with a really loud buzzer sound.

All kidding aside, you can also use the receiver to control the machines to some extent and a stove can issue instructions to an overhead fan to activate at a certain suction (hi James Dyson) setting.  So I give Miele an A for effort, but a D on execution.  Why isn’t this technology in all your products, and why don’t you just use WiFi and let my iPhone or iPad control things?  Being able to communicate and command your washer and dryer, as funny as that sounds, could end up being really useful.

Here’s the problem the way I see it.  In 20 years from now everything is going to be connected.  And my Miele washer may still be in top form, but it’s going to be a relic of the non-connected 20th Century.  TCP/IP has been around for as long as I have been alive, and WiFi transmitters have gotten cheap, especially when bought in bulk.  Remote software upgrades for appliances are not far behind (along with viruses and exploding microwaves no doubt), but at this point any tech-geek is going to be asking themselves: “Why buy a long-lasting non-connected appliance, when in 5 years all devices will come with connectivity out of the box?  Buy cheap now, wait 5 years, then go for better with ‘Net connectivity.”

As I come up to my 20th anniversary of having logged onto the ‘Net, I am certain that we are now standing at the tipping-point of “universal connectivity”, and a high-end appliance manufacturer like Miele needs to be ahead of the curve and build standards-based TCP/IP connectivity (IPv6 please) and software & feature upgrade-ability into all of their appliances now.  The same holds true for any device manufacturer (automobile and aircraft manufacturers are you listening?) who produces high-value long-term investments.

Chances are that I will still end up buying the non-connected devices (sorry Miele, not your € 3k @home version) and with any luck be able to peddle them off to some technophobe in a few years.  I’ll be sure to write down their home address for when some botnet starts DDoSing my laundry room.

Strangely enough, due to this article, my homepage is now #4 on Google for “Miele Munich”.  I guess that’s due to the fact that Google hasn’t completely standardized how it search-indexes the names of cities with umlauts, or as is the case with München where the city has two correct spellings.

So, I ordered my Washer and Dryer today from the local Elektrofachmark Bauer in Bogenhausen, after getting excellent technical and product capabilities consulting from the sales woman.  And here I need to say something important about Germany.  A sales person in Germany is not the kid they hired off the street and who they sat in front of Wikipedia for 2 hours to become “experts”, like I was when I worked at Ritz Camera in San Francisco.  No, in Germany sales people are trained, and if you go into a specialty store, here we call them Fachhändler, then you will get expert advice about the products.  They will know as much about the products they sell as I know about Web caching.  Perhaps this isn’t as much the case at the big-box stores, but there is a quality difference to the US.  The sales people also have different incentives and don’t seem as pushy, but that may vary with the store.

An interesting bit of info the Sales woman gave me is that device manufacturers, power companies and the government are talking with one-another to set up to three different prices for energy throughout the day.  Although this already exists to some extent, it’s not wide-spread.  One reason why modern washers and dryers have times on them is because you have to be able to start them at certain times.  It’s only a matter of time until the machines themselves become energy-cost-aware.

Well Miele, I’m sorry to have to say, but I ordered the Bosch hardware.  I couldn’t justify the extra 700 Euros your equipment would have cost.  Now, if you had had the Internet-connected / iPhone-enabled remote control and notification system, with energy-price-sensitive capabilities or at least software upgrade-ability then I would have probably shelled out another 250 Euros.  Your stuff is damn good, but for a single guy who washes clothes twice a month it’s just not cost-effective — in 10 years when I have to buy another set of machines, those things will be more energy and water efficient and they will definitely be connected to the ‘Net.  Let’s talk then!

Physicist David Deutsch presents a fascinating view of the problems we face in the world, how to think about solving them, and then much more in these three talks at TED.

• Our place in the cosmos
• A new way to explain explanation
• Parallel universes and you

In anticipation for my trip, one that is sure to be epic, I have finally given in and setup a twitter account.  Feel free to follow me here, follow me there, just don’t say I didn’t warn you.  And yes, I’ll be cross-posting to facebook as well.

A really well produced 3D simulation of the ditching of US Airways 1549 into the Hudson River.  The air traffic control tapes are playing in the background and you can see what Sully and Skiles say to each other during their descent towards the Hudson.

2010 Update:
I just finished reading Captain Sullenberger’s book Highest Duty.  What a fantastic and inspiring book.  My favorite line is a quote from his wife: “Sully, life is not a checklist.”

In the past decade, Web design has evolved significantly. This article “70 New, Useful AJAX And JavaScript Techniques” goes on to discuss some of the new functions that have been developed. It’s boring, but the improved calendar pop-up date selectors are my favorite useful feature improvement. Unfortunately, while Web design has evolved the ‘proper use’ of URL/URIs has not. Sir Tim wrote an article over a decade ago suggesting how to build good URIs.  It’s still a good read.

This evening I created an advertisement, well… I got suckered into personalizing an ad and sending it to one of my friends. Meetup.com created this cute animation, and then gives you the opportunity to personalize the message to send to your friends.  Pure genius!  The pull-downs are so seductive that it doesn’t feel so much like an ad, but rather a way to poke fun at someone who you know would get the joke.  So, I sent one message.  Yes, only one.  I’m sure everyone else is spamming the planet.

The amazing thing about this site is that it does exactly what Marshall McLuhan envisioned back in 1960.  Shown here in a TED talk by Peter Hirshberg, McLuhan comments: “If the audience can actually become involved in the actual process of making the ad, then it’s happy.” (skip to 14:30)  To describe McLuhan as a visionary is a massive understatement.  I suspect that if he had time-travelled to today and seen Facebook and MySpace he would not have been surprised.  The rest of Hirshberg’s talk is also really quite interesting.

The BBC is producing a fascinating series called “Britain from Above” that combines GPS tracking, data collection and sophisticated computer visualizations to give viewers a view of the UK that no one has ever seen.  It’s absolutely captivating to watch the planes entering and exiting British airspace, or seeing the nation’s telephone network come to life.  The Daily Mail wrote an article about the series that includes some images.

Let it be said that 2008 will be the last year that I don’t got to AirVenture in Oshkosh.  For the uninitiated, it’s the Mecca of Aviation every year.  Now that I’m an EAA member, with an instrument rating I really have no excuse not to go any more.  This year they announced the Icon, the SPOT Messenger was apparently a big hit (I just ordered one to document my flights), and an all-electric airplane flew.  Two of my friends (Lisa and Adam) were there, and apparently Esther Dyson was there.  I did not know she was into aviation.

You’re spending too much time on YouTube, aren’t you?  You’re at work, yes.  Ok, that’s probably alright.  If you haven’t been to TED, the site — cause getting into the actual event is like impossible, you’re missing out.  To start you off, watch Ze Frank’s presentation from 2004.  The Hans Rosling talk is a classic.  Jill Bolte talks about her brain.  And Johnny Lee plays with Wii.