24 June 2005
Rebutting IPv6 Myths
Twenty Myths and Truths About IPv6 and the US IPv6 Transition
Sensible set of home truths about IPv6 from Alex Lightman.... in the form of rebuttals for 20 myths of IPv6 and the USA:
- Myth: There is no need for IPv6.
- Myth: IPv4 works well enough. Everything that can be done in v6 can be done with v4.
- Myth: The market will take care of IPv6, if IPv6 is useful.
- Myth: No, really, the market will take care of IPv6! The Dept. of Commerce says so!
- Myth: The U.S. federal government has a vision, mission, and a plan for IPv6.
- Myth: The Dept. of Defense will be implementing IPv6 by 2008, and the DoD invented the Internet, so it's going to happen just like last time around.
- Myth: Federal agencies are taking IPv6 into consideration already.
- Myth: Federal agencies don't need to know about IPv6 yet. It doesn't matter.
- Myth: Classified networks require air gap separation between them and non-classified networks, so if they aren't hardwired together, there shouldn't be a problem.
- Myth: OK, so what's the problem if hackers use IPv6 to access confidential or classified information? If no one has IPv6 plans, then I can't be held responsible.
- Myth: The U.S. is not behind Japan or other countries. All they've done is put IPv6 in some buildings, dorm rooms, and taxis. Big deal.
- Myth: No one is keeping track of who is leading in IPv6.
- Myth: The U.S. government doesn't have a good track record in leading technology
- Myth: IPv6 doesn't impact the economy or international trade in any significant way.
- Myth: US companies are always the leaders in technology.
- Myth: China is a third world country, and their use of IPv6 is irrelevant.
- Myth: If the U.S. federal government spends money on the Internet, it benefits everyone, and the U.S. doesn't get any special advantage, or return on investment.
- Myth: IPv6 doesn't impact the lives of ordinary people or "Joe Six Pack."
- Myth: IPv6 is already completed, so the U.S. government has nothing to say.
- Myth: IPv6 is boring. Even the name is boring, and hard to remember.
19 June 2005
Irish language and the EU
Irish Examiner: Front Page in Irish
On 12th June 2005 the Irish language was made an official working language of the EU (specfically it was upgraded from a "treaty" language, into which all formal treaties need to be translated, into a "working" language, into which important documents need to be translated).
Chinnigh an tAontas Eorpach (AE) stádas oifigiúil agus oibre don Ghaeilge don chéad uair riamh.
[The EU has granted Irish official working status for the first time.]
I know that many will argue about the value of spending money on things like this, but personally I am glad that Irish has the same status as the languages of the new member states, and it is often too easy to underestimate the value of culture and of language. One of Europe's greatest collective treasures is its culture and its language and it is right that these languages should be recognised within the EU. What is stranger to me is that various Irish governments took so long to negotiate this status....
14 June 2005
Tranactions
Eric Newcomer's Weblog: TP Never Dies: The ACMS/DECtp Reunion
In this posting Eric muses on the old Tranaction Processing system he was involved with in DEC and how it lives on in various guises.
This reminded me of the IT Conversations interview with Eric on TP (June 2003) (so I've filed this as an audio recommendation) which probed his roots in the TP world, and how this mapped well into the modern service oriented architectures world of IONA.
Negotiating Trust - Kent Seamons
On my drive over to Kilmore Quay on Sunday morning I listened in to another excellent IT Conversations podcast: Negotiating Trust (Kent Seamons, Professor of Computer Science, Brigham Young). This combined discussions of federated identify with concepts of policy-based negotiation and emerging security policy protcols and languages. I found it an excellent overview of the space, which is at the edge of our interests in the TSSG in policy-based management of communications services and networks. The key issue is that in the Internet world (and increasingly in the mobile world) one cannot know in advance who one's users are (they cannot be pre-registered). If this is the case how can one negotiate access in a secure way without impacting on privacy?
SCRUM and Agile Project Management
Another entry I should add to the audio recommendations on Agile Methods is the IT Conversations presentation by Ken Schwaber (at the SDForum Agile Summit held July 21, 2004 in Palo Alto, California). This is an excellent discussion of the use of agile methods at the level of project management, and in particular it discusses the types of situation where it should be employed, and the types of problem it does not solve (such as accurate resource planning to enable fixed price contracts).
12 June 2005
Saltee Island: Kayak Trip Report
So, another year another trip to the Saltees with Mick O'Meara and SeaPaddling.com! This trip, today Sunday 16th June 2005, was excellent. Whilst the weather was not as good as last year, in that it was overcast rather than the sun splitting the stones, it was perfect weather for paddling. Last year's trip was at the end of May so the bluebells on the island were in full bloom, this year in mid-June you could still see traces of the blue carpet of flowers that must have covered the island a few weeks ago. The birds were there in full glory, especially the gannet colony, a noisy mass of birds that has overspilled onto a number of nearby rocky outcroppings, allowing me to get some closer photographs. I've uploaded some photograph highlights to a Flickr photo set (I haven't had time to process the images yet so they are a bit raw, and some could do with some cropping).
UPDATE 2005-06-13: I have cropped a picture of a puffin with fish in its mouth.
