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Re: Change the subject! RE: [IAOC] Re: IPv4 Outage Planned for IETF71 Plenary

2007-12-30 14:45:54
Hallam-Baker, Phillip <pbaker(_at_)verisign(_dot_)com> wrote:

It is a question of ambition. At sixteen I was interested in mastering
the computer at its most fundamental level. I wrote arcade games in
6502 and Z80 assembler.

Today the idea of booting linux on a laptop would not make my top ten,
hundred or thousand list of must do before I die experiences. In other
words I have a life.

Actually, for someone with some Linux or Unix sysadmin experience, it
is not that difficult with Linux live distros.  Insert the CD- or
DVD-ROM with the distro in the CD/DVD drive and reboot. (It may be
necessary to tell the BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive; check the
laptop manufacturer's manual for the proper instructions.) Linux
should come up right away.  I used Ubuntu 6.06 and both IPv4 and IPv6
were enabled when the system came up.  Since I didn't have native IPv6
connectivity, I needed to build a tunnel.  The Linux+IPv6-HOWTO
documentation (http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+IPv6-HOWTO) was very
helpful.  I was able to confirm that I was using IPv6 by visiting
www.ripe.net at its IPv6 address and verifying my IPv6 address on
their page.

If you have little or no Linux or Unix sysadmin experience, I'd advise
going through the process before the meeting.  No changes will be made
to your hard disk (unless you make them).  If you get stuck, you can
always reboot and start over from scratch.

[snip]

Nor do I see any point in any test predicated on the expectation
that large numbers of people will ever learn about IPv6
administration.

I know what micrcode is, I have even written some.  I know the role
of microcode in VLSI design. If I was teaching a comp sci course I
would want the students to know all about microcode. That does not 
mean that I want or need the microcode for my cpu before I program it.

I don't know what lesson will be drawn here. The one I believe
should be drawn is that we need to ask what the problem we are really
trying to solve is.

Unfortunately, using a live Linux distro won't help people who need
what they normally use that isn't available on the distro CD (or can
be downloaded).  However, it can be a useful exercise just for getting
people to use IPv6 who might not otherwise.

--gregbo

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