The Airwaves are Liberated, so what?

Hopefully you have read the re-posted information on the FCC's vote to free up the "white space" that is unallocated. There is a lot of speculation of what can be done with this extra broadcasting space, but no one has really set plans.

To those of you who do not bother about why or how things work, you just know that they do and want to use them, you may not understand the giant impact that this may have.

Yeah, you may have read somewhere that they could use these airwaves to implement global wireless internet. Yes, this is true, and is the most speculated plans for the white space; however, this is just a face-value perspective of what all this would involve. Yeah, we could have internet anywhere we go, but we need to understand what would need to be involved behind such an infrastructure to support that.

(techy part)
I prospect that in order for such an implementation, IPv4 would not be able to support the amount of users to connect them to the internet. Yes, the Whitespace ISPs (whoever they're to be) could implement a NAT system like cellphone providers provide, or something like that, but i think that enough people could be brought on board (and enough capital invested) to spur the IPv6 transition.

Those who know networking (and a few of those who don't) have been waiting years for people to see such an opportunity.

Many people have written much more specific descriptions of the benefits to IPv6 implementation, so i won't get into it very deep, but here's a general idea:

Right now we have IPv4 addressing to route information over the internet. No matter what type of computer you have, or what country you're in, you're using one of the addresses to access the internet. Addressing in networking is similar to house addressing. Every website, service, or person has to have one in order to recieve information (mail) on the internet. The problem is, we now have more people trying to access the internet than there are addresses. If you know your IP address, you know that it consists of 4 sets of numbers (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx). IPv4 addressing is difficult to explain to a person who has no prior knowledge of how these things work, and i'm trying to keep these descriptions in those ranges. Don't put too much thought into it, the addresses are all taken.

So, how do people still get on the internet if they're all taken? Well, ISPs keep economic control on the IP addresses that they give people. If they start to run out, they use computing techniques to push out more addresses. A small example of this is in your house. If you are connected to a wireless router and have many computers connected, then you are using what is called Network Address Translation (NAT) to "give out" more addresses. Your router is a computer. It takes the single address that your ISP has given you and creates tables and routes to split your connection to the different computers in your house. This is where the problem comes in. Every time your connection gets hit with these computers used to route traffic, your bandwidth quality decreases.

Ok, so simply put, IPv6 has enough addresses that we'll never (i use that word lightly) run out. This will free up alot of the routing congestion that slows down people's connections now.

It would be a huge technological advance.


Next Week: What is an Operating System?

One for the team

So, i haven't kept up with the "/week" plan, but i'm within the month, so i'm doing well. I've been sick again. No matter.

To the stuff that counts. Well, at least for the *nix brethren(Linux, Mac, OpenBSD and the like. NOT MICROSOFT)

Most of you that i know who are into multimedia production are using the "school's" software to run their editing software. Well, for those of you who are more inclined to open-source, or those who are looking for a simply great multitrack editor, there is Ardour. Ardour is a fantastic program. It is, however, by no means "polished." It is fairly new, being in it's second revision. They haven't even devised the naming scheme yet.

So, why should you use Ardour instead of the more main-stream programs?
This, to me, is an easy answer; although you may not quite have a full grasp on the glory of open source just quite yet, so let me throw some words at you.
When you use an open source program, you become part of the development team. You say, " i don't know how to program, how is this so?"
As you start to use the program, becoming familiar with all it's intricacies, you start to develop a judgement of how that program functions. Just as a master carpenter or mason knows the utility of his tools, you will understand what your "tool" has or is without. So, with this developed understanding and judgement, you decide how to better perfect your tool. This is where the beauty of open source steps in. You spend about 3-128 minutes writing a wall post on Ardour's forum (or any open source program's forum). Then, in the next edition, your input will have assisted in it's design. Trust me, the programmers know that it is the users who have developed that program. Open Source programs take away that impersonal corporate level that ruins the perfection of programs.

I have more to say on that, but i'll leave it there.

To close this post, i have a special request. An acquaintance of mine's lung collapsed. He had surgery today to try to fix this because all other treatments have failed. If you know me, you know that i don't like to express concern like this; however, this person is not well liked. He doesn't have a bunch of people who care about him. Most people think he's a jerk. I think he's a jerk. However, i also am concerned for him on a certain 'above normal' level. I'm not asking you to care for him (or the vain 'pray for him'), but i am understanding my feelings for people. So, maybe consider someone around you.