By Mark Rames
I'm curious about something. It has to do with computers and their IP addresses. As we all know (don't we?), an IP address is to a computer or other IP device as what your home address is for your US mail. Well, in IPv4, the IP address is a 32 bit address like the following, which is converted to binary by the computers and looks something like this.....
255.25.100.10
or in binary...
11111111000110010110010000001010
Yeah, yeah, I know, you really didn't want to see the binary stuff but at any rate, this scheme of 255 to the 4th power means there can be a grand total of 4,228,250,625 IP devices or computers on the entire internet at the same time. Are you still with me? Do you still care?
Now, some byte head genius out there in the cyber world figured that since we have over 6 billion people on the earth, we need more IP addresses, I mean after all, wouldn't it be wonderful if all 6 billion of us could surf the net at the same time? You have to agree that the internet is still too fast, we could use more people to slow it down a bit. Not possible with a paltry 4 billion IP addresses. And that's what I'm curious about, the 'slight' expansion of the number of IP addresses with the advent of IPv6. The measly little 32 bit address above will now be a whopping 128 bit address and most system admin people will NEVER AGAIN be able to amaze us pukey end users by rattling off all those IP addresses by heart. What will a 128 bit address look like you ask? This address.....
255.123.189.190.35.105.139.236.192.160.179.255.137.99.240.216
is an example, or 255 to the 16th power and anyone who memorizes THAT address has my full respect and will scare the heck out of me. And no, I'm not going to bother converting that address to binary either, suffice it to say it's a string of 128 0's and 1's.
So now you're probably saying to yourself, what IS his point, my coffee is getting cold here . My point is, we can increase the number of devices on the internet from the lowly number of 4 billion plus to a slightly higher number.....
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456
For all you who have trouble with your checkbooks, that number is 340 undecillion and is slightly bigger than a billion or a trillion or a quadrillion or a quintillion or a sextillion or a septillion or a octillion or a nonillion or a decillion. But smaller than duodecillion or a tredecillion or a quatturdecillion or a quindecillion and a bunch of other illions that will just drive you crazy thinking about them. (and just WHY doesn't this spell checker know these words?)
Now ya have to admire someone who plans ahead don't you. I mean if you want someone to figure out your budget, this guy or gal would have been the best. If the population of the earth were to stay at 6 billion people, we will all have the ability to have as many computers, PDA's, modems, IP phones, refrigerators, toasters or whatever on the internet as we want. In fact, with a number like the above, each person on the earth could personally have a grand total of.....
56,713,727,820,156,410,572,229,101,238
devices on the internet. Again for the mathematically challenged, that is 56 octillion computers or 10 to the 27th power. How cool IS this?
Of course, if you plan like me of taking advantage of your ability to have your own 56 octillion computers, you have some other considerations. Electrical plugs, physical space and a nice sized nuclear power plant or two. I've already scoped out my own house and if I covered every square inch of wall, ceiling and window space with plugs, I'm still gonna be short 56 octillion +/- a few thousand so I do need a couple boat loads of those multiple outlet strips. Also, if each IP device averages only one watt of power usage, which is pretty optimistic, I will also need a 56 octillion watt nuclear power plant in the front yard. So far, my calls to Cleveland Power are mysteriously being cut off before I can get some serious dialog in with them and this issue still needs to be resolved. One more power related stumbling block to overcome is that each of the 3 wires feeding the house need to be the diameter of a Greyhound bus. Oh, and I am also searching for a much bigger breaker box.
Aside from the minor power issues, I also have begun scouting space to put my share of computers. So far, the house seems a little small, even if I send the kids to live with the ex and get rid of the pets and furniture. I did ask the ex if I could use some of her space and was promptly told to ......well we won't go there. I have talked to Wyoming officials briefly about using some of their open space but am still having difficult determining how much space I will need. I figure on average, each IP device or computer will inhabit one cubic foot of space, some more, some less. That means I need roughly 56 octillion cubic feet of space. Huh, let's see, 147 billion cubic feet in a cubic mile, not enough, uh, times a million cubic miles gives me 147 quadrillion cubic feet, ummm, times a billion cubic feet gives me 147 sextillion cubic feet??? (note to self, space may be big issue here, consider fewer devices). Until earth's atmospheric capacity is calculated, space limitations will be acknowledged.
One other concern I have is how to turn all of my computers on. Way I figure, if I were a newborn and started poking the ON buttons, one per second till I keeled over with a sore finger at 100 years of age, I'd only get 3 billion plus a few turned on so I need some help there, have a lot of kids maybe? And I guess my biggest concern is the prospect of having several quintillion computers running Microsoft Windows 98 locked up at the same time.
OK in short, or maybe not so short, that was what I was curious about and I know you had to be too. I'm going home to start wiring in some plugs.
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