IPv6 Launch Day – 06Jun12 00:00 UTC
My background may or not be all that unusual: I’ve picked up lots of things that I didn’t set out to learn; responding to topical areas that my employers wanted me to learn or following what I thought was interesting and what I was attracted to – that’s created somewhat of a patchwork of areas of knowledge.
One thing that’s been difficult, sometimes, is forcing my attention away from whatever is on fire today and learning new stuff. As I’ve mentioned recently, I have had some great opportunities to get taken in different directions.
Here’s one: about two years ago, at a BBLISA talk, I finally got to learn about this amorphous thing off in the distance, IPv6. Like a lot of technology, getting your arms around a new concept is trying partly because most education seems to be oriented towards those who are learning something wholly new for the very first time, as in how TCP/IP works.
This is what BBLISA is really great for: I know lots about the “current” IP already (“IPv4”); assume that I understand the protocol stack and how lots of services are implemented on it, please, and explain to me what is different and new. That was an excellent session.
So, I put together IPv6 connectivity on and out of my home network, to the IPv6 Internet. Last year, as World IPv6 Day approached, I decided that I wanted my externally-hosted personal site available on IPv6, too, so I set up a mirror with a new provider… this year, the whole site has been moved, including my mailhost (Dovecot/Postfix). All that’s left is Amazon Web Services – (going to be making any announcements soon, AWS?) – which hosts some content (like images and large file downloads such as from my BBLISA presentation).
As of now, 06Jun12 00:00 UTC – it’s Launch day. Today, the sites listed in the Launch site are supposed to be fully IPv6-enabled, and as they say “This time it is for real”. I’m happy to be part of this.
