in reply to Coping with changes

Perl 6: The upcoming Perl 6 means I'll have to invest a lot of time to understand how it works.
Only if you're going to work with it. New languages pop up all the time - but that doesn't mean I'm spending time on it to learn them.
IPv6: It was promoted on the news & published on many websites that people will start to acquire/use IPv6
Buhahahhaha. Right. "We're running out of IPv4 addresses!". "Help, the internet will die next year!". People have been saying that for over a decade. And IPv6 still isn't significant. Besides, you can have a good idea of networking currently, without knowing all the details of IPv4. That doesn't change if IPv6 comes around.
HTML5: The new HTML 5
Yeah? Really? How long do you think it'll take before everyone has an HTML5 capable browser? If you learn one new element a week, you'll be ready on time.
Power Shell: This one might be old
Old? I've never heard of it. What makes you think you have to learn it?
So what are your plans, And How you're willing to deal with this?
Not. Heh, 15 years ago, I was using the same main programming languages as I use now (Perl/SQL), the same family of OSses as I use now (Linux/Unix), the same shells I use now (bash/sh), the same low level networking protocols (Ethernet, IPv4, TCP, UDP) as I use now, the same high level networking protocols (HTTP, FTP, SMTP) as I use now, the same document markup as I use now (HTML, LaTeX), etc, etc. A few new things happened in those 15 years (CSS, XML) I had to spend time learning something about, but nothing shocking or important. Nothing complicated to learn overnight.

Heh, this is computer stuff we're talking about. Despite people having the opposite idea, things don't change rapidly. Nor is any of it rocket science.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Coping with changes
by Argel (Prior) on Jul 28, 2010 at 20:45 UTC
    The IPv4 pool really is shrinking, which is already encouraging smaller IPv6 deployments. Even if a wide-scale deployment of IPv6 is a long ways off, mixed deployments are already happening. So studying up on it (especially how mixed environments are handled), paying attention to which network related modules support IPv6 and which ones don't, etc. seems worthwhile. I wouldn't spend a lot of time on it, but I also wouldn't just ignore it anymore.

    Regarding HTML5, you really missed the mark on this one -- sites are already using HTML5 e.g. to stream videos without using Flash. A common one is streaming video to iPhone and iPad users, but e.g. YouTube also uses it to stream video to Chrome. Most of the browsers out there already have some form of support and Internet Explorer 9 will have HTML5 support. Take a look at this web designer checklist (scroll down past the CSS3 sections). I think you underestimated how consumer devices are driving fairly rapid HTML5 adoption. Lack of Flash support on the iPhone in particular may have helped accelerate things.

    As for PowerShell, that's only relevant to Windows developers and sysadmins, though I'm surprised you never heard of it, given that one of the goals is to make it possible to use the commandline to do things that used to require a GUI (the way it is implemented reminds me of AREXX). If you want to learn more, check out Windows PowerShell.

    Elda Taluta; Sarks Sark; Ark Arks
[reply]

      The IPv4 pool really is shrinking, but then again entire ip blocks were handed away willy nilly in the early days to organizations that didn't need even a 100th of the IPs they were given. If some of those unused blocks were re-assigned according to need, the pool would start expanding rather than shrinking.

      I'm a network admin for a small ISP, well I was anyway until I took leave to work on another project. We don't have a shortage of IPv4 IPs for the foreseeable future. The blocks we have are continuously re-shuffled to free up larger blocks of IPs as we change out equipment. There's a constant push from vendors to buy new hugely expensive, excessive capacity IPv6 equipment complete with bleeding edge IPv4 <-> IPv6 translation hardware. The sales pitch is always the same: IPv4 is going to run out. I think they just ran out of buyers for IPv4 equipment in a market that's saturated with cheap off the shelf equipment.

      Nearly every organization runs some sort of NATed internal network. From homes, to schools to small businesses and large organizations. There's a virtually unlimited number of internal IPs you can assign without ever having to touch the shrinking IPv4 pool. Really, how many computer systems would even be safe on the internet were it not for the fact that they had an internal NATed IP that wasn't directly addressable from the outside world.

      Sure there are problems and difficulties with NATed IPs. It involves translation of addresses, forwarding of packets, wrappers within wrappers that add overhead and processing costs (and expense). It makes it difficult to get access to your devices away from home. But these same things also make you anonymous on the net. My tinfoil hat tells me that the real push for IPv6 is coming from the intellectual property giants who want to control every aspect of every byte between you and them. With IPv6 there's no need for NAT any more and company X has a direct line of communication to your device Y. From manufacture to sale (and resale) any where in the world, any time you plug it into a network. Did you renew your license to use that shiny new IPv6 network card? Zap, sorry it will start working again when you buy a new subscription.

[reply]

        Indeed! Network access should be on a need-to-know basis.

        Visit my webserver any time, and connect to my multiplayer game only when I give you the password. The rest of the house is off limits.

[reply]
        My only point was we are more likely to run into IPv6 today then even a year ago. But I agree that a lot of people will be able to avoid it. But it doesn't hurt to know a little bit about it these days. Though that probably applies more to people doing network and system administrators type work (like I do). It's also easier to brush up on it at least a little bit (assuming you know a thing or two about IPv4). As for Cisco, etc. pushing IPv6, the $$$ sparkling in their sales reps eyes are blindingly bright.

        Elda Taluta; Sarks Sark; Ark Arks
[reply]
      As for PowerShell, that's only relevant to Windows developers and sysadmins, though I'm surprised you never heard of it,
      I started my computer life on a Unix box. Never looked back. Haven't used Windows long enough to even know how to install something on such a box, let alone be a developer or sysadmin on it. Never owned a device running Windows, never had a box with Windows on my desk at $WORK. Or any previous @WORK.

      I did once port a 1500 line shell script I wrote to Windows though (I had someone else to deploy and run it for me). But that required only a single line change (yeah, POSIX).

[reply]
        While your experience is a testament to many UNIX/Linux users, I would not admit to that.
        It's good to be well versed in all major environments. One day something might come along and you might be forced to use a particular platform or tool (business requirements, legislation, buyouts, etc)
        I would hate to have to learn some of this from scratch.

        Demize
[reply]

In Section Meditations