Author: spierzchala

Made it home before the weather got hideous. And it is hideous out there.
Looks like I might work from home tomorrow.

I made the attempt. No one can fault me for that. However, I was defeated by the twisted, anarchic madness that is the ARIN database.
A step back: I was considering refining the GrabIP database to more accurately reflect the true countries where IPs are used.
APNIC, LACNIC and AFRINIC are all sanely managed. Countries and IP blocks are accurately mapped. RIPE gets a little messier, but there is no real problem with it. Just have to watch out for the blocks tagged as EU instead of their host countries.
ARIN is complete madness. As the only IP registrar on the block for a long time, there are a number of archaic nooks and crannies to watch for. Like this gem: 65.165.84.11.

OrgName:    Sprint
OrgID:      SPRN
Address:    12502 Sunrise Valley Drive
City:       Reston
StateProv:  VA
PostalCode: 20196
Country:    US
NetRange:   65.160.0.0 - 65.174.255.255
CIDR:       65.160.0.0/13, 65.168.0.0/14, 65.172.0.0/15, 65.174.0.0/16

Nothing too earth-shattering here…but wait, there’s more information!

OrgName:    COMMUNICATION ENTERPRISES LTD
OrgID:      CEL-30
Address:    KM # BLVD DEL NORTE
City:       SAN PEDRO SULA
StateProv:  SAN PEDRO SULA
PostalCode: 00000
Country:    HN
NetRange:   65.165.80.0 - 65.165.87.255
CIDR:       65.165.80.0/21

A whole chunk in the middle is assigned to a company in Honduras? Oh great, so now I have to write exceptions to weed out the child CIDR blocks that are in completely different countries.
Needless to say, this attempt to refine the data lost its appeal quickly.
Just using the high-level data in the GrabIP database, it is clear that there is still a great deal of overlap in the ARIN data.

code	country			NUMBLOCK
US	UNITED STATES		30935
CA	CANADA			 4903
PR	PUERTO RICO		   29
GB	UNITED KINGDOM		   24
DE	GERMANY			   22
JM	JAMAICA			   18
BM	BERMUDA			   17
FR	FRANCE			   13
JP	JAPAN			   12
BB	BARBADOS		    9
CH	SWITZERLAND		    6
HK	HONG KONG		    5
NL	NETHERLANDS		    5
SE	SWEDEN			    4
IT	ITALY			    4
NO	NORWAY			    4
BS	BAHAMAS			    4
BE	BELGIUM			    4
VI	VIRGIN ISLANDS, U.S.	    3
ES	SPAIN			    3
AG	ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA	    3
AU	AUSTRALIA		    3
CZ	CZECH REPUBLIC		    2
SG	SINGAPORE		    2
DO	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	    2
FI	FINLAND			    2
LU	LUXEMBOURG		    2
IE	IRELAND			    2
MX	MEXICO			    1
AT	AUSTRIA			    1
LC	SAINT LUCIA		    1
TR	TURKEY			    1
PL	POLAND			    1
LB	LEBANON			    1
GD	GRENADA			    1
HU	HUNGARY			    1
IL	ISRAEL			    1

However, when I originally started this project 2 years ago, some of the blocks for Iceland were listed as ARIN. Now, all of Iceland’s blocks are in the RIPE database.
Hopefully in the next year, the registries can get the counrty assignment mess sorted out.
A sidenote: Right now, ARIN is still the biggest fish in the sea.

arin	36051
ripencc	14588
apnic	10445
lacnic	 1457
afrinic	  437

Maybe I should post the Weekly Breakdown of IP Blocks by registry and country.

We went through the detritus of my life downstairs today.

Well, as dramatic as that may sound, this involved going through nearly a dozen boxes of books and magazines that are down there. The vast majority of the contents can be directly associated to me, and not ZenWife.

Books from University 15 years ago. Papers I had written. Books bought, then never read. Technical books, once relevant, now dated.

400 pounds of books to be sold at 10 cents a pop (6 for $1) when we have a garage sale. If you need novels, books on Canadian and Medieval History, novels, Jungian Psychology, novels, and metaphysical reading material, we will keep you posted on the date.

It’s just hard to go through this stuff without connecting each of the items to a time and a place. Most were impulse buys, but connected to some point in my life where they were relevant and even important to me.

Now, like so much in my life, they have to fade into the background. I have moved on. I had forgotten the person who bought these books until today, and it is like having the dust kicked up in a house: disturbing to the senses.

I will be happy to see them go.

We tapped the three Sugar Maples we have in our front yard this afternoon, and have already extracted about 2 gallons of sap from the trees. Now, it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, so don’t expect to be getting truckloads of the stuff anytime soon.
On the biggest tree, I hit the carotid artery; we have extracted nearly 2 gallons from that one tap. It should be even faster once the temperature starts to rise more.

Want to know more? Look here.
It is interesting to read this author’s posts on a regular basis. This blog should be a mandatory read for all hiring managers and HR personnel. He has nailed the problem with companies: it’s not the quality of the candidates, it’s the quality of the hiring process.

I just watched the first episode of The Office. It was funny…and extremely painful to watch. Having been to the UK, there are offices that work that way.
It was so…realistic that you had to cringe and recoil at the complete atrocity of this show.
Brilliant. Spot on Brilliant.

Today has not been a good day in our house.

The ZenWife flamed someone from the Canadian Revenue Agency who called us looking for money that they already have in their possession…to the tune of $45K (CDN). They have had our money tied up for a year. And there is little chance that we will see it any time soon.

Now, the ZenWife is the first to admit that some of the blame is with her. However, the freakin’ CRA can’t communicate internally. Seems that we paid the money to the Canadian Taxes Division and the Non-Residents Division is the one that keeps saying we owe money.

And who do non-residents have recourse to? No one.

An MP? Which one? We last resided in David Anderson’s riding, but haven’t been resident for 6 years.

A Minister of the Crown? David Anderson is Minister of Environment. Ralph Goodale, Minister of Finance??

And I doubt that the CRA has an ombudsman. A representative of the people at a tax agency? Right….

YEEEEEAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGH!

So, I have been doing an inventory of my computer equipment and other hoohas to see what I can sell. We need the money. That’s why there are Google AdSense ads all over my sites now. That’s why I am evaluating every way we can to reduce expenses, or raise revenue.

I am so bummed. This is a shitty day all-around, and both ZenWife and I have been wandering through the house with black clouds over our heads. We both have tension headaches…and I am sitting here with three fingers of Scotch — those who know me realize that I have about 4 drinks a year, so this is a big deal.

Any input, feedback or ideas would be appreciated. This isn’t meant to be a sob story, just a personal note about what’s happening here at the The Embassy.

This is frightening. [here]
Apparently Blogging counts as a campaign contribution?

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Interesting…someone from the FEC actually took the time to read this post. I am honoured!

Looks like some private capital wants to buy the NHL…all of it…all of the franchises… [here]
Will probably bring about some much needed rationalization in the league.