Performance Zen

Author: spierzchala

  • WGBH – TV: Wasting airspace, again

    WBGH, again you win the contest as the most clueless PBS station in the world.
    There is this small news event occurring this week, called the Democratic National Convention.
    And what are you showing tonight?
    John Denver, a man and his music.
    Are you completely clueless?
    Another year, another lack of donations from me.
    When will you start showing the programs we want to see, and stop with the crap you think raises you the most money?
    This is an ongoing rant.

  • IP Addresses by Country and Registrar — August 2008

    The five top-level IP Registrars (ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC, AFRINIC) manage tens of million IPV4 and IPV6 addresses, assigning them to networks around the world. These addresses are key to accessing the Internet for all end-users.
    About once a year, I generate the statistics out of the IP address database I maintain. The last one was published back in August 2007,  and, as can be imagined, there have been substantial changes that have occurred in the last 12 months.
    At the country level, there has been a substantial change in the top five as China has superseded Japan in the total number of IPV4 addresses. In fact, in the last 12 months, Japan has seen a net loss in the total number of allocated IPV4 addresses.

    country NETWORKS IPS
    UNITED STATES 33758 1441234432
    CHINA 1478 161991424
    JAPAN 1971 148897280
    EUROPEAN UNION 4766 120292412
    UNITED KINGDOM 3460 85509464
    GERMANY 2237 78525232
    CANADA 5201 73586944
    FRANCE 1692 68225984
    KOREA, REPUBLIC OF 631 66108928
    AUSTRALIA 5950 35859200
    ITALY 921 29520320
    BRAZIL 266 27657728
    TAIWAN, PROVINCE OF CHINA 410 23842816
    MEXICO 158 21504000
    SPAIN 494 20755104
    NETHERLANDS 1319 20614440
    RUSSIAN FEDERATION 2654 19910472
    SWEDEN 800 16947104
    INDIA 542 16661504
    SOUTH AFRICA 790 13828352
    POLAND 1457 12799116
    DENMARK 459 9149792
    TURKEY 269 8892096
    FINLAND 619 8812672
    SWITZERLAND 1217 7642056
    ROMANIA 693 7612416
    HONG KONG 633 7537408
    NORWAY 388 7119648
    AUSTRIA 793 6938336
    INDONESIA 429 6885376
    ARGENTINA 380 6241280
    BELGIUM 370 6016640
    CZECH REPUBLIC 572 5592704
    NEW ZEALAND 1187 5560064
    VIETNAM 81 4388352
    THAILAND 338 4367104
    UKRAINE 1547 4356416
    SINGAPORE 395 4352512
    CHILE 380 4313344
    IRELAND 204 4025760
    MALAYSIA 238 3949312
    ISRAEL 211 3936192
    PORTUGAL 134 3859296
    COLOMBIA 217 3818752
    GREECE 220 3746816
    VENEZUELA 109 3592704
    HUNGARY 231 3577472
    PHILIPPINES 257 2957056
    BULGARIA 331 2923264
    UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 23 2278656
    EGYPT 85 2255616
    SAUDI ARABIA 154 2194176
    LITHUANIA 117 1997696
    IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF 94 1588224
    CROATIA 62 1438048
    SLOVAKIA 157 1418240
    COSTA RICA 24 1332224
    LATVIA 187 1316864
    PAKISTAN 110 1302016
    PERU 74 1253120
    SLOVENIA 187 1210752
    PANAMA 51 1038592
    ESTONIA 77 1008912

    The adjustment in China is completely expected, as China has substantial room to expand its IPV4 population, compared to a country such as Japan which is likely approaching saturation in this area.
    In the total number of IPV4 addresses assigned by registrar, ARIN (US, Canada, and parts of the Caribbean) still has a substantially larger population than the other regions. However, this region only grew by 3 million IPV4 addresses in the last 12 months, compared to 42 million for RIPE (Europe and the Middle East), and 74 million for APNIC (Asia-Pacific). LACNIC (Mexico, Latin and South America) grew by 13 million IPV4 addresses and AFRINIC (Africa) by 4 million.

    registry NETWORKS IPS
    arin 39231 1583464704
    ripencc 29996 539874744
    apnic 15143 480405504
    lacnic 2152 74576896
    afrinic 1325 20201216

    Some of this growth in APNIC, AFRINIC, and LACNIC can be attributed to adjustments in the Registry structure itself. Now that there are five registrars with responsibility for a clearly defined set of nations, a number of adjustments have had to occur in the registrar of record for IPV4 ranges.
    In the past, for nations that were not explicitly covered by a regional registrar, the IPV4 range may have been assigned by the registrar now responsible for the region, most likely ARIN or RIPE.
    Now that there are registrars specifically designated to cover these formerly grey areas, these historical artifacts are being corrected as registry information is renewed.
    However, this cannot directly account for the noticeable growth in AFRINIC, APNIC, and LACNIC relative to the two older registrars. This is yet another indication of the strong growth of the Internet outside of its established base of the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and a small number of industrialized nations in the Asia-Pacific region.

  • I-94s – Wii haz um

    After 12 hours on the road, 20 minutes in Canada (well, Quebec), and a night in a really crappy hotel room, we are back home, with freshly minted I-94s.

    In the immigration office, they were hesitant to hand us the I-94s because we still have valid H1-Bs. I had to insist that they give us them to support our Advanced Parole renewal. This is way too complicated (and expensive) and I just want my Green Cards…now.

    So, a tip for all you travellers out there: Regardless of your status, and the insistence that you don’t need I-94s, never let them take them away, and try to get the border agents to issue them for EVERY crossing. I know it’s a pain in the ass, but it’s more of a pain in the ass to have to go back and get them.

  • Rant the Second: Gutter Helmet, Again

    So, in my second rant of the day, I am falling back to my favourite target of tension: Gutter Helmet. This long-running saga in one that I wish I had never been involved in, and in 20/20 hindsight, I wish that I had just chosen to go with standard gutters, rather than some gadgety gimmick that is installed by a company that seems to value customer service about 14th on their Top Ten list.
    The latest installment has come about because one, if not more, of our downspouts is now blocked with … something. The thing is that these top-of-the-line gadgets should never become clogged. And if they do, we have a lifetime maintenance guarantee.
    Well, they guarantee that maintenance will occur sometime in my lifetime.
    It will be nearly 8 weeks since I called before the service person can come out and clean out a downspout. They said that it would happen this week (week of August 17th), but then changed their minds and moved the date out to the week of (maybe the day of?) September 3rd.
    It’s not a hard fix. It shouldn’t take that long. And I know that the weather hasn’t been that great. But 8 weeks is a little long, especially for someone whose installation experience is already so far past acceptable.
    So, below, I have created a little poll to get a feeling for how other folks with Gutter Helmet installs feel about their decision. Let us know!
    [poll id=”3″]

  • Rant the First: US Immigration and the Confusion of the Process

    On July 20, the family crossed over the border back into the US after attending ZenWife’s grandmother’s funeral in Toronto. It had been a great weekend, a chance to get reacquainted with ZenWife’s extended family and introduce the boys to some of these folks.

    We crossed the border at the Peace Bridge, and got an Immigration officer who obviously did not know what she was doing.

    To describe our current status: We are in the US on EADs with Advanced Parole documents which allow us to travel in and out of the country. The sheer complexity of our status (which is not an unusual one) perplexed this Immigration officer, and she processed us under our old status (H1-B/H4) and then did not issue us I-94s!

    For the American readers among you, an I-94 is a little slip of paper stating when and where you last entered the US. Every person in an Immigration process (and many foreign nationals) are required to get either the white form (Immigrant) or the green form (visitor).

    We are now in the process of renewing our AP documents and EADs, and one of the items they need is a copy of our most recent I-94s, which this Immigration official at Peace Bridge kindly removed from our passports without issuing new ones.

    So, tomorrow, we have to drive up to the Derby Border Crossing in Vermont (the closest to our home) and get new ones issued so that we can renew our APs and EADs.

    The main gripe I have with this is that the US Immigration service appears to be hideously inconsistent in when and where they enforce their own rules. As well, with the AP, it is now harder to get into the US than it was with the H1-B.

    To sum up, this process frustrates me, and it is no wonder that between this sort of confusion and hearing that Green Card applicants can get thrown in jail and ignored until they die that makes me wonder if it is all worthwhile.

    For those of you with Green Cards: Is it all worthwhile?

  • Another thumbs up for CBC Olympic Coverage

    Philip Michaels writes a great review of why the CBC Olympic Coverage makes NBC seem like the pathetic old has-been it is. [here]
    The US is ready for more NBC. Think you can actually deliver by 2010? When the Canadian broadcasters — even CTV! — will make you look really pathetic?
    Didn’t think so.

  • Upgrade to WP 2.6.1 – Complete

    Ok, all I have to say is: If you do not have the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin, go get it. The update took all of 30 seconds.
    Thanks to the authors of that extremely useful piece of code.

  • Google Searches Always Bring Surprises

    Since November 5 2004 (Geez! Have I been blogging that long?), I have written 1,744 posts (this is 1,745). So, as you can well imagine, I can’t remember whats in most of them. I know which ones are the most popular and what’s in those, but on the whole, I couldn’t tell you what’s in most of the posts I have put up in nearly four years.

    So it always astounds me when someone goes to one the more obscure posts. Astounds me to the point that I have to go to the site and find out what I said.

    The long tail meets the absent-minded.

  • Green Card: Man Allegedly Dies as a Result Of DHS Negligence

    Ok, as someone who is waiting for his Green Card, the story of the treatment allegedly received by Hiu Lui Ng frightens me. [BoingBoing link here. NY Times here ]
    My Green Card has been in process for more than three years. We are supposedly approaching the end of the long road. But how do I know I won’t be thrown in jail and deported because of some silly clerical error?
    We are all enemy aliens until proven otherwise. No wonder US corporations are finding it harder and harder to sell the idea of emigration to the US to potential employees from outside their boundaries.

    “Yes, it is possible that you will be thrown in jail and mistreated because of some silly clerical error. It’s more likely that we will just keep you in fear and treat you like second-class indentured servants for 3-4 years until we’re done with you. Now, about our medical plan…”

  • Attitude Adjustment: And I thought I was too poor for a Mac…

    The post says it all
    [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1494554 w=400&h=225]
    Burmese Refugee Children Love Macs from Joyce Kim on Vimeo.