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A Humorous Introduction To IPv6
zollman writes "Jonathan Richards, in the London times, explains how the introduction of IPv6 will change the Internet. From the article: 'As use [of the Internet] grew, it became clear that the old protocol, IPv4, wasn't big enough, so a new one was created using 32-bit numbers. That increased the number of available addresses to 340 undecillion, 282 decillion, 366 nonillion, 920 octillion, 938 septillion -- enough for the foreseeable future.'"
IPv6 uses 128 bit addresses. IPv4 uses 32 bit addresses.
He just doesn't have his facts straight at all. IPV4 uses 32 bit addresses, which gives you about 4 billion addresses. IPV6 on the other hand uses 128 bit addresses (please correct me if i'm wrong), which gives you an unbelievably large number of addresses, which will be able to address every atom in the universe with it's own IP address. This time we aren't running out. Of course, you could assign multiple addresses to each machine, and get rid of the need for ports...
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.