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Massive Study Links IP Addresses Per Capita To GDP (itnews.com.au)

Three researchers "decided to scan the entire IPv4 address range every 15 minutes between 2006-2012 to work out what insights they could gain from humanity's mass connection to the internet," reports ITnews. The study...analysed data from 411 large regions from middle to high-income countries and found a positive correlation between GDP per capita and the number of IP addresses per head. A 10% increase in IP addresses per capita was associated with an 0.8% hike in GDP, the analysis found. The researchers cautioned that the output and productivity growth they noted when the number of IP address increased was correlation rather than causation. Service-oriented sectors -- such as publishing, news, film production, administrative support, and education -- appear to have suffered a negative effect from increasing internet penetration [PDF]. The researchers believe these sectors were susceptible to competition from cheaper outsourcing providers.
Slashdot Bismillah pointed out that the researchers also measured sleeping patterns over seven years, assuming IP addresses of internet-connected devices generally correlated to people who were awake. According to the article, "They found that sleep patterns may be changing and converging around the world: Europeans slept less, East Asians more, while Americans' sleeping patterns remained static over the seven-year period."

64 comments

  1. MASSIVE fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like totally, dude

    1. Re: MASSIVE fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you gay like Trump?

  2. Ig Nobel 2017 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Folks, we have a frontrunner. Countries were people own lots of the electronic gadgets tend to be better off economically.

  3. IPV6 - The worlds savior by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Funny

    A 10% increase in IP addresses per capita was associated with an 0.8% hike in GDP

    Well since there are 4.2Ã--10^37 42 undecillion IPv6 addresses, that means that we can boost the GDP of every nation on earth a thousands times greater than what it is now!

    Behold starving citizen of a war-torn nation (take your pick which nation): We bring you more addresses than you could possibly comprehend! Even if you lose a limb or two, it can have its own IPV6 address!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Behold starving citizen of a war-torn nation

      Detroit?

    2. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We bring you addresses you can't possibly remember!

      FTFY

    3. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use DNS. Then remember 2600::1 is a public DNS server.

    4. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I only use google because google is google and 2001:4860:4860::8888 is too long and I can't remember because too long.

    5. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're an idiot about the PitBull comment....... Labradors bite more than almost any breed with many small breeds coming in after that. Pitbulls rank #2 on Temperament right below Golden Retrievers at the #1 spot. During World War 2 there were government sponsored posters about them being "Nanny Dogs" left at home with Women and Children while the men fought. The only reason you hear more about it is how sensational it is along with how powerful the dogs are.

      They only bite when abused more often than not.... It's sad really that we just assume people abusing their dogs is no big deal and instead try to ban the dogs that when abused; are strong enough to fight back.... Don't ban the idiots abusing them, ban the strong victims that can fight back. How logical.

    6. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ayup - NAT suppresses GDP and IPv6 will save the world.

    7. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Blacks in large numbers simply cannot be peaceful and civil, not anyplace in the world.

      However, there is a slight lack of data behind this assertion. The murder rate per thousand in West Africa (which has almost exclusively black people) is similar to Northern Europe (excluding where certain militant Islamist groups are on the rampage in both regions).

      The murder rate in both North and South America is roughly ten times higher.

      As many others have observed before me: Guns don't kill people: Americans kill people.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    8. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The secret to living a happy life is to avoid living near black people. Yes their are some good ones, but most of them are feral predators with no impulse control and no ability to extrapolate into the future the consequences of their actions.

      For example, a Negro will "bust a cap" (i.e. kill someone) because they imagined someone looked at them funny. Now the consequences of his action are spending the next 40 or 50 years of his life in a cage with other animals like himself. Negroes lack the ability to gauge the "economics" of this proposition. Effectively they consider the price of settling a score for "disrespect" worth it.

      Spending the better part of your life in a cage with other feral animals over someone looking at you funny would be obviously a poor economic decision to real humans. But the Negro, not being fully human, can not see this obvious and simple fact.

    9. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by currently_awake · · Score: 2

      I have discovered there is a correlation between owning a luxury car and having lots of money. I suggest giving them out to make everyone rich.

    10. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 1

      Well Detroit is around 85% black so yes of course there is a lot of violence. Blacks in large numbers simply cannot be peaceful and civil, not anyplace in the world. Of course if you notice this pattern, you are a horrible terrible person and the rest of us will brand you "racist" so we don't have to actually factually dispute your observation because of course that cannot be done and deep down that makes our cause very much embarassed but we can't admit such a basic thing. Take a nice big gulp of the equality kool-aid, you look thirsty to me! Just like the Jews, Chinese railroad workers, and Native Americans, blacks have been oppressed, that's why the Jews, Chinese, and Native Americans keep topping the violent crime charts... oh wait, only the blacks do that, despite being a 13% minority. Huh. Guess we'll have to socially insist, harder than ever, that our patently false view is The Truth and anyone who disagrees is a Heretic! Yeah, that'll keep working!

      Well, on a historical scale, if you consider Hitler, Stalin, the Conquistadores and other genocides in Africa and America, I think it's a safe bet that white Europeans have murdered the most people across the world.
      But when we do it, we are civilized about it. right? We had our powerful industries producing our superior weapons so we were able to invoke death and genocide by right of conquest and survival of the fittest.
      Our genocidal murder is obviously more civilized and legitimate than when poor black people without good education behave violently.

    11. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      Well, on a historical scale, if you consider Hitler, Stalin, the Conquistadores and other genocides in Africa and America, I think it's a safe bet that white Europeans have murdered the most people across the world.

      Actually, if you look at the whole world, you find the Chinese on top for mass slaughters. The Cultural Revolution may have been the largest mass death of humans since the Black Plague....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    12. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha, well said.

    13. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are simply wrong. Your argument was a poor misdirection coupled with an emotional appeal, both of which are very transparent.

      I did a very quick search and, right of the bat, found the PetBreeds web site. They have an article "35 Dog Breeds That Have Attacked the Most People", and guess which breed is number 1? It's not the Labrador; it's the Pit Bull.

      Here's another site listing dog bite fatalities for 2016. Pit Bull and Pill Bull mixes are overwhelmingly present on that list.

    14. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by unixisc · · Score: 1

      That was my first thought when I saw this - until I read and saw that they were referring to IPv4 addresses. But just imagine if there were as much cash globally as there were IPv6 addresses?

    15. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 1

      That might be right, and goes to show just how much damage the misguided ideology and policies of a few proletarians waging war on "elite establishment" can do.

      But that was just one, short historical period that did massive amounts of damage. I think Europeans "win" overall when you factor in the many independent instances of death and mayhem inflicted, especially on others.

      But don't get me wrong. Unlike the OP, I don't think white Europeans or any other race is inherently more violent than others. Europeans have been so destructive because they had the power to dominate. Others would and have done the same, which is evident across all of history.
      And the same thing with black people in the US. I don't think they are inherently more violent. Perhaps they are more violent, but the causes lie in poverty, discrimination and lack of perspectives. Factor in US gun culture and you get what you bargain for.

    16. Re:IPV6 - The worlds savior by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      The murder rate per thousand in West Africa (which has almost exclusively black people) is similar to Northern Europe

      If by "West Africa", you mean this, then I see approximately a double rate on average for that region (~8/100000/year) compared to the United States, and very much incomparable to Northern Europe. (But I can agree that there are too few controls in any simple comparison.)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  4. How to make your town inconceivably rich by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    Just get the local internet providers to support IPv6.

  5. Check out the wireless... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    The 2.4GHz wireless at my 300+ unit apartment complex is congested between 7:00PM and 2:00AM when everyone is at home. Not a problem for me since I have to go to bed by 8:30PM to get up at 4:30AM to start work at 7:00AM. Switching to 5GHz wireless doesn't hurt either.

    1. Re:Check out the wireless... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell us more about how you work in government IT, you were unemployed for two years, you have hundreds of fake friends on linkedin, and all the other shit you love to repeat ad nauseum, because you're a fucking bigshot with too much money in your wallet and too much time on your hands.

    2. Re:Check out the wireless... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought you'd be happy now that Trump is President. Guess not.

    3. Re:Check out the wireless... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pull my Finger, Grab my Pussy.

    4. Re:Check out the wireless... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Tell us more about how you work in government IT

      How is that relevant to this discussion?

      you were unemployed for two years

      How is that relevant to this discussion?

      you have hundreds of fake friends on linkedin,

      I have 821 recruiters connected via LinkedIn when I checked last week. Most of my friends don't use LinkedIn since they're not technical workers.

      and all the other shit you love to repeat ad nauseum

      Yet you brought me a soapbox to stand on rather than stay on topic with a relevant comment.

      because you're a fucking bigshot with too much money in your wallet and too much time on your hands.

      You're confusing me with Mr. Trump.

  6. Redistribute the IP addresses! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's President Bernie's Internet policy on alternative universe Earth 1178!

  7. In other news... by ITRambo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In other news, people that have more money on average also have more "stuff".

    1. Re:In other news... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      In other news, people that have more debt on average also have more "stuff" to keep up with people who have more money.

      FTFY — A.K.A., The American Dream.

    2. Re:In other news... by johannesg · · Score: 1

      Why such cynicism? Why not believe that quite a substantial number of people live within their means, and have no debt whatsoever?

      They don't give a fuck if someone else owns a few pointless items more. They may live a little bit more modest, but they sleep better at night.

    3. Re:In other news... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Why such cynicism? Why not believe that quite a substantial number of people live within their means, and have no debt whatsoever?

      I live in Silicon Valley. The few people who live a modest lifestyle here are janitors and virtual ditch diggers (which is what I do) on $50K or less per year. Everyone else is stressed out on owning big houses, big cars, big houses, big woman and big kids. They haven't gotten the memo that not everyone in Silicon Valley is a newly minted millionaire.

  8. The Internet of Shit by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    You've gotta be fucking kidding me with this. Of course more IP addresses = higher GDP. I'm going to see if I can get funded to conduct a study on whether or not areas with more IP addresses also have more routers and wifi hotspots.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  9. I only have ten static IPv4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OK, OK, it's my own fault for being stubborn and lazy, because I wrote my own HTTP server from scratch, but it doesn't support the Host header, you see.

  10. With IPv6... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just because you're no longer attached to your limb, doesn't mean your limb can't be connected to you!

    The IoT Industry: connecting you to everything important, even your erstwhile limbs.

  11. My ISP gave me address fe80::1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Note: ends on 1. I'm telling you, that's beachfront property.

    1. Re:My ISP gave me address fe80::1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's nothing. I have 0100::1 and unlimited bandwidth.

    2. Re:My ISP gave me address fe80::1 by unixisc · · Score: 1

      These are link-local automatic generated addresses: no ISPs ever assign those. ISPs, if they support IPv6, will assign you things like 2001::/64. If you have DHCPv6, you can assign anything for the lower half of the address

    3. Re:My ISP gave me address fe80::1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but it's still a really distinctive address, one of the few memorable ones in the enormous 128-bit space.

      Make me an offer and it's yours.

    4. Re: My ISP gave me address fe80::1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoosh.

      Now say what 0100:: is for.

    5. Re:My ISP gave me address fe80::1 by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I can take it w/o making you any offer. That address is the equivalent of Apt #1, which millions of houses worldwide have.

  12. Herp Derp by kelemvor4 · · Score: 1

    "A 10% increase in IP addresses per capita was associated with an 0.8% hike in GDP, the analysis found"

    Alternatively, an 8% hike in GDP means the country had the money and desire to acquire 10% more IP addresses.

  13. This is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This would suggest that if we increased the connected addresses of a nation, it would improve there GDP. We also can't predict the prices of stocks based on the price of carrots even though they might be linked.

    1. Re:This is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With more IP addresses, they can publish more fake news scams, and the advertising revenue would boost GDP there, so yes. Let's be honest, third world internet is for scams.

  14. Bad Research by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, the tendency to have more computers than people in a country tends to indicate several external factors.

    E.g. Mass electrification, high population density, advanced service economies, etc.

    This research says nothing useful except for people who don't go outside.

  15. In other news by fermion · · Score: 1

    More car sales mean higher GDP and collapse of buggy whip manufacturers.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    1. Re:In other news by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      More car sales mean higher GDP and collapse of buggy whip manufacturers.

      Oil-rich Arab nations buy lots of expensive German cars. This is why they have so much oil. German cars leak oil. The drops of oil breed very well in the fertile Arab desert sands, and soon they have vast pools of oil deep in the sands. The Arabs sell the oil, and buy more German cars, which leak more oil, thus creating a self-sustaining economic model.

      In the US, EPA regulations ban cars that leak a lot of oil, but a couple of rogue programmers at a German car company created a device to stop their cars from leaking oil, when anyone is looking under the car.

      The Canadians tried to replicate the Arab model using American built cars and their dinosaur desert sands in Alberta. But their Canadian sands are not as fertile as the Arabian sands, and only produce a messy goo of tar. American efforts in the sands of Las Vegas have failed, due to the contamination of the soil by the decaying corpses of Bugsy Siegel and Jimmy Hoffa buried there.

      This all leads to an interesting philosophical question: Which came first, the leaky German car, or the oil . . . ? Kinda sorta like the chicken and egg question.

      Well, the answer to this is clearly evident: The Intelligent Designer (aka, "God") created the oil. Since oil causes climate change, it's His fault. The producers of the climate change problem should be held fiscally responsible for the damaged they have created. This climate change process is supported by folks who go to church every Sunday to sing praises to God, which goads him on to continue his climate damaging activities.

      This could all be reversed by a heavy tax on Church-goers. This would discourage folks from singing praises to Him. God would then get bored and go away, and thus halting climate change.

      Now, for my next act, I will build a wall around myself, and make you pay for it. Actually, my neighbors would pay for it, since it would block their view of my eyesore lawn, which is covered with ripped-up empty beer cans. The exposed sharp edges keeps the neighborhood kids off my lawn: "Hillbilly Punji Sticks".

      Actually, my neighbors would pay me even more money to just move somewhere else. But I can't leave, because old Granddad buried nuclear waste in the backyard, which is someday going to be very valuable in the future, when folks with antennas on their heads will be mining it as a clean source of energy.

      Oh, and one more thing . . .

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      arabs don't care about german cars, you asshat. They only buy italian cars, like you in your dreams...

  16. Wow people with more money have more computers by Crashmarik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who would of thought that.

    1. Re:Wow people with more money have more computers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NAT

  17. Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump is a bitch.

    1. Re:Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He grabs herself by the pussy.

  18. Ha ha by argStyopa · · Score: 1

    "The researchers cautioned that the output and productivity growth they noted when the number of IP address increased was correlation rather than causation."

    I'm torn between being sad that they actually felt it was necessary to say this, and being glad that they did to preclude democrats proposing a new program to help the impoverished by handing out ip addresses.

    --
    -Styopa
  19. Don't let the policy wonks see this by popo · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is exactly the kind of thing that logically challenged policymakers will mistake for a causality.

    Next thing you know they'll be buying blocks of IP addresses and waiting for GDP to rise.

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
    1. Re:Don't let the policy wonks see this by PetiePooo · · Score: 1

      Next thing you know they'll be buying blocks of IP addresses and waiting for GDP to rise.

      This! Somebody mod OP up please!

  20. Don't assume by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    "assuming IP addresses of internet-connected devices generally correlated to people who were awake."

    It also could just be their router or multimedia-computer automatically downloading dozens of torrents during the night, so that the sleeping owner has something to watch during the day.

    Or phones downloading updates or windows computers or printers installing new patches or IP cameras watching the yard or ...

  21. BILL 'em, Danno by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 1

    I'm no stranger to this kind of logic. I once read somewhere that healthy dogs have wet noses so I used to spray my dog's nose several times a day.

    In the 90s just before before email spam exploded (because there were millions of open SMTP relays out there)... someone at MAE noticed that during the quietest times of day bandwidth in use was more than 50% comprised of ICMP packets, specifically PING. Several hundred thousand administrators for countless reasons wrote scripts to see if their things were 'up' to run all the time. Once per second, every five seconds, every hour, whatever. It added up to a ridiculous amount of data. And it was mostly padding garbage, these folks did NOT bother to use the minimum size ping packet either (I did). But hey, even though they were using ~40x the bandwidth they needed to use, at least someone was doing real work.

    The authors of this IP/GDP correlation study should be sent a bill for their use of the network calculated from 1995 rates as a financial incentive to seek GDP statistics directly. Perhaps no one ever introduced them to Wikipedia.

    --
    <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
  22. again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another "study" from the university of the bloody obvious..

  23. Pls /. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WTF has this place become?

  24. Assholes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yet another bunch of asshole fuckheads thinking they can mess about with peoples connections.

    Just how many fucking so-called researchers are out there doing the same fucking thing?

  25. IP addresses per capita by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The most important discovery since we realized that the sun comes up in the morning.