I usually use Bandwidth place which has a nice GUI and useful reports. Also goes without saying that you can find many bandwidth test sites by Googling "bandwidth".
After switching over, give everyone the new IPv6 addresses, since I assume most people have hardware that can support it. If people run into problems or want to keep IPv4, then they can request the IPv4 for free.
It's difficult to refute that digital storage has a short life-span. But there are a few reasons I don't believe in the digital dark age:
The Internet is here to stay. These days, the Internet is the new medium for digital storage. The Internet has significantly evolved in the past several years, but the Internet will always remain accessible. 50 years from now, when IPv256 is in common use, I'm willing to bet that I can still access documents living on some IPv4 server assuming it's still connected to the Internet, because whatever future technologies are used on the Internet, I'm sure web browsers / networking technology will employ backwards-compatible technology that will allow me to access to servers running older technology.
The most treasured knowledge will always be migrated to newer technologies. Let's take some terrific story as an example, to which society assigns great value. It starts off as being passed by storytellers, the most primitive form of knowledge management. Then the stone and chisel comes along, and people are like, hey! this story is great. We need to preserve it by carving it onto a stone. Then paper comes along, and people think, stones suck, it's not portable, let's put it on paper. Then the digital revolution comes along, so people decide, digital is great! So of course, people put the story into digital form to preserve it and make it more accessible. Then Internet comes along, and without a thought, it's put on to the Internet. As new technologies emerge, people will always make sure that our most important knowledge in preserved in the most common technologies.
If there is a will, there is a way. Directly addressing the question posed, some kids 40 years from now find a CD, and have no idea how to use it. Let's put this concept into today's terms. Let's say I go into an attic and find a 5.25" floppy. (I haven't seen one of those in over a decade.) Now the 5.25" floppy drive is an uncommon thing these days, as is finding some old version software to read it. But I'm sure SOMEONE out there has an old 286 or something that still works -- and with the Internet around these days, it won't take me long to find it. (12 seconds to be exact: typed 80286 into eBay and found a ton of mint-condition 286s.) If the supposed bazilli-jilli-tillion dollar family fortune was on that 5.25" floppy, I would definitely make the effort to stick that floppy into a mint-condition 286 purchased on eBay to find out the details.
For related 'extra' information... Chapter 2 in the Art of Unix Programming (Eric S. Raymond) contains a very interesting discourse about the history of the UNIX operating system, and offers insight into operating system wars in general.
One of his points is that many early UNIXes suffered because of licensing issues. I definitely feel that Linux's edge over older UNIXes is its open source license.
I agree. Many people take great pride in building computers and do it for 'fun'. Yes, go with the Shuttle if you don't want to take the time to build your own system... but there is a great joy to putting in the time to build a computer. In particular, there is something very exciting about experimenting with the unconventional form factors. Building your own computer system also fun because it's a challenging problem. What's most important about the new computer? The size, design, performance, and cost are all major factors. Building your own computer opens you up to the widest possible range of options, if you have the time to build it. In the end, it really increases your sense of ownership for a system... being able to say to spilled blood to make it happen, and also that it was made specifically for a particular purpose you had in mind.
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I usually use Bandwidth place which has a nice GUI and useful reports. Also goes without saying that you can find many bandwidth test sites by Googling "bandwidth".
After switching over, give everyone the new IPv6 addresses, since I assume most people have hardware that can support it. If people run into problems or want to keep IPv4, then they can request the IPv4 for free.
It's difficult to refute that digital storage has a short life-span. But there are a few reasons I don't believe in the digital dark age:
These days, the Internet is the new medium for digital storage. The Internet has significantly evolved in the past several years, but the Internet will always remain accessible. 50 years from now, when IPv256 is in common use, I'm willing to bet that I can still access documents living on some IPv4 server assuming it's still connected to the Internet, because whatever future technologies are used on the Internet, I'm sure web browsers / networking technology will employ backwards-compatible technology that will allow me to access to servers running older technology.
Let's take some terrific story as an example, to which society assigns great value. It starts off as being passed by storytellers, the most primitive form of knowledge management. Then the stone and chisel comes along, and people are like, hey! this story is great. We need to preserve it by carving it onto a stone. Then paper comes along, and people think, stones suck, it's not portable, let's put it on paper. Then the digital revolution comes along, so people decide, digital is great! So of course, people put the story into digital form to preserve it and make it more accessible. Then Internet comes along, and without a thought, it's put on to the Internet. As new technologies emerge, people will always make sure that our most important knowledge in preserved in the most common technologies.
Directly addressing the question posed, some kids 40 years from now find a CD, and have no idea how to use it. Let's put this concept into today's terms. Let's say I go into an attic and find a 5.25" floppy. (I haven't seen one of those in over a decade.) Now the 5.25" floppy drive is an uncommon thing these days, as is finding some old version software to read it. But I'm sure SOMEONE out there has an old 286 or something that still works -- and with the Internet around these days, it won't take me long to find it. (12 seconds to be exact: typed 80286 into eBay and found a ton of mint-condition 286s.) If the supposed bazilli-jilli-tillion dollar family fortune was on that 5.25" floppy, I would definitely make the effort to stick that floppy into a mint-condition 286 purchased on eBay to find out the details.
For related 'extra' information... Chapter 2 in the Art of Unix Programming (Eric S. Raymond) contains a very interesting discourse about the history of the UNIX operating system, and offers insight into operating system wars in general.
One of his points is that many early UNIXes suffered because of licensing issues. I definitely feel that Linux's edge over older UNIXes is its open source license.
I agree. Many people take great pride in building computers and do it for 'fun'. Yes, go with the Shuttle if you don't want to take the time to build your own system... but there is a great joy to putting in the time to build a computer. In particular, there is something very exciting about experimenting with the unconventional form factors. Building your own computer system also fun because it's a challenging problem. What's most important about the new computer? The size, design, performance, and cost are all major factors. Building your own computer opens you up to the widest possible range of options, if you have the time to build it. In the end, it really increases your sense of ownership for a system... being able to say to spilled blood to make it happen, and also that it was made specifically for a particular purpose you had in mind.