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Comment Re:Cogent is ruining it (Score 4, Interesting) 133

I think it's a matter of Cogent trying to strongarm its position. It wouldn't be the first time Cogent has done this and it certainly won't be the last. Doing a Google search for "peering dispute", and not including Comcast (to exclude the Comcast vs. Level3 dispute since it's newer and ongoing), almost every old entry involves Cogent duking it out with someone. They win customers on price, but things seem to be lopsided enough that they get into a scuffle with a number of the other Tier-1 providers.

Mike from HE spells it out pretty clearly from almost 2 years ago on the NANOG list:

http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg01006.html

I have no reason to think that their stance has changed any.

Comment Re:Um Paul Ceglia... (Score 1) 350

Are you kidding? This isn't about merit. It's a game of odds.

This big law firm smells dollars, and lots of them. If they can squeeze any kind of settlement out of Zuck, it might be worth it just for their cut of the cash. They're in it for a big win, and for no other reason. This supposed email is what they'll hinge the whole case on.

Transportation

Jeep Wrangler Call of Duty Black Ops Edition 102

gadgetking writes "When I first saw this I thought it was a joke — the Jeep Wrangler Call of Duty: Black Ops Edition. Seriously? I mean I like my COD first person shooter game as much as the next nerd but this really shows how mainstream video games have become. From the article: 'The Jeep brand today announced it has been named exclusive automotive partner by Activision for Call of Duty: Black Ops, and that they're making a COD Jeep. Hitting show floors next month, this limited-edition Jeep Wrangler will be available for a MSRP of $30,625 for the two-door model and $33,500 for the four-door. The 2011 Jeep Wrangler Call of Duty: Black Ops Edition comes standard with "aggressive 32-inch tires, unique military style and Call of Duty graphics."'"

Comment Re:Wasteful allocation is nearly as bad. (Score 4, Interesting) 270

There are actually reasons behind this. I've got a /29 from Charter Business myself, but this is why it is the way it is, based on my experience as a former Charter engineer.

In the days of old, customers were assigned their statics in WAN-side way as you describe. My parents used to have a static assigned to them from a WAN block on their CMTS. This was great because whatever allocation assigned was very efficiently used. Granted, this was back when nodes were combined 4:1 or greater on the small CMTS that was being used. A uBR7246 with 1x6 cards in the day could easily route traffic for over 48 cable nodes, at 2:1 combining on the upstreams, and 12:1 on the downstreams. (A whopping 150mbps for 48 nodes ... laugable today).

It wasn't all that long ago I remember some towns sharing a single downstream port. Now, enter node splits, and combining gets down to 1:1 in many cases. Even with a much larger CMTS (uBR10012 vs. uBR7246), it can't handle the same number of nodes. With redundancy failover switchboxes, there are only 35 downstreams per box (assuming 5x20 cards).

Now a problem exists as soon as the box's capacity is reached. If I need to split your node and move it to another CMTS to increase your available bandwidth, I need to coordinate with everyone who is moving who has a WAN side IP and tell them that their IP address is going to change on whatever date. This turns into an incredible shitstorm when one person stammers their feet and cries up the escalation chain and then delays necessary work because they bitch. Then capacity continues to be in hell until the move is finally approved. Then, there are the customers who ignore your voicemail and phone calls and then cry for a credit because they didn't pay attention until the move date.

So now what everyone is doing in order to make this easier is to assign you a /30 or /29 or whatever which you get from your modem. The modem sends that assignemnt up via RIP and it gets redistributed into the network. Now, it doesn't matter what town you're in or what CMTS you're on. Note splits and changes can essentially happen without you ever having to renumber your side. With the growing demands on bandwidth, it's not unheard of that you could move a couple of times per year, depending on the scope of the engineering changes.

Seems wasteful, but that's the sense behind it.

Crime

Geologists Might Be Charged For Not Predicting Quake 375

mmmscience writes "In 2009, a series of small earthquakes shook the region of L'Aquila, Italy. Seismologists investigated the tremors, but concluded that there was no direct indication of a big quake on the horizon. Less than a month later, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake killed more than 300 people. Now, the chief prosecutor of L'Aquila is looking to charge the scientists with gross negligent manslaughter for not predicting the quake."
Robotics

Lego Robot Solves Bigger and Harder Rubik's Cubes 63

kkleiner writes "It was only two months ago that we saw Mike Dobson's Cube Stormer Lego robot that could solve any 3x3 Rubik's cube in less than 12 seconds. You would think that there was only one person in the world crazy enough and talented enough to pull this off, but now we have found someone else that is just as amazing. The latest Rubik's cube-solving Lego monstrosity is called the MultiCuber, and although it's constructed out of nothing but Mindstorms components and a laptop, it can solve 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, and 5×5 cubes all in the same build! As if that weren't enough, a larger version solves the dreaded 6×6 Rubik's. We discovered the MultiCuber when its creator, David Gilday (IAssemble), wrote us an email to brag about its puzzle-solving might. Consider us impressed, sir."
Microsoft

Visual Studio 2010 Forces Tab Indenting 390

An anonymous reader writes "For years, Microsoft has allowed Visual Studio users to define arbitrary tab widths, often to the dismay of those viewing the resultant code in other editors. With VS 2010, it appears that they have taken the next step of forcing tab width to be the same as the indent size in code. Two-space tabs anyone?"
OS X

Apple Patches Massive Holes In OS X 246

Trailrunner7 writes with this snippet from ThreatPost: "Apple's first Mac OS X security update for 2010 is out, providing cover for at least 12 serious vulnerabilities. The update, rated critical, plugs security holes that could lead to code execution vulnerabilities if a Mac user is tricked into opening audio files or surfing to a rigged Web site." Hit the link for a list of the highlights among these fixes.

Comment Re:No kidding (Score 1) 104

It probably fell more into obscurity due to its horrific 2600 VCS port.

The port to the Atari 5200 was sweet and, at least by the screenshots, was faithful to the original. It was one of my favorite games growing up, in part because it wasn't some kind of terrible arcade knock-off.

XBox (Games)

Microsoft Extends 360 Warranty to One Year 68

Gamasutra reports that Microsoft has extended the warranty on the Xbox 360, giving consumers one year from their date of purchase to receive essentially free repairs. This is being done to put the U.S. and Canada in line with the warranty offered in other parts of the globe, and is retroactive. From the article: "... [C]onsumers who may have already paid for an out-of-warranty Xbox 360 repair within one year of purchase will be eligible for reimbursement of their console repair charges. Microsoft notes that those who have already paid for such repair charges within their first year of ownership can expect reimbursement checks for the amount of their console repair in approximately 10 weeks. The company adds that reimbursements will be automatically distributed, so customers do not need to contact Microsoft directly."

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