Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
Been watching Fringe, and regretting it. Every episode I nearly have an aneurysm. Like, for example, this supposed IP address (by the way, immediately resolved to a street address somehow):
*holds head in hands* Don't they have a tech editor?
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Crap, I'm just not enough of a geek to get the joke (a first on Flare, I must confess).
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Yeah, I don't get the problem either. Of course, I'm an engineer, not an IT person.
Registered: Jul 2002
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Charles Capps
We appreciate your concern. It is noted and stupid.
Member # 9
posted
Each segment of an IP address is an eight bit number. The maximum value you can represent with an eight bit number is 255. Therefore, the "largest" IP address could be 255.255.255.255. That being said, using a "real" IP address is dangerous for the same reason using "real" URLs is dangerous. The could have at least used something in 10.0.0.0/8, or even better, 169.254.0.0/16...
Additionally, each block of IP addresses is what maps to a street address... of the owner of the IP, i.e. the ISP, not the actual current end user of the address. In order to figure out where the user of the IP is (or claims to be), they'd need to ask the ISP, and that requires a warrant.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
What really gets me is that *every single* byte in that address is over 255
Sorry for just assuming this didn't need explanation. 'Pologies.
Registered: Jul 2005
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Of course, the street itself doesn't need to be that long, because the numbers usually radiate out from a certain point within the city. Think of it like a graph. This block is eleven units away from one of the axes, even if the street itself is only one block long.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Stupidly high? That's a rather low number in my experience. My own number is more than twice that, and I've had past addresses that were in the 5 digit range.
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Well that's just crazy. Numbers should start at one end of the street, evens on the right, odds on the left and stop at the other end. Why would they need to be a grid reference?
posted
Isn't that what postcodes are for? (You lot call them Zip codes, yes?) When I ring up the local chinese, all they need for a delivery is my postcode (XX# #XX) and my TWO DIGIT house number and they know exactly where I live. Hell you can find me on google maps with just that and when I used to work in a despatch department, that's exactly what we used to confirm addresses anywhere in the UK.
Charles Capps
We appreciate your concern. It is noted and stupid.
Member # 9
posted
Unlike UK postal codes, US zip codes cover a large geographical area. My zip code, 98087, covers half of the city I live in. The zip+4 system can narrow it down quite a bit, but the USPS charges an arm and a leg for that database.
Washington also uses the quadrant system, but I haven't yet determined the exact magic they use for the directions (I suspect it's quadrants of the county, but I'm not sure of this). All minor roads and most major roads here are numbered.
I'm on 143rd St SW, but it runs for maybe a quarter mile total, then picks up a few blocks east and a few blocks west (west is a highway, east is a freeway). This is where the fun begins. The area is a heavily developed suburb, so there are plenty of short streets. Directly north of us is 142nd St, then north of that is, get this, 142nd Pl. Why? Because they fall in the horizontal section that gets streets named 142nd, even if they have to fit two of them in.
I used to live on 164th St SW, which runs almost half the length of the city, and is a major road (as are most roads divisible by 32 and some divisible by 16). However, when crossing a certain street, 164th St SW becomes 164th St SE, and the address numbers start over. I had a visitor get lost terribly at one point in another city because he thought the address was SE instead of SW.
This is one of many reasons I am now glad to have a GPS available.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Thankfully that's only in cities though. Here in suburbia, we may have 5 digit house numbers, mine's 4, though, but there's none of that grid crap. Every street has a nice, pleasant sounding name.
Although, Zip codes is where it gets screwey. I live in the town of Boston, whose zip code is 14025, but my mailing address, uses the Hamburg NY zip code of 14075. It's odd. There's a post office within walking distance of my house, yet our mail goes through the post office more than 10 miles away.
-------------------- "Kosh, I'd like to introduce you to our Resident schmuck and his side kick Kick Me."-Ritten
"Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity". -George Carlin
Registered: Jul 2007
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