Well, the estimates are still unclear, but it appears that within the next 14-2 days, the internet as we know it will melt, implode, collapse, shoot out sparks, and bleed to death, possibly fatally.
Internet protocall version 4, the scheme that gives us the traditional xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx addresses, is set to be entirely used up in a handfull of days. At that point, all the addressses will have been assigned and no new internet-enabled devices will be possible.
Of course, IPv6 has been around for several years, but absolutely noone has done anything about it. It is only now that there is no time to make any change at all that any ISPs are taking this seriously.
So, for the next few months, we will see increasing numbers of unpredictable failures as various systems that always assumed that there will be more IPs available for them find that they don't. Most likely, prices for internet access will rise.
At some point, IPv6 will become the main system, but every point along the network must be upgraded, from the router to the major nodes and back again. Failing that, there will be serious bottlenecks created where ISPs create localized IPv4 networks and connect these with IPv6 backbones. I can only guess that these will be slower to use and easier to police than a pure IPv6 network.
So this is a bit of a preemptive goodbye to the B12 forums. I hope to see you all on the other side. A word of advice, download everything you can now. Especially Moris Code dictionaries.
PS: With any luck, the upgrade will be so technically complex and scary that we may see a reprive from eternal september, a time when once again only the technically adept may use the internet. If you can upgrade, don't tell anyone how you did it.