Rise and shine! I’m going to WordCamp Australia today. See you there!
Trunkification
26 November 2008So I upgraded this blog to WordPress trunk (soon to become WordPress 2.7). You might recall that I chucked a hissy fit at Automattic, and vowed to move my blog off WordPress.com.
This is the result of that vow. WordPress trunk (weekly breakage FTW), Sandbox 1.6 (WP.com’s Sandbox 1.0 wasn’t FTW), 100% w00tness.
How to access Gmail and Google Reader over IPv6
25 November 2008This post is outdated! You probably shouldn’t use this method to access Gmail over IPv6. Instead, find a DNS resolver that is part of the Google over IPv6 program, such as SixXS, Internode, or Hurricane Electric.
I just figured out a really simple and obvious way to access Gmail and Google Reader over IPv6 that doesn’t require the use of hacky portals such as IPv6Gate.
Google already offers their search engine service via IPv6 at ipv6.google.com. This works fine, although it doesn’t work with Gmail or Google Reader, as for some reason, they have not added those services to the ipv6.google.com domain — they only work if you are on the www.google.com domain.
However, there is a way to access Google’s IPv6 server and still retain the www.google.com domain: edit your /etc/hosts file.
To access Gmail and Google Reader via IPv6, add the following line to your /etc/hosts file (if you are on Windows, add it to your C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file):
2001:4860:c003::68 www.google.com mail.google.com
If you are using Firefox, you will need to restart your browser before it picks up the changes (as it uses an internal DNS cache).
You can add support for other services such as Google Images by adding the respective domain names to the end of that line. However, adding Google Maps gets a little tricky, as the map images are served off several different servers. In the comments below, Jari K gives us an /etc/hosts line that adds the map image servers, which apparently works.
Please note that the above IPv6 address may have changed since I wrote this post. To find out the most current IPv6 address that Google uses, use the following command:
dig +short aaaa ipv6.google.com
If the IPv6 address that you get from that command is different from the one I posted above, please let me know in the comments!
I wonder what the likelihood of Google adding AAAA records to the main www.google.com domain is.
IPv6 via AYIYA
22 November 2008This is getting repetitive, but again, I’ve wired up our house to the IPv6 internet.
This time, I’m not using Teredo or 6to4, but I’m using an AYIYA tunnel provided by SixXS. The reason I don’t use 6to4 is because we use DD-WRT v24 on our router, which for some stupid reason does not come with IPv6 support.
I am using the AYIYA tunnel by way of the AICCU utility (which is packaged in Debian and Ubuntu). AYIYA is cool because it can traverse NATs, and even doesn’t mind if our router reboots for some reason and our dynamic IPv4 address changes. It all works beautifully.
I’ve now got my own subnet, which is generously provided by my SixXS PoP, 2001:1938:309/48, which gives me, like, zillions of address space to play with. The whole setting up of IPv6 has been very educational. I would recommend that anybody interested in IPv6, or even just IP routing in general, route an IPv6 subnet at some stage, to just get a feel for the system.
Last one to Thanks, Paul — it worked!ping6 -c 1 2001:1938:309:beef:21b:fcff:fe25:42e7 from their machine and tell me if it works is a rotten egg!
SourceForge being sued for hosting Shareaza
15 November 2008According to a TorrentFreak article, SourceForge is being sued in France because it is hosting Shareaza, a popular P2P file-sharing application, which happens to be used by the community for illegally sharing music.
This is just beyond ridiculous. You know, terrorists can use the telephone system to coordinate attacks, so why don’t we ban the telephone? I can make copies of music in my mind — why not ban thinking, too?
I wonder if the US-based companies that are being sued by the French record labels can be dragged over to France and prosecuted. The linked article says so, but if they refuse to fly to France to show up in court, can the French police ask the US police to seize them nonetheless? Can I be immune from ridiculous foreign lawsuits by residing in a country where it is legal? Does it make them liable because they are conducting their business in France by sending data traffic to that country? So many questions.
