A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
June 30th, 2007 at 12:41 pm by David FarrarOn Shortland Street they had a scene where Libby is telling Chris he can track his family down through the IP address in an e-mail. Hooray I thought – nice to see some technical know-how in the script.
Alas my hopes dropped as she explained the first three digits tell you which country it came from.
And they dropped even more when they showed the address as 340.096.614.3
One doesn’t need to use whois on that one!
Related posts:
- A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
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- Greens vote to outlaw anonymous advocacy on the Internet
- US on Internet freedom
June 30th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Actually DPF, it is not public knowledge but the initial binary system actually had encoded an extra digit, giving computers a base 3 advantage when most people think that computer binary only supports base 2. It’s actually “Off, On and Low Power”. Thus, the CIA have for years tracked our doings. So, by the time the bits get to bytes, there is a fair amount of spare capacity in the system.
The numbers in the range ABOVE 255 are therefore the country code.
Another not well known factoid is that if you multiply out all of the numbers (but 0 counts as 1024) you get the persons DNA sequence. This is known as DHCP-DNA. Where people use too many different computers, their DNA sequencing gets interfered with and it leads to cancer. Static IP people are by far the healthiest.
Vote:July 1st, 2007 at 7:15 am
Zentiger: Please ensure Sue Kedgley gets this crucial information asap.
Vote:July 1st, 2007 at 7:55 am
At least it didn’t start – 555…….
Vote:July 1st, 2007 at 8:57 am
Well, DPF, have you ever seen Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk’s is a hardcore satire of modern consumerism and machismo, but he drew the line at providing a cookbook for anyone who wanted to make explosives from common household chemicals. The methods and recipies in the book don’t work, and deliberately so.
Could it be possible that the producers and writers of Shortland Street didn’t want to be facing claims they’d handed a cyber-stalker a primer?
Just a thought.
Vote:July 1st, 2007 at 10:06 am
Please please please . . .
Vote:At the risk of being condemned as a pedant . . Those who use the misquote “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” actually prove the original correct.
Nothing wrong with “a little knowledge” . . it’s the half-baked result of insufficient learning that is so hazardous.
July 1st, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Craig,
I often wonder if crime documentaries shouldn’t follow the same code, and not reveal every single detail of a historical crime and how the police foiled the crims. Every time I watch one I think of all the things they are giving away. Do they allow crime docos to be viewed in prisons?
Vote:July 2nd, 2007 at 8:00 am
Fight Club – now thats a great movie.
Vote:July 2nd, 2007 at 9:17 pm
I’m surprised they didn’t come up with something in the 192.168 range 8-/
Vote: