This week on Musical Geek Friday - a song about The Day the Routers Died!

This song is written and performed live at the 55th RIPE Meeting by Gary Feldman (scroll down for a video of him performing it live).

RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens) is a collaborative forum open to all parties interested in wide area IP networks in Europe and beyond. The objective of RIPE is to ensure the administrative and technical coordination necessary to enable the operation of a pan-European IP network.

A RIPE Meeting is a five-day event where Internet service providers, network operators and other interested parties from Europe and the surrounding regions gather. RIPE Meetings are open to everyone and provide an excellent opportunity for attendees to discuss Internet policy.

The song is about a problem that the current IPv4 address space is running out of IP addresses (read about the problem here). IPv4 address space can hold just 4'294'967'296 (232) addresses. The song suggests that we all move to IPv6 address space which can hold 2128 addresses. That many addresses will never run out.

Here it is! The Day the Routers Died geek song:

Download this song: catonmat.net/ftp/gary_feldman-the_day_the_routers_died.mp3

Download lyrics: catonmat.net/ftp/gary_feldman-the_day_the_routers_died-lyrics.txt

Here are the lyrics of The Day the Routers Died song:

a long long time ago i can still remember when my laptop could connect elsewhere and i tell you all there was a day the network card i threw away had a purpose - and it worked for you and me... but 18 years completely wasted with each address we've aggregated the tables overflowing the traffic just stopped flowing... and now we're bearing all the scars and all my traceroutes showing stars... the packets would travel faster in cars... the day... the routers died... Chorus (ALL!!!!!) so bye bye, folks at RIPE 55 be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh but I s'pose we'd better give it a try I suppose we'd better give it a try now did you write an RFC that dictated how we all should be did we listen like we should that day now you back at RIPE fifty-four where we heard the same things months before and the people knew they'd have to change their ways... and we - knew that all the ISPs could be - future proof for centuries but that was then not now spent too much time playing WoW ooh there was time we sat on IRC making jokes on how this day would be now there's no more use for TCP the day the routers died... Chorus (chime in now) so bye bye, folks at RIPE 55 be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh but I s'pose we'd better give it a try I suppose we'd better give it a try I remember those old days I mourn sitting in my room, downloading porn yeah that's how it used to be... when the packets flowed from A to B via routers that could talk IP There was data... that could be exchanged between you and me... oh but - I could see you all ignore the fact - we'd fill up IPv4 but we all lost the nerve and we got what we deserved! and while... we threw our network kit away and wished we'd heard the things they say put all our lives in disarray the day... the routers died... Chorus (those silent will be shot) so bye bye, folks at RIPE 55 be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh but I s'pose we'd better give it a try I suppose we'd better give it a try saw a man with whom I used to peer asked him to rescue my career he just sighed and turned away... I went down to the net cafe that I used to visit everyday but the man there said I might as well just leave... and now we've all lost our purpose.. my cisco shares completely worthless... no future meetings for me at the Hotel Krasnapolsky and the men that make us push and push like Geoff Huston and Randy Bush should've listened to what they told us... The day... the routers... died Chorus (time to lose your voice) bye bye, folks at RIPE 55 be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh but I spose we'd better give it a try I suppose we'd better give it a try

I also found a live video of Gary performing the song live at RIPE 55:

Btw, the Internet died once in 1997.

Download "The Day the Routers Died" Song

Download this song: catonmat.net/ftp/gary_feldman-the_day_the_routers_died.mp3

Download lyrics: catonmat.net/ftp/gary_feldman-the_day_the_routers_died-lyrics.txt

Have fun and until next geeky Friday!