Christmas is almost upon us, and as we start to wind back for the Yule period, it seemed appropriate that we shared something about family, life and the human spirit. I know we all get loads of junk in our email boxes, but I recently received this lovely piece from a good friend and thought it fit the bill perfectly….

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of ‘The Plain Dealer’ in Cleveland, Ohio:

“To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more…”

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3.Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it..
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present..
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you, really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone, everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year/Decade to you all!

Current estimates are that before the end of 2011, the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), who are responsible for the distribution of top-level IP addresses, will quite simply run out of stock!

IP addresses are the way the internet and networks access each other. They’re similar to your house number, street, town and postcode. It’s how you’re found in the digital ether.

The current system is called IPv4 because there are 4 blocks of numbers “001.002.003.004″, but the problem is that this only allows for 4,294 Million unique addresses – which sounds a lot – but really isn’t in computer terms.

For over a decade now, the technical community has offered IPv6 – which gives 6 blocks of numbers (a trillion, trillion, trillion addresses!) – but worldwide take-up of this technology has been minimal. We’re quickly approaching the final 10% of available IPv4 addresses, so ignoring this technology to try and save money seems incredibly short-sighted.

Across Europe, the middle east and central Asia, it seems that only 17 percent of businesses have plans in place to adopt the new technology. And Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) are the biggest culprits, with 92 percent not having any IPv6 in use or no significant level of IPv6 traffic. Bizarrely, it seems that only 30 percent of EU organisations are even worried about this fact, compared to nearly half of organisations outside of the EU.

The major problem with all this is that the new IPv6 addresses are not backwardly-compatible. So all routers and network systems running IPv4 will not be able to understand or recognise the new IPv6.

Given how important the internet has become to the world economy, you’d think that government and business would be putting a higher priority on the transition. It’s essential to the continued expansion of both the internet and it’s users, otherwise we may face the situation where new devices and people will be unable to connect – and essentially become digitally-excluded.

Jason Kendall