(posted at 10:33PM BST) 
The spilsby.net collective have just returned from a four-day break from 'the usual'; a three-day coursefest courtesy of the RIPE NCC and spending last night out in the West End watching an unforgettable performance of Avenue Q.
The ' The Internet Is For Porn' meme widely available on YouTube initially spiked my interest in seeing the show but I could never justify making a trip over to the States to go see the Broadway version.
This time, it just seemed like it was a no-brainer when we were going to be in the West End doing courses in the day and not much else to do in the evenings except catch up with support tickets... best £56 I have spent in the last six months!
Anyway, back to the usual topics I usually cover:
The RIPE NCC courses were informative but as I was only really interested in the course presented on the second day ( Routing Registry Course), I was really only tagging along for the ' LIR Training' and ' Introduction to IPv6' courses - primarily as 'support' for my colleague who is still trying to find his feet with some of the more esoteric parts of our infrastructure (mainly IPv6!).
I took the opportunity to wear my freebie ' IPv6 Certified Sage' shirt I received from Hurricane Electric; primarily because it was likely going to be the only opportunity I would get to do so where I wouldn't have endless people coming up to me asking WTF it meant and also to emphasize that, like all 'sages', I had no problem in dispensing lots of advice relating to some of the more 'interesting' issues and gotchas to some of the fellow delegates who have the task of IPv6-enabling their own networks.
In my own way, I hope that I managed to dispel some of the myths and fears about IPv6 as I was aware that RIPE NCC have to be seen to 'push' IPv6 but they aren't the ones who have to retro-fit the countless existing networks which will need to use it; the trainers know RIPE policy and they acknowledge that they know 'how it all works' but don't have the necessary hands-on experience to advise their LIRs on specific deployment scenarios, so, if I had to really pick the course apart, I think the one thing that it lacks would be the assuring words from someone who has actually done what they now need to do and managed to come out the other side with a 100% IPv6-enabled network that didn't end up breaking IPv4 in the process ;-)
For those who asked for my business card, Googled(tm) my name and found this post, I sincerely hope I did a good job of convincing you that IPv6 isn't something you need to be afraid of and I look forward to hearing from you! | 
