Comments on: There's no place like law.cool.cool.fun.

There's no place like law.cool.cool.fun.

TheCowGod — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:08:39 -0800

What's a namber? A namber is a word that acts as a mnemonic for a number. For example, 65 is drum, and 181 is push. A namber address uses an arbitrarily-chosen list of nambers to represent each of the numbers from 0 to 255 in order to assemble four words to represent any IP address. Metafilter.com's namber is earth.frog.brown.tooth, and mysteryrobot.com conveniently provides translation and forwarding to the real IP address.

By: TheCowGod

TheCowGod — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:09:14 -0800

It's not as if we don't have an existing system in place to translate easy-to-remember strings into IP addresses, but I suppose the point is that if this list of nambers were accepted as standard, the translation could be done locally without needing to query a remote DNS server.

By: furtive

furtive — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:13:34 -0800

And if I remember all 256 do I get a chance at winning the National Memory Championships?

By: NewBornHippy

NewBornHippy — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:26:20 -0800

I'm not a namber, I'm a free man. Sorry.

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:27:17 -0800

420

By: milnak

milnak — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:29:10 -0800

CowGod: but this is different than DNS. DNS translate from a "easy-to-remember string" to an IP, which can change over time. This just seems to be mapping a number to a word, so if a site IP address changes, the string would change accordingly. Not very useful.

By: tss

tss — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:31:04 -0800

Since the words are English words anyway, it would be better if they could match the number of syllables and rhyming. For instance, 128.2.180.80 would be something like "intubate.true.milady.baby". I wonder if that's even possible...

By: TheCowGod

TheCowGod — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:35:34 -0800

but this is different than DNS. DNS translate from a "easy-to-remember string" to an IP, which can change over time. This just seems to be mapping a number to a word, so if a site IP address changes, the string would change accordingly. Not very useful. Good point. I suppose that's what you give up in exchange for being able to eliminate the entire DNS infrastructure. Not to mention the fact that 'earth.frog.brown.tooth' is really not that easy to remember to begin with. I never said it was useful :)

By: nomad

nomad — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:42:59 -0800

I can't wait to get Monkey.Love.Hair.Lip or Stop.Pick.Nose.Eat or Look.Hot.Horse.Love! nambers are like a bad game of Psychobabble

By: nickerbocker

nickerbocker — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 21:03:17 -0800

Now all we need is a firefox extension and we are set...

By: Lionfire

Lionfire — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 21:37:23 -0800

IPv6 should be hilarious

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 21:45:20 -0800

"I can't wait to get monkey love hair lip." Just for that sentence, I really hope this catches on.

By: gd779

gd779 — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 21:45:44 -0800

I'm not a namber, I'm a free man. Ha! I didn't see that coming, I admit.

By: wolftrouble

wolftrouble — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 22:13:29 -0800

IPv6 should be hilarious Haha. Yes, I would just ssh to "Sun.Slut.Barn.Blink.Tool.Fing.Bang.Whee!.Bling.Mink.Bung.Zip".

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 22:23:53 -0800

My site's namber is smoke.show.street.king, which I think is damn fine.

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 22:35:47 -0800

It's not a DNS replacement, but it is a mnemonic... For 11-bit chunks, there's the S/Key word set.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 22:47:35 -0800

A namber is a word that acts as a mnemonic for a number Correction. A namber is an English word.... So, if I am anywhere else in the word (IPs are international no?) I am just memorizing arbitrary sounds instead of clear numbers? :)

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 23:09:06 -0800

localhost is law.cool.cool.fun

By: ursus_comiter

ursus_comiter — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 23:22:04 -0800

And thus the post title juv3nal.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 23:24:51 -0800

wow don't I look silly. shows how often I look at the title bar.

By: aerify

aerify — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 23:42:00 -0800

IPv6 should be hilarious Exactly what I was thinking. 8 groups of 64 words.

By: HTuttle

HTuttle — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 23:55:10 -0800

I hate mnemonics that aren't based on repeatable logic. They're really useless. To be most useful and practical they should be logically driven to one solution only. Otherwise, while you're trying to remember if it's "red against black, step back" or whatever the correct thing is, you get envenomated and die.

By: spazzm

spazzm — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 01:34:29 -0800

HTuttle, there's a mnemonic for that? I'd think that people who can't remember what a black widow looks like would have been evolved out by now.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 03:53:13 -0800

So the first story I check on Metafilter tonight is this one, and I just finish checking this out then flip over here and find out about nambers, so I idly check the namber address for my ISP's nameserver, and it's slow.food.foot.fun. I'm off to buy a tinfoil hat.

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 05:54:32 -0800

do people really find it easier to remember a bunch of random words rather than numbers? numbers have structure. they relate to each other - have common factors, sum to certain values, show patterns, etc etc.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 06:03:49 -0800

"If it's clear and yella, you got juice there, fella! If it's tangy and brown, you're in cider-town!"

By: Igor XA

Igor XA — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 07:04:40 -0800

spazzm, that's not for black widows, it's for coral snakes. the actual mnemonic device is: if red touches yellow, it can kill a fellow, and if its nose is black, it's bad for jack. or i could be totally wrong and there actually is a mnemonic for black widow spiders.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 07:06:31 -0800

This also doesn't work with hosts that use virtual servers, as far as I can tell.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 09:42:50 -0800

i've never been any good at arathmetic.

By: Uncle Ira

Uncle Ira — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 09:53:26 -0800

the version I learned: Red on black: Venom Lack (aka nonvenomous king snake) Red on Yellow: Kill a Fellow (Coral Snake! RUN!) /derail

By: KirkJobSluder

KirkJobSluder — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 09:54:41 -0800

For those people too lazy to click on the link: "Because we thought it'd be amusing. Nambers are not terribly useful. They won't change the internet or DNS as we know it." So this is rather like the blues name generator, a bit of fun for about 5 minutes.

By: acid freaking on the kitty

acid freaking on the kitty — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 10:27:25 -0800

no venom threat here, but another "this is broken" mnemonic: liquor before beer, never fear. beer before liquor, never sicker. or was it... liquor after beer, never fear. beer after liquor, never sicker. hmmm. guess this calls for a fact-finding mission. (and yeah, you can figure this one out when you're sober, but that's not much help when you're holding the shot and wondering where your BAC is hovering)

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 11:05:12 -0800

I though a "namber" was one of those things Gomer Pyle could count up to eight with.