This is a remarkably uninformed piece. No one has said the Internet is going to "go dark" when the IPv4 address pool runs out (about end of 2010). All the currently allocated IPv4 addresses will continue working. What will come to a screeching halt is the GROWTH of the Internet. There will not be any new IPv4 addresses for new networks or existing ones that need more addresses. This will be a first order disaster. We nearly ran out of IPv4 addresses in the mid 90's, and only NAT saved our behinds then, but at very high cost. NAT breaks many protocols, such as SIP and IPsec. It severely complicates connectivity models such as VoIP, P2P, Massive Multiplayer Online Games, etc. It is holding back innovation. We don't need to wait for the last horse (IPv4 address) to die before we start driving cars (IPv6 addresses). It is easy to document the number of IPv4 addresses being allocated each month, and the number of remaining addresses to allocate (about 10% of total). A simple projection results in a date around the end of 2010 that the last address will be allocated. IPv6 is 26 year newer technology and makes IPv4 look like 300 baud modems in comparison (the typical speed available when IPv4 was created). We need MILLIONS of new IPv4 addresses for things like the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which is the future of all telephony. With IPv6, all broadcast entertainment will be over the Internet, and virtually anyone can become a broadcaster. I would be willing to bet that the author of this article things the U.S. staying with the English system of measurement (inches, feet, miles, gallons, etc) is a GOOD THING, when pretty much the entire rest of the world has gone metric (only the U.S. and some obscure backward SE Asian country haven't gone metric). Asia is about 3-4 years ahead of the U.S. in IPv6. You don't realize it yet, but YOU'VE ALREADY LOST THE EDGE IN I.T. Attitudes like this are why this has happened.