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Stats The Internet Science

Massive Study Links IP Addresses Per Capita To GDP (itnews.com.au) 64

Three researchers "decided to scan the entire IPv4 address range every 15 minutes between 2006-2012 to work out what insights they could gain from humanity's mass connection to the internet," reports ITnews. The study...analysed data from 411 large regions from middle to high-income countries and found a positive correlation between GDP per capita and the number of IP addresses per head. A 10% increase in IP addresses per capita was associated with an 0.8% hike in GDP, the analysis found. The researchers cautioned that the output and productivity growth they noted when the number of IP address increased was correlation rather than causation. Service-oriented sectors -- such as publishing, news, film production, administrative support, and education -- appear to have suffered a negative effect from increasing internet penetration [PDF]. The researchers believe these sectors were susceptible to competition from cheaper outsourcing providers.
Slashdot Bismillah pointed out that the researchers also measured sleeping patterns over seven years, assuming IP addresses of internet-connected devices generally correlated to people who were awake. According to the article, "They found that sleep patterns may be changing and converging around the world: Europeans slept less, East Asians more, while Americans' sleeping patterns remained static over the seven-year period."
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Massive Study Links IP Addresses Per Capita To GDP

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  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Saturday February 04, 2017 @11:45PM (#53805375)

    A 10% increase in IP addresses per capita was associated with an 0.8% hike in GDP

    Well since there are 4.2Ã--10^37 42 undecillion IPv6 addresses [rednectar.net], that means that we can boost the GDP of every nation on earth a thousands times greater than what it is now!

    Behold starving citizen of a war-torn nation (take your pick which nation): We bring you more addresses than you could possibly comprehend! Even if you lose a limb or two, it can have its own IPV6 address!

    • I have discovered there is a correlation between owning a luxury car and having lots of money. I suggest giving them out to make everyone rich.
    • That was my first thought when I saw this - until I read and saw that they were referring to IPv4 addresses. But just imagine if there were as much cash globally as there were IPv6 addresses?
  • Just get the local internet providers to support IPv6.

  • The 2.4GHz wireless at my 300+ unit apartment complex is congested between 7:00PM and 2:00AM when everyone is at home. Not a problem for me since I have to go to bed by 8:30PM to get up at 4:30AM to start work at 7:00AM. Switching to 5GHz wireless doesn't hurt either.
  • In other news... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ITRambo ( 1467509 ) on Saturday February 04, 2017 @11:53PM (#53805409)
    In other news, people that have more money on average also have more "stuff".
    • In other news, people that have more debt on average also have more "stuff" to keep up with people who have more money.

      FTFY — A.K.A., The American Dream.

      • Why such cynicism? Why not believe that quite a substantial number of people live within their means, and have no debt whatsoever?

        They don't give a fuck if someone else owns a few pointless items more. They may live a little bit more modest, but they sleep better at night.

        • Why such cynicism? Why not believe that quite a substantial number of people live within their means, and have no debt whatsoever?

          I live in Silicon Valley. The few people who live a modest lifestyle here are janitors and virtual ditch diggers (which is what I do) on $50K or less per year. Everyone else is stressed out on owning big houses, big cars, big houses, big woman and big kids. They haven't gotten the memo that not everyone in Silicon Valley is a newly minted millionaire.

  • You've gotta be fucking kidding me with this. Of course more IP addresses = higher GDP. I'm going to see if I can get funded to conduct a study on whether or not areas with more IP addresses also have more routers and wifi hotspots.

  • "A 10% increase in IP addresses per capita was associated with an 0.8% hike in GDP, the analysis found"

    Alternatively, an 8% hike in GDP means the country had the money and desire to acquire 10% more IP addresses.
  • More car sales mean higher GDP and collapse of buggy whip manufacturers.
    • More car sales mean higher GDP and collapse of buggy whip manufacturers.

      Oil-rich Arab nations buy lots of expensive German cars. This is why they have so much oil. German cars leak oil. The drops of oil breed very well in the fertile Arab desert sands, and soon they have vast pools of oil deep in the sands. The Arabs sell the oil, and buy more German cars, which leak more oil, thus creating a self-sustaining economic model.

      In the US, EPA regulations ban cars that leak a lot of oil, but a couple of rogue programmers at a German car company created a device to stop their ca

  • by Crashmarik ( 635988 ) on Sunday February 05, 2017 @01:46AM (#53805655)

    Who would of thought that.

  • "The researchers cautioned that the output and productivity growth they noted when the number of IP address increased was correlation rather than causation."

    I'm torn between being sad that they actually felt it was necessary to say this, and being glad that they did to preclude democrats proposing a new program to help the impoverished by handing out ip addresses.

  • by popo ( 107611 ) on Sunday February 05, 2017 @06:02AM (#53806191) Homepage

    This is exactly the kind of thing that logically challenged policymakers will mistake for a causality.

    Next thing you know they'll be buying blocks of IP addresses and waiting for GDP to rise.

    • Next thing you know they'll be buying blocks of IP addresses and waiting for GDP to rise.

      This! Somebody mod OP up please!

  • "assuming IP addresses of internet-connected devices generally correlated to people who were awake."

    It also could just be their router or multimedia-computer automatically downloading dozens of torrents during the night, so that the sleeping owner has something to watch during the day.

    Or phones downloading updates or windows computers or printers installing new patches or IP cameras watching the yard or ...

  • I'm no stranger to this kind of logic. I once read somewhere that healthy dogs have wet noses so I used to spray my dog's nose several times a day.

    In the 90s just before before email spam exploded (because there were millions of open SMTP relays out there)... someone at MAE noticed that during the quietest times of day bandwidth in use was more than 50% comprised of ICMP packets, specifically PING. Several hundred thousand administrators for countless reasons wrote scripts to see if their things were 'up'

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