[188666] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Owen DeLong)
Mon Apr 11 18:01:26 2016
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com>
In-Reply-To: <20160411181508.60367.qmail@ary.lan>
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2016 14:59:01 -0700
To: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Cc: steve@blighty.com, nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
> On Apr 11, 2016, at 11:15 , John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> wrote:
>=20
>=20
>> The problem with MaxMind (and other geoip databases I've seen that do =
Lat/Long as well as Country / State / Town) is that the
>> data doesn't include uncertainty, so it returns "38.0/-97.0" rather =
than "somewhere in a 3000 mile radius circle centered on
>> 38.0/-97.0".
>>=20
>> Someone should show them RFC 1876 as an example of better practice.
>=20
> Oh, heck, you know better than that. You can put in all the flags and
> warnings you want, but if it returns an address, nitwits will show up
> at the address with guns.
I hear this argument about various things over and over and over again.
However, my home address has been published in multiple whois databases =
since I moved here in 1993.
Not once has a nitwit with a gun shown up on my doorstep as a result. (I =
have had visits from nitwits with guns,
but they were the results of various local oddities unrelated to the =
internet).
Examples:
1. A neighbor managed to get the SJPD (most common example =
of nitwits with guns in this area) to darken
my doorstep because he spotted (and complained about) a =
dog in my yard being out of control and not
on a leash or supervised. (Not sure why they thought it =
was my dog, as I have never owned a dog at this
address).
2. I opened my front door to be greeted by a nitwit with a =
gun (again, SJPD) telling me to go back inside
while they completed an arrest nearby.
So, apparently there still aren=E2=80=99t enough nitwits with guns =
operating enough typewriters to fulfill this bit of conventional
wisdom as yet.
Owen
