Unfortunately, the RIPE chair decided that there was too little time left for a presentation of the Limerick Working Group. So this time it will have to be done on the RIPE mailinglist. ACTIVITY REPORT After the deployment of the limerick object in the RIPE Database, which was in effect the creation of the first LR (Limerick Registry) at RIPE, there are no proposals for new activities to be started up in the Limerick area. There are however some issues that have come up regarding the functioning of the LR: - The LR is currently still not in good shape because old-style limerick submissions (at the moment stored at ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/limericks) are not incorporated in the LR. Converting the old style submissions to limerick templates in the RIPE Database is outside the direct scope of the RIPE NCC activity plan, and also there have been no volunteer efforts or separate funding for this, so incorporating the old data in the LR is done on a very low priority basis. New submissions will however be stored in the LR. - I have not heard any suggestion so far from the secret Limerick Working Group on a uniform naming scheme of the limericks. (This might be the effect of nobody knowing who are actually the members of this working group.) Currently, limerick submissions that are approved by the Limerick Working Group are stored in the LR with the following name: LIM-xx-number, where xx is either the number of the RIPE meeting or the nic-handle of the author. This is however not a standard, so it does not provide for a real good way to search for limericks in the LR. (I would like to point you to the following options that are the best alternative so far when trying to find a certain limerick: - inverse lookup; try 'whois -h whois.ripe.net -i author <nic-hdl>' for limericks from a certain author, or 'whois -h whois.ripe.net -i admin-c LIM1-RIPE' for all limericks approved by the Limerick Working Group. - a copy of the full LR is stored at: ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/dbase/split/ripe.db.li.gz) - All limericks approved by the Limerick Working Group are ofcourse protected by a maintainer object to protect people from tampering with them. However, because of the lack of any hierarchy in the limerick space, hierarchical authorisation cannot currently be deployed. There were vague suggestions of creating a 'root limerick object' which would provide for hierarchical authorisation, but no definitive proposals from the Limerick Working Group have been seen yet. This has the effect that anybody can create limerick objects without anybody being notified. A (manual) investigation of the current state of the LR shows that this is currently not a problem, although at a later stage this manual checking does not scale well. Only one limerick has been found that seems to have been inserted without the Limerick Working Group knowing: limerick: LIM-NEWOBJECT descr: Wait until Wilfried hears about this! text: An object appears from the blue text: Defined by goodness knows who text: There's no doubt a feeling text: Of insider dealing text: If the database working group knew. admin-c: MN131 author: MN131 remarks: No comment notify: mnorris@hea.ie changed: mnorris@hea.ie 960513 source: RIPE NEW SUBMISSIONS A clear pattern can be seen in the number of submissions of limericks. It looks somewhat like this: Number of limericks 5 | # 4 | # # # # 3 | # # # # 2 | # # # # 1 | # # # # # # 0 |######################################## +---------------------------------------- Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep -> time 1995 1996 Most RIPE members will see a clear parallel with the RIPE meetings. The irregularities in this pattern were all caused by a sudden raise of activity emerging inside British Telecom. As usual, the number of submissions, via various channels, reached its peak at a tuesday night. It seems we are getting more activity, and quality is also quite high, which breaks with the trend in 1995 where one person took credit for almost all submissions. New submissions follow below. (JS268-RIPE == Jens Schweikhardt, by the way.) limerick: LIM-NT13-1 descr: RIPE24 dinner text: At a RIPE meeting, held in Berlin, text: The meal was unusual, the din text: Of the two serenaders text: Whose repertoire made us text: All smile and want to join in admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: NT13 mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960529 source: RIPE limerick: LIM-NT13-2 text: A document RIPE-181 text: Tells how everything ought to be done text: There are objects galore text: Heaven knows what they're for text: 'Cos they're all out of date, every one. admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: NT13 mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960529 source: RIPE limerick: LIM-NT13-3 text: The document RIPE-104 text: Goes on longer than ever before text: If you want an address text: And your network's a mess text: Then Daniel will get very sore admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: NT13 remarks: Great limerick, but the draft document RIPE-104++ remarks: is now called RIPE-140... mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960529 source: RIPE limerick: LIM-NT13-4 text: BGP is a protocol smart text: On Ciscos its really an art text: If you screw up your MED text: And your router goes dead text: Then you're better off with a restart admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: NT13 mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960529 source: RIPE limerick: LIM-NT13-5 descr: On the subject of joining the limericks-wg text: The limericks writers at RIPE text: Are nervous and shun any hype text: You can't get on their list text: And find out what you've missed text: 'Cos none of them knows what to type admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: NT13 remarks: The limericks-wg members have no comment. Their identity remarks: remains a big mistery... mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960604 source: RIPE limerick: LIM-NT13-6 text: If your secret just musn't get out text: And it's email you're worried about text: There's a method you see text: You can use PGP text: And send it without any doubt admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: NT13 mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960716 source: RIPE limerick: LIM-RIPE25-1 text: If we did not write a limerick text: Mike Norris might feel a little sick text: He left without a trace text: No one can take his place text: Nontheless we tried a rhyme quick admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: LIM1-RIPE remarks: Author is actually a group: remarks: Brian Renaud, Ambrose Magee, Joachim Schmitz, Juergen Rauschenbach remarks: Produced at RIPE dinner ofcourse mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960925 source: RIPE limerick: LIM-RIPE25-2 descr: Referring to an announcement on ripe-list shortly before RIPE25 text: Peter has a SONET line text: He thinks this is mighty fine text: He says the cell text: must go to hell text: I wish his bathroom was mine admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: LIM1-RIPE remarks: Author is actually a group: remarks: Brian Renaud, Ambrose Magee, Joachim Schmitz, Juergen Rauschenbach remarks: Produced at RIPE dinner ofcourse mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960925 source: RIPE limerick: LIM-RIPE25-3 descr: Referring to the Database Workshop at RIPE25 text: Our Ignorance was rendered moot text: by slides drawn amazingly cute text: To demonstrate series text: of database queries text: Ms. Orange used all sorts of fruit admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: JS268-RIPE mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960925 source: RIPE limerick: LIM-RIPE25-4 text: There once was a group with potential text: It's growth has been deemed exponential text: The database working text: and no more bugs lurking text: It's problems are purely financial admin-c: LIM1-RIPE author: JS268-RIPE mnt-by: LIM-MNT changed: limerick-wg@ripe.net 960925 source: RIPE