In article ,
says...

On Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:02:50 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

I wonder if this happens in 2012. Probably. This is really an odd
confluence of events, eh wot?

Nope-a-rooney dude-a-reeno...

New protocol designed and implimented a couple of years or so ago I
believe. I'm sure our resident Super Genius Paste Eater already has
it implimented in all his computers.

Back when I was doing CM work for a router company, in the very early
90's, all the talk was about the impending disaster that was to come by
the running out of IPv4 addresses. It was predicted that all IPv4
addresses would be allocated my 1993. It was the crisis before Y2K was a
crisis.

IPv6 was the winner over several other proposals at the time.

http://ipv6.com/articles/general/timeline-of-ipv6.htm

NAT and the recovery of some of the Class A address space had enabled
IPv4 to survive these past 16 to 18 years without interrupting your
USENET pleasure.