Nice to get news third string...
//
Last week, ICANN setup a new IP address for one of the thirteen "root
name servers" that oversee DNS queries across the net, and it plans on
retiring the old address as soon as the late spring.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/06/icann_rolls_out_new_root_name_server_address/
It was posted to DNS-Operations. Which is where, uh, DNS Operations are discussed....
Plus, as long as one of the IP addresses in your hints file is good, it doesn't really matter after launch. The SOA from one of the roots will override the hints file.
It was pointed out to me that the sarcasm in this post is not clear. I was not disagreeing, it should have been posted to NANOG (as well as other places). I simply didn't notice it 'cause I saw it elsewhere.
Mostly I wanted to give out the info below, which somehow escaped my personal knowledgebase until a very nice person from VeriSign explained it to me at RIPE a couple weeks ago.