dimanche, février 4

00:53 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
Don't Hold Your Breath, You'll Turn Blue - Yeah, this is older, but I was checking up on the topic, specifically. So, IBM's still smoking the same brand of crack as those fuckall dimwits who got behind DIVX tech. Yeah. And we all know how big that one was.

I've got five bucks says the hackers (oh, pardon me, the H|\X0rZ) piss all over IBM's Cheerios in seven minutes flat, with time enough to spare for a Circle-K run and a refill of Mountain Dew.

vendredi, février 2

15:54 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
Have Some More Crack Dot-Biz - What was this dude smoking? No, better question: Under which rock is he hiding?

"A cybersquatter, someone who registers domains for about $35 and tries to resell them for profit [...]"

No, that would be a speculator. A cybersquatter is someone who wittingly registers the name (or trademark, or whathaveyou) of another company with the express purpose of selling it to them at a premium. It's also sort of a tiny bit, uhm, you know, illegal. Speculating is not.

Get it straight.

"[...] smaller companies will have a better chance of getting the dot-biz name that they want because the domain will be restricted to businesses. That means cybersquatters, or speculators, won't be able to easily grab the short and easy-to-remember Internet addresses just to sit on them and wait for buyers."

Dot-biz limited to businesses? Uh-huh, like dot-org is all about organisations and dot-net is just networks, right? Yeah. And I've got a bridge for sale -- cheap!

"If predictions from analysts hold true - that dot-biz will rival the popularity of dot-com - start-ups will no longer have to settle for second-tier domain names."

Although it's an issue domain mongers -- both upstart and established -- continue to argue about, one fact is clear: It can't fucking hurt to pre-register a sure thing. All 1-L, 2-L, and most generic words will be gone within minutes of the new gTLD's release. Good luck finding a slot with pre-regger for anything like that -- well, unless you'd like to pay an upfront premium with no guarantee that you'll get the name. Oh, and if you've got big dreams of racing the clock by-hand... Uhm, yeah, I've got some beachfront property in Arizona for you, too.

New, smaller businesses will not survive on a wing, a prayer, and a dot-biz, anyway. The extension isn't part of Joe Stupid Surfer's lexicon! Show me a Microsoft-dot-biz bandied about in slick adverts. Point out a couple Telco's branding themselves with a biz ending. Get some big monsters in there, kicking up the sand, and I'll give you a maybe... In a few years, at that.

Other than the ultra-shorties, which arrive ready-made with built-in perceived value, the rest of the new gTLD names soon to appear on the scene won't be worth a goddamn. They aren't terribly memourable. They don't actually brand well. These dot-whatevers will join the lowly ranks of dot-org, swiftly passed by the mostly affable dot-TV and, perhaps, dot-FM. Dot-com in the aftermarket may stutter... For about three minutes. Then, it'll continue on its merry, totally out of control way. Dot-net pricing will surge, bringing its average appraisal value from 25-35% of dot-com equiv to about 75%; its resale activity will leap as well.

Hint: Grab all the dot-nets you can, my darlings. Grab them now.

And, contrary to what the article would have you believe, the ultra-shorties, the only "good ones" of the lot... They're already spoken for. Not by 'squatters. By speculators, thankyouverymuch.

mercredi, janvier 31

06:35 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
Head Pig - John Ashcroft makes me ill. Lord God Allah Mohammad Somebody, please help Senator Kennedy dislodge his head from his ass and get back to beg/borrow/stealing the votes to shitcan this anti-choice, anti-chicks, anti-civil-gawddamn-liberties schmuck. Could ya do that for me, please? Thanks.

06:22 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
Good Morning Live Childbirth - Cool. You just gotta love sweeps week, man.

06:03 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
Nap$ter - They're going subscription-based this year. Oh, boohoo. No more free music...

Er... Well, not from them anyway. Duh.

05:59 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
Amazon.com To Lay Off 1,300 - I'm with the deathwatchers on this one. Buh-bye, Amazon. If you live to see 3Q01, I'll be surprised.

04:39 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
I've received several e-mails asking when NSI will do a dump like it did with the 75,000+ dot-coms I reported on from 24-27 Jan. Unfortunately, no-one knows for sure. Since last October, it's been about one big one per month from them, so I wouldn't be shocked if we saw another in late February or early March. Don't count on it, however. NSI's policy for releasing expired names seems to change to suit their whim, and asking them is rather like trying to pry the Divine Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe from your nana.

(Not 'til hell freezes over and the devil wins an ice skating competition, in other words.)

This last run was a blast. Lots of you little metafuckers wrote to brag about the great names you snatched. Fab. There are still some choice names left, though, including tons of one-worders and 4-L's. Take a look. I'll kill this file in a week or so, after all you stragglers have had a shot at it.

If I spot the tell-tales of another pending dump, I'll again post my picks of the litter.

03:46 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
The Breast Cancer Site - A click a day donates free mammogrammes to impoverished women in the US. In the tradition of The Rainforest Site and The Hunger Site.

What are you lookin' at me for? Get clickin'.

vendredi, janvier 26

17:42 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
The unhyphenated version of a popular free service's domain popped. I must have skimmed it when I was flying through my lists of expiring names because, damn, I think I crapped my pants when I saw it blow by my screen. I rushed an email to those guys. Whew. They got it.

Score points for the good guys. See? And you thought all us domain mongers were evil to our black, soulless cores. Humph.

Over the weekend, I will combine whatever is left from all four days, post that file separately, and clean up this main screen.

04:23 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
White Trash - I'm sorry, dude, but that's what you get when you elect a bunch of lowbrow, inbred, knuckle-dragging, cousin-fucking heathens who descend from pasty-faced, knock-kneed, ultra-white poorfolks who came over on a damn boat and got scurvy just like the rest of us.

Personally, I find this all terribly amusing and ironic. For years, it's been "We need a real person for Prez, not some stiff suit." Well, baby, that's we had and have. I mean, they even stole whatever wasn't nailed down on AF1. C'mon now. Are they really all that different from the scads of us who've nicked towels and glasses from hotel rooms? Nooooo.

Duh.

jeudi, janvier 25

15:00 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
The expiring domains are going as quickly as I'd advised they would. This afternoon, I'll pull the ones I know are taken off the two lists I already posted. Will try to have that finished before I send up the stuff that will dump on the 26th. We should have one more day beyond that (though, the 27th looks like a lot of late alpha foursies -- X??? and such -- so don't expect as many). Then, say early next week, I'll remove all this mess and get back to biz as usu.

To answer all the mails I've received asking why I didn't give more notice/why I can't get everything up at once: I'm dealing with nearly 100,000 names, guys, and I only had one day notice, myself! It takes a couple hours to scan and verify each set of names (+/- 20-30k entries per day). To edit out just my selections from all four dumps, I'd need at least 10 hours solid; I just don't have blocks of time like that. And. no, you greedy little devils, I can't just "throw the whole pile up." The files are huge-huge, and you'd just be disappointed and frustrated trying to find the diamonds among the deritus.

If you've snagged a good name, hit "discuss it" and chat about it with me in the forum!

mercredi, janvier 24

05:06 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
Jan 24-27, 2001: NSI to release 75,000 expired dot-com domains. Among them are many coveted 3-letter/character, several single worders, and hundreds of very attractive 4-letter. When I've finished scanning the massive list, I will try to slap up a few of the best, along with the special instructions on how to obtain these names-in-limbo.

Domain speculators estimate NSI currently has in its inventory 2 million+ names that were once registered, but expired when the owner failed to pay. Such names should return to the available pool about 90 days after final billing. Last year, the mammoth registrar announced plans to withhold expired names and auction them off to the highest aftermarket bidders. A hail of lawsuits, most citing breach of contract, followed. In response, NSI has released spurts of 50k-100k failure-to-renew expired names over the course of a few days each month. They've also recently hopped in bed with Great Domains, an aftermarket domain auction house, to dump approximately 250,000 names that were registered but whose initial bills were never payed.

lundi, janvier 22

04:24 EST   ·   posted by ana   ·   discuss it
Why DirecTV Will Wind Up in Murdoch's Orbit - The multi-billion deal may not get a handshake for months. Meanwhile...

DirecTV has gotten itself squeeky clean for Rupie-baby. At 9PM EST on 21st January, the company launched a death-blow in the form of an ECM (electronic counter-measure) which rendered tens of thousands of black-market access cards useless. Pirates quickly dubbed the event "Black Sunday."