Archive for December 2002

Wed, 18 Dec 2002 22:47:47 GMT

Brett's latest plaintive cry struck a chord with me, so I figured I would troll Google for solutions while I was on a conference call (I was multitasking, not ignoring ;). Boy is this a mess. Here's an interesting link into the whole sordid tale over at Mediageek. Despicable.

Wed, 18 Dec 2002 16:40:34 GMT

Doug forwarded me this gem. It looks like AOL has quietly secured a patent that gives them claim on having a network, monitoring it and allowing users to hook-up with one another over it. IM is annoying, but it would be a shame if this hindered SIP development and deployment - I wonder what the actual implications are. Of course, the answer lies with how AOL actually wields this patent. Definitely stay tuned to this one.

Wed, 18 Dec 2002 16:40:32 GMT

Brett is still having problems with his MD. I fully expect that we will continue to be subjected to increasingly broken products from companies like Sony as they get increasingly "cute" with their digital rights management technology. Also, as I mentioned to Brett in Amsterdam, companies like Sony will continue to create broken technologies like this until they figure out what their real business is; transporting bits to consumers, creating applications that allow consumers to interact with bits, or simply creating the bits. Right now they think that they are in the business of all three when in fact I tend to view them more as being extremely capable with transport and moderately good (better than most) in the application space. And although they "capture" the bits that others like U2 or Brett create, U2 and Brett tends to be better at the creation of bits than Sony does.

Speaking of the ALOC, it was interesting to see who actually turned out. As you may or may not know, ICANN is in the midst of choosing a replacement for Stuart Lynn. The Amsterdam meeting was used as an opportunity by the selection committee to interview a number of these candidates face to face. While this meeting didn't turn into a forum for presidential campaigns, it was an opportunity for these candidates to get in front of the community and hear exactly what is in the hearts and minds of those in attendance. There was much speculation as to who the committee had looked at, who they were still considering and who still had a chance, but it isn't clear who all the candidates currently are - understandable I suppose. Anyways, about the ALOC. If I was in the running (as one brief rumor had me ;) I certainly would have capitalized on the fact that there was a decent turn-out and tried to "get with" as many stakeholders as possible to ensure that they knew who I was and I knew what was important to them. So what does this have to do with the At-large Organizing Committee meeting? Only one of the candidates turn up to check things out - Keith Teare. I very much appreciated the fact that he took the time out to figure out where things are and where they are going. If this is any indication of how he might approach the job of ICANN CEO, then he's got my vote - if I had one ;)

Anyways, I still haven't summarized my notes from the meeting as I've threatened to do continuously for the past three days. I will get to them, I promise ;) In the last twenty four hours my temperature has gone from normal to 102.1 F. and back again. I wasn't really thinking about much coherently yesterday. Now, I'm simply going to worry about getting to work.

Lastly, if you haven't noticed, the DNSO is no more and along with it, the GA. The DNSO has been replaced by the GNSO, but there is no parallel structure that replaces the cross-constituency function of the GA. Thomas clarifies this in a post to the GA mailing list earlier today and formally steps down as chair of the GA.

And with that, I leave you with Mark Twain's thoughts on Reform.

"For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld."

- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), "A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling"

Tue, 17 Dec 2002 21:16:30 GMT

For the first time in a long...ever I suppose, I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Geist's statements in this Wired article. As far as Mohan's comments on the matter, I simply don't buy the fatigue argument. Consumers don't buy products because they are "tired" of buying, but because they simply haven't found a product or a service with a sufficiently compelling value proposition that warrants a reach for their wallets. Mohan isn't talking about competition so much as he is inadvertently commenting on the true lack of choice in the market. Until there is a semantic competitor or two or three or more for ".info" then we don't really have true competition in the namespace. Mohan is right in one respect though, there is relative competition in the Registry Operator space, but certainly not the robust competition that we see on the other side of the fence with Registrars - 150+ and counting and it wasn't until very recently that people were comfortable calling this "competition". There is still much work needed on the Registry Operator and TLD end of things before we can claim victory on those fronts. I wonder where the new CEO, whomever he may be, falls on this particular issue.

Tue, 17 Dec 2002 13:45:15 GMT

....for some reason, after this latest trip, I find myself agreeing with Mr. Payne even more than usual.

Tue, 17 Dec 2002 13:45:13 GMT

"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." - John Howard Payne

Sun, 15 Dec 2002 11:19:00 GMT

The meetings are officially over now. I still haven't summarized my notes from yesterday - not sure if there are any gems in there that TR or Brett haven't blogged yet. Some have remarked that the theme of this meeting is 'change', but in my mind, it goes a little bit deeper than that. The predominant theme, in my mind, is that this is now about implementation, not analysis. In order to get down to the nitty-gritty of implementation, change needs to occur - new people, new processes, new challenges. But, at this point it is important to remind ourselves that these are temporary tactical distractions, not the goal.

I probably won't summarize until I get back - also not sure that I'll be blogging anything else until then either...John is turning off the Internet soon.

Sat, 14 Dec 2002 15:42:01 GMT

Lyman and Brett made a great point earlier - where's the data from the last round. Also missing in action is any qestion of where the five million dollars is. Verisign is getting off easy with the community for once.

Sat, 14 Dec 2002 15:25:41 GMT

Stuart just asked "What can be done at the top-level that can't be done at the second. No one has answered that satisfactorily for me." I'm sure that there is a huge list of answers waiting to be compiled - here's mine; Compete with Verisign.

Sat, 14 Dec 2002 15:15:11 GMT

The Board Public Forum held some gems, again, I'll distill the notes later today. I will note that it seems that the next round of gTLD discussions and selection will be probably be vastly different than the first one was. The hallway crowd noted that they seem to be listening much more closely this time around..and asking much better questions.

Sat, 14 Dec 2002 12:39:32 GMT

The Names Council meeting was long but productive for the most part...I've got some extensive notes that I'll distill later today into something more logical than the form in which they currently exist. TR wonders where Brett is - Brett is less than 10 feet away and TR admits that they've never met. Yet another reason why I still have hope for the Internet... The public comment forum is about to start...one small problem though...there are less than a dozen power outlets in the auditorium. Vint will be shortly drowned out by the sound of low battery warnings from the multitude of dying laptops.

Fri, 13 Dec 2002 22:58:00 GMT

As expected, its very quiet here. The hallway talk is focused on who the next CEO might be, trying to figure out who the candidates are as well as a fair amount of chatter regarding the Whois and Transfer TF Report vote at the NC meeting in the AM. Sporadic notes throughout the day. More important in my books is the fact that I left my laptop at home and will be relying on my e740 for the next few days. Perhaps some musing on that at some point as well.

Thu, 12 Dec 2002 22:00:55 GMT

ROTD's: (Someone is having some fun....)AEROTLDREGISTRY.COM, BIZTLDREGISTRY.COM, DOTAEROREGISTRY.COM, DOTINFOREGISTRY.COM, DOTMUSEUMREGISTRY.COM, DOTPROREGISTRY.COM, MUSEUMTLDREGISTRY.COM, NAMETLDREGISTRY.COM, PROTLDREGISTRY.COM, THE-VERISIGN-COM-NET-REGISTRY.ORG, THE-VERISIGN-REGISTRY.ORG, THEVERISIGNREGISTRY.ORG, VERISIGN-COM-NET-REGISTRY.ORG, VRSN-COM-NET-REGISTRY.ORG, VRSNCOMNETREGISTRY.ORG

Thu, 12 Dec 2002 06:03:51 GMT

I'll be leaving for ICANN's annual meeting tomorrow. Its just the usual small crew from Tucows going. I'll try and file some updates over the next few days as things come up but given the tight schedule and limited agenda, I can't promise anything, but if something does come up, I will try to file a blog. I say 'try' simply because I've taken to using Radio as a 'server' app and file most of my posts via email. If Radio or my 'server' crashes over the next few days, I'll simply flood the blog when I get back Tuesday AM. Look for notes on Transfers, Whois, ICANN 2.0, the new CEO and some thoughts on new gTLDs. Weather in Amsterdam is supposed to be cool, Toronto-style cool that is, so I won't have much to adjust to. Also, if you are attending, ICANN Staffer and on-site tech honcho passes on that wires will be in short supply, but Wi-Fi will be in as many spots as possible with more than enough addresses available. Leave your dongles at home folks. Special bonus for 802.11 users - none of the Internet Cafes that I've been to in Amsterdam authenticate and charge wi-fi users. This may have changed over the last few months, but there might be a chance that you can nick some coffee, brownies and IP all in the same spot without breaking the bank ;) If you are going and want to get together, drop me a note.

Wed, 11 Dec 2002 15:42:32 GMT

I like Brett's principles better. While the BC is well intentioned, their comments are reminiscent of soviet style central planning. Howard Zinn (a noted lefist and people's historian according to Google ;) once stated something to the effect of it being difficult to weigh the pro's and con's of "important decisions" (he was talking about Stalin killing peasants in the pursuit of industrialization, but his point is still important) when the con's are not mentioned or quickly mentioned. While the BC has obviously put a lot of thought into what they've said in this document, I don't get the sense that they have put a lot time into analysing the pro's and con's. The paper as presented promotes bland predictability at the expense of durability, longevity and intrinsic value. Maybe I'll have some more comments on this later.

Thu, 05 Dec 2002 23:11:19 GMT

I love the last word in this filing, "The plaintiff therefore requests this court to enter judgement to provide the following remedies: A declaration that the "Sunrise Policy" of the Defendants is contrary to the free speech provisions of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution." Repeat after me: Sunrise Bad, FCFS Good. Sunrise Bad, FCFS Good™. I also love the fact that they quote some stuff that Tim and I put together. Its nice to see that someone read it - kind of makes proofreading worthwhile. Note: My employer is an Afilias shareholder. I am not my employer, these comments are solely mine and may or may not be shared by Tucows.

Wed, 04 Dec 2002 22:21:52 GMT

ROTD: "VERISIGNNAMESTORE.COM" - I can't wait for Verisign's NameStore to make an appearance at my local registrar so that I can place a back-order on this name, or even better, make an offer on it using their great secondary market tools.

Wed, 04 Dec 2002 17:30:15 GMT

I'm still wondering why the USG didn't just register .kids.us and just run with it...I'm sure that they could have worked out some Sunrise carve-out with the Registry Operator to make sure that they got the name set aside specifically for them.

Wed, 04 Dec 2002 15:21:16 GMT

This is so entirely cool. I want six of these. Now. Looks like they beat Apple to the punch.

Wed, 04 Dec 2002 15:21:13 GMT

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay

Tue, 03 Dec 2002 21:37:08 GMT

Some of you have written for clarification concerning why, specifically, I feel special. Wouldn't you feel special if you had watched 500+ Gap commercials and could still put together complete sentences? I consider myself to be excep....

Tue, 03 Dec 2002 21:37:06 GMT

According to Yahoo!, dotUSA spam netted its progenitors over $350,000...not a bad deal for doing nothing. Strikes me as a decent way to spend my Christmas vacation too...:)

Tue, 03 Dec 2002 18:40:04 GMT

ROTD: "ICANTBELIEVEITSNOTMICROSOFT.COM" - new Lindows slogan?

Tue, 03 Dec 2002 15:51:34 GMT

The Berkman Center has released a report penned by Edelman & Zittrain entitled "Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China". Amongst its conclusions, "Chinese network filtering is an important instrument of state Internet policy, and one to which significant technical and human resources continue to be devoted.". I still can't figure out why Random Bytes (detailed here) is on this list and was surprised to see Tucows on the list as well. As I mentioned previously, it is unfortunate that those that most need to read this report will be the least likely to see it.

Tue, 03 Dec 2002 15:50:56 GMT

"All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships." - George Bernard Shaw

Tue, 03 Dec 2002 00:42:18 GMT

I think I'm rather special. As I watched the 500th Gap commercial of the holiday season, I realized that I've never set foot in the place. I barely even know what products they sell - and even that is based on what I've gleaned from their TV commercials. Stranger in a strange land indeed.

Tue, 03 Dec 2002 00:40:38 GMT

"Class is material consumed." - John Trudell

Sun, 01 Dec 2002 17:42:31 GMT

Today's to-do list:

Everything closes in five and a half hours....lets see how much this I can get done.

1. Go to office, organize files, throw out eighteen million drafts of the whois and transfers TF reports.
2. Go back to office and grab the envelope containing the receipts for all the expenses that you haven't filed for the last year.
3. Go to Walmart and see if you can find a strap to replace the one for the fake Rolex that you bought in China.
4. Go to supermarket and buy a bunch of stuff for lasagna.
5. Go back to office and grab the recipe that you forgot to pickup off the VPN printer the first time you were there.
6. Go to Sears and see if they have replacement dinner plates for our set.
7. Go to bank, make deposit.
8. Go home, make Lasagna, do Garfield impersonation, watch Alias.

 

Sun, 01 Dec 2002 05:06:04 GMT

Hey look - the Transfers TF Final Report has been posted. Thank goodness. Note that this is just a temporary home so until the DNSO secretariat moves it to a more fitting URL.

Sun, 01 Dec 2002 05:05:55 GMT

"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble." - Titus Maccius Plautus