by jothan | Aug 11, 2007 | Jothan, Meetings
What do people think of the fastexercise.com “ROM” workout machine?Â
 Please comment!
OK, I came to a relization that I am a growing boy, and unfortunately that stopped being vertical growth after age 19. Realizing that I can have more energy, and be more healthy in general if I do more exercise than I currently am doing, I decided to step up and do something. First step of course is to break away from a pattern of  oreo binges.
 I travel a lot (hence the name of my blog), and I notice there is an ad in the in flight magazines for the ROM 4 minute workout machine. 4 minutes a day of intensive workout. No More. No Less. I can afford 4 minutes’ time.
With tax and shipping and what not, a unit comes in at just about 16k in costs, but I mentally justified the amount because I figure (hope) that perhaps the benefits are far greater than that amount.
Should I make this purchase?Â
I will open up comments on this one to the general public to see what comes back before I move on this, because of the amount to be spent here.
by jothan | Jul 31, 2007 | ICANN
Just in from around the net, Afilias and GoDaddy have arranged a joint venture called Alliance Registry and have announced their plans to bid for the .US ccTLD that is currently run by NeuStar.
Well recognized and respected industry name Brian Cute was named as the director of usTLD Development, yet another high powered hire in the domain industry to lead the process.
I have no opinion on this process, but this was interesting news today!
by jothan | Jun 21, 2007 | ICANN, NewTLDs, Policy
I commented on a public document.  Let me be more specific…
Recently, there has been some talk over what a registry failover would need to look like, in the event that a new registry provider would need to be designated.
As new Top Level Domains (TLD) are introduced, many of them include failover testing or have described their disaster recovery plans, but these typically are focused upon natural disasters or acts of god, etc.
It is vital infrastructure, to be sure. As vital as the number of registrants or users that utilize the TLD, at least.
I spent some time reviewing the current registry failover plan, and noticed that it was very well written and prepared. I commend ICANN staff for their very thorough and hard work.
The place where I commented about perhaps adding some specificity is in trying to ensure that registrars can quickly unplug and re-plug their connections (and I am super-oversimplifying the actual process) to minimize registrant impacts for domains under management.
I’d also note that the likely driver of this document was not natural disaster or act of god, but rather the potential financial failure of the publicly-traded parent company to the registry.
While the circumstances that were likely driving the urgency of this planning have been relieved in the near term, this is an important proactive measure to ensure that effects to the namespace and users are minimized to the fullest extent, and then all of that security and stability is present in transition.
by jothan | May 25, 2007 | Domain Shows, ICANN, Meetings, NewTLDs
The next ICANN meeting is coming up, June 25 to 29. Here are some reasons why I would encourage attendance and participation, and what to watch for there.
- PUERTO RICO
Dude, it’s in Puerto Rico, “La Isla Bonita” . . . What more reason do you need? Although it sounds super glamorous, there’s a lot of us that work hard and don’t leave the venue but for sparse moments.
- WHOIS
Conversations about WHOIS format, access, and accuracy are going to be a large focus at this meeting. There are so many sides to this, all with very reasonable needs and requirements that we’re entering into year 8 of the work to make improvements, rules, and expectations.
- NEW GTLDs
New Generic Top Level Domains are going to be a huge topic of discussion, as the process has been largely established and the application window rapidly approaches. It remains to be seen how many applications will come, but I am predicting that there will be at least 150-200 new applications.The driving forces will surround minimum requirements of the applicants, what the application fee is to submit a new string, and how much collision there is (aka duplicate entries) on TLD string submissions. (Hint: .web may have more than one applicant, try something different than that string)The many people who’ve put tireless effort into this process have thought of almost everything, and have brought experience from the past two rounds for this process.
by jothan | May 23, 2007 | ICANN, NewTLDs
There is more and more conversation surrounding introduction of a TLD called .bank for financial institutions to use for their websites.
f-Secure has two articles, one called “Masters of Their Domain” and “And you can take that to the .bank”
Eric Kitchens’ Blog has an article called “yourdomain.useless“.
Not bad ideas, lets watch the new TLD application process later this year and into 2008 to see what happens surrounding this.
by jothan | May 23, 2007 | Domain Shows, NewTLDs, Speaking
I’ll be part of a panel at HostingCon in July to talk about domain monetization and internet advertising. The hosting industry is somewhat aware of this, but I think that there are some shifts coming in how they can turn customer loss or abandonment into opportunity, especially in a climate of fierce price competition in the marketplace.
