ICANN announced that it has approved seven new non-country-specific TLDs
(Top Level Domains) to join the ranks of dot-Com, dot-Net and dot-Org.
Goodness knows what their criteria for selection were but they decided to go
with dot-Biz, dot-Aero, dot-Name, dot-Coop, dot-Museum, dot-Pro and dot-Info.
For some reason they decided we didn't need a Dot-xxx to help give porn
a clearly identifiable name. Likewise they didn't think it was a good idea
to give kids their own dot-Kids TLD -- why not? I know it can't be because
there's not enough money in approving a kids domain for those who wield the
power -- right?
But anyway, here are some TLDs I'd like to see:
- dot-WWW - (Wild wild west) for all those self-proclaimed "experts"
and cowboy web designers
- dot-Gone - for all those failed dot-Coms
- dot-Dot-dot-dot - for all those sites permanently under construction
- dot-Dash-dot-dash - for the creation of Morse-code chat-rooms
- dot-Dead -- for those sites which are never, ever, updated
What about you? Do you have some good ideas for
new TLDs? If so, let me know.
I Toldyaso
I saw a story published by CNet last week which reminded me of one of the
"billion dollar ideas" I published almost four years ago in Aardvark Weekly.
Here's
my idea, and
here's
what Microsoft are doing.
Was I far off the mark? Why did it take Billy-boy nearly four years to
twig to the massive potential this idea has?
If our beloved Minister of Economic Development is reading this -- hey, I've
got a whole notebook filled with million and billion dollar ideas. A surprisingly
high number of the ones I came up with several years ago have eventually also
been thought of and put into action by others (great minds think alike) -- but
there's still a whole lot that are just waiting for some development capital
and resources to make them a commercial reality.
I'm not boasting -- I'm just one of many in this country with similar notebooks
stuffed full of million-dollar ideas. Let's hope the government's newfound
confidence in NZ's ability to compete in the new economy will help some of those
ideas see the light of day.
All Advantage Gasping For Breath?
The "we'll pay you to use the Net" company
AllAdvantage has
announced that it's dumping even more staff as it struggles to
keep its head above water -- are we surprised?
The number of unhappy AllAdvantage users seems to be growing locally, with
a couple of people reporting that the company has taken back their hard-won
credit balance because they've not surfed enough hours.
As I've mentioned before, the AllAdvantage contract seems to be a very cunning
piece of work that, on the surface looks like it's a great deal, but under closer
scrutiny reveals a mass of loopholes which allows the company to avoid paying out
for seemingly tiny (and often unavoidable) infractions by the member.
Aardvark's advice remains unchanged -- avoid AllAdvantage. Even with the weak
NZ dollar you'll probably never earn enough to offset the frustration and
hassles associated with trying to generate and collect any kind of payment.
The Weekly
Yes, I know the first edition of the weekly has yet to appear -- but I'm
still working on it.
Hopefully (if current leads pan out) it will include a very interesting expose'
into the astoundingly bad behaviour of a group of local "new economy" company
directors (some of who are also on the board of a public company). Just how
competent and ethical are the managers of some of our hi-tech public companies?
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