July 31, 2002
Wed, 31 Jul 2002 18:25:01 GMT
WASHINGTON - Alleged Russian organized crime leader under arrest in Italy on charges he tried to fix the ice-dancing competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics. [Source: Yahoo! Wireless] - Fix it how? Handing out free beer at the events would be a start.Wed, 31 Jul 2002 18:12:11 GMT
Tucows has released its latest comments on the work of the ERC with specifics comments directed to the names policy development process, and in particular on the workings of the current DNSO and its proposed successor, the GNSO. This latest document summarizes prior proposals, to the extent they may be still relevant to the work of the committee, and make further and more specific suggestions as to how the future policy process can work better. Tucows Comments to the Implementation Committee on the Names Policy Development Process; [HTML][DOC][PDF] Supporting materials can be found at http://www.byte.org/heathrowWed, 31 Jul 2002 13:29:51 GMT
On July 26, 2002, Susan Crawford, of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering, filed a submission to the ICANN Public Comment Forum on the WLS on behalf of SnapNames that suggests that the Board review of the recommendations of the Transfers TF related to the WLS is "...a process not based in any contractually supported or legally permissible role of the Board." Needless to say, I couldn't disagree with the arguments made in this submission more strongly (except in two regards - read the paper ;) and have fi led a response with the Transfers TF for their consideration. My basic feeling is that; 1. The WLS constitutes a fundamental change in the domain names market which permanently advantages one player. 2. The safeguards recommended by the Task Force to allay some of these advantages are reasonable and should receive the support of the Board. 3. The Board of ICANN should deny Verisign's request to amend the contract until such time that Verisign can actually agree to and practically implement the necessary changes to the functional specification of the WLS. I will post a marked up and annotated version of my submission later tonight.Noodle this please
Please pay attention to this issue. Resolution of the disputes that fall out of the various contracts between various registries, registrars and ICANN is an extremely important issue that the community needs to noodle further.MelbourneIT CEO Resigns
Melbourne IT today announced that their CEO, Adrian Kloeden, had tendered his resignation to the Board. Apparently Adrian "had not been seeking to leave Melbourne IT but had been made an offer than was too good to refuse." by Serco. I'll miss seeing Adrian at various industry events. He is a thoughtful man that always had something interesting to talk about. My sincere best wishes for him in his new role.
July 30, 2002
Of Apples & Hand Grenades: The differing views of the ICANN and IETF Rank and File
Apples and Hand Grenades... "peterd" makes some interesting points over at ICANNWatch regarding the gap the lies between the views of the IETF'ers and those of the ICANN'ites. More from me on this point tomorrow...Terminal.Failure@Internet.Monopoly
Desktop Linux has an "interesting" interview with Karl concerning the litigation and a few other interesting points. Not sure if a story that uses the word "infofascist" in its lead can be truly unbiased, but... Personally, I would take exception to Karl's characterization of ICANN as a shield for APNic, RIPE and ARIN. While the relationships between the entities continues to be strong (as far as I can tell anyways), the RIR's have always acted according to their own agenda for the most part - with or without ICANN's "shelter". Anyways, this is a short bit - worth the read even if just to enjoy a class rant from Mr. Auerbach ;)HP Wields DMCA Against Security Researchers
As I mentioned earlier this week, Bruce Perens, Debian founder, Open Source advocate and HP evangelist, backed down from his promise to flaunt the DMCA in an upcoming public presentation. This week finds HP targetting researchers for discussing a software vulnerability in what appears to be the first attempt to expand the DMCA to security flaws. While CNET indicates that the incidents are unrelated, Bruce has already publicly stated that "I am not happy to hear this at all. And if it's true, I'll take them to task for it."
Hopefully Ben will find some success so that Bruce can hold on to his job ;)
Telecom execs tell Congress: No network disruptions.
Telecom execs tell Congress: No network disruptions. FCC chief also reassures lawmakers [InfoWorld: Top News] ""There's something bad wrong -- I don't know what it is," said Sen. Max Cleland"
I wonder if Senator Max has read any of Saltzer, Reed & Clark's discussions on the gravity defying feats that the telecom sector attempted...
Wed, 31 Jul 2002 03:00:11 GMT
And the loser is me because I got sucked into wasting another Tuesday night on such a trivial show. I really need to get cable.Wed, 31 Jul 2002 02:56:41 GMT
Time for the final quiz... 20 questions about the mole... ...and the loser is... Damned commercials...Wed, 31 Jul 2002 02:40:21 GMT
Ahh...this is too funny... Bill found his GPS while Heather loses her dignity but gained the affection of a wild pig. Tuesday night TV couldn't be better. I still think Dorothy is the mole, but Bill would be the logical "script" choice...Wed, 31 Jul 2002 02:29:51 GMT
Have you figured out who "The Mole" is yet? Poor Bill can't find the castle...Tue, 30 Jul 2002 12:35:49 GMT
I just realized that I named my blog very similarly to Jamie Love's "Random Bits" mailing list. The two are obviously not related - "Random Bytes" simply stems from the domain name that the blog runs under...the "Random" part means just that - no obvious theme for the content here other than items that interest me...Test for Thomas...
Thomas - this story should have the permalink enabled in the RSS feed. Let me know if I've missed the boat...
July 29, 2002
Tue, 30 Jul 2002 01:12:09 GMT
That Fausett guy... For those of you that don't follow ICANNWatch closely (shame on you ;), I have to pass on this comment from one of their readers regarding Brett Fausett's commentary on the Auerbach v. ICANN case. "That Fausett guy might have a career as a serious reporter if he should ever give up the lawyering thing."
Well, I thought it was funny...had to be here I guess ;)
Brett's complete notes on the proceedings have been posted to his blog.
Mon, 29 Jul 2002 22:12:43 GMT
Another "Oops"...4:24PM Register.com misses by 4 cents (RCOM) 7.25 +0.27: Reports Q2 EPS of $0.02, $0.04 worse than the Multex consensus; revs were $27.0 mln, vs consensus of $28.8 mln. [Briefing.com]Mon, 29 Jul 2002 22:10:32 GMT
(update) Qwest admits incorrect accounting in three years. Will restate earnings from 1999 to 2001 [InfoWorld: Top News] Ummm...Oops. Tomorrow's headline - "Thousands of 401K holders restate retirement plans, 'Freedom 78' becomes a hot option"Mon, 29 Jul 2002 22:08:27 GMT
VeriSign lied in ICANN race case. The Register Jul 29 2002 1:36PM ET [Moreover - Domain name news] News travels fast...(thanks for the link plug you carrion pickers ;)Mon, 29 Jul 2002 20:43:20 GMT
Auerbach Wins, Court Criticizes ICANN. Lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits. The only thing that they all have in common (other than the DNS) is that they are all being decided against the favorites...more at Fausset's icann.blog.us....Mon, 29 Jul 2002 14:20:33 GMT
According to William Walsh in a post to the ICANN GA List, a recent anonymous post to the GA regarding the Johnson v. Verisign litigation was actually written by "...a long time list participant, and in fact, someone who works for one of Verisign's competitors." He notes that "...anyone with a smidgen of technical ability..." should be able to figure out who the author actually is.
While the content of the anonymous post isn't all that exciting - just a pointer to yet more allegations against Verisign in one of ICANN's public forums, the thought that a member of the GA and fellow registrar would abuse the GA list in such a manner is repugnant. The GA has enough to deal with in managing the inanities of John Palmer and Jeff Williams - it certainly doesn't need more coming from a registrar with an axe to grind.
Whomever actually posted this has dropped about three notches on my credibility scale. As Kennedy once said (Ted, not JF.) "Never sacrifice your political convictions or integrity for the convenience of the hour." While perhaps not the best source of advice in this regard, the statement holds truth.
July 27, 2002
Sat, 27 Jul 2002 15:12:17 GMT
Wow. According to this Virginia Court document, "the Court finds that Defendants did in fact submit false testimony at trial" in the Michael Johnson v. Verisign proceedings. This should be interesting to watch develop further. [Update: I've fixed the link, removed the earlier correction and added an HTML converted copy which can be found here.]July 26, 2002
Fri, 26 Jul 2002 23:43:42 GMT
Well Ben, I guess it's all up to you now ;) - it appears that Bruce has had to back down from his earlier plan to lie down in front if the DMCA tank. I suppose that the paycheque tank is a little bit more threatening ;)Fri, 26 Jul 2002 15:12:40 GMT
CEOs say keep politics out of corporate reform. Execs ask politicians to stay out of boardroom [InfoWorld: Top News]...
Apparently the convenience of this relationship is no longer valued as it once was...say up until this year. I wonder if "Execs" will put their money where their mouth is and reciprocate by stopping their campaign contributions and keeping the CEO's out of politics.
July 25, 2002
Fri, 26 Jul 2002 01:38:29 GMT
Hi stacey. Hope you enjoyed the picnic. When you get this message check out http://www.byte.org/blogThu, 25 Jul 2002 20:47:04 GMT
31.25% of Sydney beer drinkers don't know what a "schmiddie" is... [Dub Dub Dub Where is the Pub?]
...and me. But it involves beer, so it must be good.
Thu, 25 Jul 2002 17:07:10 GMT
ACLU lawsuit targets copyright law. Filing suit on Thursday, the civil liberties group hopes to prompt the first ruling that would curtail the wide reach of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. [CNET News.com]
Way to go Ben. Between you and Perens, there might be some hope that this heinous law might get the attitude adjustment that it needs. Best wishes!
Thu, 25 Jul 2002 16:20:53 GMT
This just in...
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 10:44 AM Subject: BLOCK THIS SPAM - Verisign Domain Move for $15 > This morning we received spam from Network Delusions/Vericrime advertising > to our customers to move their domains to them for $15. We are taking > action. A look at the headers shows that the spam is coming from > "verisign-direct.com" and "devondirect.com" which we are now blocking > with our spam filtering server. > > I suggest that other ISPs that sell domain registration also block > them.
Note that I haven't yet confirmed the spam (ie - haven't seen a copy), but it is consistent with VRSN's past practices.
Update: A kind soul has been nice enough to send me a sample of the SPAM - no headers, but the message is pretty clear. You can view it here.
Thu, 25 Jul 2002 15:26:53 GMT
A few people have asked me about the status of Verisign's proposed Wait List Service given the recent Names Council vote to accept the Final Report of the Transfers TF regarding WLS. George Kirikos theorizes that the WLS is as good as dead.
I beg to differ slightly.
The final answer really depends on what the ICANN Board decides to do with the NC recommendation and the TF Final Report. My guess is that there is sufficient leeway in the final report to provide the Board with an opportunity to actually approve the WLS, but string it up with conditions that make the entire implementation rather beneficial to the community. If you read the final report, you'll notice that there are conditions that would potentially require the implementation of a standardized domain deletion policy and the redemption grace period before the WLS can actually be offered. And of course, this would entirely depend on whether or not VGRS would still view the WLS as being attractive economically if the Board requires a cost-based pricing review as per the recent gTLD selection process.
The fact is that there are still a ton of issues up in the air, and what happens next is anyone's best guess. I sincerely hope that the board can do the right thing without getting them into the catch-22 that seems to be looming. Catch-22? Try and approve a service generally opposed by the community. Also try and deny it against VGRS's strong Washington lobby.
Thu, 25 Jul 2002 14:39:14 GMT
LONDON - Diageo PLC agrees to sell Burger King Corp. for $2.26 billion.Thu, 25 Jul 2002 14:27:43 GMT
Yeah! Wireless at the office coming soon. I finally got tired of being tethered and decided to pick up an AP that I can just plug into the switch under my desk. I probably paid too much for it but...I was disappointed that the seller wouldn't let me come over and pick it up (seeing as how he is local)..alas...
Probably paid too much as well ;)
Thu, 25 Jul 2002 14:16:27 GMT
INT Media Group preps rebranding [Dotcom Scoop]
Fascinating Jim. Internet.com is one of those old skool firms that just keeps plugging. I've never been particularly engaged by their content, but each to his own. Its great to hear that they've picked up some of the Jupiter assets - INT has some great talent in this area and might actually be able to make a go of it. Good luck folks!
Thu, 25 Jul 2002 13:50:58 GMT
IT pros foresee major cyberattacks on horizon. BSA report seen as a wake-up call for private sector [InfoWorld: Top News]
Wow...an association whose members include firms like Network Associates and Symantec is issuing a wake-up call to businesses regarding security. Progressive. What will they do next, issue wake-up calls to businesses regarding piracy run rampant in SOHO America?
July 24, 2002
Thu, 25 Jul 2002 04:44:26 GMT
I must say that I'm pretty impressed with RU thus far. Some of the concepts haven't quite sunk in yet with me, but the overall experience has been quite pleasant. Starting with the negatives, I wasn't impressed with some of the usability. Now I'm a pretty big dweeb, but I still haven't figured out how to make the "My Pictures" tool to work (I even read the docs...), nor can I see any way to include regular old html links in a mail-to-blog post. Hopefully I can pick up on both of these elusive features pretty quickly. Like most users, I tend to get frustrated pretty easily. On the plus side, the app worked right out of the box. As promised, I was blogging live almost immediately and before too long, I was able to start using some of the customizations that make this app really nifty. For instance, it took me all of two minutes to get the mail to blog feature setup and customized. It certainly didn"t take a lot more to get me to the point where I was blogging via my RIM. I look forward to playing with this great app a lot more over the next 30 days...Thu, 25 Jul 2002 04:30:26 GMT
Interesting that no one has "officially" picked up on Verisign's latest alleged shenanigans yet. Of course, the rumor could turn out to be false, but some of the statements check out against other scuttlebutt that I've come across before. This wouldn't confirm the charges, but it does (in the absence of a denial) lend some minimal "authority" to the claims...Thu, 25 Jul 2002 01:54:07 GMT
I was quite surprised to see how much home broadband routers have dropped in price over the last few months. I purchased a SMC Barricade a few months back for roughly $250 CAD and now they've dropped in price to as little as $100. I was able to find a buyer for my used one for roughly the same amount which allowed me to get into wireless at home for roughly no cost (thanks eBay), but it looks like the technology is going to start finding its way into the home in a big way.Thu, 25 Jul 2002 00:51:07 GMT
Did you know that you can lose up to 3lbs per year by not parking in the spot closest to the mall doors? Don't know if that's as neat as wireless blogging but...Thu, 25 Jul 2002 00:33:38 GMT
The number of people that one interacts with throught their lifetime is truly amazing. What's even more amazing is how few of them one gets to know.Thu, 25 Jul 2002 00:23:18 GMT
I think that I've finally figured out how to do something useful with blogs and wireless..hooha!Wed, 24 Jul 2002 23:39:03 GMT
Congress is preparing to consider a proposal that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for illicit file trading--a step critics say amounts to vigilante justice. [CNET News.com]...
I suppose that this would only be fair. Considering that the Internet has been hacking on Hollywood content for years ;)
A last-minute shopping spree
Year-end surge to lift IT spending. A last-minute shopping spree as IT buyers scrape out their budgets will push computer technology spending beyond 2001 levels, predicts research firm IDC. [CNET News.com]...Gotta love stories like these. Remember, 2001 was a hang-over year IT spending-wise (that pesky little Y2K rumor), which puts 2001 pretty close to the bottom of the barrel. Typical of IT reporting though, the cart has to pull the horse before anyone makes a move. Sigh.