Domain laundering
Network Solutions has safeguards in place to keep scam artists from hijacking domain names by forging change-of-ownership requests, right? Yeah, but that didn't stop at least two cybercrooks from effectively stealing two domain names - and then laundering them through a series of other domain registrars to hide their tracks (as opposed to an apparent mistake last fall).
Death spiral
Grant is upset with the profusion of spirals in dotcom logos. See his critiques of Web-site logos that spiral out of control.
What's Tonya up to these days?
Whether it's lacing up her skate or throwing a hubcap at her boyfriend's head, Tonya Harding never fails to entertain. Use the Tonya page to keep up with this one-woman trailer park - or just browse through the world's largest collection of online Tonya Harding photos.
Tai-chia pet
Combining ancient Chinese rituals with goofy fuzzy green planters.
6/1/00
Is Network Solutions bankrupting Korea?
Big issue in Korean cyber-circles: local cybersquatters draining the country's foreign-currency accounts by registering domains with U.S. name registrars rather than homegrown concerns. Says the Korea Times: "the waste of dollars has become a contentious issue."
Digital Divas get upset with Microsoft
Digital Divas is a group of women who create Web sites and pages. And now they're spittin' mad over Microsoft's Digital Diva mini-site, which features a Martha Stewart-like Yuppie whose goal is to demystify Microsoft products for the teeming masses.It's sort of reminiscent last year's etoys vs. etoy imbroglio, only this time it's the little, um, guys, who are waging the legal battle (as well as selling Diva vs. Goliath coffee mugs and mouse pads.
There'll always be an England
A British pub and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream are sponsoring a stinging-nettle eating contest. Sadly, the official site doesn't explain how Ben & Jerry's got involved.
5/30/00
Old Cisco founders never die
They go on to start cosmetics companies that feature products with names like Asphyxia, Acid Rain, Mildew, Roach and Stalker. Seems Sandy Lerner, who co-founded Cisco while still a Stanford prof...
Searched for months for department store quality nail polish in unusual colors, lamenting the fact that there were 500 colors of pink polishes, but no greens or purples. Unsuccessful but undaunted, she then made her own, mixing batches of unique colors.
Speaking of Cisco
One of the problems with the Web is that once you publish something, it never seems to go away. Take, for example, a 1996 Fortune article titled Curse of the market leader, which forecast big problems for Cisco:Anyone can make a switch, and just about everyone is trying, which sounds like a recipe for open systems and low profit margins.
Fortune also predicted serious competition from grizzled veterans like Digital and brash newcomers like Ipsilon.
Digi-who? Ipsi-who?
Newt Gingrich, consultant
Add panache to your next company meeting or trade-show demo - hire Newt Gingrich as a consultant. The twice-divorced former House Speaker now advises companies on how to implement new technologies. Clients include a variety of high-tech and dot-com concerns. He's also a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and was an early adopter of Lotus Notes.
Elian's favorite NIC
Why, it's the 3Com 3C509B-TP, according to this eBay auction. Yes, yes, it's so 15 minutes ago...
5/30/00
Patenting the Web
When you get right down to it, what is the Web but a way to connect users to remote servers?A librarian at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory now has a patent on the whole process.
Thanks to the ever-vigilant users of Slashdot, we now know that Allan Konrad was awarded a patent last fall for a "remote information service access system based on a client-server-service model" that "provides an illusion to a user that a desired utility service supported on a remote host resides locally on the user's local host."
As an example, Konrad says, his invention can "provide remote information services to the consumer market, which is comprised of individuals who desire an information service from the remote host, but might not have working knowledge
Sounds an awful lot like a browser talking to a server via an HTML form communicating over HTTP, doesn't it?
Stop shopping cart abuse
Is there anything that doesn't have at least one Web site dedicated to it? Probably not, which might explain something like the Center for Shopping Cart Abuse Prevention. I found myself spending way too much time on the site, but maybe that's because I went to a college right on a river where a winter rite of passage was to wheel a cart onto the ice and then let it sink when the ice melted in the spring (yep, we sure knew how to have a good time).RELATED LINKS
