In computer news this week, 01/14/2002

Now the internet brings you that perfect gift for the person who has everything; now they can have their own personal name domain.

Starting Tuesday, January 15, 2002, the newest of the new internet domain names, or suffixes, dot name, will be operational. With the traditional internet domain suffixes like .com .net and .org being overcrowded or sold out, the reigning internet authority - Icann http://www.icann.org/- has been working on a solution for several years.

Now You - yes you yourself, the person - not a huge company or organization - but you the human, can now have your own internet domain named with - of course - your name. If your name is Julie Jones, you can now buy one of the new dot name domains and your internet web site will be:

www.julie.jones.name and your email address will be julie@jones.name

And the logic of the dot name domain is , of course, that everyone knows you as Julie Jones, so what could be easier to remember for your friends to contact you via the internet - than just your name?

Such a deal! The internet is truly wonderful - why do people say such bad things about it? More on this false logic later.

The cost is low - around $ 30 a year - just to register the name that is. All questions you may have related to these dot name domains will be answered at the website http://www.gnr.com/ Global Name Registry. Here you can get all your questions answered, such as "Can I keep this dot name domain for the rest of my life" and "Where and when can I buy my dot name domain?".

But Warning! - you have to keep in mind that you're dealing with salespeople. This is a new e-product, that is being hyped to the sky; tastes great, less filling, as are most things about the internet.

So let me bust the balloon for you. The dot name logic is great for the first julie jones that registers. For all the thousands of other julie joneses, you're outta luck. Now, if you have a truly unique name, such as Arthel Doglump, or Hideous Hawkins, this just might be an enormous boon to your social life.

Part of the false logic associated with these new domain names is that they have already had a pre-registration period, and you could have only registered a dot name domain in your legal name. This was supposedly to prevent all the claim jumping initially associated with the dot coms and older names. Supposedly 60,000 dot names have already been registered.

There are dozens of sites ready right now to take your money via online credit card, but you may find that your name is already taken. But I'll bet that instead of refunding your money no questions asked, they'll try to talk you into modifying your name, just a bit, which of course defeats the entire logic of these new domain names. How about Hideous Hawkins? Has a nice ring to it.....

If you are not familiar with all the internet name changes, and of the many pitfalls and internet hazards and bogus internet schemes you need to avoid, you might want to read online the 8 part series I did last year on The Internet Name Game, on my Raw Bytes 2001 site http://mtamicro.com/kpbx2001.html

For Raw Bytes, This is Frank Delaney

POB 222 Spangle, Wa 99031 (509)245-3736 624-7230