Happy birthday to my dad
Today is my father’s birthday. I wish him delight, good health, and prosperity.
I sent him what is, in my opinion, a cool present. I hope he agrees.
I read in El País, a Madrid newspaper, that the governing body of the EU (they call it Eurocámara in this article, or Eurochamber, also interpretable as Eurocongress) has recommended a new “.kid” domain extension. Its purpose would be to reflect a friendly-to-children quality in the sites that sport it. Apparently the sites that wish to use .kid could submit their content to a governing body, which would then give them a seal of approval that people could use as a guide for safe viewing.
It seems like a good enough idea. I do have a couple of questions, though.
1. Will this be enforced in any way? Thus far, these things are pretty loosely monitored. Don’t tell, but Aprille is not actually a non-profit organization, for which .org was supposed to be reserved. I’m not completely convinced enforcement is necessary–I don’t think most purveyors of adult content are actively running around trying to recruit child viewers, but I wouldn’t put it past cigarette companies.
2. Is there some little island nation out there that’s getting shafted? Some small nations are selling off the right to use some or all of their designated country domain extensions. For example, we’re used to seeing well-established ones include .uk for the United Kingdom, .ca for Canada, and .dl for Germany, and those are unlikely to ever get usurped. But did you know that .ws, popularly believed to stand for Web Site, actually was originally designated for Western Samoa? Apparently Western Samoa didn’t have enough websites to justify it, and they sold the right to use it to non-Western Samoan businesses.
This has its advantages, sure, but I feel bad for all those little Western Samoan business owners and bloggers who have their domains hogged up.
This information is brought to you thanks to NetNewsWire, my new favorite second-favorite piece of software.
(I will never turn my back on you, LaunchBar. I swear it.)
Ah, LaunchBar, how I miss you. Spotlight, why won’t you make the app or document I want the very first thing at the top of your list of results? I hate you! (I love you.) ARGH!
Speaking as a person with a kid, I find the .kid TLD DUMB. So dumb. Same with .xxx or .sex or whatever it is they’ve proposed to gather all the porn under one vitual roof. Don’t they know that porn wants to be free?
What’s stopping you from using LaunchBar, Mark? Is it not compatible with 10.4? I keep meaning to upgrade but I haven’t yet. I’m nervous about the downtime.
Oh, nothing’s stopping me. I’ve been giving Spotlight a fair shake. When my Mac Mini arrives, I’ll stick Launchbar on there and live happily ever after (even though I see Objective Development wants $10 to upgrade from version 3 to 4…suckaz. That’s a pretty bold move with Spotlight out there).
I use Quicksilver, because the weekly downloads of new betas plus the occasional instability make me feel like a dangerous individual who lives life on the edge. Also, it is free.
You can change the key combo for Spotlight, so there’s no reason not to keep using your fave tool with Tiger.
Oh, and to quibble, Germany’s TLD is “.de”.
I think .xxx and .kid are great. I think there should be an unlimited number of TLDs. I should be able to make my own, on a whim, and let anyone who wants one get a second-level domain under .jackpinetteisfrikkinawesome (and *everyone* will want one). This intarweb thingy is supposed to be all about anarchy, right?
Hah! I thought .dl looked wrong. Thanks for keeping me honest.