Year: 2004
RealNames
A little bit of news. I have recently reacquired the RealNames domain name – realnames.com. This is some 30 months after we were forced to close the company. It feels good to have 100% ownership back of a thing I spent 5 years creating. To be honest I’m not yet sure what I will do…
Announcing Earnings Cast!
I have started a new podcasting blog – http://www.earningscast.com. For now it isn’t going to be comprehensive of all earnings, just key ones each quarter. Also for now I am not editorializing. Just putting the whole call into my podcast. Later, we’ll see. An hour might be too long. One possibility is to charge for…
Podcast: Google’s Earnings call
Google had it’s first earnings call Thursday. If you are interested in either search or advertising online it is really worth an hour of your time. Lot’s of questions out there. Is Google overheated? Are they doomed to fail? Are they the EBay of Data? Listen and decide for yourself. Then it hit me. This…
Charlene Li of Forrester on Search
Charlene Li of Forrester has a new Blog. I met Charlene briefly at Web 2.0. She has comments on the search panel – specifically noting the large agreement between the panelists on what the future direction of search is from a features and functionality point of view. Then she hits us with a killer comment:…
From the BBC
Kofi Annan’s comments yesterday have created a fuss. The BBC reports: Authorities in the UK, Australia, Poland, Bulgaria and Japan also rebuffed Mr Annan’s claims. Australian Prime Minister John Howard described the UN as a “paralysed” body and said it was incapable of dealing with international crises. Clearly both Annan and Howard are right, but…
UN Chief says Iraq war was illegal!
Iraq war was Illegal and breached UN charter, says Annan. Too little too late I fear. The UN is now irrelevant. This is a bad fact for the US and the UK who now need it to help them in post-war Iraq, but that’s really just too bad. The UN has been revealed as a…
“All the people I had shared my shelter with were dead!”
An amazing piece of journalism and a compelling story of the reality of Iraq. The day after US helicopters killed many civilians – purportedly to save a Bradley fighting vehicle from being exposed to “the enemy” an eye witness, a British journalist from The Guardian, tells what happened. It’s amazing to me that the Democratic…
Moving On!
We’re moving house over the next two weeks. We sold our Aptos house and moved out on Friday. We are going to a new home in Hamilton Avenue [close to University Avenue] in Palo Alto, but can only move in on 18 September. Meanwhile we are renting a beach house in Rio Del Mar. Life…
TUCOWS auction service
TUCOWS launched [ http://www.byte.org/blog/_archives/2004/9/7/136578.html ] an expiring names auction service today. The most interesting part of Ross’s post is this: Today we announced Tucows expiring names auction service, a local implementation of the Perfect Information proposal (PIP?). What I mean is that it only realizes the efficiencies described in “Perfect Information” on a very local basis – i.e.…
Auctions for deleting domain names
Steven Forrest’s Free2Innovate speculates [ http://free2innovate.net/archives/000399.html ] on the reasons for SnapNames move to an auction based model for the sale of deleting domain names. He points out that I am a director of SnapNames and as such may be able to throw some light on things. A couple of points. As a director I…
CYBERIA
It’s 10 years since I co-founded CYBERIA, the world’s first Internet Cafe. Eva Pascoe, Gené McPherson (now Gené Teare, my wife) and David Rowe (my co-founder at EasyNet) were the 4 founders. Here’s an NYT article (need to be a subscriber to see it – but it’s free to subscribe): http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/06/technology/06cafe.html Eva, seems like you…
Teare Family in London
I managed to find a way to escape Silicon Valley for a few weeks. We’ve brought the family to London. Here’s Dylan in Queens Park – pretending to be a dog.
SiteFinder reprise
I have been attending the Icann conference in Malaysia this week. One of the key events was the submission of the report – ssac-report-09jul04.pdf – from the Security & Stability Advisory Committee regarding SiteFinder. In reading the committee’s report I discovered what I believe is an incredible breakdown in logic and as a consequence, a…
ICANN Verbatim minutes re SiteFinder
Steve Crocker presented his report to ICANN in Malaysia: >>STEPHEN CROCKER: THANK YOU AND YOU ECHO VENI’S CONGRATULATIONS AND THANKS. I HAVE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF WORKING WITH HER FROM THE BEGINNING OF MY TENURE AND IT’S AMAZING HOW MUCH SHE TAKES CARE OF BEHIND THE SCENES. I CHAIR THE SECURITY AND STABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE.…
Google rips off RealNames idea!
Thanks for the pointer Dave. The new Google toolbar clearly rips off the RealNames idea. I’m flattered. Shame they didn’t give credit, after all I am one of the inventors of this patent. Maybe I’ll go and start a search engine Microsoft’s own version of the RealNames idea is overwritten by the Google toolbar. With…
Moblog Entry
I’m moderating a panel on Broadband in the home, at Supernova. Here is a Nokia 3650 pic of the panel before – talking about Government – problem or solution?
Video Island lands Tesco deal
My good friend Saul Klein has been running Video Island since the beginning. He is one of the best marketers I have ever worked with. Video Island (UK based Netflix competitor) has now landed a deal with supermarket chain Tesco. A great win. Congrats Saul. The story – from The Register – is here. Video…
Letter from Rome – Susan Crawford.
I have to agree with Susan. The world needs ICANN or something like ICANN. But it does not need ICANN to make decisions that are better left to the market. It needs ICANN to set a minimum level of rules and processes and then let business get on with what it does best, sorting out…