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Maybe not entirely off-topic, since this story is from the "mayans-predicted-them-of-course dept." but someone sent me some "Real Mayan 2012" hooey, which said (among the unfalsifiable new-age woo) this possibly falsifiable, possibly astronomical statement:

[Dec. 21, 2012] will be the start of a new era resulting from and signified by the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator and the Earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy."

At sunrise on December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic.

I'd like to debunk this shinola the only way that's conclusive (to me): rejecting the science. I couldn't even find a definition of "the solar meridian", though Google points to pages using it to mean a line from wherever the Sun is in the sky to the observer's zenith, and some other meanings related to a definition of the Greenwich Prime Meridian for defining standard time, and some uses meaning a semicircumpolar North-South line on the Sun itself, none of which seem to apply. So:

1. What is the solar median?
2. Can it cross the galactic equator (as seen from Earth)? Will it on 12/21/2012?
3. When the Sun rises anywhere (as seen from somewhere on Earth) on 12/21/12, will it rise close to the intersection of the galactic equator and the (Earth's) plane of the ecliptic?
4. Will 1 and 2 happen at the same time?

Besides, I was never suggesting sequences of 9 random alphanumericals.

No, you were suggesting 5 random alphanumericals. Which wouldn't work, by the way -- you'd very quickly fill up on things like sex.whatever.

Because there are plenty of other people who have just as much right to the name "coke" as the coca-coly company.

Which is why we mostly do first-come, first-serve.

Examples include suppliers of dry-destilled charcoal, columbian drug-cartels, people working to help coke-addicts, people who think the coca-cola company sucks, etc...

Wow, watch this: charcoal, columbian-coke, coke-addiction, cokesucks, coca-cola. And whoever is first to register gets "coke".

Actually, it's not named Apple Corp, it is named Apple Inc (and it was Apple Computer Inc until 8. jan 2007).

For someone so worried about confusion: I very specifically meant Apple Corps, which does not sell computers.

Many companies use different names when they register as a business, and when they conduct their business with real customers.

And in the corporate world, domain names are not business registrations, and business registrations are not domain names. Domain names are where they conduct business with real customers.

So, let's talk about Apple Computer: I don't go to applecomputerinc.com, I go to apple.com. If Apple Corps wanted a real web presence, they'd probably own applerecords.com (which it seems they do, it's just mis-managed). If Apple Records got there first, I could live with applecomputer.com, or mac.com (which does exist, and is owned by Apple).

Furthermore, this doesn't stop us from doing nice things like redirecting to a more relevant site, if you think someone might get lost -- parrotcode.org is about a VM called "Parrot", and it does say "Parrot is not about parrots", with a link to a Google search on parrots, the first result of which is the Wikipedia page. That Wikipedia page, by the way, is about the birds, but does provide a link to a disambiguation page, which includes links to pages about Parrot VM, and Parrot Records, and so on.

Of course, SSNs doesn't work within USA, so your idea may still have some merit.

You do realize that was sarcasm, right?

In the real world, we almost never run into people with the same first and last name, and if we do, we have things like nicknames, or "of $state", to sort them out. However, the real world is not exactly analogous here, as we do have a central authority of this kind of thing. Just as there can be only one "Apple, Inc" in the US, there also can be only one "apple.com" on the Internet. Both of them are generally first-come, first-serve. I just don't get why you want us to add random alphanumeric strings -- if you aren't imaginative enough to register "cokesucks" when Coca-Cola already owns "coke", then you don't deserve a web presence anyway.

"I don't like big companies putting up billboards along the main roads, while other people with fewer resources, who has something to say, are not allowed to put their own billboards up..."

Ahem. Domain Names are dirt cheap.

Besides, you yourself said:

And the coca-cola company probably has enough money to repeat registering their name untill they come up with something more rememberab

My first paid-hosting was Yahoo! Hosting. It was a little more expensive than other hosting companies but I got my Website hosted on speedy Unix-based servers (FreeBSD) and great technical support. Now Yahoo! has good deals on both hosting and email. For more info about Yahoo!'s promotions visit http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-1574997-10294264

I have also used some other paid-hosting company services (WebHostXL) and... but oh man! Many free services were a lot faster than that! I paid in advance for one year but I switched hosts after contacting them several times. I got few responses. There was almost no technical support there. Eventually they moved my Website and email to another "faster" server but still no luck. They happened to be a reseller of several hosting companies services. It was very cheap until a few months later they raised their prices. So be careful when choosing a hosting company!

I recommend you the following hosting companies:
Aplus
Yahoo!Web Hosting
ServePath

aMule is the better client (despite the psycho's bashing and admitted 'wget -r' bandwidth draining.)

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Home Page and prices

At Aplus.net here in San Diego the basic rate is $50/U + $20 for every U after that. There are various bandwidth options; basically it's $5/G and gets cheaper as you consume more. Last time I checked their upstreams included Sprint and UUnet via full ds3s. I'm pleased with their service; for a box I'm connected to constantly when I'm awake I've only noticed their AS drop off the map once for about an hour. They have all the standard data center equipment but at the most reasonable price I've found for small scale (less than a third of a rack) colocation.

If you're in the midwest OneCall has nice facilities.

Just an aplus customer...

Home Page and prices

At Aplus.net here in San Diego the basic rate is $50/U + $20 for every U after that. There are various bandwidth options; basically it's $5/G and gets cheaper as you consume more. Last time I checked their upstreams included Sprint and UUnet via full ds3s. I'm pleased with their service; for a box I'm connected to constantly when I'm awake I've only noticed their AS drop off the map once for about an hour. They have all the standard data center equipment but at the most reasonable price I've found for small scale (less than a third of a rack) colocation.

If you're in the midwest OneCall has nice facilities.

Just an aplus customer...