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Niue WiFi Network Gone, .nu TLD May Follow
gxc writes "The world's first free national wireless grid is no longer with us, after waves from
Cyclone Heta swept over Niue's thirty metre cliffs, destroying
everything. Although only one person died, the damage is so bad that
there is talk of winding up the country , meaning their fortuitous ccTLD could go the way of .su. Perhaps the easiest way
for Slashdotters to help Niue would be to choose a .nu domain over the dull alternatives."
Many sites in Sweden use .nu because it means "now" in that language. (http://www.badminton.nu/, for example.)
Well, Sealand doesn't exactly qualify as a recognized nation in the international scene. For smallest official independent state, I think Vatican City (Holy See) qualifies for that award.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Did you know that "nu" in dutch means "now"? A lot of dutch websites have thus used this TLD as some think it's cool.
--- Sigmentation Fault - Comments Dumped
"The sale of postage stamps to foreign collectors is an important source of revenue."
Actually this is, or was, true of several small countries, most of them larger and wealthier than Niue - San Marino, for example.
Here in Sweden, .nu is outrageously popular--even with respectable entities. .se isn't squatted to hell and back, so, what gives? Why is .nu so popular here?
Perhaps you should RTFA and use your brain before opening your mouth.
Let's start off showing you how far off-base you are by providing a quote from one of the articles linked to in the story summary:In case you're too stupid to understand what "economic and administrative assistance" means, I'll translate it for you: it means that when they need help, New Zealand is obliged (morally, if not contractually) to provide it.
Secondly, let's point out the bloody obvious: in an environment that's subject to weather extremes, such as hurricanes and cyclones, putting up telegraph poles isn't the best way to provide connectivity because telegraph poles and lines tend not to stay standing for long in those conditions. And of the alternatives, wireless is by far the most practical (cheaper, easier to implement and upgrade), especially on such a small scale.
Thirdly, NZ$8 million equates to US$5.45 million. (NZ$1 = US$0.6815.) So that's US$4,500 per native Niuean. Contrast that with the US$3-4 billion pa in military aid alone that the US gives Israel (population, 6.5 million), which works out to be US$615 per Israeli.
Now, what's the more ethical:
A. New Zealand giving Niue $5.45 million of support, money that it would have to pay out anyway if Niue was to cease being an independent nation and return to being a part of New Zealand? or
B. The US provinding Israel with $3-4 billion of military aid every year, some of which is spent oppressing and killing innocent Palestinean civilians, as well as Western observers (including US and British aide workers)?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
"Nu" translates to "now" in dutch, and for some time .nu places were popular. Maybe they still are in the underground scene. I haven't seen any commercial sites addopting .nu however. There are little or no .tv sites here as well.
.nu or .tv
Maybe the problem is that these domains come cheap, and that the stuff that you can find with
domain names mostly is too.
"Nu" means "now" in Swedish too, and here it has actually taken off somewhat. It is not at all uncommon to find commercial sites on .nu. It is mostly used by upstarts rather than well known companies though.
Reality or nothing.
It's sad that so many people are not homeless. It looks like a really beautiful place to live too. If they survive this they should treat this as an opportunity to do it right the next time. The island should seriously consider using Monolithic concrete dome structures. Due to their shape they are not as effected by hurricanes and clyclones and have a good track record of surviving them. They are also cheap, and well insulated.
OHOH I really don't know the availiblity of concrete in Niue. It may be prohibitive to build these structures if the concrete has to be imported.
War is necrophilia.
The word "nu" (depending on the nuance) in Mandarin Chinese (ie: that spoken in Mainland China and Taiwan, ROC) is "woman" (or, more generally, Female).
Nu.
fifth sigma, inc.
The article linked talks about $50m worth of damage. I'm assuming it's $NZ as it's a NZ site. That's around $US34m. According to the CIA Factbook there is a population of 2145, but I've heard numbers as low as 1200. Let's assume 2000. Also on the CIA site is a GDP of $US3600 per capita. I read somewhere (can't find a reference) that a few hundred houses were destroyed.
So, $50m sounds like an awful lot - I'd like to know where that number comes from.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
pfft. /me hides
.nu domain right now! I am in the market for a nu domain...
the pr0n sites will just move to the cook islands' domain.
They do after all sell ".co.ck"... well maybe thats good for gay/female oriented pr0n sites...
Anyhow, I'm feeling very bad for these struggling Niue, If some shady businessman havent stolen it, Id buy a
So it's a remote pacific island, far from New Zealand but with an indiginous population, and an airstrip which you can fly to from NZ.
Why on *earth* are they not making a killing from tourism?
When I was there (in 1999) there was talk of the government more or less forcibly changing the registrar in order to change the policies. I don't know if anything happened.
.se domain.
Changed last year to a free-for-all landgrab with after-the-fact conflict resolution model. Anybody (I don't think you have to be Swedish, even) can register a
In related news, the admins also slashed their domain prices 40% this year due to the overwhelming increase in registered domains. They didn't need as much money to admin the TLD as they were getting.
Nope, the winner is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Note that while Sealand IS internationally recognized, thus should be in the running, SMOM is still the smallest "real" country.
...what happens to quite a lot of Pacific islands in John Barnes' Mother of Storms .
Relating to another thread, if global warming is a reality, regardless whether humans have caused it, we may be seeing much more of this kind of thing.
I actually know the son of the entrepreneur accused here of stealing the domain name from Niue, and the last time I talked with the son (a couple of years ago now) he was working for his father on managing the .nu domain.
.tv from another small country, with the intent of developing it to make a profit for themselves. This cost them some significant amount of time, money, and effort, and now that Niue sees that there is a profit in it, apparently they want to renegotiate their deal.
I may be a bit partial, and I don't know the entrepreneur himself, but his son is in no way "shady". As I understand it, they bought the domain name from Niue, in the same way that other people bought the domain name
It is not clear to me, however, that they have the right to do that. There would be no profit here without the time, money, and effort spent by the aforementioned entrepreneur, so what is supposed to entitle the Niue government to a cut that is addition to whatever deal they originally negotiated?
I see these claims of imperialism and pillaging of local resources going around here, but it is not like anyone is strip mining their island, or anything. This is just a domain name, for crying out out, and not even a domain name that has an obvious meaning.
The Nuie government is whining that because their domain name has been "stolen" from them, their own people cannot participate in the Internet. I find this claim a bit disingenuous, however. Certainly it is possible, is it not, for them to be assigned a new domain name. Perhaps the new domain name won't be as catchy for the purposes of turning a profit, but, on the other hand, would certainly do the job of allowing their populace Internet access.