New .tel TLD Now In Use

rockwood reports that the .tel top level domain has been deployed, "in a first attempt at pushing the recently approved .tel... The top-level domain .tel was approved by ICANN as a sponsored TLD launching on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 to trademark owners of national effect and on February 3, 2009 to anyone who wishes to apply. Its main purpose is as a single management and publishing point for 'internet communication' services, providing a global contacts directory service by housing all types of contact information directly in the DNS."

Comments

I want royalties

[Anonymous Coward]

http://in.tel/

Re:I want royalties

[QRDeNameland]

.tel it to the .usmc.mil

Re:I want royalties

[pwnies]

Not many opportunities like that with this tld sadly, a quick search in a dictionary file only reveals a few words that end in tel.

Bartel/M

Bechtel/M

betel/MS

cartel/SM

chattel/MS

Christel/M

Chrystel/M

Estel/M

Gretel/M

hostel/SZGMRD

hotel/MS

Intel/M

Itel/M

Kristel/M

lintel/SM

mantel/SM

Martel/M

Mattel/M

motel/MS

muscatel/MS

pastel/MS

Patel/M

Re:I want royalties

[Chabil Ha']

It doesn't have to be a proper spelling. hoe.tel!

Re:I want royalties

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot:
fuckBartel/M

fuckBechtel/M

fuckbetel/MS

fuckcartel/SM

fuckchattel/MS

fuckChristel/M

fuckChrystel/M

fuckEstel/M

fuckGretel/M

fuckhostel/SZGMRD

fuckhotel/MS

fuckIntel/M

fuckItel/M

fuckKristel/M

fucklintel/SM

fuckmantel/SM

fuckMartel/M

fuckMattel/M

fuckmotel/MS

fuckmuscatel/MS

fuckpastel/MS

fuckPatel/M

Re:I want royalties

[Quiet_Desperation]

hoe.tel!

AKA craigslist.org/services/erotic

Re:I want royalties

[myxiplx]

Funny on so many levels, oh I wish I had mod points today, I'd send you them all :D

Re:I want royalties

[Mozk]

Try *tel on Wikipedia, which apparently supports at least the * wildcard.

Re:I want royalties

[dintech]

That's as cunning as a fox that used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University, but has moved on, and is now working for the UN at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning.

Huh?

[TypoNAM]

Is anybody else shrugging their shoulders and asking the same question of: What the hell is the point in wasting DNS space for such a half-assed crap idea?

Re:Huh?

[eldavojohn]

Take a look at what's already out there. Mostly over 500 Telnic employees grabbing henry.tel and david.tel. Yawn.

Its main purpose is as a single management and publishing point for 'internet communication' services ...

And right from the get-go it's main purpose is overshadowed by some every Telnic employee's desire to be THE Henry on the .tel TLD. That must be awfully helpful to us in our need for 'internet communication' services.

More garbage for the tubes, I guess.

What the hell is the point in wasting DNS space

Are we really concerned about "DNS space?" I guess I'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to why we need to be concerned about 'space' on DNS names ... perhaps you mean IP address space? And if so, people are basically flushing those down the toilet by giving every device one (including their toilet).

Re:Huh?

[Farmer Pete]

Awesome! Rogers.tel is still available. I'll be rich!

Re:Huh?

[impaledsunset]

Yes... Apart from the seemingly unneeded TLD, am I the only one who thinks that this isn't the way that 'internet communications' should work? I would always go with communication networks having similar architecture to email, like XMPP and SIP.

These days the central point doesn't play such a big role in these services, I would like to see gazillion communication service providers, like we already have with email, ISPs running their XMPP and/or SIP services, popular sites doing the same, and you running your own.

There are already ones that do so, and they seem to be growing in number. What, should they all get a .tel TLD? And should current email providers get a .tel TLD? Should everyone email, IM or VoIP address end in .tel? In the end, will there be _anyone_ with an email or VoIP address ending in .tel?

Re:Huh?

[onefriedrice]

Perhaps by DNS space he means the fact that organizations who want to register their website under all the TLD's in order to protect their name will have yet another TLD. As the number of domains that point to the same IP address increases, so does the number of pointless DNS requests.

Re:Huh?

[fm6]

Take a look at what's already out there. Mostly over 500 Telnic employees grabbing henry.tel and david.tel. Yawn.

These all seem to follow a template. Obviously Telnic told all its people to create domains to help publicize the product. Teensy little mistake: the pages do nothing to obfuscate personal email addresses. Got spam?

Re:Huh?

[Lumpy]

MY toilet doesnt need an IP address. NAT is fine...

but it does twitter...

11:43 @lumpytoilet -- Dog drinks from bowl
12:14 @lumpytoilet -- seat put down
12:28 @lumpytoilet -- FLushed
12:29 @lumpytoilet -- FLushed
12:30 @lumpytoilet -- FLushed
12:31 @lumpytoilet -- FLushed
12:32 @lumpytoilet -- Plunger RFID detected
12:33 @lumpytoilet -- Water on floor detected

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone quickly grab in.tel!

Re:Huh?

[rjstegbauer]

perhaps you mean IP address space? And if so, people are basically flushing those down the toilet by giving every device one (including their toilet).

This reminds me about an email I received eight years ago.

Subj: The Internet at house level

Telephone: Ring! Ring!
Clerk: Hello, networks are us.
Man: Help, I need the SNMP management code for an American Standard!
Clerk: American Standard what? Router, bridge, brouter, lan?
Man: Look, I need to shut down my toilet! It's leaking all over the place and I need the computer code to tell my house to stop it!
Clerk: Why don't you just turn the water off?
Man: I'm in Los Angeles, my house is in Phoenix! My house sent me a page telling me to read my E-Mail. The E-Mail message said there's water on the bathroom floor. I pinged the sink and the tub, and both of them say they are off, but when I tried to telnet to the toilet, it said all connections were in use!

This brings new meaning to the term, "Dropping packets all over the floor."

Well...I think it's funny...and silly to have a toaster or even fridge connected to the internet.

Randy

Re:Huh?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Exactly. There is no privacy options. Its one central phone book where people can put all of their contact info. But there is no filter. Might be good for companies, but not individuals who value their privacy and identity.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to buy dont.tel to go with my donta.sk domain.

Re:Huh?

[Ender_Stonebender]

Actually, an internet-connected fridge I can kind of see, now that we've got various forms of wireless internet in so many places. Connect to the fridge's HTTP server, it turns on the interior light, takes snapshots of what's on each shelf, and serves them back as a webpage. Now I *know* what's in my fridge, instead of trying to remember while I'm at the grocery store. (Granted, eight years ago it was kind of silly, since there wireless internet was much less common.)

However, an internet connected toaster...well, if you're far enough away to need to get a toast status update through the internet, the toast will be cold by the time you get to the toaster to take it out.

Re:Huh?

[Big_Monkey_Bird]

http://go.tel/it_on_the_mountain

Re:Huh?

[LordNimon]

I don't know about you, but I would need several cameras for each shelf, all of which are capable of thermal and x-ray scans, to find out what's in my fridge. Today's packaging just does not lend itself to determining the contents of your fridge just with a few glances inside. And what about the pantry? How many times have you bought something in the store, only to find out that you already have it, but it's hiding in the back of some top shelf?

What I want is a way for me to tell the fridge that it's time to buy something. Then the fridge can generate a shopping list, sorted by supermarket aisle order. It knows the order because it communicated with the supermarket's inventory server to find out where each item is located.

Re:Huh?

[pragma_x]

Mostly over 500 Telnic employees grabbing henry.tel and david.tel. Yawn.

I'm actually looking forward to the more creative uses of .tel like "william.tel", "canyou.tel" "icant.tel", "whocan.tel", etc.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder why there Henry and David are so eager to give out private information as "home phone" and "email".

Maybe the idea is to unite all privacy-careless people under one domain, so they get the bulk of the spam, while the rest of us get a break.

Re:Huh?

[willworkforbeer]

2 million of you geeks and not one taking the bait? IP. Toilet. Insert punch line here. Lazy bastards.

Re:Huh?

[nabsltd]

Well...I think it's funny...and silly to have a toaster or even fridge connected to the internet.

But where do you draw the "silly" line?

Right now, practically every device in my entertainment rack has an IP address (DVRs, media players, TV, etc.). My web cams all have IP addresses. I see that some recent GPS units have IP connectivity (not things like cell phones with GPS, but standalone GPS).

I wouldn't mind if my furnace or air conditioner were connected, as long as the IP interface is secondary to old-fashioned ways of controlling them.

A toaster or fridge seems silly right now, but who knows about the future.

Re:Huh?

[ratnerstar]

Did anyone grab william.tel yet?

Re:Huh?

[Ender_Stonebender]

It's a refrigerator - shouldn't everything be at the same temperature, thus negating the usefulness of thermal imaging? And in my case, since it's just my wife and I at our house, keeping a lot of stuff in the fridge isn't a good idea, as lots of it will go bad before we get around to eating it, so one camera per shelf would be enough. I can see how for many people it would be, at best, insufficient, and for many, useless, since they have fridges so packed that the camera would only ever get a shot from a centimeter away from some package. And you're completely right about the pantry also needing a similar type of system - although I think that the x-ray side would be MORE necessary there, since even more things there are in cardboard boxes and very little is in jars or bottles.

And unfortunately, getting access to the supermarket inventory system is unlikely to happen - they make lots of money on impulse purchases, which they encourage by forcing you to wander around the store wondering where the hell the olives (or whatever you happen to be looking for) are.

Re:Huh?

[I'm not really here]

Um... read a bit about it - there is a privacy feature.

Re:Huh?

[eudaemon]

Why would you need a camera when an RFID gun can just ping all the things within range?
One RFID gun in the fridge and you are done. Of course it does nothing for things like "how full are you, Orange Juice?"
and "how old are you, Sour Cream?" but I'll leave those details to the implementer. handwave. handwave.

Re:Huh?

[turbidostato]

"As the number of domains that point to the same IP address increases, so does the number of pointless DNS requests."

No, they don't. It does increase the number of pointless DNS registers, but not the number of requests. Or once you reach www.example.com will you search out of curiosity if per chance www.example.net does exist too? As a general matter, in order to reach any given resource you launch just one (batch of a) query, no matter how many registers does point to that same resource.

Re:Huh?

[jonbryce]

How old are you is fine, because the RFID tag can have the best before date on it.

Re:Huh?

[MooUK]

As demonstrated by, for example, Tesco's online shop here, you can still encourage impulse purchasing online. You just need to advertise appropriate products and offers while the customer browses for what they want. Linking it to a loyalty card and tracking what the customer has bought before allows you to suggest offers that would interest them and hence make them buy more.

Works on me. Too well, sometimes.

Re:Huh?

[cgenman]

why do we have more tld's anyway? Comcast will need both comcast.com and comcast.tel anyway. And the end user experience is the same between "company.tel" and "companytel" with an implied.com.

Why do we still allow this to happen?

Re:Huh?

[Archangel Michael]

Mostly over 500 Telnic employees grabbing henry.tel and david.tel.

If I had known, I would have picked up WILLIAM.TEL

Re:Huh?

[cgenman]

What about a simple way for Internet connected devices to broadcast to the local network "Oh Poop, I'm on fire." Your router hears the ping, and routes a message to your e-mail and SMS.

It would be nice to hear about catastrophic failures.

Re:Huh?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

I did read about it. Read the faq on the website, the article slashdot linked to and a few others, with out seeing any privacy info. The only place I can find information about its privacy blocking features is in the stupid video on telnic's website. Do you have any more information on how privacy is supposed to work, or a link to such information?

Furthermore, it removes some of its use case to have privacy configuration on a universally accessible directory. It sort of depends if its locked to devices or by a paraphrase. If its a pass phrase my friends have to have that( along with the paraphrases of all of their other .tel buddies) with them at all times and can't leak it ever. If its by device it removes some of the utility of having it accessible by a variety of devices. I have to reauthorize his cellphone every time he gets a new one ( with some people that's a frequent occurrence). Faced with those challenges most people won't end up opting to use the security, which will set this up as stalkers, spammers, and information thieves wildest dream come true.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, me. I thought ".tv" though it's MILES better than this, seemed a bomb as well.

But I would like to see ".xxx" or ".porn" if (and only if) all the porn sites moved there. It'd make the job of keeping the two separate a lot easier.

These kinds of things..."tel" to indicate a telephone (and only in English) seem kinda childish.

Re:Huh?

[I'm not really here]

http://www.telnic.org/individual-discover2.html

Video explains it in detail. They request a login username and password to view your information. You authorize them. You have full control over which items appear to which people you've authorized.

It's still crap, but it's there.

Re:Huh?

[Dan541]

Icann profits are never a half assed idea

Re:Huh?

[snoogans126]

The fridge should at least know when the fridge first encountered the Sour Cream, not exactly "how old are you", but reasonably close.

Re:Huh?

[zaivala]

OK, I want to register william.tel ... someone sharpen my arrows...

Re:Huh?

[Fred_A]

As the number of domains that point to the same IP address increases, so does the number of pointless DNS requests.

I see that I'm not the only one that has set his DNS to try to resolve host.domain.$TLD for each and every $TLD in existence. Then it just picks an address at random and returns it.

It makes the network much more interesting. So they are *not* pointless requests.

Re:Huh?

[dintech]

do.tel

Re:Huh?

[Jugalator]

http://celebrity.tel/

WTF?

You can navigate further in that "hierarchy" of shit.

http://images.gisele-bundchen.models.celebrity.tel/

Umm, was this the intended purpose?

Re:Huh?

[dintech]

And about the same level of intelligence as other twitter users.

Re:Huh?

[homb]

I'm the henry.tel there...

I really don't care about the domain name itself. You can have it. (in fact it is available right now). The point is that I don't want people to have obsolete info about me.
So I need to store it somewhere it's always easily accessible by anyone. Thus the Internet. But I also need to make sure no one stops that service, as this is critical to me. It needs to stay with me hopefully till I die. Thus the need for a TLD.

Re:Huh?

[homb]

You can call it half-assed and crap, but I would contend that DNS is actually totally wasted today. It's a phenomenal distributed data store that's barely used to point a name to a couple of IP addresses.
With .tel we're actually starting to use the DNS for what it was build for.

(I work with Telnic)

Re:Huh?

[homb]

slashdot users need a bit more technical info:

http://rikkles.blogspot.com/2008/05/privacy-in-tel.html

Privacy is very simple yet very powerful:
Essentially you 1024-bit encrypt your phone number with your friend's public key and store it in a unique subdomain for your friend. So only your friend knows where to get the info, and only he's got the private key.

Re:Huh?

[homb]

It's the other way around.
You get your .tel and you publish in it your sip, xmpp, voip, im, etc...
Then when you meet someone and want to give him your info, you simply give him your .tel. He'll be able to see and choose which communication channel he prefers to use to communicate with you.

Re:Huh?

[Rysc]

You describe an amusing fantasy that is entirely at odds with human behavior.

Today anyone can, with no real effort, put up a web page with the same information and give out the URL, which could easily just be a domain. Any company could put up a service exactly like this. It is completely unnecessary to have a new TLD to get this done.

So what, exactly, is the point? If a service like this were useful it would have been done already and have been successful.

.mobi?

[larry bagina]

sounds like .mobi. And probably as irrelevant.

Re:.mobi?

[Anonymous Coward]

he got a whole TLD to himself? awesome...

Re:.mobi?

[jonaskoelker]

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTLD) .mobe was created at the same time as .cat, .jobs, .post, .tel, and .travel.

imagine owning www.steve.jobs. I vote for a .koelker gTLD ;)

On a less serious note, imagine www.lol.cat...

Just in under the wire

[MosesJones]

Brilliantly "I CANN but I shouldn't" manages to win the dumbest, stupidest, most pointless idea of the whole sodding year.

I mean just having a "standard" of I don't know VCF and using MIMEtypes from a web page would give you the ability to do this sort of connectivity address book stuff within the existing infrastructure. Now the idea is that everyone should register an equivalent .tel (errrr how do they do that when there are different companies at the .com, .net, .org, .co.uk, .fr etc addresses).

Quite astonishingly badly stupid and I applaud their genius by making sure it will be in everyone's mind as the "worst idea of 2008" is compiled. The only person who might be happy about this is the 2000-2007 undisputed winning partnership of Bush/Cheney for their "Threatening China", "What Torture?" "What WMD?" "Mission Accomplished", "What problems in Iraq?" and many other household favourites.

As my mother said "Just because 'you can' doesn't mean 'you should'". I propose a name change to ICANN to "Please god no we can't be trusted with this responsibility"

too late

[Anonymous Coward]

all these one-roof TLDs would maybe have been worth something if they were there from the beginning. But everyone wants a .com because everything on the interwebz is a www.*.com or .org for organizations as if it lent credence to their validity. It's just far too late now and serves little use, and practically no guarantee of homogeneity.

wish i could tag

[theilliterate]

"dontaskdottel"

Uh, what?

[TheRaven64]

How is that meant to work? I already use existing domain names for 'Internet communication' services, like email and IM. I can already use DNS to map telephone numbers to these with RFC 2916 or map arbitrary domains to them with RFC 2915. So, what exactly, is the point of .tel?

Re:Uh, what?

[Hans Lehmann]

So, what exactly, is the point of .tel?

The point is to make money for the registrars, of course, since now every major web site will have to register foo.tel to go along with foo.com, foo.org, foo.biz, foo.info,......

Re:Uh, what?

[Kent Recal]

Aren't we beyond the point of "must own every tld in existence" by now?

I lived through that in my old company. They literally wanted all TLDs, not only for the primary name but also for most spelling mistakes. And for country-specific spelling mistakes (french people might make different mistakes than english people).

Consequently they had 1-2 fulltime employees doing nothing but domain registration and babysitting. Yes, domains do need babysitting when you're literally owning thousands of them from all countries of the world. Ever deciphered a russian expiry notice? Or tried to establish an office in some arabic country only so that you are allowed to buy a domain from them?

Long story short: Most sane businesses should have realized by now that they really only need the standard set (.com/.net/.org), plus the country TLDs for the countries where they're actually doing business. Everything else is wasted money. If someone squats your name on some obscure foreign TLD then so what? Ignore them or sue them into oblivion (trademark!) if they try to pull off scams in your name.

Re:Uh, what?

[Ihmhi]

Most sane businesses should have realized by now that they really only need the standard set (.com/.net/.org),

plus the country TLDs for the countries where they're actually doing business.

What about expansion, though?

What if there's a company that is currently US-only but may want to expand to other countries such as France, Japan, Germany, etc.?

If they buy the TLDs for those countries, okay, maybe they waste a few bucks a year per domain if they don't use them anytime soon.

Imagine if there was no yourbusiness.co.jp because they never operated in Japan before. Get popular enough, and that domain goes from $10 to $1,000 or more. That $1,000 could buy at least 100 domains for a year.

Re:Uh, what?

[Kent Recal]

Well, it obviously depends on the business we talk about and the likelyhood of them expanding to japan.
If a country is on your definate roadmap then, by all means, get the domain early.

Ofcourse there's also no reason to buy the domains of the 10 or so most important countries, just in case.

Just keep it in proportion. My former company is literally spending tens of thousands of dollars yearly, on domains that they'll never use.
Many foreign domains are fairly expensive, ranging from hundred bucks a year up to a few hundred bucks. Plus many countries require you to establish some kind of business entity which adds even more cost.

Re:Uh, what?

[wikinerd]

Most sane businesses should have realized by now that they really only need the standard set (.com/.net/.org), plus the country TLDs for the countries where they're actually doing business.

I really cannot comprehend why one would want a ccTLD. com/net/org work just fine. In fact com/org are all we need, anything else is not needed IMO. Is it so difficult to set up a com/org and put a menu or homepage there asking the user the language and geography they want to use? For direct access use language/geography subdomains like en.example.org. Internet is supposed to be a world-wide medium, so I really see no value in maintaining domain names limiting you to a specific geography. Internet is globalisation at its finest and ccTLDs should be expired and replaced by non-geography specific TLDs.

I want Rocking Toys

[Anonymous Coward]

http://mat.tel

More like a move to make $

[blahbooboo]

Seriously, they need this for what real reason other than some cash to ICANN?

Enum

[Imagix]

Uh, didn't this used to be called Enum? (e164.arpa.)?

Re:Enum

[drspliff]

Yes.. and why do I even bother having me@example.com coming through to my VoIP phone wherever I am, along with email and OpenID? SRV and MX records are doing nicely for now.

So tell me, why again do we need .tel?

Re:Enum

[byolinux]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENUM

Re:Enum

[Qzukk]

Uh, didn't this used to be called Enum? (e164.arpa.)?

Given a phone number, ENUM told you how to reach that person. .tel seems to be a hierarchy, (badly) organized by names, occupations, locations, and whatever else they felt like using to answer the same question when you don't have the phone number.

What happened to .net?

[ampmouse]

I could be wrong, but this sounds very similar to the purpose of the .net TLD! Why so many new useless TLDs?

Re:What happened to .net?

[Mr. DOS]

I was going to post the same thing, but it looks like this is intended more for directory services as opposed to websites for entities offering services relating to networking and the Internet. I think.

Hey, at least it opens up more domain hacks! ;)

      --- Mr. DOS

Re:What happened to .net?

[Derrike]

I personally own a .net TLD and use it for nothing but the finest of shenanigans.

Re:What happened to .net?

[jonadab]

Personally, I consider any site to be highly disreputable and refuse to trust it at all if it doesn't have a domain in .com, .net, .org, or a first-world country-code TLD. I realize this is narrow-minded and insensitive of me, but I consider it to be reasonable anyway, given the popularity of obscure TLDs with illegitimate and fraudulent sites. If your domain is registered in a TLD belonging to a set of coral atolls that probably don't even have internet connectivity, you might about as well just use the IP address as your URL, as far as I'm concerned.

I do make a special exception for certain "gimmick" domain names, like last.fm for instance, but even there my patience with knock-off/copycat/follow-on sites will be severely limited.

YAY! Just what we needed!

[Farmer Pete]

As if we don't have enough TLD's already...

I think the part that gets me the most angry is, have you ever tried to tell someone your email address over the phone when it doesn't end in com/org/edu? My company was apparently late to market with their webpage, so we have a 20 character dot com address and an incredibly short .biz address. I used to choose the .biz because I thought it would be simple for people to understand. I'm very careful to enunciate my letters, but these people are clueless. No matter how much I tell them B as in Bravo, I as in Indiana, Z as in Zebra, they end up with DIC...Seriously, if there even was a .dic TLD, would you want to be there???

Yawn

[gruvmeister]

I'm still waiting on .porn And then maybe we can do some more TLDs like .amateur, .milf, .scat, or .tranny - you know, to keep things organized.

Re:Yawn

[mcgrew]

I want a .nerd TLD so I can register mcgrew.nerd

Re:Yawn

[shvytejimas]

You could get a .geek at OpenNIC...

Re:Yawn

[wikinerd]

I had really thought about creating a .nerd in OpenNIC. There is already .geek but geeks and nerds do have differences. If there are other nerds around here who would like to set up a .nerd in OpenNIC send me email and I think I can help.

Re:Yawn

[houghi]

What about other people with the same name who are nerds?

Half-assed indeed

[DesScorp]

I can understand something like the .XXX tld, for the purpose of openly idenfitying what a site is (and ease in blocking porn sites in school LAN's and such), but otherwise, creating this raft of tld's is a really silly idea. We've just now gotten to the point where most users don't think everything ends in "dot com". The proposed system of hyper-classification won't be a boon to anyone but domain squatters and con artists. And for the non-technical public, it'll be just plain confusing.

Even as quickly as it was thrown together, the concepts of the internet were relatively simple, commonsense, and workable, if not always elegant. We should keep it that way with a minimum of monkeying around. No more .aero's, or .biz's, or .tel's.

Re:Half-assed indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell, I'd just rather see domain names used in a more hierarchical fashion.

protocol://tld.domain.subdomain.host/folder/subfolder/file.extension seems like a lot more sensible way to arrange things, instead of our current host.subdomain.domain.tld arrangement. Of course, we still write dates in a fucked up order here in the US, so I guess it makes sense that we would arrange domain names in a stupid fashion.

Purely pedantic when there's bigger fish to be fried, I know. Still, it's just one more little thing about domain naming that rubs me wrong.

Re:Half-assed indeed

[Bertie]

Well actually they used to be arranged that way (like newsgroups, from general to specific), but it was reversed in, I dunno, 1993 or so. I remember when I started at university in 1995 it was still possible to send emails to people with the domain arranged that way round.

Re:Half-assed indeed

[digitalunity]

I believe Gopher was like that. That's digging deep though and might be wrong, since I haven't used gopher in probably 15 years.

Re:Half-assed indeed

[mad_ian]

Believe the ISP tech monkey that answers phones every day... there are LOTS of people that thing everything still ends in .com

I tell them "for the incoming mail server, put in mail dot foobar dot net"

DAILY I get someone who types in mail dot foobar dot net dot com

~DW

Re:Half-assed indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

A .xxx tld is a horrible idea, one that very much threatens the free speech do often defended here. If a .xxx domain were to pass, it wouldn't be long before all adult content were required to be registered as .xxx, and some sites not intending to be seen as porn sites could be put in the .xxx tld ghetto.

Re:Half-assed indeed

[hotdiggitydawg]

I can understand something like the .XXX tld, for the purpose of openly idenfitying what a site is (and ease in blocking porn sites in school LAN's and such)

Yes, because it is absolutely impossible for anyone to figure out "who is" the owner of a blocked domain name and IP address, and then browse to that host by IP address. Especially teenage children, who demographically are the most inept computer users.

Seriously, the justification provided for the XXX TLD was not half-assed. As far as ideas go, it was more like an infected blackhead on the surface of an inflamed haemorrhoid attached to the prolapsed sphincter of whatever was left of the ass.

Frankly, you should be embarrassed for even bringing it up. And see your doctor for some topical cream or something.

People don't know what a TLD is and should use...

[Anonymous Coward]

google or some other search engine to type a URL. Its simply not safe to blindly type a URL, I'm sure you have been to "one of those sites" by accident by misspelling a URL.

I work with a bunch of computer geeks, and even they don't know the difference between .com and .org. I guess .tel will really clarify things for people.

Start with the obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

mat.tel
nex.tel
all.tel

Re:Start with the obvious

[damn_registrars]

Good choices, there:

mat.tel

The makers of Barbie and other such important toys.
nex.tel

A cell phone provider no longer in existence, since being purchased by Sprint.

all.tel

A cell phone provider soon to be no longer in existence, since having been purchased by Verizon.

Re:Start with the obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

win.tel

loldomains

[w0mprat]

ICANNhas.cheezburger?

Re:loldomains

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, there is .er, so in theory, someone could register cheezburg.er or so. Unfortunately, the domain seems to be abandoned/non-functional in practice.

.wtf tld lol

[girlintraining]

I think we should register the .WTF TLD and use it as a "parody TLD for anyone who wants to mock a trademark"

Re: .wtf tld lol

[Anonymous Coward]

Just need to convince the Wildlife Trust Fund to get a whole TLD in their honour.

Re: .wtf tld lol

[willworkforbeer]

Maybe better to do .FTW as a TLD

Then you get to have your favorite mock subdomains, e.g.

RIAA.WTF.FTW

Re: .wtf tld lol

[Dynedain]

Dibs on tel.WTF!

Re: .wtf tld lol

[Anonymous Coward]

good call!

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[mcgrew]

As if we don't have enough TLD's already

Can you get your last name.com or .anything? I snagged mcgrew.info when .info frst came ou, but let it lapse. I doubt seriously I could get it back.

IMO we have no where near enough TLDs.

Way to go, ICANN

[damn_registrars]

Wow, I don't know if they could be more clueless if they tried. Last month they announced that they want to start selling new gTLDs, and now, in the wake of the widespread presence of bad data in DNS, they are announcing a TLD for more DNS data?

What problem are they trying to solve here?

Re:Way to go, ICANN

[Kabuthunk]

I believe they would be trying to solve the "I want more money" problem. Given the .tel TLD now exists, I'd say their method of solving the problem appears to be working.

Other problems, or problems that come up because of this? Pshaw, nuts to that... that first problem needs more solving!

Wikipedia entry

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one who thinks the Wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tel - reads like a Telnic (sponsor of the TLD) press release, complete with obligatory positive quotes?

Industry experts were positive to the demonstrations, with comments in blogs including author of Net Attitude[5] and founder member of the W3C John R. Patrick stated "I think this will be a big deal."

Re:Wikipedia entry

[tomalpha]

Look at the edit history - almost all from a "Justinhayward". There just happens to be a Communications Director @ Telnic named Justin Hayward...

Look you can even see his new .tel page

Re:Wikipedia entry

[Anonymous Coward]

Look you can even see his new .tel page

Very informative!

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[compro01]

Seriously, if there even was a .dic TLD, would you want to be there???

\

I'm sure grammar/spelling fascists would find it appealing.

Given that usage, block all mail from .tel

[Animats]

Given that the purported usage of .tel is for non-mail applications, all mail from ".tel" should be blocked. Don't even accept a SMTP connection.

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Seriously, if there even was a .dic TLD, would you want to be there???"

You bet!! The first thing I would do would be to put up a gay twink site at "17yearold.dic"

There has to be money in that.

Article Summary is From wikipedia

[Anonymous Coward]

The submitter and editors didn't even remove the footnote reference! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tel

It seems like

[amliebsch]

TLD's are the new Usenet prefixes. Coming soon: .alt! .rec! .talk!

Re:It seems like

[Anonymous Coward]

in before tpb registers binaries.alt

It's a money-grab...

[Animaether]

Yeah, I know "dur - of course it's a money-grab".. but I really wish that the various organizations involved would just come out and say so as well.. "We will allow any TLD as long as you give us enough money and it doesn't offend governments too much."

Apart from john.doe.tel - check out friends.jennifer-aniston.hollywood.celebrity.tel .

Now, it's possible somebody actually registered that (for $$$ - how much $$$ I don't know as you apparently have to sign up first.. whatthe.) but I'm just going to go with telnic seeding their .tel domain with as much crap as they can to make it look more busy and popular... like that guy on Slashdot with his dating site with a ton of fake profiles and saw nothing wrong with it as that's the only way to get a successful launch. That guy may have been technically right, and so is Telnic - but morally? psha.

Can't wait for it to get popular though... replace Plaxo and va-voom.. suddenly I'll get invites to join the latest social networking element fad.. a .TEL domain .

Domain squatting, here I come!

[dave562]

in.tel is mine and those bastards can pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Or, cough up a million bucks. I thought about taking AMD.tel, but it just doesn't have the same appeal.

Re:Domain squatting, here I come!

[nuclearhazzard327]

I Call IBM.tel, AMD.tel, ATI.tel, Nvidia.tel, Toyota.tel, Honda.tel, BMW.tel, Apple.tel, Obama.tel, BarackObama.tel, PresidentObama.tel, BillGates.tel, and other various companies and famous names...and the price for me to release them 500,000 GBP a piece ya american wankers

Re:Domain squatting, here I come!

[djrok212]

Or just sue you for copyright infringement and make YOU play their legal fees.

Re:Domain squatting, here I come!

[dave562]

Like my INvolvement in TELephony really infringes on their copyright. ;)~

Re:Domain squatting, here I come!

[dave562]

I think it's safe to say that you missed the joke.

Re:Domain squatting, here I come!

[Anonymous Coward]

in.tel is mine and those bastards can pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Or, cough up a million bucks. I thought about taking AMD.tel, but it just doesn't have the same appeal.

Might want to research the history of porsche.me before you find that to be even remotely a good idea...

Re:Domain squatting, here I come!

[Kabuthunk]

Except of course that "in" is extremely vague, ignoring the fact that you get "Intel" with a period in the middle. All he has to do is put up a site that's valid for non-intel, non-squatting purposes (it writes itself... "Here's the INformation about me and my website"). Guess what, now it's a coincidence it's almost "Intel".

Course, MikeRoweSoft's website was shut down, so y'never know.

Re:Domain squatting, here I come!

[dave562]

It's tough to crack jokes with geeks. Too many of them always take things so literally. Come on now guys. If I was really going to squat on in.tel with the intention of trying to get money from Intel, would I really post about it here on /. first?

I knew I should have trademarked my own name

[binary.bang]

I could be registering it _right now_ on .tel -whisper- for an obscene amount of money -/whisper-.
anyone know how much registration will cost for individuals at the start of the "landrush" period?

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[internerdj]

Seriously, if there even was a .dic TLD, would you want to be there???
I wouldn't want to be there but I can think of several people I would recommend to be moved...

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[Farmer Pete]

Guess what...Not everyone can have their own top level domain to match their last name. Lets for a second imagine a world where we even wanted to try this...Think of how many top level domains we would need before all of the smiths could have their own top level domain. I can imagine it now, "Hey! I just opened my new webpage www.smith.0xA48C549B...isn't it catchy? But when you figure out there are 3 million people with the last name smith. Good luck making 3 million tlds that have meaning. Okay, so your last name isn't quite so common as Smith, lets see how many McGrews are out there...10,795...Please give me a list of 10795 meaningful top level domains when you get a chance.

I personally am a little luckier. There are only 330 people with my last name, and I am the only one with my first name. Yet my lastname.com is not available. :-( Like I'd even want it if it was. Isn't the point of the internet anonymity?

An IP in every pot

[jDeepbeep]

people are basically flushing those down the toilet by giving every device one (including their toilet).

We may see that in the not too distant future

I'm confused.

[Joe Snipe]

If I got a .tel would I be required to use it as prescribed, or would I be free to put whatever I like? The current example pages remind me of those placeholder pages the squatters use, and based on that I expect this will be a sea of noninformation by the end of next year.

Spy

[cpugamerbb]

Don't forget WeSpyOnYou.tel and also Immunity.tel

In addition to .tel

[Quiet_Desperation]

They also created the .sho domain.

Re:In addition to .tel

[Kyont]

OK, no mod points to give you, but I for one thought it was funny!

Dibs on ShowMeDont.tel, not to mention ShowAnd.tel for my kids. You can have OnWithThe.sho!

Re:In addition to .tel

[hotdiggitydawg]

.tel someone who cares.

What a racket

[Bertie]

1. Come up with new TLD
2. Watch corporations flock to register theirname.tel because they can't afford for squatters to get there first
3. ??
4. Profit!

Repeat every time you feel the need for a new revenue stream.

Nice work if you can get it.

Oh Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do.Tel?

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[mcgrew]

You misunderstand what I mean. If you have a TLD for .food and another tld for .aero, mcdonald.food could take you to McBurgers, while mcdonald.aero would take you to McDonald Aircraft.

mcgrew.nerd might take you to me, while mcgrew.funny would take you to the comedian with my name. I'm not suggesting that "mcgrew" be a TLD, just that there aren't enough TLDs to go around. I don't think five is a nearly big anough group.

Yet my lastname.com is not available

That's because the squatters took every goddamned name on earth back in the nineties.

Hold up just a second...

[Anonymous Coward]

I work with a bunch of computer geeks, and even they don't know the difference between .com and .org.

You don't just get the title "computer geek" for having the right job and a degree. ITT Tech doesn't count.

-tel present in slavic words.

[Anonymous Coward]

Many Bulgarian (and maybe other slavic) words end with -tel. The proto-slavic suffix -tel means "doer of the action", similarly to the -er in English.

However, IANAP(hilologist) :)

Re:-tel present in slavic words.

[berend botje]

You mean "dotel of the action", then, don't you? :-)

More dumb TLDs?

[Anonymous Coward]

.tel me about it!

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[Luyseyal]

Hell, it's even worse now that every two-bit wannabe mail administrator thinks he can block .info because "nobody uses it but spammers". I've talked with these people. They're like "get a gmail account. It's free." Free -- sure, but nevermind the investment I've made in having nice, short contact info. If you hadn't broken your mail system, I wouldn't have to go to this extra effort to deal with your idiocy.

-l

Cheapo news

[yerpo]

At least remove the reference link if you copy-paste text from Wikipedia... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tel

How is this different from .name?

[Ilyakub]

.name has been active since 2001, for the very same purpose. It's not very popular.

Re:How is this different from .name?

[shutdown -p now]

.name is just for "personal name-based" domain names, with no specific rules on what data is provided through such a domain name. It's supposed to be some sort of a personal web site, but it does not need to be. This .tel thing is different - it's point is to encode your personal information, in a strictly defined format, directly in the DNS entry for your domain. So it's more like a vCard database on top of DNS.

I still don't understand why it is supposed to be a good idea, though.

Slashdot javascript problems

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot's javascript has had problems for a few months now...

Error: Unknown property 'border-radius'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 167
Error: Unknown property '-webkit-border-radius'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 167
Error: Error in parsing value for property 'display'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 176
Error: Unknown property 'user-select'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 282
Error: Unknown property 'user-select'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 284
Error: Error in parsing value for property 'list-style'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 293
Error: Error in parsing value for property 'display'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 295
Error: Error in parsing value for property 'cursor'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 297
Error: Unknown property '-webkit-border-radius'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 303
Error: Expected color but found 'transparnt'. Expected color but found 'transparnt'. Expected end of value for property but found 'transparnt'. Error in parsing value for property 'border-top'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 340
Error: Expected ',' in media list but found 'and'. Unrecognized at-rule or error parsing at-rule 'and'.
Source File: http://images.slashdot.org/core-tidied.css?T_2_5_0_233
Line: 374
Error: Expected end of value for property but found '0px'. Error in parsing value for property 'border'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/12/02/1938204.shtml
Line: 420

it goes on and on...

Re:Slashdot javascript problems

[omnichad]

I think you misspelled CSS.

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[pragma_x]

"I'm sure grammar/spelling fascists would find it appealing."

So would the porn industry.

subdomain?

[jaymz2k4]

Is there some reason why we couldn't just have a 'standard' subdomain like tel.company.com or dir.company.com or whateverthehellmakessense.company.com ? Sure introducing the .tel means that naming convention problem is forcibly solved but maybe its because I'm getting older and more jaded, but i keep looking at the introduction of new tld's as a license to print money (almost).

Re:subdomain?

[homb]

You have to have privacy (i.e. data encryption with managed keypairs) and you have to know that the (sub)domain has the NAPTR records for communications.
Having a .tel ensures that your data in the .tel is properly set up. .tel has nothing to do with other TLDs except for the fact that you can buy your domain. It uses the DNS infrastructure in a totally different way: you don't connect computers to computers via A/CNAME records, but you connect people to people with NAPTR records.

Re:subdomain?

[jonadab]

> i keep looking at the introduction of new tld's as a license to print money (almost).

That only works if people buy the things. My suggestion is, don't. Let them take someone *else's* money. It's obvious that your customers won't know or care whether you have a .tel domain or not, so if you don't buy your .tel and a competitor or squatter snaps it up, how does that hurt you? They just wasted their money. Let them have it.

Frankly I'm starting to wonder about our .net domain (at work). The .org makes sense for us and is the primary one we use and advertise to the public, and of course you've got to have .com no matter what you are because people *will* look for you under that even if it doesn't make any sense. We'll keep the .lib.oh.us one because other libraries might look for us under that, and in any event I don't think it even costs us anything. (I think WINSLO or OPLIN or somebody like that just views that as something they do for all Ohio public libraries.) But I'm starting to wonder, if we let .net go and the squatters snap it up, would anyone even notice or care?

We sure as death and taxes don't need domains in .info, .biz, .tel, .name, .pro, .rec, .shop, .web, .pub, .store, .rec, .assoc, .books, .ohio, .club, .public, .private, .america, .free, .hobby, .cool, .hot, and .awesome.

I want /. tld

[Anonymous Coward]

... so I can confuse newbies even more

Eich tee tee pee, colon slash slash slashdot dot slash dot...

Hungry Net squatters want...

[buckeyeguy]

ro.tel

For Reference...

Poker.tel

[davidwr]

From: WinBig@Poker.tel
Subject: How to win in Vegas

[spam deleted]

TLD Diversity is Good

[billstewart]

There are three basic numbers of gTLDs we can support - a few, a few hundred to few thousand, and near-infinite.

• Right now we've only got a few, which means that policies are relatively rigid and relatively enforced, and there's not much innovation except at or below 2LD. .museum is about the only gTLD doing anything technically interesting, and otherwise it's just pricing and market segmentation (plus a few leftovers run by the US Government, mostly chaotically.) If you want to innovate, it'll cost you a few hundred thousand dollars and a year of begging ICANN to take your money and not add too many constraints.
• Near-infinite would be a waste; you could just as well pile everything under .com.
• But the intermediate range is interesting, because it's small enough to still be manageable and memorable, but large enough to have some diversity in how people manage domains. For instance, how do you resolve conflicts for a domain, other than first-purchaser with UDRP lawsuits? Maybe it'd make sense to have everybody who wants example.mytld to have a subdomain under it, with index.example.mytld explaining that sanjose.joesrestaurant.mytld is the one at 301 First St, while marin.joesrestaurant.mytld is the one on highway 101 in Marin? They've both got equal claim to any trademark on the name (and remember that the only IP that ICANN cares about is Intellectual Property), so why not give them equal treatment? Certainly for a personal-name kind of tld an approach like that might make sense, since there's a lot more name collision.

There are organizations that'll want to register under every new TLD, and other organizations that won't care, but if there are a hundred gTLDs, people will increasingly not care. (I'm surprised anybody who bought a .biz name when they were new would bother renewing it these days - too much spam and junk.) On the other hand, ICANN has the monopoly on the space, so they don't want to let the price drop unless they'll get really high volume - 20-50 gTLDs at $100K each make more money for less work than 1000 gTLDs at $1000, but maybe there's a market for 1000 of them at $10K.

So close!

[Tumbleweed]

I want the domain 'domain.tld' so badly...*sigh*

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[jonbryce]

I would be very wary about doing business with someone who had a .biz domain in a way I wouldn't with a .com, as .biz tends to be used by spammers and scammers.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:www.marines.com

[Anonymous Coward]

Not at all. DoD regulations pretty much state that .mil domains are supposed to be used only on DoD networks/systems (i.e. NIPRNET). If a DoD entity wants to host content on a commercial service provider, they should use a .com domain. Though in reality this isn't always consistent.

Re:www.marines.com

[Anonymous Coward]

The Marines are using the domain name marines.com in addition to marines.mil. Obviously this means they're in commercial business - attacking countries for hire, etc.

Well, you're not the first to make such an observation.

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes." -- Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler

Number of DNS requests is independent variable.

[Medievalist]

As the number of domains that point to the same IP address increases, so does the number of pointless DNS requests.

I don't think so; after all, humans will click the same number of times regardless. You haven't increased the number of index fingers or eyeballs by creating a wider namespace.

Incorrect -- email allowed, but not web

[nullchar]

That is incorrect. .tel specifically allows for MX records to be created in the second level .tel zone.

However, the biggest difference between this TLD and all others is that no A or AAAA records are allowed, unless they point to the TelNic webservers.

So you can run your own email under .tel, but not your own website.

.tel pricing

[nullchar]

from TelNic: "Registry will charge a USD$275 fee for an initial mandatory three (3) year term for each Domain Name registered as a consequence of any Landrush registration."

Now, if you wait until Open Registration, then you only pay $8 per year.

Re:.tel pricing

[binary.bang]

thanks nullchar. I'm not sure, but I just might be willing spend ~240 to get firstname.tel. I guess it'll depend on how much adoption by then

Premium cost?!

[oo7tushar]

So I looked up costs for pre-ordering from Netfirms.ca and it was $379 for 3 years. Quite comparable, don't you think?

Itteh Bitte ICANN Comittee

[jonaskoelker]

ICANNhas.cheezburger?

Only on www.lol.cat ;)

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[Farmer Pete]

The said thing is, part of the reason I give them the .biz name is because I only give people I care about the .com. That way I can filter out people.

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[Animaether]

"That's because the squatters took every goddamned name on earth back in the nineties."

Squatters... or other people like yourself?

By this I'm referring to:
"mcgrew.nerd might take you to me"

Sure, it might... but what would another nerdy mcgrew think of that? Or would you suggest they take mcgrew.theothernerd?

The whole debate hinges on extremes... either we should limit the things to ccTLDs and the original 5 (uhh.. 4?).. or, if we're going to allow the whole .museum , .aero, .tel, .andsoforth.. then we should just allow .anything and make the last part of a domain completely meaningless... which they already are anyway.. witness this comment;
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1049859&cid=25978511
"Most sane businesses should have realized by now that they really only need the standard set (.com/.net/.org)"

Let the auction begin

[blai]

in.tel?

Re:Let the auction begin

[homb]

No auctions.

Also no 2-letter domains (ICANN rule).

Re:Let the auction begin

[RMH101]

http://www.bt.com/

Always wondered how British Telecom got away with this.

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[shutdown -p now]

Can you get your last name.com or .anything? I snagged mcgrew.info when .info frst came ou, but let it lapse. I doubt seriously I could get it back.

Well, we already have .name for that sort of thing.

correction

[hitchhacker]

http://lolc.at/

-metric

Re:I can .tel you...

[Anonymous Coward]

Because evil cannot look in the mirror

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[mcgrew]

Squatters... or other people like yourself?

One well-funded squatter in particular. If you go to, for instance, mcgrew.com (or any other last name, even uncommon ones) you will be greeted by an email forwarding site that forwards email sent to mcgrew.com (or any other last name) to your normal email account.

As to mcgrew.nerd, well, mcgrew is a particularly nerdy name*, so like with other domain names it would be first come, first served. But my point is that as it stands now, there are no single-word domains left.

*

If I Ran the Zoo is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss in 1950.

The book is written in anapestic tetrameter, Seuss's usual verse type[citation needed], and illustrated in Seuss's trademark pen and ink style. The book is likely a tribute to a child's imagination[citation needed], because it ends with a reminder that all of the extraordinary creatures exist only in McGrew's head.

If I Ran the Zoo is often credited[1][2] with the first printed modern English use of the word "Nerd", in the sentence "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo/And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo/A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!"

Re:YAY! Just what we needed!

[RMH101]

My work email address is a .coop one. Try explaining that to people: a lot of web pages won't accept it as a valid email address, either.