McLaughlin Defends Site Finder As 'Innovation' 507
psimeonbeta2 continues:"Additionally (shades of Darl) he suggests that an anti-capitalism animus is behind the resistance to sitefinder. This despite the known problems that sitefinder caused and despite the fact that breaking the DNS standards may have constituted a breach of contract on Verisign's part. Resistance, he concludes, must be due to some sort of techno-religious fervor.
While Verisign's chutzpah certainly doesn't rise to fiaSCO levels, I find the similar tones in spinning the issues at hand to be truly disturbing. Not only did Verisign screw us by changing how the internet works at a fundamental level, now they purport to be irritated that we didn't thank them for the favor! At least in this case the good guys(cherish this moment, ICANN!) won."
Utter Crap (Score:5, Insightful)
If someone types in a bad domain name, they should get a message that states just that. I don't know if there are any statistics on this, but for me 9 times out of 10 it is a typo. If not, then you can go to the search engine of Your Choice and search for the name.
The decisions made over the next months and years will determine the future growth and vitality of the Internet
Should Read
The decisions made over the next months and years will determine the future growth and vitality of the Verisign.
Re:Utter Crap (Score:2)
Now, If you do not imediately grant me commercial control of all unused channel numbers on cable, all ungranted patents and all unused snazzy product names, the world will explode.
Re:Utter Crap (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Utter Crap (Score:3, Informative)
Innovation (Score:5, Interesting)
Why is everybody assuming that innovation is a good thing? Seems to me it is really a bad thing.
Re:Innovation (Score:5, Interesting)
Everything in moderation. It's no use polarizing the polemic.
It should be clear though, that what Verisign is doing is wrong, not because it wasn't done before or some very esotheric reason that only a slashdotter could come up with, it's because DNS is not only used by HTTP (as the ICANN very aptly explained). The very bottom line is that DNS is used by more than just humans. That being said, yet another point against them: DNS over HTTP is used by more than just english speaking people.
Re:Innovation (Score:4, Insightful)
There's also a new technical meaning for "innovation", which is synonymous with "monopolization". Whenever you hear Microsoft saying "innovate", substitute "monopolize" to extract the true meaning. Now it's the same with VeriSign(R).
Re:Innovation (Score:3, Insightful)
There's lots of bullshit out there which isn't doing the majority of people any good... and, in fact, is doing good to a
Re:Utter Crap (Score:5, Funny)
then redirectositefinder;
Oh my god i just stole verisigns innovation!
Re:Utter Crap (Score:3, Funny)
Forget "Utter Crap", he is a monumental ass (Score:5, Interesting)
More likely, ICANN caved under the pressure from some in the Internet community for whom this is a technology-religion issue about whether the Internet should be used for these purposes.
For this vocal minority, resentment lingers at the very fact that the Internet is used for commercial purpose, which ignores the fact that it's a critical part of our economy.
At this moment the veins in my forehead are bulging, and I'm envisioning a fate for this man pulled out of Crichton's Congo.
Apparently this gigantic ass doesn't realize that we are the critical people that make it function as a critical part of our economy. It also happens to be the fucking critical part of putting food on our plates. Somebody needs to get this through his thick head before the next time he hops into his 6 figure car heading back to his 7 figure house.
This unforgivable libel needs to be answered on the pages of news.com, and I think we should be petitioning to get this guy canned. He is not of the moral character I want near the big red button of the Internet.
I need to go cool off...
His rational (Score:3, Insightful)
Let someone else innovate (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Let someone else innovate (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Let someone else innovate (Score:2, Insightful)
These comments are already full of analogies of how silly his point. When you act as a register or a controller over some major infastructure you have a responsibility to manage it in a fair and impartial way. If you don't no one will go to you for your services. Then you can no longer do business...
Seriously (Score:5, Interesting)
With Verisign, there is no choice. They took a common community resource that should benefit all equally and biased it in their favor. They were selected as guardians of the system, not burdened with a mandate to "improve it". If they really think themselves clever, have them deploy a new, distinct system and compete for our patronage.
Re:Seriously (Score:3, Interesting)
It would be interesting if instead of typing in a mispelled name......it redirected you to a google search. I wonder how it would be received if they did that....and also
Re:Seriously (Score:3, Interesting)
Why bother theorizing the impossible? It is evident from their low key approach to introducing this service that they knew they were in the wrong. Why would they knowingly enter into such a situation unles
Re:Seriously (Score:4, Interesting)
Smooshing the layers together, for commercial benefit or otherwise, is not innovation.
There is significant benefit to several types of networks in not having clear separation of layers. Most ad-hoc networking systems maintain some type of routing cache -- such a cache would exist and operate at the network layer, but would probably benefit from utilizing information only present in the transport layer (you probably wouldn't want to throw out cached routing information for an open TCP connection).
A similar argument goes for IPSec and similar network-level security protocols.
In wireless protocols, it may be beneficial to utilize information from the transport layer (don't bother retransmitting UDP packets, for instance).
The isolated-layer structure provides for simpler state machines. This is a big deal -- they're easier to write, and easier to avoid bugs in. However, sometimes useful information is thrown out in such a situation.
No, no, no, No, NO! Baka! (Score:3, Informative)
They took something that worked to a well-established specification that's been around for decades and broke it. That is not good nor is it innovative.
But don't take my word for it. I will defer to this guy [slashdot.org] to elaborate and this guy [slashdot.org] to explain how stu
Innovation? (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a difference between actual innovation that benefits society vs. people just finding a way to take advantage of the system.
He is right! It is clearly innovation... (Score:4, Funny)
hmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
This sort of innovation followed by the "This will stifle innovation defense." must surely infringe on a Microsoft business process patent
I smell another lawsuit on the horizon.
Re:hmmmm (Score:4, Funny)
Smelling a lawsuit from a distance must surely infringe on a SCO business process patent. I smell a...er wait...nevermind.
Innovative wildcards? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Innovative wildcards? (Score:2, Informative)
Dock yourself one sys-admin point for unneccessary use of a wildcard.
In other news (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
Heartless? Undoubtedly. But also thick. Your health care system is one of the most inefficient in the industrialised world, and it still doesn't cover a large chunk of your population. High costs for drugs, corrupt marketing techniques, and stifling of medical research are characteristics of the US health care system. In comparison, un
Re:In other news (Score:5, Funny)
El, I have taken your concept and RUN with it. Below is a first-draft parody of the entire editorial. I think some parts are inspired, but other parts could use some help. It doesn't make Verisign's claims look as crazy as they are, yet. Anybody want to take a shot at rewriting my rewrite? I figure we can throw it up on a Web site with a similar look to it, and let the parody stand as a good rebuttal. Here it is.
Hobocorp's decision to launch a new Bum Gun service that gives panhandlers tools and options when they harass people for money has spurred a debate about the future of a safe society. It is a debate worth having, because at the heart of it is whether innovation in a safe society will be encouraged or whether the status quo is good enough. More than 20 million times a day, innocent citizens receive a barrage of requests for cash when they walk or drive by street beggars (such as stopping at a light and having the windshield washed whether requested or not). Those requests for cash can lead to a dead end, with no money given to the beggar in compensation for his efforts.
That's what Bum Gun is about. Instead of begging for cash, its users get an option to intimidate the citizenry, try a holdup or simply assualt the victim. Thus far, people have used these guns more than 40 million times to get the money they want to have.
While similar services have been tested and offered before, Hobocorp's Bum Gun has triggered debate because it hasn't been tried for non-mafia and non-gang related groups. Seemingly ignoring that fact, the police cast a vote last week for the status quo by forcing Hobocorp to shut down the service. We reluctantly agreed and are exploring our options.
The police appear to have bought into claims that our society's safety has broken or will break. Anyone who has lived through it in the last three weeks knows that claim to be false. More likely, the police caved under the pressure from some in the community for whom this is a 2nd-amendment-religion issue about whether guns should be used for these purposes.
For this vocal minority, resentment lingers at the very fact that guns are used for extortion, which ignores the fact that it's a critical part of our economy.
We respectfully disagree with those who, in the name of anti-gun rhetoric, strive to hold society back. Society as we know it today was built by expanding beyond its origins. When clans -- the first known humans to group together -- became prevalent thousands of years ago, its purpose was to provide strength in numbers.
Over the next few millenia, every stage of what we now know as human society caused fierce debate and controversy. By not being afraid to test and try new things, a set of laws and rights was created that now serves as the foundation for commerce and communications.
While the current debate is not the first over the future of society, it is critically important because it could well determine its future development. Our society has been used for many innovative purposes over the last century -- look at what the USA and the European Union have been able to accomplish -- but the reality is society itself, the infrastructure that serves as the foundation, has not significantly benefited from innovation.
This is a significant test for the entire planet because if the world can't find a way to introduce new services while reaching a resolution on legal matters that might arise, then society's infrastructure will never improve. It's tantamount to saying that the world is flat and therefore there is no need for further exploration.
If that is the case, it doesn't bode well for Earth. If beggars and con men are discouraged from exploring the bounds of the law, it will mean less research and development and less investment into firearms and assault weapons. In short, a weaker society.
That should concern the panhandling community, NRA members, thieves and white-collar criminals alike. Less investment means a less-stable gun-lobby long-term, with de
Of course it was innovation (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing is, not all innovation is good. In this case, VeriSign innovated, and most people didn't want their innovation.
If they like, they could provide the *exact* same innovation by distributing a fully opt-in browser add-on.
Innovate? Innovate? (Score:5, Funny)
I just innovated 4 of my domains over to
another registrar.
Re:Innovate? Innovate? (Score:5, Interesting)
What convinced me that this was the right course of action is that Thawte's slogan is "It's a trust thing." Well, yeah, it is and VeriSign has shown that it can't be trusted. So I guess I'll give my money to someone else.
Re:Innovate? Innovate? (Score:3, Insightful)
Look at it from both sides... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now looking at Sitefinder from the technical perspective, it's a scary ass "development". As once again, calling the wrong 800 number, the person could say "Oh this happens all the time, but I know a better place get (insert product/service here)! Try calling...", here in lies the devil!
It would be nice to have the feature in the first instance, but we all know that it will end up being served as in the second instance (besides all the anti-SPAM issues, et la). <rant>Since the CEOs of now are children of the 80's, everything always boils down to the all mighty $</rant>. BUT... is there any way that this idea could be put to good use?
Re:Look at it from both sides... (Score:3, Insightful)
So back to the base question: "Why?"
Answer more money into the Versign pockets.
Sitefinder not innovative (Score:4, Insightful)
The web browser is the right place to implement such a feature. Providing extended functionality to the user is the role of the user agent.
Implementing it all the way down in DNS is just bonkers.
Re:Sitefinder not innovative (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean if AOL wanted to put this sort of rule in their DNS server, more power to them. If cox.net wanted to do it, great. If my work wanted to do it fine. If they are prepared to suffer the consequences, and will allow me to route around it, I'm fine with it.
The people who run the core of the DNS system for the two most commonly typed domain names? Gosh darn irresponsible. Just insane. Bonkers. Foolish. Strange. Inappropriate.
I don't mind others breaking their perspective of the internet. However, I have serious issues with people who break my corner of the internet.
Kirby
Re:Sitefinder not innovative (Score:3, Insightful)
What is bonkers with COM and NET is, for example, if I type www.bonjourdefrance.com, I get a French only website. If I type www.bonjoudefrance.com, I'd get SiteFinder, in English, not French, which is clearly the language of the person doing the search. (And that person may not speak
Re:Look at it from both sides... (Score:2)
Granted, this COULD be taken as "this" refers to wilding-carding .com/.net, but it does not. "this", in this case refers to the idea of redirecting a user when a typo is made, nutin else Sparky.
No technical knowledge? (Score:2)
Re:No technical knowledge? (Score:2)
Well, an alternative technical solution does exist, it just wouldn't put money in Verisign's pockets...
Instead of returning basically an ad, they could instead compare the result against a table of, say, the top 1000 domains to see if they have a close match (such as off by one character). If so, return that as a likely misspelling.
This would solve two problems with
Re:No technical knowledge? (Score:2)
-interiot@am4z0n.com
The Internet Will Break... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit. This is clearly written from the perspective of the user, who will click the pretty buttons while completely unaware of what's going on in the background. Instead of asking "anyone who has used it," why not ask a DNS admin or someone who is similarly qualified to make a decision on this point? Those people will tell you loud and clear that this thing indeed caused serious problems.
Re:The Internet Will Break... (Score:5, Insightful)
DNS admins should have a louder voice on this not because they're "fellow geeks," but because when something goes wrong, they are the first to notice. Therefore, their opinion on the question of "did something go wrong?" is more important.
one problem (Score:2)
don't like the standard, than stand down as regsitrar and start your own internet!
Who's going to be the first to hack it? (Score:2, Interesting)
Host sitefinder.verisign.com (12.158.80.10) appears to be up
Initiating SYN Stealth Scan against sitefinder.verisign.com (12.158.80.10) at 06
Adding open port 80/tcp
The SYN Stealth Scan took 94 seconds to scan 1643 ports.
Warning: OS detection will be MUCH less reliable because we did not find at least 1 open and 1 closed TCP port
For OSScan assuming that port 80 is open and port 36304 is closed and neither are firewalled
For OSS
service and profit (Score:3, Insightful)
the annoying part is the opportunity for verisign to make a good profit out of this as there are quoted millions of mistyped URLs daily.
however who wants/can to provide a sevice (which costs money) for free? or even, who wants to not make a profit when there is profit to be made?
anyway, if site finder is associated with a neutral web directory like dmoz.org, it might be a different story.
"End to end" was the innovation. (Score:5, Insightful)
What was innovative was the concept of a network that just provided connectivity, and allowed the users at the network termini to provide the innovation.
To call SiteFinder innovative is like cutting the wings off an airplane and saying that you've created an innovative new form of ground transportation.
Exploitation of... (Score:2)
A quote from the article:
"That error page can lead to a dead end, with no options on how to get to where you tried to go."
Perhaps Mr. McLaughlin should try something like Google, where a service is performed at your request, not the advertiser's/coporations insistence.
Too easy. (Score:2, Funny)
I dub thee....
Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week!
"Innovation" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Innovation" (Score:4, Insightful)
' The word they are replacing is "invention." Only now we innovate, which is deliberately vague but seems to stop somewhere short of invention. Innovators have wiggle room. They can steal ideas, for example, and pawn them off as their own. '
Good Fertilizer (Score:2)
Excellent! Normally I'd have to pay top dollar for such high-grade bullshit.
Sitefinder itself is anti-capitalist (Score:2, Insightful)
Standard are there for a reason (Score:5, Insightful)
Innovation? No, world's second oldest profession (Score:5, Insightful)
Wrong place (Score:5, Insightful)
reducing choice != inovative (Score:2)
I would'nt exactly call reducing choice inovative at all.
oh dear (Score:2)
That has to be some sort of innovation record!
Invention vs. Innovation (Score:4, Interesting)
' But there is another issue here, one that is hardly ever mentioned and that's the coining of the term "innovation." This word, which was hardly used at all until two or three years ago, feels to me like a propaganda campaign and a successful one at that, dominating discussion in the computer industry. I think Microsoft did this intentionally, for they are the ones who seem to continually use the word. But what does it mean? And how is it different from what we might have said before? I think the word they are replacing is "invention." '
Perhaps Verisign will help the world see through this concept of "innovation" and let us get back to inventing things.
Where should innovation be done? (Score:4, Insightful)
</rant>
Sounds good to me .... (Score:2)
McLaughlin casts the debate over sitefinder in terms of 'innovation' versus the status quo and threatens that stifling 'innovation' will lead to a weaker internet.
Great. Where can I send donations to their lobby group/PAC that is lobbying for repeal of the DMCA/UCITA/Palladium/whatever and fighting for our digital freedom?
What? They have no such group? They don't really want to strengthen the internet in general? Just the parts that profit them?
Phew, glad that was cleared up.
Time to think about ... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.opennic.unrated.net/ would be a good start.
Innovation (Score:5, Funny)
Innovative? Try illegal. (Score:5, Interesting)
Hell, there isn't even an entry in sitefinder for every domain, (Try searching for my site, novasearch.net, on sitefinder. No hits.), so it's not even good at the task they purport it to be for!
Stifling innovation eh? (Score:3, Interesting)
I could make a special-toed boot specially designed for kicking people such as McLaughlin in the arse. I will of course, have features that makes it optimal for aiming directly towards that great rectal divide.
Then, when McLaughlin tries to press charges, I'll just state that my device is an innovation, and just because it damages the way he works doesn't mean it isn't useful to somebody...
Of course, I wouldn't have the power to force the masses to use such a device... but really I think that a swift-kick-in-the-arse is probably a lot more useful for many people than sitefinder ever was.
It's not the sabotage I mind... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm reminded, distantly, of a hoax that took place in the art world in the Sixties. A modern art exhibit was set up at a small downtown (NY) gallery, with about forty paintings, and an art critic for one of the major rags came down to check it out. He started doing this gush to the curator full of the usual ArtSpeak jargon, and then the hoax was revealed: the paintings were all the work of a two-year-old boy. There was a pause, and then the critic shifted gears as if nothing had happened and started gushing about the purity of a child's untarnished perspective!
The more I live, the more I see that people will do absolutely anything to pretend that everything is just hunky dory, even if it means being a consummate horse's ass. VeriSign are just the latest heirs to ass-dom.
He must be smoking crack!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Need I say that anti-spam applications, networked printers, mail forwarders and mobile IP users were hung because of these highly-modified genetic root servers?
Should I point out that Mae-West traffic actually shot up because spammers were having a wonderful and rare day for unfeterred spamming?
He must be smoking crack...
Internet Explorer (Score:5, Interesting)
In contrast, sitefinder's suggestions were never even close and it broke protocols to boot. Amazing here that Microsoft could actually have come up with the right solution. I never liked their error pages, but it was only because the error number wasn't immediately obvious. If they had just added "404" or "505" in big letters I would have been happy with them.
Someone ought to tell Verisign that they didn't innovate anything. Microsoft already had this idea, and they did it way better.
Why do we give corp. execs the time of day? (Score:3, Insightful)
Jesus, what else is this a**hole going to say? It'd be great if they could say what's really on their mind:
"Profit is our number one motivation. F*ck the Internet, f*ck standards, f*ck all you others who get in the way of us making a profit. We are duty bound to make money for our shareholders and we aren't going to apologize for it. Now f*ck off."
Instead, we all pretend they are making valid arguments when they talk about "service to the community," "innovation," and all the other "we care" b*llsh*t they spew. The bottom line is that when anything gets in the way of the bottom line, they will f*ck their own mothers to get ahead. The sooner we realize it the better.
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, some of us like having the choice to let the user-agent do that when NXDOMAIN is returned, which uh, it never is with Sitefinder.
(I mean, I like root beer. Therefore, I think that all fast food chains should make it the default, and not provide user choice... after all, I like it.)
-ben
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:5, Interesting)
Then to add salt to my wounds, they send me an e-mail saying that my domain name is expired and I should call a friendly Verisign scumbag^H^H^H^H^H^Halesperson to help get my domain back. This was the last domain I had registered on them, and it was moved to OpenSRS 5 months ago. I don't see how someone this incompentant and this greedy should be put in charge of something this important.
Moved domains... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:3, Insightful)
I mean, I like root beer. Therefore, I think that all fast food chains should make it the default, and not provide user choice... after all, I like it.
No, this would just mean that if you ask for a beverage (or entree) that they don't have, they give you root beer, and you can't return it.
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:3, Insightful)
IF the STATE has given you the sole authority to distribute beverages to all fast food chains, THEN you have an analogy...
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:3, Interesting)
1) There's nothing wrong with SiteFinder. What was wrong was unilaterally changing the meaning of all DNS queries regardless of purpose, in order to force us all to go there whenever we fat-finger a URL, breaking the other 65534 Internet protocols in the process.
2) Oh, boy, let's also stop requiring manufacturers to make screws with standardized threads-per-inch and pipes in standard sizes. We've been crushing innovation. Let gas stations sell 30-octane fuel if they like -- shoot, don't
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:2)
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:2, Funny)
That's so cool!
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:2)
personally, I just autocomplete (have to type it right the first time, and the first couple of letters...I know it's hard), or have it bookmarked...
I will agree that some of this was knee-jerk, but implementing this for everyone without anyone else's input was definatly the wrong way to go about it.
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:3, Informative)
Site Finder, however, takes EVERY invalid domain request from every kind of program on every platform, and breaks the DNS standard, with screwing over the other
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:2)
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:3, Informative)
I mainly use Mozilla and I use the Google toolbar from here [mozdev.org].
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:5, Informative)
So set your browser to do that. Most of the popular browsers will, and you can even chose your search engine.
No need to force that behaivior on every user of every Internet service. The Internet is not (just) the web.
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:5, Insightful)
Suppose your power company decided, all on its own, without consulting you or anyone else, that they were only going to supply 90 VAC to your home or office instead of the usual 120. Some pieces of equipment would work fine, others would simply fail, or even destroy themselves. You would probably not have any idea what the hell was happening. That's pretty much what Verisign did to programs that interact with
What Verisign did rocks the foundation of trust that other nations have in America's ability to operate such globally important services. Verisign's upper management needs an attitude re-adjustment, or better yet complete replacement with more ethical businessmen.
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:4, Interesting)
There WAS advance notice. And what didn't happen then was quite surprising: ICANN should have come down hard on VS for even suggesting that they might do this. They waited, and now they look like reactionary cowards instead of proactive stewards. ICANN looks weaker than Verisign at the end of the day, and Verisign isn't really discouraged.
I think they should ALREADY have their contract pulled, there should ALREADY be a termination date delivered to them, and there should be no discussion. THAT would send a message that says "this is not something you fuck with, and this is damned sure not a fuckup you have the opportunity to make twice in your position because, guess what, you're out of business. Have a nice live. Goodbye."
I really don't understand why that hasn't happened, except that ICANN is too weak and has too many conflicts of interest to make that happen and be done with it and we can wash our hands of Netsol and Verisign once and for all.
I don't speak for my employer, but they feel that way as well, and would say so with fewer f-words...
The more "innovation", the less invention! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm dubious. I read one of the very first, if not the first, announcements on NANOG, and it was after-the-fact (or approximately at-the-fact). There was certainly not the at *least* six months of warning that would be necessary for a change like this.
Also, has anyone noticed that Verisign and Microsoft, two of the largest tech companies that play the nastiest and are the *worst* at coming out with new tech (actually, to be honest, I don't know Verisign's history well enough to know whether they're historically like this or not) are the ones that *constantly* claim that any interference with their operations would "stifle innovation"?
I don't see Google pulling the "stifle innovation" card. Google's research lab comes out with exciting, helpful, interesting things on a regular basis. I don't see Apple pulling the "stifle innovation" card -- and while Apple may not be the tech luminary that it once was, it still comes out with decent and out-of-the-ordinary products. The only people claiming that their "innovation" is at risk are those who *aren't* innovating.
Re:The more "innovation", the less invention! (Score:3, Insightful)
Ha, there's even a proverb: "those who talk about it the most, do it the least."
Re:They didn't warn me. (Score:3, Funny)
While I agree with much of what you've said, I have to disagree that "there WAS advance notice".
If you shout your plans into a hole in the ground, that does not comprise advance notice. And since Verisign clearly can't tell assholes from holes in the ground, telling ICANN is... oh never mind.
I have been a DNS admin for well over a decade (I have a 3-character NIC handle) and they sure as hell didn't send me any advance notice!
What if your plans are on display at the planning office in the basement, in
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:5, Interesting)
As a developer of Internet-aware applications, Verisign already caused me some grief. We had a problem with one of our customer's data acquisition systems failing because they misconfigured the name of a remote server and the software couldn't tell! Ordinarily the software would have simply rejected the bad domain as unknown, but it (and we) had no reason to suspect that a long-time network standard would be violated simply because Verisign's marketing department saw an opportunity. So don't tell me this was no big deal: our problem was repeated the whole world over. I lost the better part of a day over it, and I have better things to do.
If Verisign wants to offer SiteFinder as a service
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I kind of like SiteFinder (Score:5, Interesting)
aren't effected by the things they broke. Lucky you.
However, for those of us that use other applications (email, ssh, IPSEC, etc.), which are suffering
incorrect error messages at best, and, significant malfunctions at worst as a result of this
action by Verisign, it's not a good thing. If you get a 404 page, you're welcome to go to
sitefinder yourself. You're welcome to go to google or any other search engine.
This isn't knee-jerk reactionism, it's response to painful stimuli. Additionally, Verisign made
this change without public review, without public comment, without public notice, and, without
approval from any of the governing bodies (IETF, IAB, ICANN) or the operational communities.
Further, when the governing body that owns their contract (ICANN) asked them nicely, they
refused to fix it. They had to resort to threatening legal action.
I hope this will help you understand the issue a little better and realize that most of the people
making the most vocal reaction are responding to real pain in trying to keep their networks
running. Most of us don't have time to be chicken little.
Owen
Re:Innovation (Score:3, Insightful)
Simple, they knew the stink it would cause. It is the same tatic I have used with my wife when wanting a new toy -- It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Re:lets think of it neutrally (Score:2, Informative)
Re:lets think of it neutrally (Score:4, Insightful)
What about the phone? I am sure that millions of people everyday dial a wrong number and have to do something about it. Most of us understand how to find phone numbers when we need them, yet we don't work for the phone company (NOTE: Author actually has worked for a Telco).
It is not impossible to find a site if you mistype it. I do that all the time, I just resort to typing a search term into my browser's search box and look for what I need.
If people have an implicit understanding of what to do and where to go for information, SiteFinder is redundant and useless. This is an issue of raising the technological savvy of a people at large, not obfuscating what is happening.
Re:what is it with these monopolies? (Score:2)
S'okay