That is, their “careers” rely on other people’s ignorance and poor judgment/decision-making when it comes to computing. If most computer users were as knowledgeable as the CircleID crowd, then there would be no need to employ such “professionals” to assist with simple computing concepts.

Do these self-proclaimed crusaders want to *educate* as a means to solving these problems they claim to be trying to solve? Or are they vested in keeping users dumbed down? I wonder.

Would they want all users to know as much as they do about all manner of “inane” computing topics?

Do they presume to know what users want when users themselves do not even know what they want, because users are kept in the dark?

What if users put the IP’s of their favourite hosts (domains) in their HOSTS file, gave them aliases, and stopped using the “domain name system” constantly each day? What if they periodically obtained a signed copy of the root zone from its authoritative source, as every user is entitled to do under ICANN rules?

What if users made up their own nicknames (aliases) in their HOSTS file for the sites they visited (much like “bookmarks”), to save themselves from having to remember IP numbers?

Who knows? “Domaining” might come to a halt. But so might spam, malware and other internet malfeasance. Those “spam fighters” and “security consultants” might have to find something else to do.

But users will never do that, of course. A three column text file? Too complicated. Instead, we can just be spectators on CircleID and criticise and complain about what other people do. Boring.

CircleID is waste of brainpower. Stop the silly “articles” and start writing *tutorials*.

Let’s face the facts.

Much of the nonsense that bothers us all (domain hype, spam, security bugs, etc.) is borne out of people’s laziness, general ignorance and reluctance to accept the computer for what it is: an automaton.

It’s a machine, and nothing more.

It understands numbers, not words, mouse clicks, hand gestures, sounds or anything else that we’ve dreamed up. Numbers. And only numbers.

If people didn’t mind using numbers to communicate with their computers, there would be no need for domain names. This particular case is not so excruciating to fathom. An IP address is no longer than a phone number.

This is not the 1970′s. Users have lots of RAM and disk space to work with these days. Storing a great deal of routing information on a personal computer is not a major challenge. There is ample room for 100′s, 1000′s or even millions of stored IP’s.

But hey, that’s too radical. Too simple. Surely it must be more complex.

No matter how “human” you try to make the computer, there are only so many instructions one can give to these chips. There is no beloved “recursion” as in the coder’s mind. It’s all that ugly “GOTO” type flow every coder seeks to avoid.

Well, the abstraction layer does not change the underlying problem: the computer needs numbers. It all just becomes numbers eventually.

But I wonder. Do we really, truly want to solve these problems? Are we willing to work a little harder? Can we accept some tedium in the interests of stabilisation?

Or are we just typing out thoughts on forums, like I am doing here, and those complainers over at CirleID are doing with respect to “domainers”.

Maybe they’re just having fun with it. Trolling in the presence of “domainers”. Maybe they are playing to an audience. If so, pay no mind to my observations. I know some of them participate in other lists where they do not make the same sort of silly comments. They appear “child-like” when posting to CircleID however.

Recall before computers became ubiquitous, what did you do to check out a book from the library? You looked up a *number* in the a card catalog. There was no escaping it, you had to use that number if you wanted the correct book. That is the system the libraries used. It was based on numbers. It is just one of many systems that rely on numbers. Humans can handle numbers just fine.

It is no different here. Numbers are still mandatory for the system to work. If you want this name nonsense to stop, CircleID complainers, then you need to educate users about numbers. If you are just hoping to see others fail, then I guess just carry on, as passive commentators.

btw, you have left out some facts in your recent “paper” on multiple live auctions, Alex. Aftermarket.com has conducted auctions with Moniker and Latona at TRAFFIC as well. . . TRAFFIC in Brooklyn 2008 had 3 auctions from the current live auction promoters. The results (link below) weren’t exactly stellar in comparing past results. : http://www.dmueller.com/2008/10/04/domain-names-domains/traffic-nyc-2008-domain-auction-results/

I’m surprised you gave this any space on your site Mike.

I’m not sure what you mean by bring back competition to live auctions?

I have no problem with competition your post seemed to argue against it wanting one central auction house or system for all expired domains.

So I’m confused

Nonetheless, this post, among others, makes an important distinction between speculation and investment.

Searching the industry blogs that I follow, I was unable to find any recommendations to bring back competition to live auctions. Can someone refer me to such a blog discussion or to why having more than one live auctioneer is bad?

As long as top domain players got deals with registrars and registrars ties to ICANN, things will remain same.

And that oldschool c*ck that missed the train can’t change it.

“A government big enough to give you everything you want (ICANN), is strong enough to take everything you have”.

Perfect…