.nz news & views

	Friday, 30 September 2005

Bank Direct Phish This morning a post on NZNOG detailed Yet Another Banking Phish (YABP) aiming at Bank Direct clients. The major thing that was different about this YABY was that the scum bag was using a .nz domain name of bankdlrect.co.nz. This means that the registrar and some degree the DNC has some 'power' over the inclusion of this name in the DNS and also its status overall. As of this 9.30 this morning the name has been removed from the DNS as it is now 'PendingDelete'. Kudos to the registrar Discount Domains on acting in less than an hour on this scum bag. Anyone foolish enough now thinking this is real will not fall for this type of fraud. Update: While YABY looked nice I realised I typoed and it should have been YABP. I will use YABY for something else :-) 11:29:00 AM      Like to comment? []

	Wednesday, 28 September 2005

ISPANZ website and incorporation The Internet Service Providers Association of NZ (ISPANZ) has finally released their new website. As of yesterday they also have a brand new shiny Certificate of Incorporation A couple of interesting things. One is that the details are as per the InternetNZ office on the incorporation details and also the InternetNZ logo is on the home page. Also two members wish to remain anonymous which will be very difficult as the ISPANZ membership details will become public knowledge in due course due to the incorporation. I wonder what impact, if any, this group will have on the DNC/NZOC and RAG (decoder rings are located in the normal location) advisory process for .nz. 3:16:00 PM      Like to comment? []

	Tuesday, 27 September 2005

DNC 200k story online At 1.03pm today DNC published this news story: Internet NZ announced today that the number of domain names listed on the .nz Register had just reached 200,000. Commenting on achieving this significant milestone with domain name registrations, Dr Frank March, Chair of the InternetNZ .nz Oversight Committee (NZOC) says, “We’ve all been delighted at how fast the two hundred thousand figure has come round. On 8 April last year the number hit 150,000; the last 12 months has seen over 30,000 names added to the registry, that’s colossal growth.” Whilst the Office of the Domain Name Commissioner and the NZOC took over the oversight of the .nz register in October 2002, the register itself goes back to the early 1990’s when in March of ’94 it stood at just 272. Since then growth has been exponential and in recent years has averaged 20% a year. Says Dr March, “The shift to a competitive environment in 2002, including the implementation of a Shared Registry System has proven to be a very worthwhile move for the industry. This latest figure of 200,000 endorses the fact we now have an industry that has never been healthier nor more robust.” Asked about his expectations for future growth Dr March added that for some time he had expected the rate of growth to flatten but that it hasn’t happened yet, “At this rate it looks like we could be celebrating 250,000 in the not too distant future!” 1:09:09 PM      Like to comment? []

200,000 gone, 800,000 to go! Today The Office of the DNC announced that the 200,000th name was registered yesterday. They claim a press release was made but it is not on the DNC site, the InternetNZ site or on any the media sites that I track. 12:45:34 PM      Like to comment? []

	Thursday, 22 September 2005

Ironic Stuff lead sentence On a story called Students 'can't write letters' on Stuff the following is the lead sentence: A provate trainer watchdog has investigated few complaints, partly because disgruntled students cannot write letters. Cute eh? 10:10:32 PM      Like to comment? []

	Wednesday, 21 September 2005

Interesting Technology and Internet Jurisdiction paper It is a common thinking that the 'Internet' makes it harder to enforce local laws. The thinking is the Internet can provide people with the ability to avoid all sovereign laws. The other day I found a great paper called "Technology and Internet Jurisdiction" by Joel R. Reidenberg. Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law. Read the abstract and download PDF from http://ssrn.com/abstract=691501 This paper debunks the popular conception with legal examples around the world on why local law is doing very well enforcing laws 'on the Internet'. 12:32:05 PM      Like to comment? []

	Tuesday, 20 September 2005

Welcome SSC Readers Wow, that is fast, within 90 minutes SSC has fixed the errors/mistakes I had pointed out on their site. Now, can you do something about my tax refund? :-) 4:00:21 PM      Like to comment? []

More on SSC quality control This is a good one. On http://www.dns.govt.nz/contact_us.php it has (bold has been added): "You can provide feedback, make requests not covered by the standard forms or note problems either by calling NAME on 04 NUMBER, or entering the details in the form below." Your parents must really have hated you to call you 'NAME'. Must be really confusing... 2:41:30 PM      Like to comment? []

Quality is Job 1.2b I took a quick read of the terms and condtions of the SSC Registrar at http://www.dns.govt.nz/terms_and_conditions.php Well, I spent about 60 seconds skimming the page and found an interesting moderating issue and a duffus moronic issue. First the moronic one. We pay these people I assume right? Well then look at the 3rd bullet under Applicant Agencies will:. "Consider using the 4th level for names that may not meet criteria (e.g., Use transactions.ird.govt.nz rather than apply for ird-transactions.co.nz)" Excuse me, for this to make sense the last domain name should read ird-transactions.GOVT.nz. And now for something you think the moderator of .govt 2LD would know. A LATE is 'Local Authority Trading Enterprise'. Now, the thing is LATE's no longer exist and are now called Council Controlled Trading Organisations (CCTO) effective from the Local Government Act 2002. Gee, these guys are on the ball eh? What else is wrong that I did not pick on a first pass reading??? 2:27:14 PM      Like to comment? []

	Monday, 19 September 2005

WTF are they smoking? Serious, I mean what the fuck. Really, I do. In this case I am talking about ICANN, those bunch of [power hungry/well meaning/crazed hippies/deluded do gooders] (take your pick) board members that are going to approve .CAT. No shit. Or should that be no kitty litter... or something... 10:06:53 PM      Like to comment? []

All your .govts are belong to us! I have been waiting more than a year for this. SSC has finally gone live with their registrar of .govt.nz domain names. Check out http://www.dns.govt.nz/ for your reading pleasure! It is rather heavy on the verbage so it will take a while to go through the entire site... 10:00:25 PM      Like to comment? []

Bugger The 'poking it with a stick' did make it reset its counters so it is busy publishing every post again. Sowwy! 9:55:56 PM      Like to comment? []

It's back! A few of you were aware that I had pronouced my blogging software dead. I have a client/server blog system and I had a recent HDD failure. The backup worked great other than the blog and some other small things. Well, Radio is a bit 'dated now' and no matter how many time I poked it with a stick it would not start up. Well, I gave it a little bit of 'tender loving care' and got the back end up and running tonight. I still plan to ditch Radio. Im looking for a new system.. be nice if I could import the Radio XML files into the new system, but if not that's ok. Comments welcome. Opps, I spoke too soon, its 95% back, I just noticed a couple of features I use are not here anymore :-( 9:52:45 PM      Like to comment? []