names

The iPhone name game: 2G, 3G, or 2.0?

There's near universal agreement that Steve Jobs is going to unveil the next iPhone at next week's Worldwide Developers' Conference keynote in San Francisco. Whether it's next week, next month, or next year, however, it raises a thorny semantic question: what will it be called? Most wags are dubbing it "the 3G iPhone," as it's certain to include the high-speed 3G (third-generation) wireless capabilities missing on the original model. But it's still going to be the second-generation iteration of the product--thus, "the 2G iPhone." Which one's correct? … Read more

How to register a domain name

On this quick tip, I show you how to register a domain name. Watch the video, then come back here for the details.

First, a quick look at how domain names work. When you type in a domain name, a request goes out to find out what server has that site.

The domain name is changed into a set of numbers that identifies that machine. The register table that tells what domain names go with what numbers is a registry. So to get a domain name you need to find a registrar.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers … Read more

This VC forecast scares the pants off of me

After the list of losers they pawned off in the lead-up to the Internet bust, I nearly always distrust the pronouncements of venture capitalists about the future. Of course, why hold a grudge? Isn't that the price you pay in a hit-and-miss business? For every few Webvans, there's always a Google to convince the world that these guys really know how to read the tea leaves better than most folks. I suppose so.

So it was that I was especially curious when the Churchill Club earlier this week invited some of the A-List venture capitalists in Silicon Valley … Read more

Where 320 people can't be wrong

EPISODE 94

Libe Goad joins the guys of the 404 to talk about how the Wii gets hacked, GTA IV gets a lot of cash, get in shape with Wii Fit, Boom some Blox and some silly-ass stop signs. We also make fun of her husband, but shh...don't tell him.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Pizza.com domain name fetches millions

Who would've thought a generic domain name would still have the capacity to pull in big bucks? Chris Clark, the seller of "Pizza.com," seemed a bit in shock after he managed to rake in $2.6 million from the auction of the domain name.

"It's crazy, it's just crazy," he told the Baltimore Sun after the close of the auction on Thursday.

Clark, who owns a software company, registered the Pizza.com domain name 14 years ago for just $20. Nothing fruitful ever really came of the domain, so he sat on … Read more

The word on Wales' Wikipedia woes

Sex. Money. Incriminating instant messages. From the news that's been pouring in recently, you'd think Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales were the tech industry's own Client No. 9.

In a series of embarrassing peccadilloes that were originally relegated to gossip blogs like Valleywag, Wales' failed relationship with former Fox News commentator Rachel Marsden took center stage when Marsden "leaked" some of their online chats to the Web and made quite the public display of auctioning some of his clothes on eBay. The usual blog storm followed: photos of other women with whom Wales had reportedly been … Read more

Domain name for Asia up for grabs

Next month, when the domain name suffix .asia goes live you can expect some eye-opening sales and court battles over who can own what and when. While the initial interest in .asia is no where near as strong as it was for .eu when it became available in 2006, the most interested parties will be speculators ready to grab a quick buck and companies trying to gain an edge or protect their turf. When .eu became available, there were more than 95,000 conflicting claims for domain names.

Read the full BBC News story: "Domain name for Asia up for grabs"… Read more

Rename files with ease

Batch File Renamer could've been called Easy File Renamer, because although it's cursed with a bland layout, that belies the effortless renaming of massive quantities of files.

The features combined with the tiny size make this one of the best freeware file renamers around. You can set entire directories to rename, and select all files, or filter out the ones you don't want to change by their extension. A handful of presets let you convert filenames to upper or lowercase instantly, as well as replace characters in the filenames, add a number sequence to the name, and for advanced users you can even run your own command line on source directory files.

Microsoft still learning name game

Microsoft has renamed its enterprise health care business to something with a whole lot fewer Scrabble points.

The software maker said the Azyxxi product line, which Microsoft acquired in July 2006, will now be known as Amalga.

"One of the health care enterprise's biggest issues is that providers and executives can't access patient information when, where and how they need it," Microsoft health unit general manager Steve Shihadeh said in a statement. "Microsoft's Amalga products offer proven solutions that bring together information from across the health care enterprise into one, easily accessible view. In … Read more

China Mobile to require ID for previously anonymous prepaid users

China Mobile will start requiring prepaid phone customers to show ID when buying SIM (subscriber identity module) cards, the company's general manager announced.

The anonymity of phone service for Shenzhouxing (prepaid) customers, which ChinaTechNews says account for 70 percent of all users, made it important to hold on to your original SIM documentation in case you lose the phone. If you lose the SIM and its number, as far as I know, you can't get your number back.

This comes at a time when China Mobile will also begin allowing number portability among its services (but not with … Read more