Preparing for Hurricane ICANN
By Baselinemag
2009-10-27
Businesses need to prepare for an onslaught of new domain names--and the trademark problems they could bring--like homeowners need to prepare for a hurricane.
A storm of new domain names is brewing at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers with projected landfall as early as the first quarter of 2010. If ICANN implements its proposed domain name architecture, hundreds of new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) will flood the marketplace. Like homeowners preparing for a hurricane, trademark owners should track the storm, board up trademarks, create a disaster supply kit and prepare to clean up any damage.
Track the storm. Currently, there are 21 active gTLDs (including .com, .net, .org and .gov) that identify Internet space the way zip codes identify real space. Like street addresses, lower-level domain names (such as google.com) can pinpoint a specific cyberspace location within a gTLD. Under the proposed initiative, however, new gTLDs may include brand-specific domain extensions such as .mycompanyname, geographic-centric domain names such as .texas and generic domain extensions such as .software.
Since the previous expansions of new gTLDs, Web-based communities, hosted services and Web applications (i.e., Web 2.0) have transformed how individuals and organizations access and share information. Many Web 2.0 communities, for example, now offer membership to businesses and provide personalized community Web addresses (such as community.com/companyname) so that members can promote their community presence.
To develop an effective storm plan, brand owners should follow the new gTLD proposals, monitor the category level of the brewing storm, and understand the potential impact to their businesses and trademarks.
Board-up trademarks. ICANN is currently seeking comments on various trademark protection measures to help brand owners board up their windows. All trademark holders should immediately seek registration for any valuable unregistered trademarks, both domestically (with the U.S. Trademark Office) and internationally.
Then, all registered trademarks—previously registered and recently obtained—should be filed with a proposed Trademark Clearinghouse, which, if adopted, will provide a database of validated trademarks utilized by new gTLD registries to implement either of the following:
• a “Trademark Watch” service to notify trademark owners of any new domain name registrations matching their trademarks and to notify registrants that matching trademark registrations exist; or
• a “Sunrise Period” during which trademark owners could register domain names matching their trademarks prior to the general registration on a new gTLD.
Before the ICANN storm hits, brand owners should join Web 2.0 communities, secure brand-related domain names and register their trademarks.
Create a disaster supply kit. To weather a storm, it’s best to stock up on supplies—whether batteries or gTLDs—before they become scarce, and hence more valuable. Currently, the .com space is perceived to be scarce. In the first half of this year, seven .com domain names were purchased for sums of more than $1 million each. In contrast, the .biz space is not scarce. Of the 109 million domain names registered under the top-five most popular gTLDs, only 2 million (1.8 percent) use the .biz gTLD.
Regardless of the ultimate success of new gTLDs, brand owners should stock up on any suitable new gTLD for an initial one-year term. For example, an Internet jeweler might register mycompany.jewelry, as well as mycompany.community.
Brand owners should direct these new gTLDs to appropriate sections of their Website and use standard traffic-monitoring tools to determine whether to renew the initial registrations. Given the typically low cost to register and the potentially high value associated with certain gTLDs, a bundle of registrations for a limited term are like spare batteries—cheap yet possibly valuable.
Prepare to clean up any damage. Various dispute-resolution policies are available to help trademark holders fend off cyber-squatters. These include the proposed Uniform Rapid Suspension System (under which a domain name can be frozen for the life of the registration, only to resolve to a specific error page); ICANN’s existing Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (under which a domain name registration can be canceled, transferred or otherwise changed); and a lawsuit alleging cyber-squatting, trademark infringement or other causes of action (under which various types of damages may be sought).
Although .com domain names may retain their value for years to come—in which case this storm may end up be-ing only a tropical depression—brand owners would still be wise to prepare for Hurricane ICANN.
To register a new domain name, please visit: sitesandservers.com
For other services including hosting, Miva Merchant eCommerce, Dedicated Servers, etc., visit hostiam.com
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Quantum Advantage
The Quantum Advantage
Nature is full of quantum computers, but we are just beginning to figure out how to control them. When we do, we’ll be able to solve once-intractable problems.
Silicon-based computers will never be able to solve certain problems. This is true even if the number of transistors on a chip doubles every year or two for many years—with corresponding gains in performance.
Merely combining these densely packed chips into multicore CPUs and stringing these CPUs into super-grid platforms does not change the fact that these processors work more or less serially on problems, and many large optimization problems would take more than 10 billion years to solve serially, even on a computer that analyzed a million possible solutions per second.
This optimization conundrum is called the “traveling salesman problem,” which involves figuring out the shortest route to take when traveling to a specific number of cities. When the salesperson’s trip involves only five interconnected cities, there are only 12 possible routes, which can be readily plotted and measured by hand, and the shortest route easily selected from the small list. But when the number of cities increases only slightly—say from five to 25—the number of possible solutions increases exponentially, surpassing the capabilities of a classical computer.
Enter the quantum computer.
Classical computers store numbers—0s and 1s—as directional magnetic fields, working with charges determined by the flow of hundreds of electrons. (This is being reduced by each advance of Moore’s Law, with a natural limit of one electron.) In contrast, Quantum computers work with the state of a single electron, and harness unique, strange characteristics of subatomic particles, namely: superposition, entanglement and interference.
Superposition refers to the fact that quantum bits, or qubits, can simultaneously take on two values. That is, they can take on the value “1” and the value “0” at the same time.
Entanglement refers to the fact that each qubit in a co-generated pair can reflect changes made to the other, no matter how far apart they are. Change the state of a qubit in New York, and its twin in Los Angeles reflects that change instantly.
Interference refers to the way quantum computers can read the results of their computations—the qubits—without altering their value, an essential characteristic. The reason this is important, according to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, is that at the minuscule subatomic level, merely examining a particle alters it. Interference allows the result to be read indirectly without changing it.
This may seem inconceivable, but the key points are relatively simple: Quantum computers use the smallest things we know of in the universe to calculate and maintain state, and they can investigate all parallel alternatives of a problem simultaneously. They also use very little energy.
Meeting the Challenges
The challenge for companies and organizations working today to build these machines—such as D-Wave Systems, Princeton Center for Theoretical Physics and The Mitre Corp.—is to capture, observe and control qubits in large enough quantities to be useful.
D-Wave has a quantum computer it expects to commercialize in one or two years, according to the late Chris Hipp, who had been director of marketing. The company is working on a 128-qubit chip made of niobium, but it needs to be able to control at least 1,000 connected qubits to handle complex, multivariable, combinatorial optimization problems.
Princeton and Mitre are taking a more controlled approach to harnessing quantum electrons. They expect to have a working version in their labs in a year or two.
Some pressing real-world problem areas include:
Code Breaking: How can the Defense Intelligence Agency, CIA and FBI break the codes our enemies and criminals create with public key encryption methods? Using classical computers to derive the private key for a 50-digit number would take 3 million years, according to Julian Brown in his book The Quest for the Quantum Computer. Quantum computers could do it in minutes.
Package Delivery: How can FedEx or UPS maximize the number of packages they deliver, while minimizing the number of hangers, terminals and planes; the amount of fuel; the number of employees; and the time required to satisfy customers and beat the competition?
Air Traffic Control: How can the Federal Aviation Administration maximize the number of planes it can keep in the air and land safely, with the fewest number of people and the least amount of radar and communications equipment—given the constraints of specific planes, airports and runways, as well as weather and emergency conditions—while minimizing delays and fuel consumption?
Project Scheduling: How can a large consulting firm use its staff resources efficiently, given specific project requirements, various consultants’ skills, vacation schedules and geographical constraints, while maximizing revenue by getting all projects in on time and under budget?
Pattern Matching: How can Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or the Air Traffic Security Administration compare images taken at different times from different angles—from cameras with different resolutions—and determine if the images are of the same person or thing? This requires examining thousands of pixels per pair; mapping those pixels into features; and abstracting the features to compare them to a database of known objects. Today, this can only be done quickly and reliably with human help.
The human brain is designed for rapid pattern matching: People recognize individuals even if they have gained weight, grown a beard or changed their hair color. Classical computers struggle to do this and cannot help with the challenges listed above because they require more computing power than a serial-oriented digital processor can muster. Quantum computers promise to change all that.
Quantum computation is found all around us in nature, which is made up of subatomic particles that we are just beginning to figure out how to control. When we eventually do, we’ll be able to solve once-intractable problems.
Alex Fuss is a managing partner at DigitalThis, a consulting firm specializing in leading-edge technologies and strategic implementations.
Nature is full of quantum computers, but we are just beginning to figure out how to control them. When we do, we’ll be able to solve once-intractable problems.
Silicon-based computers will never be able to solve certain problems. This is true even if the number of transistors on a chip doubles every year or two for many years—with corresponding gains in performance.
Merely combining these densely packed chips into multicore CPUs and stringing these CPUs into super-grid platforms does not change the fact that these processors work more or less serially on problems, and many large optimization problems would take more than 10 billion years to solve serially, even on a computer that analyzed a million possible solutions per second.
This optimization conundrum is called the “traveling salesman problem,” which involves figuring out the shortest route to take when traveling to a specific number of cities. When the salesperson’s trip involves only five interconnected cities, there are only 12 possible routes, which can be readily plotted and measured by hand, and the shortest route easily selected from the small list. But when the number of cities increases only slightly—say from five to 25—the number of possible solutions increases exponentially, surpassing the capabilities of a classical computer.
Enter the quantum computer.
Classical computers store numbers—0s and 1s—as directional magnetic fields, working with charges determined by the flow of hundreds of electrons. (This is being reduced by each advance of Moore’s Law, with a natural limit of one electron.) In contrast, Quantum computers work with the state of a single electron, and harness unique, strange characteristics of subatomic particles, namely: superposition, entanglement and interference.
Superposition refers to the fact that quantum bits, or qubits, can simultaneously take on two values. That is, they can take on the value “1” and the value “0” at the same time.
Entanglement refers to the fact that each qubit in a co-generated pair can reflect changes made to the other, no matter how far apart they are. Change the state of a qubit in New York, and its twin in Los Angeles reflects that change instantly.
Interference refers to the way quantum computers can read the results of their computations—the qubits—without altering their value, an essential characteristic. The reason this is important, according to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, is that at the minuscule subatomic level, merely examining a particle alters it. Interference allows the result to be read indirectly without changing it.
This may seem inconceivable, but the key points are relatively simple: Quantum computers use the smallest things we know of in the universe to calculate and maintain state, and they can investigate all parallel alternatives of a problem simultaneously. They also use very little energy.
Meeting the Challenges
The challenge for companies and organizations working today to build these machines—such as D-Wave Systems, Princeton Center for Theoretical Physics and The Mitre Corp.—is to capture, observe and control qubits in large enough quantities to be useful.
D-Wave has a quantum computer it expects to commercialize in one or two years, according to the late Chris Hipp, who had been director of marketing. The company is working on a 128-qubit chip made of niobium, but it needs to be able to control at least 1,000 connected qubits to handle complex, multivariable, combinatorial optimization problems.
Princeton and Mitre are taking a more controlled approach to harnessing quantum electrons. They expect to have a working version in their labs in a year or two.
Some pressing real-world problem areas include:
Code Breaking: How can the Defense Intelligence Agency, CIA and FBI break the codes our enemies and criminals create with public key encryption methods? Using classical computers to derive the private key for a 50-digit number would take 3 million years, according to Julian Brown in his book The Quest for the Quantum Computer. Quantum computers could do it in minutes.
Package Delivery: How can FedEx or UPS maximize the number of packages they deliver, while minimizing the number of hangers, terminals and planes; the amount of fuel; the number of employees; and the time required to satisfy customers and beat the competition?
Air Traffic Control: How can the Federal Aviation Administration maximize the number of planes it can keep in the air and land safely, with the fewest number of people and the least amount of radar and communications equipment—given the constraints of specific planes, airports and runways, as well as weather and emergency conditions—while minimizing delays and fuel consumption?
Project Scheduling: How can a large consulting firm use its staff resources efficiently, given specific project requirements, various consultants’ skills, vacation schedules and geographical constraints, while maximizing revenue by getting all projects in on time and under budget?
Pattern Matching: How can Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or the Air Traffic Security Administration compare images taken at different times from different angles—from cameras with different resolutions—and determine if the images are of the same person or thing? This requires examining thousands of pixels per pair; mapping those pixels into features; and abstracting the features to compare them to a database of known objects. Today, this can only be done quickly and reliably with human help.
The human brain is designed for rapid pattern matching: People recognize individuals even if they have gained weight, grown a beard or changed their hair color. Classical computers struggle to do this and cannot help with the challenges listed above because they require more computing power than a serial-oriented digital processor can muster. Quantum computers promise to change all that.
Quantum computation is found all around us in nature, which is made up of subatomic particles that we are just beginning to figure out how to control. When we eventually do, we’ll be able to solve once-intractable problems.
Alex Fuss is a managing partner at DigitalThis, a consulting firm specializing in leading-edge technologies and strategic implementations.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Miva Merchant changes pricing structure
Miva Merchant has instituted a new pricing structure for all MivaMerchant accounts (http://www.mivamerchant.com/Letter.pdf). Instead of a one-time licensing fee, all hosting providers must now pay a monthly "Service" fee for each and every license our hosted sites use. In return, Miva will continue to supply updates and patches, implement PCI and PA-DSS security standards, and will continue to develop their technology and e-commerce applications. We at Hostiam Communications Network http://hostiam.com have long been the most cost effective of the major MivaMerchant hosting providers. We strive to provide the best support and hosting possible for the most economical price. We have previously streamlined operations and passed the savings on to our community. Unfortunately, this means we cannot fully absorb Miva’s price increase. We are reluctantly raising some of our prices to cover this service fee. We have restructured other packages to provide the best features at the best possible price. The new package lineup is fully described on ourweb site. Please note that no Merchant package will be less than $25.00 per month and then, only for customers that already had that price. If you use Miva Merchant, your first bill after May 1, 2009, will reflect the Miva increase. If you are billed monthly, your first bill in June will contain the increase. If you are billed quarterly, your first bill for the next quarter will; and if you are billed annually, your next bill after July 1 will contain the increase. We value your business and hope to keep it. We will always strive to provide quality hosting at the best price possible. If you have anyquestions, please feel free to contact us.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Affiliate Marketing
Most businesses nowadays are offering their customers a referral bonus for new customers. At Hostiam Communications Network, we have taken this a step farther. You do not have to be a customer to collect affiliate bonuses. You simply sign up, get one of our affiliate banners or create your own, and start receiving money for every referral that becomes a customer.
You get 5% commission on every new customer that you refer. You even get paid a commission on the new customers that they refer. We pay a 5% commission to you for each new customer five levels deep.
You get 5% commission on every new customer that you refer. You even get paid a commission on the new customers that they refer. We pay a 5% commission to you for each new customer five levels deep.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Welcome to HCN
We are really happy to welcome you to our site and blog!
We have been hosting web sites for 10 years now and have learned a lot of things not to do along the way. A few years back we were hacked and did not have adequate backups and lost the majority of our clients and now we are happy to say that we have daily backups and also allow the client to do their own backups from within their personal control panel.
We have found what we believe to be the best suite of services along with very competitive pricing. Our affliate program is the first of it's kind and can be quite lucrative.
Check back often, as we will be implementing several unique services that are sure to create excitement.
We have been hosting web sites for 10 years now and have learned a lot of things not to do along the way. A few years back we were hacked and did not have adequate backups and lost the majority of our clients and now we are happy to say that we have daily backups and also allow the client to do their own backups from within their personal control panel.
We have found what we believe to be the best suite of services along with very competitive pricing. Our affliate program is the first of it's kind and can be quite lucrative.
Check back often, as we will be implementing several unique services that are sure to create excitement.
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