I seriously DO NOT think that is a good idea. Lawyers and analysts has already said that ICANN vote will cause URL chaos!

This is really a RETARDED decision by ICANN. I think when they are in need of money, they will just launch a new TLD and companies will have to buy them to protect their intellectual property.

This is just another form of business to them as you can see they are charging $50K to $100K for the new names, which is ridiculously priced.

At its meeting in Paris, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a not-for-profit organization that oversees the naming scheme for web sites, voted to accept a proposal that will allow companies to purchase new top-level domain names ending in almost whatever suffix they choose.

So, for example, instead of being restricted to sites ending in .com or .org., eBay could have a site that ends in .ebay, or New York City could end its website address with .nyc.

The new naming process will begin in 2009. The first suffixes will probably be given to businesses and other major organizations. Countries are expected to keep their specific suffixes, but, as in the example above, cities could also get individualized URLs, such as .london or .chicago.

In an effort to deter cybersquatters, the organization is likely to charge a hefty price for the new names. Some experts have estimated that the new domain names could cost anywhere from $50,000 (£25,200) to $100,000 or more. ICANN plans to give companies with trademarked names priority for those names.

Source: ‘.wow’: ICANN to allow almost any domain suffix

Whats up with the Internet today? So many major news floating around the Internet.

• Microsoft releases the long awaited Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows Update
• Apple releases Safari 3.1
• Intel officially announced new 6-core processor codenamed “Dunnington” and new Itanium processor codenamed “Tukwila”
• NVIDIA officially launched GeForce 9 - 9800 GX2
• Nokia officially announced N82 in Black
• Engadget played with iPhone Firmware 2.0
• WordPress releases the long awaited WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 1

Did I missed out any technological news?

UADDit has posted up an article with pictures about Web 2.0 companies workplaces. Featured Web 2.0 company are, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Craigslist, Mozilla, Joost, Flickr, Last.fm, Jaiku, Linked In, Netvibes and Reddit.

I would like to have the chairs and monitors used by Facebook!

Mentioned: Frro Blog
Source: UADDit: Web 2.0 Workplaces

.asia domain names are available for sale by DotAsia. According to DotAsia’s Auctions Page, a domain name will range from USD$4,000 to USD$21,000.

The so-called landrush for the latest domain name suffix - .asia - has begun.

DotAsia, the organisation overseeing the registration, is expecting huge demand for the first domain name extension for the Asia Pacific region.

But some in the industry are concerned about the proliferation of domain name suffixes in recent years.

While others think that the business of buying domain names has become more about protecting brands than promoting them.

Cybersquatting

Work to create the .asia domain began in 2000 with the DotAsia Organisation winning official approval to set up the domain in 2006.

A so-called sunrise period, where companies can reserve domains to match their trademarks, has been ongoing since October.

Now the process has been opened up for anyone to register and the first .asia domains will go live on the internet in March.

Thomas Herbert, a product manager from UK hosting firm and registrar Hostway, believes the nature of buying domain names has changed, largely due to the lucrative businesses of cybersquatting.

Website: DotAsia Organisation
Source: BBC: Domain name for Asia up for grabs

The first major update to HTML in 10 years. HTML 4 was back in December 1997. I am really looking forward to this update.

HTML 5 is designed to reflect this, with APIs for drawing two-dimensional graphics, embedding and controlling multimedia, managing client-side data storage and editing parts of documents. Turning to more bread-and-butter stuff, HTML 5 will also make it easier to represent familiar page elements.

HTML 5 is designed to inject more consistency into the ways vendors and end users have gone about building today’s generation of sites. According to the W3C, HTML 5 will: “Improve interoperability and reduce software costs by giving precise rules not only about how to handle all correct HTML documents but also how to recover errors.”

Source: Major HTML update unveiled

And now for the juicy part, here are some new elements that will be available:

• dialog
• figure
• audio
• video
• m
• meter
• time
• datagrid
• datalist
• progress

Full List: HTML 5 Differences From HTML 4

As copied + pasted from Neowin.net:

Dont you just love how Facebook has an application for everything possible? Dont you just love wading through your friends Facebook profiles with the simple goal of finding their Wall? Dont you just love how Facebook is looking more and more like MySpace every single day? Fear no more, the Facebook Platform Team has a plan to unclutter profiles: a œprofile clean-up tool. Essentially, the tool will give users the option to move extra profile boxes to an œextended portion of their profile. At the bottom of the profile page there will be a link to œShow Extended Profile which expands the profile for viewing all of the users applications. This should mean a cleaner look, and faster loading pages. Personally, I would much prefer a œhide all 3rd party crap feature, but this move seems to be a step in the right direction.

Finally they have decided to do it, I just hate it when any Facebook Profile has more than 10 applications installed. It just make the loading time increased by 932408932402 times and the chances of crashing your browser by 903248234 times.

They should also have an option called “Disable All Invitations By 3rd Party Applications” in your settings page or perhaps a “Ignore All 3rd Party Applications” in the notifications page.

Finally, it is released!

Hello,

Today we begin a new chapter in the history of phpBB. After five years, over 200,000 lines of new and altered code, and many a long night phpBB Group is very proud to announce the release of phpBB3 “Olympus”.

phpBB has changed considerably since work on its second major release began. People have come and gone but this day would not have been reached without the hard work and dedication of all our group members, past and present. The phpBB community, all of you, also deserve a large pat on the back for continuing to support this project. Whether it be through writing mods, creating new themes, spreading the word or simply using phpBB to build new communities, our thanks to you too.

So again we say with great pride and many thanks to all those who’ve helped us reach this point - enjoy phpBB3.

Thank you.

Source: phpBB3 Gold Released
Download: phpBB3 “Olympus”

Yesterday marked the 7th birthday of phpBB and finally the team announced the release date of the long awaited phpBB3. It will be released on the 14th December 2007 01:00 (GMT +8) or 13th December 2007 17:00 (GMT).

I think it is a little too late, I have switched from phpBB2 to SMF 1.1 and now I am a happy user of SMF.

Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser that makes browsing more efficient than ever before. Firefox includes pop-up blocking; a tab-browsing; integrated Google searching; simplified privacy controls that let you cover your tracks more effectively; a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser; and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.

Features:

• Improved Tabbed Browsing
• Spell Checking
• Search Suggestions
• Session Restore
• Web Feeds (RSS)
• Live Titles
• Live Bookmarks
• Pop-up Blocker
• Streamlined Interface
• Phishing Protection
• Automated Update
• Protection from Spyware and more….

Download: Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 (Win32) (en-US)

Source: Neowin.net - Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Beta 1

Microsoft just enabled the @live.xx signup! Go grab yours now! http://get.live.com/getlive/overview for the local domains (eg @live.co.uk) or use the following link for @live.com - @live.com signup.

So far the list of confirmed available aliases is:

1. Country (Domain)
2. ARGENTINA (LIVE.COM.AR)
3. AUSTRALIA (LIVE.COM.AU)
4. AUSTRIA (LIVE.AT)
5. BELGIUM (LIVE.BE)
6. CANADA (LIVE.CA)
7. CHILE (LIVE.CL)
8. CHINA (LIVE.CN)
9. DENMARK (LIVE.DK)
10. FINLAND (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
11. FRANCE (LIVE.FR)
12. GERMANY (LIVE.DE)
13. HONG KONG (LIVE.HK)
14. INDONESIA (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
15. IRELAND (LIVE.IE)
16. ITALY (LIVE.IT)
17. JAPAN (LIVE.JP)
18. KOREA (LIVE.CO.KR)
19. MALAYSIA (LIVE.COM.MY)
20. MEXICO (LIVE.COM.MX)
21. NETHERLANDS (LIVE.NL)
22. NORWAY (LIVE.NO)
23. PAKISTAN (LVE.COM.PK)
24. PERU (LIVE.COM.PE)
25. PORTUGAL (LIVE.COM.PT)
26. RUSSIA (LIVE.RU)
27. SINGAPORE (LIVE.COM.SG)
28. SOUTH AFRICA (LIVE.CO.ZA)
29. SWEDEN (LIVE.SE)
30. SWITZERLAND (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
31. THAILAND (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
32. TURKEY (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
33. UK (LIVE.CO.UK)
34. USA (LIVE.COM)
35. VIETNAM (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)

Signup is still somewhat buggy as it is being rolled out so just bear with it.

Regarding the transition from @hotmail.com to @live.com, a pretty straightforward process is given on the new Windows Live site at http://www.windowslive.com/freshstart. Although you can automatically migrate your Hotmail inbox using TrueSwitch, anything else tied to your Live ID such as your contacts, Space, Xbox Live Gamercard etc cannot be automatically moved across due to legal and privacy issues. You can manually move across your contacts by exporting and importing into Windows Live Messenger, but unfortunately that’s it. There’s some useful tips if you do want to migrate though.

Source: Register your @live.xx email now!

More Details: @Live.com Registration is opened, other @live.* too!