Today’s Dilbert made me feel like I got caught. No TV, fine, but no internet? I mean, I really DID buy that one hour for 3 bucks yesterday, just to get blog posts online. But unlike Dilbert, who did NOT built his canoe, I actually went to the gym for a good 45 minutes run… and before staring at the wall, I would most definitely read one of the three books I got in my suitcase. Or listen to a podcast. Or call someone. Really.
Archive for the 'real world' Category
i stumbled upon Matt Mullenweg’s article where he describes the domain name change from photomatt.net to ma.tt - which is under the top level domain (TLD) for Trinidad and Tobago.
Cool - that could work for me, too! But the first name- I don’t know - maybe better hollend.er - getting florian@hollend.er as email would be awesome! So I looked up a list of international TLDs, and sure enough, .er exists - for Eritrea.
Imagine the startled look on my face when the only thing available at the link for a domain name registrar was a TEXT file, reading
Thanks for your inquiry about registering a domain under the ER top level domain.
The current policy is that domain names are limited to businesses or persons actually in Eritrea and application for a domain name must be made to Zerai. currently there are only two domains under.com.er', a single.edu.er’ domain, and a bunch of `.gov.er’ domains. there are actually over 100 subdomains under these domains, but domains directly underneath ER are fairly tightly controlled.
To register new domain names under ER, you must talk to the administrative contact. Here is the contact information:
[snip]
Eritrea does not yet have a direct internet connection. domain names are currently being used for the delivery of email.
For more information about the domain look athttp://www.punchdown.org/rvb/email/index.html
thanks,
[name]
technical contact
ER top level domain
I realized that I had taken it for granted that when there is a TLD, the country is “online”. No, they are not, at least not fully. They have E-Mail, but no working internet access. Which makes me think about two things:
- How incredibly lucky I am to live in a part of the world where there is SO MUCH - peace, infrastructure, democracy… all and every need is taken care of.
- The digital divide is there. “Still”…. well, the problem only came up in the last decades. This was my first contact with it. Unfortunately, this is not even close to being a big problem to Eritrea in comparison to its other issues, but still a thing that needs attention. And awareness, first and foremost.
Technorati Tags: Eritrea, Digital Divide, TLD, domain names, politics, Africa, Development, Awareness
While you were sleeping, I tried to remember all the flights I have taken since 2004: My flight stats. I am still missing a LOT of countries… looks like there is still a lot of traveling to be done! (Yes, this is geeky. Go away.)
When it comes to coincidences, luck, karma, whatever your liking: Dopplr.com can help. Last week I already met up with an old classmate because he noticed I was staying a mere 20 minutes from his hometown! Sign up and share your trips with me, so that we do not miss each other.
As you have guessed from my not-blogging the last days, it has been busy. Office Friday does not happen this week unfortunately, though I have been in the Hamburg office last week, even if only for 10 minutes to get me an access card. That almost counts as office Friday in my book.
Today is not the greatest - weather is shite, team leader kindly asked me to do the taxi at 7:30am (leaving the hotel, not waking up, you got that right), so breakfast was nil. Of course I forgot the parking lot-card in the hotel room and had to sweet talk my way out of the parking (with my boss and his boss in the car). To top things off I threw away some notes yesterday (I had worked in all changes that were on them for me)… the notes that my boss now asked me to give him back because there was something he needed on one of the pages. Tough luck. I think I will just pull this day through and look forward to getting back to the hotel, hoping that I do not make any more stupid mistakes today (and that I find an ATM so I can buy some food).
Now this is the real deal, I guess.
So I took the travel arrangement I told you about at length… in Frankfurt I got a cute car, a Seat, which does sound like a tractor, but it goes quite well. It even has a little Aux-in plug for the iPod, definitely a plus. The hotel is bad. Not really bad, but I got something ten times better for almost the same money in Berlin. The bathroom is not really clean. The curtains are dirty. The floors are dirty. The WiFi does not work. Oh well, I was spoiled in Berlin. Next week: Different hotel.
Workshop with the customer was great fun. It was like in real life! Really, it felt very different from what I experienced with only internal staff. Different topics (obviously), different meeting behaviour. I could not add much value today, as I got to know the topic on the fly, but I learnt a lot. Tomorrow, I hope, I will get some work assigned - not knowing what I will spend my time with over the next month really makes me anxious. Until then, I try to figure out what to do with my free time - come on, it is not 8pm and my colleagues are already in the hotel. Well, they are still working there. And well, it is a great hotel…. you feel my envy? I’ll search for an Aldi now and get stocked on diet coke.
Now that is a plan!
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