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Watching time, the only true currency // A journal from John B. Roberts

Day: August 9, 2006

  • Not even 200 valid domains in Cameroon

    At work we spent a lot of time today providing OpenDNS users with a way to avoid the wildcarding of the .cm TLD (CNET News.com article). You can read all about the choices available at “Cameroon takes the ‘o’ out of .com.”

    The most interesting part to me? There are fewer than 200 valid domains for the entire country — all listed in the post. Here are the ones which jumped out at me:

    • avis.cm – Renting a car is universal, but no hertz.cm.
    • orange.cm – Mobile phones are everywhere, but I didn’t recognize any other phone companies
    • airfrance.cm – The French still fly to their former colony.
    • bosch.cm – A local site for the big German-based multinational, but no Philips.

    I didn’t see anything for their national soccer team, the Indomitable Lions who made their real splash on the world stage in the 1990 World Cup.

    What’s your favorite .cm domain? 🙂

  • On Point : Testosterone

    I didn’t listen to the whole 48 minutes, but the radio show exploration “On Point : Testosterone” covers interesting ground. (Thanks, Ken.)

    In the wake of Floyd Landis’s fall, I was curious about two things. First, why did Floyd pass the other tests given during the Tour? Second, why testoterone, which I had understood to be effective over periods of time, but not an instantaneous boost. The answer, I’m told, is in recovery. The radio show mentions that, but doesn’t get into detail. Ken shared a link I don’t have now where someone in the know described putting a testoterone patch on your scrotum for six hours to get the recovery benefit without triggering the doping tests. If that was the method… oops.

    The whole thing is disappointing, and cycling is more fragile than baseball in the United States. I don’t agree with Ken when he writes:

    I know the sport will survive just as it has moved beyond previous doping scandals like Festina.

    Maybe in Europe, but not here in the United States — not enough people cared to begin with. How is OLN (I mean, Versus) going to recoup their investment in broadcasting the Tour (and other bicycle races) over the next few years?