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Obviously the CSC should have registered this alternative to their own domain but they seem rather naive in respect to Net-related things (let's hope their science is better).

Then, earlier this week, the ridiculous situation regarding Telecom's bitching about a "derived work" consisting largely of their own TV ad with a new sound-track was my subject de jour.

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So what do these two things have in common?

Well go to the Domain Name Commissioner's website and check out the registrants of the domains telecon.co.nz and theresagattung.co.nz.

It would appear that Telecom are dead-keen to avoid the kind of embarrassment that our climate-geek scientist friends have had to endure.

Nice to see Telecom doing something pre-emptively for a change because they sure goofed when forgetting to register the most obvious alternative to their own ISP service: extra.co.nz

Unfortunately, it's not practical to register every possible undesirable domain name that might affect your branding or reputation, as this example shows.

It's interesting to note that an awareness of "near miss" domain names is quite widespread now, with the BNZ also registering bmz.co.nz and ASB registering asbbank.co.nz as well as asbank.co.nz.

Noel Leeming have both noeleeming.co.nz and noelleeming.co.nz but the warehouse, while scoring thewarehouse.co.nz did miss out on warehouse.co.nz.

So there's a lot you can tell by scanning the list of registered domain names and who has them. For example, look who has snapped up iptv.co.nz. I wonder what their ultimate plans are for this domain?

However, if you want to browse the list of domains registered in the .nz TLD then be prepared to lay in some supplies and go without sleep for a while. As this page indicates, there are now almost a quarter of a million registered names.

Lighten Up
Are you tired of those ads on TV and in other media which promote some wonder-drug that you should ask your doctor about? Ever noticed that they usually flash up a screen-full of warnings and caveats presented in unreadably small text for about a millisecond at the end of these ads?

Well here's a chance to browse more closely at the important safety information that you may have missed.

NZ was the first country in the world to offer women the vote. After you see this video, you might wonder whether women in the US should be allowed to vote at all.

Did you notice
As eagle-eyed readers will have noticed, sponsorship of this fine blog/column is up for grabs.

Those who have already made enquiries about sponsoring Aardvark should hear back from me this week - and anyone else who might like to do so should drop me a line ASAP.

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