Fergus Cassidy

According to ENN: "All applicants for a dot-ie domain in their own name will be required to provide proof of identity in an effort to avoid instances of cyber-squatting."

Okay. The article also says that: "The IEDR has announced that it has consulted with dot-ie resellers…", an announcement which, alas, I can't find on the IEDR site.

But surely opening up the .ie namespace to personal names (a welcome move) is going to involve a lot more than just proving identity?

How many Sean Murphys are there, each with a rightful claim on seanmurphy.ie? A shallow search on google.ie for "Mary Kelly" comes back with over 19,000 hits. 30,00 for "Michael Murphy".

With popular surnames (Murphy, Kelly, O'Sullivan, Walsh and O'Brien apparently), what happens when more than one person with the same name applies to get the .ie?

Will it be a 'first come, first served' process? Will there be a judgement based on timestamps or some such? And what about the transparency of such a system?

If there aren't clear and transparent rules on the process, getting a website in your own name in the .ie namespace will be like buying a lottery card. (I managed to get mine through the sole trader route).

So why not have a lottery? As least that could be done out in the open, in full public view. Independent monitoring etc.

The .ie namespace is a valuable and finite resource. Opening it up to personal names is a good idea. A 'first come, first served' approach, however, is not such a good one.

The above photograph by Marilyn Affolter titled Oregon Storm, was a finalist in Smithsonian magazine's 4th Annual Photo Contest.

All the finalists' pictures are on the Smithsonian mag site. The categories were People, Americana, Altered Images, the Natural World and Travel.

Want to witness a cat being let out of a bag?

IF I'd practiced enough, I'd be answering the call for 100 guitarists for a very special gig in Dublin.

As part of the Analog festival (free live concerts), composer Glenn Branca will stage a public performance of his 'Hallucination City: Symphony for 100 Guitars' at Grand Canal Square on Sunday 15 July.

Branca is looking for 80 guitarists and 20 bass players to volunteer for the performance. Commitment involves two eight-hour rehearsals on 13/14 July and a sound check on the day of the concert.

Anyone who is interested must be able to read standard staff notation.

Wonderful video footage from Nasa of the space shuttle Atlantis as it performed a back flip, 600ft below the International Space Station.

The manoeuvre allowed high-resolution digital cameras on board the ISS to scan Atlantis' underside for any damage to the heat shield tiles.

It took place over South America, with snow-capped mountains visible in the background.