Numeric Domains

248.com Goes for Over 58k Per Digit

Our friends at DNJournal report that 248.com recently sold for $175,000.

Trebles all round!

Numeric Domains on Auction at Orlando T.R.A.F.F.I.C.

The list for Monikers auction at the Orlando T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference has been announced. The full list can be downloaded here.

The Live premium auction starts at 2:00pm on Friday May 23. The numeric domains included are:

320.org

20.net

The following are  offered in the silent extended auction running from May 20-29, 2008.

056.com

057.com

058.com

064.com

073.com

075.com

079.com

082.com

084.com

092.com

097.com

354.com

4433.com

46300.com

47800.com

512.com

553.com

571.net

576.net

59700.com

631.net

64200.com

64700.com

650.com

676.net

76100.com

769.net

7900.org

79700.com

871.net

Good luck to all buyers and sellers.

                         

 

                     

Develolping Your Business for the Next Four Billion

Entrepreneurs are constantly challenged to maintain and grow their businesses. It's no longer enough to idle along with the status quo if you plan on being around next month, next quarter or next year, especially if your business depends on the wireless ecosystem.

The World Resources Institute, along with their colleagues at the Global Challenge Network  and Harvard's John F. Kennedy school of government, have published an insightful report detailing the global social and economic impact of the Base of the Economic Pyramid, better known as BOP.

The above graph is explained as follows:

Four billion people form the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) -- those with annual incomes below $3,000 (in local purchasing power).

The BOP makes up 72 percent of the 5,575 million people recorded by available national household surveys worldwide and an overwhelming majority of the population in the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean -- home to nearly all the BOP.

This large segment of humanity faces significant unmet needs and lives in relative poverty: in current U.S. dollars their incomes are less than $3.35 a day in Brazil, $2.11 in China, $1.89 in Ghana, and $1.56 in India.

Yet together they have substantial purchasing power: the BOP constitutes a $5 trillion global consumer market.

Even though the report is not about wireless technology per se, it does help us to understand the indisputable fact that the worlds developing countries will drive major portions of the economic and social landscapes. This fact is certainly uppermost in the minds of many a Fortune 500 companies' CEO's.

Sun Microsystems' CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, shared his views on the importance of BOP in this Next Billion video segment (scroll to the bottom of the correct page).

As BOP users gain access to mobile devices and become more comfortable using them as tools to enhance their social and economic activities, I see a tremendous opportunity  for the inclusion and use of numeric domains as a way to more easily access the wireless internet.

Add This To The Growing List of Numeric Domain Websites

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Here's another shining example of a company that gets that numeric thang.                                                          

That Ain't Hay

If there was any question that pure numeric domains are continuing to sky rocket in price, this little nugget oughta help quell those nasty rumors.

I'm often asked by fellow NuDoms...

    "Scott, what do you think this (insert numeric domain) is worth?"

Much to their disappointment, I invariably always give the same answer:

    "your domain is worth exactly the amount that a buyer is prepared to write a cheque (check) for." (that clears the bank ;-)

Who knows what motivates buyers to unleash the purse strings when it comes to their domain fantasies?

Here's another example of a company that understands the value and importance of a numeric domain and dipped deep into the piggy bank to back up their visions of sugar plums.

Ron Jackson, all things Poobah at DNJournal reports today that the pure numeric domain 770.com traded hands for eye-popping sum of $343,208.

European online gaming operator Casino770 coughed up the coin to secure their prize.

I know there will be those doubting Thomas' that will chirp ... "yeah, but it was their name, they had to buy it". That may well be the case, and I'm not privy to the details of this deal, but look at these 2 sides of the coin.

1) The owners of Casino770 should maybe have given a little more thought to acquiring the numeric domain long before they created the moniker. After all, there are still a very few 3-digit .com numeric domains available on the open market trading for somewhat less than 300 grand. Not thinking this through was their opportunity cost that eventually nicked them for significantly more than they might have otherwise paid.

2) Kudos to the NuDom that owned the domain. Was he just lucky to have stumbled onto this domain? Did he hand reg it? Did he solicit a previous owner to buy it?  Who knows?  Who cares?

The fact is, he knew exactly how much $$$,$$$ it would take to effect an ownership change at Whois . More importantly, he had the cajones to stick to his guns until he got exactly how much he wanted.

The sluggos here at Numeric Domains salute both the buyer and seller in this transaction. We urge all companies and organizations looking to expand the depth and breadth of their product and service offerings to strongly consider incorporating numeric domains into their plans.

Opportunity knocks...   

Nokia Predicts 500 Million Mobile Users by 2010

This from Techtree.

India's burgeoning population is going to get even more well-connected in the days to come. One supposes this is great news for consumers, more so for the telecom sector.

To be precise, India's mobile phone user base is expected to cross 500 million mobile phone users by 2010 -- this according to Nokia. Out of which, 60 million users will have mobile video capability and 100 million will prefer mobile music services.

Speaking at the Goafest Conclave, D Shivakumar, vice president and managing director of Nokia India, predicted that half the subscribers will be accessing the Internet through mobile phones. In his view, services delivered through mobiles will open a window of opportunity for advertisers in the country. He went on to say that the market will be divided into three sections: the top-end limited to some 50 million customers, the mid-range comprising around 150 million subscribers, and the third tier -- claimed to be unique to India -- dominated by low-cost basic handsets with minimal functionality.

While it may be good for India to have so many mobile phone users by 2010, it may be quite another thing for them to experience better network connectivity and cheaper calling rates by that time.

Let's See... 625 Times 8... That'll Be An Even $5 Million. Will That Be Cash or Charge?

Our good buds down at the inimitable DNForum had one of their members post this little jewel. Given the  current trends in pricing of numeric domains, are these guys that far of their proverbial rockers?

The average per domain price is a svelte $625,000.

Swiss to the rescue indeed!


Hello to all numeric lovers !

We are selling the nicest NN.COM portfolio in the world !

08.com + 22.com + 34.com + 44.com + 55.com + 84.com + 85.com + 92.com as a package.

Minimal offer for consideration : $ 5,000,000   

DNForum

Knock, Knock. MySpace? ...... Hellllllo. Anybody Home?

The annual blowfest, better known as CTIA, has once again alit upon the city of glowing neon, not un-adjacent to the world famous Chicken Ranch, Las Vegas, NV. Among the slew of hyperbole showcasing the latest and greatest "must have " new-fangled gadgets and technical wizardry, we find this little nugget buried deep within the bowels of that esteemed pifflesheet, the Denver Post.

As NuDoms will know, this was an opportunity to once again highlight how numeric domains can enable millions of people to access some of the most popular Web sites on the planet, quickly and easily.

I've presented the article here in its entirety and included my comments submitted to the Denver Post.

MySpace explores mobile music

By The Denver Post

Article Last Updated: 04/02/2008 02:58:55 AM MDT

 

LAS VEGAS — MySpace, the most-popular social networking website, is exploring ways to let users access music featured on its pages through Internet browsers on their mobile phones.

"People want to take music on the go with them," said Brandon Lucas, MySpace's senior director for mobile business development, in an interview Monday at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas. "It's something very interesting to us." Within a few years, MySpace will get as much as 50 percent of its user traffic through mobile devices, Lucas said.

The News Corp. social networking site started offering mobile versions to Verizon Wireless and Sprint subscribers last month.

To which I replied:

Dear Mr./Ms. Denver Post Reporter:

You might want to inform Mr. Lucas there's something that he might find "very interesting".

The fact is, anyone on the planet with a cell phone and a wireless connection can already access the MySpace mobile Web site.

Here's how: (recognizing that numbers represent letters on billions of standard, non-qwerty cell phone dial pads).

1. Open your mobile browser

2. Enter the numeric domain equivalent of the word MySpace - that's 6977223

3. Add the .com

4. Press 'send', 'call', 'go' etc.

5. You are taken directly to the MySpace mobile Web site

It doesn't matter if you are in Bangalore, Buffalo or Beijing

It doesn't matter what hand set you use

It doesn't matter what language you speak

It doesn't matter which carrier you subscribe to (although Verizon and Sprint would have their subscribers believe that they are 'special' in the eyes of the MySpace intelligentsia.

In fact, why not call up your FaceBook contact and tell them the same thing. 32232665.com goes to the Facebook mobile Web site. And while you're on a roll and into your Rolodex, do the same thing for Twitter at 8948837.com, ESPN at 3776.com, Mahalo - at 624256.com and.... well you get the picture.

Cheers,
Scott Smith
ss@numericdomains.com
http://numericdomains.com

NuDoms Unite! 63 Numbers Debuts

As a small tribute to numeric domains, we developed this nifty little puzzle that debuts today, April Fool's day. It seems appropriate.

Please take a moment to give it a whirl and let us know what you think. Tell us what you like, what you don't like and any suggestions or changes you might recommend. ALL feedback is greatly appreciated.

We chose 63 numbers as it represents the maximum number of characters permitted to the left of the "dot" (w/o sub-domains obviously).

The 63 Numbers link on the left will always take you there.

And most importantly, please send this along to a bunch of your friends that you think would enjoy a small distraction.

Cheers,

PS. Many thanks to Dave and AMH for making this possible.

Tomorrow Is ....

9 2 3 7 5 6 6 3 5 4 7 7 2

Double Dutch NuDoms Hard At Work

Still questioning the value of pure numeric domains? Seems that at least two of our Dutch brethren were chomping at the bit to stake their respective claims on thousands of numeric domains in the recent Netherlands (.nl) land rush.

My Album, the sleeping wolf-in-sheeps-clothing, superbly represented (above) by the innocent looking Pixie in purple, and Martijn, Wim, Joost (1), Joost (2), Timon, Tony and the rest of the BliXem frat house (one of Top 50 Dutch internet publishers) went above and beyond the call of duty to nab their respective piece of the rock.

It hardly seem like a case of hijacking. Nonetheless, SIDN flatfeet were equal to the task and convinced (forced) the the enterprising dippers to return of some of the hard-gotten booty (ill-gotten, shurly, ed).

Trebles all round'!

   Two Dutch companies must return thousands of numeric domain names they got on a first-come-first-served basis from SIDN, the Dutch .nl registry.

   Numeric domain names are names made up entirely of numbers (eg 1234.nl), or numbers separated by hyphens (eg 12-34.nl). SIDN expected a landrush when it made these domains available late February, but wasn't prepared for domain hijackers, who initially claimed that "we were just being smart"

   During the landrush 14,409 unique numeric domains were registered by 298 companies. The most requested domain was 007.nl.

   Photo sharing company MyAlbum.nl registered 2,579 numeric domains by mailservers. It got one sixth of the numbers available setting up 35 different after two months of preparation and an investment of €35,000. BliXEM Internet Services acquired 2,341 numeric names.

   SIDN has now made an agreement with the two companies to return a substantial part of the numbers they registered.

   The organisation says it will have to dictate "more regulating and limiting measures" against domain name brokers, and that it will monitor the process more closely in future. ®

One Week Left

Just a quick reminder to all NuDoms that there is only 1 week left in the various introductory promos, giveaways and other absurdly generous offers. On April 1, 2008, all offers evaporate and we return to our regularly scheduled programming. Don't delay. You still have time to pick up a premium numeric domain before we see prices begin to really soar (IMHO).

That said, we're extremely pleased to announce our brand spankin' new "tribute to  numeric domains"  puzzle that will officially launch on April Fools Day.

Stay tuned.

Google sees surge in Web use on hot mobile phones

"We have very much hit a watershed moment in terms of mobile Internet usage," Matt Waddell, a product manager for Google Mobile, said in an interview. "We are seeing that mobile Internet use is in fact accelerating...."We are actually seeing a 20 percent increase in the number of searches by people,"Reuters reports that the numbers continue to grow steadily.

Now if we could just get the Googleratti to use and promote access to their mobile Web site using 466453.com (14 dial pad inputs) instead of mobile.google.com (36 dial pad inputs), we'd be away to the races.

Or They Could Simply Enter 6974.com...

Sad news as the Goofy division of the Sports Illustrated empire have once again decided to strap their thick-thumbed users with another obstacle course to access mobile content (yes, I know it's an application).

Sports Illustrated Digital and Action Engine® Corporation (who dat? ed.), have announced "the launch of MySI Mobile, the beta version of a subscription-free, downloadable mobile application that delivers personalized sports content from SI.com."


      To download the MySI Mobile application consumers can text "MYSI" to 58585 and receive a text message with a link to download the service. Alternatively, consumers can type http://www.mysi.actionengine.com/provision on their phone's mobile browser and follow the download instructions provided.

Let's see now. By my calculation, on a standard  cell/mobile phone (NOT including the http://www.), that requires somewhere north of 70 separate key pad inputs!

                                        OR

SI could have grown a backbone, took a stand for their customers and not just meekly followed the advice of their esteemed "partners".

How hard would it have been for these knuckleheads to have done some spade work and tracked down the owner of the numeric domain equivalent of MySI - 6974.com and made an offer for the domain? And if memory serves, I recall that 74.com (could represent SI) was available for sale awhile back. Even if it cost them a couple hundred grand, that's mice nuts compared to the money involved here.

The difference:

6974.com = 12 key pad inputs (vs: 70)

74.com = 10 key pad inputs (vs: 70)

Thick thumbs and patience be damned!

Fun With Numbers

Q: What new puzzle...

Combines the logic required to solve Sudoku with...

The knowledge needed to astonish your friends at Trivial Pursuit...

The ability to analyze and decipher the mixed up word clues of Jumble...

The schoolyard fun of playing Hangman, and ...

Incorporates Numeric Domains?

A: Coming April 1, 2008

All rights reserved to their respective owners and/or Trademark holders

Breaking Into the "Trillions"

Mobile worth $1 trillion this year

The worldwide mobile industry will be worth $1 trillion by the end of the year. Yep, that’s $1 trillion.

Portio Research’s report ‘Slicing Up The Mobile Services Revenue Pie’ also says the number of mobile subscribers will grow from 3.1 billion at the end of 2007 to an estimated 5 billion by 2012. It predicts non-voice Value Added Services (VAS) could be worth a quarter of a trillion dollars by 2012.

The report also delivers intriguing geographical statistics. For example, the US market, which accounted for only 6.7 per cent of worldwide data services revenues in 2004, could contribute 27.8 per cent by 2012. Conversely Asia Pacific will contribute 38.6 per cent, down from 50.9 per cent in the same time frame. This is a reflection of the difference in levels of ARPU between these two geographical regions.

Article

Every Little Bit Helps

Developing nations will be a major consumer of goods and services via the wireless Internet. Here's one example.

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh's six cell phone carriers added 2.05 million new subscribers in January, taking the total number of user to 36.4 million in the one of the world's fastest growing mobile market, official data showed.                                                                         

The number of mobile phone users in the impoverished country of over 140 million people rose nearly 58 percent in 2007 to 34.4 million as rivals cut prices to compete, said the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission.

Several market surveys forecast the number of mobile phone users will be around 50 million at the end of 2009.

Article

Can iLightning Strike Twice? iReport Added to Free Celebrity Giveaway!

In a related post, below, I offered several celebrities and high-profile organizations their numeric domain for free. I'm pleased to announce a late entry to the field.

Ten years from now, some people will perhaps look back at this post and have an opinion. If they do, I suspect most views will be situate in the “eh, …whatever, who cares” middle ground. But if I know Domainers, and more specifically NuDoms (Numeric Domainers), some opinions will be firmly entrenched at the poles, either:

1. He GAVE that domain away? For FREE? What a/n idiot, putz, bonehead, friggin’ newb (add your own expletive), or

2. He GAVE that domain away? For FREE? Wow! (again, add your own)

WHY?

Like many Domainers, I look to my more esteemed peers (Ham, Schilling, Ye, Ostrofsky, Zappy etc) for ideas, experience, knowledge, guidance, inspiration (ok, that’s enough brown nosing, ed.). In this case, the guru of choice, not surprisingly, is Rick Schwartz. It’s the self-proclaimed “Domain King” for a number of reasons. (many of which can be found on his blog http://www.ricksblog.com). Rick advocates:

   * Domain appraisals are ALL worthless

   * You advertise NOW

   * We are all self-appointed

   * Follow the money

   * People called me a fool

   * Circumstance drives deals, and…

   * He sold iReport.com for $750,000

My objective is crystal clear. I aim to raise the awareness of the use and utility of numeric domains, to help to enable their use and ultimately to raise the value of numeric domains across the board. In a recent, well publicized sale…

CNN was sufficiently prepared to:

   * Commit the time and people to negotiate for months

   * Spend 750k to buy iReport.com and:

   * Launch a Web site dedicated to “uncensored, user-powered news”,

Maybe CNN is prepared to:

   * negotiate for a few hours

   * spend $0.00 for the numeric domain equivalent for iReport (4737678.com) and,

   * run a parallel wireless Web site specifically formatted for cell phone and other mobile device access - and worldwide delivery of “uncensored, user-powered news”

Maybe they’ll get it. Maybe they won’t.

I guess it really depends on CNN’s/iReports view of what the Domain King describes as “circumstance”.

SIDN’s Dutch Numeric Domain Landrush Explosion

Dutch Registrar SIDN’s numerical .nl domain name landrush succumbed to its own success on Thursday when their mail server just couldn’t manage the sudden explosion of landrush applications. As reported earlier, at 12.00pm on Thursday, the numeric .nl domain landrush was given the green light by Dutch Domain Registry SIDN. Everyone who wanted a numerical domain was allowed, by means of a registrar, to request their domain via e-mail.

According to a recent communique, SIDN indicated that, ‘ In order to prevent our incoming e-mail system from overloading, we have taken a number of precautions’.

At 12.00pm sharp, 10,000 new e-mail requests started flooding SIDN’s mail server every second and it turned out to be too much of a good thing. SIDN was ill prepared and the anticipated mail server drama started unfolding regardless of their precautions. Interestingly enough, the server didn’t crash but the majority of the applications were refused since their mail server was nearly inaccessible. As a result, ”first come first serve” lottery rules will now determine who gets the desired numeric domain name.

According to several participating registrars, ”The outcome of a lottery of this type cannot be honest, since larger parties and savy programmers can manipulate the outcome of the lottery in their favor, by employing automated mailing systems which open many simultaneous connections into the SIDN e-mail server.”

Legal steps

“This is real mess, a true fiasco. SIDN has heavily underestimated this landrush” said a frustrated participant. “More proof of SIDN’s incompetence”, complains another party, referring to an earlier privacy blunder by Deloitte, partner of SIDN during  the numerical domain sunrise period.

Meanwhile a number of customers from various participating registrars are now contemplating what legal steps to take in order to recover “their numerical domains” from the hands of opportunistic hijackers.

SIDN finds the complaints exaggerated.

An enormous increase did indeed occur; about 10,000 new connections per second in fact. The mail server had no choice but to refuse connections. However, if the connection didn’t succeed during the first second, it would have succeeded the second or third second, and so forth.

Participants, who spoke out around 14.00 hours (two hours after the official launch), vehemently object. They indicate that ‘ of the hundreds of applications only a tiny portion had gone through by 14:00 hours’.

SIDN replied that “We were indeed very busy, but our mail server did not crash. During the first hour and a half 35,000 applications were received successfully and we have taken all the needed measures to ensure an honest process. The fact that it was difficult to get a connection during the initial phase of the landrush was anticipated and cannot be avoided”.

Eurid Systems Superiority

Critics countered those arguments by directing more blame toward the mail server methods used by SIDN. Critics wonder why SIDN didn’t chose the same methods used by Eurid during the .eu landrush. Eurid assigned all participants their own channel to prevent them from opening several connections at the same time. Furthermore, Eurid didn’t use regular e-mail but instead the more efficient Extensible Provisioning protocol (EPP), where small xml-packets are sent.

Although technically much sounder, even the .eu launch went wrong. However, this only happened because several dishonest parties acquired multiple channels under different names.

On Friday afternoon the first .nl numerical domain landrush phase came to an end. This will allow SIDN to process all the requests they received. And thanks to the controversial lottery rules, all double, triple, etc… applications will be relentlessly eliminated.

Source: DomainNews.nl Article - Friday February 30th, 2008

Celebrity Giveaway

The NuDom brain trust enthusiastically advocates the use of numeric domains as a simple, easy way for billions of people to access the mobile internet. Cell phones were made to connect to other people and infotainment by entering NUMBERS, not multi-tapping numbers to get to corresponding letters to spell WORDS.

NuDoms predict that 2008 will be the watershed year for widespread use of numeric domains. They’ll be recognized as critical tools for organizations, corporations and people to deliver products, services and messages to the masses via mobile. 

We’ll kick-start the festivities. We are duly authorized to offer ONE (1) of the following celebrities or organizations (NAME) a FREE numeric domain to be used for their mobile Web site. And that means THE celebrity. NOT your step-sisters’ second cousin (twice removed), who also just happens to have been blessed/saddled with the same name as a celeb listed here. Nope, it’s just for the big kahunas.

How it works:

Duration: 

This offer expires on the earlier of:

1) the time that the “NAME”, or hers/his/its authorized representative, claims, or otherwise pulls the trigger on the corresponding numeric domain being offered specifically to them, or

2) 5:00PM, (EST) on  March 29, 2008.

 

 

How is the winner determined?

The first “NAME”, or their duly authorized representative, that responds by posting a comment to this post with full contact information, or sends an email to ss@numericdomains.com, wins. Time stamps shall dictate the order of receipt.

Cost to the winner: 

Free. $0.00. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Squat. Diddly. IxNay. Nuthin’.

Winners’ commitment:

Simple. Use the domain for their mobile Web site.

The winner promises to use the numeric domain as the primary access point for their respective mobile Web site. Their mobile Web site shall be fully functional and up and running within 6 months of the date they accept ownership of the numeric domain. If there is no corresponding mobile Web site up and running within one (1) year, they agree to return the numeric domain at no cost. The court of public opinion shall rule.

1) Dr. Phil McGraw is offered 377445.com (Dr. Phil)

2) Jenna Jameson is offered 53662.com (Jenna)

3) MySpace.com is offered 6977223.com (MySpace)

4) Flickr.com is offered 354257 .com (Flickr)

5) Hillary Clinton is offered 4455279.com (Hillary)

6) Twitter.com is offered 8948837 .com (Twitter)

7) Sean P. Diddy Coombs is offered 34339.com (Diddy)

8) ESPN.com or Esso are offered (respectively) 3776.com (a ‘two-fer’)

9) Facebook.com is offered 32232665.com (FaceBook)

10) Barack Obama is offered 227225.com (Barack)

11) Flavor Flav is offered 352867.com (Flavor)

12) Fergie of Black Eyed Peas is offered 337443.com (Fergie)

13) Dr. Wayne Dyer is offered 373937.com (Dr.Dyer)

14) Prince Rogers Nelson is offered 774623.com (Prince) pssst..that is his official site

15) Gordon Sumner is offered 78464.com (Sting)

16) Shania (Eileen) Twain is offered 742642.com (Shania)

17) Tim McGraw is offered 624729.com (McGraw)

18) Beyonce Knowles is offered 2396623.com (Beyonce)

Oooopps...

I indicated earlier that a major announcement was going to be made today. However, due to inclement weather the announcement will be delayed until tomorrow.

Billions Becoming the Norm

Here's another milestone all NuDoms should be happy about. The vast majority of those over a billion cell phones sold (as noted below), are capable of accessing the Internet. As more mobile Web sites are developed, the take-up of numeric domains should also increase.

      San Francisco - With more than 1 billion phones sold globally for the first time, 2007 was a banner year for mobile phone sales. Worldwide sales of mobile phones ended up surpassing 1.15 billion units in 2007, a 16 percent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million, according to figures from Gartner.

Emerging markets, especially China and India, are now the driver for growth, with many people in the countries now buying their first phone.

Full story

Pre-registration of .NL Numeric Domains Begins

Cologne, 23.02.2008 - ICANN accredited Registrar Secura announced today, that the company is offering free pre-registration of numeric nl-domains.

SIDN, the .nl registry, will introduce numeric .nl domain names to everyone from 28 February 2008 12.00 hrs (CET). Numeric domain names are names made up entirely of numbers (e.g. 1234.nl), or of numbers separated by hyphens (e.g. 12-34.nl). In the first few days after registration begins, SIDN expects a ‘landrush’ of people racing to get the ‘best’ combinations. The registry has therefore put special measures in place to prevent its systems becoming overloaded.

Between 1 and 14 December 2007, trademark and trading name owners were given the opportunity to reserve the corresponding domain names before general registration began. The first name to be reserved in the context of this ‘sunrise period’ for numeric .nl domain names was 9292.nl, which was assigned to the organization 9292.

ICANN accredited Registrar Secura is offering the free pre-registration of numeric nl-domains (http://www.domainregistry.de/nl-domain.html). The CEO of Secura explains: "Secura is not only ICANN accredited registrar, but also member of the organization, which is managing the nl-domains. Therefore Secura has a special competence in registering nl-domains."

A Virtual Cornucopia of Leap Year Frivolity

Traditionally when it comes to proposing marriage, it falls on the male to ask his sweetheart if she would do him the honour of becoming his wife.

This year however is a leap year and on the 29^th of February the tables are turned. It is a leap year tradition that women propose marriage on the 29^th of February. And if the man says no then he must pay a fine, the fine can be anything that the girl desires from a simple kiss to a very expensive piece of jewellery.

The tradition that originated in Ireland in the 5^th century when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. According to legend, St. Patrick said the yearning females could propose on this one day in February during the leap year.

In Scotland in 1288 a law was passed that allowed women to propose marriage to the man of their choice in that year. As a good luck charm, they should also wear a red petticoat under their dress - and make sure that it is partly visible to the man when they propose.

Some Famous People Born on February 29
               
                Born 1976 - Ja Rule, rapper
                Born 1972 - Anthonio Sabato Jr., model & actor
                Born 1916 - Dinah Shore, singer
                Born 1904 - Jimmy Dorsey, bandleader.
                Born 1792 - Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer


Leap Year cocktail
2 ounces gin.