Don Havey

I’ve posted almost nothing productive on this blog in months! Just ranting! Let’s keep it up. Today’s topic: domain squatting, a.k.a. domain parking.

I’m a bit of a word lover. I enjoy certain combinations of words. This interest, combined with my web-oriented skill set, has made me into a bit of a domain name speculator. I occasionally think of words that might make nice domain names… and every once in a while, I buy one. Angel always complains that I do this instead of, for example, taking her to the movies. In my defense, buying a domain name is cheaper…

Moving on.

Domain name squatting has been a major problem since the mid-late 90s, the formative years of the internet. Back then, large companies that originally hesitated to build a web presence often found that their ideal domain name was registered by some clever nerd who would subsequently extort the company for a couple grand in exchange for the rights to the domain name. Not a huge deal. And the feeling amongst nerds was… well… you snooze you lose.

Lately, however, domain registrars such as GoDaddy have been registering domains in bulk. Literally taking entire pages out of the dictionary (challenge: find a word in the dictionary that does not exist as a registered domain name… and register it!). Registration costs as low as $7/yr… so a company like GoDaddy can register 10,000 domains–5% of all English words–for a pretty low price.

The strategy that these large companies have concocted is as follows: register as many domains as possible, throw some ads on them to recoup the cost of the registration, then auction the high-request-traffic domains to companies that have large enough budgets to pay 1,000 times the cost of a typical domain registration.

The problem with this “corner the market” strategy is that it is non-renewable. Extremely non-renewable. For two hugely important reasons:

1. There are a finite number of words in the English language. Furthermore, there are a relatively small number of words in that set that are easy to spell and/or pronounce. New words are occasionally created, but not at a rate anywhere close to the rate of internet expansion. Eventually, we will run out of pronounceable and meaningful letter combinations. Of course, it is equally difficult to find an unregistered two- or three-syllable non-word (e.g. Google).
2. When a domain expires, it is the registrar who has first pick on whether or not to grab the domain name for themselves. This is particularly important during times of “internet economy slump”… when small- and medium-traffic online businesses close shop and leave common-word domains lying in their wake.

Furthermore, it essentially squeezes small businesses out of the market by requiring those startups to settle for a less-than-memorable domain name, or put a large percentage of their funds into buying a memorable one.

In conclusion, domain name parking by individuals is fine (my favorite example); domain name parking by registrars is monopolistic and evil.

Take action! When you stumble across a parked domain, remember the registrar associated with it, and do not purchase any service through them. And please, don’t click the damn ads. If you want to do more, inquire about the domain, but in the comments box write something like “wouldn’t you like to work at a company that is not evil?” Maybe we can convince all their employees to leave.

Comments welcome, but I will bitch slap you if you disagree and call this “the nature of capitalism, the preferred economic strategy of God himself”. Fools.

I read this conversation in the comments of this article about the LHC. It’s pretty great.

Skeptic: Just exactly how do black holes ‘evaporate’? Do they also exhibit this behaviour in outer space, and if so at what rate? Also what is the ‘unimaginably short period of time’ it will take for them to do so–a picosecond, a femtosecond?

Science: Hawking Radiation. In fact, if the LHC proves this, Stephen Hawking will probably finally get his Nobel.
The speed at which a black hole evaporates is inversely proportional to its mass. Macroscopic black holes trap mass much faster than they lose it from radiation, and thus persist. Quantum-size black holes (the ones from the LHC will be much smaller than even a proton) will evaporate on the order of a femtosecond.

Skeptic: (referring to Hawking Radiation) So it’s not proven yet-

Science: The same theory which posits the creation of black holes also predicts evaporation due to Hawking Radiation. Thus, if you choose to be worried about black hole formation, you also have to accept the fact that they will evaporate. If you dispute that they will evaporate, no problem, because if that’s true then they won’t be formed in the first place. Either way, much ado about nothing.

Awesome! Sadly, the skeptics rarely concede defeat. (That is the difference between science and religion.)

There are a million articles on the web about finding health insurance as an individual and/or freelancer. But I’m writing another. Here’s my reasoning: when I was researching the subject I wanted to know the math, which no one seems to be considering. Maybe you’ll want to know the math too. Or maybe someone will graciously correct my math and change my opinion on the matter.

Some of the many problems

Health insurance in the U.S. is an amazing problem. Oddly, while looking at the issue from my perspective, I always feel a bit serene. It’s the mixture of impossibility and inevitability that does it. Like the look of an animal in a trap after they tire, calm down, and accept their circumstances.

Let’s be fair to the insurance providers and first disclose the problems with a market-driven health care system.

The cards are always stacked against insurance providers in such a system for this reason: people don’t want insurance (of any type) unless there’s a good possibility that they’ll need it. The insurance industry has historically used this excuse as a crutch while justifying their rather unscrupulous practices. They will always be insuring the highest-risk, highest-payout cases. This is true.

Now the problems that the consumer faces, specific to the health insurance industry:

1. Rates are not determined on a sliding scale, which, though beneficial to those with long-term health problems, means that those of us who will visit the doctor’s office only once a year, are paying an insane amount to do so.
2. Insurance companies market high-deductible, low-maximum plans to low income individuals and families, providing them with a sense of security, while in actuality the family is hardly covered in the case of catastrophic medical bills, and is simultaneously required to pay entirely out of pocket for small bills.
3. Low deductible plans, which are not subsidized for self-employed individuals, very rarely pay off and come with a price tag that would make an investment banker blush.

I’m going to give you some math now. But first, I’ll direct you to the Wikipedia article that discusses other countries’ insurance solutions. Needless to say, they are all more effective than the current U.S. system, and prove that solving the health insurance problem is not impossible. The Netherlands solution is particularly promising.

And also, a disclaimer, compliments of your mother: It is not wise to “play the odds” when you’re gambling with your life. Because you only get one. That said, I’m of the opinion that taking a little risk may actually greatly improve the one life you have, be it with or without health insurance.

Here’s the math for the two major types of plans available to me in Portland, ME (no Freelancers Union coverage up here):

Angel’s plan

Angel is on a plan that is fully covered by her employer (bless them). Of course, she’s not getting it for free. If she were paying for the coverage herself, we can assume that she’d be making a bit more of a salary.

Angel’s plan equates to ~$900/mo if I were to purchase it as an individual. It is a relatively low deductible plan (used to be $500, now $1000), and covers quite a bit, but not nearly everything. The numbers are:

$1000 yearly deductible
$900/mo = $10,800/yr
$2500 yearly maximum out of pocket ($1500 plus the deductible)
70% on most inpatient coverage until the maximum out of pocket is reached, then unlimited
Some prescription coverage, decent referral/specialist coverage

This one is obviously not going to pay off at this point in my life. It requires at least $11,800 per year (per goddamn year!) in medical bills to work out of the red. Additionally, if your bills make it into the above-$11,800 range, you’ll almost certainly have to dish out the remainder of the out of pocket limit, making the total $13,300. That would be a major diagnosis or a prolonged period of extremely bad luck. Think a nice big compound fracture per year.

If instead I were to invest that money in a 4% savings account, after 5 years I’d have ~$73,700. That’s almost $9000 in accumulated interest that could be put towards medical expenses… but in the case of a good, lucky, healthy life, could be used towards a child’s college education. In other words, it’s not money down the drain if you don’t use it.

High deductible plan

Now let’s look at a more typical freelancer plan. High deductible, relatively low maximum payout.

$5000 deductible
$300/mo = $3600/yr
$10,000 yearly maximum out of pocket ($5000 plus the deductible)
80% on most inpatient coverage until the maximum out of pocket is reached, then a maximum of $100,000 lifetime payout
Usually no prescription coverage, limited referral/specialist coverage

So, similarly, this one will pay off around $8600 per year, assuming that you can find the sweet spot between the deductible/fees and out of pocket limit. But what’s even worse here is the fact that it will only pay off until you hit the maximum. Good luck after that. But then again, if you’re accruing over $8,600 per year in medical bills at age 26, you’ll probably have moved to Canada by then.

Hope and conclusions

There is a glimmer of hope: tax deductions. Most medical bills and some insurance can be written off as an “above the line” deduction. Meaning that if you’re paying 30% in taxes and making more than $8,600 a year (using the example figures, after all your other deductibles), you can basically get 30% off your medical expenses. Still, that’s $6020 per year before it pays off.

Final advice: make up your own mind. If it helps to clear your conscience, get medical insurance. Maybe the lack of worrying alone will make you healthier. If you choose not to spring for coverage, look both ways before you cross the street, watch what you eat, and above all, please please please please VOTE this November for a candidate who is ready to revisit the issue of national health insurance.

Hint: not the old white one.