Sunday, December 05, 2010

alt.cc (and keeping an empty inbox)

My friend Joe Kissell has this domain: alt.cc.
Isn't that fantastic? Can hardly get shorter, and yet loaded with geeky significances.

You may have noticed it's often hard to get answers to emails (both to companies and individuals) in a timely manner. Or indeed at all. It's clear that many people don't wield a tight whip over their email. Joe has a good article about that.  (Notice it's in several parts.)

I've always been a bit puzzled by so many people who never have an empty inbox. I get 50-100 mails per day. The first thing I do every day when I get up is empty my inbox. I simply answer every single mail in there, and do whatever actions are required by some of them, and boom, it's empty. Sometimes this takes ten minutes, sometimes two hours. And then I keep it empty as the day rolls on, and it's empty when I go to bed. What could be simpler? Unfinished communication is a drain on your attention.

5 comments:

Jan said...

I also own such a short domain name, but this one is much cooler. Drats, out-geeked again! ;-)

ttl said...

Very cool.

Ray said...

"...the "CC" in dot-cc refers to a tiny island chain in the Indian Ocean...the "cc" of dot-cc is technically a designation for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a territory of Australia located in the Indian Ocean with fewer than 700 residents".

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_the_cc_at_the_end_of_url_stand_for#ixzz17HTR6nUp

Philocalist said...

Another example of how it proves wise to shop around.
Looking a little closer to this, high on the ratings was a site 'all about cc'.
They put up a very good arguement for acquiring a 'cc' domain name (from them) at a cost of $150 ... which on closer examination proved to be nothing more than a fee to 'park' it with them, after which you MUST use their services for hosting!
Under those circumstances, I quickly lost interest (though on second thoughts, perhaps I was not that interested to start with, just curious?)
HOWEVER, being on-site at my current host a little later in the day, I took a look out of simple curiosity ... after all, the first place I went to had an 'exclusive' on these domains, apparently.
Turns out that I can take (via them) pretty much any available cc domain for the hideous cost of £8.50 per year ... and either park or run it through my existing hosting package without incurring any extra fee!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yep, well said.

Once I had a meeting with my bank "advisor". I got a tax-free savings account (ISA, UK), with a £500 set-up fee.
Fortunately per law they have a two week grace for such a contract, because a couple days later I found out I could set up such an account elsewhere for free!