Minh Nguyễn
August 5^th, 2013
This Website
#2,288

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The ’90s called

It’s always bothered me that, for a website that bills itself as “more obscure than an IP address”, 1ec5.org has a domain name that’s empirically simpler than an IP address.

So I ran out and got a new domain name: “nguyen.cincinnati.oh.us”. It features just as much punctuation as an IPv4 address. To make up for the lack of hexadecimal gibberish, I also registered “xn--nguyn-s71b.cincinnati.oh.us”, which resolves to “nguyễn.cincinnati.oh.us” (a redirect to the accentless version) in certain browsers and e-mail clients, like Firefox and Thunderbird. I’m pretty sure that’s a bug; .us is only supposed to support the standard English alphabet.

(Users of most browsers will also notice that the domain is colored incorrectly in the address bar. The Public Suffix List, which exists for security reasons, doesn’t completely account for fourth-level domains under .us, presumably because the list would be bloated beyond comprehension just to handle obscure domains like “waterproof.la.us”.)

The new site is going to be home to articles that, unlike the articles at this blog, will remain relevant long after they’re written and that don’t necessarily pertain to me personally. Currently it offers some pointers on pronunciation and instructions on setting up shop in the most American corner of the Internet. (It’s free, which makes up for its pointlessness.)

As for the site’s design, it’s 20 years behind the times, just like good ol’ Cincinnati.

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