Section B • Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, October 6, 2000
Web domains could include .kids, .sex
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — As the Internet becomes increasingly clogged, Web users digging for family friendly sites might one day be able to type kids instead of .com. More lurid material, on the other hand, might be found after a search of the suffix .sex or .xxx.
The new dot addresses could be in use early next year. The organization handling the expansion expects to announce the list of new suffixes by Nov. 20, marking the first major growth in more than a decade.
Adding suffixes to the Internet is akin to adding area codes to the national phone system to accommodate the growing number of customers.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, selected by the federal government in 1998 to handle address policy for the Web, said Tuesday that it has accepted 47 proposals for new domain-name suffixes. The bidding process ended Monday.
Anyone can register a name ending in com, net, or org if it is not already in use. Four other suffixes are reserved for specific groups, such as edu for educational institutions. There are 244 regional suffixes, such as fr. for France.
Internet registration companies had to pay a nonrefundable $50,000 application fee, which they would, in theory, recoup through fees charged to register Web sites with the new suffixes.
Nineteen companies, including Internet registration leader Network Solutions Inc., submitted a plan for three new suffixes, .info, .site and .web, as global alternatives to .com, .net and .org.
Other plans proposed splitting the Internet into separate channels for kids, businesses and nonprofit groups.
Register.com and Virtual Internet submitted a joint bid to create .pro for professionals. Physician John Doe, for example, could register as johndoe.med.pro. If John Doe were a lawyer, he could register as johndoe.law.pro.
Under that proposal, doctors, lawyers and accountants, for example, would have to prove their professional status to win .pro registration. Existing .com, .net and .org addresses do not require that documentation.
Four companies separately proposed a_kids extension. The _sex and _xxx suffixes were in a number of bids.
War on drugs chronicled
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — After three decades, the war on drugs is largely a bust.
That's one finding of Drug Wars, an epic exploration into the United States government's battle to stem the flow of illegal drugs.
Examinations of the drug problem are usually framed from the perspective of the users or the cops who bust them on the street.
The four-hour Frontline report, which PBS airs Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m., lets viewers hear from high-level government officials, traffickers, drug agents and drug lords — including men who once headed Colombia's notorious Medellin cartel, which the
film identifies as the world's largest ever criminal syndicate.
Drug Wars takes an inside look at the drug business, including footage of the ambush of an entire division of Mexico's federal drug police by a unit of the Mexican army protecting a drug operation.
The U.S. prison population has doubled since 1994 to nearly 2 million inmates - half of whom are jailed on drug-related charges. Meanwhile, the global narcotics business is worth an estimated $400 billion, and rapidly expanding.
"Have we really looked this situation straight in the face," Bergman muses, "where we can figure out what to do?"
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
Life, television blurs in Ray Romano sitcom
BURBANK, Calif. — Ray Romano, comedian, family man and acid coeler has a twain in his back.
Driving a golf cart from his office to the set, Romano, 42, reflects on the slow journey to full-fledged success.
The Associated Press
"What happened at the Emmys is just perfect for me," he says, "because I need, especially as like a comic, to be recognized, which I think I was there. But I also need to be a loser. To have both those things going on at the same time."
Listening to his riff, you feel certain that his mother or his wife will pop up, as they do in the sitcom, and nag him about his attitude. Even in the face of fame, Romano believes in the value of self-deprecation and doubt.
The aptness of the show's title is apparent to cast and crew, who suggest various remedies for his pain.
"We thought we were going to be canceled, and then no one was watching, and then a couple of people were watching, and then more, and then we didn't get nominated (for an Emmy), and then we got nominated and nobody won, and now we got nominated and one person won, but we still feel like we are fighting against not enough notoriety."
Ray Barone, sportswriter and family man, feels that twinge as he bends down to look under the couch in search of a missing hamster.
Audiences also seem to love Raymond. The sitcom about the pressures of close family ties is now in its fifth season on CBS, airing Mondays at 8 p.m. Nominated for nine Emmys this year, including an acting nod for Romano, it received a best comedy actress win for Patricia Heaton, who plays Raymond's long-suffering wife Debra.
"I want to keep it real, keep it organic, but little by little. Ray Barone is becoming his own freak. We originally had a contest of who was stupider, Ray Romano or Ray Barone. Ray Barone is winning now," the comedian says, his slightly foovy "huh huh" laugh serving as punctuation.
Will that little ache show up on-screen? Maybe, if it adds to the humor. Probably not, if it doesn't.
The fine line between the real Ray and the character he plays has often been so blurry as to confuse even Romano.
Romano had tweaked a muscle hitting a bucket of golf balls before coming to work this morning at Warner Bros. studios, where his sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond is filmed.
Crossword
ACROSS
1 As such
2 Swelling retardant
3 Fish by dragging a net
4 Old-time anesthetic
5 Ring off.
6 Ventilated, in a way
7 Clip sheep
8 Erie Canal mule
9 "M"A'SH" clerk
10 Brief rest
11 Osaka farewell
12 Allogather
12 British school
13 Sound shocked
13 Verbal noun
13 Dyving vat
13 Actress Marisa
13 Jacob's twin
10 _Scotia
11 In a vertical line
12 Cause disorder
13 Due
14 From the past
14 Part of O.E.D.
14 Widely spreading tree
14 Londoner's streetcar
50 Brief note
50 Money back
51 Existed before
11 "Respect" singer Franklin
53 Moses 'brother
53 Canine
53 Where van Gogh painted like mad?
67 Got up
67 A Gerstwien
68 Tantalize
69 Examinations
70 Fool
71 Ford flop
DOWN
1 "My Cousin Vinny" star
2 Actor Hawke
3 Fictional Butler
4 Boxer turned announcer
5 List of lapses
6 April 15 org.
$ \textcircled{c} $ 2000 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
10/8/00
7 Discontinue
8 D sharp
9 Power seat
10 Horse color
11 "Mephisto Waltz"
12 Gradual impairment
13 Vega's constellation
14 Put off
15 Yankee known for his wit
16 Number of votes
17 Recalled to mind
18 Word before friendly
19 Shuttle grp.
20 Sprinkle with powder
21 Dial control
22 Hawkeye State
23 Tied
24 Defamatory remarks
25 Give off
Solutions to Thursday's crossword
47 Recompense
48 Create bubbles
51 News services
52 Perfumes
54 Rand McdNally
book
55 The closer ones
56 Art holder
57 Bygone
58 Deserve
59 Cupid
60 Geezer
64 Element classification
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