firehose

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted this week to uphold its policy against implementing dotless domain names, essentially bringing an end to a push from Google to introduce and own http://search, http://app, http://blog, and http://cloud. Google's proposal to ICANN was to allow each dotless domain to redirect to user-designated sites via a "new technical standard" that the company has spent months developing. For example, Google wanted http://search to bring up a search engine of a user's choice — whether it be Google, Bing, Yahoo, or anything else.

Likewise, if Google had gotten its way, http://blog would direct web surfers to a user-specified blogging platform, while http://cloud would have done the same for cloud services, and http://app would have done the same for mobile and desktop app stores. http://search isn't happening In its resolution passed this week, ICANN said it was rejecting dotless domains because it had found, after commissioning studies on the subject, that introducing such domains would pose substantial security and stability risks. Google officials did not respond to a request for comment on the ICANN decision by press time.

The dotless domain rejection isn't much of a surprise given ICANN's hesitance to change the status quo. While the organization has said nearly 2,000 new domain names could be on the way, it has introduced new domains relatively slowly. The biggest changes ICANN has introduced this year came in July, when the group activated four generic top-level domains: .شبكة (Arabic for "web"), .游戏 (Chinese for "game"), .онлайн (Russian for "online"), and .сайт (Russian for "web site"). Meanwhile, Google has also been pushing for .search, .app, .blog, .cloud, and .map, and Amazon has filed applications for .book and .amazon — some of which are garnering opposition of their own. But so far, ICANN hasn't yet approved or denied those top-level domain name requests.

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Spike Lee has funded his next film thanks to donations on Kickstarter, but it ended up being a close call. With five days to spare, the project called "The Newest Hottest Spike Lee Joint" reached its $1.25 million goal. Lee, who has made 21 feature films over the last three decades, acknowledged that finding funding on the website was far from a sure thing, despite the fact that he's built up a rather legendary body of work. In a video posted to YouTube, Lee gets emotional when describing the process.

"I don't want to focus on the negative, but a lot of people did not bet on the mule," Lee said of his film production company, which is called 40 Acres and a Mule. "Remember — don't make that mistake again — bet on the mule." On his Kickstarter page, Lee says that "Thank you, Jesus!" the website is changing the way films get financed. "I totally understand how strange it might seem to look for me, Spike Lee on Kickstarter asking for backers," he says on his Kickstarter page. "Welcome to the world of crowd funding. Whether you like it or not it is not going away. The future is here." The director said earlier that the crowd funding successes of Zach Braff and the creators of Veronica Mars inspired him to give it a shot.

As for what Lee's next movie will actually be about, details are still thin despite the money showing up. For now, all he's saying is that the feature will be about "human beings who are addicted to Blood. Funny, Sexy and Bloody. A new kind of love story." Production on the currently untitled film is slated to begin in November.

The Moto X is better than it seems at first glance.

Andrew Cunningham

I'll admit that I didn't get the excitement about the Moto X when it launched. A so-called "Google phone" was something that people have speculated about since Google's purchase of Motorola closed last year. And yet, much of the breathless pre-release coverage (and several early reviews of the phone) seemed to treat the phone as special because Google was saying it was special, not because it was earth-shattering hardware in and of itself.

We're now about two weeks out from our first hands-on session with the phone. After living with it for a while, I get it—at least a little. There are still things about the phone that I don't understand, but I can see why people would walk into a store and walk out with the Moto X instead of a Galaxy S 4 or an HTC One or even an iPhone 5. It's the rare flagship Android handset that's greater than the sum of its specifications, even if in the end it's still just another Android phone with a couple useful extra features stacked on top.

But the Moto X doesn't need to melt anyone's face or sweep Samsung under the rug. The Moto X doesn't need to redefine the way we think about smartphones or show us Google's grand vision for Android's future. The Moto X just needs to reverse Motorola's decline, stop the bleeding, and show that Motorola and its parent company can put their heads together and put out a desirable smartphone.

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Batman ’66 is hands down my pick for the best digital comic going today, but it’s always worth repeating. It‘s the highlight of each and every comics week, and while I’ve personally been waiting decades for a new story about Egghead, Jeff Parker and Joe Quinones have spent the latest issue bringing in a character who may — may — have more appeal to modern audiences.

In this week’s Batman ’66 #7, they’ve introduced the 1966 version of Harley Quinn — or at least, someone who’svery close.

If you want to get technical about it, she’s currently just “Dr. Quinn,” a psychiatrist studying the Joker at the Arkham Institute, but a peppy blonde doctor with a penchant for red and black diamonds is… well, about as subtle as the show that Parker and Quinones are drawing inspiration from. Either way, it’s enough to draw evenmy attention from the fact that this issue also reintroduces Cesar Romero’s painted-over moustache, an element of the Joker that’s been sorely missing for the past 52 years.

I asked Parker about what this meant for the series and its cast:

“We’re taking baby steps at the moment. I think it’s fun to broaden the world that way – we haven’t technically brought in Harley yet, after all. But WE COULD. As to why, I think we have to have some surprises that suggest we’re going to expand the ’66 world, or else you’re just getting more of what you got from the show. And in my mind, the comic should straddle the worlds of the show and the comics.”

So does this mean we’ll be seeing more villains that never made it onto television done in the style of the show? A Prisoner-inspired Ra’s al-Ghul? A woodstock-attending Anarky? Bane in a turtleneck, double-breasted suit and luchador mask? One can only hope.

And in my case, I really hope.