FC: Steve Mann's struggles with Verisign and modest Perl proposal

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[My version of lynx doesn't support https URLs, otherwise I'd join the fun, 
but FYI... --Declan]

---

Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 17:29:58 -0500 (EST)
From: Steve Mann <mann () eecg toronto edu>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Trying to get a response from Network Solutions (Verisign)
Cc: mann () genesis eecg toronto edu

Here's something your PoliTech readers might find interesting:

--------included file--------

I've been trying to transfer from the domain name monopoly
(Netsol/Verisign) to another registrar, but they keep making it harder
and harder to transfer.  (See http://wearcam.org/verisign/)

I've tried phone calls, faxes, letters, but no luck.

One of the reasons I'm transferring is that I don't agree to
their Terms and Conditions, and they even have Terms and Conditions to
"Agree" to in order to terminate service with them.  I was going to
Ouijagree (e.g. get a bunch of friends to sit around the
mouse/planchette, and make the spirits of the dead be bound by their
Terms and Conditions, (href=http://wearcam.org/ouiki/index.htm)
but I thought another approach would be the following shell script,
which would hopefully help them get the message that I'd like to switch
registrars.  If others would be willing to help me in transferring this
domain, please consider running the following shell script.  If enough
people run it, perhaps it would get their attention.  I've just finished
being on "hold" for 2 hours on the telephone, and I'd really rather have
my computer do the work+waiting, rather than me:

#!/usr/bin/perl
while (1) {
 $commandstr = sprintf("lynx -dump 
https://registrar-transfers.com/\?h=bf97ce18c1f368afb106699eea6e802e >> 
temp.txt");
 ($sec, $min, $hour, $mday, $mon, $year, $wday, $yday, 
$isdst)=localtime(time);
 $d=sprintf("$sec, $min, $hour, $mday, $mon, $year, $wday, $yday, $isdst");
 $datecommand = sprintf("echo $d >> temp.txt");
 printf("lynx $d\n");
 system($datecommand);
 system($commandstr);
}

The logfile allows a graph to later be plotted of update frequency as a
function of time.

This might also form a nice experiment to see if enough requests are
made, do they get the message?




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