Jerry Jones, Owner of the Dallas Cowboys

In the interconnected digital era we live in, brand protection is more important than ever. This holds especially true when your brand is a generic term, one with over 1,500 trademark claims in the U.S. alone. The only way to compound that importance is when your brand and logo happens to be one of the most recognizable on the planet.

All of these combined factors didn’t seem to add up in Jerry Jones’ or the Dallas Cowboys‘ heads, as they let a monumental opportunity to lock up the exact match .com of their football squad slip away over what amounted to pennies in the grand scheme of things. Now the Dallas Cowboys must face the consequences of having millions of individuals worldwide exposed to a product that is not representative of their brand (in this case, much the opposite).

Courtesy of GoDaddy.com

As you may or may not have heard, the world’s “number one domain registrar” and one of the Alexa top 100 websites in the world, Godaddy.com, has been down for several hours. Not only that, most of the 35 million websites and e-mail accounts hosted with GoDaddy have been inaccessible as well.

It’s been speculated that the takedown occurred at the hands of a hacker or group of hackers, potentially associated with the infamous Anonymous group. This individual or group unleashed what’s called a DDOS or distributed denial of service attack on GoDaddy. The debacle begs the question: what exactly is a DDOS attack and how does it happen?

Courtesy of CBS News

It was an incredibly busy month in the domain name aftermarket. The last third of August alone yielded seventy sales in the five figure and above range.

Here’s a few that stood out from the crowd.

August 23rd, 7PM @ The Chloe Mezze Lounge: 1445 Market St. Downtown Denver, 80202

The 2012 Rocky Mountain Domainer Meet-Up is being hosted by myself and industry veteran Michael Law this week in beautiful downtown Denver. Law is the founder of the critically acclaimed domain name news source NameTalent.com. Law owns and operates a number of other internet properties including 3-0-3.com, DomainParagon.com and the Premium Offerings domain brokerage. I’ve been speculating on domains since early 2011, and traveled to South Florida earlier this year to network with some of the most successful domainers in the world.

Law hosted the first ever Rocky Mountain Domain Conference in 2011 and had a sensational turnout, attracting some of the top names in the industry to give their perspective on the state of the domain union. Esteemed editor of DNJournal.com, Ron Jackson covered the event. This year, Law opted to instead hold two shorter domainer meet-ups versus an all-day conference. It’s sure to be a fantastic time.

The Maldives, an island nation located just south of India, has an average elevation of just five feet above sea level. Eighty percent of the nation hovers just one foot above sea level. The country fears that it’s days may be numbered as the ocean steadily rises.

“Climate change is upon us and the Maldives are feeling it most. That’s why they’re leading the way in trying to find a way to combat the problem.” -Mark Spalding, senior marine scientist at the Nature Conversancy

That solution may be self-sustaining man-made floating islands; an arcology of sorts. The nation is going all out to pursue this end, and has the pieces in place to build the world’s first floating golf course and resort. The Maldivian government is working with established cutting edge architectural firm Dutch Docklands, as well as golf course management mainstay Troon Golf to make these dreams a reality.

Some big time domains exchanged hands this month for some big time prices. The seven figure sale of Denver.com sent shockwaves throughout the industry. YG.com, Metal.com and CricketScore.com all sold in July for six figure sums. Here’s a summary of this month’s action.

An amateur chemist may have invented one of the most important materials in human history. A man with no formal scientific training claims to have created the concoction using a food processor in his kitchen! The problem? He may have been too greedy for us to get to ever experience it. The invention, a non-toxic and extreme heat resistant plastic that could actually be smeared onto an object as a liquid, was dubbed starlite. Not only does starlite hold more promise than most inventions known to man, it also holds more mysteries.

America is addicted to energy. Let’s not even talk about the incredible amounts consumed by our homes and vehicles. This is about fueling the human machine with any type of upper we can get our hands on. Adults have been addicted to coffee for at least 500 years. Ever since Red Bull brought energy drinks to the U.S. and gave us wings, hundreds of rivals have arrived on scene to try and tap into the lucrative market. Now, Five Hour Energy and similar energy shots are popular due to their convenience and kick. Many Americans don’t sleep nearly as much as they should, and need to jump start their bodies to make it through the day. A new alternative to the traditional energy powerhouses has arrived on the scene at the hands of a Harvard Professor.

As we work towards a greener and more sustainable future, we’re going to need natural materials that want to work with us. One of the most overlooked smart materials in the world is bamboo. Many people are familiar with it’s versatility, but few know the true extent of the life enhancing benefits that it provides.

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world, with reports of some species growing 1-4 feet per day (though most grow 1-4 inches, but still)! A common misconception of bamboo is that it’s a wood; it’s actually a grass. It’s nearly pest resistant and able to grow in a wide variety of climates, both hot and cold. Bamboo is easy to maintain as it requires little water. Bamboo can shelter us, feed us, and purify our air: it’s designed to help us in more ways than we know.

Domain names are incredibly important to individuals and businesses as they are the real estate of the 21st century. Once you purchase a name, you hold the deed forever.

The price of an individual domain name depends on who you ask. Verisign is the company that controls all of the dot coms, and sets their wholesale price. After that, it’s up to the individual registrars as to how much of a mark-up they want. GoDaddy.com is currently the most popular registrar in the United States. Their current base price for a .com is $12.99 per year.