According to various reports all domain names in the dictionary are taken up so you'll now have to improvise or buy one. Try plugging names into the form at www.register.com and you'll see what I mean. Another form of useless fun is to think of words and see if the site is up on the Internet by plugging them into your browser.

It's a crazy world where British businessman Peter Littke has the gumption to turn down an offer of US$7 million for the domain name "e-buy.com''. Mr.

Littke has held the name he registered for $100 for three years and done nothing with it so far. He's either a brave gambler or an e-idiot.

I've been fascinated with the whole domain name game for a little while now and have marvelled at how fast prices have come down. Now there's even a rating service at http://www.domainnamebuyersguide.com that stacks the various registry agents against each other according to price, quality of service and other criteria.

The cheapest (and one which offers a lot of additional services) is www.gandi.net where domain names go for US$12 a year. That's a far cry from the $70 a year some were paying a year ago. So get your imagination going and grab a chunk of the Internet.

Residents of Bermuda's competitor the Isle of Man are about to get unlimited Internet access at an affordable price -- an important step in bringing the entrepreneurial revolution to the general population. Manx Telecom has announced it will launch unmetered Internet access later this summer.

According to the company residential customers will be charged $15 plus taxes a month for the service, which includes standard line rental plus unlimited Internet access. Business customers will be charged $25 plus taxes per month for a similar package. The company is also offering untimed Internet access for customers with ISDN and other high speed lines.

The 'Cookiegate' furore in the US shows just how far society's watchdogs are willing to go in monitoring their citizens. That's why they, the watchdogs, need to be monitored by the media and other groups concerned about maintaining some semblance of privacy in an era where it seems to me people are more accepting of Big Brother style tactics.

`Cookies` are files sent by web sites into a user's computer and make it possible for companies and organisations to gather some data on your Internet habits. After visiting some web sites go into the `Cookies` folder of your `Windows` folder of your main drive (usually labelled `C`) and you'll understand what I mean.

The furore began when the Clinton administration admitted it may have violated federal privacy guidelines by tracking users who searched for drug-related information online.

The White House has ordered the Office of National Drug Control Policy to stop the practice. If you go to AltaVista (www.altavista.com) and search for "a chicken in every pot'' you get an advert on top of the results stating: "THIS COULD BE A SIGN THAT YOUR CHILD IS EXPERIMENTING WITH DRUGS''. The advert has a link to www.theantidrug.com.

While no citizen wants the kind of draconian laws that exist in Singapore, I must quietly applaud the decision to impose jail sentences on car drivers who use mobile phones while driving.

Having been scared out of my trousers by swerving phone-talking drivers more than I can count I agree more measures need to be taken to stop the fools.

Singapore has put in legislation which imposes a six-month jail term for a first offence or a fine equivalent to about US$588 or both plus a driving ban.

A second offence doubles the fine and jail term. Haven't any of the fools heard of a `hands free' set? Want to read a horror story of how scamsters can start Internet companies and attract tons of cash with nothing behind them? Then go to www.thestandard.com (scroll down to the special feature) which details how fugitive con artist Michael Fenne raised $30 million for his Net startup Pixelon.com. Scary. Very scary.

Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. Contact Ahmed at ahmedelamin yhotmail.com or (33) 467901474.