291: General Drip and Tinkle

What this episode covers

Karl Auerbach of InterWorking Labs explains the technical mechanics of the Domain Name System (DNS), including the distinction between fully qualified names and local search suffixes, the role of root servers, and the implementation of DNSSEC for security. He details the specific operational failure of the embedded.fm team, who lost their .fm domain due to a registrar (Hover) error and a lack of grace period, requiring intervention from the .fm registry to recover it. Auerbach also discusses the governance structure of ICANN, the arbitrary nature of domain expiration, and his ongoing 'History of the Internet' project, which archives oral histories from early internet pioneers.