25 dec 06
tired.com
from: me to: the tired.com guy date: Dec 24, 2006 11:21 AM subject: what is the point of your domain? some people showed your website to me as part of an internet project that i've had going on (http://barnacle.gomen.org), so i thought i'd ask you a few questions (if you don't mind). 1) i see the domain was created in 1997, but that it also expires in 2007, on the same day. did you actually create it before that? 2) did you register tired.com along with other domains, in a fit of registration, sometime in the 90s? was this a plan to make money, or was it just for kicks? 3) what do you do with the emails that are sent to tired@tired.com? how many are there? 4) what else can you tell me about tired.com? (how it's affected you, if you pay much attention to it anymore, etc). thank you for your time, and i hope you continue to enjoy your domain. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- from: the tired.com guy to: me date: Dec 24, 2006 2:31 PM subject: Re: what is the point of your domain? Thanks for inquiring. Most of your questions can be answered here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06347/745789-96.stm http://www.slate.com/id/2103823/ Happy holidays!
those links did indeed answer most of my questions:
- tired.com was registered in 1997 by a man named mike kuniavsky (below), who used (as i did) the french registrar GANDI (he gets points for this). GANDI was comparatively cheap in the oldschool days, but not anymore. it's surprising to me that tired.com was available in 1997, but i suppose that was pretty early-on, web-wise. the pic is probably copyrighted -- oh well. tell me to take it down, and i will.
- it was registered for kicks, although according to the latest article the registration was part of an "internet sociology" project, which i don't really buy. the other article doesn't go into this.
- emails sent to tired@tired.com just accumulate, unpublished. supposedly mike kuniavsky (owner, prankster) has something like 40,000 in his possession.
- read those sites he sent me if you want to know more about tired.com, but the whole schtick is basically about some guy who registered a domain called tired.com for no particular reason, and then a lot of people wrote to him. nothing too interesting.
the most recent article linked in mike's reply dates from 12 days ago, so i guess i can assume the project hasn't (yet?) been abandoned in his mind. it's also in this newer article that we get the stuff about mike being a "social scientist"; an ad hoc self-analysis, perhaps.
his personal cell phone number (+1 415-235-3468) appears in the whois for tired.com, which is public info (a lot of people who wouldn't have otherwise given out their home addresses and phone numbers don't realize this when they register their domains -- it can be a good detective tool). i gave him a call, and heard a voice message: "this is the phone of mike kuniavsky...etc". i don't pick up my cell phone either if the number isn't in my address file. plus, it's christmas. hohoho. however, i think he's jewish. hohoho. the mailing address listed there is almost certianly a home in san francisco proper. have a look. also, check this out, a few doors down from him. it appears mike has some money in his pocket.
"Interzone Consulting", which appears to be a nonsense business set up for the domain name, is in the whois data. the most recent article mike sent me mentions that he built some other web-related projects shortly after the inception of tired.com (adaptive path and thingM). thingM is also nonsense, but adaptive path appears to be bona-fide and going strong (recent blog entries). it's just another web/business solutions company; if you're an entity with some cashflow and want to "do something" through your website, call adaptive path, and there's a 99.99% chance they'll be able to set it up for you. this is apparently where that $700,000 house in frisco is coming from.
i did some goolging on michael kuniavsky. this guy is a heavy-hitter. his success has nothing to do with tired.com, though -- he helped design hotbot.com, for chrissakes. grr. people like this make me angry, sort of like every time i deliver a pizza to one of those $2,000,000 McMansions in laytonsville. he's also interested in the "expressive, adaptive part of technology" (or something like that), so he's arguably like a successful version of myself (art and technology). double-grr.
i'm getting really fucking tired of successful people.
wanna hear a fairly trite quote?
Tiredness is the product of the weight of your life on your shoulders...And when people are articulating why they're tired, it's a window into the difficult-yet-mundane details of their lives. -- mike kuniavsky, owner of the domain "tired.com"
happy restaurant/retail/service-unavailability day (RRSU day)! excepting 7-11, of course -- i drove out in the rain to buy some excedrin for my mom, from asaf, in his red blazer. isn't it some sort of eide today? probably not precisely today. i think the solstice might be tomorrow. i don't care. every year, i notice christmas less.
kuniavsky gets more submissions than i do with his tired.com, and with only a mailto: link. fucker.