Wired magazine wrote a story entitled "Who Owns the N-Word Dot Com?''.

It turns out that the Internet domain name nigger.com is property of US-based National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).

It's a case of cybersquatting for a good cause, according to the NAACP, which has also bought every domain with variations of the word, including hyphenated versions.

The NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League has also bought up other domain names that may be used by hate groups. The League owns, among other domains, kike.com, .net, and .org.

Some companies have attempted to prevent sites that might be attacks on their good name. Chase Manhattan Bank, for example, owns the .com domains Ihatechase, Chasestinks, and Chasesucks. Charles Schwab & Co. owns, among other domains, screwschwab.com and schwabsucks.com.

I decided to start plugging in my name and various combinations just in case I wanted to snatch it up for my future use. So far I'm lucky in that nobody has taken elamin.com or ahmedelamin.com. so far as I could find. Then I checked out ahmed.com and found Mailbank.com (www.mailbank.com) which informed me the company had created The Ahmed.com website directory.

If I wanted, I could have an elamin yahmed.com e-mail ($9.95), an www.elamin.ahmed.com address with five megabytes of space on their servers ($19.95) plus an administration charge of $ 19.95.

For the price, you can host your e-mail on Mailbank's servers, or redirect them to your main e-mail address. The Mailbank web address will also redirect visitors to your true web site. You can also get web sites in a variety of animals, birds, and other relevant words to suit your tastes.

Mailbank, a smart company, has registered about 12,000 domain names of which 10,000 represents what it says is 70 percent of North America's population.

Yes, they have smith.net. The company is attempting to leverage the names by selling them as shared domains using variations.

Mailbank has in effect grabbed the names for themselves and are using their server software to sell off derivatives to any number of people. The attraction lies in the cheaper price of sharing a main domain name. Network Solutions Inc., which until last week controlled the coveted .com, .net and .org domains, charges $169 for two years to companies and individuals.

Domain names are valuable and no one, individuals and companies alike wants to regret not getting the one they want. Four million domain names have already been registered and Network Solutions registers new names at about 600,000 a quarter.

The coveted bermuda.com and the bermuda.bm domains are owned respectively by local companies Trident Communications Ltd. and Logic Communications.

Control and oversight of the registration process has caused some controversy both here between The Bermuda College and Logic Communications, and overseas.

Last week the US Department of Commerce, Internet registrar Network Solutions and the nascent Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) reached agreement in the main battleground.

Network Solutions emerged with continued jurisdiction over Whois, the giant Internet databases which lists all .com, .net and .org domain information, for the next eight years. Network Solutions must make the database accessible to all approved registrars.

The agreement also requires Network Solutions to either spin off or sell the registry service to a third party. More than 70 companies, including America Online Inc. and privately held Register.com, are authorised by the non-profit ICANN to compete with Network Solutions. Under the agreement, Network Solutions recognises the authority of the non-profit ICANN.

To check what's also taken on Network Solutions go to (www.networksolutions.com. I did a search for ahmed and found my old e-mail address ahmed y bermudasun.org still registered.

That's the one I used when I came to Bermuda five years ago. Under ahmed.com the Mailbank administrative contact was listed as a Jerry Sumpton with an address in Vancouver, British Columbia. With such valuable assets that'll be a company to watch in the future. For now check out who's got your name and nab it while you can.

*** Thanks to those who have made valuable comments -- whether to correct any errors or to give information on various technological issues -- over the two years this column has been running in The Royal Gazette .

The opportunity was opened up for me on the suggestion of Bill Zuill when I came over to this newspaper as a continuation of a column suggested by Tom Vesey when he was editor of the Sun.

I've enjoyed the learning experience. I hope to continue the column from Marseillan, France, where I'm moving to with my wife Za after five years of a great time in Bermuda. We'll be running two tourist lets in the village and I'll be trying to unclog my writing.

Meanwhile lets do the long-distance thing. I hope those who feel they might be able to help give advice on what is a fast-changing subject will send me an e-mail at ahmedelamin y hotmail.com so I have them as contacts. I have tried to keep this column as far ranging as possible, but the Internet and telecommunications have certainly dominated as subjects for good reasons.

I'll try to get the gadgets and other issues in as one reader has admonished me in the past to do. Aurevoir pour maintenant.

Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. Contact Ahmed at ahmedelamin y hotmail.com or 238-3854.