tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197714232024-03-13T13:02:20.173+00:00Around Robin<small> A conversation about journalism, the internet, media, trust, truth, libraries & archives, social networks <br>& publishing, and the democratisation of doubt - with occasional photographs and a nod to cinema.</small>Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.comBlogger1136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-83508884155497153262013-01-09T12:20:00.000+00:002013-01-09T12:20:18.863+00:00Post Mayan ThoughtsI need a digital butler slash cleaner slash addiction therapist.<br />
Is it possible these days to give up wifi for Lent?Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-25070351575509212972012-07-17T19:30:00.000+01:002012-07-17T19:30:51.224+01:00The Best Read Office in the WorldThis Saturday, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01kxzqy">documentary </a>I made with Vera Frankl about the readers at the British Library is on Radio 4 at 10.30 am. Listen in or catch it on Iplayer.<br />
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<br />Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-52202409461950485492012-07-15T22:06:00.000+01:002012-07-15T22:06:24.511+01:00Media is complicated<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Trieste</div>
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Camden</div>
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Euston</div>
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<br />Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-39887460412871577462011-04-02T11:32:00.003+01:002011-04-02T11:37:15.681+01:00Conscious Culture this week, to April 1Anselm Kiefer at White Cube. Durs Grubein at the Southbank. Souce Code at the Everyman. The Happy Thieves, Richard Condon. Delete, Viktor Mayer-Schonberger. Field Grey, Philip Kerr. Plague Writing in Early Modern England, Ernest Gilman. The Sense of Ending, Frank Kermode. Episodes 19/20, The Killing. Episode 4, Treme.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-40997604013240160502011-03-04T18:17:00.003+00:002011-03-04T18:25:41.997+00:00Update<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M0nrVhOGFuE/TXEulaMRyhI/AAAAAAAADEg/3X8hcqnUvEw/s1600/1960-04_sample%2B%2528dragged%2529%2BJPG.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 286px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M0nrVhOGFuE/TXEulaMRyhI/AAAAAAAADEg/3X8hcqnUvEw/s400/1960-04_sample%2B%2528dragged%2529%2BJPG.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580292633509612050" /></a><br /><br /><br />This blog will resume soon. In the meantime <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/magpdf.aspx?id=230&p1=PDFarchive">here's</a> the MIT Technology Review, archive now available.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-58120306367723911362010-07-23T22:22:00.002+01:002010-07-23T22:27:24.348+01:00The Kind of Photo I Can't TakeBut will really try this time.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l_jE4EN5rmc/TEoIeWIRlPI/AAAAAAAADD8/gO9joU7p9l8/s1600/NYC19536_Comp.1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 314px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l_jE4EN5rmc/TEoIeWIRlPI/AAAAAAAADD8/gO9joU7p9l8/s400/NYC19536_Comp.1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5497215612588496114" /></a><br /><br />From <a href="http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=7297f35287e24cb966169d6e1&id=1bb9e50c6d">Magnum Photos </a>picture of the week.<br /><br />That's Alec Guinness learning his lines. I'd say Richmond, upon Thames.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-24801453326521258382010-07-23T18:37:00.003+01:002010-07-23T18:44:30.057+01:00Long Strange Year<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l_jE4EN5rmc/TEnUzTQhaSI/AAAAAAAADD0/Q2GUjCoemg4/s1600/elephbig.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 269px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l_jE4EN5rmc/TEnUzTQhaSI/AAAAAAAADD0/Q2GUjCoemg4/s400/elephbig.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5497158797990390050" /></a><br /><br />The past 12 months have been different, to say the least. And this blog has suffered for that. <br /><br />Anyway, for the next few months anything I may need to say can be found on <a href="http://betwixteurope.blogspot.com/">Betwixt Europe</a> as I finish the walk I started in May 2007. This time it's the Rhine, Switzerland, Germany and Holland. All thoughts of a technological or indeed Jacobean nature gratefully received.<br /><br />RobinRobin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-71724597948749053032010-01-18T16:03:00.001+00:002010-01-18T16:05:25.696+00:00Mobile mobility?<blockquote>According to new data from ChangeWave Research, both usage and consumer sentiment towards Google's mobile operating system Android has increased over the past several months. As of December 2009, the research firm's survey shows that 4% of all smartphone owners now use a phone running some version of the Android OS. That's an increase of 200% since the previous survey released in September.</blockquote><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/android_usage_increased_200_percent_over_past_three_months.php">Read Write Web</a>Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-44224467395343764842010-01-18T14:31:00.002+00:002010-01-18T14:37:02.230+00:00Is the NYT having its L'Oreal moment?<blockquote>New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. appears close to announcing that the paper will begin charging for access to its website, according to people familiar with internal deliberations. After a year of sometimes fraught debate inside the paper, the choice for some time has been between a Wall Street Journal-type pay wall and the metered system adopted by the Financial Times, in which readers can sample a certain number of free articles before being asked to subscribe. The Times seems to have settled on the metered system.</blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/01/new_york_times_set_to_mimic_ws.html">From</a> New York Magazine.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-24168008751412494612010-01-15T13:14:00.000+00:002010-01-15T13:15:13.615+00:00The peasants are revolting<blockquote>In his new book, You Are Not a Gadget, musician and avant-garde computer scientist Jaron Lanier examines the downsides to the internet’s free culture, according to a new New York Times review. He calls artists the “new peasants,” saying that by freely sharing their work, they have undermined not only the traditional media that once allowed artists to be paid for contributing creatively to society but also themselves. And even their art.<br /><br />He rages against “hive thinking” and “digital Maoism”: in other words, “the glorification of open-source software, free information, and collective work at the expense of individual creativity.”</blockquote><br />From <a href="http://www.fwweekly.com/index.php?option=com_wordpress&p=2738&Itemid=248">FW Weekly</a>.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-76717285812606894242010-01-15T13:11:00.000+00:002010-01-15T13:12:55.554+00:009 million and counting<blockquote>A study by a company that helps track pirated digital books estimates that there were 9 million illegal downloads of copyrighted books in the final months of last year. Attributor, which works for publishers including Hachette Book Group and John Wiley & Sons, scanned 25 Web sites that offer readers downloadable content, looking for 913 titles across categories ranging from business and investing to fiction.</blockquote><br />From the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/arts/15arts-REPORTSAYS9M_BRF.html">NYT</a>Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-39971321530444655332009-11-24T13:46:00.000+00:002009-11-24T13:47:52.212+00:00Close to the Edge<blockquote>The website of the Borders bookshop chain in the UK has stopped taking new orders for books while "the business is in discussion with potential buyers".<br /><br />The firm says that existing customer orders are also being delayed but will be fulfilled. </blockquote><br />From the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8376394.stm">BBC</a>.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-31013103432364403252009-11-14T12:07:00.008+00:002009-11-14T12:33:48.348+00:00Films of the Decade (1)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l_jE4EN5rmc/Sv6gxo7huAI/AAAAAAAADDM/U41D9eO9VI0/s1600-h/2005_cache_(hidden)_001.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 247px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l_jE4EN5rmc/Sv6gxo7huAI/AAAAAAAADDM/U41D9eO9VI0/s400/2005_cache_(hidden)_001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403933377552300034" /></a><br /><br />The Times Top Ten Films of the Decade:<br /><br />Hidden<br />The Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum<br />No Country For Old Men<br />Grizzly Man<br />Team America<br />Slumdog Millionaire<br />The Last King of Scotland<br />Casino Royale<br />The Queen<br />Hunger<br /><br />And at 11: Borat (?)<br /><br />Full List <a href="http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6902642.ece">here </a>. I would replace No Country - vapid, over-stylized, with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292963/">Before the Devil Knows You're Dead</a>. and Slumdog with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465538/">Michael Clayton</a>. Otherwise, pretty good - maybe Waltzing for Bashir and Todd Haynes I'm Not There instead of The Queen? And the Hurt Locker?<br /><br />It has been another low dishonest decade and these films tell that story, I think. So perhaps Zoolander as well - the first film I saw in Manhattan after 9/11. We laughed hsyterically. Comeback film of the decade (on DVD) must be Fight Club, as the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/movies/homevideo/08lim.html">recently wrote</a>.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-9648139747827862552009-10-14T10:23:00.001+01:002009-10-14T10:25:57.776+01:00It's Coming<br><br /><blockquote>Google is poised to launch its "buy anywhere, read anywhere" digital books programme Google Editions simultaneously in the US, UK and Europe within the first half of next year.<br /><br />Speaking at the Tools of Change conference in Frankfurt, Amanda Edmonds, Google's director of strategic partnerships, said the programme would be rolled out by June. </blockquote><br />From this morning's <a href="http://www.thebookseller.com/news/99964-google-plans-buy-anywhere-read-anywhere-offer.html">Bookseller briefing</a>.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-64639935165678986902009-10-14T09:10:00.001+01:002009-10-14T09:12:16.792+01:00Now<br><br /><blockquote>NOWISM | “Consumers’ ingrained lust for instant gratification is being satisfied by a host of novel, important (offline and online) real-time products, services and experiences. Consumers are also feverishly contributing to the real-time content avalanche that’s building as we speak. As a result, expect your brand and company to have no choice but to finally mirror and join the ‘now’, in all its splendid chaos, realness and excitement.”</blockquote><br /><a href="http://trendwatching.com/briefing/">From Trendwatching</a>.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-69369936491511552722009-10-12T21:11:00.001+01:002009-10-12T21:15:52.396+01:00"Creative" Commons: after the trust has gone<br><br /><blockquote>Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.<br /><br />The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.</blockquote><br />As <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/12/guardian-gagged-from-reporting-parliament">Alan Rusbridger says</a>: Kafka.<br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.</span> </blockquote>Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-38501970522492146072009-10-12T21:06:00.002+01:002009-10-12T21:08:57.429+01:00Merkel attacks Google aka European politician looks for new Microsoft<br><br />But this was interesting:<br /><blockquote>Merkel also stressed that she doesn't believe that eBooks will ever replace traditional books - though she does mention that 'new' technologies like audio books have changed the book market over the last few years.</blockquote><br />From <a href="http://networkedblogs.com/p14350550">Read Write Web</a>. Also the Google stuff.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-83817563834322393502009-10-12T20:50:00.005+01:002009-10-12T21:03:58.887+01:00He Returns: tomorrow (at dusk presumably)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l_jE4EN5rmc/StOKwnAZFTI/AAAAAAAADDE/A4YQvnNol4s/s1600-h/dracula_sm.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 226px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l_jE4EN5rmc/StOKwnAZFTI/AAAAAAAADDE/A4YQvnNol4s/s400/dracula_sm.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391805746601596210" /></a><br />Thanks to the daily dose <a href="http://flavorwire.com/42532/dracula-the-un-dead">from Flavorwire</a>.<br /><blockquote>This authorized sequel picks up 25 years after the classic Dracula, and is based largely on Bram Stoker’s handwritten notes for characters and plot threads. Taking a new generation into account, it features Van Helsing’s morphine-obsessed protégé; Mina and Jonathan Harker’s lawyer-turned-actor son; and even the elder Stoker himself as a London theater director.</blockquote><br /><br />The video, of course:<br /><br><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JJJCiQ6GgI0&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JJJCiQ6GgI0&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-49369899501019824192009-10-12T15:44:00.001+01:002009-10-12T15:46:36.410+01:00Email is so over, says WSJ<br><br /><blockquote>We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone. The always-on connection, in turn, has created a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster than email, and more fun.</blockquote><br /><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203803904574431151489408372.html?mod=rss_US_News">From </a>the WSJ.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-22633125824649080132009-10-12T08:27:00.001+01:002009-10-12T08:29:25.282+01:00NHS gets US support, from the UK<br><br /><blockquote>Americans living in the United Kingdom and other European countries have been surprised to see the national health services in their host countries criticised so harshly in the US. While the system is far from perfect, we recognize that our fellow citizens at home are being misled and manipulated by political forces. <br /><br />This website provides the basis for a forum for discussion and productive debate about Healthcare Reform in the USA, giving people a place where they can post their experiences - both good and bad - with various national health systems across the world. </blockquote><br />Visit National Health Truths <a href="http://www.nationalhealthtruths.org/index.html">here</a>.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-18181855137176245052009-10-12T08:10:00.003+01:002009-10-12T10:43:02.631+01:00Kindle: what mobiles? which prices?<br><br /><blockquote>The Kindle is expected to work with AT&T’s wireless network, which they say has the global reach that Amazon needs for its international plans. The idea is that AT&T will work alongside a number of partner networks in 100 countries around the globe<br /><br />Although Amazon’s Kindle e-reader has been a major hit and the best-selling product in creator Amazon’s entire store this year, it has not been available outside of the US.<br /><br />Amazon will later this month begin shipping a new version of the Kindle that can be used to purchase and download books in over 100 countries. The new version, the ‘Kindle with US and International Wireless’, will sell for $280 (£176) and can be pre-ordered now. </blockquote><br /><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/amazon/6268990/Kindle-launch-in-Britain-UK-mobile-operators-left-in-the-dark.html">From the Telegraph</a>.<br />And a little cost price analysis from the Guardian:<br /><blockquote>When asked by the Guardian precisely how much downloads would cost, an Amazon.co.uk spokesman revealed that foreign customers - including those in Britain - would be paying $13.99 (£8.75) per book instead of the American price of $9.99 (£6.25). That amounts to a 40% premium for the same title.<br /><br />"International customers do pay a higher price for their books than US customers due to higher operating costs outside of the US," said the spokesman. "Additionally, VAT rates in the EU are higher on ebooks than on print books."</blockquote><br />More <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/09/kindle-charges">here.</a>Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-67513886039586806122009-10-12T07:44:00.002+01:002009-10-12T07:46:29.043+01:00Playing Poker with those Print Things<br><br />There will, I trust, be more like this in the coming months. About time too:<br /><blockquote>The media's response to this device will, I am sure, be negative. We will hear a lot, over the next few weeks, about the soullessness of reading on screen compared to turning pages. If I promised you a pound for every time you are told by a columnist during the month of October that "you can't read a Kindle in the bath", I would be skint by Christmas.<br /><br />In the newspapers, on TV arts shows (are there still any TV arts shows?), on Radio 4, around us at social occasions, we will see and hear mournful disquisitions on the beauty of the old-fashioned papery book and what a tragedy it would be if people stopped buying them.<br /><br />But you know what? Nobody buys books anyway. Nobody. If you have a friend who has written a book, ask how many copies it sold. The answer will probably be 12. Or none. </blockquote><br />Victoria Coren goes realist <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/11/victoria-coren-ebooks">in The Observer</a>.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-81486186821120810412009-09-29T21:09:00.004+01:002009-09-29T21:14:43.785+01:00William Safire: 1929 - 2009 - Three's a GestaltSafire's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/24/opinion/24safire1.html">rule</a> eight for columnists:<br /><blockquote>8. Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day. When the two-topic writer strains to tie together chalk and cheese, turn instead to a pudding with a theme. (Three subjects, however, can give an essay the stability of an oaken barstool. Two's a crowd, but three's a gestalt.)</blockquote><br />Love or loathe the politics the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/s/william_safire/index.html">Safire </a>columns had grace.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-20214470150163468232009-09-29T08:47:00.001+01:002009-09-29T08:49:53.791+01:00...in the Springtime; I love Paris in the FallToo good:<br /><blockquote>Last night [September 23] was Paris’s first <a href="http://www.literarydeathmatch.com/upcoming-events/september-23-2009.html">Literary Death Match</a>, a throw-down organized by Opium magazine where authors read their work in competition before a live audience and jury. It started late because Beigbeder had gone temporarily missing, and then we were all shocked (and maybe not so shocked), when Beigbeder got up and announced that he had forgotten to bring his book; he was too drunk to compete; and anyway, he wouldn’t compete against a woman. Especially one as beautiful as Max Monnehay. </blockquote><br />From <a href="http://www.theparisblog.com/to-drunk-to-read">The Paris Blog</a>.Robin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19771423.post-56040049739221200812009-09-29T08:40:00.001+01:002009-09-29T08:42:24.836+01:00Books and Reading: the new criterion<br><blockquote>The idea that "a book is a place (where readers, sometimes with authors, congregate)" arose out of a series of experiments investigating what happens when the act of reading moves from the printed page to an online space designed for social interaction. as we expanded the notion of a work to include the activity in the margin, in effect we re-defined "content" to include the conversation that a text engenders. Put another way, locating a text in a dynamic network brings the social aspects of reading to the fore. (see Without Gods, Gamer Theory, Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and The Golden Notebook projects)<br /><br />In an earlier set of notes ("A Unified Field Theory of Publishing in the Networked Era") I suggested that as discourse moves off the page onto networked screens, the roles of authors, readers, editors, publishers will shift in significant ways. For example, the author's traditional commitment to engage with a subject matter on behalf of future readers will shift to a commitment to engage with readers in the context of a subject. Successful publishers, i posited, will distinguish themselves by their ability to build and nurture vibrant communities of interest, often with authors at the center, but not necessarily always.</blockquote><br /><a href="http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2009/09/a_clean_well-lighted_place_for.html">More thoughts here</a> from Bob Stein and the Institute for the Future of the BookRobin Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06731689471696298055noreply@blogger.com0