Domain registered! I originally thought to go for “Coding, Scene, and Life”, but the decided codeandlife.com would just be less irritating to type. And speaking of domains, it seems I was lucky I wasn’t trying different domains using the whois tool on NetworkSolutions web page, as it seems they are “reserving” all searched domains with them (knowledge gained through the always-infallible Slashdot).
It seems official domain registrars can reserve a domain for free for five days, which can be released after that and the domain comes back available. NSI does just this for all .com domains searched through their website, effectively screwing you for five days if you decide to register the domain name somewhere else, after you find that it is available.
NSI of course tells (alleged response to it here) that this is done to “protect the customers”, but to actually protect them they should be honest about it, and ensure that the person registering the domain is the same who originally searched it. But this would of course hurt their business, as if the first person to search for a domain doesn’t buy it, they lose any other potential buyers stopping by within the next few days.
But NSI is right in a sense, as now the domain needs to be registered with them within the next five days, protecting their customer base, if not the individual customer. If you can get away with that, it is good for the business.