How about thisnameexpiresFeb4.org?

Here’s another job for the state’s chief information technology officer, if it’s not already on his list: Make sure that the state’s many Internet domain names are kept up to date. That way we won’t see another case of a division going offline, which happened this week when the Hawaii State Public Library System somehow managed to let its website handle expire.

How many people were affected? Library officials told the Star-Advertiser that the library’s website, at www.librarieshawaii.org, receives about 4,000 hits a day from people seeking access to library resources and its public-access catalog. Fortunately, some library services still were available during the shutdown at hawaii.sdp.sirsi.net, but, really, how is it possible that the system’s primary domain name was allowed to lapse? Domain registration companies typically send out email alerts for months in advance about looming expiration dates. Maybe those alerts were going right into the library system’s spam folder. But that wouldn’t be right either.

Green intentions not good enough

Wanted: One buyer for 150 electric vehicle charging stations installed at 50 locations statewide. The mission: Keeping them all maintained so that those with the means to buy an EV can keep them running.

The challenge: Figuring out a business model that makes enough money doing the job.

Apparently, Better Place, a company now based in Tel Aviv that brought the stations here, couldn’t manage that because word came this week that it was shuttering its North American operations.

There’s always a lot of talk about sustainability in discussions of green energy. One of the things that must be sustained, it seems, is black ink on the bottom line.