EDIT: I’ve since changed domainname to avoid more of the same problems below. Hopefully using my actual name which make this all slightly less likely in the future!
tl;dr; It’s a reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
For about 10 years now I’ve been using the domain ninebysix.co.uk as my
primary domain name.
I used to have another domain when I was a teen, but it sounded rather childish and wanted something that was; 1. Vague enough that there wasn’t going to be competition for the domain or related assets. 2. Vague enough people weren’t going to make assumptions based on the domain name. 3. Slightly geeky. 4. Easy enough to read out on the phone.
Based on this I wanted sixbynine in reference to
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
where the earth computer comes up with “What do you get if you multiple six by nine?” as the
question for the answer “42”.
At the time sixbynine.co.uk was taken so I took ninebysix.co.uk.
Recently similar domain names, and twitter tags have arisen which are nothing to do with me. Annoyingly the people associated with are unfortunately slightly less professional, and slightly more pornographic than I would want associated with my personal webpage.
I could move domains, but that seems ultimately futile (the same could happen again) and would be a lot of work. Instead I’m just going to hope those googling ninebysix realise I’m not the same dude as the others using the ninebysix slug, and that they find this blog post!
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