The launch started about two hours ago, and a little later Volker asks around whether anybody can resolve the domain name. I dig and point out that it can’t work. Two hours later, they’ve still got it hosed. And there’s more than one of us who’ve seen the problem. I tried a hint, but it is a long way from marketing to the boffins. ;-) (A free bit of advice: the ttl is so low you could have fixed it ages ago.) Read more at whocares. Update Now, I’m rolling on the floor and laughing my ass off:

    ; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> developer.lotus.com
    ;; global options:  printcmd
    ;; Got answer:
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 8342
    ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
    
    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;developer.lotus.com.           IN      A
    
    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    developer.lotus.com.    300     IN      CNAME   192.147.106.27.
    192.147.106.27.         601088  IN      A       192.147.106.27
    
    ;; Query time: 227 msec
    ;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
    ;; WHEN: Wed Oct  7 09:59:03 2009
    

I really think it is time those guys get a decent DNS admin, or at the very least, ready my book Alternative DNS Servers. Update2 (Maybe I should read my book as well.) The reason for the A RR above is that my query went via a dnscache, which (thankfully) resolves a query for an A record of an IP address to precisely that IP address. I’ve verified with your typical resolver, and the original incorrect CNAME RR still makes resolution of the domain impossible. Update3 October 7th, 08:35 CET. Somebody at IBM seems to be “working” at this issue “heavily”. They’ve changed the TTL from 300 to … drum roll …

    dig @cmtu.mt.ns.els-gms.att.net. developer.lotus.com.
    
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 48833
    ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 13, ADDITIONAL: 0
    
    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    developer.lotus.com.    0       IN      CNAME   192.147.106.27.