Too many WHOIS queries too quickly and you can get throttled :( Also checking for an A record first is a lot faster with no real need for threading (although I guess it could help). I rigged up a basic bash script to do this: http://gist.github.com/63893 - You just call it with da nameofdomain.com (if you call it "da", that is) and if a domain is in use you get a response almost instantly.

And then.. you could just skip the Ruby and do it from Bash:

# da {fox,web,net,though}{whatever,a,b,c}{d,e,f}.com

Bash will the do the permutations for you.. :)

http://www.bustaname.com/ is one of the existing services. Anything that lets you have more complex rules?

> Who’d have known so many things ending in ‘anola’ would be untaken?

It's surprising that people don't want "anal" in their name? Really?