Saturday, January 31, 2009

Wasteful

For myself, anything more than 3 million square feet is just plain wasteful.

Shame on you Australia. Shame on you.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I'd be alot more excited

about this news if it were somehow tied in with an email offer I received today from the SP in question

 


Is it too much to ask that Paypal's different divisions all sit down together in the cafeteria and work out a single cohesive 'go to market' story?

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

You are either in, or you're out

LinkedIn has a new (beta) feature that allows you to categorize your connections.

I edited the default set, deleting generic tags like 'friend', 'colleague' etc and adding tags that seemed more tuned to my situation.




The sorting is turning out to be quite enjoyable.

This is so fake

Really it is.

At first I thought that a service that creates fake bank statements and utility bills was a wee bit shady, but it turns out it's all just good fun.

You agree that all novelty documents this website, or any of its employees or owners produce are for novelty and fun purposes only. You agree in ordering any novelty documents from us, that without exception they are not to be used for financial gain, fraud, deception or any other criminal actvivity. You understand and agree that ReplicaDoc does not take, or will not accept any liability for your actions and/or decisions.

A sister site.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Moving On

After spending longer in one place than at any previous time in my working history,  I've come to the conclusion that it is time for a change of pace and scenery.

A tough decision for sure but, after talking it over with my family and advisors, I've realized that sometimes you just have to shake things up.

Yup, I'm going to take a break from the home office and go work at the kitchen table for a bit.

Who knows, maybe the sofa after that.  In tough times like these you have to be flexible.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

How timely

Watching the NFC championships. Eagles wide receiver Avant was called for offside.

Avant.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

He started it

Place blame where blame is due.
Cardspace, SAML, and OpenID go into a bar.

The bartender says to Cardspace 'I'm gonna have to see some ID before I serve you'. Cardspace shows its ID and then orders a beer.

Bartender says the same thing to SAML, which also orders a beer.

When the bartender sees OpenID, he says 'Im sorry but you are going to have to leave'.

'But why' says OpenID 'Im of legal drinking age and I have ID to prove it.'

'Im sure you do' says the bartender, 'but I don't know how to ask you for it'.

Monday, January 12, 2009

A crisis of faith

It tears at my very soul to even contemplate this.


Must look into renting some buses.

Justified Party?

Vittorio points out a new  Microsoft 2D bar code technology

A line from the FAQ is interestingly vague

 

Requires an internet connection? Data charges? Is it conceivable that a Microsoft server somewhere plays a role in interpreting the codes?

Suspicion confirmed by another review
Unlike other tag technologies too, the Microsoft Tags don’t actually store the information. You see, all it stores is a unique ID which it then sends to Microsoft’s servers. This way, you can include much more information, and more variety of information, then if it was just on the tag itself. A nice side-effect of this is also the ability for publishers to gather reporting data on how many times it was seen.
So Microsoft sits in the middle between 'those that create tags' and 'those that read tags' with privileged access to which tags that users access (it's not clear whether they authenticate the users' access), and so consequently indirect insight into the user's visits (isn't there a name for this?) to non-Microsoft sites.

To be fair, the FAQ does have a token privacy section

Token. The fact that the tag is actually resolved off the phone is left to the user to determine. 

I wonder if the tag interpretation API uses WS-Trust.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Celebrate good times

Watching the touchdown dances of wide-receivers in the NFL playoffs makes me think there should be something similar for successful federated online transactions.

The chances of success are roughly similar - shouldn't we encourage users to enthusiastically celebrate those rare events should they happen?

I propose the federated identity industry hire a choreographer to design us some shakin' moves for the various operations, e.g.  federation, SSO, and attribute sharing etc.

Something really hot for successfully using an i-name (something that rare deserves special recognition).

Of course, there would have to be penalties for excess, we don't want things to get out of hand.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Off-topic

In anticipation of Canada beating Sweden in tonite's gold medal game for the World Junior Hockey Championships, could any Swedish readers leave me contact details so as to allow me to rub it in tomorrow AM in a more personalized manner?

For American readers, no need to do anything (likely ever).

Thanks

More hockey trivia

Another interac email transfer for morning hockey


My son or his?

Could we not standardize these sorts of questions? 

Social Organisms

Why should the power of Web 2.0 applications be reserved for the higher life forms and not be available to all?

Been there done that

The relationship between Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace is typically presented as having begun with the 1858 letter from Wallace to Darwin that briefly outlined a theory of natural selection very similar to that which Darwin had been working on for many years. So the story goes, it was Wallace's letter arriving "out of the blue" that prompted Darwin to get off his highly-evolved rear and publish his own work.

In fact, the two were already corresponding on the topic. At one point during this exchange Darwin appeared to try to gently warn Wallace off the subject of natural selection by claiming prior art
This summer will make the 20th year (!) since I opened my first-note-book, on the question how & in what way do species & varieties differ from each other.— I am now preparing my work for publication, but I find the subject so very large, that though I have written many chapters, I do not suppose I shall go to press for two years.

Wallace missed (or ignored) the warning.

Reminds me of the OpenID and SAML relationship, i.e. upstart ignores work of established authority, but nevertheless adds valuable variations.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Perfect Password (only 14 years out of date)

This book will teach you how to cope with the world of password policies, password crackers, and human predictability. It teaches specific password patterns that will meet even the most unyielding security policy requirements but that users will remember in a snap. If you deal with passwords, you need this book.


From BoingBoing.

Friday, January 02, 2009

A reasonable guess

A friend sent me an email money transfer to pay for his share of our morning hockey.

For security, I had to respond to his challenge question


Hmmm. Canada.... Winter time....

Let me think.. Jai alai?

Plumbing the Depths of Identity

Jeff's screwy post reminded me of a recent home renovation.

Finishing off a basement bathroom, I had to connect the shower/tub drain to the roughed in pipe (dirty work, but I got to use a jack hammer so that was cool).

Standing in home depot in front of the PVC pipe fittings, I struggled to visualize how to use the variety of adapters, 90 corners, and angle pieces to make the connection.

Ending up buying a few of every fitting ever made to ensure I had the flexibility I needed when I got back home.

Of course, there are some pieces left over.


Just make sure you keep the receipts for you identity plumbing purchases.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Trusted Traveller

I received a new Nexus card by registered mail yesterday.

It came with a little envelope in which I'm supposed to store the card when not in use. The envelope's interior has been metalicized.

Keep the card in its protective sleeve at all times unless you are presenting it at the border. This will help prevent the RFID chip from being read by an unauthorized reader.



Using duct tape and aluminum foil, I have created a prototype of a similar safeguard for my other identities. Seems effective, albeit hard to see out of.