Posted 9:25 AM (0) comments

Another White House Flap

John Markoff wrote a piece on the White House's new e-mail system ("To e-mail Bush, follow instructions to the letter") which has all the usual privacy and anti-government (as well as anti-Bush) forces up in arms screaming about loss of liberties and first amendment rights. Please people! Its all about blocking spam! It is heavy-handed, and it was probably designed by some party hack's out-of-work nephew, but there's nothing sinister about it. Its a simple challenge-response system that insures only mail sent by a real person gets past the automated collection point.

Posted 6:31 PM (0) comments

Biometric-based passport in the works [updated 7/18]

According to Federal Computer Week, the US State Department is soliciting comments for a machine-readable passport which will carry - so far unspecified - biometric information. Since the US is beginning to require machine-readable passports (in lieu of visas) for citizens of some foreign countries (mainly in Europe), its felt that those countries may soon require the same thing from US citizens. According to the article, "...officials are seeking ideas from industry for creating a tamper-proof document with an embedded circuit in a paper-based passport." Comments are due by July 28 with the new passports scheduled for release in October, 2004.

Update: ZDNet UK reports that new EU Passports will contain RFID chips with biometric data. At least in the UK, cost of a passport will go up 36% according to the BBC.

Posted 5:24 PM (0) comments

Identity Anarchy

Waveset has coined the term Identity Anarchy to refer to the multiplicity of identities and attributes that a single person can have in multiple datastores. Its the darkside of what's often referred to as roles within the Identity Management space. Roles help us both differentiate among the various "hats" we wear (worker, blogger, father, daughter, golfer, etc.) and associate different people with similar interests, privileges or duties. Maybe it'll catch on, maybe not. But if you register for Waveset's Sept. 9 webinar, you can at least see if the term makes sense and is useful.

Posted 9:16 AM (0) comments

Bloor-ing...and wrong!

Robin Bloor writes for IT-Analysis("Linux To Become A De Facto Standard") about the inevitable triumph of Linux based on virtualization. The Register picks this up and re-publishes it. The thesis is that The so-called infrastructure initiatives: On Demand (IBM), Adaptive Enterprise (HP) and N1 (Sun) are creating a "virtualization imperative" which, of necessity, will rely on Linux. But if I wanted a virtualization layer that actually worked today, my choice would be VMWare Control Center running on an Intel platform. This further layer of abstraction then allows virtually instantaneous re-configurations of the hardware among most of the possible Intel-based operating systems, including Linux, Windows and NetWare. Let's see Sun do that!

Posted 5:04 PM (0) comments

We're All in Trouble Now!

Would you recommend Grokster to the RIAA as a "technology provider"? Would you suggest that Oracle's HR department use PeopleSoft applications? So who recommended to the US Department of Homeland Security that Microsoft would make a dandy technology provider?

Posted 5:33 PM (0) comments

PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption

Jacob Nielsen has a very strict view of computer interfaces for humans. Sometimes I agree with his point of view, frequently I disagree. But his rant about Adobe Acrobat files, PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption, should be required reading for anyone who posts anything on a web site.

Thanks to Dan Gilmore for pointing out Nielsen's rant.

Posted 9:04 AM (0) comments

The myth of anonymity

The San Jose Mercury noted this morning that there's lots of interest these days in anonymous use of the internet, especially as a tool in the battle between the recording industry and illegal downloaders ("Swappers sprint to cloak identities"). Cnet looked at "P2P's little secret" last week. While the stories have slightly different emphasis, both were instigated by the release of Blubster. The Merc things its revolutionary, while Cnet points out that there's nothing anonymous about it.

The reality is, of course, that there is no anonymity on the web - everyone is identified by an IP address. Cnet correctly points this out but then cites free wireless access as a way around this - using different addresses for short periods of time to avoid detection. The flaw in that reasoning is that no WiFi provider will allow a monopolization of bandwidth by a download site to the detriment of other users. Network Operations Centers will quickly discover bandwidth-hogging nodes and shut them down. That's even easier than waiting for the RIAA to sue!

A nod to Eric Norlin at Digital ID World for reminding me about the Cnet story.