Decius wrote:

Yes. I've wanted to see something like this for quite some time. This sounds very similar to the sort of system I've envisioned. However, I need to read the spec in detail and see if this was implemented properly.

Having now examined the basics -- no analysis, just understanding what they are trying to do -- it seems sound but not as far reaching as what you are talking about. That is deliberate.

This is just a small but well-considered step forward.

2. FOAF sucks. How does the new site actually get meaningful bio information about me when I create my account using this system? This seems like a more important problem to solve. We've been thinking of making a bunch of extensions to foaf here, but we've got a lot of other work to do.

This is not what this system addresses. It is a step in that direction.

What it addresses is just this: I wish to comment on a site that I do not have an account on. Rather than make an account -- yet another identity, etc -- OpenID would let me log into the site with my identity from another site. All that is established is that I am the controller of a url that I specific to authenticate me. This is a very weak guarantee, but with this one can extend to greater things.

It is very similar to the PGP-Signed Comments idea. Enable the preservation of identity across CMS systems.

An example of how I see this working.

If MemeStreams ran an OpenID server

You (Decius) decide to respond to Brad's LiveJournal announcement. Rather than create a JiveJournal account -- a blog, etc -- you log in as www.industrialmemetics.com (as listed in your about page here). LiveJournal checks out that page, and determines that you are who you are if MemeStreams says you are. You log in to MemeStreams, and authorize the MemeStreams' OpenID server to validate your id to LiveJournal. LiveJournal marks your comment as Decius of MemeStreams, or Industrial Memetics, or whatever.

If MemeStreams accepted OpenID

Presumably some of my friends read my memestreams feed on LiveJournal. If they want to comment, however, they either have to join MS or post anonymously. Both has consequences. Easier if they could just say who they are.

If OpenID is exploited

Someone gets to post to MemeStreams under an identity with no reputation. I can log in under any domains or URLs I may have control of. If it is a problem, you keep a list of valid -- or invalid -- OpenID authentication server and discard the rest.

Overall consequence: Does not prevent spam. Does not provide structured mechanism for account creation. Does not enable e-commerce. Does not make toast. Does not overcommit.

3. Email verification. Will LiveJournal validate that they have verified the users email address? Can I trust them?

As they say on openid.net, this is not a trust system. It is just the first step. It makes netizens' lives easier in consolidating the number of identities they need to maintain.

But it seems like something MemeStreams should support, for the scenerios above.

RE: news: OpenID support

Looking for work is an exercise in selling yourself. You write cover letter after cover letter, listing the parts of you that you respect the least, listing the selling points that make you valuable in a buyer's market. You leave out the little details that you tell yourself in the morning to make things okay. You don't mention the way your heart flutters when you meet your lover's eyes across the table, the way your feet felt like lead at your aunt's funeral. You write cover letter after cover letter, listing the same store bought traits in the same wording, day after day, hoping to find another job.

And then maybe one day you just snap a little. You sit down to write a cover letter, and something entirely new comes out.

And you send it anyway.

Beautiful. Well written, and each tells a story of wonder.

Overqualified

LiveJournal now supports OpenID. You've probably noticed this option when you go and leave a comment.

If you're confused, that's understandable: OpenID is a little new, and will make more sense as an increasing number of sites on the web start to support it.

In a nutshell, OpenID lets you take your identity with you, proving to other sites on the web that you own a particular URL. LiveJournal's OpenID support lets you use your LiveJournal identity (just your URL) on other websites which take OpenID, and also lets you take your non-LiveJournal identity and use it here.

Any chance Memestreams would climb onboard? I was just discussing this with Bucy last night. I haven't looked at the spec, but I think the overall goal -- reputation (non-MS style) building and maintaining across web communities -- is an important step to a better social internet.

news: OpenID support

The Supremes seem to be saying that intellectual property rights are on par with real property rights. which is all well and good. But does this mean that local governments can condemn the "unused, decaying or underutilized" intellectual property of its citizens and use that
intellectual property for their own - the greater good- economic benefit???

That's a hot little comment there, mixing the major SCOTUS decisions of last week and this one. Could a local government -- or the federal government -- seize material that should be in the public domain, and put it there, provided it shows a plan for why that is good for economic development (neglected otherwise) and pays a reasonable amount for it (off the backlists for 5 decades -- call us to claim your shiny dollar).

Won't happen, but kind of a fun concept.

The Big Picture: Grokster Decision is meaningless to filesharers

Inspired by Daniel Horn's Obfuscated V contest in the fall of 2004, we hereby announce an annual contest to write innocent-looking C code implementing malicious behavior. In many ways this is the exact opposite of the Obfuscated C Code Contest: in this contest you must write code that is as readable, clear, innocent and straightforward as possible, and yet it must fail to perform at its apparent function. To be more specific, it should do something subtly evil.

2005 Underhanded C Contest

he bond market is by far the largest securities market in the world,1providing investors with virtually limitless investment options. Many investors are familiar with aspects of the market, but as the number of new products grows, even a bond expert is challenged to keep pace. While we spend a great deal of time discussing economic forecasts and how those forecasts may affect unique sectors of the bond market, we have yet to answer the most basic question: What is a bond?

Really clean and detailed overview.

PIMCO Bonds - Everything You Need to Know About Bonds

When I think of diving, I think of fun days, relaxing on the beach, cold beers, and good times. Of course, there are those who scuba dive for a living. Sometimes I think this might be a good time, too (divemasters, underwater videographers, even search and rescue divers). But today I stumbled on an article about, in my opinion, the least appealing scuba-diving-related job in the world: diving in a nuclear reactor.

I concur. Never thought about it. Have thought about commercial diving, but never quite in conditions like this.

"Nuclear divers" often go into the cooling tanks when reactors have a problem. The thing is, when reactors have a problem, the last place anybody wants to be is inside a cooling tank.

Divester

Managers should make a positive contribution to the business (not just maintain it).

...just a list...

Management Craft: Standards for Managers

Public health officials like Ms. Ehresmann, who herself has a son with autism, have been trying for years to convince parents like Ms. Rupp that there is no link between thimerosal - a mercury-containing preservative once used routinely in vaccines - and autism.

They have failed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Institute of Medicine, the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all largely dismissed the notion that thimerosal causes or contributes to autism. Five major studies have found no link.

On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs. Research - New York Times

BRAIN CANDY
by MALCOLM GLADWELL
Is pop culture dumbing us down or smartening us up?

Now, if we could find the economic assessment by Steven Levitt
(Freakonomics) on the influences found in a quick review by
Malcolm Gladwell (Blink) of Steven Johnson's Everything
Bad is Good for You, the cycle would be complete...

The New Yorker: The Critics: Books