ConnectID

Expect no help from above

2009-10-30T11:07:00.000-04:00

Creating an account at RichardDawkins.net, I saw

Is reading Dawkin's books a criteria for acceptance?

Separately, below is the mechanism by which they verified my claimed humanity

I have never seen an easier captcha.

Is it made so trivial because a site for atheists can acknowledge no possibility of divine assistance?

Canadangst

2009-10-28T06:56:00.000-04:00

Rabbinic

2009-10-19T08:05:00.002-04:00

Business time

2009-10-16T14:16:00.000-04:00

A friend's public free/busy calendar

I sure hope that's a regular conference call

Flight of the Conchords - Business Time

I yam what I yam

2009-10-15T17:50:00.000-04:00

Only the interesting ones

Paul Madsen - New Zealand based Impersonator (of Freddie Mercury & George Michael)
Paul Madsen - Pioneer in weight loss science
Paul Madsen - sculptor
Paul Madsen - arrested by State of Florida for trafficking in controlled substances
Paul Madsen - musician

301

2009-10-14T14:34:00.000-04:00

To refute Intelligent Design's claims that examples of apparent design in Nature demand a 'designer', scientists point to nature's many examples of lack of design (or at least lack of good design.)

One favourite is the recurrent laryngeal nerve - a cranial nerve that goes from the brain to the larynx via a tube near the heart. In fish, this path is a direct route. In humans however, looping around the aorta requires that the nerve travel down the neck before swooping back up. In giraffes, this same circuitous path means that the nerve can grow to greater than 3 m in length.

Would not a Big-D designer, sitting down at the drafting table with their coffee and thinking 'OK, something with a long neck today, maybe some spots' have the nerve go straight from the brain to the larynx (a distance of some few inches) - rather than taking a ridiculously inefficient 'redirect' route?

User-centric Rap

2009-10-08T10:14:00.000-04:00

In honour of US National Poetry Day

I was usa-centric before you wuz writing <object> tags
And all that NASCAR shite just makes your pages lag
So don' be givin' my protocol no dis-res-pec
Or I'll send my lawyers over with an af-fa-da-vit.

"We definin' systems to break down silos for your good"
'WTF's a silo?' sez my homies from the hood.
Just like on the Feud, the surveys say it straight
Peeps won't be lining up wit dollas at the gate.

But now Prez Obama says use it cuz we're an 'open nation'
(Pseudonyms only though and there aint no de-le-gay-shun)
Stuff like that makes ol' school 'usas' suffer from serious angst
And other govs are asking 'Is this only for the Yanks?'

So the stuff that made user-centric fill a niche
Some say is watered down like a runny cheese quiche
Where do I show my URI? Why all these logos?
And why is hostin' my own OP now a no-go?

Just like always, the ID industry keep on churnin'
And just like always, we only spo-radical-ly learnin'
It aint all grim, there is convergence 'roun 800 63 el-oh-ay
But any dream of profile harmonization is pretty much dee-oh-ay

"That's jess fine" says my ol' lady doin' online bankin'
ID stability and the household revenue will be tankin'.
We're middle-class Canadians, it's not like we got riches
So the usas you need worry 'bout are the 3 that's wearin' britches.

NASCAR advertising model

2009-10-07T14:41:00.001-04:00

Companies who pay to have their logos on the sides of NASCAR racing cars have long realized that the current advertising model is less than optimal. As the ads are targeted at the broad demographic of beer-swilling, ball-cap wearing Americans that make up the audience - the many subtle sub-categories to be found within that demographic are lost.

For instance, the current model might have an ad for Skoal chewing tobacco right next to one pitching time-shares at trailer parks. While chaw and easily-demolished-by-wind houses are indeed both popular with the NASCAR audience - the two appeal to different age groups within that broad swathe of society. While the Skoal ad may appeal to the +55 female segment, younger males are more likely to be thinking of buying a trailer home to use as a hunting camp.

Almost by definition then, the current NASCAR advertising model alienates and confuses the intended user base. This view was confirmed by long-time NASCAR fan Bubba Hendricks when interviewed at the Daytona 500. "Damn straight I'm confused by all those ads. Sometimes I don't know if I'm supposed to be buying cigarettes or a huntin' rifle. And as for 'alienated', well Heck don't get me started on those illegal aliens!"

Imagine an alternative.

Imagine a world where individual race fans, instead of being visually bombarded with simply-worded ads targeted at their collective seat-mates - were instead able to advertise their own buying interests & tendencies - these interests, once collected & interpreted, mediating the fans interactions with the marketers by determining what ads they would see on every available square inch of the (interminably counter-clockwise traveling) cars.

For this vision to become a reality requires mechanisms by which

1) fans can advertise their buying preferences
2) marketers can tailor the ads they display to suit individual fans

The technology pieces are coming into place. Google's knowledge of surfing habits, a smart phone with video camera, and augmented reality technology will together ensure that NASCAR fans need no longer be forced to view ads for malt liquors other than their preferred brand.

Appendicitis

2009-10-07T10:11:00.000-04:00

My 7yr daughter asked me what the appendix is.

I explained that it was a vestigial structure, ie something that, while once functional, over time had lost that functionality and now exists only in a degenerate condition - often actually detrimental to its host.

Bless her little heart, her response:

Like delegation or user-provided identifiers in OpenID?

Nothing fishy in Denmark (except the herring)

2009-10-07T06:09:00.000-04:00

The Danish National IT and Telecom Agency recently released profiles of a number of identity specs for enabling 'identity-based web services'.

The term identity-based web service in this context means web services that act on behalf of a user or are personalized with the user's data in contrast to normal web services which do not execute in the context of a particular user.

Denmark took a buffet (dare I say smorgasborg?) approach - picking and choosing from available specs and profiling them as necessary, defining:

OIO WS-Trust Profile
OIO WS-Trust Deployment Profile
Liberty Basic SOAP Binding
OIO Bootstrap Token Profile
OIO SAML Profile for Identity Tokens

The scenarios document makes for great reading on the different use cases currently targeted.

I do wonder why the discussion of the identity-based model (ie where the identity of the user is captured in a security token within the web services call) doesn't contrast this model with the so-called 'password anti-pattern'? Presumably its not the scourge in eGovernment applications that it is in Web 2.0.

Redirect Rage may be a Clinical Disorder

2009-09-29T20:21:00.000-04:00

Any Web surfer experiencing web redirects has probably said things like: "Stupid son of a [blank]"

When web redirects bring surfing to a crawl, anger can go from zero to 90 miles per hour in no time.
"I get very loud, I get very belligerent, I start shouting," said redirect rage sufferer Brad Kingston. "Everybody in my apartment block probably knows the sound of my screaming."

Doctors think Kingston's redirect rage is the symptom of something far deeper. He was diagnosed with a condition known as web intermittent rage explosive disorder, or WIRED.

"Redirect rage, especially if it's frequent enough, is probably a part of WIRED, which is much more prevalent than people thought," said Dr. Jose Cupato of the University of Idaho.

A new study of more than 7,000 people found that eight percent were WIRED.

Beach front property

2009-09-22T19:08:00.002-04:00

Riskiest

2009-09-14T10:12:00.000-04:00

Riskier

2009-09-13T14:05:00.000-04:00

Risk

2009-09-13T13:41:00.002-04:00

Normative

2009-07-31T18:24:00.001-04:00

Instructions from a friend to my son maintaining his pool

turn the pump off
set the filter to “Rinse”
turn the pump on for 20-30 seconds
turn the pump off
set the filter to “Filter”
turn the pump on (if you don’t the pool will turn green, don’t ask me how I know this)
turn the saltwater system on (if you don’t the pool will turn green, again, don’t ask me how I know this)

I believe this is called 'blogging'

2009-07-30T22:25:00.000-04:00

Seems so 2008

I have nothing to add to this pic

Is there a 'pause' button?

2009-07-13T14:49:00.000-04:00

FitBit tracks your activity motion through a motion-sensor.

The Tracker senses your motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about your daily activities. The Tracker measures the intensity and duration of your physical activities

Hmmm

Phishing for numbers

2009-06-30T18:25:00.000-04:00

Please sign-in by entering the grid numbers corresponding to your previously selected pattern (and indicate which site you believe you are signing in to. Not that we don't ourselves know, we're just testing you)

Contextual reputation metrics

2009-06-30T07:38:00.000-04:00

I received an invite to connect from a friend - this time from TripIt - the online travel organizer (which I love).

Presumably to encourage me to accept, the invite includes the phrase

X has traveled 31,102 km to 9 locations

Well that's good, cuz there is absolutely no way I would friend-up with anybody below the 30k threshold.

Vertical networks like TripIt of course have an advantage over horizontal networks in being able to offer such metrics - all they have to offer is # connections.

I swear this was not a set-up

2009-06-29T17:21:00.000-04:00

Eve's insight notwithstanding, I've seen no better application of Venn than this from my 7 yr-old daughter

Just think what she could have accomplished with some saran wrap....

Worth a try right?

2009-06-15T11:57:00.000-04:00

Open letter to my (lazy ass) neighbours

2009-06-12T08:38:00.000-04:00

Dear neighbour,

Hey no, let me pick that litter up for you. Yes I know it fell out from the garbage cans you placed at the bottom of your driveway 2 days ago and is technically still on your driveway but, still, let me get it. I know you are far too busy being important for such matters - I'm more than happy to help.

Pardon me, what's that? Toilet paper? Sure, here it is. Can I help you with that too?

Sincerely yours

Paul

p.s. I have my dog pee on your lawn.

Sensing a meme

2009-06-12T07:42:00.002-04:00

Just in the last few days, I've noticed two different ad campaigns (one for a coffee, another for a travel broker) that go something like this

'In these tough times, we decided not to spend money on a glitzy and expensive ad. Instead we made this cheap ad and used the money to do X '

where X is something altruistic or green.

It would seem that marketing research shows that the recently laid off find ostentatious and frivolous commercials offensive - go figure.

I can see an IdP trying it

'In these tough times, we decided not to spend money on an expensive identity proofing process.....'

Drinks, keys, and computers

2009-06-10T09:59:00.000-04:00

It seems a safe time for me to report that my MyVidoop image grid categories were drinks, keys/locks, and computers. K, B, and E in the below.

You might have even already guessed that (I'd guess I wasn't unique in the industry to make those choices)