TidBITS#752/25-Oct-04
=====================
It's Take Control's first anniversary, so we're celebrating with
a 50% off sale and a recap of our first year accomplishments.
Adam also explains how you can reclaim and start using your
personal XNS name (Remember XNS? It's back!), now called an
"i-name." Releases from Apple include refreshed iBooks, a
single-processor Power Mac G5, and a larger Xserve RAID, along
with Apple Remote Desktop 2.1. Lastly, Adam tees off on clueless
lawyers, we shed the light of reality on the malicious Opener
shell script, and you can enter to win copies of Marketcircle's
DayLite in DealBITS this week.
Topics:
MailBITS/25-Oct-04
DealBITS Drawing: Marketcircle's DayLite
Take Control's First Anniversary (and 50% Off Sale!)
Apple Refreshes iBooks, Power Mac G5, Xserve RAID
Apple Remote Desktop 2.1 Released
Serving Rolex Spam at Alice's Restaurant
Persistence Pays: The Return of XNS
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/25-Oct-04
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-752.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2004/TidBITS#752_25-Oct-04.etx>
Copyright 2004 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
<http://www.tidbits.com/terms/> Contact: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------
This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
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MailBITS/25-Oct-04
------------------
**Opener's Existence Encourages Password Care** -- Over the last
few days, news of a malicious shell script known as "Opener" has
appeared on MacInTouch, and several news organizations picking up
the report have incorrectly started calling it a virus. It's not
a virus, and frankly, it's not even that big of a concern. Opener
is a shell script that, if installed and activated on a Mac, turns
on file sharing and remote login, disables the firewall, extracts
passwords, creates an admin-level user, installs a password
sniffer, and more. That sounds bad, but Opener can't do any of
these things unless someone with an administrator password or
physical access to the Mac installs and runs it. More to the
point, if someone has your administrator password or physical
access to your Mac, Opener is just one of many possible worries.
<http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html>
So, unpleasant though it is, Opener doesn't really change much
about maintaining a secure Mac. Make sure to install Apple's
security updates as they're released, since some plug holes
that could allow the necessary root access for a cracker.
Be sure your administrator password can't be guessed easily.
And most important, never enter your administrator password when
prompted unless you know why it is being requested and trust the
source of the request (a Trojan Horse carrying Opener could be
extremely dangerous). In my mind, this is Apple's largest mistake
with security; I'm prompted for my administrator password so often
that it's easy to enter it reflexively, without considering who's
asking and why. [ACE]
DealBITS Drawing: Marketcircle's DayLite
----------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Every small customer-oriented business I've seen starts out
relying on standard tools for calendaring and contacts, and
establishing policies for tracking sales, prospects, and business
relationships of all sorts. And in every case, that approach
eventually self-destructs, usually at the worst possible time.
That's when organizations either create a custom solution (which
itself often falls down at some point) or turn to what's called a
customer relationship management (CRM) package like Marketcircle's
DayLite.
Using an elegant Aqua interface, DayLite provides a highly
flexible and interlinked contact database that you can share with
everyone in the company or with just appropriate people. Contacts
contain role and relationship fields, and you can attach notes,
URLs, and file references to contacts - and if that's not enough,
you can define extra custom fields. Calendar events can be linked
to contacts and to projects, and you can group sets of tasks and
appointments into sets for easier linking. Activities can have
billing rates attached to them, and any DayLite object can have
a task timer that tracks time and billings. DayLite's opportunity
tracking features help you share leads around the organization,
identify which colleagues are involved in a given deal, visualize
its progress, and forecast revenue. DayLite is a full client-
server system that can be accessed over the Internet (good for
telecommuting employees) or through a VPN. The server runs on
any Mac with Mac OS X 10.2 or later, and records are locked during
editing to prevent conflicts. You can synchronize contacts and
events with Palm OS handhelds, and those who work with their
laptops on the road can take an offline copy and synchronize
changes upon returning. It's a complete package and is available
only for Mac OS X.
<http://www.marketcircle.com/daylite/>
In this week's DealBITS drawing, you can enter to win one of
four single-user copies of DayLite 1.7, each worth $149 (and each
of which includes a copy of the $59 MailDrop 1.3 from Freshly
Squeezed Software for communicating with customers via email).
Entrants who aren't among our winners will receive a discount on
DayLite, so if you think DayLite could help you, be sure to enter
at the DealBITS page linked below (there's also a free 30-day demo
if you want to check it out immediately). All information gathered
is covered by our comprehensive privacy policy. Be careful with
your spam filters, since you must be able to receive email from
my address to learn if you've won.
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/marketcircle.html>
<http://freshlysqueezedsoftware.com/products/maildrop/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/privacy.html>
Take Control's First Anniversary (and 50% Off Sale!)
----------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
It's been a year since we released our first Take Control ebook,
Joe Kissell's "Take Control of Upgrading to Panther," and I want
to commemorate the anniversary in two ways: first by announcing a
one-week 50 percent off sale and second by telling you about what
we've learned after a year in the brave new world of electronic
book publishing. To take advantage of the sale, just place an
order and use coupon code CPN41024TC1 (the second link below
enters it automatically for you) to cut your order total - whether
it's for one book or all of them - in half. Feel free to share
the code with friends, colleagues, and small woodland creatures,
but it will be good only until 01-Nov-04.
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/>
<http://store.esellerate.net/store/s.aspx?s=STR5625274989&COUPON=
CPN41024TC1&PT=TRK-TB752>
In creating the Take Control series, we hoped to come up with a
new model for writing books about using computers. The previous
system, we thought, had too many inefficiencies: readers had to
wait too long to get important information, authors had to work
too hard for little pay in order to assemble the information into
too-long books, and books turned obsolete all too quickly. By
putting together what Tonya and I have learned over years of
writing, editing, customer support, Web design, and more, plus
assembling a great team of writers and editors, we hoped to
demonstrate that real people could create real publications for
real readers and have it really work, in a way that was fun and
cost-effective for everyone. We think we have succeeded so far,
though our vision still exceeds our accomplishments. Here, then,
is a report on what we've done and a look ahead at what comes
next.
**Just the Stats, Ma'am** -- We had high hopes for Take Control,
since all the assumptions we'd made about how we would create and
sell the ebooks seemed sound - but the reality has gone way beyond
our expectations. Since 24-Oct-03, we've published 12 titles
in English, 5 of which have been translated into Japanese, German,
or Dutch. For those 17 individual ebooks, we've released 20 free
updates that ranged from a fix of a few typos to a 63-page
addition. We've sold nearly 24,000 ebooks, with "Take Control
of Upgrading to Panther" leading the way at nearly 6,500 copies.
And as of this week, we've published three paper collections of
our ebooks with Peachpit Press; the full-color "Take Control of
Apple Mail" and "Take Control of Your AirPort Network" should
now be joining "Take Control of Panther" on bookstore shelves.
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321321154/tidbitselectro00/
ref%3Dnosim/>
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321321162/tidbitselectro00/
ref%3Dnosim/>
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321287649/tidbitselectro00/
ref%3Dnosim/>
Although our books have retained very much the same look and feel
from the beginning, thanks to Tonya's efforts in designing a
highly readable template in Word, we've made a number of small
changes as we become more comfortable with how the electronic
medium differs from what we're used to in the physical book world.
We've also made numerous infrastructure changes, the most notable
of which was working with eSellerate for the sales process. Though
perfection is always unattainable, eSellerate has worked out
extremely well for us, far better than the immense hassle of
maintaining our own merchant account, and I can recommend them for
anyone looking to sell goods online (for the record, we were also
happy with Kagi, the original Web store we used; the reason for
our switch was related to dealing with the custom situation of
having our own merchant account). Many of the other changes
we've made have taken advantage of Web Crossing's numerous
features and complete programmability; I've created a number
of systems in Web Crossing that saved us huge amounts of effort
when releasing updates, notifying people of new books, providing
free ebooks to purchasers of our paper books, and more.
**Looking Toward 2005** -- With our first year of hard work on the
basics and adrenaline rushes for each book release behind us, it's
time to think about where to focus for the coming year. All our
sales so far have been through our own site, so we're looking into
working with other retailers as a way of introducing more people
to our books. The partnership with Peachpit Press to publish print
collections was the first major step in that direction, and we're
having conversations with a variety of companies about reselling
the ebooks. (Needless to say, if you're interested in reselling,
contact me.)
One easy way reselling can happen right now is through
eSellerate's affiliate program, which enables you to sell not
just our ebooks, but many other products from companies that use
eSellerate. eSellerate's program is a bit clumsier than others
I've used, and there are two important things to remember. First,
you must sign up to sell a product on the affiliate Web site; you
can't just build a custom URL on your own. Second, it's a good
idea to sign up to sell all our ebooks, since you receive the
10 percent affiliate percentage on only those you've added to your
account. As with all affiliate programs, success requires carrying
a lot of products and matching that with a lot of traffic. If
you're interested, sign up below.
<https://affiliates.eSellerate.net/>
Another area in which we hope to focus is the back end aspect
of producing ebooks. We've learned a ton about creating good PDFs
over the last year, and although none of it is rocket science, I'm
less surprised than I used to be at the paucity of well-done PDFs.
The fact of the matter is that good PDF creation and manipulation
tools are sorely lacking, particularly in Mac OS X (PDF Enhancer
from PDF Sages and Apago is a notable exception, as is PDFpen from
SmileOnMyMac). Without decent tools, very few people have expended
the energy to develop the necessary knowledge of how to create
good PDFs, and what knowledge people do have tends to be highly
specific and thus not generally applicable. I've read a number
of books about PDF, and almost universally, they merely describe
what's obvious from the (often annoying) interface in Acrobat
Professional. Some level of manual intervention will likely always
be necessary, but we're hoping to identify and eliminate many of
the tedious aspects of making PDFs.
<http://www.apago.com/products.html>
<http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/>
Along with our PDF efforts, we've been creating processes for how
we develop, write, edit, and publish a title. Our next goal is
to figure out how to package and train others in those processes
so less of the nitty-gritty exists only in our heads and so our
authors can move from concept to finished ebook more quickly and
easily. Lots of authors have contacted us about wanting to write
Take Control titles, but we've been too overwhelmed with our
existing authors and projects to take on more. We hope that we can
restart discussions with those authors to bring you expert advice
on even more diverse topics - it would be nice to double our title
count for the next year.
Lastly, aside from some extremely welcome coverage for individual
books in various Macintosh news sites and one major article about
Take Control in Wired News (later picked up by Slashdot), we've
primarily focused on the TidBITS audience (a sensible move, given
the interested and highly discerning nature of the average TidBITS
reader). But Apple keeps selling about 750,000 Macs every quarter,
and I've heard that nearly 50 percent of sales at the Apple Stores
are to people new to the Mac, so that tells me there are a lot of
users out there we could be helping, if only we could reach them.
Figuring out how to market effectively outside our core TidBITS
audience is also a major goal for next year, and we're open to
ideas beyond the obvious; Take Control is about doing things
differently.
<http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64563,00.html>
<http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/13/2234234&tid=149&tid=192&;
tid=1&tid=6>
Let me close, then, with a round of thanks to all of you who have
purchased our ebooks; your support and kind words have helped
sustain us through all too many long nights. And from Tonya and
myself, special thanks to the authors, editors, and translators
who helped make this first year a reality, in particular Joe
Kissell, Matt Neuburg, Kirk McElhearn, Glenn Fleishman, Tom
Negrino, Jeff Tolbert, and Caroline Rose. If we keep it fun and
always remember the goal of helping people regain control of
their computers, the world will be a better place for us all.
Apple Refreshes iBooks, Power Mac G5, Xserve RAID
-------------------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Each new iBook model has begged the question: "Should I buy
a PowerBook or an iBook?" The PowerBook line has been the
professional workhorse, with more slots and options than the
education- and consumer-directed iBook. But the iBook hasn't
trailed far behind in speed and basic features, making it
appealing to people who don't need the fastest processor and
features such as a PC Card slot. Last week, Apple nudged the
specifications of the latest iBook configuration closer to the
current PowerBook lineup, forcing potential Mac laptop buyers
to reevaluate the question.
At the same time, Apple also reintroduced a single-processor Power
Mac G5 configuration and added more storage to its top Xserve RAID
configuration.
**New iBook G4** -- The new iBooks bump up a variety of system
specifications, but the most notable feature is the inclusion of
AirPort Extreme cards in all models, not just the top-end one.
Previously, adding the card to the AirPort-capable models was an
$80 add-on. All models also support an optional internal Bluetooth
module for $50.
The entry-level 12-inch model now starts at $1,000, a $100 price
cut from the previous low-end configuration. It includes a 1.2 GHz
PowerPC G4 processor, 256 MB of RAM, and a 30 GB hard drive. Two
14-inch models, priced at $1,300 and $1,500, come with 1.33 GHz
PowerPC G4 processors, 256 MB of RAM, and 60 GB hard drives. The
higher-priced model includes a SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW), while
the other models include Combo Drives (DVD/CD-RW). They also come
pre-installed with iLife '04.
<http://www.apple.com/ibook/>
**Single-Processor Power Mac G5** -- Apple must have heard the
word: having the cheapest entry-level Power Mac priced at $2,000
was restricting the market. The company has added a single-
processor 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 to its lineup, priced at $1,500.
The primary difference between it and the dual-1.8 GHz model
(aside from the lack of the second procossor, of course) is
a 600 MHz frontside bus, compared to the dual model's 900 MHz
frontside bus. This shouldn't mean much for performance given
the single processor disadvantage.
<http://www.apple.com/powermac/>
**A Bigger Can of Xserve RAID** -- Just in case you need to store
a few billion more photos, Apple has bumped the Xserve RAID
storage unit's top configuration from 3.5 terabytes (a terabyte
is 1,024 GB; or approximately 1 trillion bytes) to 5.6 TB. The
cost for this large configuration is $13,000.
<http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/>
Apple Remote Desktop 2.1 Released
---------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Apple recently released version 2.1 of Apple Remote Desktop,
adding a slew of new and improved features (see "Passing the
Remote to Apple Remote Desktop 2.0" in TidBITS-746_). You can now
control and observe remote computers in full-screen mode, and you
can also now control and observe both screens of computers that
have multiple monitors attached. In such situations, both screens
appear in a single window, which may require that you turn off
the Fit Screen in Window option and scroll around to access the
full extended Desktop. In control mode, Remote Desktop now passes
scroll wheel and right-click events to the remote Mac, reducing
the need to change working habits. Apple also claims improved
support for third party VNC viewers and VNC servers, though
I haven't tested the various programs I'd had trouble with
before.
<http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07821>
Other improvements include multiple line output from Send Unix
Command; this makes Send Unix Command significantly more useful
for managing remote Macs without having to initiate an SSH session
(which still isn't something Remote Desktop can help you do).
The Install Package command can now detect whether a package needs
to restart the destination Mac and will optionally do so after
installation. Remote data collection has been improved, and Apple
also improved printing of hardware and software reports. Although
Apple says that Remote Desktop 2.1 features "improved file copy
for networked home directories," it's unfortunately no easier
to copy files to or from remote machines in normal usage. Minor
enhancements include improved client authentication using Active
Directory and two additional directory services groups, better
column sorting in the Remote Desktop Admin application, saving
of settings if the Admin quits unexpectedly, and saving of the
ordering of network scanners.
You must upgrade the Remote Desktop client software as well,
although that's easily done with the Upgrade Client Software
command in the Manage menu; the Remote Desktop Admin application
upgrades the client software on its Mac on launch. However, the
Remote Desktop Admin application complained about the fact that my
Remote Desktop client software (which was turned off at the time)
wasn't up-to-date on the first launch (I had to force quit the
admin application), and for two tries after that, wouldn't launch
if the Remote Desktop client was turned off. To avoid this and
other weirdnesses, I recommend enabling the Remote Desktop client
software before installing.
Apple Remote Desktop 2.1 is a free update; it's an 18.5 MB
download via Software Update, or you can download the admin
application (16.4 MB) and the client (7.1 MB) separately.
Both parts require Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/appleremotedesktop21admin.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/appleremotedesktop21client.html>
Serving Rolex Spam at Alice's Restaurant
----------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Some of you may remember that in the first few days after moving
TidBITS Talk to Web Crossing, a couple of pieces of spam snuck
through to the list before I figured out how to block all the
different ways it could get in. As a result of those mistakes
and mistakes on the part of SpamCop subscribers who reported us
as spammers, we were added to the SpamCop blacklist for about
two days. It was annoying and troublesome, to say the least,
but at least there weren't any lawyers involved.
Over the last few weeks in particular, I've noticed that the
spam that Postini quarantines for me every day has changed
significantly in flavor. The naughty bits have largely
disappeared, to be replaced with, oddly enough, spam advertising
likely fake versions of Rolex watches. The fact that spammers are
flogging expensive watches to gazillions of email users is strange
enough on its own. Pretty much everyone I know who wants a Rolex
already has a perfectly functional watch that they like, and how
many watches is any sane person likely to purchase in his or her
lifetime? But, to paraphrase a line from Arlo Guthrie's 18-minute
song "Alice's Restaurant," watches aren't exactly what I came
to tell you about.
<http://www.arlo.net/lyrics/alices.shtml>
See, it turns out that other mailing lists have suffered the same
kind of problem that TidBITS Talk did during those few days, and
one of these fake-Rolex spam messages made it through to the
FreeS/WAN list (FreeS/WAN is an implementation of the secure
tunneling IPSec technology for Linux). The next message in the
FreeS/WAN list is also spam; I suspect they were reconfiguring
things and failed to lock down the list properly for a short
while. You would think that everyone on the list would be annoyed,
and that the whole unseemly episode would end with everyone
cursing the spammer. But you would be wrong.
<http://web.archive.org/web/20030522143805/http%3A//lists.freeswan.org/
pipermail//design/2003-March/004535.html>
Since the FreeS/WAN list is archived on the Web, Rolex Watch
U.S.A., Inc. (remember Rolex? It's an article about Rolex) found
the post in searches for the counterfeiters of Rolex watches.
It's obvious to anyone over the age of 13 (and probably lots of
people under that age) that the spam appearing in the FreeS/WAN
archive is something that happened to the FreeS/WAN list, not
something that the FreeS/WAN list intentionally propagated.
It was an accident, and an unfortunate one at that. But obvious
though this is, a group of highly paid attorneys hired by Rolex
couldn't figure this out and sent a cease-and-desist letter
(undoubtedly accompanied by twenty-seven eight-by-ten colour
glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the
back of each one) to John Gilmore telling him that, as the person
who registered the freeswan.org domain, he could be liable for
damages up to $1,000,000 for posting content that violated the
Rolex trademark, promoted counterfeiting, and diluted Rolex's
intellectual property rights. Now that's adding injury to insult!
First spam makes it through to a list you run, and then you're
threatened by lawyers because of it.
<http://www.chillingeffects.org/trademark/notice.cgi?NoticeID=1454>
The site maintaining the FreeS/WAN list archives is currently
down, so I can't tell if John Gilmore removed the offending spam
from the list archives or not, but the link I gave previously from
the Web Archive shows that one way or another, that message is
going to live forever, even in conjunction with the FreeS/WAN
list. It's stupid, of course, since no one other than the spammer
even wanted the message to exist at all, much less be archived
forever, but that's just the way the Internet works. There's
no stuffing the spam genie back into the bottle.
So here we have some idiot lawyers sending cease-and-desist
letters to completely innocent and unrelated people, presumably
charging Rolex by the hour to do so and costing Rolex untold loss
of good will in the process. What's worse, it's highly unlikely
that the operator of a mailing list archive could really be held
liable for allowing a spammer to post; see the FAQ entries at
Chilling Effects for details.
<http://www.chillingeffects.org/trademark/question.cgi?QuestionID=663>
<http://www.chillingeffects.org/trademark/question.cgi?QuestionID=314>
In the end, to Rolex, and even more to the law firm of Gibney,
Anthony & Flaherty, LLP, I would say this.
"Kids, we don't like your kind, and we're going to send your
cease-and-desist letter off to the Web Archive. And friends,
somewhere in the Internet, enshrined in some database, is a study
in black and white of that cease-and-desist letter. And the only
reason I'm writing you this article now is cause you may know
somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar
situation, and if you're in a situation like that there's only one
thing you can do and that's post a note to the nearest blog, just
write right in and say, 'Counsel, you can't get what you want with
pointless strong-arm tactics.' You know, if one person, just one
person does it, they may think he's really sick and they won't
listen. And if two people, two people do it, with trackback, they
may think they're both faggots and they won't listen to either of
them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people
posting a note about a similar situation on their blogs? They may
think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty
people a day, I said fifty people a day posting notes about
strong-arm legal tactics? And friends, they may think it's a
movement. And that's what it is, the Rolex Spam Anti-Massacree
Movement, and all you got to do to join is post a note on your
blog the next time a pointless cease-and-desist letter comes
around on the net."
Arlo, if you're reading this, my apologies for mangling your
verse, and everyone else, if you have so far led a benighted life
that doesn't include having heard "Alice's Restaurant" yet, go buy
the album (unfortunately not available at the iTunes Music Store
yet). And to be clear, I realize there's nothing new about these
cease-and-desist letters; this one pushed my buttons because of
what happened with TidBITS Talk and because of all the Rolex spam
filling my Postini quarantine.
<http://www.risingsonrecords.com/detail.php?item=15>
Persistence Pays: The Return of XNS
-----------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Remember XNS? It was the platform for simplifying and securing
the exchange of data over the Internet that I helped launch just
over four years ago. Back then, I was acting as chairman of the
non-profit governance organization XNSORG, which was working with
XNS's developer, Seattle-based OneName Corporation, to manage and
promote XNS. Despite an incredible amount of effort on the part of
many people, the stars were not aligned for XNS to succeed, and
the 40,000 XNS names that were registered for free have gone
unused since then.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06133>
Thanks to the dogged persistence of Drummond Reed, who developed
XNS's initial foundation, and a few other key supporters, XNS
is back, although with many new names and faces (I resigned
from XNSORG in May 2004). XNS itself has been split into two
parts: XRI (eXtensible Resource Identifier) and XDI (XRI Data
Interchange). XNSORG has changed its identity to match, now
calling itself XDI.ORG. In surviving the dot-com implosion,
OneName has gone through a number of reorganizations and is
now Cordance Corporation.
<http://www.xdi.org/>
<http://www.cordance.net/>
Most important from the standpoint of the 40,000 people who
registered personal XNS names, you can reclaim your free XNS
name (now called an "i-name") and take advantage of a new
privacy-protecting personal contact page that lets people use
your i-name to contact you without revealing your email address
to spam trawlers. Cordance is sending email to every XNS personal
name registrant about this, but between spam filters and the age
of these email addresses, the bounce rate on the mail is likely
to be extremely high, so don't be offended if you don't hear
directly. Instead, consider this article your notification, and
if you know anyone else who registered a personal XNS name, let
them know they can reclaim and start using it again as well.
To start the process of reclaiming your XNS name, visit this
page at 2idi, the identity services company acting as the first
"i-broker" for i-names. The second link provides legal details
surrounding the conversion of an XNS personal name to an i-name.
<http://2idi.com/xns/>
<http://www.xdi.org/docref/legal/egs-xns-name-conversion.html>
(If you don't want to reclaim your XNS name, just ignore the mail
from Cordance and all the data from the XNS registry will be
deleted after the 90-day conversion program ends.)
**eXplaining XRI, XDI, I-names, and I-brokers** -- The changes
made in the transition away from XNS and XNSORG improve things
in two important ways. First, as we discovered, it's nearly
impossible to create a new standards organization from scratch,
and since the entire point of standards is that everyone agrees
to them, it makes a lot more sense to work with existing standards
organizations. As a result, the core technologies that lay under
XNS now reside with OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards), a non-profit, international
consortium that focuses on standards relating to electronic
commerce. Second, XNS was split into two separate parts: XRI
(eXtensible Resource Identifier) and XDI (XRI Data Interchange).
XRI is a protocol for identifying any abstract object in a
location-, application-, and transport-independent fashion, and
XDI is a Web service for distributed data sharing using XRIs.
The first link below explains more about XRI and XDI; the next
two links are the formal OASIS technical specifications.
<http://www.xdi.org/xri-and-xdi-explained.html>
<http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=xri>
<http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=xdi>
XRIs come in two forms: machine-friendly "i-numbers" and human-
friendly "i-names." I-numbers are a bit like IP numbers in that
they're designed to be efficient for use by network routers;
however, i-numbers are permanent: once a resource has been
identified by an i-number, that i-number will never be used for
anything else. (In contrast, IP numbers are constantly being
reassigned.) In contrast, i-names are easier for people to
remember and use, and they resolve to i-numbers - they're more
akin to DNS names. For today, you can think of an i-name as your
persistent digital identity. Your email address may change as you
switch ISPs or change jobs, your phone number may change as you
move, but your i-name will always point back to you because it's
a location-, application-, and transport-independent XRI. XDI
comes into the picture with bidirectional links between i-names,
which are governed by "link contracts." Link contracts can address
authority, authentication, authorization, privacy, usage control,
synchronization, termination, and more.
<http://www.xdi.org/i-names-explained.html>
All this comes together in the personal contact page service that
i-broker 2idi makes available to all i-name owners for free. A
personal contact page provides a contact form much like other
Web-based contact forms. However, because the personal contact
page uses an i-name, not an email address, there's no way a spam
trawler can extract an address from the HTML source. And, to
prevent automated form fillers, the user can require that the
person filling out the form respond to an email confirmation
message; it's much like the way most mailing lists require email
confirmation of subscriptions to eliminate bogus subscriptions.
Of course, if the person trying to contact you has an i-name
as well, the email confirmation isn't necessary, since the fact
that someone has an i-name means that they've gone through the
confirmation process elsewhere. When the form is submitted, your
i-broker handles sending the email to you, so you can be sure
that everything goes through a trusted third party.
Assuming all goes well (the reclamation program opens at 5 PM
Pacific today (25-Oct-04), so I haven't yet been able to reclaim
my name officially), you'll be able to contact me via my personal
contact page at this link.
<http://public.xdi.org/=adam.engst>
We had a service a little like this with XNS, although it was
limited to displaying information, much like an electronic
business card. The personal contact page is much more useful,
and I'm pleased that the folks working on i-names put the effort
into making sure that everyone who reclaims a personal XNS name
can put it to good use right away.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06485>
**I-Names for the Rest of Us** -- For those who didn't register
a personal XNS name back in 2000, you can still get an i-name,
though it's not free. For $25, the first 150,000 users can
register an i-name for a 50-year period, complete with 1 year
of free hosting from 2idi. This Early Global Services program
is actually a fund-raiser - XDI.ORG sponsor Identity Commons and
XDI.ORG will use all the proceeds after expenses to build open
source software for additional identity and data sharing services.
<http://www.idcommons.net/>
<http://2idi.com/registrar/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
One thing that sets today's Early Global Services program apart
from our efforts four years ago is that there are a lot more
communities interested in participating (and thus encouraging
their members to register i-names) with about 15 confirmed (though
not yet all listed) and some big names in the wings. I'm pleased
to see this level of enthusiasm, though I'm not surprised, since
the problems of establishing and maintaining a persistent identity
(for objects and digital abstractions as well as people) has
become all the more obvious over the last few years.
<http://www.xdi.org/community-home-page.html>
**Looking Forward** -- I'm not going to make any grandiose
predictions about how everyone and everything will have and
be using i-names soon. Any new technology faces an uphill battle
for acceptance in today's Internet, and although the combination
of XRI and XDI offers some compelling features, people dislike
change, even when it's for the better. Nonetheless, I wish the
best of luck to Drummond and all the others who have poured
untold hours into the effort to provide the world with a method
of identifying abstract objects and sharing data between them
in a secure, accountable way. If that's a topic that interests
you as well, I strongly encourage you to check out what XDI.ORG
is up to.
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/25-Oct-04
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The second URL below each thread description points to the
discussion on our Web Crossing server, which will be much
faster.
**The Tyranny of Email** -- You probably rely on email for your
daily communication, but is it taking up too much of your time?
When is communication a distraction? And can you really afford
to quit your email client? (4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2343>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/205>
**iChat archiving** -- With all the text generated by iChat
instant messaging, how do you find an old conversation?
(5 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2344>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/206>
**Bookmarks in Preview?** One reader, who uses Preview to read her
Take Control ebooks, wonders if the program can be bookmarked in
much the same way you put a scrap of paper in a physical book.
(4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2345>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/207>
**Issues with Office 2004 SP1** -- Readers discuss the changes
in Microsoft's latest service pack update for Office 2004.
(2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2347>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/209>
$$
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