Propeller-heads Unite!

I’ve seen it so it must be true:

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Found this little gem in my logs today:

Date: Feb 12 07:05:33 AM
Visitor: MSIE 6.0 Windows 2000 1024×768 Nigeria (83.229.91.135)
Page: Propeller-heads Unite! » 2007 » January
Referrer: www.google.com.ng/search?hl=en&q=email address january 2007 update by name and address&btnG=Search&meta=

Wanna bet he’s looking to reach me about depositing a large sum of money in my bank account? All I need to do is give him my account number. Such a generous and conscientious chap.

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A sysadmin friend of mine said this on IRC today (sanitized to protect the innocent):

I had to whitelist our own domain so we could send mail to each other

Ouch.

Bad users. No spamming for you!

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Jyte.com is a remarkably simple, yet interesting new site (just opened up this week!) that leverages the concept of an online identity, credibility via a web of trust-type mechanism, and claims that can be agreed or disagreed, and discussion about aforesaid claims - all tied up with OpenID identity/authentication.

Jyte is just one example of how disaggregation of authentification and identity from the actual tools can be useful. OpenID (and Jyte, for that matter) are based on open protocols and interfaces that can be worked into existing or new tools. Jyte claims can be embedded in blogs or web pages or course activities. Jyet “cred” is available for other systems to use and/or display. Jyte group membership might be used by other applications like discussion groups or online courses to customize content or control access. Private or members-only claims and group moderator membership management tools are coming, so an educator could use groups to organize students into teams for a group project that uses Zoomr.com (another OpenID-enabled tool) photo sharing and hooks into a LiveJournal blog (another OpenID-enabled tool) … or … sheesh, I don’t know. There are so many possibilities that more creative people than I can dream up - and Jyte is only one example of an OpenID-enabled application. OpenID is a new and rapidly-growing protocol that is seeing explosive growth in fascinating and novel new online applications.

Plus, it’s fun. I don’t quite know why, but I’m finding Jyte strangely addictive. And quite funny on occasion:

Descartes would have a field day with that one! And, no, I have no idea who Oscar J Carlton IV is … never met ‘em!

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Note to self: Try to not schedule a bunch of stuff on the next Friday the 13th

Let’s see, today I had:

1. A major dog and pony show for the OVSD stakeholders
2. The second day of GOSCON
3. A flight down to SFO to participate in the Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit

#1 of course had plenty of Murphy’s Law moments - meeting room laptop didn’t have the right software and the staff didn’t have admin access to allow us to install anything, video projector misbehavior … you know, the typical, “Hi, my name is Bubba and I be a taychnologee gooroo. Now where is that durned rodent-thing so I can show you what we done through dem Internets tubes?” kind of moments. We survived. No angry mob of teachers with torches and pitchforks chased me out of Salem, so I’ll count that as a “near miss.”

#2 …. well, stuff like that sometimes takes a while to develop. You know, say the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time in the hall between sessions. That whole squishy carbon-based networking thing. I don’t think I fubared anything so I’m calling it a definite “miss” until proven wrong.

#3, however. Oh, my. Part of it I brought on myself, so I can’t blame the curse for it all (as you’ll see). But it’s damn sure … enhanced … it. Walk into the airport - flight delayed. Then Corey and I both walk up to the self-check in kiosk. He strolls right on through no problem. I, however, am told I need to see an agent. Umm … oooookaaaay … same travel agent, same flight, same everything, but I get the “special” treatment. Corey says, “I bet it’s the hyphen.” Bingo. After a lengthy and entertaining monologue involving his third wife and the phrase, “I used to be a software engineer … they dropped all those symbols to save money” from the ticket agent, we learn that yes, indeed, the system barfed because it didn’t like the hyphen in my last name. Sheesh. Off to security. Ummm … remember that Leatherman I thought I lost months ago? Found it! (yay!) In my carry-on. (boo!) Points to the PDX TSA security staff for being so friendly and patient. Individually, nothing worth thinking about. But collectively … oh yes. A palpable “hit”, Mr. Murphey.

To be fair, I did get on an airplane and, even though it was a bit late, it went up in the air, flew a few hundred miles, and came down just exactly as it was supposed to do, so I shouldn’t be complaining. Nope. No complaints here. Just a bit of chagrin and a touch of self-mockery. :-)

P.S. - After watching Wenzel play Burnout over at the Mozilla offices tonight … perhaps I shouldn’t be so sad he’s headed back to driving on German roads instead of somewhere around here. ;-)

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As if there was any doubt … working with people who can pull off things like this is why I love working for Oregon State.

Creative, energetic, brilliant and fun. Bravo!

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