I have had this poll on the left up for a month or so.

Since then, over 2000 people have looked at it. Since I am using Qarbon’s free trial, I exceeded my daily limit many times since it was posted. An yet, 13 people have voted. This is probably a good reflection of what we can expect at the polls this fall. Lot’s of talk and views, but no action.

I have been watching all the buzz on twitter of the anticipated arrival of Leopard this week. Most of the twitter users I follow are Mac users. Hmmmm. They all seem to be very excited about it. My buddy Dave Winer just posted his first review of Leopard.

The review is not exaustive, it could be summarized as

boring
(Icon courtesy of Zlango)

I don’t mean his review is boring. But that Dave finds the new OS boring.

I don’t have a Mac any more so I can’t comment. But my experience is that an OS move is always bigger than you think. The move from XP to Vista was tough but I am not willing to go back and give up some of the features.

I think Daves review is needs help.

All in all, changes to an OS aren’t that important. The action is in the apps, and for me, just a couple of primary ones, the web browser and my integrated writing and programming environment. It’s been quite a while since there have been meaningful improvements to either, and those improvements would end up meaning a lot more to me than improvements to the OS.

There isn’t much you can do, after the Mac has been around for 23 years, that hasn’t already been done.

Net-net, my first impression of Leopard is that it isn’t a big deal one way or the other.

My first review of Leopard (Scripting News)

 Pamela Dingle pointed this post out to me early in Sept. We both decided not to write about it and make fun of Kim and Jackson for violating privacy guidelines so blatantly. But Kim got a good laugh out of my pointing that out so–while late–here it is. Pictures, dates the whole thing. Who cares about privacy anyway eh?

Kim’s Birthday Party

August 31st was Kim Cameron’s birthday. Yours truly got to cook the “meat blob” that was served along with a wonderful platter of Mediterranean halibut. Ian, Kim’s brother and his wife came down from Vancouver to partake in the festivities. I hadn’t seen Ian in years so it was great to catch up with him.

Below is a picture of Jennifer Wu, Kim and myself enjoying some of Jennifer’s Chinese dumplings. The three of us worked together at ZOOMIT. Jennifer was responsible for the directory synchronization and metadirectory engine and moved to Washington with the rest of us after the acquisition of ZOOMIT by Microsoft. She’s moved over to work on the “Indigo” team now.

As usual the food was awesome, the wine was great and the company was exceptional.

Jackson’s Identity Management & Active Directory Reality Tour Travelblog: Happy Birthday Kim!

It takes a minute to put it together. This fabric makes any background look like you are driving by it really fast. The billboard–very subtly–is for the Ford Mustang.

Ad: This Ford Mustang billboard isn’t painted – it was created using a special type of semi-transparent material, that blurs the background to make it look like you are driving really fast.
Author: Ian Hart

Fun Forever – Luxury fun is affordable for everyone! » Things are not what they look. Part III

 Kim Cameron does a book review of The Cult of the Amateur. The title of his post is “Emperor of the Amateurs” I assume this is as in the the Emperor has no clothes. I saw this guy peddling his book on the Colbert Report the other night. Both Judith and I looked at each other and said, “can this guy be real?” I am glad to see others that have actually done the work of ferreting out the bastard.

“How today’s Internet is killing our culture” my ass.

If you are looking for a real hoot, and have nothing enjoyable or worthwhile to do, consider spending an hour (no more) with Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur.  Whatever you do, don’t buy it – you’re sure to find discarded copies lying around.  Mine, for example.

Identity – Digital Identity, Privacy, and the Internet’s Missing Identity Layer

DHS–the Gestapo–is a scary organization. Read the article. Take some action. We can’t let this happen.

cb

DHS proposes to require both ID papers and passes for all air travel

August 12th, 2007

In a series of recent publications in the Federal Register, the Department of Homeland Security is proposing a comprehensive new system of surveillance and, perhaps more important, control of both domestic and international travelers.

The proposed new rules, which are currently open for public comments, would require that:

1. All would be international travellers to or from the USA (even US citizens crossing the U.S.-Canada border on foot) would have to have government-issued ID credentials
2. All would-be passengers on international or domestic flights to, from, over, via, or within the U.S. would have to have both government-issued ID credentials and explicit case-by-case prior permission from the DHS to the airline to allow each passenger to board a plane.

The proposed rules would enforce the requirements for papers and permits through default provisions that would:

1. Require all air travellers to show their papers (”government-issued photo ID”) to airline staff on request of the DHS, under penalty of denial of transportation.
2. Forbid any airline from issuing a boarding pass to anyone, or allowing them to baord a plane, unless and until the airline received individual permission (a “cleared message”) authorizing that airline to allow that specific person on that specific flight.

Papers, Please!

This is very scary stuff. Read the article. 

Time To Bury REAL ID

Fund it?  Kill it.

The Senate will be voting this week on funding Homeland Security this week, and one national ID card-loving politician is trying to slip-in a little REAL ID funding: he needs to be stopped.

States have strongly resisted this unfunded federal mandate – one that the Department of Homeland Security expects to cost more that $23 billion or almost $100 per license holder.  Seventeen states have said ‘no’ to REAL ID – labeling it invasive, un-American, costly and an invitation to identity theft.  They know it will force citizens to stand in long lines for licenses and endure numerous hassles looking for documents like birth certificates.

Now instead of listening to the states, Senator Lamar Alexander plans to offer an amendment to this year’s Homeland Security funding bill that will take hundreds of millions of dollars away from important things like port security, the Coast Guard, and disaster preparedness.  He wants to give a little cash to the states to fund REAL ID – 300 million dollars-worth – and expects the states to gratefully pay the remaining 22.7 billion dollar tab.

UnRealID.com

I’m not sure what this means yet. I will call Kim and find out.I think it is a good idea, but under what license agreement. Certainly not the GPL! 

Microsoft is launching a slew of initiatives to help Web sites identify visitors.
First, the company is kicking off four open-source projects to support the development of ID cards for online users. Microsoft is also releasing one of its identity management specs, Identity Selector Interoperability Profile, under its OSP (Open Specification Promise), meaning the specification is clear of licensing fees or patent worries.

Sponsored Links (Ads by Google)

Identity Mgmt Solutions – Visit idAlliance for Identity Provisioning and Security Answers
www.idalliance.net

Identity Management – White Papers: Best Practices, Compliance, more.
www.FischerInternational.com

Standardize and Integrate – Manage your K-12 enterprise with SIF automation tools from CPSI.
www.vcasel.com

Finally, Microsoft is responding to users’ requests for better direct synchronization of identity information between Active Directory and the OpenLDAP Directory using Microsoft ILM (Identity Lifecycle Manager) 2007 by collaborating on an open-source project with Kernel Networks and Oxford Computer Group to create an OpenLDAP adapter for Microsoft ILM 2007.

Source: MS Goes Open Source to Boost Identity Management

 OK. It’s a little late but you should know I read this and you should read it too.

12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know

May 1st, 2007

While the Internet still retains some of the “wild wild west” feel, increasingly Internet activity, and particular blogging, is being shaped and governed by state and federal laws. For US bloggers in particular, blogging has become a veritable land mine of potential legal issues, and the situation isn’t helped by the fact that the law in this area is constantly in flux. In this article we highlight twelve of the most important US laws when it comes to blogging and provide some simple and straightforward tips for safely navigating them.

Source: Blog Law » 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know