Entries from September 2008 ↓

OpenID is an excellent solution for establishing a single identity for all your online accounts, but many people haven’t even tried it yet. For some, the concept of using a URL address for a login ID instead of the traditional email address is still completely foreign.

However, Email to ID could be what the doctor ordered and what these creatures of habits need. It could also be what OpenID needs in order to expedite wide-spread acceptance as the single sign-on identity standard. You can now link your email address (or several of them) to your OpenID and then use that email address (any of them) to log into any online service that supports it! The beauty rests in the simplicity of it all. Best of all, it’s all free and easy to do.

First, a little background information on this process

Email to ID is based on the EAUT (Email Address to URL Translation) protocol that allows standard email addresses to be transformed into URLs for services like OpenID. As far as concerns regarding security and who controls everything, EAUT was designed to work in a distributed fashion, so that there isn’t a single authority in charge of everything. Each email service controls how email addresses at their domain are resolved into URLs. 

Even though EAUT is designed to be decentralized, it will take time for email providers to add support. In these cases, a fallback service can be used, which can translate ANY email address to a URL. Relying parties can use any fallback service they wish, but Email to ID is recommended.  The need for a fallback service will decrease as more email providers support EAUT natively. 

Why a fallback service like Email to ID?

Emailtoid was designed as a technology prototype to act as a temporary solution to a usability problem in OpenID. Email to ID always defers to the email providers first and only falls back to the local resolution service if the email provider does not support email-to-OpenID resolution. 

What’s important for Email to ID’s long-term Success?

There are a couple of things that need to happen in order for Email to ID to become a normal part of our online experience. First, OpenID needs to formally and officially support the EAUT protocol. Second, all email providers need to get on board and support OpenID and EAUT. It’s not only good for their members but for them as well, so it’s really a no-brainer. The same is true for all online services and their stance regarding OpenID support - the more services that embrace OpenID, the better for us all.

How to do it

Here’s how easy it is to connect your email address with your OpenID account. It literally takes a couple of minutes. When completed we will show you how to use it with a site that supports EAUT such as Magnolia.
 

1. First, you’ll need an OpenID account. You might already have one because many services like AIM and LiveJournal include an OpenID for members. You can check here. If you don’t already own one then just create one from any of the official OpenID providers on that page. Popular providers include ClaimID, myOpenID, myVidoop, myID.net and VeriSign’s Personal Identity Provider. 

2. Go to Email to ID and add your OpenID account along with the email address you want to associate with it. You can add multiple addresses if you want. You’ll receive an email with an access key you can enter to complete the connection or you can simply click the link in the email. Either way works fine.

That’s it, really. It’s that easy. Enter the email address and OpenID account and they’ll be connected. You can just as easily disconnect them or add another email address or change the OpenID provider should you want to do so. It’s very flexible and puts you in control.

How to use your new email to ID account on a service

Now that you’ve linked your email address with your OpenID account, you can use your familiar email address on any site that supports it. In this example, we’ll use the popular social bookmarking service, Magnolia.

1. Go to the Magnolia sign in page and enter your email address in the OpenID box instead of the usual OpenID URL. 

2. You’ll be redirected to a confirmation page on your OpenID provider’s site. Click continue to complete the transaction. 

3. That’s it. You’re done. No need to enter tedious profile information or even a password. Just create the screen name you want and the email address and you’re done with the sign-up process in a fraction of the time that it usually takes. Email to ID and OpenID handles all of the dirty work for you.

Final thoughts

You’ve just gotten a glimpse of what could very well be the future of online registration thanks to the OpenID single sign on identity system along with the Email to ID URL translation based on the EAUT protocol. As mentioned earlier, in order for this much improved process to become a common standard and available everywhere online, more services need to support OpenID and EAUT. The good news is that increasing new services are in fact supporting OpenID. To keep up with all of the new additions to this list go to the OpenID Directory or subscribe to its RSS feed which updates constantly.

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Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:

The Daily Poll: How Often Do You Use OpenID to Login?
Another Victory For OpenID: Yahoo Announces Support
Blogger’s OpenID Support Now Official
Wikispaces Adds OpenID Suport
Blogger Beta Gets OpenID Support
Wetpaint Adds OpenID Support
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM and Verisign Join OpenID Foundation

If $100 is just too much for you to pay for a homemade iPhone stand, then this paperclip version might be a better option. And to anyone who has ever paid more than 50 cents to hold any pocket electronic, hopefully this fan-made pwnage will keep your money in your pocketbook/child savings accounts next time. [via Lifehacker]

Yahoo’s Exceptional Performance Team just released an interesting tool that optimizes images for publishing on the web. Smush.it is completely cloud-based and you can choose to upload your images directly to the service, provide Smush.it with a URL, or use a Firefox plugin that analyzes a whole page at once. Smush.it provides a one-stop shop for compressing images and works with JPGs, PNGs, GIFs, and animated GIF files.

Sponsor

As Yahoo points out, there are already many image editing tools on the market that perform similar functions. Smush.it, however, automates this process and works for a variety of popular file formats, taking a lot of the hassle out of the process.

Crunching Numbers and Stripping Out Metadata

Smush.it works on two different levels. First, it strips all the metadata out of the file. For small files like logos or buttons, this data can make up a large part of their size and very few users will ever care what editor you used to create a button. After this, Smush.it applies a number of non-lossy, open-source image optimization algorithms to the image. Smush.it will also transform GIFs into more efficient PNG files when necessary and optimize PNGs and animated GIFs.

For most web pages we tested, Smush.it reduced the total image size by anywhere from 10 to 45%. For most sites, logos, buttons, and icons saw the largest improvements (often close to 90%), though we also noticed a lot of sites that did not optimize their screenshots and other images, which Smush.it was usually able to compress by anywhere between 10 to 30%. If you are a web developer or publisher, using Smush.it could potentially reduce your bandwidth bill significantly.

We only wish that Yahoo had picked a slightly less unfortunate URL for the service…

Discuss

When you hear about a camera that’s the size of a trailer, you figure it’s a novelty used by a struggling artist looking to make a name. But watching this clip that explores the giant photography of John Chiara, you realize he’s not just a salesman exhibiting a clown camera. He’s an artist who painstakingly sets up a shot that’s balanced with car lifts, controls the exposure by placing his hand over parts of the lens and then develops the film in a sewage pipe. And the results are pretty extraordinary. This clip documents Chiara’s complete process and it runs about 7 worthwhile minutes. Load it up when you’ve got the time. [via Neatorama]

Nick Cairns saw our post on conditional CSS for browsers and followed up discussing how he handles maintaining IE specific CSS selectors:

We keep our IE related styling right below the common (standards-based) declarations. BUT, we DON’T use hacks. Underscore hacks, * hacks, and all of those things that we all gave up with the birth of IE7 should remain dead and buried. Instead, we’re going to use IE’s conditional commenting to create IE specific CSS selectors. We do this by adding a conditional comment block as the outer most wrapper in our html template (ie. the first tag inside the ).

PLAIN TEXT

HTML:

1.  
2.   </body><body>
3.      <!–[if IE 7]><div id=“body1″ class=“IE IE7 IE67″><![endif]–>
4.      <!–[if IE 6]><div id=“body1″ class=“IE IE6 IE56 IE67″><![endif]–>
5.      <!–[if IE 5]><div id=“body1″ class=“IE IE5 IE56″><![endif]–>
6.      <!–[if !IE]>–>
7.           <div id=“body1″ class=“W3C”>
8.      <!–<![endif]–>
9.                 /* THE REST OF YOUR HTML GOES HERE */
10.           </div>   
11.   </div></div></div></body> 
12.  

Now, in this sample, we do have support for older legacy versions of IE, so you could always reduce the number of conditions if your project doesn’t need this level of support. And, you could also easily extend it to include IE8, or to do minus versioning such as IE8-.

With this conditional block in place, it becomes quite easy to place IE only style declarations right below their standards-based counterparts. As an example:

PLAIN TEXT

CSS:

1.  
2. #header { overflow: hidden; }
3. .IE #header { zoom: 1; }
4.  

[link: ffffound.com & logicnest.com & adarena.net|thnkx Martin]

When we first introduced you to Elgg two years ago, it was a new social networking platform whose focus was on e-learning. Since that time, the software has been rewritten and it has moved away from being strictly for educational use only. Today, the award-winning Elgg is one of the top open source social networking platforms available on the internet.

A little over a month ago, Elgg 1.0 was introduced to the world. In this newest release, several years in the making, the software has been improved from the inside out. It has a more attractive UI and design, for starters. But under the hood you’ll find more changes like better plugin support, RSS and OpenDD views, and a new database schema.

We may have said that the next social networks would be powered by blogging CMS platforms like WordPress and Movable Type, but what we’re really seeing is a shift towards making all web platforms more open and social experiences.

To that end, Elgg can help form the basis of a new generation of social networks. But their platform goes beyond just delivering a solution for the next web 2.0 hangout or social site, although that it a popular use for their software. The Enterprise 2.0 movement is also aided by Elgg as companies wanting to build and customize their own intranet-based social networks have begun to adopt the platform as well.

The Interview

We recently had the opportunity to follow up on our original interview with one of Elgg’s founders, David Tosh. We talked about where Elgg stands today and what plans they have for the future.

How would you describe Elgg to someone who didn’t know what it is?

Elgg is an open source social networking engine started by Ben Werdmuller and myself back in 2004. Elgg can be used by developers as a starting point from which to build out their own social applications (it handles common back-end functionality and has an extensive programming API), and out of the box as a useful social utility. This year, it was voted by a panel on InfoWorld as the best open source social networking platform 2008.

What’s new with Elgg since we first spoke?

We have completely rewritten the Elgg core. This was necessary in order to future-proof the project, improve scalability and allow for greater customization. Over the past four years, we have found that one size really does not fit all, so we had to make sure Elgg was flexible enough to handle new demands being thrown at it, both now and in the future. The era of the monolithic social network is coming to a close; we want to make it easy for people to add social functionality into all kinds of applications.

Why did you move away from being a platform focused on education?

Although we’ve always had an educational base, a lot of users from other fields began picking up on Elgg. As a result, we were securing contracts to build custom networks on Elgg for groups that were not part of the educational circle, and feeding those developments back into the product. Gradually, interest in Elgg became greater outside of education, so we adapted to that change.

How does Elgg compare to its commercial competition?

With its new architecture and open standards at its core, we feel it is best placed to handle changing expectations in the social arena. It’s a very competitive space, but a lot of products have just bolted social features on top of their existing systems - Elgg has social functionality built into the core and was designed from the ground up to support it. That allows us to create deeper features, and also plan ahead for new kinds of social applications. As the types of social applications and uses for them grow, we feel our approach will pay dividends.

Some employers are letting employees use Facebook at work now. Do you worry that will affect the number of potential customers for your product?

Not really. If anything, I think this increases the potential and opportunity. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc play an important role in bringing the concept of social technology to new audiences. For groups like us, who provide niche services, this is great. For example, companies try out Facebook and then start releasing that they want to improve their internal communications to be more Facebook-like; we can help them with that.

Why should someone consider Elgg for their network?

I think there are three main reasons: simplicity, extensibility and openness. The basic version of Elgg is deliberately very simple and clean. Our architecture allows you to easily extend Elgg’s functionality to meet your specific requirements. Lastly, we fully embrace open standards such as OpenDD, FOAF, RSS, Open Social and OpenID, allowing you to interact with other applications.

Who is using Elgg today?

Elgg users range from sports networks to corporate companies, university intranets to school districts. There is a wide cross section picking up the software and applying it to their own niche. Increasingly, companies are also using Elgg to build social sites for their clients; we’re keen to promote and support this.

What’s in store for Elgg’s future?

We have a couple of things in the pipeline:

• Firstly, we’re going to launch an Elgg supporter scheme. This will give companies who are providing Elgg-related services the chance to form closer links with the core project.
• We are working on a new mobile intranet platform, powered by Elgg, that allows users to share status updates, photos, documents and media via MMS, SMS, email or the web. It also handles simple notes and shared tasks.
• We decided we needed a system within Curverider to improve our communication while on the move, and built it for our own use; it’s been so successful that we thought other companies and organizations might find it useful as well. So far, the reaction from people we’ve shown it to has been extremely positive.
• All Elgg-powered services have the Open Data Definition built into their core, which allows for full import and export of users, content and connections as well as the ability to syndicate friends’ activity in a distributed way.
• Lastly, we have just announced an advisory board that is packed with experts with excellent track records, in order to ensure Elgg and Elgg-powered services continue to develop and grow.

Discuss

I used iChat for a while and, although it’s a great program and has the ability to be used with most of the major chat interfaces, I got frustrated with the lack of built in customizable features very quickly. I never took the time to download a new client or find a way to add features to iChat itself, but the other day I was reading a forum that mentioned Chax.

Chax is a freeware application that puts iChat on steriods without the added rage. The install is simple and clean and adds a new tab in the preferences window of iChat entitled “Chax.”

(more…)

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Oracle enters hardware market; Launches storage server to ride shotgun with database  —  Oracle CEO Larry Ellison on Wednesday unveiled its first ever hardware product-a storage server with embedded software designed to work with the company's databases and be used in a grid.

September was a huge month for the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in Washington. Four new Senators and eighteen Representatives came on to the bill, bring our total number of cosponsors to a record eighteen Senators and 118 House Members – increases of 30% and 20% respectively.
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Clearly, the binational couples who reach out to their elected officials are changing hearts and minds. And this upswing is happening right when members are heading home – at the end of the month - to campaign for reelection. It shows that for many members of Congress, supporting LGBT rights is part of their reelection plan. And for Immigration Equality, it helps us position UAFA in the next Congress and administration as a bill with momentum and growing support.
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Members came on from all across the country, from the red, blue, and purple states – the Carolinas, Kansas, Washington state, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, you name it!
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Immigration Equality couldn’t say it better than cosponsors in Congress from both parties who spoke out this week on the importance of UAFA:
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Senator Chris Dodd, D-CT: “U.S. immigration law should not force Americans to leave their country and community behind in order to keep their family intact. I am pleased to cosponsor the Uniting American Families Act, which will allow lesbian and gay Americans the basic dignity of sponsoring their partner for immigration.”
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Representative Christopher Shays, R-CT-4: “I believe our nation’s immigration laws treat gay and lesbian couples unfairly. Two people of the same sex can be involved in a loving, long-term relationship and feel no less love for one another than partners in a heterosexual relationship. Yet our immigration laws do not permit U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to bring their same-sex partners into the United States. There are tragic stories about U.S. citizens being forced to make a choice between leaving the partner they love or leaving this country they call home.”
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Today, at a hearing on a bill for federal employment benefits for domestic partners, the only witness against benefits, Hon. Howard Weizmann, Deputy Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), said the measure would lead to fraud – and offered as the only proof the movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry!! (He also announced at the beginning of the hearing that OPM was neutral on the issue, then received a note mid-hearing and announced that OPM is against domestic partnership benefits. Sounds a bit like the administration may be making policy decisions on the fly!)

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In any case, if Hollywood fantasies are the best argument that opponents to same-sex partner benefits can muster on the Hill – well, what can we say. Even Bill O’Reilly didn’t think of that one! Meanwhile, Senators Lieberman (I-CT) and Collins (R-ME), the chairman and ranking members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee which held the hearing, argued that same-sex partners of federal employees should be entitled to full health, relocation, retirement, and other employment benefits. Senators, business leaders and labor witnesses argued that sworn affidavits should be sufficient evidence of a committed partnership. If affidavits are good enough proof of relationship for employment benefits for same-sex partners, then the much more rigorous requirements to prove a committed relationship for sponsoring a spouse should certainly suffice for immigration benefits!

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This is not to make light of the challenges we will face in winning full immigration equality for LGBT and HIV-positive Americans in Washington. The fact is that the stigma against immigrants now seems stronger than anti-LGBT sentiments inside the beltway. Our challenge will be to work with other immigrant rights groups to overcome that stigma, and win the right of family unification for all of America’s immigrant families – including ours.

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And the dramatic increase in support for UAFA will provide just the right kick for restarting the fight in 2009!