A Universal Roaming Profile? 295
Arnaud Sahuguet asks: "I have a cell-phone with my phone book, a PDA with my calendar info and my address book. I have my home desktop bookmarks, my work desktop bookmarks, my laptop bookmarks, my PDA bookmarks, etc.
They are all mine, but somehow they are not, because they live in
different networks (or on the same network but with different operators).Everybody keeps talking about convergence, but I don't see any
convergence on the user profile front (data that matters to me). Microsoft is pushing for .NET MyServices, Sun et al. are pushing for Liberty Alliance, Apple is pushing for .Mac. Is it the right way to go?" One of the large major issues surrounding such a system would be implementing it in a way where the user can control the flow of data: where it is stored, when a certain piece of data can be sent, and who is allowed to get it. Sounds like a fine idea to me, what do you all think?
"As a user:
- would you be willing to have your personal profile information stored on the network?
- who would you trust? Your bank, your ISP, your cell phone provider, your company, the EFF, no one but you?
- what kind of guarantees would you require?
Napster is (I should say was) a community of users willing to share MP3 music files, administered by a central server managing meta-data about users and files. I don't know what the exact goal was, but I can see it as a way to free ourselves from the music industry monopoly.
GUPster would be a community of network entities (e.g. servers at Yahoo!, server at SprintPCS, servers at my university, my home machine, etc.) willing to share standardized user profile components, administered conceptually by a central server managing meta-data about entities and components. The goal is to create synergies between network components in order to deploy value added services for the user. (Since I am working for the telecom industry, the goal is to make network operators happy by making end users happier.)
Just like in Napster, my user profile information will be distributed but the meta-data will be centralized (at least from a logical point of view) at the GUPster server. This way, I can decide that my credit card information will be stored at my bank, my calendar information on my Yahoo! account, my game scores on the Sony web site, etc. Network components storing my profile information will have to support the right set of interfaces and protocol and will register to the server the pieces of my profile they are storing.
Note: I will be the one deciding who stores what. Think of it as like moving to a new place. You can choose your electricity, gas, phone, cable and Internet providers.
Applications willing to access any of this information will talk to the GUPster server. And just like Napster, the server will not return data, but referrals (i.e. where this information can be found).
Unlike Napster, the central server will also enforce some access control policies defined by the user (let's call them my 'privacy shield'). If the request for user profile information is not OK (e.g. nobody can access my presence information after 9pm), the returned referral is empty.
Does it sound crazy?"
heheh (Score:4, Funny)
*ducks*
Re:heheh (Score:2)
'Cept for the 'Trust Microsoft' part.
Re:heheh (Score:2, Offtopic)
This may be a little off topic, but perhaps relevant to the discussion of trust: Have you noticed the NASDAQ 100 commercials with Steve Ballmer etc. Not bad ads but they finish with the words "NASDAQ 100: Trust Companies". Very big brother sounding and rather poorly timed with all the scandals. There needs to be some level of trust in order to implement a universal roaming profile and I wish companies would try the approach of earning trust rather than expecting to convince people with half-assed and rather condescending slogans like this.
Honestly... (Score:5, Insightful)
A better solution (Score:4, Interesting)
A better solution than storing it on someone else's server would be to make the interface synchronizable between platforms.
I'd keep a copy on my work desktop. I'd sync my home PC and my work PC over the internet (using VPN or SSL, of course.) I'd HotSync it to my PalmOS device. My Palm could Bluetooth it to my phone. My phone could GPRS it to my car's phone. My wife could sync the "Family" category on her Palm to the "Family" category on my Visor.
PalmOS does this sort of thing now with the HotSync program, but only in the limited "Handheld -- Palm Desktop -- Outlook" chain. With a robust protocol (almost certainly XML) and a strong standards committee this should not be an insurmountable task.
Re:A better solution (Score:2, Informative)
XML-based, designed for n:m devices:servers, strong industry support, but not yet any consumer products i know of, and i cannot find any open source implementations. The standard is out now for almost 2 years....
--
cu
Sebastian
Re:A better solution (Score:2)
And now that you mention it, that must be how my phone SMSs "calendar" events around.
Thanks for the link!
Re:A better solution (Score:4, Insightful)
Cell phones and other wireless devices will have other costs, namely money and time. Let's say that it costs somewhere around $.04/kb to send data over GPRS. My address book in Palm format is near 250KB, or about $5.00 of charges and around two minutes of time at 19.2. And that's without expanding it to vcard format for the transmission. Deltas, of course, are small but still will take time and money, although I'd be more likely to do that in a pinch.
I'd definitely want the option to sync it via IR to my Palm, with a USB/Firewire cable or cradle, inserting a GSM smart card or via Bluetooth. Only one or two of those is likely to be directly to my desktop. The others will have to flow through an intermediary. And when I'm out in the field, I don't want to be punching data into my phone via the numeric keypad when I could be syncing to my iPod.
So I see a need for the ubiquitous exchange of data, where every machine understands syncing and can do it unobtrusively and cheaply. (Of course AT&T, Sprint and Verizon have no desire to promote unpaid transfer of data, but it's Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola that count.)
the truth (Score:2)
boils down to if the retailers will accept it, not the consumers
this will only happen if you cant cheat them because after all they dont want to lose money because the system is insecure
visa cards are after all very insecure but reatilers put up with them because they make them money
the key is retailers and they are not about to sign up to a insecure system just to get ripped off
regards
John Jones
p.s. Visa are in http://www.projectliberty.org [projectliberty.org] and are not in the habit of throwing money away or doing it for the good of mankind
Re:Honestly... (Score:2)
Re:Honestly... (Score:2, Interesting)
With a single signon service, you're throwing all your eggs in one basket (didn't your mother tell you that was bad?). If someone knows your username/password, they've got access to _everything_. No thanks, and pass the potatoes would ya?
Besides, ever get on bad terms with a merchant and want to cut all ties with them? What if they required access to your single signon area? Good luck cutting them off. I've had my share of loser companies charge me many months after terminating service after repeated attempts by me to fix the problem. Imagine if they had all that info, too. Scoundrels.
Re:Honestly... (Score:2)
I am talking about information you are willing to disclose like the fact that I want the temperature to be expressed in Celsius degrees, I want the distance to be expressed in meters, and the price in Euros.
you just contradicted yourself. You said that you weren't talking about crap ISPs want to know about me, but you were talking about my calendar, my address book, and my phone book. How is it any different for me to give them access to my calendar and all my contact list and phone book, but not to my own info? And if you can't find a way that doesn't involve me having to give them tons of information or a login just to get the weather in my own preferred units of heat measurement, like a cookie (Which i'm also not a fan of but would prefer it over what you propose) then I don't think I really care about the weather.
danger? (Score:3, Insightful)
I want this too (Score:1)
Re:I want this too (Score:1)
Re:I want this too (Score:1)
The drawback is requiring net connectivity, most people are still on dial-up, but then they would have much less a need for this sort of thing.
no trust here. (Score:4, Funny)
Girlfriend: Bill, why do you have two more links listed under Porn?
Bill: Uhh, I have always had those, they are there just for laughs.
Girlfriend: Bill, what a bunch of crap.
Bill: Actually, they are full of great sites.
Re:no trust here. (Score:2)
Maybe I'll make an app for this and sync it on my webserver. Email me (email link on website) if anyone is interested in the finished project, or helping me work in it (making it cross-platform,etc). Area management would be nice too, so that "global" groups are loaded from anywhere, but some do/don't when at work, etc.
(so that "porn" doesn't load at work, yes) - phorm
Re:no trust here. (Score:4, Informative)
Backflip.com, if they're still around, did this as a service.
The Mozilla project has Bookie: http://bookie.mozdev.org/
There's also the beginnings of another shared system:
http://wwwampire.mozdev.org/
Check 'em out!
Re:no trust here. (Score:2)
What I wanna know is... (Score:1)
The Real Problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Would you have your house, your car, your office, and your secret cash box all use the same key? It's all very convenient until someone else finds the key....
Re:The Real Problem (Score:2)
XNS (Score:2, Informative)
.txt files (Score:1)
Or if you lose your palm on a trip you could buy another at some store and update it nearly immediately.
Just a thought.
Seriously now (Score:5, Insightful)
Even the idea of what you are suggesting (info on the Internet) scares the shit out of me.
Now, on the other hand, a profile based on a physical item (ie/ a cd, datacard, etc) might be a nice idea. Just plug it into your PDA, cell phone, laptop, pc, etc.
Of course, considering how much information about me is sent across the Internet, maybe it's time to just give up privacy.
If we have to do that, let's at least all go nudist. That might be a fair trade off then...
Re:Seriously now (Score:1)
1. lose the card/cd/etc and you are entirely screwed
2. it would require all phones, pdas, computers, etc to be redesigned/updated to include the reader/writer component - not an easy or cheap thing to do across the board
Yeah I got a universal roaming profile (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, though, if I was interested in a central system, why not something implemented with a directory service (e-Directory or AD)? A nice little certification architecture for a multi-tiered privilege structure? I'd put my faith in NDS before a lot of the other products mentioned.
Who would I trust? (Score:1, Interesting)
Phooey... (Score:1, Insightful)
What we need... (Score:3, Informative)
Yahoo (Score:3, Insightful)
Check out SyncML. (Score:3, Informative)
Take it with you! (Score:5, Interesting)
But, hardware or software, the only way this would be useful is if there was a standard for these major classes of data so multiple devices and applications could read, and in some case modify, the data. Your cell phone might not only want to use your existing numbers,but add a number when you receive a call from a never-before-seen number.
Who would make such standards? Surely Microsoft could give it a stab, and then extend it beyond usefulness. Maybe some of the existing standards are good enough, or could be extended (vCard, vCal, etc.).
Probably all just a pipe dream anyways.
Give it to tehm! (Score:2)
Like you can trust your machine at work! Where I work we click through the most outrageous agreements before we log in to the NT network. Essentialy all our data is our boss's, no personal use, that kind of thing.
Surely Microsoft could give it a stab, and then extend it beyond usefulness.
Most things Microsoft does are beyond usefulness and into rapicious. Have you read your EULA? Neither has my boss, or he would have realized that M$ owns all the data he thinks he owns.
All my information is available through ssh and ftp. Sensitive stuff gets no where near a computer at work, regardless of protocal.
Synergy (Score:1)
I hear or read corporate buzzwords.
-Dirkr
Eat wet cement, get stoned.
netscape supported this (Score:3, Interesting)
-BlueLines
Re:netscape supported this (Score:3, Insightful)
I used it with Netscape 4.x at work and at my home, and it was very practical (sorry, my online dictionary page is currently down:-P)
It is amazing how comfortable such a "simple" solution can be. StarOffice founder Börries has a new company http://www.verdisoft.com which wants to provide unified device/software configuration.
They use SyncML, and SyncML is IMHO the protocol of choice for this goal, supported by many vendors, but i cannot see mass products since almost 2 years. and: unfortunately there is not yet an open source implementation
I think central device and software configuration and management is the next big thing. Think of the millions of poor users today who have to keep their workstations, laptops, cell phones, pda's and frigerators on sync
--
cu
Sebastian
No need for trust (Score:5, Insightful)
There's no need for trust. Store my data on your server but store it encrypted. Only I have the decryption key. Everything I send to you and receive from you is encrypted. You are just providing the storage (and possibly I am paying you for this service).
Now, I don't need to trust you. I, of course, do have to trust my local machine and I have to trust the client I use to access my files. But I do not need to trust you.
Re:No need for trust (Score:2)
Re:No need for trust (Score:2)
Re:No need for trust (Score:2, Informative)
You don't need to encrypt the whole database at once: that's a concept years out-of-date for the reasons you mention. You encrypt the URL, and nothing more.
If you have a multi-user sytem, it's even easier. You just store the URL plaintext, and use MD5(Your name/your password/bookmark number) as the key-field. Nobody can then relate any record to any other, and only someone with your name/password can scan the bookmark numbers to do the search.
Re:Duh! (Was:No need for trust) (Score:2)
Of course I'm hoping you're just a troll that I was careless enough to respond to. Either that or you don't know what the fuck you're on about.
The answer is of course (Score:1)
Why store it on someone else's network?
Re:The answer is of course (Score:2)
Seriously, this is a great idea but for two things: 1) Cellphones don't have USB ports, and 2) With few exceptions, PDAs don't have host USB ports.
There are work-arounds, of course: You can upload the info to both the PDA and phone with appropriate connection hardware/software. But you'll still need a way (perl scripts?) to translate the data from some central format to the target software's preferred format.
Business plan:
1) Work out a solution for all the above.
2) Make it work with every PDA, cellphone, browser, email reader, etc. -- and continue to support it as those all change (tracking cellphones alone will keep you busy).
3) Package it up so any bozo can use it.
4) Profit!
Re:The answer is of course (Score:2)
It sounds crazy (Score:1)
One Id to rule them all (Score:1)
Re:One Id to rule them all (Score:2)
NFS, Baby! (Score:1)
First of all there's the filesystem (how to actually get to the profile). NFS seems to be the UNIX standard, whereas Samba (AKA CIFS) is pushed by MicroSoft. Then there's the whole set of alternatives that claim to be better, but for the most part are in too early stage of development. Names that spring to mind are Coda, AFS, and Dav. And there's the standard Internet protocols HTTP and FTP. Or maybe just rsync will do the trick?
Secondly, there's the format of the data itself. So you have your contact list. It has names, email addresses, phone numbers, and whatnot. So what file format are they stored in? Palm? MicroSoft? Plain text? XML? MySQL?
Etc. etc. The nice thing about standards...
You're talking about two different technologies... (Score:2)
You start your post talking about Bookmarks, Phone Numbers, Calendar etc. This is information you want to access from anywhere. Real easy: agree standard XML formats, trusted authentication services, and security protocols. Whammo-bammo you can access your bookmarks from anywhere using pure XML and a password.
But then you start talking about banking and privacy and trusted companies. This is totally different, it's information you want others to access from anywhere; and the security model wouldn't be remotely similar. Which are you talking about?
Your GUPster idea is also fatally flawed because you're talking technology -- same thing as Microsoft and Sun and Apple. Talk standards and maybe you'll get somewhere. Anyone can come up with a technology to do this, but it's only in getting people to agree that you'll come up with anything decent.
This may seem a little obvious... (Score:2)
I'm considering buying one of these [thinkgeek.com]. I'm a bit worried about the software requirements, though ("Requires Windows 98, ME 2000, Mac OS 8.6 or greater"; I guess my Linux box is greater...). They look like a nifty way to carry my stuff around with me. Until I lose it
--Jon
Bookmarksync (Score:2)
JOhn
Liberty Alliance Project (Score:1)
P3P (Score:3, Informative)
Partial Truth (Score:2)
P3P can't force people not to break their agreements, true. But it means that companies that do break them that use P3P will easily be sued in court. And for reputable companies (who waver at the thought of expensive litigation), this is more than enough.
Your Jive Lesson for Today (Score:1)
A: adj. The end-all be-all of human existence, usually emphasized by its combination with an expletive; See The Shit; See The Bomb
"Fuckin' A, brother!! The Jive Page be the shit and then some on the receipt!"
What about "flash disks"? (Score:1)
While your cell phone probably does not have a USB port, most other gadgets do.
Carrying your information with you would seem to mitigate the security concerns of keeping a central network-based repository.
Has anyone tried to put their email, bookmarks, contact info, etc. on a flash drive and use it across the various devices in their lives? My life is, as usual, a little more complicated since I run multiple OSes & apps, but it still seems feasible.
LDAP for bookmarks, addressbooks, etc. (Score:5, Informative)
The poster illustrates the problem with examples such as bookmarks and address books ( which is a different problem than what liberty et. al tries to solve I believe) . These kinds of information can already be kept in an LDAP server and most applications can store and retrieve these from those servers. Outlook does it, mozilla does, ximian does it.
LDAP address book support is relatively mature in most email readers. Check out OpenLDAP [openldap.org] for more info.
Single sign-on can also be done via LDAP. Or Kerberos/LDAP if you're so inclined. Netscape NTSych product, the Psynch® [psynch.com] product, etc. can be used to sych NT or win2k with an external database. Check out projects such as pgina [plu.edu]. There's a free general purpose NT password sync dll available from AcctSync [sf.net]. This DLL is nice, you can catch user passwords and pass them to an arbituary script with the username. This could be a perl script that updates LDAP to a vbscript that updates the coresponding Oracle user, it doesn't matter.
Also, it's simple to store public certs in an ldap server, making it easier to deploy PKI on a budget ( you don't want to know how much netscape and novell charges for this per user, trust me :)
In short, a lot of your problems can be solved right now by running a LDAP server and configuring your applications to rely on it for their datastore. Good luck.
Re:LDAP for bookmarks, addressbooks, etc. (Score:4, Informative)
I wrote a coupla noddy data entry screens as well for the ldap server so I can add anybodies email / phone number via a few web pages, I can dump it out as a text format for easy backup (it's human readable too). The only thing I haven't done it figure out how to write WAP pages in a syncML kinda way to replicate back to my mobile - if anyones's done that, I'd appreciate some links.
Bottom line: Go LDAP / IMAP4 for all your email and address and weblink needs. It's a real existing support protocol that just about all clients have to support. I grant you setting it up is a bit of a bitch, but when it's working you'll never figure out why you had so many other disparate data stores again. Promise !!
What is so difficult about this? (Score:2)
I don't bother with full profiles, but I use rsync on a daily basis to sync my home jukebox with my libretto along with a few other things (I also keep my ssh private and public keys on the keydisk, never storing the private keys on a hard disk). .config files in a *nix environment are beautiful. Too bad most windoze proggies have no clue about multi-user environments.
Local data stores and X.509 authentication (Score:2)
So when you get a new cell phone, you'd tell it your e-mail address, and maybe given it a password, and it'd go fetch the information about you and store it into the phone, perhaps refresing it at intervals (or for every session).
When 3rd parties query this server for information about you, they do so over a two-way authenticated SSL session. You either arrange in advance, or in response to the request, to allow these bits of data to be accessible to the requestor. Maybe exchange P3P-style policies first.
You could implement this in HTTP by storing different "units" of information in XML under different URI's, and apply different ACL protection over each URI. You could either explicitly whitelist certificates beforehand, or use a combination of certifiate + a password that the 3rd party provider passes through to pull the requested data.
Updates could be handled in a similar fashion. If you trust a 3rd party to update certain information on your behalf, perhaps using your own SSL certificate, you could let that happen too.
Just some thoughts..
This was already solved by Netscape (Score:3, Informative)
I use Mozilla now and I didn't see the roaming functionality in there on a quick check
You could setup to Roam and store your info in either an LDAP database or on an HTTP server (much easier). You could then use SSL for those of you that are concerned with security to roam. Whenever you exited the browser, if you'd changed something (for example, new bookmark), it would update the central profile location with the new files. Nice feature, there were a couple of point releases where it would get confused and you'd wipe out your bookmarks on one system, but that was not a concern since you ended up with copies of everything on multiple computers.
Note that Netscape's roaming support extended to Unix systems too. It was sweet. Too bad Microsoft's browser monopoly killed it off. We won't see real innovation like that anymore
A lot of you said people wouldn't store their profile info on someone else's network. Most people would though. Most of you store your email on other people's network right now. In this case, I was using my own colocated server and also ran an IMAP server on it to keep my mail in sync.
The biggest problem they had w/roaming was the lack of documentation. You can go back into newsgroup archives and occasionally run across some poor soul trying to figure out what you had to do on the server. Once setup, though, it worked great.
Good to see that we're now going to try and reinvent the wheel. Of course, this wheel will only work with a Microsoft axle, transmission, engine, and body, and it will cost you every time it turns.
What can each device access? (Score:2)
My first suggestion would be set up your own server -- something cheap, because you won't need a lot of horsepower. Then, install OpenLDAP and use that for storing everything. This is what LDAP is for.
LDAP can be also tunneled thru SSL for devices that support it.
I'm in the middle of installing LDAP services for a big telco who is using it to store the roaming profiles of their new 3G wireless service users. Authentication is thru a RADIUS server tied into the LDAP server. (No, open source software is NOT used, but it could be on your part.)
Re:What can each device access? (Score:2)
What I used to wind up doing was printing out my address book in *really* small type and folding it up in my wallet. Worked well enough until I got a palm pilot. Now I just keep that up to date. For anything else, I can usually just SSH home and open up Mozilla or whatever forwarding X and grab what I need. I do the same with email - my work email is only read from one program and I ssh in to the office if I need to access it.
Cheers,
Jim
Re:What can each device access? (Score:2)
Why they can't just have a couple of MB of memory accessible over USB or even serial is completely beyond me. A friend of mine has a phone that has a 64MB card for storing MP3s, but guess what - it's only accessible through special software and a special cable. The address book isn't stored there either, so there's no way to get to it.
I swear sometimes these things are designed by marketing types, not engineers.
I know that some people do write Linux programs that access the phones - I see them in the Japanese Linux magazines using handmade cables, but when I'm probably going to only have the phone for a year, it just isn't worth the effort.
I think they might have GSM here in Japan, but if they do, it's the least popular. I use PHS (Personal Handy System). It has the worst range, but the best sound quality and the best data transfer. It's also much cheaper to call other people on the PHS system.
You'd think that this would be something that the industry could have agreed upon years ago. Apple is doing it now, with their address book and calendar, so I have some hope. They also make it easy to do yourself if you have access to a WebDAV server, which isn't too hard to set up on a home server. Microsoft is supposed to let you do this too, with their Active Directory, which is basically LDAP, but why hasn't it taken off?
This is the basic problem with web services - everybody is trying too hard to make a buck that they can't seem to get the simplest useful services out the door...
OK, Im ranting now, time to stop...
Cheers,
Jim
I want ubiquitous storage with strong encryption (Score:2, Interesting)
I want each of the above devices to be able to read/write a common format so I can share my various profiles phonebooks and calendars and they are all different views into the same large database.
I also want each of these devices to be able to use the same strong encryption algorithm. The encryption is performed at the application level within the device. That is, when a device writes a record, the record is encrypted, then sent to the central repository where it is stored in its encrypted form.
I believe that in this way, I can have ubiquitous access to my data, shares across multiple devices without requiring me to hand over my data to a trusted third party. All I need is a ubiquitous third party. I provide the trust using strong encryption and good keys.
-tpg
Bad Idea (Score:2, Insightful)
Do you really want to put yourself in a position to have your data taken hostage. And can they really guarantee privacy or does private just mean that it is protected from hackers, but they and the law enforcement can access it anytime?
I'd much rather see a sync over the internet from my systems to my systems using a pgp key.
KINDA (Score:2)
kinda, the thing thats wrong with this is that an apartment is stationary. You do not get charged on *your* power bill when you go watch tv at your parents house. Or pay on your internet bill when you use some other machine to check email.
Smartcard? (Score:2)
Just have your bookmarks be your homepage (Score:2)
I made one web page that looked nice with a set of nicely organized links that my wife and I use most often. It's got all the important links to place I visit on a weekly/daily basis, for shopping, banks, etc... Then wherever I go, I just make that my homepage and instantly I'm in a familiar environment that will take me wherever I need to go.
I still use bookmarks for something I find interesting, or something I only rarely visit. And if I need to remember what that is when I'm away, I can just telnet to my box at home, find the file mozilla uses to store my bookmarks and get it that way. Between those two methods, I've never needed a bookmark I couldn't get.
Be careful about HTTP referrer (Score:2)
Remember that the HTTP referrer header that is written to the web logs of sites you visit will reveal your "personal homepage" URL, so be careful if you store other information (such as friends email addresses or contact numbers etc.)
Obvious Answer (Score:2)
Honestly, think of it. A minimalistic NFS with a bit more bandwidth and you have it.
The answer is no farther than your wallet. (Score:2, Insightful)
Profiles online -- why not just encrypt it? (Score:2)
You're the only one who ever needs your own personal information, right? So this way you don't have to trust anyone with it. Your Mozilla will pull the block from the server, decrypt it with your pass phrase, and load it into the application. You'll could keep it locally cached if you like.
It doesn't require any new technology. The data could be served up by web servers. The back-end databases would use the usual replication and high-availability stuff.
If you could build it so Mozilla, Evolution, KMail, and all sorts of other applications can load the block or blocks (just an HTTP GET), decrypt (via the OpenSSL libraries), and parse (XML), you're done. When you make a change, you push the new versions back to the server.
The weak link, as usual, is the strength of the passwords.
Jabber (Score:3, Informative)
But this could be taken much farther. The current protocol already offers arbitrary data storage on the server, and it could be beefed up if necessary (that's the wonderful part about an extensible protocol).
So then in your web browser (or in some global location on your OS), you could enter:
myusername@my-own-domain-nyah.com
and a password, and the browser could retrieve the necessary bookmarks and other data. And all of your data is safe at your-own-domain-nyah.com, instead of Microsoft HQ.
That pretty much covers all the bases. Time to hack this out.
-Justin
Shouldn't be nessisary (Score:2)
If we'd lived in an open standards world there'd be half a dozen plug ins for sending the data to and from your cell phone and/or PDA every time you sync up.
If managers didn't get paranoid becouse of a tech story on CNN (If your not able to check up on the story report every rummor... this is for tech and medical news alike.. swap storys with your doctor with the PS that passes for news)
Just sync your PDA and cell phone with your computer and you'll have nothing more than multi-redundent copys of the same data with no need to worry.
I like this anyway. I keep all my important files on my PDA and computer even if my PDA can't use em just to have a redundent copy.
(and then back up)
Muahahaha...
Universal desktop (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounded good. I tried a demo of iPlanet a year or so ago, I couldn't get it working; *way* to complicated and fragmented. And I haven't heard much of Sun employees using it.
I have dreamed of a portable virtual desktop for years. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist yet; but for each specific application, there are some solutions (and some general solutinos). The best I have come up with is the following arrangement:
A little rough around the edges, but 90% of what I do (and probably 98% of what typical users do) revolves around email, the web, and a couple of specific applications, it goes a long way towards the ultimate solution, which hopefully will be available some day.
The true solution to this is a unversal open *protocol* for applications. IMAP lets universal email be *very* portable. There is no equivalent for calendaring. This is no equivalent for TODO lists. There is no equivalent for most other important applications. If there were, then mutliple vendors could implement it on different platforms, giving true portability.
Until this happens, there will be fragmented proprietary solutions, which by definition, will not be the universal solution. Sigh.
Tip for FSF (Score:2)
That way we could sponsor them, which is good, and I also think we could all trust them.
Mats
Simple solution... (Score:2)
Keep it simple, keep it text (XML) and that's that. The problem is that every company wants to be the only company who works with their own stuff. Look at the hoars at Sony that butcher FireWire and their MemoryShaft^H^H^H^H^HStick. Look at MS and their protocals (MS-TCPIP, MSXML, MSHTML, MSJava!).
The answer is simple. Text. XML. The problem is the corporate hoars behind the product.
shared bookmarks?? (Score:2)
Hell I'm just waiting for someone to (re)invent a centralized bookmarks/cookies database for web browsing. I use Konq, Mozilla, and Lynx across two Linux machines, and Chimera, OmniWeb, and Lynx on a Mac OS X machine. I want them to share cookies, bookmarks, and wherever possible, auto form fill-ins, cookie blocking preferences, etc. Right now, I have one be the "master" browser (konq) and a bunch of homemade scripts duplicate the data on demand. How awful! What if I'm on Chimera and I want to add a bookmark?
I remember Netscape's roaming profiles but who knows where that is now. And I hear a future version of Mac OS X is going to use LDAP heavily throughout (dropping NetInfo), but that's uncertain. I think OmniWeb on OS X lets you use an arbitrary URL for your bookmarks file (but I haven't tried it, and it's probably read-only).
Maybe now that the browser wars seem to be starting up again, someone will think this through. I definitely DON'T want it on somebody else's machine, I just want to click a "share with other browsers" button somewhere on my own machine(s), and I want it to work across architectures and browsers.
(dot)Mac is not Convergence Technology... (Score:2)
(dot)Mac is merely an Internet-based services package. It's useful, but not wholly collaborative.
I'm sure that Windows developers can generate something for themselves, but I bet the Linux/OSS group can figure out a similar tool faster since Mac OS X is just a BSD variant.
I don't think I like the idea of storing my personal data on networks that Apple or Microsoft create, but iSync wouldn't be a problem with me since the data remains local to my devices.
Netscape had the beginnings of this... (Score:2)
All this is good, but what would be most useful is a cross-platorrm, cross-browser, cross-everything standard for bookmarks and address books.
Linux server, accessible via DSL (Score:2)
Getting a laptop helped with having my files available wherever I am. But, I still use multiple systems, so keeping all my data on my laptop wasn't good enough. The best solution for me was to keep everything in a network accessible location.
For some, a My Yahoo! account might be good enough. Online e-mail, address book, notes, pictures, bookmarks, all www accessible. But, only somewhat configurable, advertising based, and limited to what they implement.
I have instead centralized my data on my Linux server, which is remotely accessible via my DSL connection.
Some simple PHP scripts, and a MySQL back end make a great searchable bookmark storage. A WWW frontend to a calendaring system also stored in MySQL. WWW/PHP accessible e-mail accounts (with Spam Assassin filtering out the garbage, and the ability to create many e-mail addresses - one for each service I sign up for, so I can determine who gives my address to spammers), To-Do list in PHP/MySQL. Files could be centrally accessible via Samba or HTTP.
Add a firewall to control access, and VPN if you're really ambitious,and it works like a charm.
The only time I don't have my data is when I have no net access (which is becoming increasingly rare). For those occasions, I need to improve my data synch-ing processes for my Zaurus.
Shameless Plug (Score:3, Interesting)
It's tested with Konqueror, IE, and Mozilla, and is known to work with a number of Palm-based devices, including the Handspring Treo cellular phone.
pairwise synchronization (Score:2)
That, rather than the Soviet-style centralized identity management that Microsoft and Sun envision, is likely to be how identity information gets passed around: from a variety of source on a variety of devices.
I've already solved this... (Score:3, Interesting)
Centralized Webmail
Centralized Calendaring that I can share with my wife and theater company
Steaming Music that is granted by music profile, so I only share my music with people whom I would normally loan CDs to.
Centralized bookmarks with a convienant javascript link in my toolbar to add sites at home and at work.
The question is why did I have to develop this myself. I think this is the future. Why not take the idea of one of those router/webserver/firewalls a step further and make an all in one information box. You plug it into the network. You patch it. Why doesn't this exist?
My Services? (Score:2)
With this, any app can crud up your preferences (Score:3, Insightful)
Database people do this sort of thing all the time, by making the data superior to the application and forcing apps to work through a very rigid interface. The way to do this is probably to store the preferences in a relational database. Those things are well understood, scale up, and can be replicated. Apps would get to the database via SQL, as usual. It's not the latest buzzword-compliant technology, but it's well-understood.
Simple solution... (Score:2)
As others have pointed out, USB pocket drives are also a solution.
If nothing else, a 1.4 meg floppy is pretty universally accepted and can easily store more bookmarks than any normal person has.
These solutions are a little more difficult to work with than simply logging onto a server, but do allow for more security. Netscape, at least, allows you to find a profile on start-up.
The only question is if all version of Netscape will read different profiles (will the Mac version read one written in Windows)
XNS (Score:3, Informative)
Check out http://www.xns.org
"XNS is an open, XML-based protocol for identifying and linking any resource participating in any kind of digital transaction. You'll find the complete technical specifications on this site.
XNS provides a flexible, interoperable method for establishing and maintaining persistent digital identities and relationships between these identities. The protocol provides services for registering and resolving identity addresses, defining and managing XML identity documents, conducting and protecting identity transactions, and linking and synchronizing identity attributes."
Basically, store what you want, where you want, in an open format. As a public trust organization, they don't store your identity, they only proxy it. Store it with MS, with Apple, with your work, at home.
Problem's done been solved (Score:2)
Can't recall who sang it though. Let me check with my personal organizer, and I'll get back to you.
My Experience with Roaming Profiles (Score:2)
So, in my attempts to centralize all my data, I used Netscape 4.5+'s Roaming profiles, along with a website that provided roaming-profile service for free (hey, it's only a few kb for each user, why not a free service?)
So, this worked fine from my home system... It would save the settings, and I'd just have to type in my password when I opened Netscape for the first time.
So, then I try it from work... It's a bit of a hassle because I have to got to the commandline, then launch netscape with a commandline option, then type in all the account settings (server, path, type, username, password) each time I was going to use a browser... You never know when you're going to want to bookmark something.
So, then I check my e-mail! Of course my service was pop3, so it would only exist on the machine where I had downloaded it, so there were serious problems there. Even with the option to keep the message on the server, there was a serious ammount of inconsistency...
Additionally, because of the firewall settings, I had to use a different SMTP server when I was at work, than I used at home. So, the roaming profile didn't work too well if I wanted to reply at work, but I could at least read it in my spare time, and reply when I got home right?
So I found an IMAP e-mail service, and began using that. It was much less reliable, had a smaller quota, etc. Did I mention that IMAP was blocked by our firewall? So no roaming e-mail for me.
We're just getting started. After using the roaming profile server for a few week, I opened a sub-folder of my bookmarks to discover a bookmark called "Transfer Interupted"... I realized that upon one of the sync attempts, the bookmarks were half-transfered, when the connection dropped. The server and Netscape didn't complain, so that corrupted copy was then synced up, and eventually overwrote all my backup copies (I had apparently been using the corrupt bookmarks for some time).
Then the next problem came along... Mozilla was not going to include roaming profile support. So even if I had wanted to continue, I couldn't.
So, my solution was simply to send copies of all my reasonable important data to my home server on a weekly basis (from my workstation at work, from my handheld, etc). When there is a problem, it isn't too much of a hassle to copy it back manually.
First you need to force each company to use the same format for all the settings that matter. Then you need to make it forward compatible, so things you can't even imagine right now, can be accomodated as needed. Then you need some way to automatically keep all the devices in sync (a server) that everyone will be happy to all use.
Some times you just have to do these things manually.
Of course, don't quite understand what you want, or why you want it.
Encrypted (Score:2)
Easy... (Score:2)
The issues to address (Score:2)
The next problem is getting the devices to talk with each other in a standard langauge...but that is not going to happen. you have to have an engine that can translate between the different devices. Take recurring appointments. Palm can handle certain features, Lotus Notes others and Outllok still others. What happens when you try and keep them all in sync? You have to allow for all the different capabilities. Not easy.
Then you have supported platforms. Just how many contact lists do you keep? For me I have the following...Palm, PocketPC, SyncML Phone, Outlook, Yahoo!, Hotmail, Evolution. That's seven different places to keep in sync. Then there are the bookmarks. I use Mozilla, IE, PocketIE, Konqueror and AvanteGo on several machines. I have bookmarks scattered about all of them.
Then there is filtering. Do you really need all of that information on one device? No. I only want my personal stuff on my home PC but both on my work PC.
PS: When I say device I mean a data point. I.e Outlook is a device Lotus Notes is one, A Palm is one, etc.
PPS: If someone says just stick it all online and access when you need it; Wake up. When you are 100 miles from the nearest cell tower and you don't have coverage...thats when you want access the data that you have only stored online.
Web Based Bookmarking (Score:2, Informative)
You can find a list of web based bookmarking systems here [webwizards.net].
Application Configuration Access Protocol - ACAP (Score:2)
Universally roaming slashdot profile (Score:2)
First you should solve the problem with Slashdot, which does not allow you to delete your account [slashdot.org] for example - and does not even mention this during the registration process. Next time when you decide to accept a submission related to YRO [slashdot.org], first fix your own violations.
Doesn't anyone read things before flaming? (Score:3, Insightful)
For instance, lets say that I want your medical records. I would go to the central registry and make a request. The central registry would reply that the information is stored at, say, the Mayo Clinic. I would still have to go there and jump through whatever hoops they present to actually get the data.
The definite good thing about this is that if you decide that you don't want to use the Mayo Clinic for some reason (poor security policies, impersonal staff, whatever), then you can designate John Hopkins, and future requests will be transparently routed there instead.
The potentially good thing is that the central redirector could implement its own security policies. For example, medical info requests should only be forwarded if they come from someone with a certificate signed by an appropriate authority (i.e. ama-assn.org and/or amerchiro.org).
The process would work a lot like DNS. In fact, I don't see any reason why the central server couldn't be distributed in a manner similar to DNS servers.