SSL: How to Choose a Certificate Authority

lessthan0 writes "Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the backbone of e-commerce on the web. It is the protocol used to encrypt communications between a web browser and web server, though it can also be used for other applications. To use SSL on your own web server, you often need to deal with an external company called a certificate authority (CA). Three major considerations come into play when choosing a CA: trust, audience, and cost."

Comments

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[brandor]

Has anyone noticed that all >> 4 of the articles on that website have made it to /.? Kinda makes you think. (I'm not 100% sure all of them have and I'm too lazy to check, but I think I've seen them all on /.)

[OT]: fonts too small

[digitect]

The new SlashDot skin fonts are way too small. The site looks like a rookie implementation where testing was only done on Internet Explorer on a laptop screen. (IE has an errant default font size that is larger than spec, lower res users prefer smaller font sizes.)

However, given that this site is supposed to be by and for the technically sophisticated, I would have expected that at least somebody would have opened it in Firefox on a 1600x1200 screen before making it live.

You can solve the whole problem with a simple dynamic CSS mechanism:

include("PHPClientSniffer.php"); // as found in http://cream.sourceforge.net/beta/
$is = new sniffer;
if ($is->NAME == "IE") {
$font_size_large = "small";
$font_size_medium = "x-small";
$font_size_small = "xx-small";
$font_size_xsmall = "xxx-small";
$font_size_xxsmall = "xxx-small";
}
else {
$font_size_large = "large";
$font_size_medium = "medium";
$font_size_small = "small";
$font_size_xsmall = "x-small";
$font_size_xxsmall = "xx-small";
}

Then, in your stylesheet (css.php), do:

P,BR {
font-size: small; // redundant with below, for static viewing
<?php echo "font-size: $font_size_small" ?>;
}

And, yes, I know that delivering content based on user agent is a hack and defies the whole point of CSS, but if web designers insist on forcing font sizes, at least acknowledge that we don't all use broken browsers.

Re:Mac certificate configuration

[cyberbian]

This is even more interesting in light of the undocumented TPM implementation currently being rushed out to all new Mac customers. In light of the functionality of TPM you must recognize that the Transitive Trusts it sets up implies that your shiny new Intel iMac, Macbook (Pro), and mini core solo trusts these domains listed in your keychain more than you might think. Microsoft intends to use WMI to remotely manage machines with TPMs for enterprise use, how far would other domains that are trusted go to administer your data? Don't believe me? Compare and contrast Disk Utility on an older Apple Macintosh product (i.e. PPC) v. a new Intel Mac, you'll find one is 'ownership enabled' and the other is not. Exactly who 'owns' your harddrive in a TPM Mac? Why all the domains trusted by you (via keychain) AND what's better, given Transitive Trust, it ALSO includes ANYONE that those domains trust as well, and so on, and so on, and so on...