Each nation will not have it's own energy source. The energy is global. It is global due to the way the world economy is. The economy is extremely global and inter-dependant. The idea of "nation" is going to be outdated before too long (20+ years).
There will be a few companies that will be in controll of whatever new energy source(s) there is(are). These companies will become the OPEC of tomarrow, except instead of nations being the constituents it will be massive corporations. Each one with sub-companies that speciallize in dealing with the laws of specific countries or regions.
The way I see it is this: Passport is trying to be "the" authentication server of the future of computing, and this is dangerous.
Look at the current (*nix) system. For clients (ie. users and their programs) to get access to devices, or make use of the services provided by another user's programs, they have to be authenticated somehow (I'm not incredibly knowledgeable on authentication/security) using the centrally located passwd/shadow file in/etc.
Now... fast forward to the future (== zoom out to the internet). Personal computers will be a sort of "agent" for their owner (see the article "The Semantic Web" in the May 2001 issue of Scientific American), along with portable devices. These will need an authentication server that spans the entire network, seeing as "The Network is the Computer."
There is where the danger lies. Microsoft is the only commercial entity in position to controll this authentication server--using passport. And the only other entity in existance that has a chance to create this server is the open source community. There is proof of that in the very existance of the internet itself.
If Microsoft can get a large number of open source developers (or just influencial entities such as Ximian) using.NET, the likelyhood of all those open source developers using Passport/Hailstorm is high. This is because of our hatred for "re-creating the wheel," or just our love for software re-use. This is very bad, because Microsoft will then have taken all the competing developers away from any competition that might have otherwise come to be.
I believe.NET is good, and will enable the next generation of networked computing. I also believe that Microsoft knows this, and intends to use its new found "openness" to attract it's only competition (open source developers) to work on.NET, and thereby prevent these same developers from creating a free and open alternative that will allow people to use computers as they see fit.
I urge Ximian, if not some other group, to begin creating the alternative to Passport/Haistorm.
Slashdot Mirror
I tried their site when there was 1 comment and it was slashdot'ed. I still can't get in!
Each nation will not have it's own energy source. The energy is global. It is global due to the way the world economy is. The economy is extremely global and inter-dependant. The idea of "nation" is going to be outdated before too long (20+ years).
There will be a few companies that will be in controll of whatever new energy source(s) there is(are). These companies will become the OPEC of tomarrow, except instead of nations being the constituents it will be massive corporations. Each one with sub-companies that speciallize in dealing with the laws of specific countries or regions.
The way I see it is this: Passport is trying to be "the" authentication server of the future of computing, and this is dangerous.
/etc.
.NET, the likelyhood of all those open source developers using Passport/Hailstorm is high. This is because of our hatred for "re-creating the wheel," or just our love for software re-use. This is very bad, because Microsoft will then have taken all the competing developers away from any competition that might have otherwise come to be.
.NET is good, and will enable the next generation of networked computing. I also believe that Microsoft knows this, and intends to use its new found "openness" to attract it's only competition (open source developers) to work on .NET, and thereby prevent these same developers from creating a free and open alternative that will allow people to use computers as they see fit.
Look at the current (*nix) system. For clients (ie. users and their programs) to get access to devices, or make use of the services provided by another user's programs, they have to be authenticated somehow (I'm not incredibly knowledgeable on authentication/security) using the centrally located passwd/shadow file in
Now... fast forward to the future (== zoom out to the internet). Personal computers will be a sort of "agent" for their owner (see the article "The Semantic Web" in the May 2001 issue of Scientific American), along with portable devices. These will need an authentication server that spans the entire network, seeing as "The Network is the Computer."
There is where the danger lies. Microsoft is the only commercial entity in position to controll this authentication server--using passport. And the only other entity in existance that has a chance to create this server is the open source community. There is proof of that in the very existance of the internet itself.
If Microsoft can get a large number of open source developers (or just influencial entities such as Ximian) using
I believe
I urge Ximian, if not some other group, to begin creating the alternative to Passport/Haistorm.
Just my 2 cents...