Category Archives: General

A Love Letter to J.K. Rowling

Posted on 7/31/2011 by

For me, it all ended — magnificently — in the cozy confines of the Empire Theatre on Block Island, RI. Having raised our two boys reading Harry Potter books out loud, and seeing several of the movies on various July … Continue reading →

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The Personal Cloud, Take 2

Posted on 2/12/2011 by

There’s been a wonderful discussion of “personal cloud” on the VRM mailing list this week. So far feedback is running about 80% positive on the term. But if there’s one point on which everyone has consensus, it’s that our collective … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Personal Cloud, Personal Data Ecosystem, Personal Data Server, Personal Data Service, Personal Data Store | 2 Comments

The Personal Cloud

Posted on 2/7/2011 by

The hallmark of a rapidly growing new space is new terminology. Craig Burton goes so far as to posit that the growth of the space will be constrained until it has a lexicon that successfully incorporates its key concepts. All … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Personal Cloud, Personal Data Ecosystem, Personal Data Server, Personal Data Service, Personal Data Store, Social Web | 24 Comments

kd lang: Hallelujah

Posted on 3/18/2010 by

I’ve been meaning to say this on my blog ever since the opening ceremonies in Vancouver. But since I just had the chance to recreate the experience on the Web, let me say it loud and clear for the record: … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Comments on the Google account problem

Posted on 2/13/2010 by

First, my apologies to everyone who commented on Fixing the Google Account Problem. For some reason WordPress stopped notifying me about comment approval (I’m using Akismet but I still find the majority of comments that get through it are spam, … Continue reading →

Posted in Accounts, General | 1 Comment

The Incredible Internet Answer Machine #2

Posted on 2/10/2010 by

I receive an email from a friend: Drummond, As my Word expert, how do I turn off the “balloon” captioning of redline changes? I think, “Good question. I have no idea. I’ve often wondered that myself.” I’m about to start … Continue reading →

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The Incredible Internet Answer Machine

Posted on 2/6/2010 by

I know reams have been written about “are we all getting dumber because the Internet is getting smarter?” But still, it does take my breath away, almost every day. In another one for the “new heights of irony” file: I … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Fixing the Google Account problem

Posted on 1/24/2010 by

Every so often you experience a technical problem you can’t find any information about and which takes you forever to solve. Then, after you finally solve it, you are left scratching your head saying, “I don’t get it­—there must be … Continue reading →

Posted in Accounts, General, Privacy | 115 Comments

Sincerely, John Hughes

Posted on 8/8/2009 by

Someday I’ll tell the rest of the story about why I’m posting the following link. But for right now, let me just recommend you read it. I was never particularly close to John Hughes movies — though I did like … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Star Trek: See It

Posted on 5/7/2009 by

One advantage of having a 13-year old son is that you have an excuse to go see a summer blockbuster movie on the very first night it comes out. I never did that as a kid, which is one reason … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

Eric Norlin on Conferences Vs. Trade Shows

Posted on 4/29/2009 by

Having just been to RSA, which is the essence of a trade show, and being about to go to Gluecon, which I’m hoping will be the essence of a conference, I find the distinction between conferences and trade shows that … Continue reading →

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Here comes the next Internet Identity Workshop

Posted on 3/9/2009 by

Spring is around the corner and that means IIW. The next one is May 18-20 in the standard location: the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Early registration is particularly important this year – 75 registrations are needed by the … Continue reading →

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Sensemaking Series on Internet Identity

Posted on 2/28/2009 by

If you need to understand Internet identity quickly and at a deeper level than you can glean from blog posts and trade journals, but don’t want to hire a dedicated consultant, Eugene Kim’s Blue Oxen Associates has a great answer: … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Bob Blakley's Relationship Layer Paper Now Freely Available

Posted on 2/12/2009 by

I made a long post about it when Bob first presented it at IIW and then the Burton Catalyst conference last June. Now anyone can get it here. See also Bob’s commentary on its evolution here. Highly recommended for understanding … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, General, R-Cards, Relationship cards | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Eran's Status Report on Discovery

Posted on 12/5/2008 by

Something else so good I just have to blog it: Eran Hammer-Lahav‘s Discovery Coordination Report on the new metadata-discovery list he set up. Eran’s turning into a one-man hub of all things discovery as he drives forward together with the … Continue reading →

Posted in General, XRD, XRDS, XRI, Yadis | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Bikeshedding

Posted on 12/5/2008 by

I love this word — and it’s meaning — so much I just had to post this after David Recordon used it in an OpenID general list post and gave the following attribution. Should be part of every techie’s daily … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 1 Comment

XRD Begins

Posted on 11/30/2008 by

For most people, watching the evolution of technical specifications is like watching a glacier move. To those of us living the process, though, there can be a great deal of drama to it — in fact it’s much more like … Continue reading →

Posted in General, OpenID, XRD, XRDS, XRI, Yadis | 3 Comments

Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist

Posted on 11/15/2008 by

Whenever I find myself recommending a book more than two or three times, it’s easier to just put a link here and point people at it. It’s definitely time to do that for Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist. It’s … Continue reading →

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Now We Will

Posted on 11/4/2008 by

I don’t think I’ve ever made a political post in this blog, but tonight is an exception. We’ve never had an election like this. In my lifetime, I’ve never seen one man and his family and his campaign have such … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, General | Tagged | 2 Comments

Firefox, Are You Listening?

Posted on 9/26/2008 by

Pam Dingle has a wonderful suggestion about how Firefox should proceed with automatic updates. Those of us building identity selector technology that integrates closely with browsers need stable browsers to work with. That’s always tough after a major release, but … Continue reading →

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