Sickening shilling for MS by Ontario privacy commissioner

[JoeHill]

On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 08:58:36 -0400
David J Patrick got an infinite number of monkeys to type out:

> > This is what it all comes down to?
> well, no, but in following the research trail, left by our esteemed
> colleague, I see that the proposed solution is based on a simple,
> existing, open standard, platform agnostic, and might actually work.
> Microsoft Vistas identacard implementation is just that; one vendors
> approach that is designed from the ground up to interact with any
> other vendors implementation.

Actually, what I was addressing was the final 'conclusion' of the paper, that
we're entering a wonderful new world of...uh, buying stuff. Yay.

At least that's the sense I got. The technical part is all well and good, it's
how it ends up being used that concerns me, and, I believe, a lot of others.
 
> >
> > "There is an improvement I want to see, and it's something only Independent
> > Identities can produce. I want anybody to be able to pay for anything on a
> > voluntary basis, because I believe the voluntary ability to pay whatever one
> > wants is at the heart of a free and open marketplace.
> One OpenID design touchstone is to allow "anybody to pay anybody using
> any method". It shuns the "vendor-centric ID silo" in favour of a
> broadly distributed system where I have maximal control of my data.

Here I was quoting the article, that's not me talkin' ;) I *mostly* grok what
Kim has come up with, and no, I certainly do not take away from its brilliance
simply because he works for MS. See below.
 
> > I also believe we haven't experienced that power since the Industrial
> > Revolution put huge suppliers in charge, even of democratic governments. We
> > certainly haven't had it since the invention of the price tag."
> I see that and it seems the champions of OpenID (not just MS) do too.

Again, yer answering my quote from the article, not me. Shoulda made that
plainer. This is my concern...

This sounds just too much to me like handing waaaaay too many mechanisms for
exploiting the Internet for $ to private enterprise, but then I've been called
a 'commie' before, so...
 
> > Oh yeah, excellent idea. And just how long do you think the 'voluntary'
> > part is going to last? Let's put all this technology to work so we can put a
> > price tag on *everything*.
> Everything already has a pricetag, and sometimes it's $0.

Uh Huh, and for how long? We're talking Bill Gates here, the guy that referred
to people who were against software patents as 'Communists'. How many times has
MS tried to take as its own, so-called 'open standards'? How many times have
they tried to sneak in and grab what isn't theirs?
 
> > Why should we even begin to trust Microsoft's involvement in any of this,
> > despite the 'brilliance' of people like Kim?
> In broad strokes, we shouldn't trust them. Their history of deceit,
> backstabbing and monopoly-making is unparalleled, but in this case it
> seems as though they've hired someone with enough vision to realize
> that a proprietary solution for ID will be utterly unacceptable, and
> therefor impossible to implement. If Kims goals are broadly inclusive,
> OSS-aware and acceptable to both Doc Searles and Dave Winer, I breath
> easier.

Yes, Kim's 'vision' is brilliant, but how long before MS decides what came out
of that brilliance, and all associated technologies, belong to them? Kim won't
have a say in that.

I guess this is what it comes down to for me: Doc Searles' dreamy vision of
Microsoft playing nice with all the other kids is pushed as 'realistic',
whereas us 'Linux Fan Boys', who see 'Microsoft' and 'Privacy' and 'Security'
in the same sentence and go 'Whoa!' are written off as crazies.

It's a mixed up world, that's for sure. But, if *you're* breathing easier, I
guess I will too :)

Be keepin' my eyes on those suckers, tho, as always.

-- 
JoeHill / RLU #282046
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Are you all right?" -Leela "Ah, it's nothing a a law suit won't cure." -Bender
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists