Isn't the point of asking you to provide some credentials for a new site usually so they can use that contact info to push products at you in the future? An internet driver's license (and OpenID) defeat those purposes.
Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
21–30 of 101 posts
Re: Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
#22Driver's License is the wrong metaphor for OpenID. If you had an Internet Driver's License, it would be your email address. You always have that with you at all times.
OpenID is more like a Von's Club card. An inconvenient scrap of plastic that would just take up space in my wallet so it gets left at home. Every time I go into a Vons, I have to ask the cashier for a new one and it pisses me off that little bit, just like every time I go to StackOverflow I need to dig though my email to figure out what OpenID provider I used to sign up for my account there.
Just like the Grocery Store Discount card, where I find myself more driving out of my way to go to a store that doesn't make me use one, I generally don't bother with sites that want me to dig out my OpenID just to use them.
Re: Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
#23tl;dr: Jeff Atwood says websites should offer OpenID or OAuth authentication. edit: ok, the sarcasm in this comment may justify it being downvoted, but can someone kindly explain what is being said in this article apart from: "having many logins/passwords for each site is not nice, we should all support OpenID/OAuth"? Because I really don't see any other piece of information.
Take this with a pinch of salt, because I didn't downvote your comment, but your comment doesn't add anything to the article. It's just noise and doesn't advance discussion.
Re: Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have multiple problems with this answer. The first is practical: you are not qualified to run OpenID on your server. Really, you're not. I'm not and I have actually implemented both OpenID providers and Relying Parties for clients before, at the old day job. If you run OpenID, you are exposed to every threat your OpenID provider is currently vulnerable to in perpetuity , unless you make it your mission in life to s…
I'm getting some cognitive dissonance here, since the grandparent says [I] use delegation and you say not to run your own server and to use delegation... Anyway, is delegation going to get better, or should I not bother setting it up and just stick to using the same password for all my non-interesting sites? In particular, is it the site I delegate to, or the site I am authenticating myself to, or both, that can scre…
Sorry, that confusion was my fault: I posted the first line of my reply, and then realised I should mention delegation, so I edited it in. He must have loaded the page between the two.
Re: Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
#25I am not sanguine on the idea, but the marketing for the idea is beyond terrible. The IDL is a leaky abstraction because the most salient features of drivers licenses are a) you have to apply to the government to get one, b) the government can take yours away with as much ease as they can do anything else, and c) if you lose your license, you will be denied the ability to use one or more critical goods/services (driv…
Perhaps a more accurate metaphore would be "Internet Passport". Government's can't take it away and it has no real entitlements. However Jeff Atwood is from the USA which has a strangley low number of passport holders. Perhaps they are used to using a driving licence instead of passport as general ID.
Re: Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
#26tl;dr: Jeff Atwood says websites should offer OpenID or OAuth authentication. edit: ok, the sarcasm in this comment may justify it being downvoted, but can someone kindly explain what is being said in this article apart from: "having many logins/passwords for each site is not nice, we should all support OpenID/OAuth"? Because I really don't see any other piece of information.
Take this with a pinch of salt, because I didn't downvote your comment, but your comment doesn't add anything to the article. It's just noise and doesn't advance discussion.
Fair enough. I guess the merit of this article is to create the opportunity for this discussion.
Reminds me of someone (can't really find who now) who said a few months ago that HN is like going out for a movie and a dinner. The value of it isn't really the movie and the dinner, but the opportunity of discussions it creates.
So... yeah :)
Re: Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
#27I am not sanguine on the idea, but the marketing for the idea is beyond terrible. The IDL is a leaky abstraction because the most salient features of drivers licenses are a) you have to apply to the government to get one, b) the government can take yours away with as much ease as they can do anything else, and c) if you lose your license, you will be denied the ability to use one or more critical goods/services (driv…
Perhaps a more accurate metaphore would be "Internet Passport". Government's can't take it away and it has no real entitlements. However Jeff Atwood is from the USA which has a strangley low number of passport holders. Perhaps they are used to using a driving licence instead of passport as general ID.
Why we can't just call it "Internet Identity?"
Re: Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
#28I am not sanguine on the idea, but the marketing for the idea is beyond terrible. The IDL is a leaky abstraction because the most salient features of drivers licenses are a) you have to apply to the government to get one, b) the government can take yours away with as much ease as they can do anything else, and c) if you lose your license, you will be denied the ability to use one or more critical goods/services (driv…
I believe the term "license" itself is completely inappropriate for personal identities.
Re: Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
#29I am not sanguine on the idea, but the marketing for the idea is beyond terrible. The IDL is a leaky abstraction because the most salient features of drivers licenses are a) you have to apply to the government to get one, b) the government can take yours away with as much ease as they can do anything else, and c) if you lose your license, you will be denied the ability to use one or more critical goods/services (driv…
Perhaps a more accurate metaphore would be "Internet Passport". Government's can't take it away and it has no real entitlements. However Jeff Atwood is from the USA which has a strangley low number of passport holders. Perhaps they are used to using a driving licence instead of passport as general ID.
I imagine this is why Microsoft's Live ID was originally called Passport.
Re: Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License
#30Driver's License is the wrong metaphor for OpenID. If you had an Internet Driver's License, it would be your email address. You always have that with you at all times. OpenID is more like a Von's Club card. An inconvenient scrap of plastic that would just take up space in my wallet so it gets left at home. Every time I go into a Vons, I have to ask the cashier for a new one and it pisses me off that little bit, just…
Just a convenience note - you can associate multiple OpenIDs with your StackOverflow account, which might save you remembering which one you used.