Coding Horror: Your Internet Driver's License

Post by masklinn » Wed, Nov 24, 2010, 9:38 PM UTC

kleiba wrote: post #85

arethuza wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not everyone had a drivers license or a passport - so they wanted everyone to have a separate ID card. Generally, having a formal ID has only been required in the UK during dire emergencies (i.e. World Wars) and contrary to what the government of the time thought we are not in the middle of such a crisis.

Every German older than 16 is required by law to have an ID card or passport. As of November 2010, ID cards carry RFID chips with the same data that's written on the card plus an optional fingerprint. Passports have had the chip for a while already, but the fingerprint is mandatory there. Driver's licenses are not considered a valid means of identification outside traffic.

Post by epochwolf » Wed, Nov 24, 2010, 9:58 PM UTC

billpaetzke wrote: post #78

akmiller wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the hell is a social security card if not a national ID card. Unique number assigned to each american citizen and you are forced to have it.

I (and most others that I know) don't carry a social security card. There's virtually no need for it in daily life. If you even know where yours is, it's probably sitting next to your birth certificate in a drawer. But we all know our number by memory.

Post by Jach » Thu, Nov 25, 2010, 12:57 AM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #92

jasonkester wrote: post #22

Driver'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…

> If you had an Internet Driver's License, it would be your email address. You always have that with you at all times. You take a test to get an email address, have to wait until 16 for the privilege and it can be almost arbitrarily revoked?

Post by masklinn » Thu, Nov 25, 2010, 7:54 AM UTC

Jach wrote: post #95

masklinn wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you had an Internet Driver's License, it would be your email address. You always have that with you at all times. You take a test to get an email address, have to wait until 16 for the privilege and it can be almost arbitrarily revoked?

Well, yes. You have to prove you're not a robot by passing a CAPTCHA test, many places (including Gmail) "require" you to be over 13, and from Google's TOS: 13.3 Google may at any time, terminate its legal agreement with you if: So I think the metaphor fits quite nicely, don't you?

Post by nightshowerer » Sat, Nov 27, 2010, 9:15 PM UTC

rmc wrote: post #25

patio11 wrote: post #2

I 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.