Category Archives: Uncategorized

Ticket websites and OpenID

I just spent 30 minutes buying plane tickets on a well-known travel website. Selecting the right tickets took less than 2 minutes. Logging in and making the actual purchase took the other 28. This included, among other things, trying the 43 different possible username/password combinations I might have used, trying to retrieve my password via email, getting frustrated and giving up and creating a new account, getting irritated at the restrictions on what I can make my username (which is, I presume, the reason I forgot what username I used the first time), finally creating an account with a username I’m almost guaranteed to forget by the next time, and which is now unlinked from my existing travel history, and FINALLY buying a ticket.

(And that doesn’t count the 5 minutes spent writing this rant!)

And, really, the only reason I was even able to create a new account at all is that I have multiple email addresses. Folks with only one email address would simply have been told, no, you can’t do that, there’s already an account associated with that email address. Continue with the guessing game. Neener neener.

Why?

Why can’t there be a decent authentication architecture that doesn’t take lengthy how-to’s to explain how to use them? And Sam’s is one of the best howto’s out there on this topic, and it’s STILL way too complicated for normal people to use. My mom is one of the most tech-savvy people I know, of her generation, and I”m reasonably certain that she would be confused by the end of the second paragraph. I can follow the article through, but I’m just not sure I can be bothered – it’s way too complicated, and it’s not widely enough supported to be worth the effort.

Yes, I know that this is a difficult problem. Quite frankly, I don’t care. There are really smart people in the world, and the first time I heard a talk about this problem at a tech conference was more than 5 years ago. Surely SOMEONE can solve this problem?!

It’s simply absurd that 15 years into this WWW thing I still have to create a new account EVERY time I want to buy a plane ticket, simply because there’s absolutely no way I’m going to remember the 12 accounts I’ve already created.

Ready to be anchored

Anchored
There comes a time at every conference when, as great as the conference is, I’m ready to get back home, ready to be anchored again.

Lately, that has come rather earlier than it once did, due to the many good reasons to be home. This time, in fact, although I’ve greatly enjoyed the conference, there are a litany of reasons that I’d rather be home this week. Fortunately, people on both sides of the ocean understand the ambivalence, and it doesn’t mean that either one is valued less. Frustrating, though.

ApacheCon EU 2008 so far

I invariably get to these conferences and then don’t have the time or inclination to keep a running commentary. This one is no different. There have been a few really good talks, but mostly, it has been really good conversations, meeting people that I either hadn’t met before, or hadn’t spoken with in way too long.

Highlights so far include:

Meeting Ivan Ristic of mod_security. He was scheduled to come to ApacheCon Stuttgart, and then was unable to, due to real life getting in the way, as it so often does. It was great to finally meet him, and his talk was fabulous. I’ve often said about my own talks that it’s all stuff that’s in the docs, so why do people come. I’m sure that everything Ivan talked about is in the docs, but his talk was amazingly valuable anyway, since it showed me things in one hour that would probably have taken me months to discover. And I’ve been using mod_security for years already, and wasn’t aware of them, or didn’t quite understand the syntax. Did you know that mod_security 2.5 lets you write rules in Lua? Crazy.

Speaking with Andrew Ford. I met him first in London in 2000, and I’m not sure if I’ve spoken with him since then. Certainly not more than a handful of times. He’s the author of Apache Pocket Reference – a great book, but greatly out of date. The cover proclaim that it covers Apache 1.3.12! Andrew is working on a new edition, which is truly good news for Apache httpd administrators. And we can hope to see Andrew on the documentation list in the coming months, which is also good news.

After hours dinners and chats have been fantastic across the board. Reconnecting with people that I only see for one or two weeks a year is always a highlight of ApacheCon.

But, as usual by this time in the week, I’m definitely ready to get back home, so there’s this tension between really wanting to be here, and really wanting to be home. Good, both directions.

Thanks, Ken

It occurred to me yesterday that this is only the second ApacheCon that Ken Coar has missed, since the very beginning. Including the one in 1998. If one doesn’t count the one in 1998, I’ve been to every one. (EDIT: Danese just reminded me that he missed Atlanta, too. For some reason, I thought he showed up briefly for Atlanta, but I remember now that he was in Moscow at the time.)

Ken was the conference committee chairman from the very first official ASF conference, in Orlando, in 2000. (The one in 1998 was put on by another company – CNET possibly? I forget.)

Ken got me involved in ApacheCon back in early 2000 by encouraging me to submit a talk, when I was pretty sure that I had nothing to talk about. I gave an “Introduction to the Apache Web Server” then, and have spoken at every ApacheCon since then, as well as having opportunities to speak at OSCon, LinixWorld, Comdex, Open Source Forum Moscow, ApacheCon Sri Lanka, PHP|Tek, Ohio LinuxFest, and others.

I’ve mentioned before, in various venues, how everything that I’ve managed to do over the last 15 years, and the amazing opportunities that I’ve had, are due to the great people that I’ve met in that time, who have encouraged me to do things that I knew I wasn’t competent to do.

Ken Coar, more than any one person, has opened opportunities to me that I would otherwise not have had. And, on top of all that, he’s a good friend, and showed up for my wedding. I could not adequately express the respect and gratefulness I have for this fine gentleman, and how grateful I am to his Significantly Better Half for sharing him with the rest of the world.

Thanks, Ken.

Amsterdam

Arrived. Photos from my window.

Didn’t sleep much on the plane, due to the unabated natter of a very loud woman sitting right behind me. Got a little nap, but still feel rather bleh.

Going to try to walk around a bit, see some things. I suppose I should wait for Chris, but I can’t get his attention.