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To: Eric L who wrote (15383)	9/29/2001 9:33:06 AM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 34857

re: Liberty Alliance - No Tirkey Shoot for the Beast >> Friends of Sun Rally for Passport-killer Andrew Orlowski San Francisco The register 26/09/2001 Sun has been hinting for weeks that it's rustling up support for an alternative to Microsoft's version of single-sign-on for web transactions, and it went public today. The Liberty Alliance Project's mission is quite a mouthful: to create "an open, federated solution for network identity - enabling ubiquitous single sign-on, decentralized authentication and open authorization from any device connected to the internet, from traditional desktop computers and cellular phones through to TVs, automobiles, credit cards and point-of-sale terminals." The initial roster of "charter members" is interesting: it includes none of Sun's server infrastructure rivals (IBM, Fujitsu-Siemens and Hewlett Paqard are missing, along with the PC OEM crowd) but has an impressive roster of wireless and cellular manufacturers: numbering handset manufacturers (Nokia and Sony), carriers (Sprint, Vodafone, Cingular) and NTT DoCoMo which is both. Smartcard manufacturers including Schlumberger and Gemplus are there, and a few Sun customers who we imagine thought they were signing up for a Free! Prize Draw! of some kind. Most interesting on the list is the presence of O'Reilly, Apache Group and Collab.net: they're recruited as conscience-keepers, we guess. The strong roster of phone interests indicates that Sun recognises that the payment platform is likely to involve a smartphone, not a PC. With smartphones set to outnumber PCs at some point in the next decade, that's a good bet. Even without Sun's server rivals, there's enough of the wireless lobby signed on (no pun intended) to give the initiative momentum. If the announcement looks like it was hurried out, we suspect it was. Until a couple of hours ago spokesmen were stonewalling enquiries on the Charter List membership, after IDG had gotten an advanced copy. And some of the web pages are still titled "Liberty Template". Quite what technology is to be used is up for grabs, but it's likely to be Java-based given Sun's role in the group's creation, and religiously standards-based: anything else would provide The Beast with a turkey shoot. At Santa Clara three weeks ago, we spent much of the morning haranguing Greg Papadopoulos and Marge Breya that Sun's web services pitch was essentially meaningless without an open, industry-standard single-sign on. And this delivers that. Or at least, is the best chance of such an alternative to Passport. So why aren't we deliriously happy? Well, there's little emphasis so far on privacy. The word appears once in the 979 word FAQ, five words from the end. And privacy is central to consumer acceptance of any kind of digital ID: without essential privacy guarantees the digital ID that Project Liberty requires becomes a back door to all kinds of database pooling - by marketing departments and governments - that isn't possible today. It could even, if we aren't vigilant, become your token for digital content as envisaged by Senator Hollings' SSSCA. But it's early days as we say, and apparently it's not too late to change the name, either. The Liberty Alliance Project sounds like one of those fringe libertarian nut websites that are entirely written using huge blinking Times fonts, that advocate legalising smack and helping protect the unborn by issuing them with handguns. "Liberty is a code name for this formative initiative," says the press release. << - Eric -

To: Eric L who wrote (15383)	9/29/2001 11:06:30 PM
From: S100	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 34857

GSM in US (left coast in particular) I go past the local Cingular store and the local VZ store frequently. I seldom see any one in the Cingular store except the salespeople ( one or two, all by themselves; in about 20 trips by the store, I have seen about two customers, at least they seemed to be since they were on the outside of counter), the VZ store usually has a line of people waiting for the 4 or 5 salespeople. Would this explain it? angelfire.com angelfire.com snip One of Cingular's biggest pitches is the "Unlimited Nights and Weekends" offer. According to Cingular, the customer is allowed to make an unlimited amount of calls between the hours of 8:00 pm to 6:59 am and all day Saturday and Sunday without any airtime minutes being deducted from his or her calling plan. While the offer sounds very attractive, there is a slight catch. Cingular touted this plan so effectively that many customers signed up because of this added bonus. Unfortunatly, Cingular lacked the foresight to build enough cell sites to accomodate the heavy usage during the forementioned time. As a result, whenever you try to make a call after 8:00 pm, your phone will most likely give you a "System Busy" message and your call will not go through. On average, it takes about 10-15 redials before the call will go through and even then you still stand a good chance of having the call dropped due to heavy usage. Additionally, anyone who tries to call you will be automatically forwarded to your voicemail, another feature you will be unable to access for two reasons: Heavy usage during the off-peak "Unlimited" hours, rendering your phone almost totally useless. Cingular does not allow its customers to access their voicemail on any other line other than the cell phone to which the voicemail belongs to. So say for instance, you are at work and forgot your cell phone at home but would like to check your messages... too bad. Cingular says they do it "for your protection," but it also seems like a good way to ensure that they don't lose the ability to charge you for every minute they possibly can. In the six months that I've had my phone with Cingular, I have called repeatedly to find out when they plan on having enough cell sites built to accomodate the heavy usage but they never give me any tentative dates or direct answers. One customer service manager even went so far as to tell me that they have stopped advertising the "Unlimited Nights and Weekends" offer as vigorously as they previously had because of all the problems it has caused. However, a few days later, I heard two commercials for it on the radio and I still see advertisements plastered all over their website and in the newspapers. snip All carriers seem to be offering lots of time nights and weekends. I use VZ and Sprint, have yet to get a busy signal when I want to make a call.