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To: Enam Luf who wrote (4378)	10/27/1998 10:43:00 PM
From: Harold Lehman	Respond to of 11417

It sounded very much like Mr. Sprague was talking about a portable Embassy chip, although he did not use the words "Embassy chip" when referring to this. You realize that one of the next waves of computing will be hand-held devices with loads of funtionalities. He was definitely referring to a "secure portable device." This will be able to be used from remote locations, and the computer is carried with you. I hope they publish a transcript of that conference call. Harold

To: Enam Luf who wrote (4378)	10/28/1998 1:59:00 AM
From: Marty Lee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11417

So that's what "portable" means? >>> by "portable" i meant that if the chip is hardwired into a computer and contains your ecommerce info and security, then you are the only one who can use that computer for that purpose. Whereas a smartcard can be used on any computer, as long as it has a reader. The info on the chip is specific to the device on which it is stored whereas a smartcard is particular to the user, allowing greater flexibility. <<<<< ............. Enam Luf "I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't - till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'" "But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected. "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all." A little discourse on nominalism from Lewis Carroll. I believe Lewis was a "blue-collar intellectual" of a sorts too. <g> Just having fun.. Marty

To: Enam Luf who wrote (4378)	10/28/1998 3:44:00 AM
From: Paul Schmidt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11417

Enam, You say that a smart card can be used on any computer as long as there is a reader. I think that was very much on the minds of the companies that were involved today. At the beginning of October there was an news article on C/net portending an announcement "in 2-3 weeks" by HP of installing a smart card reader into PCs, which I had wanted to post here, but it seemed a bit of a stretch to hope that it would be our Wavemeter. I now believe that article was referring to this announcement. Also, I think Sun's intention with it's involvement on this announcement is very much towards promoting it's Javacard OS ahead of Microsoft's OS for smart cards. The beauty is, Wave would benefit from this race to develop portable solutions. More volume of transactions. I think most of us overestimate what the current and immediate future generation of smartcards can actually do. There is still very limited memory on smartcards, and the more functions ie layers of security you can offload onto a "trusted" reader, the more memory is available for applications, the simpler the card becomes, and cheaper. That was how cards worked until now. Plugging your card into the bank's OTM you are interacting with a trusted reader. How else than in this manner could a trusted reader be created at home? I think the point is that this development identifies the computer to the other side in the transaction, not the person. By means of secure software it should now be easy to create different accounts, or allow different SC users to use the computer ie the SC would now simply have to carry the persons Wave account number and identifying details. The card would not have to do any metering. For example, in future you might not mind if your friends surfed the Net to midnight on your computer. Via their SC plugged into your computer the meter would bill them for whatever they do. (I have to explain that one - bar the USA every other country bills for local access time)etc. etc. It was interesting that Verisign is participating. I always found their digital certificates a strange concept which relied on trust that people would not supply wrong information when applying for the certificates. Now it makes more sense, but as the Wired article indicates, I think it is going to be unavoidable to have to register computers as you do your car, one day. Paul