I am sorry, I can’t express my thoughts well in writing. Especially since English is not my first language. But I guess, what I tried to say, is that the solutions are out there. It is just sometimes users are not educated enough about the technology to make the decision of which tools to use. Again, I am not saying that people must be able to program assembler. All I wish for, is that users would take the time to research what is available. And there is alway tools available for almost any purpose. It is just users don’t always know what to look for. And for that purpose, I think, we should take some time to educate ourselves at least to the point of using the tool.

Back to automobiles. In order to operate a car, it is not only key, gas, break and steering wheel. You also need to know the traffic rules and have a certain amount of skill and knowledge accumulated in order to drive a car. You need to know where the gas tank cap is located and how to operate it at the gas station. Or even how to put a spare tire on. Basic knowledge, I agree. But that is the kind of knowledge I am talking about, that I see missing in many people in regard to computers.

But I do understand your point as well. Information technology should progress towards integration. Technologies need to be constantly improving. And I think many things should be easier than they currently are.

And thanks for the good words about the books.

Microsoft has spoiled everybody with their “easy to use” interfaces and software, so people really are starting to forget the fundamentals of information technology, without which it was not possible even to approach a computer 20 years ago. I am not saying that everyone must become a programmer, but, for process’s preservation:), people these days don’t know how many bits there are in a byte. They don’t know what a directory is. When people see a DOS console, they associate it with some kind of malfunction.

I think the software should continue to develop. But I also think people should do the same!

However, I do appreciate a well designed, integrated, user friendly system. Valve’s “Steam” Web distribution engine is one example.

P.S. Thank you very much for you BRILLIANT books. I’ve bought them accidentally in a bookstore. When I started reading, I just couldn’t stop. I’ve finished them both in 3 days. When I read one of the acknowledgments which was comparing these books to Frank Herbert’s Dune, I was skeptical at first. But after I have finished reading the books, this skepticism of mine vanished without a trace. I think Infoquake and Multireal (especially the later) are even better than Dune.

I’ll be waiting anxiously for the third book.
THANK YOU!!!

1-5 are available now. The downside is that it’s only available to an organization with a clued-in IT staff who have management’s support. And the up-front costs are not cheap.

Cheaper than going without – but the latter option only shows up as the death of a thousand cuts as people try to work.

Also – it’s not very flexible. You can’t just drop in a brand new appliance from Best Buy and expect it to work across the work network. The upside is that when you get the bits moving together they work.

I am not sure Open ID is an answer. Okay, yes, one ID: hooray. Except that we’ve still got the problem of bad passwords and stickies with passwords on them.

With a hardware card, some standard software, OpenID and some cooperating web sites, both of these can be done right now.

A hardware key / open ID would be nice – but a hardware solution isn’t going to work unless the things are as common as house keys. And even then – it feels like a step backward. I’ve got a hardware key for getting to the VPN at work. It’s a pain – to login I gotta find the key. Now, because it’s _work_ it’s always in my laptop bag.

In theory. Sometimes it’s on my nightstand, where I used it last. The point is that a userid/password pair is a bunch easier to use than a friggin’ key.

It feels like the way forward is using SSH. I’ve used SSH to encrypt public/private keys for logging in – just GO. But the problem is this is only for terminal sessions on servers. It could probably be extended ….

Nevertheless, I keep my fingers crossed that it will happen. I should look at turning OpenID back on for my site (the plugin was having issues).

I saw an interesting story (sorry, don’t remember the link) that combines 7 and 8. Basically some university has a prototype that recharges things wirelessly. Put your ipod on a desk and it recharges. We’ve known how to do that for a while, but the new method is pretty efficient, where old methods lost a lot of power for various reasons.

Oh, and one other promising thing is a combination of OpenID and password management. With a hardware card, some standard software, OpenID and some cooperating web sites, both of these can be done right now. No passwords needed. Of course, without OpenID being universally supported, it’s still a wish.

It’s a good list though of things that we should have now, but don’t.

Skott: As someone who worked at a biometric company for several years, I think the downsides of biometrics, though real, are much overstated. Yes, fingerprints can be duplicated and misfiled. Yes, some idiots are going to try chopping off someone’s finger (though newer fingerprint scanners aren’t fooled by severed fingers). But it’s much, much easier to memorize someone’s 16-digit credit card number, or their seven-digit password. Combine a biometric with a PIN, and you’ve got a much more secure system of authentication.

But dongles are a very good idea too.

David – I have a couple of beta invites going spare, send me an email if you’d like one. (It’s one of those GMail type systems where I pass them the address to send the invite to.) They will eventually charge for space usage over 1GB (2GB for beta testers).

re #2: Well, Firefox bookmarks can be synced easily enough: install the Foxmarks extension.

re # 5-6 – isn’t that what Microsoft tried to do with Passport? Be careful what you wish for..!

re #7: we’re getting there. I got an Asus eee PC 1000 a couple of days ago, and am getting 5+ hours of non-stop usage, which I could easily extend by switching off wireless etc. or using standby more.

Yes, you’re right, an OpenID-like thing is what I was thinking. Not really “centralized” at all. I misspoke, probably should have said “standardized” instead.

And I’ve fixed your italics mess.