Friday, June 18, 2010

How to Set Up OpenID on Your Own Domain [How To]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5566470/how-to-set-up-openid-on-your-own-domain

open-id-bp-2.jpgOpenID is an open standard for logging onto various web services with a single digital identity. The tool puts your online identity back in your hands—and as it turns out, OpenID on your own domain is surprisingly easy.

For some reason I was under the mistaken impression that setting up an OpenID on my own domain, ginatrapani.org, would be a big hassle: that I'd have to host my own OpenID server software and that it would take all sorts of installation and maintenance BS to do so. I feel strongly about owning my identity online, mapping it to my nameplate domain, and actively choosing an authorizing party instead of just accepting the sign-in service du jour like Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, or Google.

Still, I never got set up with OpenID on ginatrapani.org because my perceived hassle factor was daunting. Instead, I used idproxy.net for my OpenID and put the domain setup on my "someday I have to do that" list. It meant that my OpenID was ginatrapani.idproxy.net instead of my own domain. Idproxy is a great service and I thank them for getting me started with OpenID; but still, I want my OpenID URL to be a domain name I own and control.

Turns out I was dead wrong about the hassle. Setting up OpenID capabilities on your own domain name is a two-lines-of-HTML affair, and it's finally done. (Thanks to Chris Messina for bringing me into the year 2006.) If you're interested in doing the same, here's what to know.

First, Google Profiles (and, it turns out, idproxy.net and ClaimID and a bunch of other OpenID providers) can work with your domain name, so all I have to do is add a few <link rel> tags to your HTML to get things working. Second, you can specify multiple OpenID providers, so if idproxy.net was down or Google Profiles was down, you can have a provider fallback. Sweet. Now, in the <head> tags of ginatrapani.org you will find the following:

 <link rel="openid2.provider" href="https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/ud?source=profiles" > <link rel="openid2.local_id" href="http://www.google.com/profiles/ginatrapani" >

That sets Google Profiles as the authorizing party for my OpenID, but my OpenID URL is ginatrapani.org. You can see my new OpenID in action right here; I signed into this very site with my new OpenID and posted a comment.

I'm not sure yet how to set Idproxy as my "fallback" provider just yet; if you know how to do that, post it up in the comments.

Thanks to the folks in this Stack Overflow thread for clearing up how to use Google Profiles as an OpenID provider and to Chris for a great discussion of OpenID, OAuth, and verifying identity on the web.

Smarterware is Lifehacker editor emeritus Gina Trapani's new home away from 'hacker. To get all of the latest from Smarterware, be sure to subscribe to the Smarterware RSS feed.

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Posted by Augustine at 12:28 AM

Imagine Toshiba's 128GB NAND Flash Memory In Your Next Phone [Memory]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5565944/imagine-toshibas-128gb-nand-flash-memory-in-your-next-phone

Imagine Toshiba's 128GB NAND Flash Memory In Your Next PhoneThey invented flash memory, so it's only fitting that Toshiba has now produced another world first for NAND memory: the first with 128GB of capacity. Just think what media you could store on your phone with that module.

It squishes 16 64Gb of NAND chips together, and should be shipping out to manufacturers this September. Will it be seen in phones anytime soon? iPods, even? [Toshiba via CrunchGear]

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Posted by Augustine at 12:27 AM

Japan's Space-Surfing Solar Sail Photographed For First Time [Space]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5566060/japans-space+surfing-solar-sail-photographed-for-first-time

Japan's Space-Surfing Solar Sail Photographed For First TimeGood news for the Little Japanese Solar Sail That Could, as the first images of the solar sail spread out in full deployment have been snapped. All is going according to plan, says the space agency, and "flying" looks possible.

Just last week the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency unfurled the solar sail in space, but it now needs to make tracks through space to prove that solar-powered travel is indeed possible. It works by reflecting solar radiation back at the sun, propelling (theoretically) the sail through space. IKAROS has been given five months to prove its worth in space, as it heads towards the planet Venus (for a bit of luuuurve, naturally). [JAXA via DiscoveryNews]

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Posted by Augustine at 12:26 AM

Droid 2: First Impressions [Motorola]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5566654/droid-2-first-impressions

Droid 2: First ImpressionsGizmodo reader Zack recently had a chance to play with Verizon's next offering, the Motorola Droid 2. He sent us his impressions, some details about the specs, and a few extra pictures.

Zack wrote:

I am a summer intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) this summer and today there was a tech show on the lab. There were a lot of cool new technologies along with booths for companies like Microsoft, Apple, Sprint, and Verizon.

I went over to the Verizon booth and was surprised to see a curious-looking phone next to regulars like Blackberries and the Droid Incredible. I picked up the phone and once I looked at it more closely I realized it was the Droid 2. I asked the representatives and they told me that they weren't sure exactly what the name was going to be, but that it was indeed the successor to the original Motorola Droid.

It felt really nice in my hand. It seems smoother than the original Droid. A lot more curves and less sharp edges. Held next to my original Droid, it seems exactly the same size The headphone jack, volume buttons, power/sleep button, and the Micro-USB port were all in the same place and pretty much exactly like the original. The camera button is also in the same place, but smaller and the same color as the volume buttons.

The camera on the back was a 5.0 megapixel, so I don't know why it isn't any better than the original Droid's. The camera was definitely faster though. It took a picture very quickly compared to the original. The whole device was a dark crome-like color instead of the original Droid's black. The soft keys were touch-sensitive at the bottom and were in a different order than on the original phone. It still had the Motorola and Verizon logos, as well as the "with Google."

Opening it up, the keyboard is definitely wider and has blue coloring instead of the gold from the original. I didn't see any gold on the entire thing actually. (No more Batman similarities!) I was happy to see that the directional pad was changed so that you have the four arrows—similar to a real computer keyboard. It's not easy to tell in the pictures, but it was nice that there was no lip on the right side when the phone was open. That combined with the wider keyboard made it easier to type on the device. My favorite part about the keyboard was the button for voice commands on the lower left. I have always wanted that on my Droid, so I'm glad to see it on the new one.

From what I have seen of the Droid X and the Ninjablur thing, this device was running the same skin on top of Android 2.1. When I asked about the software, the Verizon representatives told me that it most probably wouldn't be coming with that on it and would probably have Froyo (Android 2.2) plain (without any skin). She said that if it does come out with Android 2.1, it will gt updated very quickly.

The device was running 2.1 and it had 8GB of internal memory as well as an 8GB micro-SD card. The model number says A955 and on the bottom of the device it said "G4DR 4722," but I believe this is just because it is a demo device. The representative did tell me that it had a 1 Ghz processor, but she didnt say what kind.

The representative wouldn't tell me when it will be released, but she said in the next few weeks.

Zack's observations and impressions match what we've heard about the Droid 2 so far, but we'll get to get our own hands on the device soon.

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Posted by Augustine at 12:24 AM

OnLive Streaming Game Service Launches, First Year Free [Gaming]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5566680/onlive-streaming-game-service-launches-first-year-free

OnLive Streaming Game Service Launches, First Year FreeThe OnLive service which renders console and PC games in the cloud and then streams them to your PC or Mac has gone live today. And you can get the first year of OnLive membership for free.

Note that what you're getting for free is the OnLive membership—which is normally $4.95/month—and not the games. Prices for those will vary, but here are some of the titles you can look forward to:

Assassin's Creed 2, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction from Ubisoft; Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins from Electronic Arts; Batman: Arkham Asylum and Just Cause 2 from Square Enix; Borderlands, NBA 2K10 and MLB 2K10 from Take Two; Red Faction: Guerilla from THQ; Fear 2: Project Origin from Warner Bros. Interactive Games; and DiRT 2 from Codemasters along with other great games from publishers, both large and small, representing a wide range of genres.

You can read about what we thought about the service and games here first if you're not too eager to sign up just yet. [OnLive—Thanks, Jess!]

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Posted by Augustine at 12:24 AM

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