My last post

I haven't made a post in a long time, but there's a good reason. My interaction with Garrett (www.fearthecowboy.com), and with some of the other great folks at Microsoft, led me to submit my resume. From January through May of 2007 I was working through the interview process and catching up on various Microsoft technologies that I didn't have a chance to work with at the EUB.

I received a job offer from Microsoft in May, so since then I've been focused on moving. Between finding a new house, looking for schools for the kids, moving and unpacking, transferring accounts, and just generally changing my life, I haven't had any time to focus on the extension or this blog.

I'm working with the Rights Management Services team (www.microsoft.com/rms). It's my dream job, and I'm working with excellent people. However, maintaining a blog is incompatible with my job, and I'm pretty busy working on learning everything I need for work, and we're still settling in to a new country and a new house.

If you're looking for a good RMS related blog, I suggest reading Jason Tyler (http://blogs.technet.com/rmssupp).

Thanks to anyone who dropped by to read this.

A new version is available

There is a new version of the extension available. I can't take any credit for it, though. I've handed things off to Axel Nennker (http://ignisvulpis.blogspot.com). He's going to be looking after things, along with Andy Hodgkinson. You can find the latest version at http://www.codeplex.com/IdentitySelector/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx.

Thanks, Axel, for agreeing to take over this extension. I'm glad to see it in capable hands.

Extension Status

While I was out of commission I received a denial from Mozilla Add-ons. They don't like the compiled extension. I believe I need to compile it because of the interaction with CardSpace. I'll take a quick look to see if I'm missing any alternatives. They also suggested there can be exceptions to the rule, so I'm looking into that process.

The reviewer did apologize for the long wait in the queue, which I thought was very professional.

Hopefully this delay doesn't inconvenience anyone too much.

On a development note I was looking at some of the issues that people have logged before my holidays. Most of these shouldn't take long to resolve, so I'm looking forward to working on them.

One of the other options is to get this into the Mozilla tree itself, rather than an extension. This was the original goal, so even if the extension doesn't work out perhaps having it in the tree will go well. I'm going to focus on the defects and issues first.

Interview in MozillaLinks

Before I got sick I was interviewed by the folks over at MozillaLinks. That interview was posted recently.

http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2007/02/cardspace-support-for-firefox/

Kim Cameron also posted this on his blog, and politely corrected my comments on OpenID. This interview was done prior to Kim & Bill G announcing that CardSpace and OpenID will be working together. As Kim has correctly pointed out, the two solutions complement each other by solving different problems. Using CardSpace for simple Blog comment verification, for example, is overkill. I was in the mindset of the problems that CardSpace addresses, and wasn't thinking about the areas where it isn't ideal. Rats. I hate overlooking things.

Anyway, that's why the goal is an Identity Metasystem. An Identity Metasystem isn't just about being able to use one identity system without vendor lock-in. It's also about being able to use different technologies for different problems. This is why it is called an "Identity Metasystem", instead of a "Cross-Platform Cardspace Implementation".

I'm feeling better

If it seems pretty quiet over here it's because I have been sick. I started what I assumed was a cold just before Valentine's Day. We went on holidays with the kids for 10 days after that. (We went to Disneyland for those that are interested, and a good time was had by all.) However, it wasn't a very relaxing holiday, so every day I felt a bit more run down. By the time we were back, I was sick in bed, and remained there until March 7. The doctors feel it was bronchitis with a minor lung infection. If that's minor, I must say I never want to see a major infection.

Anyway, the lack of oxygen meant that I've had no energy for the last several weeks. However, I've turned the corner, and actually gone back to work the last few days.

Now that I'm feeling a bit better I'll try to get things back on track over here. For those of you who emailed me, I apologize for not replying. I'll try to respond to everyone in the next day or two.

Thanks for your patience.

Code is available

I have finally(!) posted the code at CodePlex. Inside the project is a readme file with setup instructions. If you have all the necessary components set up, it should work without trouble.

I found that when installing the gecko_sdk on a new machine, I would quickly try to use xpidl to compile an idl file to xpi. If you aren't familiar with this process (as I wasn't when I started), there is a great HelloWorld example to get you up and running at http://www.mozdev.org/notes/hello_world_js_component.html.

CodePlex woes

I had high hopes of posting the code this morning. However, after fighting with Visual Studio and CodePlex, I'm going to have to head to work. I'll take a fresh stab at it this afternoon. Sorry for the delay, folks.