Eric Arseneau's Weblog

eric<.>arseneau<@>sun<.>com

I can see the convenience of a web app for most people.  It can be really nice to run anywhere and get access to functionality and data.  Although I think it should be done using different tools, web apps can work.

So now, why then would people insist on making web apps so hard to get into?  I dont know about the rest of the world, but I don't use THAT many machines.  90% of the time I find myself in front of my own desktop and/or laptop.  Now these machines are already secured to the level I am happy with, I have my password when I turn on my machine and sometimes put a lock screen on.  I should be able to connect to a web site on my personal machine and not have to enter a password, I already did when I came to my machine.  Do any of my desktop applications ask me for a password EVERY single time I want to use them?  No they NEVER do.

If you want to make a web app like a desktop app, why not do so?  Don't force me to login every time for starters.

Even the most simple application that does not require any real security on my machine, Facebook, requires me to log in when I go to it.  What could be so important in my facebook that I don't want anyone else to see.  Wait, nothing, as Facebook is already all public :)  Now would I want to have someone else change my status without my knowledge, no, but then I have physical control of my machine, so they can't.

Most people would say, this is not a problem Eric, as the browsers now all remember my user id and password to all websites.  Does THIS not point to the fact that there is a flaw somewhere?  Let me see, the reason we have passwords is so that our access to services can be perceived as secure.  Well what difference is there in a service remembering who I am and logging me in directly, then my browser remembering my user passwords.  In terms of security I see no real difference.  But in terms of usability, its HUGE.  Lets see, I have a need for a service, I go to it, have the cognitive dissonance of trying to remember my password or reading screen asking me to login, then hopefully get back to what I actually wanted to do with the service.  As remember, a number of these services don't even have the decency to remember WHERE you were going to in the first place, they just wanted you to feel secure.  Well I don't feel any more secure than if you logged me on, as the password came from my browser anyway :)

I think what would fix things for me would be add a simple checkbox "Log me in ALWAYS".  And provide the appropriate implementation.  If its done via cookies and the browser has cookies turned off, then maybe we need a separate system to capture secure information about our login status with sites. 

My other favorite is the timeout feature of a login.  I was entering expenses the other day, took me some time to get through some gnarly details on a collection of receipts.  When I came back to the browser to continue entering details, the browser session presented me with a kindly worded message "For your own security, this session has timed out".  Well thanks but NO thanks.  I lost some data here as I had already started the expense report.  What part of security are you trying to help me with?  First, I had to VPN into my corporate network to get to the site.  Then to get into the site I had to log in with a user id and password.  So these two levels of security are not good enough? 

Now, you would say, what about when I need to use a public machine? No problem, login and don't specify the option to keep me logged in ALWAYS.  Remember for me, this happens less than 1% of the time I spend in front of a computer.  So why hit me 100% of the time with inconvenience :(

Single signon might work, but again I think its a workaround to a problem that should not exist at all.  As we've seen with single signon, various parties want THEIR technology to win, so there is more than one option for a web site to choose from.  Here is a NOVEL idea, don't create the need for single signon in the first place.  If all websites allowed us to login for ever, then the need would not be there for single signon products.

Now, I DO realize that single signon, could be seen as useful when you go to another machine.  I'll buy that, however then having different options for single signon on dont seem as bad, as I wont need to use them very often.

Can we start a compaign out there in the wild for "Login ALWAYS", "Trust my desktop!", "Dont make me login to my desktop apps every time, anytime :("

I may be turning 42 years old shortly, but I can still feel like a kid.  My co-author got this really cool little toy and I wanted MINE.  Well mine arrived at the prompt 2:15 FedEx delivery.  Its small, cute, a toy and not very big deal, but it is still making me grin like an idiot :)

If I could find more "simple" things like this that made me smile this much, I could revert back to being a total kid :)

Update: It comes apart!!!  Oh what fun I can have now :)

I wrote a blog entry a couple of years ago on something I call the BEAST, 49 Port USB Hub, 49 USB cables and 49 Sun SPOTs !!!.  Well, it seems that someone felt that something like this could be useful to others, so they build a MUCH nicer looking one, check it out

Cambrionix 49-port USB hub for professional nerds

Its pretty amazing what people will come up with.  We actually dreamed up a 49 SPOT holder that would allow one to drop in SPOTs, much like the walkie-talkies that security people have for charging their radios when not in use.

I've been reading in various places about how the battery in my laptop and my cell phone should be maintained to maximize battery life.  Here is an extract from an Apple site (http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html)

Standard Maintenance
For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her MacBook Pro on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month. Need a reminder? Add an event to your desktop’s iCal.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I like being able to use my computer's at their full capacity.  This means that when I am at home, I leave my laptop plugged in 90% of the time.  This gives me a couple of things

• I get full CPU and IO power to have the computer service my every whim as quickly as it can.
• When I need to go mobile with my laptop, my battery is fully charged

If this goes against the recommended way to work with a laptop, WHY don't laptops come with utilities and ability to discharge the battery while they are plugged in?

If I had such a utility, and I knew I was going to be at my machine for the better part of the day, I could just start the utility and let it do its magic.  As it stands, I am stuck unplugging and using the machine in its less than optimal settings until the battery dies.  I don't like it, so someone please fix it.

Note, with the new 17" Apple Mac Book Pro, the battery lasts a long time.  Meaning I get to spend more time in this less than optimal state.  I understand that I can maximize my power savings settings to decrease the lifetime of the battery.  But then, what to do when I am on the road and want my power savings to maximize the lifetime of the battery. 

Being a Canadian, I have to say I LOVE Tim Hortons, Tim Bits anyone?

BUT, with a Starbucks on every corner and a supposed recession going on, this blew my mind

Tim Horton's a Canadian doughnut place that, ... [Tim Hortons]

Here is an extract from an entry I did on my personal blog, which I forgot to share with you all

I think that blogging is an excellent way for future employers to see what I've been up to in the past, and to get a more lively version of a resume.  Would you rather see a watered down 2 page resume that tells you nothing, or would you like to see what makes a person tick ?

It seems that a blog can give a pretty broad overview of what a person is like.  Provided of course that this person takes the time to write up opinions, status, pet-peeves and such.

Now, if you go with the premise that a blog is a valuable tool to communicate who you are and what you are about.  Then using your blog to tie all of your activities together seems to make a lot of sense.

One of those activities will be work, we all need to earn money and most of us are stuck doing it by working.  Some of us have made the decision to stay with one or two employers, some of us have been at multiple employers throughout our careers.  For some of us, our employers strongly suggest that we blog.  Of course this is done to help communicate information to your customers, but it also helps make the employer's site THE place to come to for information.

If having more than one blog is unavoidable, then should you not make sure that there is a thread that ties all of your blogs together?  This is what this blog is for to me.

Lets not forget also, that I can gain quite a bit from blogging on my employer's blog.  Take for example my current employer, Sun Microsystems.  Sun's web site is so high in rankings with Google, that anything coming off of it ends up being ranked pretty highly as well.  This means that Google searches will show my stuff pretty highly in the results list.  Try Googling for Eric Arseneau, almost all hits come to me.

The plan is to cross link between here and whatever blog I use with my current employer.  Therefore providing a path throughout my employment life :)

The original blog entry is at Blog continuity plan, what's that you say ?

The root of my personal blog is at System Child's Ramblings

Its pretty amazing the things that can get you jumping out of your seat sometimes, but today I just got this really cool e-mail:

2009 JavaOne Conference Speaker Award
Dear Eric,

Congratulations! Your session titled "FIRST (For Inspiration & Recognition of Science and Technology): FRC-FIRST Robotic Competition" was a Top Session at the 2009 JavaOne Conference. Survey results from the people in attendance at your session rated you as an exceptional speaker. With this honor, you are now considered one of the JavaOne Conference Rock Stars and we would like to send you a commemorative award as recognition.

Please provide us the following information so we can send your award:
- Shipping address you would like the award sent to. (we will send via FedEx so please provide a street address)
- Is this address a residence or business address?
- Daytime telephone number

In addition, we will highlight your session on the JavaOne conference home page with a link to your presentation(s).

Thank you again for your efforts in making the 2009 JavaOne Conference a success.

If you have any questions, send an email to j1papers@sun.com

The JavaOne Conference Content Team

Now to figure out how to explain this to my family as they beat me at Rock Band :)

PS: This presentation was 100% the work of Derek White and Brad Miller, all I had to do was get up on stage and blab, so thank you guys. 

Book recommended on leadership.

Starting a new thing on my blog, books I want to read.  Lets see how the format should be over time.  I wish I could to the same type of thing as Facebook does, where you attach a link and it provides a nice synopsis and picture :(

Here is a rant, why doesn't every OS provide a software update service?

I may be the only one, but I doubt it, but the idea of having MANY small little services that are running to check for recent updates.  Even worse are the ones that check as I launch the app.  Has anyone told these people that when I want my document/App, I want it NOW.  If you go off and check stuff every time you launch, it seems absurd to me.

I have and am using various ones now, App Fresh and Version Tracker. These are cute and do mostly work, however I need to regularly run these apps to get my updates AND not all applications update the same way, so I have to manually have to do the upgrade anyway.

Now, provide a registration service on every OS. Each application must provide a URL to get access to information about latest releases.

Why is this not being done already? If it is, then why is it not on my OS of choice yet :(

I just got a development kit with some cool toys in it, which is way cool.  However, it did come with a not so nice surprise. You see, up until now I already knew there were a few different kinds of USB connectors

• USB A - the big boxy looking one
• USB B - the wide narrow one
• USB mini B 5 pin - the one we use on Sun SPOT
• USB mini B 4 pint - I know about this one because there are 400 of them sitting in a cupboard in the lab, due to my screwing up in thinking that ordering a USB mini B cable would be enough to get the right thing :(

One of the projects I've been working on, PlaySIM, used a new USB connector I had not seen before, it seems to be a

• USB To Go mini B connector - scratch head to see what the functional difference is between the mini B and the togo mini B?

So when I got this dev kit I started with on this blog entry, I was not surprised to see this mini B connector again.  What DID surprise me, was

• USB To Go mini A connector

Why?  I dont get it?  Is there really a need to have a USB A & B type connector?  What do they diferentiate? Is it actually physically required?  Is is a scam by cable sellers to get another round at this?

What makes me really laugh is the couple of blog entries I've seen where all the mobile phone manufacturers, including Apple, are supposedly going to use "micro" USB connector as a standard.  So does this mean

• Yet another USB A & B pair of connectors coming out?
• Which connector will they all use?  You think they will use the same actual one, or use different ones as they get as confused as we do with all these different seemingly useless connectors :)

If someone can help me understand this I would really appreciate it.  Will be more than happy to post an update including extra information.

Now, let me go to my USB cable bin and see if I can find the right one to get this board working :(

It has been way too long since I last blogged and forget how easy it can actually be.  So here is a thought I wanted to share with all, what is a good interview question.  Well this article seems to like "What do you do in your spare time?"

The Interview Question You Should Always Ask

Even if you had learned about all of Captain Sullenberger's activities, you might have considered his obsession dysfunctional. Wouldn't you rather hire someone well rounded? Someone who has interests beyond the particular? Someone who might be a better communicator?

But people are often successful not despite their dysfunctions but because of them. Obsessions are one of the greatest telltale signs of success. Understand a person's obsessions and you will understand her natural motivation. The thing for which she would walk to the end of the earth.

Maybe its due to the fact that I am  somewhat obessessive that this rings true to me, your mileage may vary :)

I saw Guy Kawasaki for the first time at a Palm conference doing his presentation on Rules for Revolutionaries.  If you have never heard him do a talk, find a way to get to one he is very entertaining and provides a lot of useful information.  I tried to find a video of his Rules for Revolutionaries, but could not find one.

I did find one he did for PARC Forum, entitles By the Numbers.  I didn't watch the whole thing yet, but from skimming it has his usual style.

Look at his latest blog entry Everything I Need to Know About Entrepreneurship I Learned From My Comrades in Moscow , and tell me that does not bring a tear to your eye, or laughter into your heart :)

One of my favorites 

With the caption "Celebrity endorsements don’t have to be expensive.".

I love it :)

Just ran across the Sun Labs Open House 2008 Kiosk and saw that there was a recording of the presentation I did available to the public.  The slides are here and the video itself is here.

The thing that is really cool here is that this page covers a lot of the presentations we did this year, and there are a number of them which you should take a look at.  I was going to draw your attention to some of them here, but the list has so many cool ones that I don't think I could do a fair selection.  On top of that, who says you will be interested in the same things I am :)

Go to the  Sun Labs Open House 2008 Kiosk and check it our for yourself.

Creator
• Creator discussion forums
• Creator official site
• JSF

Blogs
• Craig McClanahan
• James Gosling
• Tor Norbye

Cool Stuff
• Self

Blogroll
• Dave Johnson
• Lance Lavandowska
• Matt Raible

News
• CNN
• NY Times

Today's Page Hits: 32