i agree with my compadre jclingan. very much so in fact. theft is plain and simply theft. i hate it as well and the fundamentals are so obvious ... a penny saved here is a penny filched elsewhere. what comes around goes around. just what did your mother teach you during your formulative years?

integration, business integration or otherwise, is upon us. this is a good thing and it is nothing new that nefarious types bend good things into dark shapes, at times. anyways, back to integration in it's simplest form. pervasive transports are a good thing(tm). no doubt. identity is both enabling and a "mischief maker" deterrent. multi-leveled identity is an interesting concept. i mean, that is how we interoperate in the world at large everyday. saying hi to strangers equates to presence and a protocol handshake. no more need be done. buying groceries involves a bit more credentials (eg credit card) or not (cold hard greenbacks). buying a licensed controlled product involves more disclosure. ok, with multi-levelled identity at play in the real world the logical conclusion is that objects, in the ether world, perform in a like manner vs the generic all-or-none type approach we are exposed to day in and day out. to do so context needs to be established, shared, built upon and credentialed at the lowest level possible and when two (or more) widgets cross paths on the ether sidewalk say hi they can, assuredly, engage in an entirely appropriate and meaningful exchange ... or not.

a flexible and pervasive transport is absolutely fundamental for this to, well, work in the real world, on the street, outside those caged systems that run the few but significantly large systems. upon this transport we have, to a significant degree, the necessary pieces to construct "object rapport" in an organic and scalable fashion regardless as to the system domain. objects with personality so to speak.

p2p is such a general term that i use it less and less as it has taken on the baggage of the behaviour of the bad vs a moniker for the purist opportunity that is still very much attainable ... that being to bestow contextual meaning upon every object in varying degrees unleashing a structured micro-economy (*lots* of little things) just as real, vibrant, multi-dimensional and accountable as the world we live in, for better or worse. i choose better.

Java == platform independence
XML == application independence
JXTA == network independence

Secure End-to-End Computing

in my ears: Tricky/Maxinquaye/Black Steel