One of my tasks for today was to upgrade to the new versions of the JanRain OpenID libraries for Wikitravel. However, since those libraries implement the draft OpenID 2.0 standard, which includes support for i-names, I had to do some i-names playing today.
i-names is a distributed system, with different "i-brokers" (yes, they're really called that) providing naming services. Unfortunately, the service that I used for registering my i-name, 2idi, isn't compatible with the JanRain Open Source libraries I'm using. JanRain's implementation depends on the very latest version of the OpenID 2.0 draft, and 2idi doesn't support it yet. So testing with my current i-name, =evan.prodromou, doesn't work.
So, I had to register a new i-name with an i-broker that supports the new draft standard, which, y'know, it's the whole point of this stuff not to have to register all over the place. But whatever. JanRain folks in #openid, the OpenID channel, let me know that i-brokers that use EZ iBroker, a kind of i-broker-in-a-box package, would work with their library. The best one I could come up with is LinkSafe, which works OK.
Now, rather than spend another US$20 and register a variant on my given name, I decided to spend the US$55 get an organizational i-name so I could make as many different testing names as I needed. And rather than register an i-name for a real organization, I registered just a bogus one, @gratis, so I could give them away to whoever wanted an i-name.
My new i-name, @gratis*evan.prodromou, works great. If you'd like an i-name to play around with, please drop me a line using the Web form at @gratis, and I'll set one up for you. I've toyed around with it, and it seems to work for sites that support i-names.
tags: i-names 2idi janrain openid ibroker linksafe gratis
Laïka
I met my friend Nicolas Ritoux at Laïka, the wireless-enabled lounge on St. Laurent. We hung out at the bar and had a beer or so, which was a nice way to spend the early evening -- of course, it was an hour after dark when I met him, but just 5PM...
We talked a lot about his projects working on a new version of Hystérie, the classic Quebec Web zine, formerly hand-coded in HTML but soon to be implemented in a CMS. He's using SPIP, a cool-looking French jobby that seems to have a lot of features. He's really getting into the XHTML+CSS aspect of it... a sure sign of madness.
I like Laïka, but it didn't dawn on me until today that it's named after Laika, the Soviet cosmo-dog that was the first living thing intentionally launched into space by humans. Good dog!
Movie night
I had to rush back to the house pretty quick, though -- our friends Patti and Meg offered to babysit Amita tonight so Maj and I could go see a movie. Awww! Of course, given that opportunity to have a romantic evening with my beautiful wife, what did I decide to go see? Borat, of course.
We were pretty worried about the baby -- she's been kind of feverish and cranky for the last few days -- but when we came home, she and Meg and Patti were dancing and twirling around the room. Good girl!
tags: amitajune meg patti borat movie night