MudLog

Finally finished the first application that uses MudSketch. Modster is a graphical exquisite corpse, each of which are drawn by three people. Participants draw a portion of the corpse in sequence: head, torso and leg. Each of the three participants must contribute and submit a drawing – otherwise the corpse will never be completed, making the creation process truely collaborative and participation dependent.

I’m going to try and release a new web app every month this year. So far for the month of January and February, there was RunLog and OpenLocker. The web app for the month of March is FakeID.

FakeID is an OpenID server that gives you control over your online identity. With your existing OpenID account, you can use FakeID to create unique online identities. Think of it as an OpenID proxy. Anyway, I just finished it, which means it may be a bit buggy, but so far everything seems to work.

Finally, OpenLocker (formerly PLW Locker) is ready after some months in development. OpenLocker is a multi-functional web application that serves as an OpenID server, and a personal homepage. As an OpenID server, OpenLocker differs from other OpenID authentication servers and attempts to preserve user privacy by using a locker metaphor. The OpenID specs specify only that an OpenID URI be unique to a specific user, but does not specify any authentication method. Usually, an OpenID server manages user accounts like any other web application: with a username (which corresponds to a unique URI) and an alpha-numeric password. Because of this, this method of using OpenID still suffers from security/privacy issues that exist in other username/password systems. OpenLocker uses a geographic locker location (which is unique) as the username and an emulated combination lock as the password.

Beyond its use as an OpenID server, user’s identity URL (connected as HTTPS, once logged in) will provide them with draggable modules, which are individual RSS aggregators. Users can pick from a collection of feeds (like OpenStudio and OpenCode) or enter any valid RSS/Atom URL to display content. This provides a page that can act as a user’s identity page as well as their homepage, where they can begin their daily Internet browsing.

Just a note that OpenCode is now OpenID enabled. You can either use the Login/pass or use your OpenID url to authenticate.

I didn’t go home for the holidays. Instead, I stayed and worked at the Lab. This meant I had a lot of time to get stuff done, and I just launched a brand new web application, called RunLog. RunLog is an application that you can use to log how much you run. If your new year’s resolution is running, this is an application for you!

RunLog uses OpenID for user authentication, and all applications I build this year will use it. Hopefully this means it will be easier on everybody, no more remembering username and password for every different site you use. RunLog is also a social network. Hopefully, by support (or pressure you feel) from other users, it will influence people to keep on going.

I think using OpenID is important. The Locker project I’ve been working on has turned into an OpenID authentication server, and it is fully functional as an OpenID server now. I just need to smooth up some rough edges and it will finally be available for use.

Oh, for anyone interested in using OpenID with Ruby on Rails, I modified the generator that ships with the ruby-openid library which can be downloaded here.