so, i finally set up an openID service using my blog URL as the identity. it was a pretty simple affair using phpMyID….this is for a single user (me) after all. there are other openID packages…i tried simpleid first, which looked promising, but had some issues with caching persistent logins…their php scripts had a bugaboo sending an array to the md5() function when it was expecting a string. i tracked down where the array was coming from ($_SESSION['user']) but couldn’t clear the bug.

anyway…holding my brand spanking new openID high, i set out to use it to authenticate my credentials to….well, no one of consequence. for all this chatter of openID from the big players (google, yahoo, microsoft) it looks like they are all offering their own, already existing account authentication as openID providers. that’s not what i want at all. i have an openID provider…http://robertcarlsen.net/ is all the proof i need to verify my identity using openID.

someone please tell me that i’ve missed something glaringly simple….and that there are several major sites that will allow me to use my openID…not their accounts as openIDs for…who? i can’t find another major site that is allowing me to USE the openIDs they all are boasting to offer…comments?

what a long strange trip it’s been?

i wrote “sold out” on the face of my first mobile (erm, cell) phone. i’ve always been interested in technology, but the pervasiveness of cell phones turned me off…and like EZ Pass i wanted to have nothing do with them.

now as an avid iPhone owner (and before that several Nokia, Sony Eriksson, and iPaq smart phones and PDAs) i think i have to admit submission to the allure of the cloud lifestyle.

my personal data is becoming more accessible online…there is danger in that to be sure…but the promise of ubiquitious access is too much to ignore. i’m busier that i’ve been in years and don’t have the time to manually move and synchronize data across several disparate devices.

over the air sync = awesome. as long as i have access to the cloud i have access to my data. our devices are becoming most valuable as portals to data. they still have usefulness in and of themselves, to be sure…for example i’m writing this on a laptop while waiting for motion graphics to render in the background. i don’t need to be connected to the cloud to create work, although i did need to access the studio computer to grab the most recent version of the art files, and when the render is complete i’ll upload the clip to my server awaiting delivery to the client 100 miles away.

i can be anywhere yet everywhere at once as long as i have a solid and fast connection to the cloud. it’s futile to resist…and liberating to embrace.

…sitting here looking for apartments 100 miles away. i suppose it could be worse – it could be 200 or 2000 miles away. regardless, weeks of filtering out all the noise in the available listings is taking it’s toll. understanding the situation in my neighborhood i fully expect brooklyn to be similar in that things can change from block to block…and without an intimate knowledge of the area i feel a bit blind.

relatively new tools such are google’s street view and various mashups have helped, but i still feel lost in all this. the difference in rental prices between philadelphia and new york also smart and are making it difficult to think objectively about where i want to live versus where i can afford to live….come on jackpot!

there has to be a better way….i’ll be giving the old methods a try tomorrow by <gasp> heading up there to ask to look at apartments in person…crazy, i know! wild times we live in…