OpenId posts

Filed under: Hardware, Web services, Open Source

Tonido now lets you roll your own OpenID provider, also debuts Tonido Plug

by Lee Mathews Aug 29th 2009

First, Tonido let you set up your own, private cloud. It's been an excellent fit at the office, providing plenty of useful collaboration features at no cost and with very little learning curve for our staff.

Now, CodeLathe has rolled out a new plug-in feature which allows your Tonido server to act as an OpenID provider. Instead of relying on someone else's server, just activate the Tonido service and you can being using yourname.tonidoid.com:10001 instead.

As they describe it in the official blog post, "Tonido OpenID is unique in the sense that it is a truly a decentralized and private OpenID provider. What it means is that Tonido OpenID does not use any third party server to manage your identity." To install, just head to your Tonido admin panel and open the apps page.

On to the hardware: TonidoPlug is similar to Pogoplug, which allows you to share your files via the internet. TonidoPlug goes a step further, offering all the core Tonido functions: Photos, Jukebox, Webshare, Workspace, Thots (blog), Explorer, Torrent and Search.

The Plug runs on an embedded Ubuntu Jaunty base, and retails for $99USD. That's not too shabby for a device which adds a ton of functionality to your existing USB hard drive.

Tags: cloud, openID, personal, tonido, tonido-plug

Filed under: Developer, Security, Google, Social Software

Facebook rolls out support for OpenID logins

by Jay Hathaway May 19th 2009

Facebook has taken steps in the past to promote sharing identities across different social networks, with its own Facebook Connect and its membership on the OpenID board, and it just took one more big leap by allowing Facebook logins via OpenID. If you have an OpenID from a provider like Google, you can now login automatically to Facebook. You can also register for Facebook using a Gmail account, which Facebook is hoping will boost its membership numbers.

According to the Developer Blog, users who register with OpenID are more likely to become active Facebook users. That means Facebook has every reason to support OpenID, even though it competes in some ways with Facebook Connect. The reason Facebook initially limited registration to workplaces and Universities was that those emails could fairly reliably verify a user's identity. It's nice to see that OpenID has achieved the same level of legitimacy.

Tags: facebook, facebook-connect, gmail, google, openid

Filed under: Internet, Security, Web services, Open Source

phpMyID: roll your own OpenID provider

by Todd Ritter Feb 21st 2009

With more and more web sites and services offering OpenID for authentication, you may want to use your own domain name as an OpenID provider instead of selecting from the wide array of other providers (like Blogger, AOL, Wordpress.com).

phpMyID is a pair of PHP files that allow you to easily use your domain name for authentication to OpenID-supporting sites like Sourceforge, Skitch, and Technorati.

To use phpMyID (substitute "yourwebsite" with your domain name or website address):

Tags: account, accounts, OpenID, password, username

Filed under: Web services, Open Source, Social Software, Browsers

MySpace, Flock and Vidoop release OpenID for Flock plugin

by Christina Warren Dec 2nd 2008

OpenID is a really great concept. The ability to use a single digital identity across the web and avoid having to sign up for yet another user account is a real productivity boon. More and more high profile sites and services are adopting OpenID, but the project still hasn't gained the traction that many of us think it deserves. This is partially because it still isn't easy to use OpenID -- or even find out if a site supports OpenID -- on all services. MySpace, Flock and Vidoop think they've come across a solution: let the browser handle it.

Back in June, MySpace announced support for OpenID and also became an OpenID provider. In order to help users more easily manage their online identity across other sites and services, MySpace teamed up with Flock and Vidoop to create OpenID for Flock, available today at https://extensions.flock.com. OpenID for Flock is an open source plugin, part of the larger Identity in the Browser (IDIB) project which is focused on having the browser, not the user handle, authenticate and mange multiple user identities.

I had the chance to demo the plugin yesterday and it is pretty cool. Essentially, once installed an OpenID icon appears on the right of Flock's chrome bar. The extension scans a page for OpenID compatibility, and if a site supports OpenID, the icon starts to glow. You can then automatically choose to populate the OpenID fields with your designated OpenID URL or associate that site with a specific OpenID account. You can manage all of your OpenIDs, choose what sites to associate certain profiles with and view the login history and OpenID-to-site-relationship with each site.

Tags: extension, flock, myspace, openid, plugin, vidoop

Filed under: Security, Web services, Social Software

ID Selector: making OpenID easier

by Jay Hathaway Nov 13th 2008

OpenID is a great concept. Consolidating your online identity across multiple sites and services is convenient, and arguably offers security benefits. So why do some sites make it such a pain in the butt to use? If you support OpenID on your site, and make it as easy as possible for your users to log in, check out ID Selector.

ID Selector helps you set up a customizable OpenID picker, so your users can quickly get an OpenID or choose one they've already set up. It doesn't require any fiddling with your existing login form, it "just works." The best part is that your users only have to pick an OpenID provider once. When they return afterward, they can just log in with one click. Neat!

Tags: authentication, id-selector, IDselector, login, openid

Filed under: Internet, News, Linux, Open Source, web 2.0

SourceForge implements OpenID

by Dolores Parker May 5th 2008

It's official - SourceForge.net has joined the OpenID bandwagon. SourceForge, the world's largest open source software development website, is a little late to the party but nonetheless, it's nice to see a leader of the open source community adopting OpenID and walking the walk.

OpenID is an open source, decentralized, digital identity user system which allows users to have one identity across the internet and alleviates the hassle of having multiple user names and passwords to log-in to different sites.

OpenID is gaining traction with big companies such as AOL, Sun, Microsoft, and Novell who are accepting and providing OpenIDs. Today it is estimated that there are over 160-million OpenID enabled URIs with nearly ten-thousand sites supporting OpenID logins.

Thanks FF!

Tags: open source, openid, OpenSource, sourceforge.net

Filed under: Internet, News, Web services, web 2.0

Microsoft to join DataPortability.org

by Christina Warren Jan 23rd 2008

Computerworld is reporting (and ReadWriteWeb is confirming) that Microsoft will be joining the Data Portability Working Group. Microsoft adds to the growing list of companies that have signed on with DataPortability.org. Since the beginning of the year, Google, Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr (Yahoo!) and SixApart have joined the project. The project, which in its own words, aims to allow users to "connect, control, share and remix" their data across multiple online services and protocols. As the Computerworld article points out, getting Microsoft to join in is a real boon to the project because of its vast user base. More than 400 million users have an account with Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail or both.

The concept of data portability has become a pretty hot topic in the last few weeks, thanks to the brouhaha over Robert Scoble's screen-scraping scheme that led him to get banned from Facebook for less than a day and with the announcement that high profile players, Google and Facebook, would be joining the endeavor.

As a video we posted last week explains, attempting to keep accounts and contacts synchronized across multiple sites and platforms is one of the more tedious side effects of the whole Web 2.0 revolution. DataPortability.org wants to change that.

And although it is still very early, moves like last week's announcement that Yahoo! will begin supporting the OpenID 2.0 framework leave us hopeful and inspired.

Tags: data portability, DataPortability, hotmail, microsoft, openid, social graphs, SocialGraphs, windows live, WindowsLive

Filed under: Business, Developer, Internet, Features, Web services, Google, Googleholic, web 2.0

Googleholic for January 22, 2008

by Romeo Wahed Jan 22nd 2008

Welcome to Googleholic - your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!

This edition covers:

Google reworks Adsense, again... and again
Blogger users can use Blogger url as OpenID
Google still bidding for the 700 Mhz spectrum in FCC auction

Google reworks Adsense, again... and again
Much commotion ensued after Google Adsense decided that publishers who send referrals from outside of North America, Latin America, or Japan would be retired. This in addition to announcing that several referral bonuses were to be discontinued made for quite a bit of a storm in the blogosphere. Google, hearing the outcry of the community, quickly made some amendments: as long as the referral is located within North America, Latin America, or Japan, it does not matter where the publisher is located. But still, no more bonuses.

Tags: 700 mhz, 700Mhz, adsense, blogger, fcc, google, googleholic, openid

Filed under: Internet, Yahoo!, Social Software, Beta

Yahoo jumps on the OpenID Bandwgon

by Jason Harris Jan 17th 2008

The OpenID project got a huge shot in the arm today as Yahoo! announced their support for the OpenID 2.0 single sign-on framework. As of today, there are a total of about 120 million OpenID accounts spread across services such as myopenid, WordPress.com, AOL (covered here before), and others. Yahoo! triples that number today by becoming an OpenID provider and adding approximately 250 new OpenID enabled accounts. Yahoo! users can expect to be able to use the services in private beta on January 30.

This means users will be able to log into more than 9,000 OpenID enabled sites with their Yahoo! username and password. For those of you who are unfamiliar with OpenID, it is a single sign on system for the web. Meaning if you look to join and log-in to a new site, you can use one username and password across all these disperate websites. For more info about OpenID, see Wikipedia or the OpenID homepage.

This can be counted as a huge win for the OpenID project. We believe in the idea of OpenID, but it won't be successful until the major players in the web market hop on board. We hope to see the other big companies such as Google and MSN hop on board and start serving up some OpenID goodness.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: google, msn, openid, yahoo

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Web services, Google, web 2.0

Google announces Blogger and Google Reader updates

by Brad Linder Nov 30th 2007

It's a weekday, so we probably shouldn't be surprised to see a couple of updates from the Google camp. There are two new features in Google Reader. One could make your life a bit easier, while the other could do the same -- or it could become a huge time sink.

The first new feature is drag and drop feed organization. In other words, you don't need to use drop down menus to place feeds in a new folder, just click and drag it into the folder where it belongs.

The second feature is personalized feed recommendations. Google takes a look at your subscribed feeds and web search history and tries to find feeds that match your tastes. While this is great if you're always looking for new blogs to add to your feed list, if you're someone who already spends way too much of your day sifting through feeds in Google Reader, this feature could keep you from ever turning your computer off. Ever. Not that we speak from experience.

Google has also rolled out one significant update to Blogger today: you can now leave comments on blogs using OpenID. Up until now you needed a Blogger or Google account if you didn't want to leave an anonymous post.

Tags: blogger, blogspot, google-reader, openID

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Web services, Beta

Bloglines supports OpenID, updates mobile page

by Brad Linder Oct 2nd 2007

Bloglines is announcing several updates to its web-based RSS reader today. The service now supports OpenID, meaning you can login to Bloglines using the same secure information you use to login to other sites. The company says this is just the first step in supporting a more open platform for Bloglines.

There's also a new mobile version of Bloglines Beta with new features including improved browser support, a start page listed at the top of the screen, and the ability to "pin" items that you want to come back to later.

There are also some new personalization features under the settings tab in the full version of Bloglines. For example, you can set viewing preferences for individual feeds. If you always like to read some feeds in full view and others in list view, there's no more need to flip back and forth, back and forth.

Tags: bloglines, bloglines-beta, bloglines-mobile, mobile, openid

Filed under: Design, Internet, Productivity, web 2.0

37signals adds Backpack to their One Bar single sign-in page

by David Chartier Jul 31st 2007

Earlier this month, 37signals added a One Bar feature to allow users of their Basecamp project management and Highrise correspondence tracking services to sign into both sites at once. Fortunately, after issuing a major update to Backpack, their wildly popular web-based PIM app, they have added Backpack to the One Bar signin. This will save some time and simplify switching between these services, and the only requirement of One Bar is an OpenID, an increasingly adopted service that allows you to tie website logins to one single ID and password for the ultimate in web security and convenience.

Tags: 37signals, Backpack, Basecamp, Highrise, Open Bar, OpenBar, OpenID, security

Filed under: Internet, Security, Web services, Social Software

FreeYourID: OpenID for your name

by Jay Savage Mar 9th 2007

Now that so many sites seem to be adopting OpenID, you might have decided that you want one. You may also have decided that you don't want it tied to your circa 1997 AOL screen name (I'm looking at you cyrano99). What better than to tie your online ID to your real identity and keep things nice and simple?

Enter FreeYourID.

The FreeYourID service combines a personal domain in the .name TLD with an OpenID provided by MyOpenID. since your OpenId will be tied to your .name url, it is theoretically good for life--or as long as you keep the DNS registry up to date--rather than your tenure with with AOL, LiveJournal, another service. And since it's based on your name you should have less compunction about using it in a professional context than, say hottl33gs.

In addition to the OpenID, FreeYourID also includes forwarding of both your .name email and url to addresses of your choice.

They're currently running a 90-day free promo, and membership is $10.95 per year after that. If you don't like it, you can transfer your .name domain to another registrar if you want to keep it.

So far, I've stayed away from OpenID, mostly because I haven't wanted to tie my identity to any particular url. The ability to easily combine the ID with a .name domain, though, may be what finally pushes me over the edge. It would certainly make life a lot simpler.

There is one "gotcha," though: I wouldn't use the service for any particularly secure application yet. Passwords can only contain upper and lower case letter and numbers. Attempts to enter punctuation or other characters result in an "invalid character" warning. That seems pretty short-sighted to me.

[via Phil Windley]

Tags: .name, .name TLD, .nameTld, FreeYourID, identity, MyOpenID, OpenID

Filed under: Business, Developer, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services

Digg adopts Open ID

by Emily Price Feb 21st 2007

Recently, AOL and Microsoft signed on in support of Open ID. Now social news juggernaut Digg has announced plans to join the party, declaring it will adopt the decentralized digital identity platform later this year. Digg founder Kevin Rose made the announcement earlier this week at the Future of Web Apps conference in London.

OpenID is a system that allows you to have one username and password for every site you visit. That username and password is actually a secure personal URL that stores your personal information and allows you to control what information you share with websites. Other services that have announced their adoption of OpenID include Yahoo, Wikipedia, and LiveJournal.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: digg openid, DiggOpenid, open ID, OpenId

Filed under: Internet, Security, News, Web services

AOL turns on OpenID for 63 million users

by Grant Robertson Feb 17th 2007

AOL's John Panzer announced on Wednesday, "Every AOL/AIM user now has at least one OpenID URI", giving a giant push towards widespread adoption of the decentralized Internet ID system. Just a few days ago, Bill Gates announced Microsoft will also support version 2.0 of the OpenID as well, a sign that Microsoft may be ready to admit its own Passport ID is a failure.

It's exceptional news that has gone mostly unnoticed on the public screen. We're not talking about pie in the sky, "we might adopt it one day" rhetoric. AOL has turned up full and working support for OpenID with a grand total of over 63 million users. There's a lot of good to AOL's full implementation, and as some remind us, a bit of potential for bad. What if you don't want an OpenID, or don't want to use AOL as your OpenID provider? AOL's Panzer responds, "My take is, if you don't actually use the OpenID URL, it doesn't really exist. The same way a Wiki page doesn't exist until you edit it. On the other hand, having people go in and kick the tires to uncover issues is exactly why we're talking about this."

The reality is, both sides have a point. If OpenID is to succeed we'll have quite a few bumps and arguments along the way. What's important at this stage is progress. For OpenID to be a success on any level, widespread adoption by the big players is incredibly important. A slew of 63 million users is substantial added traction towards the groundswell that OpenID will need in a not-too-far off future.

See also : Microsoft will support OpenID

Tags: openID

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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