It has been quite a while since I hit the speaker circuit for our Singapore .Net Usergroup (which I had helped co-founded).

However, I will be there on the 6th July 2006 speaking on the Federated Identity Metasystem. Do register yourself and I hope to see you there.

As some of you might know, I have recently been very active in working with Microsoft Cardspace at work. I am involved in 2 very major projects at the Governmental Level that deals with authentication frameworks and federated identity systems.

Having heard about this via zdnet is really a piece of good news. This really brings to reality about the entire Identity Metasystem concept, instead of having many quarters talk about it as just a Microsoft thing.

OSIS is the project - who knows, given time and resources, I may want to contribute into that "space" as well

Well, the marketing spin doctors are at it again. Besides the renaming of WinFX to .NET Framework 3.0, Infocards has gotten a new and better name as well.

I am just glad that it is not renamed as Windows Card Foundation. And for good reasons ...

Actually Microsoft Cardspace does sound nice. The word "space" is just so much more abstract and encompassing ...

During my webcast on "Why we need Reliablility in SOAP: Web Services", there were a couple of hiccups which hindered a better listening experience.

1. I cannot see the animation on the slides I am presenting, even though I am assured by the producer that the floor is seeing it. Therefore, I am "guessing" what the audience is actually seeing in my click-animation and gauging my content from there. It was neither easy nor pleasant.
2. There was a disconnect incident in my demos that also marred the listener's experience. I had to re-login again. Not Good.

Isnt it ironic? My network connection showed lack of reliability when I am talking about Reliability as a topic. . Now the least I can do is to answer a couple of questions that popped up after the session:

Q: Is RM available for all the bindings in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF, previously - Indigo) ? 
A: Yes, it is available for MOST of the standard bindings in WCF. In some bindings such as the netTcpBinding I showed, it is On-by-Default. In bindings such as wsDualHttpBinding where you need correlation of different channels and such, it is Always-On. It doesnt make sense to stick <reliableSession /> in a netMsmqBinding, for example.

Q: Is this the same WS-RM spec that is authored by IBM, Microsoft and TIBCO ? 
A: Yes. In my slide, I mentioned - I.B.M and TIBCO. I.B.M is actually the acronym I used for IBM, BEA and Microsoft.

Q: Can I get the demo you showed? 
A: No, I am sorry. In any case, my demos will not work with the lastest WinFX B2 bits today. I will need time to port them over. I recommend you go bug Shy when you see him and ask him for his WS-RM demo which consists of a WPF stack in there and a "awesomely" cool Rubik's Cube demo and is 100x better than mine.

All in all, it is quite a different experience than doing an on-stage presentation, especially when you spent an hour talking to yourself and you cannot see the audience faces and cannot manipulate your content and presentation based on their moods.

But then again, no one can see that I am wearing my Mickey-Mouse boxers while I am presenting, so I guess that is a good trade-off.

So ...

Mr. Setag goes over to Mr. Nezihc's little cafe-library called "Cafe Eboda" in Tonmeerf and bought a cup of coffee. Mr. Setag then sits down with his coffee and proceeded to pick up some publications to read from the Cafe's Library. He was, however, abruptly stopped by Mr. Nezihc who refused to allow him to read those in-cafe publications unless Mr. Setag pays for it.

Mr. Setag was taken aback. Arent those magazines free to read. Everyone else here is reading it and I dont see them paying for it. Isnt this an open library ?

"Well, yes", Mr Nezihc replied. "But because your wallet is bloated, I think it is only right that I charge you if you need to read those publications."

"That is absurd", Mr Setag retorts. "It is not my fault that my wallet is bloated. In fact, given anyone else, they would love to have my bloated wallet as well, or try their very best to empty it through some legal means. This has nothing to do with the fact that I used to be your boss before, right ?"

Mr Nezihc: "No, like I said - I am charging you only because your wallet is bloated. The rest of the folks here are not as rich as me, therefore, I dont charge them a single cent ..."

Mr Setag: "OK. I will just bring in my papers to read then. How about that ?"

Mr. Nezihc: "Nope. You have to use ours and you have to pay for it ..."

Ridiculous ? Only happens in undeveloped countries ? You say ?

Well, if you believe the content here is true, then I dont think this is any different.

Jonathan Zuck of Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) sums it up real well with the following quote:

"Adobe seems to be realizing that open standards have costs as well as benefits.  While opening its technology to the world helped Adobe to spread Acrobat far and wide, it also limits its potential business models and incentives to continue innovating.  The problem for Adobe is that they can't put this genie back in the bottle"

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The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) is an international education and advocacy group for the technology industry. Focusing on the interests of small and mid-size entrepreneurial technology companies, ACT advocates for a "Healthy Tech Environment" that promotes innovation, competition and investment. ACT has been active on issues such as intellectual property, international trade, e-commerce, privacy, internet policy and antitrust. ACT represents more than 3000 software developers, systems integrators, IT consulting and training firms, and e-businesses from around the world.