[cap-talk] Re: First point of consensus

[Tyler Close]

On Feb 9, 2005, at 8:57 PM, Ka-Ping Yee wrote:

> On Wed, 9 Feb 2005, [iso-8859-1] Tyler Close wrote:
>> On Feb 9, 2005, at 1:16 PM, Ka-Ping Yee wrote:
>>> We don't even know what it means to "correctly" design or
>>> implement petnames yet.
>>
>> I think there's a lot of solid logic in my YURL Naming paper, much of
>> which is relevant to many of the sub-threads that are currently 
>> active.
>> See <http://www.waterken.com/dev/YURL/Name/>. I've spent a lot of time
>> thinking it over, restarted several times, and followed many alternate
>> approaches.
>
> Tyler, i respect your judgement and intelligence.  I think your logic
> makes a lot of sense.

Thanks.

>   But having "a lot of solid logic" does not imply
> having the right answer when it comes to human interfaces.  Until we've
> tested it, to say we know the correct design is simply overreaching.

I didn't claim that. In fact, the very next paragraph, which you 
deleted, started with "User foibles may mock my logic, ..." You are 
getting a little cavalier with the "overreaching" stuff.

>
>> Talking about the petname toolbar solely in terms of degree gives the
>> impression that a highly skilled phisher will defeat an educated and
>> alert petname toolbar user. I think we can reach consensus that this
>> impression is false. What do you think?
>
> For instance, i am unable to state consensus with the statement you
> make here.  A highly skilled phisher can defeat the petname toolbar
> by persuading the user to make a new name assignment.

Notice the "educated and alert" qualifier I specified for the user. 
Somehow they went missing in your statement. Why is that?

>   It seems to
> me that the assignment of petnames upon encountering a new site is
> the weak point of the petname toolbar, and it makes sense to me to
> focus some design effort in that area.

I wouldn't call it a weak point. It is a point at which the user 
exercises judgment, but no more so than in any other introduction 
scenario. The only difference is that the petname toolbar gives the 
user a way to record his judgements. Without the petname toolbar, the 
user is still making judgements, but has no way of recording them.

I haven't discussed the introduction process in this email thread, but 
I have in my paper. I am interested in discussing this part of the 
paper with you if you have comments to make.

Tyler

---
The web-calculus is the union of REST and capability-based security:
http://www.waterken.com/dev/Web/