[cap-talk] Capability accounting

[Norman Hardy]

On Jun 26, 2006, at 5:54 AM, Sandro Magi wrote:

> Norman Hardy wrote:
>> In my NY Times example the agent in my browser responds to payment
>> solicitations from the web site that arrive before the content  
>> arrives.
>> Upon a solicitation for $100 it merely declines and gives you an
>> error like one of the many error outcomes that http requires may now
>> produce.
>
> Right, which is what I thought. How would this work on an Amazon-like
> shopping site? Once you've paid for a high-priced item, it raises the
> bar to that level? Or do you foresee this agent not being involved in
> these sorts of transactions?

Amazon transactions are too big for DSR. Use a credit card or Pay-Pal.

>> There is no disputed payment because there is no payment!
>> It is like the fraud of putting a magazine on a newsstand with a
>> sticker price of
>> $100. You are protected from this fraud by not proffering the $100.
>
> Right, I wasn't disputing this scenario, but disputed payments on a
> varying prices on a single site once you've set a maximum.
>
> Let's suppose that, as a habit, you're interested in only the NY Times
> main editorial and the cartoon pages. The main editorial is 10c and  
> the
> cartoons are 3c.
>
> Once you've viewed one editorial and thus increased your payment
> threshold, NY Times increases the price for the cartoons to 9c. It's
> still beneath your threshold, but since you weren't involved in the
> transaction, it's a little surprising to have your NY Times costs  
> almost
> triple. This is the source of the dispute I was referring to.

It seems a bit strained to suggest that I had set a limit of 10c and  
then
was concerned that it had gone from 3c to 9c.
If such was of potential concern then I would have set a 5c limit.
The agent does not tell the site what the limit is.
The site might ask for more to try to determine the limit and then ask
a price just under that limit.
This is called haggling and has gradually disappeared from modern
markets. I don't know the history or causes of haggling.
You could program a user agent to haggle back,


>> I had not spelled it out clearly. A browser (user) agent would
>> impose the preset limit of payments once per user interaction.
>> The total payments resulting in multiple internal AJAX transactions
>> would so limited.
>
> Whose dictates this though? The user's agent may not wish to pay it  
> out,
> but the web application may want it. Not all AJAX interactions are
> created equal after all; some sites are designed such that new page
> loads are also AJAX requests (like google mail).
>
> Sandro
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