Carbon neutrality – what a con!

Households shouldn't waste energy but the carbon neutrality fad is just blame shifting.

I should probably aver right up front that like any sensible person, I am all for energy efficiency. We shouldn't waste the stuff. But surely the fad for "carbon neutrality" in the home is a huge con. It's blame shifting.

If we transitioned to renewable energy, then (within reason) we could all run air conditioners and clothes dryers, guilt free. The cynic in me suggests that the carbon neutrality craze is driven by complacent or weak willed governments, and the fossil fuel industry. It's almost a smokescreen. We have reality TV shows (even on the ABC for godsake!) that put the onus on humble householders to save the planet.

Households don't emit greenhouse gasses — power stations do!

Plurality of Identities, and trouble ahead with biometrics

The idea of biometric authentication plays straight into the view that each user has one "true" identity underpinning multiple authorisations.  

 I recently noted in the thread on identities and keys that: [We need] identity frameworks (like the Microsoft developed Identity Metasystem aka Cardspace) that permit as many "identities" as there are contexts in which we assert ourselves.

We are in the midst (I hope!) of a shift to a new paradigm based on a plurality of identities. And I think I'm using the over-wrought "p word" here in its proper context. The current "singular identity" paradigm has had a deep and unhelpful influence over the way we think about all sorts of things, including smartcards, PKI, biometrics, the semantic debate over "authentication" versus "authorisation", and therefore the underlying architecture of many approaches to federation.

When does a key become an identifier?

Should we re-visit the intuition that identities can be federated?  Do we really know what it means to "add up" a bank card and a Medicare card?  Do we have the mathematics to do such a thing with rigor, asks Stephen Wilson.

I wonder …

Is a passport an "identifier"?
Is a drivers licence an identifier?
Is a credit card an identifier?
Is a professional membership card an identifier?
Is a building access card an identifier?
Is a house key an identifier?
Is a car key an identifier?

Or putting the questions another way …