h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here's an idea. How about if h2g2 had a e-mailprogram set up, so I can e-mail h2g2 with something like this:

To:[email protected]
Subject:Request for "Death Rays"

and it would send you back all the articles in plain text format.
That would let you use it on Palms and just about everything. Even better would be something like this:

To:[email protected]
Subject:Submit "Submarine Games" in GuideML for Garion password:fubar
Content: This is a post about submarine games.

That way you could create guide entries with only a text based e-mail system.
For requests you might be able to add a little ad on the top, like:
[EYESTORM! [Broken link removed by Moderator]
Requests please.

Nice idea!

The new site design (back-end, not the graphics) will make this kind of thing much easier, and we're working on a Palm interface that'll be a bit better than email...

Adam

Being able to submit journal entries by email would be really cool, it would get round the text length limitation that seems to be present in most Palm WAP browsers.

Obviously there would need to be some way of authenticating the user to avoid rogue entries from being submitted.

I quite often feel like writing entries when I'm out and about, but the hassle of having to get the text from my Palm and cut and paste it into a browser puts me off.

Neil.

Thanks for your comments: but how about security?
These are my ideas:
1. In my first post, I had the password on the header. However, it's probably not a good idea to put the password on the header so everyone can see it. Prehaps a separate 'e-mail access' password?

2. People will - who never use the feature - be able to turn submission by e-mail off, so that people who know their 'e-mail access' password won't be able to submit 'rougue entries'. If fact, it might be a good idea to have h2g2 turn off e-mail submission off if you don't change your access password in, say 2 weeks.

3. Now, the biggie. How about PGP? You could sign the message with it to prove who you are. PGP is available for Palm, and as the US government allows more free cryptography exports, should be available in most countries. And, PGP is free and available for just about all platforms.

Your comments, please!

Somedays you just wish h2g2 could do proper quoting

Garion wrote:
> 1. In my first post, I had the password on the header. However, it's probably not a
> good idea to put the password on the header so everyone can see it. Prehaps a
> separate 'e-mail access' password

> 2. People will - who never use the feature - be able to turn submission by e-mail off,
> so that people who know their 'e-mail access' password won't be able to submit
> 'rougue entries'. If fact, it might be a good idea to have h2g2 turn off e-mail
> submission off if you don't change your access password in, say 2 weeks.

Passwords is definitely one way to go, and from an implementation point of view is probably an easier route. I agree however that constraints need to be in place. A seperate password for email submissions is a definite requirement, with forced regular changes a good idea. Should this get implemented then I think the feature should be turned off as standard and people should actively have to enable it (and set-up a password) to make use of it. Positive option is always better than negative option.

> 3. Now, the biggie. How about PGP? You could sign the message with it to prove
> who you are. PGP is available for Palm, and as the US government allows more free
> cryptography exports, should be available in most countries. And, PGP is free and
> available for just about all platforms.

Now this is the elegant solution, but probably much harder to implement. Whilst PGP is in the majority, freely available, how many people actually use it? Making it a requirement of email submission means that h2g2 have to take some of the burden of support when it doesn't work for someone, something I imagine they'd like to avoid.

I suspect Adam and the h2g2 team have their own ideas on this, hopefully we've given them yet more things to think about and that they won't hate us too much for it

Neil.

You are right in most people don't have the time to encrypt their entries. But all I'm suggesting is that it is signed by PGP, so they can verify their id. It could be used as an option for people who are so paranoid that they wear Aluminium Foil Deflector Beenies.

I agree with making e-mail submission off by default. This is a good idea. I hope you're getting all of this, Adam.

--Garion.
Cybermage.

Oh, yes... I'm always listening - nothing you say is ever safe

(sorry, I'm reading Cryptonomicon at the moment!)

WAP by definition has a limited length of text to play around with, but PDAs aren't limited to WAP. And you're forgetting the fact that all we need to do is ensure that you are who say you are - and the email address gives us a big clue to that. If you let someone else use your email, then you've probably let them use your computer, in which case they can impersonate you on h2g2 anyway...

Mind you, a PIN code could be very useful for creating quick entries on WAP and this could be extended to email entries too. The advantage of a PIN code is that it's easy to type on a phone keyboard

At the moment, there's nothing on h2g2 that requires PGP-like sercurity. That will come when we turn ourselves into a bank (oh stop it, Mr. Stephenson!)

It wasn't so much not having time to encrypt messages, more that the average user can't/won't/sees no need to install/configure PGP, so for most people it won't even be an option. Unfortunately I don't see this situation changing anytime soon.

Neil.

Ahhh... Cryptonomicon, that's on my 'to be read' shelf along with about 20 other, mostly tech, books. I think I need to take a few weeks off to catch up on my reading

On the subject under discussion;
Email address alone is not enough to guarantee someone's identity, it's *way* too easy to fake an email address. Also that pre-supposes that I am able to / wish to make email submissions from the email address I have registered on h2g2, not always the case.

The point about PDAs was that currently the only easy way to look at h2g2 is to use a WAP browser (I appreciate that *will* change ) and as you say WAP is limited on the anount of text you can enter. I've tried using a number of Palm web browsers to view the site and they all have problems, creating journal entries via any of them is not fun. Hence the wish for some other method.

The cost of being online wirelessly in the UK at the moment is also a big factor. Unless your bill is being payed by someone else, staying online to post a journal enrty could result in bankrupcy (okay, I may be exagerating a little there ), the very thought of which I believe would put most people off. The thought of sending/receiving a few emails however is not so bad.

Of course, third genetration mobile technology with sensible pricing plans will make this all irrelevant. Until then however, it would be great to be able to make use of journals whilst away from your desk.

Neil.

I use a PalmIIIe and I don't have a palmmodem because I cant afford it. Ditto a null cable. However, all palms have E-mail. WAP browsers just don't work for me.

And as for cost, in Australia, bankruptcy could easily be reached just posting this forum entry. It costs 50c a second! As well as the fact that my parents will not let me get a mobile because of radiation as well as cost.

Also, about e-mail verification: my e-mail is [email protected]. This redirects all the e-mail to a webmail account: [email protected]. Sending e-mails on my palm requires me to send it through my freeshell account: [email protected], as it is a real addy. I can change the reply-to, but it's still freeshell.org and not [email protected]. I like my redirection addy because it lets me check my e-mail from anywhere and I can redirect all my h2g2 e-mails to a folder called H2G2. I like it like that. But with a password, I wouldn't need to do that.

An your right, prehaps PGP is a little too involved for the time being. But Adam, were you joking when you said h2g2 is going to become a bank?

--Garion.
Cybermage.


(hey, how come I can't have signatures on my forum entries?)