Re: is restricted cell net access acceptable?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: bts () alum mit edu (Brian T. Sniffen)
Date: July 6, 2007 12:50:23 PM EDT
To: Tony Finch <dot () dotat at>
Cc: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: is restricted cell net access acceptable?

Tony Finch <dot () dotat at> writes:

> People keep citing IM as an example of something that the iPhone can't
> do, but this simply isn't true for XMPP/Jabber IM. The XMPP  
> architecture
> is client-server, with a server (or cluster) per domain talking to  
> other
> domains in a mesh - just like email. Since an XMPP client talks to the
> rest of the network via its home server, it doesn't make any  
> significant
> difference whether the client is native or web-based - just like  
> email.

You lost me on the conclusion.  The XMPP client does talk to the rest
of the network via its home XMPP server.  But there's no way to use
XMPP from the iPhone without adding a Web server to the picture, and
letting it be the XMPP client.  Worse, that web server must know and
cache your password.  Normally, XMPP can use smart, end-to-end
authentication protocols.  But since the iPhone isn't speaking XMPP,
only using a normal web form, those auth tokens must be sent to the
intermediary.  That's the real problem: while you can add
Web-to-Whatever protocol adaptors to make the system perform the same
functions as if the iPhone were a real computer, you have to trust
those new components far more than you would any component of the old
system.

The new web server + XMPP client added are certainly a new component,
even if they happen to run on the same hardware as the XMPP server.

-Brian

--
Brian Sniffen                                        bts () alum mit edu
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