3 Identity Links: Geekception
Being "pedantic about the formatting" of information
Okay, these links aren’t about identity per se, but they may speak to the geek in you, especially if you’re of the XML variety. Consider this a “lighter side” issue in honor of Identiverse in Las Vegas this week.
Hat tip to my old friend Norm Tovey-Walsh for the first two entries.
🤓 The Code Element
Published in HeydonWorks on 5 May 2025
This is a fun and practical exploration of markup, markdown, and metalanguages. When they make the movie about this post, they could call it “Escape from New Markup”.
The markup is the “up” part of the markdown-generated markup, if you will.
— Heydon Pickering
🤓 Cracking The Dave & Buster’s Anomaly
Published in rambo.codes on 12 May 2025
Did you know that if you leave someone an iOS audio message and you say “Dave & Buster’s” (as in the sports/gaming/arcade restaurant chain), you’re likely to have a problem? The issue is the & (which you have to escape with…an ampersand). A detailed case study of system protections and character escaping, with roots that go all the way back to SGML.
🪐 Why Everything in the Universe Turns More Complex
Published in Quanta Magazine 2 April 2025
Biological evolution as a special case of a new general law of nature? Increasing complexity as “functional information” that leads to differentiation? That doesn’t sound like it’s on the lighter side at all.
But with each layer of markup (or -down) needing encapsulation for protection from higher layers, this article made me wonder if a similar requirement might not be in play in the universe’s development of new functional information. YMMV.
Recently I shared that Venn Factory Learning is up and running, with a variety of resources to help identity pros and their security and privacy cousins learn and lead.
The newest item up there is my paper with coauthor Jacob Ideji on how and why to drive identity through a persona lens — but you can find other goodies too, from authentication vs. AI to the conflicted state of digital consent and beyond.
I'm looking forward to a lot of great conversations about all these topics at Identiverse this week! In honor of the conference, everything at Venn Factory Learning is 50% off through June 14th. Just use code ZZAUTH! (Why ZZAUTH? iykyk...)
IYKYK. Or, as Dave Mason once put it, OYKAIK.