Re: [9fans] VMs, etc. (was: Re: security questions)

[lucio@proxima.alt.za]

> I guess I'm a little slow; it's taken me a little while to get
> my head around this and understand it.  Let me see if I've
> got the right picture.  When I "login" I basically look up a
> previously saved session in much the same way that LISP
> systems would save a whole environment.  Then when I
> "log off" my session is suspended and saved.  Alternatively,
> I could always log into the same previously saved state.

The seesion would not be suspended, it would continue to operate as
your agent and identity and, typically, accept mail on your behalf,
perform "background" operations such as pay your accounts and in
general represent you to the web to the extent that security (or lack
thereof, for many unsophisticated users) permits.  Nothing wrong with
me having a private search bot to look for particular pornography or
art or documentation while I'm asleep, the trick is to run it on
whatever platform(s) are suitable at the time.

Take my situation, for example.  I am at the dial-up end of an ISDN
BRA connection (2 x 64kbps channels for all intents and purposes, one
of them reserved for voice calls) which costs me a nominal amount to
stay connected (when the powers that be allow it) from 19:00 to 07:00
each weekday and from Friday evening to Monday morning (and a fortune
during what the Telco calls "peak time").  The rest of the time, I
find it preferable to use GPRS (3G is not yet available) for on-demand
connections because I pay per volume and not for connect time.
Naturally, that makes my network a roaming one.  Having my mail
exchanger et al.  in Cape Town permanently on line at a client's
premises provides the visibility I need all the time, but it is not
something I will continue to be able to afford as my involvement with
that client will eventually stop.  I'm not sure I can afford hosting
thereafter, but that is a separate issue.

The other organisation I am associated with has a hosted Linux server
I may use, or I may piggyback on their hosting contract, but I get too
little choice of platform on which to operate and even the hosting
structure may not suit me for a number of technical and political
reasons.

My dream is to be able to virtualise not so much the platform as the
"application" where application means whatever I feel like using at
the time.  Including being able to access on a low speed line the
stuff that is, say, strictly text based.  Or, as I often do, download
big volume items overnight, while I sleep.  But most of all, I want to
walk away from the workstation and pick up where I left off anywhere
else, including accessing the "profile" using the local resources, not
necessarily the extraordinary features I may have built for myself in
my workshop (I wish!).

Most of all, it must be possible for me to enhance my "profile"
wherever I am, teach it new tricks whenever I discover them, make it
aware that they may only work in specific locations.

Do you get my drift?

The crucial bit is that it depends heavily on "being on the network"
insofar as having access to resources you cannot possibly be expected
to carry on your laptop (now you need Windows, just now you need
MacOS, say, or connection to your burglar alarm).  In fact, my idea of
security is to deploy my mobile phone as the key, GPRS allows me a
very inexpensive, always on-line tool to provide, say, encryption keys
that have my identity firmly attached to them, practically anywhere in
South Africa and in most places in Africa, nevermind Europe
(connectivity was superb in Italy and Greece, last October) or the
USA.  Given the access key, any "terminal" ought to be able to provide
at least part of the "experience" I'm likely to need.

In passing, a device that struck me as being extremely handy is the
3G, USB dongle that is highly popular here, you mey be more familiar
with it than I: it contains a simulated CD-ROM that it uses to install
its software.  I though that was particularly clever, specially if you
transform it into a Plan 9 or Inferno boot device.

I'm sorry if I'm throwing around too many ideas with too little flesh,
I must confess that I find this particular discussion very exciting, I
have never really had occasion to look at these ideas as carefully as
I am doing now.

I was going to address the issue of being disconnected and I note that
to some extent I have, because once you treat your mobile phone as a
factor, being disconnected becomes a non-issue.  But if you do land in
a dead spot, for real, then, sure, you need much of your profile on
your portable.  How much lives in your phone (no matter how, that has
to be connected to a computing device or _be_ a computing device) and
how much on, say, on your laptop, is not important, as both have to be
with you, ideally they ought to be the same device and most likely
will be.  In fact, in a Plan 9 paradigm, the phone is the
CPU/fileserver, the laptop is the terminal (now you got me thinking!).
Replication is another issue that needs careful thought, although once
again, it gets resolved by defining the phone as the arbiter, no
matter how many devices need conflict resolution.

++L

PS: Who would have thought that instead of drawterm, we'd want to
implement a Plan 9 CPU server on the iPhone?!  Less so on an iPod :-)