Silverlight’s cross-domain communication option requires that the server you’re trying to contact cross-domain host a file (crossdomain.xml) that specifies which domains that server will accept cross-domain requests from, and that the domain that your Silverlight app is on is in that server’s allowed list.

So, that means that the google server that provides access to the spreadsheet file needs to provide such a crossdomain.xml file, and it needs to include your google pages domain that hosts your Silverlight app. I don’t know if google will do that for you or not.

ATOM pub/sub will allow you to update a common shared document that is viewable by many. Many blog engines support this API standard. Also, there’s the much older WEBDAV API which also supports updating web content.

One thing you didn’t mention was access control. If everybody can update the central state file, what’s to prevent everyone from modifying that file by hand and cheating? Or from looking at the state file to see the secret state information of the other players?

If the state modification you want to do on each turn is to append information to the end of the state file, you can do that with plain old NNTP. Create a newsgroup on an NNTP server, then use NNTP to read the latest messages and post new messages to the end of the queue. Chess by email has been played like this for ages.

Good luck!

I get a security error when it tries to do the HTTPwebrequest, no matter what I do. JS, VB or C#.

So that probably means google’s spreadsheet site is disabling cross domain communication, right? Do you have an example site url I can test with to prove this to myself?

Even better, is there anything out there that can host a sort of shared updateable web database, for free? I want to create a turn based game with silverlight that connects all the people using it to one free online source of info. When a player takes a turn, it updates the online source.

I THINK the microsoft Application Based Storage: ATOM + IFM api/sdk may help, but I have a feeling it will only store info per liveID, and not shareable to multiple people. Also I don’t know if it works with silverlight.

Here’s the google group discussion I started, if you want to see more info.

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Docs-Data-APIs/browse_thread/thread/f65a5040837ff12?hl=en

Have tried HP 2840 all-in-one, but they never get their drivers right. USB scanning fails too often; network scanning never works and a lot of times the scanner is not recognized at all. Worse of all: the automatic feeder often is more like a paper eater.
Printing is OK though, but I rather use my 9500 hdn for that

Storage is on my NAS. Pitty my UPS failed after 10 years of service, so when we return at the end of the week it’ll be online again.
The really important stuff (indexed by LookOut) is on a VM on my laptop: easy to backup.

–jeroen

When shopping for scanners, look for auto paper feed. It really helps with multipage documents. I’ve used a few different scanner types - flat beds give great quality, but require a lot of babysitting to change pages. Our all-in-one fax machine has a pretty good scanner and sheet feeder on it, with scan-to-PC-over-network capability, but while it can scan color, its forte is really only monochrome scans.

My fave is the Canon DR2050C It scans mutliple pages, in color, and scans both sides of the page at the same time! The bundled scan software writes PDFs and does OCR much faster than Adobe Acrobat.

As to your Live Mesh questions:
- private and secure? Look for info from the vendor on how data is stored and who does the security audits.

- always available, never lost? Having the mesh replicate to storage on my local network takes care of most of that. As for access when away from home, look for service level agreements.

- not held hostage by “show us the cash..”?
- not subject to overpriced storage charges? Again, replicate to local storage. If the vendor changes policies or pricing in a way you don’t like, cancel the account and use a different vendor, replicating to the new cloud using your local storage. Live Mesh has some cool new services around it, but fundamentally cloud storage is already a commodity.

-Danny

I have a “few” directories filled with snippets of code that no longer is useful, wisdom that I already have forgotten, jokes that weren’t that funny, and URLs to sites that no longer exist. I think I even have a index.html somewhere from when Yahoo was just a single page with a collection of links.
Hell, I even collected my spam until it just became too much.

I haven’t actually thought about digitizing all my receipts etc… not a bad idea… *googles for decent scanner and a cheap SAN system*

Jokes aside, Mesh is interesting. We all see the need for perpetual non-local storage. “My Documents” helped a lot for content management, at least you no longer have to scour the entire disk to find all your “transfer-to-new-computer-worthy” files (well, atleast not in theory). Ideally, you just want that area to be accessible whereever you are, regardless of computer. It would be great not having to migrate your “ratpacks” every time you get a new piece of hardware.

But, as you say… “I trust individuals, but I’m wary of placing too much trust in corporations.”

How do I know that my files and their content are:
- private and secure?
- always available and never lost?
- not held hostage by “show us the cash before you can access”?
- not a subject to overpriced storage charges?

We can do that here in the US as well - allow the vendor to automatically withdraw the monthly payment from your checking account. It’s called electronic check payment or electronic funds transfer (EFT) or somesuch.

I use EFT for only one bill - the electric bill - because it fluctuates a lot and PG&E gets really ugly when you’re late on a payment.

I don’t like using EFT to pay all my bills because in a sense it gives vendors access to your bank account. You’re trusting them to only withdraw the appropriate amount, and you’re trusting their security measures to make sure nobody else can get your bank info to make withdrawals for themselves. I trust individuals, but I’m wary of placing too much trust in corporations. I don’t like “pull” payments, as it feels too much like everybody has their hands in the till.

I prefer “push” payments - paying bills electronically through my bank. I give my bank the vendor account number and mailing address and payment amount and my bank makes an EFT to the vendor. Most of the time, the payment never hits paper and clears in 1 to 2 days. Some vendors aren’t set up to receive “push” payments through EFT, so the bank then sends them a paper check through postal mail. Postage is at the bank’s expense (yay!), so they’re incentivized to get things off paper as much as possible.

I set up automatic “push” payments through my bank for all my recurring fixed payments, such as mortgage. Most variable bills I pay using one-shot push payments too.

I prefer push payments because it keeps me in control of to whom, how much, and when payments are made, and nobody but me has the ability to withdraw from my bank account.

Anyway, this blog post was about delivery of the itemized billing statement, not about payment of the bill.

Here I often sign (online) an agreement allowing my creditors to electronically charge my account up to a specified limit per month.

It is also possible to have the invoice delivered electronically through my bank. I can choose to have them send me an e-mail reminding me that a new bill has arrived.

But for businesses, paper bills are still the most common.

…which is nice for me, because where I work we have a system to handle all that… http://paperless.no/ allows businesses to scan all documents and track their flow throughout their organisations up to the point where we let the accounting system know about the invoice. We have some ideas for the next logical step, although I am not at liberty to say at the moment…

I am still more of an old-fashioned packrat. Sure, my photographs are all digital, but I collect comic books (I’ll never grow up!) and I like to keep those on paper.