User attributes and audio IDs (was: Trouble signing)

[David Shaw]

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On Fri, May 16, 2003 at 04:09:11PM +0200, Manuel Samper wrote:
> David Shaw, on Fri, May 16 2003 at 05:18, wrote:
> > On Fri, May 16, 2003 at 01:16:57AM +0200, Manuel Samper wrote:
> > 
> > > > gpg --verify lug.sql.sig
> > > > gpg: Signature made Thu 15 May 2003 22:49:03 BST using DSA key ID F3C504D8
> > > > gpg: Good signature from "Neil Williams <linux@codehelp.co.uk>"
> > > > gpg:                 aka "[image of size 4569]"
> > >                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > > This looks ugly.
> > > 
> > > Feature request: it's so hard to allow a name being attched to these
> > > photoids? Or it's required this way by the standard?
> > 
> > I'm not quite sure what you mean here.  That user attribute contains
> > an image, so it says so.  Do you mean a name in addition to the image,
> > rather like the HTML "alt" tag, so nongraphical displays can still
> > give a text line?
> 
> Yes, something like:
> 
> $ gpg --list-key samper
> pub  4096R/FFFD5DA0 2003-05-13 Manuel Samper
> uid                            Manuel Samper <manuel@samper.dyndns.org>
> uid                            Manuel Samper [jpeg image of size 1234]
> ...
> 
> That is, at the time of attaching a photo id (had never done it, not
> sure what gpg ask) being asked for a real name like normal uids.

Ah.  There are a few ways to do this, but probably the best way
doesn't exist in the standard yet. ;)

The "user attribute" sort of ID can actually contain more than just
photos as it is a general storage medium for any sort of data.  There
is no reason why it cannot also store a "text" attribute.  The catch,
of course, is there is no text attribute defined in the standard yet.

I've been making a list of potentially useful attributes (images other
than JPEG, audio clips ("Hello! My name is XXXX and my fingerprint is
XXXXXXXX"), and the like.  Perhaps it would be reasonable to add a
text attribute to that as well for use when the other attributes were
not usable (i.e. non-graphical display, no sound card, etc.)

I'd be interested to hear comments about whether people would make
good use of something like an audio ID or not.  It certainly has the
potential to make keys very very large, though perhaps that is the
problem and choice of the key holder.

David
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