Re: [circle] circle web search wishlist (long)

[Jiri Baum]

Thomas:
> This points to a more general issue, namely that in the current
> implementation of Circle, all nodes accept to generously store links
> for everybody.  However, some people might use chat and not be
> interested in filesharing, some others just the opposite. Why would a
> chat-only user want to store links to mp3 files? 

Not to mention that while storing/publishing links to mp3 files is not
actually illegal, it nevertheless tends to get lawyerish nastygrams sent
to your school / employer / ISP / cat.

> This generous policy should probably be modified before new services
> are added to the Circle. I can see two possible ways to improve on
> that:
> 1.- A node should participate only in the services that it uses. This
> makes the most sense, however it would require big changes to the
> current implementation.
> 2.- A node should maintain a rough balance between the number of links
> it publishes and the number of links it maintains for the other nodes
> (i.e. 'store link for'). This is more compatible with the current
> implementation, and it would be the first step toward detecting
> attacks by saturation.

Personally, I can't see a reasonable way of doing 2. How would the
balance be redistributed? How would other nodes know where to find it?

Number 1 is fairly easy, a simple matter of programming: basically, the
hashtable code would be encapsulated in an object/thread, and several
hashtables run at the same time. The position of the node on these
hashtables could be the same or different (not sure which is better).


Jiri
-- 
Jiri Baum <address@hidden>           http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jirib
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