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For once, we have a concrete example to point to when citing the merits of P2P.

Let me offer a few others that have been around for a while:
- Distributing FLOSS. For example, Linux.
- Distributing music with the copyright holder's permission. For example, eTree.
- Distributing internally developed software to employees in a large enterprise. For example, LANDesk and Marimba use peer to peer distribution.

Several went from Sun to Marimba.

1. Marimba Castanet (I know, I love to hate them, too) has a technology that provides auto-updates to files on a box, and can even be scripted to stop and restart the process. I have used this and while it is expensive, somewhat complex internally, and a bit slow, it does work, and is highly scalable to 10,000+ boxes quite easily.

2. Rsync (a very common open-source Samba project) will synchronize files across a network, sending only the file differences, handling file deletion if so requested, etc. Very, Very good product, widely used. Set this up with any *nix (Linux, Solaris, etc.). Or, for Windows, configure Cygwin to run cron as a service, and have a rsync run as a crontab entry.

If you need to reboot, have the synchronizer write a "DoRebootNow.txt" file with the box's name in it. The service watches the file and looks for its own box name, and if found, does a reboot and does a cgi post to a cgi that removes the boxname from that file.

Cumbersome in parts, either of these systems can work for you very reliably and effectively. I would estimate both jobs at between 1 and 2 weeks of labor, including writing the scripting or learning about Castanet. That depends of course on testing requirements, method of deployment to clients, etc. Some large installations could take a person-month just to install all the clients on the boxes!

Also, I've heard of SMS, but I don't know much about it. Sorry...

-- KevinJRice

Marimba was founded in 1996, and was doing internet delivery and updates of software. So wouldn't that be prior art, since it looks like the patent was submitted in 2001?

Well, this is the Marimba updater . That is supposed to work like the new Microsoft Automatic Update stuff. This is one of those very good idea that turns out very bad when someone hacks in it and leave some trojans...

Thank you.

--Patrick Bateman, Esq.

Thank you.

--Patrick Bateman, Esq.

The Machine runs Linux! and the web browser is by Espial that fakes being Netscape 4.x very well (frames, javascript and Layers wow). Java support is included, and many ports on the machine are accessible. I can use a java applet to telnet to another machine, but I can't telnet back in. And the wiredX (or is weirdX) Java applet that is an X client didn't work.

Those USB ports are currently only good for plugging in keyboards and Mice (or so I'm told). They say in the future they'll support printers but no plans for ethernet card support.

Supposedly there's no hard drive. But I know there's a way to browse the filesystem. I think file:/// works, if not Click on all the dropdowns for in the Help menu - one of these will put you in the filesystem.

It comes with Real (not G2) the old 16K version - that only plays sound! They should be upgrading to a newer version soon - hopefully. It might be Merinta's fault that virginconnect members don't get the Real G2 player. If you check out their "IBrow" (that's what Merinta calls it) add-on software you'll see Real G2 listed. My guess is Merinta charges extra to install that!

Updates to the virgin webplayer happen via Castanet remote software - I'm not familiar with this; and have not had any upgrades happen (that I've noticed) since I logged started.

Did I forget anything? I did a whole mess of research on these things. The machine would be so much less of a toy if I could hook up a high speed connection to it.

Anyone had any success getting a high speed connection connected to the webplayer?

Another thing I'd like to figure out is if there is a cell phone (or some mobile networking hardware) that I can use that I can plug into the phone line input. The machine - when booting up dials prodigy - If I can use a mobile phone line (rather then my land line) I could hook up the machine to run in my car with a DC to AC converter and a cell phone that allows standard phone lines to be connected through.

Joseph Elwell.

The problem isn't developing a universal format, it's in getting everyone to support this format. I think a really good solution is already available in the OSD standard. It's a standard developed by Marimba, Microsoft, Tivoli, and Novell which has been submitted to the W3C.

It's designed to be vendor neutral, and it's been written by firms that know a lot about installing software (in particular Marimba and Tivoli bear some focus).

The other nice thing is because it uses XML it's completely extensible.

Of course, the big problem is getting everyone to support it!