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How Many Keys Have You Pressed?
teardrop.ca writes
"A new project created by Jason Hooper involves the counting and displaying of statistical information regarding the number of keys you have pressed since sign-up to this project. A change from the distributed problem solving projects that have been around for awhile. " Finally
a truly frivelous use of distributed computing! It's a bit thin, looks like it
could be easily gamed, but damn it'd be funny if the whole world did this (never mind
the security and privacy issues). I'm curious how many more times some keys
are pressed then others (perhaps this would explain why my spacebars
always seem to break on my laptops :/)
I'm supposed to download a program that sits in the tray and records all the keys I press? I mean, to count them, they all have to pass their code, right? And it has network functionality... HELLO? Security?
And on a more serious note, here is their privacy policy.
No doubt. First off, it runs on Windows -- making it totally useless to me and most of the slashdot crowd, but... *where's the source*?
Anybody who would install such a thing is asking for trouble.
Here's a wacky idea. Read the pages before you comment. They don't keep track of which keys and how many times. Just how many keys total. The return ONE integer to the server periodically and that is: Number of total keys pressed since last contact.
It's not like they'll be getting full logs of what you type- that would just be flat out irresponsible. If it's just keycounts, I don't see what the big issue is...
Though I'd like to see the source to make SURE of what they're doing...
Well then, why not join up, and run a port sniffer at the same time? That way you'll actually have proof.
Just because it's been written to run on Windows doesn't mean it's vanilla Micro$oft spyware.
Matthew G P Coe
http://mgpcoe.blogspot.com/
No, the way to throw off their stats is to write a script that reads their stats and then type the less used keys more. Adding one to every key stat probably won't do that much.
Nope, that wouldn't prove anything except that the software wasn't sending secret info out in any obvious way. It could well be watching just for your password/credit card number, caching it when it sees it, and sending it out to a remote machine 1 bit at a time, as part of the "acceptable" data packets, over the next 24 hours.
If you want proof, you would need to get the source, inspect it line by line, and compile it yourself.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Jay's a good friend of mine, I know he wouldn't log the actual keys.
Heh :- /
My ex-wife was a good friend of mine.
She wouldn't tip brake fluid over my car
Besides, when you go to the Privacy Policy on the page it mentions what Pulse will and won't do
And this privacy policy comes under European law also?
Is Jay open to bribes from unscrupulous bastards who will pay for the data he collects?
Can a melicious version of this code be put out there so a clueless windoze user downloads the wrong one? (one without a ''privacy policy'')
Even if your mate has the best intentions, encouraging people to install spyware like this is very bad karma. You are encouraging people to take stupid risks.
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
From a usability standpoint this could be used to determine ways to decrease the number of keys pressed to complete a task. If it could keep track of which keys were pressed it would be even more useful to application developers concearned with usablity and design issues.
I wonder, will this key-counting thing be open source? I wouldn't trust it if it weren't opensource... it might count more than just keystrokes. We all know how popular spyware is there days. If the author is serious about this, he would make the program open-source... just my .02
Oh, you mean RC5's not frivolous? There are people dying in the world due to our continued lack of scientific knowledge regarding various diseases and our own gene structures.
Try one of these instead, please...
Genome@Home: gene structure
Folding@Home: protein folding
United Devices: cancer and anthrax
Parabon Pioneer: cancer
Entropia's FightAIDS@Home: AIDS