Slashdot Mirror
The Theory of Leech Computing
Phil Frisbie, Jr. writes "I am defining Leech Computing as 'a program running on a client computer without user knowledge that can process data and report back the results, but otherwise does not effect the usability of the client computer and makes no changes to the client'. Leech Computing, Part 1 covers basic theory."
Step #1: Leech off of someone with lots of bandwidth.
I can almost imagine someone writing a server side dynamic javascript generator on Slashdot in order to disseminate SETI data to web browsers to crunch (albeit very tenuously) to be uploaded again whenever someone hits 'submit' :)
GPL Deconstructed
what else is Mr & Mrs home users new 2.4Ghz, 510Mb, 120Gb system running XP just purchased to send an AOLgram to missy at college once every weekend, good for?
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
A professor in our department hired a research assistant a while ago, who worked for him for about a year. After the assistant left, the professor noticed that his computer was running really sluggish at all hours, but b/c he wasn't really familiar with the system, assumed it was just getting slower with all the data processing algorithms he was running.
A couple of months later, the network admin starts nosing around, and sends the professor an embarassing note asking to take down the web server about hot leather pants from his computer, since it was overloading the network...
This strikes me as theft, plain and simple, if the folks doing it don't ask for your permission first. What I would want is a utility which detects these intrusions and then sends back fifty megabytes of bogus data over my cable connection...see how long the theft lasts when they continually get slammed with garbage.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?