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The Theory of Leech Computing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the how-does-it-work dept.

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."

6 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Seems like this is in use already by PowerTroll+5000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Spyware seems to fit this definition as a less-appreciated form of leech computing.

    --

    I'm not afraid of falling, it's the sudden stop at the end that frightens me.

    1. Re:Seems like this is in use already by bananapeel17 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I recently ran Ad-Aware on my windows box and was surprised to find there were 4 spyware programs installed and running, and remnants of 3 more existed in the registry. And I thought I was being careful...

      --
      Somebody please tell this machine I'm not a machine -
  2. reminds me of parasitic computing by werd+life · · Score: 4, Informative
    Parasitic computing is getting other machines to perform calculations for you, while only using legitimate services. There is a great article here

    There's also a good page quickly discussing Villain-to-Victim computing. The point is to use correctly configured machines to do things they were not intended to.

  3. Re:Usability by mikera · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not true. If you give the task a very low priority, it will only use cycles that are truly "spare" on most modern multitaking OSes.

    When the user does anything interactive, the task will just get shoved to the back of the queue and won't get any cycles until the user had finished whatever they are doing. The user won't notice a thing.

  4. Re:Slight Surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    It wouldn't have to be a button, just about any event on the page can be made to execute a javascript function: page load, page exit, link clicks, entrance/exit of form fields, mouseovers of various sorts...

    The user might never realize the event had occurred.

  5. Re:Slashdotted by PhilFrisbie · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't need /. readers to write part 2 for me....I am already working on the CGI program and JavaScript for the demos.