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Former AOLers Bet on Private P2P App
buhatkj writes "Some former AOL staffers have come up with something interesting. Namely, a P2P/instant messaging/groupware tool called
Grouper.
Sounds to me a bit like the GAIM plugin suggested by downhill battle..."
OMGWTFLOL.exe
"Some former AOL staffers have come up with something interesting. Namely, a P2P/instant messaging/groupware tool called Grouper. "
Damn! I read that as Groper. Reach out. Reach out, and grope someone today.
"You've got jail!"
Not sure who was first, but clevercactus has had the same type of offering for awhile.
"There ought to be limits to freedom"
Wouldn't this be a cleaned up and repackaged version of WASTE?
KDrive allows users to set up secure groups across the net, push files to the group, and selectivly share different files with different groups
paul reinheimer
When the RIAA started suing P2P users, I predicted that the future of P2P was going to be some encapsulation-type system, where I could share with people *I* trusted.... and they'd share with people *they* trusted, etc. So, you'd get this "six degrees of separation" deal going on.
The principle would end up working kind of like how terrorist cells work, such that the RIAA managing to bust one overly-trusting user wouldn't immediately jeopardize the rest of the users on the network.
It seems like that's kinda where we're headed with a lot of the new P2P apps coming out: Grouper, WASTE, etc. Now, we just need a system where we can actually *get* files from people we don't immediately trust by having the peers that we *do* trust act as relay stations or something. Granted, it increases traffic, but it cuts the risk *way* down.... and I don't really mind having to leave my P2P app running all night provided I can do it with impunity.
It makes perfect sense. You STREAM it, not download it. You can't copy it to your computer and save it there from within the program. You can merely stream the audio, which is not the same as saving it to your hdd.
As far as the "private" performance, it should hold up in that only your invited/allowed "friends" (at this point up to 30) can listen to any given song at any given time. It's not offered to the general public. This would be like me having some friends over and playing music from my personal MP3 library. It's not a public performance because only my friends are listening to it, and they are only there because I invited them to the private gathering.
But the tricksy lawyerses will probably take away the precious anyway they like because they hates the precious and would rather see us dead than have it.
Justin...
Just what is it about working for AOL that makes people want to design and distribute software that ' sticks it to the MAN '?
Is it the bad coffee, doyathink?
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
This sounds almost exactly like WASTE, and being made by a "former AOL employee" is too much of a coincidence. Either this is WASTE, or it was "inspired" by WASTE.
But either way, it's closed source -- so what's the point? It's not as if it had a head start or anything; you might as well just use the Free version.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I use and really like the idea of WASTE, although i wish it had a nicer UI. This takes it to an extreme and over complicates the matter. Also, as far as secure goes, I have issues with having to register to use it. I'm going to stick to WASTE where I don't have to worry about any third parties.
(This sig intentionally left blank.)
Just another thought (as this is similar to an application that I brainstormed with a friend a couple years back):
It would be great to have a "trickle-sync" directory designation, so you could automatically share amongst group members. It would work like this:
One person would drop files into a directory designated as "trickle-sync", and it would be slowly passed-along to everyone else in the group automatically without any prompting (assuming they enabled that feature on their machines). Rather than using full available bandwidth, it might be set to, say, a 5kb/sec maximum or something (or dynamically adjust the bandwidth depending on what else is happening on the network at the time).
The idea being that if you found a new song, program, video file etc. that you think other people in your group might be interested in, you'd just drop it in that folder and eventually everyone else would get it automatically and save them the trouble of having to go look for it and download it.
The trickle-sync folder could have a maximum size limit on it, so if new files arrived and the folder was over-size, it would delete the oldest files first to make room for the new stuff.
N.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
When I got on the internet for the first time I was on dial-up. It cost money to stay on the net. My first thought was to download as much as I could, so that I could use it when I needed it (Downloading whole sites for offline viewing pleasure. Eg. Code sample archives).
:). I know it's pretty far out, but it would've been neat. Any thougts?
I felt that way about programs too. I had to download them to my computer. I burned them out and archived them, just in case I would need them for a reinstall or for a friend.
Nowadays I seldom keep the installation program of applications. Why? Because I know they're out there. I can get them at a moments notice. How come? I've got a broadband connection now.
This is how I feel the next generation file sharing will become. Currently everyone is downloading everything. To have it handy. To use it. It doesn't need to be like that. I don't yet know how the technical solutions will be (if they ever will).
Imagine: A world wide archive of music at your fingertips. You don't have (much) of it at your hard drive, because it's accessible through the net. You have your favorite music "bookmarked" to make your collection. Music playback is instantly - because of the evolution of the speed of the net, and the evolution of the file sharing technology.
You won't have to think about "the files" as files. You think of them as entities. Always accessible.
You'll (as mentioned) probably have to keep a part of the world wide collection at your hard drive. (If it can't be stored at the net, always flowing).
Well, some of my thoughts.