Slashdot Mirror
Faster Feeds Using FeedTree Peer-To-Peer
dsandler writes "Researchers at Rice University have just released version
0.7 of FeedTree, a peer-to-peer
system for distributing Web feeds faster. Instead of polling feeds
independently, FeedTree users cooperate to share news updates
using multicast in Pastry, a scalable p2p
overlay network. FeedTree reduces the update delay for existing RSS and Atom
feeds to a few minutes without putting extra stress on the webserver (anyone
who's ever been temporarily banned by Slashdot's RSS feed knows this is a real
concern). Feed publishers can also choose to push digitally signed updates
for immediate, tamper-proof delivery to subscribers. The client software (download) runs on Linux, OS
X, and Windows, and works with any desktop feed reader."
Now how do we get a plugin for something like this mass installed into browsers like that of flash, so that a web app like google reader (but independently developed, maybe specialized to other things) can take advantage of this idea?
That would make for a real nice way of creating awesome web based feed aggregation tools...
http://www.babysmasher.com
http://www.openingbands.com
WIth Bittorrent et al firmly established, why do we need another P2P?
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
I wonder if we'll be sued for downloading copyrighted newsfeeds.
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
It looks like they just re-invented the netnews protocol, which works in a very similar way.
Now how do we get a plugin for something like this mass installed into browsers like that of flash, so that a web app like google reader (but independently developed, maybe specialized to other things) can take advantage of this idea?
"We" get this as soon as you 1) write it for all known platforms that people use for the web 2) integrate it into all of the known browsers for all known platforms.
I see zero need for a plugin where a standalone app can do the same thing without destroying my web experience in the process.
Remember the mid-late 90s when everybody and their mother wanted you to install a new plugin that did not work properly to view their website?
Do we want to ruin the web again with untested and proprietary extensions like plugins?
Personally, I'm much happier now that I can use one web browser to browse the web. I get a little grumpy when I go to a website that tells me my computer is not good enough for their lack of web programming abilities.
Lets stick to standards, or I'll come flying at you in the USofA at 100mph in the left lane because I feel as though that is the "better" lane to drive in. After all, that is what they use in Japan and England right?
I remember seeing something like this in my logs over a year ago. I would see lines like this in my access log:
/rdf10_xml HTTP/1.1" 200 5322 "" "Shrook/76p (Distributed; +http://www.fondantfancies.com/shrook/distfaq.php) "
66.177.198.139 - Anonymous [04/Apr/2005:03:04:17 -0500] "GET
I haven't seen a hit from this in a while, perhaps that effort didn't gain much traction. Who knows if this one will... I never saw Shrook mentioned on Slashdot.
I wonder: If GMail were to incorporate an RSS reader (the way Thunderbird does), it could potentially update many, many users with a single hit of each RSS site.
I'm leaning towards using RSS as a way to do announcements rather than maintain a mailing list. Rather than tell me you want me to send you updates (and deal with being potentially a spammer, deal with your unsubscribe, your email address change, etc.), just poll my site every so often (days, for the lists I'm talking about; hours, for Slashdot) and let it show up in your mail queue.
The idea isn't quite ready for prime time; too few people use RSS. But GMail could make that happen in one fell swoop. Well, two fell swoops: you'd need some sort of browser extension to make the little orange "RSS feed" button notify GMail.
I wonder if just having GMail (and hotmail, aol, and yahoo) handle that would solve the problem to the point where we no longer needed a P2P RSS distribution system.
Alternatively, if ISPs were to cache the RSS feeds the way some do with certain web pages, that might also take a lot of the load off. People will still impolitely set their RSS readers to check the feed every 10 seconds, but at least it never gets out onto the backbone if it's cached at the ISP.
Try saying that headline 5 times fast!
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
As a Rice Computer Science student I would like to point out that Pastry actually originated at Rice, under Dan Sandler. The first framework was in Java. You can see from his web page that he's responsible for FeedTree, too.
Microsoft Research became interested in the product and ported it to C#, effectively turning it into the form it is now. Many classes at Rice have now "backported" it, I guess you could say, and it's used for many of our classes that involve distributed networks, such as the current COMP 410 class which has previously turned out distributed file and process system codename Voltron.
Here's a link to the paper co-authored by Sandler and others at Rice.
I'm afraid I don't understand what problem this is solving. It's like a solution that's still looking for an problem to solve. As an end user, why should I care? I'm not trolling; I just don't get it.
What is humor if not pain tempered by time?
I'm not entirely sure what happened at Rice w.r.t. Pastry. What I was told by Dr. Wong that Rice had a Pastry version, MS adopted it and converted it to C#, then allowed us to use it freely. All of this was part of an elective class called COMP 410 that students take. Basically, a team of 10-20 people act like a software company, self-organize, meet with a "client" (professor acting like one) and build a huge system.
:]
And yes, we use entirely Microsoft software. But I think it's a good thing. When I took it, Microsoft gave us copies of Visual Studio 2003, SQL Server, and funding for some tablet PCs to use as part of the project. I thought it was a *superb* experience to work with so much real-world technology.
Yes, I suppose one could say that MS is stifling open-source competition... but seriously, we were building an application that used a distributed cluster of SQL Server databases, transactionally changed by Enterprise Services features with Event Queueing; all of this also used a distributed file and processing system based on Pastry (C#). Getting all that to work together with open-source in a single semester would be quite a challenge. What database would we even use? MySQL is definitely not capable of that. And Oracle isn't free.
So, in this case at least, I think Microsoft's support of us has been positive for students. We are not just a Microsoft shop -- there is even a research group at Rice called the Programming Languages Team, which focuses almost exclusively on Java for research projects. I'm currently involved in improving the open-source, student-oriented Java IDE called Dr Java, which is under the purview of PLT.
*Pant*
Well, I'm sorry this turned into a rant. I guess my point of this: Microsoft has not caused Rice to give up open-source software or anything like that. In reality, their funding has exposed us to more software and more systems than we would have otherwise. I think that is a Good Thing.
It is neither a good thing for students to be exposed solely to OSS, nor solely closed-source industry software. A university should educate well-rounded people, and much like liberal-arts universities require students to take many subjects, Rice exposes CS students to different technologies and environments in its computer science program. Otherwise, how can I ever decide which is best for a task?
[Note: I am heavily, personally in favor of Microsoft software and have accepted an internship with them in the C# Compiler group next summer. But this doesn't mean I dislike Java or OSS; I don't see why there has to be a conflict at all. Use whatever tool suits you best.
But that's just me. I'm going to do *my* best to make C#.NET the best language it can be. If you like Java, fine! We can learn from another