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HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)

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Re: HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)

#221
post #197
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd run a freenet node if it wouldn't expose me to the risk of getting all my gear confiscated by some LEA.

Probably I don't know something: why should it?

Because Freenet is used for distributing CP.

Re: HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, is there a reason that you use both Resilio and Syncthing, instead of just the one?

I originally started using syncthing for own stuff. It works well for my backup needs But the Android interface kinda stinks, so when I wanted to use it with "non-tech" people, I decided to just use Resilio instead. It's quite a bit more refined. I wish it was open source, but you can't have everything.

That's a fantastic answer, thank you. :)

Re: HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine that you and some friends want to launch a small local business and need to host a website. Instead of paying to host it "up in the cloud", why not plug a few raspberry pi's into the walls at each of your houses? Setup, updates, maintenance, tech support, and uptime guarantees, just to name a few reasons that "the cloud" is better. A service like Wordpress.com or Wix beats the self-hosted Pi on all of these…

I don't literally mean a Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is the Apple 2 of what I'm imagining. I'm talking about some next generation stuff, picture a Firestick with a much more refined iteration of sandstorm, with distributed apps that have hardly even been conceived of right today in 2017. If my roommate can plug a Roku into the TV, and knows how to use Ableton Live and Squarespace, there's absolutely no reason he could…

You are trying to communicate a wonderful message with an extreme amount of vision to people who sling code and do devops all day. What many of them may hear is you are asking them to do a bunch of work. But if you think 10-20 years in the future, your server was running something like a Phoenix type environment, then scaling wouldn't be as much of an issue. There are ways that updates and other problems can be abstracted away in a non-cloud environment. There are ways of running lean technologies on commodity hardware for servers.

The bottleneck I see is bandwidth and government regulation of the electromagnetic spectrum. If Amit Pai gets his way then what you are talking about will be much more difficult.

Re: HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)

#224
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there is one thing that people know deep in their guts today, its how long an ox could plow before tiring.

Which is why nobody really uses furlongs anymore but there are plenty of other units that are still in use. One example I think we're all familiar is the 'Rack Unit' for servers (i.e 1U, 2U) where 1U is 44.45mm. I don't think there would be any additional clarity gained by saying, "I bought a few 88.9mm servers".

But that's a context specific unit, not intended for general use.

Metric is great for general use simply because of it's multipliers: (...) 1G = 1,000M = 1,000,000K = 1,000,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000m (...)

And also the simple way many units are related as well, like 1L of water having 1kg of mass (yes, with a certain temperature, pressure, yada yada yada)

Re: HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)

#225
post #197
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd run a freenet node if it wouldn't expose me to the risk of getting all my gear confiscated by some LEA.

Probably I don't know something: why should it?

Freenet's model places random content on every node. Sure, it may be encrypted, but if there's a sting and your IP distributes something bad during that sting, you will be investigated and possibly arrested/falsely accused.

It's the same dilemma that Tor exit node operators face. You are essentially loaning your IP out to the masses. Since this is what law enforcement uses to associate internet activity with individuals, there's a high risk that someone will eventually end up "borrowing" your IP to send something illegal.

Re: HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)

#226
post #171
post #49

Why are distributed filesystems like IPFS so popular again these days ? Freenet has been around (and super niche) for close to 20 years soon. Is it because the Bitcoin hype has reinvigorated crypto-anarchists?

A bit of that, a bit of new people realizing the potential and giving it their best shot. I've spoken to a lot of people who say that Freenet was fun, but just too damn slow to be usable.

Freenet and friends are certainly slow, or at least were when I tried them many years ago. It was never really fit for general adoption. IPFS differs in that it's trying to do this "at scale" in a way that may potentially be mass-adoptable.

Re: HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)

#227
post #56
post #46

So a couple questions even reading this... 1. The availability depends on the number of peers like BitTorrent? If so, and if no seed is available, how does one access the content, esp in the context of an intranet? 2. Any change to how we run infrastructure except not serving HTTP?

The usual solutions proposed to fix number 1 is to pay someone to host your content. So basically as before but with the added chattyness and overhead of a p2p protocol.

IMO Filecoin is the most potentially revolutionary thing to come out of the IPFS space, and it or something like it may have impacts that extend beyond keeping content distributed. We badly need a safe, self-organizing, apparently-persistent storage mechanism.

What if a "universal basic income" meant "get paid for sharing your excess disk space"? This could even be made transparent similar to OS page caches, and then everyone with a computer + internet connection would be a participant.

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