Scuttlebot: Peer-to-peer database, identity provider, and messaging system • Hacker News Board

Re: Scuttlebot: Peer-to-peer database, identity provider, and messaging system

#121

Post by jitschlit » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

kbumsik wrote: post #106

SyrupThinker wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After reading about the protocol I came to a similar conclusion as you. Although it needs to be noted that the JSON serialization is defined as JSON.stringify as defined in ECMA-262 6th Ed. plus some more. To me it's worse that key order must be preserved, which this standard does not specify the way I understand it. Source: https://ssbc.github.io/scuttlebutt-protocol-guide/#message-f...

> In brief, the rules are: - Two spaces for indentation. - Dictionary entries and list elements each on their own line. - etc... This is so weird to me. Why a protocol needs a strict, opinionated format of JSON? If they really need a very specific format of JSON, why they even bother JSON? There are better options like protobuf. This seems the worst example of "Use JSON for everything".

Just a guess, but maybe so they can reliable hash it?

Re: Scuttlebot: Peer-to-peer database, identity provider, and messaging system

#122

Post by tlavoie » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #108

zozbot234 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I loved taking my laptop out on the train or to a coffee shop, and replying to threads and publishing a post to SSB while offline. Something about reading other peoples ideas while disconnected, and then writing my thoughts, and having them automatically sync to the network when I got back on my WiFi at home, gave me a different perspective on ways to use technology. You can do this with Usenet and most BBS's. Most…

One cool feature of Scuttlebot is that if you and your friend are already following each other, you only need a connection to each other P2P to be able to send messages to each other. So if you're on a train with ad-hoc WiFi connected to each other, you can still proceed as usual and sync stuff. I don't think this feature exists in Usenet and BBS's where there is a central server who masterminds the sync that everyon…

For BBSs, you're correct. Usenet (and email) used UUCP, which is actually much closer in concept I think here.

UUCP is a store-and-forward mechanism, not dependent on a real-time connection to a particular server. I used to run a node, connected to a guy I'd met who worked for an ISP. He had, gasp, a full-time network connection via ISDN; pretty magical in these days of dial up.

So, Usenet feeds were configured on my own little system, essentially subscribing to the newsgroups I wanted. Periodically, it would dial out to the other gent, upload any new posts from me, and download anything new on those newsgroups. My email came and went the same way. Naturally, what I got was a subset of what he had accessible.

While I never used this functionality, I could have had others call up to me, and I would just be an intermediate link in the chain. RFC 976 (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc976) describes how this works for email, including SMTP over UUCP.

Re: Scuttlebot: Peer-to-peer database, identity provider, and messaging system

#123

Post by capableweb » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 10:54 AM UTC

tlavoie wrote: post #122

capableweb wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One cool feature of Scuttlebot is that if you and your friend are already following each other, you only need a connection to each other P2P to be able to send messages to each other. So if you're on a train with ad-hoc WiFi connected to each other, you can still proceed as usual and sync stuff. I don't think this feature exists in Usenet and BBS's where there is a central server who masterminds the sync that everyon…

For BBSs, you're correct. Usenet (and email) used UUCP, which is actually much closer in concept I think here. UUCP is a store-and-forward mechanism, not dependent on a real-time connection to a particular server. I used to run a node, connected to a guy I'd met who worked for an ISP. He had, gasp , a full-time network connection via ISDN; pretty magical in these days of dial up. So, Usenet feeds were configured on m…

Interesting, I didn't know that (BBS and Usenet was before my time), so thank you for sharing.

That does sound a lot like how Scuttlebot treats feeds as well.