[Blocks-development] V0.16 Release announcement

[Blat F. <pet...@ho...>]

V0.16 is now ready. The web page will (hopefully) be updated
soon to let you all get the most recent binaries (including
Linux binaries!) and source (which now builds on Linux without
hacking!).

Michael will be running a V0.16 public test server which
you can connect at mspencer.net:8016

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed directly and
indirectly!

Regards,

PG.

Here is a summary of whats new...

1) New protocol version message

   * V0.16 will not connect to previous versions of Blocks. This
     should stop the sort of interoperability problems we saw
	 when moving from V0.14 to V0.15.

2) Big Files

   * Support for files > 250Mb. New limit should be 2Gb.
   * Files which are larger than 10% of the cache size are
     not cached when routing. This stops large files from
	 trampling intermediate servers with small caches.

3) Readvertisements

   * Only non-local files are readvertised (same as V0.15)
   * Only servers with an uptime > 60secs readvertise files.
   * Readvertisements are never routed or broadcast.
   * Latest 512 adverts are immediately readvertised on
     connection, then one every 15 seconds per connection,
	 for another 4096 ads (over some 17hours or so).

4) Enhanced PRNG

   * Entropy from DH Keys fed back in much better
   * Fixed PRNG bug (to do with connection management logic)
   * PRNG now explicitly advanced after uploads, downloads,
     and connections.

5) Faster Uploading

   * V0.15 had an artificial limit of ~20 blocks/sec for
     inserting into the cache. This limit has been removed
     and upload times should be bound by your disk speed.

6) Builds on Linux

   * Should build clean on most Linux variants, as well as
     WIN32 and Solaris.

Stuff which didnt make it this time...

   * Resuming download from local cache.
   * Automatic download route switching.
   * Sticky files.

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