Re: [Blocks-development] Some Thoughts on 0.18+ (was V0.17)

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

The intended iminent release of V0.17 would have been
better named V0.16.2 since it mainly fixes V0.16.1 bugs,
but since the inclusion of long filenames was in popular
demand and this violates the protocol, V0.17 it is.

So, most of the comments below relate to V0.18 or later.

>From: "Erik Moeller" <mo...@sc...>
>To: blo...@li...
>Subject: [Blocks-development] Some Thoughts on 0.17
>Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 04:26:22 +0200
>
>Please discuss:
>
>	Possible Bugs in 0.16:
>		- I try to download file X and I get "connection not
>		  available". OK, but shouldn't the route then be removed
>		  from adverts.dat? It isn't.

Blocks uses a very lazy method of maintaining adverts.dat that
can lead to some unavailable files being listed. I think it
works better than I expected tho :)

adverts.dat can contain upto 100,000 adverts (~12Mb) and its stored
on disk. It would be very inefficient to have to scan and modify
this file everytime a node anywhere on the Blocknet disconnects.

Instead Blocks maintains a 'blacklist' of bad routes in memory
each with its own timestamp. All adverts matching the search
pattern which are not blacklisted or are newer than the
blacklist timestamp get listed. This is much more efficient.

>
>	General Ideas:
>
>		- Speed Requirements. Once the maximum number of nodes is
>		  reached, every 5 minutes, the node with the lowest average
>		  transfer speed (if transfers have occurred) is eliminated
>		  from the connections list.
>		  Desired effect: High speed nodes carry much data. Low
>		  speed nodes carry little data.
>		  (I had some other ideas for this, but this seems the most
>		  elegant solution. It doesn't rely on user-provided data
>		  but uses the actual real-life values as a base.)

Hmmm... in a large Blocknet you would see a *lot* of
disconnections being advertised. High speed nodes are
only really relevant if you have a direct connection to
them, and replication might mean to you dont actually
get the data from source anyway. I think this idea
will have to wait until we have larger Blocknets so that
we can get a better idea of the effect this would have.

>
>	Suggestions for 0.17:
>
>	Fixes:
>		- 85 char limit
>		  128 chars should be sufficient, even I don't have longer
>		  names than that. Don't forget that these also have to be
>		  routed in the adverts.

Fixed. New 132 limit.

>		- Large files still trample over small caches.

Fixed. (definately this time, I nope :-)
This was actually much more complex to do than I first
imagined.

>
>	New Features:
>		- Error Message Queue. The main window should have a button
>		  "0 Errors". Whenever something goes wrong, the counter
>		  is increased. When you click on it, you get a list of
>		  the errors with a "Clear All" option. This should take
>		  the place of the current message boxes.
>		  Reason: Errors no longer stop the operation of the program.
>		  Example: Download timeouts -- automatically proceeds to
>		  the next files without asking the user for acknowledgment.

Yes, this is a very good idea. I think it will appear in the
near future, but as a useability feature it has a slightly
lower priority than core stuff. I'd say the chances are better
than 50/50 on it making it into the next release tho.

>
>		- Bogus Routes. Sticky files get a bogus letter attached at
>		  the end and the TTL increased by 1 before they are
>		  advertised. Cached files don't.
>		  Reason: Prevent my neighbours from finding out which
>	 	  files I am serving directly.
>		  Example: Search for Britney*. Result has route AB. I
>		  don't know whether the file is cached on A and coming
>		  from B or whether A is the true owner. Result has
>		  route A. I know that A just caches the file.

Sticky files. My thoughts on sticky files change almost daily.
Certainly the completely transient cache used by Blocks is
a limitation that will probably deter people from using Blocks,
but on the other hand its a big part of what makes Blocks
secure.

Certainly, adding a bogus routing letter at all adverts
for files stored locally(sticky or otherwise) seems like a
good idea. We couldnt add it for every file though, or
you could assume all ads with 2 chars had a bogus one
on the end. Perhaps they should only be added to files
which are directly uploaded rather than proxied into
cache?? That sounds a bit dangerous tho.

ttfn

PG.


_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at 
http://profiles.msn.com.