Hoi, A research project is a research project because it helps to learn something new. I support the VU project because it may bring us an alternate way of providing information in a reliable way. Your argument is that there is no example yet. My argument is that this research may prove how to do exactly what has never been done before.
When you read the VU paper, you will find that security is addressed. You will also find how the distribution of content is modelled. I know that the VU will use a GRID to do the simulation of traffic. These guys have the tools to do a decent job !!
When you state that we do not need to use cheaper hardware, it does not mean at all say that we have a healthy balance sheet. Our auditors indicate that we should have a reserve of a specific size; we do not have it. We expect that our growth will continue unabated; our efforts to get more money will have to be in line with these expectations. No, your assessment that our income is satisfactory is wrong. There are other costs other than hardware. I think we are asking too much from people like Anthere and the other board members; remember they are volunteers and I would not be surprised if it is like a full time job for them.
Thanks, GerardM
Simetrical schreef:
On 2/18/07, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote:
Hoi, Have you been paying attention lately; our costs and our traffic are growing exponentially. We do not have a rosy balance sheet as it is. Users will be extremely unhappy when we are not able to continue to provide our service.
Costs are growing exponentially, but so is income. Wikipedia has enough money to continue operations. It's not going to disappear due to hardware costs, as a board member has recently stated: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-February/027762.html. Notice the emphasis on needing to get more money, not needing to use cheaper hardware.
If you think that a SETI@home-style computing model for a high-load webpage-serving application is practicable, could you point to a single example of anyone pulling this off successfully? Specifically, concerns over trustworthiness (how do we stop agents from putting ads or other content on their copies?) and latency (needs to be routed through extra servers) appear insuperable.