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(a)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.