[117745] in Cypherpunks
Re: (eternity) black designs (Re: Once you go black, you'll never go back)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ted Anderson)
Thu Sep 9 20:36:26 1999
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 20:17:52 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <0rq4sk099g1Q0c2040@transarc.com>
To: Adam Back <adam@cypherspace.org>
Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
In-Reply-To: <199909092056.VAA22343@server.cypherspace.org>
From: Ted Anderson <ota+@transarc.com>
Reply-To: Ted Anderson <ota+@transarc.com>
On Thu, 9 Sep 1999 21:56:15 +0100 Adam Back <adam@cypherspace.org> wrote:
> 3. have a web of servers which will request information from each
> other, where the web is organised however the operators see fit, or
> using some agreed network structure. You make a request from any node
> and it returns it if it has it
> Freenet (see link from www.cypherspace.org) proposes to do something
> like this.
I found the paper quite intriguing. I've nearly finished reading
through the freenet archives and I must say you are probably the most
reasonable sounding participant. Unfortunately, this sweeping
generalization includes Ian Clark, who tends towards the flippantly
agreeable.
> Not sure of status on freenet project either freenet list
> has gone dead or I have become unsubscribed.
I sent a message[1], responding to a recent pointer on the eternity
mailing list, which hit the freenet list Aug 25th. I've gotten four
msgs since then and the list archive confirms this. The last was 8/26.
> Obviously there are lots of design permutations that could be tried.
I'll try to follow up on some of the more interesting posts tomorrow,
time permitting.
One question I had was on your suggestion for a "variable length hash"
dated 18 June[2]. You say:
Here is a simple efficient variable length hash function. java has
a builtin SHA1 hash function.
SHA1 output size is 20 bits (5 bytes), so we have constant
SHA1_OUTPUT_BYTES.
I though SHA1 has an output size of 20 bytes (160 bits) not 5 bytes. Is
this a mistake or some oddity in the way the Java implementation works?
Also someone (Ian?) responded in a way that gave me the impression that
the SHA1 code is only in the Sun toolkit and not generally available.
Do you know any more about that?
Ted Anderson
[1] http://www.listbot.com/cgi-bin/subscriber?Act=view_message&list_id=freenet_discussion&msg_num=298
[2] http://www.listbot.com/cgi-bin/subscriber?Act=view_message&list_id=freenet_discussion&msg_num=181
