Misc p2p article
George at Orwellian.Org
George at Orwellian.Org
Mon Apr 16 08:45:20 PDT 2001
Also, today's NYT has an article about national security
needs for more language experts.
----
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB987356381635082061.htm
#
# April 16, 2001
#
# Asian Technology
#
# Two New Peer-to-Peer Programs Aim High, but Still Have Glitches
#
# By JEREMY WAGSTAFF Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
#
# Time to grovel. I was hoping this week to be able to trumpet
# a bunch of new programs that free you from some of the physical
# constraints of modern computing. I was hoping to be able to say
# that, at last, you were free of shackles such as overprotective
# technical staff, the corporate Intranet and endless e-mail
# attachments.
#
# But paradise, I'm afraid to say, has to be postponed for a while.
# The two programs I've been toying with, new versions of which
# were both released last week, are Groove Networks Inc.'s Groove
# (www.groove.net1 ) and GoToMyPC (www.gotomypc.com2 ) from
# Expertcity Inc.
#
# Groove is the first serious attempt to introduce peer-to-peer
# computing to the business marketplace, giving employees a chance
# to communicate and share files by setting up their own online
# work groups. GoToMyPC offers the first Web-based -- and legal
# -- method of accessing and controlling another computer. Both,
# in theory, are great ideas, elegant in their simplicity and
# genuinely useful. But neither worked perfectly.
#
# Peer-to-peer computing -- where multiple users can interact
# directly, rather than through a server -- is probably the next
# great thing for the Internet. Best known as a way to swap music
# over the Net via Napster, so-called P-to-P applications allow
# much more, such as letting users share files, messages or
# calendars, or collaborate in real time on a document or drawing.
#
# As I've mentioned before, the Web will start coming into its
# own once people stop obsessing about how to make money out of
# other users and start capitalizing on the intrinsic benefits
# of having millions of people all sharing a network.
#
# Peer-to-peer computing offers users the chance to set up their
# own personalized networks atop the public Web. Without these
# P-to-P systems, people have to use a number of imperfect
# alternatives. For instance, users can rely on their Internet-
# service providers to provide the tools (but they may be held
# hostage to proprietary programs or HTML); or use corporate
# networks (jealously guarded by techies rightly afraid of viruses
# and other abuses); or shuffle e-mail messages among team members
# (a cumbersome process).
#
# In practice, Groove isn't quite mature yet. The preview edition
# looks and feels professional, and carries loads of useful
# features, including instant messaging, file sharing, even a
# doodling pad. It also supposedly works behind a firewall, and
# around problems such as connecting to computers that share the
# same Internet connection.
#
# Although the program is sturdier than its beta ancestors, I found
# it unstable and unreliable. On one computer it wouldn't load
# properly; on another it behaved erratically through the company
# firewall and offered no easily accessible options that I could
# tweak to make it perform better.
#
# Disappointing, but not fatal. Groove, or something like it, is
# definitely the wave of the future: Freeing up employees to set
# up their own peer groups without cluttering the corporate Intranet
# makes sense. Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, for one,
# agrees: Last week it bought 10,000 licenses for more than 100,000
# employees world-wide, making it Groove Networks' first paying
# customer.
#
# GoToMyPC, meanwhile, tackles a similar problem from a slightly
# different angle, and is a unilateral peer-to-peer system, rather
# than the more common variety that lets anyone talk to anyone
# else. Whether on the Net or not, users have been hamstrung by
# the fact that generally they only can run one computer at a time.
# Working from home? Chances are you only can access the office
# network with difficulty. Forget a vital file at home? There are
# only one or two programs available that allow you to access a
# remote computer, and most of them aren't Internet-based. Instead,
# these programs rely on actually dialing into the computer via
# a phone line.
#
# GoToMyPC aims to make the process simpler by harnessing the
# Internet to link computers. It sounds simple, and it is: Assuming
# the two computers are connected to the Internet (and most office
# computers permanently are hooked up, as are PCs on a cable modem
# or other high-speed Internet connection), the software merely
# links them together. It establishes a digital handshake between
# the two computers and makes sure the connection is secure from
# prying eyes. That in a nutshell is how GoToMyPC works.
#
# Once again, in theory, this sounds good. The number of times
# I've left important files in the office, or at home, doesn't
# bear thinking about. To be able to fire up an Internet connection
# -- any-where, anytime, since the software is simple to install
# and not limited to any particular host PC -- and access your
# data and programs is a very appealing idea.
#
# In practice, of course, there are problems. One is security.
# If you can get into the computer, chances are some ne'er-do-well
# can too, whatever levels of security Expertcity applies (and
# there are plenty of them). That's why a lot of people disconnect
# their computers from the Internet when they aren't around, even
# if they're paying for a 24-hour connection (and if you don't
# you should seriously consider doing so).
#
# The other problem may perhaps be due to my own dumbness and the
# slowness of my connection but I couldn't get my two computers
# to talk to each other at all. What's more, the software didn't
# appear smart enough to know it already was loaded, so it would
# go through this song-and-dance routine of installing fresh widgets
# every time I tried to establish a connection. In the end it would
# have been quicker for me to have gotten a taxi, caught the
# afternoon shuttle flight, walked home from the airport and grabbed
# the files myself.
#
# Finally, I'm not sure system administrators are going to be that
# happy about allowing this kind of thing on their networks. Indeed,
# Expertcity appears aware of this and offers a template for an
# e-mail message you can send to your system administrator. Knowing
# a few of these guys myself, it sounds a bit optimistic.
#
# Both of these programs are worth trying out -- they're free,
# at least for the moment -- as long as you've got a good Internet
# connection and you don't mind tinkering with glitchy software.
# I'm not going to get too excited about them for now, but one
# day we may all be wondering how we lived without them.
#
# Write to Jeremy Wagstaff at jeremy.wagstaff at awsj.com5
URL for this Article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB987356381635082061.djm
Hyperlinks in this Article:
(1) http://www.groove.net/
(2) https://www.gotomypc.com
(3) http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB98633805226227884.djm
(4) http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB974071105710705230.djm
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