Re: Resource discovery, replication (WWW Announcements archives?)

Fisher Mark <FisherM@is3.indy.tce.com>
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Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 20:31:50 +0200
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From: Fisher Mark <FisherM@is3.indy.tce.com>
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Subject: Re: Resource discovery, replication (WWW Announcements archives?)
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Dan Connolly writes in message <9405041031.AA23634@ulua.hal.com>:
>With my broadcast strategy, I just set up a process that gathers new
>articles and expires old ones. Server sites wouldn't necessarily renew
>their announcements at the same interval, but let's say the maximum
>interval for 95% of the sites is one month. Then after two months,
>my database reaches steady-state. From then on, It maintains itself.
>
>And its scalable: everybody has access to everything without anybody
>having to do everything.
Exactly the Right Thing, IMHO :).  Centralized strategies, or the two-phase 
commit strategy in the relational database world, are needed when maximum 
reliability is one of the goals of the information system.  My impression is 
that there is enough redundancy arising from the structure of the Web (home 
pages having pointers to other home pages) that a small proportion of 
out-of-date information would not be much of a problem.  Meanwhile, the 
computing resource requirements should be much less under this scheme. 
 (Unfortunately this is based on hearsay, as our TCP/IP Internet connection 
is not due until summer.)

As far as security goes, <9405041228.AA24223@ulua.hal.com>:
>You may believe that, and you may be right most of the time.
>But there is no mechanism to ensure it. DNS
>can be spoofed. TCP/IP is not inherently secure. In short, security-
>minded folks won't be satisfied.
Security mechanisms will evolve, eventually becoming as common as 
command-line shells.  Remember that the first FORTRAN compiler was a 
research project that took 7 or so man-years to complete (don't have the 
precise figures in front of me).  Now it is expected that an undergraduate 
can write a compiler with modern tools as part of a single-semester course. 
 As security is needed, it will be added.
======================================================================
Mark Fisher                            Thomson Consumer Electronics
fisherm@tcemail.indy.tce.com           Indianapolis, IN

"Just as you should not underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon
traveling 65 mph filled with 8mm tapes, you should not overestimate
the bandwidth of FTP by mail."