Comments on: Cloudy As Buzzwords

By: Jens Alfke

Jens Alfke — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:34:38 +0000

Anon — I don’t see the distinction the way you do, but in your terminology it’s fair to say that I want both.

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:56:30 +0000

Decentralized vs Distributed. They are subtle but distinct. Thus, I think you wanted both decentralization (of control) and distribution (of services)?

By: n[ate]vw

n[ate]vw — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:37:22 +0000

This is exciting, because it seems like recently developers get so caught up in the potential of the Web that the Internet gets forgotten.

I was twittering/thinking to myself a week ago how it seemed that a standard protocol along the gist of DNS-SD but on a user-trusted subset of the wide area network could be an amazing platform for all sorts of development, but also how it seems that well-honed standards are hard (or at least probably should be) to monetize.

If you are able to put together a marketable program while also putting together the plumbing you describe above in an open manner, that will be a fantastic feat!

By: Jens Alfke

Jens Alfke — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:40:49 +0000

Elliott — Cool! I hope you’ll think it remains interesting even as tawdry reality emerges from the fog of buzzwords ;-)

Joachim — I agree that networking games should be easier. I have a little board-game library that’s awaiting the ability to send moves back and forth; maybe I’ll hook it into Cloudy. Thanks for the link to Pedro, which looks fascinating. I’m going to read the docs even though the word “Prolog” still sends shivers down my spine long after a bad experience with it in college.

Jan — I agree that I was maybe exaggerating for effect. And I’m envious about 9.99-Euro a month virtual servers, even though at current exchange rates that’s probably an arm and a leg for us poor Americans. (But, um, 9.99 :: 1 is an order of magnitude!)

By: Lucas

Lucas — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:55:02 +0000

Hi,

This concept looks promising, I can’t wait to read more…

By: Jan Seeger

Jan Seeger — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:47:13 +0000

Nice article, but I have a little gripe: You write that virtual servers are orders of magnitude more expensive than simple web hosts. While I don’t know about America, here a virtual server (with complete root access) costs 9,99 Euros while a web host costs perhaps one or two. This isn’t an order of magnitude, I’d say…

Otherwise, nice hearing someone who doesn’t think web services are the next best thing to sliced bread…

By: Joachim Bengtsson

Joachim Bengtsson — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:39:43 +0000

I'm always trying to find easier way to build networked games, because that's my favourite kind of application but also so very difficult. Thus, the first thing I did when I ran into the academic network library Pedro was to try to write a game in it. A few hundred lines and I had Mutable Adventure (you can't run it, since Pedro 0.6 isn't officially released yet :P). This is the point at which I realized that this would never become anything more than an experiment, because it's by design utterly insecure and also possibly slow (although I haven't properly benched it yet). Now, you can imagine the first thing I'd like to do the second someone'd release something like what you proposed ;)

By: Elliott Harris

Elliott Harris — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:23:28 +0000

Two things.

First, you’ve got my attention.

Second, I’m totally buying a Cloudy t-shirt.

Sounds like a really, really, really interesting way to solve some fundamental problems, and potentially something that could benefit an endeavour I’ve had in the lab for a while now.

I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment.