> NNTP is a flood fill scheme with no expiry other than time, no replication,
> no control of distribution pattern
What's the problem with flood fill as replication scheme and
distibution pattern? News works, as far as I can observe. And I think
we don't need expiry for CDs.
> DNS is [buzzword hat on] a highly scalable replicating database with extensive
> caching including optional negative caches fault tolerance and load balancing
You forgot to mention hierarchically organized. And while there's
replication, it's not suited for distribution of the _whole_ system,
just for subhierarchies. If you would use DNS mechanisms to replicate
the CD database, you'd have to transmit _all_ zones, where you should
transmit diffs. Heck, even using rsync to transmit the zone files
would work better than using the DNS zone transfer. And I _want_ to be
able to mirror the whole database, not just some subdomain of it.
But the strongest argument in my eyes is that there's again some
central server.
> You query for
>
> AA.BB.CC.DD.[somedomain] for a TXT record
>
> Where AA BB CC DD are the codes computed with the GPL licensed (and thus
> indisputably clean) reference code.
Use some more bits than 32, or you'll get collisions due to the
birthday paradoxon. But I agree that works for accessing the
information.
Andreas
-- "It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the Beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion." -- National Lampoon's "Doon"