P2P means postcardasxml can chat location to peer

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P2P means postcardasxml can chat location to peer

Paul Sheldon-2
There was some misleading stuff, I believe, about croquet locations being meaningful over internet without a server of a Wiscworlds, but allegations are to the contrary indicating peer to peer collaboration with no need of server :

http://scobleizer.com/2006/05/06/wow-3d-operating-system-open-croquet/

Action item :
IT people at Redlands and Pasadena library finding time with me to fool with this concept. I've only done multiple installs at Apple Willowbend Store and had wifi P2P, not internet P2P, yet.

Have high speed access person away from IT control worries.

Brains fried. Composition so far bad. Sorry.
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Re: P2P means postcardasxml can chat location to peer

Howard Stearns
I'm not sure what you're asking or asserting, Paul.

Yes, the Scobleizer blog was good.

Re P2P:  Ummm, define P2P. I don't know how to do that. I can tell  
you how Croquet works:

Each participating peer completely computes their own results. The  
Croquet model keeps the simulations in sync based on the idea that  
the same inputs at the same time will produce the same results.  The  
current version of Croquet uses a technique called "Simplified Tea  
Time" to provide the notion of "inputs at the same 'time'."  
Specifically, each participating peer sends its inputs (e.g., mouse  
movement, keyboard press), to a "router" which timestamps the input  
and distributes it to each participant.

Is this P2P?  I don't know. If it isn't, then I guess nothing on the  
Internet is P2P, because the Internet uses routers to transmit  
messages. So does Croquet. Just like IP hardware routers, Croquet  
routers do no computation: they just timestamp messages and forward  
them.

Croquet routers are implemented in software. Any machine is fine,  
including one of the participants.

For practical purposes, it is convenient to have the router be on a  
fixed IP address relative to each participating peer. (Experimental  
version of Croquet have used hole-punching techniques that did not  
require this, but I don't know of anyone working with this approach  
right now.)

The Croquet SDK code broadcasts router locations on the LAN. Over a  
Wide Area Network, various other techniques can be used, including  
just hardcoding a fixed router address. The SDK also has tools to  
display your router information as XML, which can be sent via any  
external means such as email, text chat, etc.

WiscWorlds and a related current project, KidsFirst (http://
www.wetmachine.com/item/684), do make use of what we call "continuity  
servers."   These are nothing more than a router on a fixed IP  
address plus an ordinary participant that stays connected forever,  
and thus provides continuity even when the last person leaves and  
comes back later.  Maybe we shouldn't call it a "server"?

Eventually, I could image distributed routers -- what might be called  
"Full Tea time" -- in which each peer acts as node in an overlay  
distribution network. The message delivery aspects of this are fairly  
straightforward and covered in academic literature. But frankly I  
don't know how to do the time coordination part. That's a question  
for David Reed...

Howard Stearns
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Division of Information Technology


On Jan 8, 2007, at 7:28 PM, Paul Sheldon wrote:

> There was some misleading stuff, I believe, about croquet locations  
> being meaningful over internet without a server of a Wiscworlds,  
> but allegations are to the contrary indicating peer to peer  
> collaboration with no need of server :
>
> http://scobleizer.com/2006/05/06/wow-3d-operating-system-open-croquet/
>
> Action item :
> IT people at Redlands and Pasadena library finding time with me to  
> fool with this concept. I've only done multiple installs at Apple  
> Willowbend Store and had wifi P2P, not internet P2P, yet.
>
> Have high speed access person away from IT control worries.
>
> Brains fried. Composition so far bad. Sorry.