Peer-to-peer Deck Exchange

Post by **Programmer** » Sun 21 Jan, 2007 2:30 pm

Today I have uploaded a prototype version of a program that I would like people to test. It isn't the normal tarot beta, but a separate application. It involves an idea that I have been actively testing over the last few months, and thinking about for almost a year.

I suspect that many of us have a dabble at making a deck from time to time, and we would be happy to share our work with other users. The Deck Exchange should be the medium for doing this, but the Deck Exchange has a couple of problems in this respect.

First of all, it requires constant maintainence on the part of the volunteer administrators (Scorp, Webweaver, Chriske, Barbara and Dominatrix). This is necessary in order to make sure that decks don't appear on the exchange while there might be unresolved copyright issues. Most of the copyright issues never do get resolved, but this filtration process means that when we upload our creations there might be a delay of several days before they become available on the DE. I know that many users get frustrated by this (Marvin will agree with me!).

The second problem is that the Deck Exchange is not anonymous. You might feel reticent about uploading your own work because it might seem presumptious to do so. Some people are less inhibited in this sense, which is great, but many of us aren't.

My idea to resolve both these issues (and others to do with scalability and bandwidth) is to replace the current DE with an anonymous peer to peer file sharing mechanism. This would permit us to search a list of all the shared decks of other users who are logged on, without seeing who is sharing them. The search results would include basic details about the deck (is it tarot, cartomancy, divination, an other file, the number of cards it contains etc). You could then see a preview or request the deck itself, as the program networks directly with the other user's machine. By default none of your decks would be shared - you would have to actively select a deck for sharing in order for other users to see it.

I am excited about this idea, because I think it will encourage a great deal of creativity. However I know that some people will inevitably get upset, as they always do when the program changes, and this is something I want to avoid as much as possible. For this reason I think it makes sense to develop this as a separate program and allow the testing to run for several months while I can determine whether the new file share paradigm works not just technically but also in terms of its popularity, whether enough people have enough decks they are ready and willing to share to make it worthwhile, etc.

If you would like to try the new tool out you can download the setup files from the downloads page. Remember that this is a separate program, you don't have to uninstall the Orphalese Tarot. You will have to be logged in through the program to see the download link though. Those who do, please remember that this is experimental software and be sure to take a back up of your Orphalese Tarot files (decks, spreads, readings) beforehand. If you have any feedback please post in here. Thank you!

Richard

Post by **Programmer** » Mon 22 Jan, 2007 7:21 am

Whoops...

Someone just pointed out to me that the version of the peer-to-peer program that I uploaded yesterday was an old one (the set-up file is dated December last year).

Apologies to anyone who has downloaded and installed it and found it doesn't seem to do anything. Please uninstall that one and try again!

If in any doubt, the caption bar of the main window should say OT Network Share Version 2.0. Anything else and you have the wrong version installed.

Post by **Dominatrix** » Mon 22 Jan, 2007 11:10 am

Installed the new version and tested it... Boy, this is the best invention on the history of mankind since pr0n movies! The service needed for OT P2P is up and running, and now I'm downloading several decks from an unknown samaritan (it must be you, Richard).

The program is VERY easy to operate (even easier than File Exchange), since you only have three buttons to make eveything work. Get the list, share some decks and start the fun! You have previews for any file before donwloading, and nice new icons for the app by yours truly. No need to be familiarized with current P2P progs, this is deceptively intuitive and straightforward.. There's some interesting decks to download right now, but the most users connected, the better. So don't be shy and if you have a decent always on connection, give it a try. You'll be surprised...

Now you know why Richard was working so secretly these months.. Download and install, you'll not regret. Best to all.

Post by **Programmer** » Mon 22 Jan, 2007 2:07 pm

Ha ha, I am glad you are enjoying it - I have downloaded a few of your never before seen decks as well :)

I just uploaded the next minor revision to the program, it is now version 2.1. The difference is that this uses the JPEG format for the previews instead of GIF format. I noticed that the GIF format does not really do justice to the decks we are exchanging and the extra payload does not amount to more than a few bytes.

As you have already added your decks, the previews that other users receive from you will continue to be gif files. They will only get the JPEG quality if you delete the decks from your share list and re-add them. This should not matter because the program will read either format when it creates the preview, but if you wanted to offer the better quality images now you can do.

Cheers!

Post by **Programmer** » Mon 22 Jan, 2007 2:10 pm

PS - I had forgotten to give you due credit for the icons. When users see the animated World and Wheel of Fortune I am sure they will be gobsmacked .-)

Post by **Dominatrix** » Mon 22 Jan, 2007 3:35 pm

Wise move. 255 colour dithering ruins most of the previews... and previews are the last instance that encourages an user to download a given deck. I've deleted the shared decks as you indicated, but the GIF previews were still there, on the Thumbs folders. Deleted it, added a bunch of new decks I had around, and everything is working just fine. Now some questions that will arise for sure in the future:

1) If I close the program for whatever the reason, and the Orphalese service is active, does that means that my decks are still available, and people can download them?

2) How I know new decks have been added to the sharing by other users? Just using the blue arrows icon from time to time?

When addind decks and editing the info, a pair of JIT errors arose, but just closing the window and open it again solved the annoyance.

After the second addition for clearing the GIF previews, there's 40+ decks waiting to be downloaded. A lot of X and some never seen on the OTZ before. If I were you, I would install the P2P really quick before I clean the drawer... Best.

Post by **Programmer** » Mon 22 Jan, 2007 4:02 pm

First of all, I was puzzled when the notification of your post turned up in my email box saying Programmer has posted.... Very strange, but I will worry about that one later.

Your first question is whether it is right that your decks are always available. You are right that this is a question people are sure to ask, and before I answer it let me anticipate another question which people will ask: why is this peer-to-peer file exchange so slow compared to the other one? They are both good questions. On average it has been taking me about two minutes to request and receive a deck from your machine, whereas the normal deck exchange only takes a few seconds.

The answer is that yes, the decks you have chosen to share will be available whenever the Windows service is running. I programmed it this way so there are always the maximum number of decks for people to download. The important thing to stress is that you should never notice when your machine is sending a deck to another user in response to their request. This is because the outgoing file transfer always takes place as a background task, with the lowest possible priority that Windows can assign. And it is partly for this reason that the file transfer is quite a bit slower that the regular deck exchange. It should also be mentioned that upload speeds in general are slower than download speeds, and the transfer as it takes place on the wire will always reflect the lowest connection speed of the two parties. For anyone who might be worrying about the affect of this on their internet connection though, up stream and down stream operations are quite different, so the fact that your computer might be serving a deck to another user will not affect your experience of browsing the internet (although it might mean it temporarily takes longer to send outgoing email messages).

Your second question is very easily answered - yes, just hit the refresh button from time to time and you will see the latest shared decks, as well as publish any changes in your own shared list.

Cheers,

Richard

Post by **purple_scorp** » Mon 22 Jan, 2007 8:07 pm

Hi Richard,

I haven't downloaded the new p2p software yet because I'm on holidays but will do so when I return to work (much faster net connection there .)). I really haven't Orphalesed much at all lately (which includes admin work too).....sorry.

I can't wait to test the p2p as it sounds like a fantastic way to go. Congratulations. Naturally, I will post any comments here.

Oh, and yes, your tags......all of the posts from Orphalese that I'm receiving in the mail say that I (purple_scorp, that is the user) have posted the message. For a while I wasn't getting any tags....now they are all me. So, I suspect everybody is seeing their own user names as the poster.

regards
purple_scorp

Post by **Programmer** » Mon 22 Jan, 2007 8:35 pm

Thanks for the tip re the tags - let's see!

Post by **Programmer** » Mon 22 Jan, 2007 8:36 pm

Ahem, let's see...