WASTE 1.6 "Special Edition"

[Mazer]

Originally Posted by JackSpratts

in the meantime there are those who need objective information about this system now.

It's all there in the source code. Any and all security holes are visible, naked to the world. If the newer versions of WASTE were not as secure then either they would be fixed or nobody would use them. My advice to AngryGnome, use caution with any new software you try, but don't be afraid just because the original author had no part in this particular code branch. I'll bet there are coders out there who are just as talented as Justin Frankel, and I'd be willing to believe some of them had a hand in WASTE 1.6.

By the way, if I sound argumentative I apologize. Maybe I've been spending too much time in the Political Asylum.

Originally Posted by vernarial

What would you suggest these days, Mazer? I know you still use Waste. Is there a better option? Just wondering, not looking for debate.

Personally I don't have an other preference. WASTE appeals to my inner geek (not to mention my curiosity about human nature), but WASTE scares a lot of people away because they don't have an inner geek. I'd suggest any program that encrypts all communications, and while public key encryption sounds great in theory, WASTE's implementation is too complex. Programs that use web standard Transport Layer Security also use public key encryption, but they handle the key exchange transparently making them much more accessible to non-technical users, and when you take away the guesswork then network security inherently improves.

AllPeers looks like a good alternative, though it does lack a group chat feature. It doesn't organize users into meshes like WASTE does; all connections are one to one so you can add someone to your personal buddy list without exposing the identities or files that others in your buddy list are sharing with you. No permission is required which means you have total control over your connection to your peers.

WASTE by contrast builds webs of trust and forces individuals to consider other people because the actions of one individual can affect the whole group. This is not always a good thing, given the low level of rationality and maturity that many internet users demonstrate. I've seen groupthink split meshes apart and drive members away. WASTE just isn't for everybody, in fact it's not for most people.

I've learned a lot about prejudice and fear from my experiences with WASTE. The software is more like a mad scientist's social experiment than a serious file sharing tool, but it does the job as advertised. In the future I'd prefer to use an encrypted file sharing tool that does not raise animosity and make people afraid of the outside world, and my search for a program with those features continues.