Re: [Chicken-users] Some questions about loading libraries

[Jörg F . Wittenberger]

Hi Daniel,

On Jan 18 2013, Daniel Leslie wrote:

> A little off-topic for this list, but it comes up now and then so I'll dive
> into it. Every time Askemos comes up I get a deep curiousity that has me
> exclaiming "What is this thing?!" Especially after perusing pages like this
> one <http://www.askemos.org/index.html/?_v=footnote&_id=1223>.
>
> What's the *goal* for Askemos?

Askemos itself is just a (axiomatic) software architecture.

The more cloudy our infrastructure the fragile it becomes -> risks ->
legal regulation "needed" -> society re-shaped in medieval style.

It shall be a tool for the people to judge which kind of infrastructure
they want to trust with their data/processing.  For the sake of
independence from service providers mercy.
( iFeudalism as Bruce Schneier would call it:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.html )

> Is it a passion project or is there a bigger picture in mind?

There is some passion, after all it's an ethic aim.
All started by the remark of a philosopher that systems "owned"
by administrators are not "good enough" for business, science and privacy;
just toys so to speak.

Post-grad studies produced a solution in theory.
Applied to existing systems seeking something to live with...
none found compliant... try looking into postgresql and zope,
but no chance seen to add the feature... start rolling our own.

Goal: have a practical & compliant system.  (Now BALL.askemos.org )
Goal 2: Make a living from supporting a worthy goal.

Company founded, R&D projects done.  Did work for several years.
Not as good as hoped for at the beginning.
Good enough for use now: See http://sth.softeyes.net/?_v=search&_id=2352
used by teenage practitioners and seniors there.

Bigger picture: could be used as a foundation for eMoney.
The real one, backed by economic assets, not simple hardship
and luck of minting like bitcoin.
Even though probably post mortal to mine.  ;-)

> And, erm, what are the minimal steps for bootstrapping a server which can
> collaborate on this* *ethical cloud?

1. Have a machine mostly connected to the net.  One port reachable
from outside.

My personal peer is a Segate DocStar.  The server process eats
80M virtual memory right now; about normal.  It's a bit slow under load.

2.0: Break the rules (for now) and have me bootstrap your peer for 
simplicity.

Alternatively do this:

2. Install the software.  (let me double check… it hasn't changed
for quite a while; but the tarballs at the website are almost
one year old.  Will have to check if that's right.) I tend to use .deb's .

3. Create own peer data.  Ups: while re-doing docs this seems to
have been lost.  This process was to be cleaned up anyway.

4. Caveat: we still live with X509 certificates and only
one CA.  Lack of coding power.  So you need a certificate from
this CA here.

5. Connect, use and allow users (one-by-one) to use your peer too.

Thanks for asking Daniel!

/Jörg
.........