dangermouse; glad to hear that :-) This is the first case of crashes being resolved so that's a good sign

sean; it should use only 70% of your idle CPU-time, which shouldn't impact performance on any CPU. In practice though it probably will have a performance impact on lower end computers due to switching between processes and the memory used, but this shouldn't be too bad and should only apply to /really/ old computers

Well, i would beg to differ, i don't mind seein a few adverts in the background, as opposed to some unknown process eating up my cpu cycles and network bandwidth.
I don't even know what cause is my cpu time contributing to.

Prime number searching, protein research and modelling the stock market (lol down at the moment is about all you need to know) are three big things that are done.

Yes, but it's the little things we worry about... ; )

Kestas, did you see my last post above (6 above this one)?

I did flash, but there are no credible ethical or security related issues regarding the use of this service. If you trust me enough to run code I've written you should trust my judgment on this

Re: ads as an alternative, I really just don't like ads. e.g. I use pidgin instead of Windows Live because I hate the idea of ads becoming a core part of everything I do, and it's the main reason I dislike Facebook

This service should be invisible, unnoticable, and it's a good idea that makes use of an otherwise unused resource. Except for some slowdown on very old PCs while using phpDip it should be a win-win situation. For me personally there's no way of knowing it's running without going to the task manager and seeing how much CPU is being used, and I'm using a 1.5GHz Celeron M processor. That, for me, is an ideal revenue stream even if it's less than ads would be :-)

if some people want to opt out how about having a membership fee? something like $10 a year- pretty minimal.for the minors...surely your parents can pay $ 10 a year?
im fine with plura, i think the idea behind it is a great one.

flashman, whats wrong with paypal? im very interested to know coz i have just started using it.
do you have Western Union or something similar in HK? they could do a direct account to account transfer but the fee might be fixed and negate sending little amounts.

I am not qualified to answer the security concerns - so I can't really comment; but I am happy to trust Kestas' judgment on that one.
With regards to ethics, you could argue that the computations might not be ethical. But I think the same argument applies to advertising. What are the companies who benefit from the advertising going to do with their profits? Those activities might just as unethical. In fact supporting any activity could have unintended consequences. The what ifs are endless. Thus until someone can demonstrate that there is real cause for concern with pluraprocessing I am not bothered.

I think Plura is on already, I have no issues. My computer's CPU is usually too idle.

Spyman, I convene with you, so my following statement is purely for the pleasure of the conversation.

There is however a difference between the ethics of an ad and the ethics of a computation.

The ad is a cost for a company, and normally a company will pay proportionally to the number of times an ad is displayed. So, if the ad is against your values and it is displayed to you, you shuld refresh the page! :) In fact you will not buy the product/service advertised and will make the company pay more!

An unethical computation simply happens. Whether you will use or not the X coming out of that calculation, your computer will have contributed to it, no matter what.

I repeat, however: I agree with you that the if's are almost endless...

Kestas, it is not simply a matter of trust,

my machines (various) contain my life's work, as far as the written side goes. I can back it up but it does not stop plagiarism - which has been a problem for me, a real problem, for over twenty years.

My major concern this time round is the new writing, of which there is a lot in development and the fact that, mentioned near the start of this thread, about 10 years ago one of my computers was accessed remotely and the files scanned (confirmed by an expert). I was at that time a major witness in a corruption case.

Once bitten, twice shy. I am very sensitive on this issue.

Flashman, I totally sympathise with you, but if you are using the same machine for typing supersecret docs and connecting to the Internet, running a java applet will not increase your danger significantly.

It's a bit as if you were riding the wing of a flying jumbo jet, and you would now be concerned about the fact you are not wearing an helmet.

With this, I am not saying that you should run the applet (anybody who claimed of having coded something "totally safe" has been regularly proved wrong), what I am saying is that if you really have docs that are that sensitive, you should probably use a different machine than the one you use for leisure/everyday activities.

Thanks. I use multiple machines and the most important one is never connected, it has no internet capability and I never put disks into it - I only ever take from it. However, I need to be on-line sometimes and, as a matter of plain convenience, when I am travelling for example, work from a laptop. This will have a lot of new material on it as I write as the muse takes me and opportunity calls.

I am also not sure whether the coding recognises a machine or an internet address? We have three regular users from my home and if one allows the code, does it simply get into all three? As I understand it, right now, it is active on this machine and Wombat's PC (my son, another Dip player here). Is it on my wife's machine as well? That is absolutely unacceptable.

I would appreciate a definitive reply.

No. It's best to think of the applet as being part of this web page; once you close this web page the applet is gone, and the applet can't access anything outside of this webpage, it's not like installing an application

Also any web page you visit could run an applet like this, any site can do it because it poses no security threat. Hope that helps :-)

im curious about your writings flashman.

Flashman, whether the code is ran or not depends by a number of factors. Typically a modern browser (like Firefox) should tell you, when you are on a website that there is an applet trying to run and ask you wheather you want it to actually run or not (you can normally answer something like "yes only this time", "yes, anytime I visit", "not this time", "never"). This preference is then stored in the user's profile and will determine the behaviour for the next visits.

This is one of the various reasons for which is important - security wise - to use different users even within the family (where surely trust should not be an issue).

Java applets - however - are relatively secure. The "logic" of an applet is the one that kestas calls "sandbox": the code is ran within a defined "virtual space" that is defined by java, not by the applet, so that the applet itself should be unaware and unable to access whatever exists outside of its little space. *SHOULD* because software is never bomb-proof, and occasionally somebody - normally a 14 years old geek with no social life ;P- finds out a way to exploit a minor mistake, and mess computers up. This is why some browsers ask you if you want the applet to run or not: because despite the best efforts to "sandbox", there is no 100% guarantee that will be safe.

HOWEVER: this was to explain the rationale of applets. The possibilities that somebody could use this to get your writings are fairly low, the possibility that one could use a general-purpose applet like the one running here to gain access to your machine, find your files, and get them is possibly close to zero. Surely I would be far more concerned about the possibility of somebody stealing my laptop.

If security is so much of a concern for you I would highly recommend to use a GNU/Linux platform and to use an encrypted home folder: GNU/Linux is by far the most secure OS around (because of its design) when it comes to networked computers and to keep users apart, the encrypted folder is a must in case somebody should gain physical access to your machine. If you are not much of a geek, you can contact your local linux group: LUG's normally organise regularly "installation parties", where they help people who want to try GNU/Linux out to install and configure it on their machines...

Hope this help.

PS: of course, I am curious too about your writings... I remember once you mentioned you wrote seven books about a young magician with a scar on his forehead, but I would like to know more about it... ;)

Thanks to all...

My writings?

text-books in the dim and distant past;
course notes for my classes and commissions - these are by far the most valuable;
a couple of novels in the mixing process right now. If I don't tell you more about them in the next six months, assume that I have decided they are crap and dumped them... Or published under a pseudonym to avoid total loss of face.

If successful, a large party will be organised.

The course notes have become a complete mountain after all these years but they have been remarkably useful.