Hey all,
Its certainly been a long time between both news posts and releases - its been a busy year for me so CECID development has been sidelined recently. I'm going to start working towards a new release now that should fix some of the problems with the current one, and add preliminary support for a Tor gateway.

Which brings me to another point - I've decided to stop work indefinately on the CECID client, because a) theres other software out there tha does the same thing, and better and b) managing what is essentially two projects is a tad too time consuming. The client code will remain in CVS, so if anyone is interested they are welcome to grab a copy and fork another project. I'd love to know if anyone finds the code any use, so please email me if you end up using it.

To replace the client on the end-to-end encryption side of things I'll be working in support for Tor, a p2p anonymous proxy network, into the script. Tor essentially does exactly what the client was intended to do (implement onion routing), and it does it well - for more information see tor.eff.org. The script will eventually support tor proxying as well as the ability to use '.onion' addresses - tor's anonymous web publishing mechanism.

I believe that this switch will mean that CECID will progress further, and be useful to a wider subset of people as well as providing a higher level of anonymity. As usual, you are welcome to comment to cecid-devel@lists.sourceforge.net (subscription required) or to me personally - ptrck@users.sourceforge.net.

Stay tuned.
-ptrck
10 Jul 2005 by ptrck

Because the WARHN mirror went down, new scripts cant add themselves onto the network, as WARHN was the only mirror on the initial mirror database. If you downloaded CECID v1.0.1 sometime in the last few months, and your clientscriptdb file is empty, download a replacement one here. The v1.0.1 script download has been updated to fix the problem.
-ptrck
08 Nov 2004 by ptrck

My mirror, cecid.warhn.org, has been removed by my host due to 'excessive CPU usage'. Curses. It was getting quite a few hits, and I guess that was degrading performace on the server a little.

I need to fix the root of this problem: improve the efficiancy of the script overall. Expect to see performace improvments in future versions. I also plan to fully implement a load balancing mechanism (partially implemented already), which should even things up a bit (at the moment the one or two scripts listed on the official mirrors page are taking all the load).

Webmasters: I strongly encourage you to consider placing your script on our mirror page. You can submit your script for review here

Users: If possible, consider using an alternate, non-official mirror rather than killing all the official ones. You can find an up-to-the-second listing of all the scripts (both official and non-official) on the network in the 'Known Scripts' section at the bottom of the stats page of any running 1.0.1 script (example here).

-ptrck
21 Jun 2004 by ptrck

CECID-PHP version 1.0.1 Stable has been released. This version fixes a few bugs, stylesheet issues and other things (not the banned word filtering, thats still slightly broken at the moment).

It also adds the first stage of creating an automatic load balancing network of scripts, which is probably the ultimate goal for now. Scripts now actively communicate with each other, and exchange lists of known scripts. In this way, each script will maintain a list of every other active v1.0.1 script. Should a script be removed, scripts realise this and the change is propagated through the network. This is probably making very little sense, its really late :). I'll write some documentation on exactly how the scripts communicate, and post it onto the website soon.

Changelog is below.
-ptrck

CHANGELOG for v1.0.1 stable

-Fixed some backwards compatability problems with config.php
-Made stats page more backwards compatible
-Added first version of script communication network - scripts should now maintain lists of their peers, viewable on the stats page.
-Fixed some stylesheet issues with mozilla (damn standards ;)
-Fixed bug where stats would stop being recorded if stats database was cleared
-Cleared up some errors in footer.php
-Fixed 'Back to CECID' link on stats page - now points to script name set in config, rather than cecid.php
-Added small script info table down the bottom of the main page - shows some info on script networking, and page load time.
06 Jun 2004 by ptrck

Just a reiteration of the request on the mirrors page - we're always looking for mirrors - especially newer (1.0.0) versions of the script. If you have a server that you dont mind donating a little bandwidth from, please visit http://cecid.sf.net/addmirror.php or email pcoleman@iinet.net.au and add yourself to the list.

And a request to everybody who already has a 0.7.1 mirror up on the mirrors page - please, if at all possible, update your mirror to 1.0.0. The existing 1.0.0 mirror is getting swamped. 1.0.0 provides some great new features, such as an improved banned word engine as well as image cloaking support (which script admins can disable if you are worried about the bandwidth). For notification when new releases are made, subscribe to the cecid-news mailing list. Mail is only sent when new releases are made (3-4 times/year) - this is truly low volume.

If you are having any problems at all upgrading to 1.0.0, dont hesitate to send me an email at pcoleman@iinet.net.au and I would be glad to assist.
Thanks,
ptrck
04 May 2004 by ptrck

We have a new mirror, http://anonymous.fw.nu/. This is our first 1.0.0 mirror, so all of you who were not able to test the new release can do so now. The mirror listing has also been updated, so it now displays the version and the address in a nice table.

I've also added a new site documentation page, with a bit of documentation relating to both the script and the client. More should be added soon, as soon as I get time.
23 Mar 2004 by ptrck

Well, its finally happened. CECID v1.0.0 Stable has been released. I felt that the script had sat in beta long enough, and with a few bugfixes and a few new features was ready to go to stable. Heres a copy of the changelog, for those interested:

v1.0.0 stable
------------
-Fixed infinite loop bug
-Fixed quoting (") bug
-Fixed major performance bug
-Fixed an insane amount of other bugs/problems
-Pages with frames now seem to work
-Banned word scanning now skips whitespace in file
-Banned word scanning now scans all words, regardless of case
-Updated banned word list
-Updated config section
-Updated front page to provide more correct information, including a new bugs rant :)
-Added new version checking
-Added support for config file
-Added image support (images can be piped through the script)
-Added notification as to whether image support is enabled.
-Added CECID WebCache capability (very basic) - to be used for the upcoming client, more on this soon. Ask on
cecid-devel for more info.
-Added statistics page
-Added support for different time units in statistics (seconds, days, Cesium-133 radiation periods :)
-Added a kickin' rad config script, which handles everything to do with setup
16 Feb 2004 by ptrck

After much deliberation, and several total rewrites of the mirrors.php script, it is now much more stable, secure and nicer to look at. The old 'reporting' feature has been phased out. This means that to add a mirror to our listing, you now have to fill in a form and wait until an admin can verify it. Automatic verfication is, however, not possible at this point in time, as Sourceforge blocks outgoing requests from scripts 'due to past abuse'. Also, the hit and version counters are gone, but hopefully not permenantly - I'll work on getting those going with the new system.

To admins of existing scripts - I've added all the working mirrors from to old system into the new system. If you would like to provide a contact email for your script, so we can contact you if there are problems, fill in the Mirror Submission form again for your script, with the contact email you want to use.

We're looking at updating the entire site over the next few months, and adding some new content (mostly related to the client that I've been promising you :), so stay tuned.
Thanks,
ptrck
22 Dec 2003 by ptrck

Some of you might have noticed that the mirrors script is looking a little sorry lately. If you havnt, I'll tell you now that it's full of dead mirrors, broken links and a nice php error half way down. So what am I doing to fix it? Well, I've given up on maintaining the hopelessly time-consuming setup that currently exists, and within a week or so you should see a lovely new (mySQL-backed) script up there for all to see and use.

I've also decided to kill the reporting/hit counting idea, as it tends to make people run their script (and make it appear on the listing), panic, turn reporting off and move the script someplace else for testing. The end result is a lot of dead links. So, to fix this, I'm writing a mirror addition script. Everyone can then add their mirrors manually, remove them manually and everything can be moderated by the admins to prevent abuse. So I'm asking people who run a mirror to keep an eye on the site and add their mirror when the new system goes up. I'll notify both mailing lists when that happens, so that might be the easiest way to remember.
-Patrick
03 Dec 2003 by ptrck

CECID 0.71b is out! Check it out
27 Oct 2003 by ptrck

A few of you might have been wondering what the 'Stop the RIAA Lawsuits' icon-thingie was doing of our website. A few more of you might have clicked on said icon-thingie and realised that it linked to a page called, suprisingly, stopriaalawsuits.com.

Essentially, stopriaalawsuits.com is organising action against the recent vigilance streak against online filesharing, taken by the capitalist fatcats at the Recording Industry Association of America. Have a look at their page for more info - if you run a website, add your name to the list and support attempts to boycott the RIAA. It's a good cause (and it'll cost you nothing :).

Covox also recommended this site, if you like humor and dislike the RIAA (link underneath image). I notice that it's endorsed by lame, the popular mp3 encoder... hey, if lame promotes it, it must be good :) Print off a few copies and stick them up somewhere ;p

-ptrck
21 Oct 2003 by ptrck

Hey - I updated the text on the front page. Jeez, I suprise myself sometimes. The main reason I did this was that it was getting quite old, and contained some misleading/incorrect information. I've also cleaned out the mirrors listing - there were quite a few dead mirrors down the bottom that had been accumulating slowly over time.

Speaking of mirrors, thanks to some discussion on several sites (including infoanarchy.org) we topped 696 hits for October 13, with 89 downloads. This is a record for us :). We also have a few new mirrors on the mirrors page, hopefully with more to come as those 89 downloads get installed :).

Another issue I wanted to propose briefly is translation. If you can translate (the script, and possibly the website) into a different language, contact me, and I'll organise something.
-ptrck
16 Oct 2003 by ptrck

Greetings,
Just another update to whats happening with everything over here at CECID. Firstly, and most importantly, we have two new developers to welcome. Chris - who'll be working on the client with myself, and George who will now be maintaining the PHP script. We're still looking for a GTK devloper to make a nice GUI for the client, so if you're interested in contributing, email me with your details.

Secondly, I've finally got CVS working for us. Not only can you pick up the latest PHP script, you can also see the development version of the client. Please bear in mind that the client wont actually do much yet (it'll just go searching for a web server on 192.168.0.201 to download some nodes :), so dont expect much, but the general framework is there for your inspection. Click here for more information. Of course, if you have any comments or suggestions to make, just subscribe to the cecid-devel mailing list, and we'll be happy to answer your questions there.

While I'm on the subject, the client is progressing nicely, and should go even faster with a second developer on the team. George should be releasing another version of the script soon, as well, as soon as he gets those bugs that have been identified nailed.

As far as I can remember, thats all for now, folks. Stay Tuned.
19 Sep 2003 by ptrck

Well, the fact that someone has mercilessly decimated our news script is, to say, a bit of a drawback (ptrck has had a few sad stories in the past regarding his use of file permissions), but much like the proverbial left-handed man who couldn't use a bandsaw, in the end we came out alright. **

Some time or another, we plan to put up a few regulations regarding the hackery and re-paste-togethery of the CECID core script, the basis being that:

- If you wish to remove, alter, or adjust to fit your website the header and footer chunks that come with the Script (I.E. the frontend design and the text bits that talk about CECID), you must include at least ONE visible link to http://cecid.sf.net on the page the Script is operated from.
- If you wish to remove the feature in the Script that, by default, reports the URL of the Script to http://cecid.sourceforge.net/mirrors.php , you must include at least ONE visible link to http://cecid.sf.net on the page the Script is operated from.
- If you wish to integrate any part of the Script into a seperate project or service, you must include at least ONE visible link to http://cecid.sf.net on either the page the Script is operated from, or a suitable credits page.

This is to deter people from yanking our script, removing the headers and claiming that the GPL allows them to exploit it as their own. Do not hesitate, however, to use portions of the code for your own benefit (with credits) or to suggest any improvements that could be made. God knows we need some more of those.

** If you're a left-handed craftsman who is offended by this statement, please don't sue us.
10 Sep 2003 by covox

You may have been wondering what's been happening with the news script of late. In short, someone erased our entire news directory, so we lost the script, as well as all the previous articles. An unfortunate series of circumstances then prevented me from reuploading the script. What really annoyed me was that as soon as I went to do our first backup of the news directory, I found that someone had gone and wiped it. Not happy, jan. But anyway, the client is coming along fairly well, and I notice that we've got several new mirrors - bringing our total count up to 11. Not bad. We're also ranked 18th on google for 'CECID'. Keep up the good work - keep telling everyone you know how wonderful CECID is, and feel free to link to us on your site (link to http://cecid.sourceforge.net). I might see if I can get some banners/little button things for people to use...no guarantees, though :)
08 Sep 2003 by ptrck