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authorDimitri Staessens <dimitri@ouroboros.rocks>2019-07-05 22:27:04 +0200
committerDimitri Staessens <dimitri@ouroboros.rocks>2019-07-05 22:27:04 +0200
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+---
+title: "About"
+draft: false
+---
+
+The Ouroboros project is a decentralized packet network implementation
+started by Sander Vrijders and Dimitri Staessens.
+
+### Licenses
+
+Ouroboros is [free
+software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html). The libraries
+are available under the [GNU Lesser Public License (LGPL) version
+2.1](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html). The
+daemons are available under the [GNU Public License (GPL) version
+2](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html). The tools
+are availabe under the [3-Clause BSD
+License](https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause).
+
+Ouroboros logos © Dimitri Staessens. All Rights Reserved.
+
+### Disclaimer
+
+Ouroboros is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without
+any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or
+fitness for a particular purpose.
+
+At present, Ouroboros is a research prototype. Although it is developed
+with utmost care, it may expose the host system to unknown security
+risks and attack vectors. As such, we recommend to test it in a
+contained environment.
diff --git a/content/about/contribute.md b/content/about/contribute.md
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+---
+title: Contact
+date: 2019-06-22
+draft: false
+---
+
+General discussion and support
+------------------------------
+
+For general discussion of Ouroboros,
+[subscribe](https://www.freelists.org/list/ouroboros) to our mailing
+list: [ouroboros@freelists.org](mailto:ouroboros@freelists.org).
+
+For day-to-day discussions, join our IRC chat:
+[\#ouroboros](irc://irc.freenode.net/ouroboros).
+
+Contact us on twitter: @ODecentralize
+
+Contributing code
+-----------------
+
+Contributions should be sent as patches to the mailing list, using your
+real name and real e-mail address.
+
+The git repository contains three branches:
+
+- master: Contains the most stable version of Ouroboros.
+- testing: Contains tested code but may still contain bugs.
+- be: Contains untested but compiling code.
+
+New development is done against the 'be' branch of the git repository.
+The testing and master branches take only bugfixes.
+
+Bug reporting
+-------------
+
+Please report all bugs [here](/bugzilla). When reporting a bug, please
+do the following:
+
+1. Provide a description of the bug. How did you get it and which
+ version of Ouroboros were you using? Which Operating System are you
+ on?
+2. Provide as much technical information as possible (system logs,
+ debug traces, \...).
+3. If possible, provide a minimal code example to reproduce the bug.
+4. If you can provide a bugfix, provide it against the HEAD of the most
+ stable branch where the bug is present and send the patch to the
+ mailing list.
+
+Todo list
+---------
+
+We are currently looking for
+
+- Testing and bugfixing.
+- Integration testing for the build system beyond the "make check"
+ unit tests.
+- People that are interested in setting up some nodes to establish a
+ global testing layer.
+- Non-blocking flow allocation: Allow specifying a {0, 0} timespec to
+ return immediately and use fevent() to know when the flow is ready
+ (or allocation failed).
+- Asynchronous IPC over the UNIX sockets. For each command to the
+ IRMd, we create a UNIX socket, send the request and wait for the
+ response. This could be changed so that there is only a single UNIX
+ socket that is used for all messaging. This would simplify parallel
+ querying of the IPCPs and speed up flow allocation. The far-future
+ option is to ditch UNIX sockets and bootstrap Ouroboros local IPC
+ over itself.
+- ECDH-AES encryption using libssl and/or libgcrypt. The goal is to
+ support both libraries so that we have a fallback should major bugs
+ be discovered in one of them.
+- Customized packet serialization to remove the dependency on Google
+ Protocol Buffers. We like GPB, but it's not perfect. Importing
+ .proto files may give rise to multiple definitions and we found no
+ way to solve that.
+- Caching for the DHT.
+- Cross-compilation to OpenWRT (musl).
+- Ported applications! If you want to add native Ouroboros support for
+ your applications, just let us know and we will help you out!
diff --git a/content/about/philosophy.md b/content/about/philosophy.md
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+---
+title: "Philosophy"
+date: 2019-02-28T09:52:26+01:00
+publishDate: 2019-02-28T09:52:26+01:00
+author: "Dimitri Staessens"
+images: []
+draft: false
+tags: []
+---
+
+<center>![](https://effectivesoftwaredesign.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/quote-if-10-years-from-now-when-you-are-doing-something-quick-and-dirty-you-suddenly-visualize-that-i-edsger-dijkstra-50997.jpg)</center>
+
+During his entire scientific career, Edsger Dijkstra broke a lance for
+the creed -- which he attributes to Tony Hoare -- that [*simplicity is
+prerequisite for
+reliability*](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD619.html). He
+spent a lot of time and effort convincing his contemporaries in the
+computing science community that *elegance is not a dispensable
+luxury, but a matter of life and death*. Dijkstra was painfully aware
+that [*simplicity is very hard to
+achieve*](https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD08xx/EWD896.html)
+and grossly underrated, even to the point that the academic and
+economic reward systems work against any attempt do so: "*complexity
+sells better*". With some computer engineers living by the motto *move
+fast and break things*, Dijkstra would most definitely [not have been
+happy](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD12xx/EWD1213.html)
+with much of the current state of affairs of computing science. While
+he always will be considered one of the greatest computer scientists
+that ever lived, his passionate message to diligently strive for
+elegance seems to be all but erased from the collective consciousness
+of engineers and computer scientists. Are we further away today from
+computing's central challenge than we were [almost 20 years ago]
+(https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD13xx/EWD1304.html)?
+
+<center> {{<figure
+class="fl"
+src="https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/move_fast_and_break_things.png"
+width="200">}}
+</center>
+
+The current TCP/IP network stack has a long development history, and
+its technical debt is leading to inefficiencies that allow hackers to
+infiltrate networks with childish ease. In order to get to a
+trustworthy and secure communications infrastructure, the structure of
+the Internet needs to be drastically revised. The current protocols
+have so much deprecated, unused and unnecessary bits and fields, that
+trying to guard against every possible exploit is inefficient and
+virtually impossible.
+
+Ouroboros is a new decentralized packet transport network for POSIX
+operating systems that aims to accepts Edward Snowdens
+[challenge](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/edward-snowdens-other-motive-for-leaking/370068/):
+to build a network infrastructure that will "*enforce a principle
+whereby the only way the powerful may enjoy privacy is when it is the
+same kind shared by the ordinary: one enforced by the laws of nature,
+rather than the policies of man*."