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> Widget ethics. Using third-party processing power has usually been opt-in: people needed to install SETI@home or the BOINC software to lend their CPUs. JavaSc

> Widget ethics. Using third-party processing power has usually been opt-in: people needed to install SETI@home or the BOINC software to lend their CPUs. JavaScript allows us to use people’s CPUs without their explicit consent just when they visit a page with the widget, which makes this a grey area. This could be a new way of generating revenue from a website: selling time on visitors' machines. I'm not saying it's a good or ethical idea, but it's certainly an interesting idea.

sigil 15y ago
Plura Processing tried it a while back with a Java applet. There was a big uproar when one of their affiliates sold visitor's compute time without disclosure. http://pluraprocessing.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/our-response-to-the-digsby-controversy-new-terms-of-use-affiliate-auditing/ http://pluraprocessing.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/our-response...
sylvinus 15y ago
I think selling time can definitely be considered as unethical. However what scares me most is people using this to do DDoS or other network-related attacks. Because of JS' performance, from a pure performance point of view, it is currently much more economical to spin off a couple EC2 instances, but that may indeed change in the future.
- zokier 15y ago
  Luckily JS in the browser does not have the ability to make arbitrary network connections (at least not yet).
  - sylvinus 15y ago
    Well JS can make GET and POST requests to arbitrary URLs, that is often enough for a DDoS.
  - rorrr 15y ago
    It does, HTTP at least. That could be enough to DDoS even a large site.
mambodog 15y ago
That was the idea behind the Javascript Bitcoin Miner, though it turned out to be unfeasible in the end. http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9042.0 http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9042.0 comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2566365 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2566365
- rorrr 15y ago
  I think somebody is building a WebGL version. That could generate a ton of money on a large website.

sigil 15y ago

Plura Processing tried it a while back with a Java applet. There was a big uproar when one of their affiliates sold visitor's compute time without disclosure. http://pluraprocessing.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/our-response-to-the-digsby-controversy-new-terms-of-use-affiliate-auditing/ http://pluraprocessing.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/our-response...

sylvinus 15y ago

I think selling time can definitely be considered as unethical. However what scares me most is people using this to do DDoS or other network-related attacks. Because of JS' performance, from a pure performance point of view, it is currently much more economical to spin off a couple EC2 instances, but that may indeed change in the future.

zokier 15y ago
Luckily JS in the browser does not have the ability to make arbitrary network connections (at least not yet).
- sylvinus 15y ago
  Well JS can make GET and POST requests to arbitrary URLs, that is often enough for a DDoS.
- rorrr 15y ago
  It does, HTTP at least. That could be enough to DDoS even a large site.

mambodog 15y ago

That was the idea behind the Javascript Bitcoin Miner, though it turned out to be unfeasible in the end. http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9042.0 http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9042.0 comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2566365 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2566365

rorrr 15y ago
I think somebody is building a WebGL version. That could generate a ton of money on a large website.