OK, hypothetical question time.
Suppose we had developed a new net scanning tool that consisted of a
daemon that can run independently of user guidance and a Motif-based
GUI that can attach/detach to/from the daemon at any time and allow a
user to interactively or asynchronously guide the daemon's progress
through the information space on the global network.
Suppose further, and more specifically, that this front-end was really
really impressive (also suppose I didn't write it, so I could
theoretically say that without sounding pompous) and included
interactive drag/drop/point/click graphical maps of the information
space the daemon traversed, as well as direct control over a variety
of constraint parameters to control the daemon's progress both in real
time and asynchronously (e.g., you can tell it where to look and what
to look for interactively, and then detach and let it run
asynchronously overnight, and then reattach in the morning to discover
what it's found).
If we had theoretically developed such a hypothetical tool, should we
release it to the net? Or are experiences similar to Guido's above,
except on a much larger scale, liable to have severely deleterious
effects on the network and the servers currently on it, and should we
therefore not release it?
You be the judge.........
Cheers,
Marc
-- Marc Andreessen Software Development Group National Center for Supercomputing Applications marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu