Re: Modifying GNOME-About to count users

[Telsa Gwynne <hobbit aloss ukuu org uk>]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 11:21:23AM -0400 or thereabouts, Robert Love wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-07-05 at 14:37 +1200, John Williams wrote:
> 
> > Essentially we propose modifying the GNOME About box to include a toggle
> > that indicate the user's permission to activate a program that would
> > periodically contact a central GNOME server.   Information that would be
> > transmitted and recorded has not been decided yet, but the prime
> > requirement is to record the number of current GNOME users (not
> > installations) on a (say) monthly basis.
> 
> I can see the slashdot article now..

Some IRC client (Bitch X?) used to send a single ping packet back 
to--erm, well, somewhere--if/when you compiled it and didn't use 
a --dont-ping sort of option. It may still do. I forget the details. 
But I remember that it was on by default, and that I was installing 
it in order to check something in the documentation, and that I did 
"rpm -ba bitchx" and got this "Sent a ping to some.host.somewhere. 
If you didn't want this to happen, you should have read the 
documentation" message. 

I don't think Slashdot ever noticed, but I have to say that I 
wasn't terribly impressed.

Telsa