[tor-commits] [webwml/master] Drop project ideas done by successful students last year

atagar at torproject.org atagar at torproject.org
Tue Feb 3 16:33:55 UTC 2015


commit 8668ed13589e30251afc27a090f64c2e206660f1
Author: Damian Johnson <atagar at torproject.org>
Date:   Tue Feb 3 08:13:57 2015 -0800

    Drop project ideas done by successful students last year
    
    There's a few projects like 'tor daemon optimization' which I'm unsure if it
    maps to something on this page. Just dropping the entries clearly the focus of
    students we passed last year.
---
 getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml |  231 ------------------------------------------
 1 file changed, 231 deletions(-)

diff --git a/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml b/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml
index 8b9c7fb..5fa81b6 100644
--- a/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml
+++ b/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml
@@ -413,7 +413,6 @@ meetings around the world.</li>
     <i><a href="#improveTorTestCoverage">Improve test coverage in Tor</a></i><br />
     <i><a href="#useMoreCores">Have the Tor daemon use more cores</a></i><br />
     <i><a href="#improveHiddenServices">Help improve Tor hidden services</a></i><br />
-    <i><a href="#consensusDiffs">Implement consensus diffs</a></i><br />
     <i><a href="#improvedDnsSupport">Improved DNS support for Tor</a></i><br />
     <i><a href="#torSandboxing">Help improve Tor sandboxing</a></i>
     </p>
@@ -491,7 +490,6 @@ meetings around the world.</li>
     <p>
     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
     <i><a href="#orbotVPN">Orbot Android VPN</a></i><br />
-    <i><a href="#orfox">Orfox - Firefox/Gecko-based Android Browser for Tor</a></i>
     </p>
 
     <a id="project-tails"></a>
@@ -724,11 +722,6 @@ meetings around the world.</li>
     in early 2011.
     </p>
 
-    <p>
-    <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
-    <i><a href="#rewriteWeather">Rewrite Tor Weather</a></i><br />
-    </p>
-
     <a id="project-gettor"></a>
     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/roadmaps/GetTor">GetTor</a> (<a
     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/gettor.git">code</a>, <a
@@ -740,11 +733,6 @@ meetings around the world.</li>
     relatively unchanged for quite a while.
     </p>
 
-    <p>
-    <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
-    <i><a href="#revamp_gettor">Revamp GetTor</a></i>
-    </p>
-
     <a id="project-torcheck"></a>
     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/roadmaps/TorCheck">TorCheck</a> (<a
     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/check.git">code</a>, <a
@@ -1068,35 +1056,6 @@ meetings around the world.</li>
     </b>
     </p>
 
-    <a id="hsSearchEngine"></a>
-    <li>
-    <b>Search Engine for Hidden Services</b>
-    <br>
-    Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
-    <br>
-    Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
-    <br>
-    Likely Mentors: <i>George (asn)</i>
-    <p>
-    This project involves researching and developing a search engine for
-    Hidden Services.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-    The student is expected to develop a search engine that can index
-    hidden services and reply to search queries. The student should also
-    develop a crawler that can search both "clear web" and hidden service
-    websites to find more addresses. The student is expected to use and
-    improve already existing search engine frameworks (e.g. YaCy), and not
-    reinvent the wheel when it's possible.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-    The student should have a decent understanding of how search engines
-    work, what algorithms they use, and of any related open source tools
-    that are currently available.
-    </p>
-
     <a id="profileUDPTransport"></a>
     <li>
     <b>Profile UDP transport protocols</b>
@@ -1301,60 +1260,6 @@ configurations is a good first step to understanding this problem.
     </p>
     </li>
 
-    <a id="orfox"></a>
-    <li>
-    <b>Orfox - Firefox/Gecko-based Android Browser for Tor</b>
-    <br>
-    Effort Level: <i>High</i>
-    <br>
-    Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
-    <br>
-    Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8)</i>
-    <p>
-With almost 1 million downloads, our Orweb browser has been a popular
-solution for easily accessing the web via Tor or any other HTTP or
-SOCKS proxy, while also ensuring local data caches are cleared and
-cookies are properly managed. Orweb is based on WebView, which has its
-limitations unfortunately. We would like to move to a
-Firefox/Fennec/GeckoView based browser, and have created a prototype
-for it. Mozilla has begun releasing GeckoView as a standalone
-component, as well, but it needs more testing, debugging and work on
-integration into our streamlined browser app model. Our end goal is to
-have a mobile browser that matches Tor Browser in terms of privacy
-enhancing features and security.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-The deliverables for the project are expected to be the creation of a
-alpha quality release of Orfox, a GeckoView-based browser with feature
-parity of Orweb browser. A bonus goal is to implement additional
-features and capabilities based on Tor Browser patches for
-Fennec/Mozilla core. Finally, as always, a required activity is a
-network audit testing of implemented solution with write-ups, reports
-posted publicly.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-Useful links to review:
-    </p>
-
-    <ul>
-      <li><a href="https://github.com/guardianproject/orfox">Orfox (gecko prototype)</a></li>
-      <li><a href="https://github.com/guardianproject/orweb">Orweb (production browser on WebView)</a></li>
-      <li><a href="http://starkravingfinkle.org/blog/2013/10/geckoview-embedding-gecko-in-your-android-application/">GeckoView info</a></li>
-      <li><a href="<page projects/torbrowser>">Tor Browser (desktop)</a></li>
-    </ul>
-
-    <p>
-Applicant should have the ability to build Fennec and GeckoView
-libraries from source using Android SDK and NDK. Some experince with
-browser security models and threats would be a useful background to
-have. Ability to do network audits to ensure browser proxying is not
-leaking DNS, media streams or other network traffic, as well as tests
-against common browser de-anonymizing attacks are necessary.
-    </p>
-    </li>
-
     <a id="improveTorTestCoverage"></a>
     <li>
     <b>Improve test coverage in Tor</b>
@@ -1508,51 +1413,6 @@ the codebase that you want to work on.
     </p>
     </li>
 
-    <a id="consensusDiffs"></a>
-    <li>
-    <b>Implement consensus diffs</b>
-    <br>
-    Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
-    <br>
-    Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
-    <br>
-    Likely Mentors: <i>Nick (nickm)</i>
-    <p>
-Right now, every few hours, a Tor client downloads a new signed "consensus
-document" that describes the state of the network.  Even though these
-documents are compressed, thisstill takes almost half a megabyte.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-<a
-href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob_plain/refs/heads/master:/proposals/140-consensus-diffs.txt">Proposal
-140</a> describes a design to save a lot of bandwidth by transferring
-compressed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff">diff</a>s instead
-of transferring the entire consensus document.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-That's an attractive idea, but it presents some programming challenges.
-We probably don't want to ship a 'diff' and 'patch' along with Tor.  Is
-there a free, <strong>safe</strong>, robust implementation of one of the
-good diff algorithms that we can use?
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-Alternatively, can we take advantage of regularities in the descriptor
-format in order to generate diffs more simply?
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-As part of the application process for this project, please contribute a
-nontrivial patch to Tor -- ideally, one that will affect some part of
-the codebase that you want to work on.  Make sure that your application
-describes which implementations of the diff and patch algorithms you
-intend to use, and that your coding samples show strong evidence that
-you can do secure string manipulation in C.
-    </p>
-    </li>
-
     <a id="improvedDnsSupport"></a>
     <li>
     <b>Improved DNS support for Tor</b>
@@ -1712,97 +1572,6 @@ implementation.
     </p>
     </li>
 
-    <a id="revamp_gettor"></a>
-    <li>
-    <b>Revamp GetTor</b>
-    <br>
-    Effort Level: <i>High</i>
-    <br>
-    Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
-    <br>
-    Likely Mentors: <i>Sukhbir Singh (sukhe), Nima Fatemi (mrphs)</i>
-    <p>
-GetTor is a program that serves Tor bundles and related components over SMTP.
-Users request the Tor Browser by sending an email to GetTor, which sends
-back Tor Browser as email attachments. In countries where the Tor Project
-website is blocked, GetTor is a convenient way for users to get access to Tor
-Browser.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-GetTor has been unmaintained for a while and needs a revamp. The main issue is
-that because the Tor Browser size exceeds 25 MB, sending it through
-GetTor no longer works as most email providers don't support attachments
-exceeding 25 MB. To alleviate this issue, Tor Browsers are now uploaded on
-cloud-based services such as Google Drive and Dropbox and links are sent
-out in the email body instead of attachments. This current setup is far from
-complete -- GetTor needs a lot of work to get it to a point where it can do
-smart things again and do them in the right way.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-As part of this project, you should:
-    </p>
-
-    <ul>
-      <li>Have some understanding of what GetTor does in general and the current state of its operation.</li>
-      <li>Come up with ideas on how to make it better.</li>
-      <li>Convince us if you would like to fix the existing code or want to rewrite GetTor from scratch.</li>
-    </ul>
-
-    <p>
-In addition to the above points, applications should be familiar with Python.
-As part of the application process, study the <a
-href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/gettor.git">GetTor code</a> and submit a
-patch for returning the SHA1 checksum of the package instead of the text in
-sendSorrySize() in response.py. (since you cannot test the patch, as long as it
-is clear that you had some idea of what you were doing, it should be fine)
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-Note: Please do not submit an application without talking to the mentors: #sukhe and #mrphs on IRC. IRC is preferred but if for any reason you don't want/can't use it, please email the mentors.
-    </p>
-    </li>
-
-    <a id="rewriteWeather"></a>
-    <li>
-    <b>Rewrite Tor Weather</b>
-    <br>
-    Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
-    <br>
-    Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
-    <br>
-    Likely Mentors: <i>Karsten (karsten)</i>
-    <p>
-<a href="https://weather.torproject.org/">Tor Weather</a> provides an
-email notification service to any users who want to monitor the status
-of a Tor node.  Its favorite feature is to notify relay operators when
-their relay has earned them a Tor t-shirt.  Tor Weather is written in
-Python/Django.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-The Tor Weather codebase is pretty much unmaintained these days.  The
-first part of this project would be to simplify the code by fetching Tor
-network status data from <a
-href="https://onionoo.torproject.org/">Onionoo</a> rather than running a
-local tor client and keeping an own relay history database.  See the
-related <a
-href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/weather-in-2014">community
-effort to rewrite Weather</a> that started in January 2014.  After that,
-there's a <a
-href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=!closed&component=Tor+Weather">long
-list of open tickets</a> to be resolved.
-    </p>
-
-    <p>
-Ideally, the student would become the new Weather maintainer after the
-summer.  If that doesn't work out, the codebase should have become a lot
-smaller by end of summer, so that it becomes easier to find somebody
-else as new maintainer.
-    </p>
-    </li>
-
     <a id="improveStegotorus"></a>
     <li>
     <b>Improve Stegotorus</b>





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