[OT] another proxy, but not open source :-(

Flamsmark flamsmark at gmail.com
Tue May 25 16:11:12 UTC 2010


I seem to recall that something called haystack, with a remarkably similar
webpage was the software and donations portal developed by @austinheap
during the Iran election. Since Heap's twitter is still linked from the
haystacknetworkcom page, I assume that this project remains the offspring of
that effort. I can't comment directly, but I recall that the effort seemed
pretty legitimate at that time. I assume that it's still legitimate, even if
not free software in the strictest sense. The Censorship Research Center is
San Francisco non-profit, started by Heap. They do have a contact form on
their about page: http://www.censorshipresearch.org/about/

While I think that free (as in speech as in Stallman) software is the best
way to go, I can understand why someone of good intentions might think
otherwise. I reckon that haystack is not a malicious honeypot, or cynical
effort to relive people of their cash. However, I do think that the project
may not be overly successful, and that donations would do more good
elsewhere.


On 25 May 2010 02:45, Scott Bennett <bennett at cs.niu.edu> wrote:

>     I don't know who "Censorship Research Center" might be, but they claim
> to have a development project going for another encrypted proxy service.
> However, they say it will be free software, but *not* be open source, so no
> one can examine what they have done in order to look for bugs, design
> flaws,
> etc. :-(  There isn't much real information at the web site,
>
>        http://www.haystacknetwork.com
>
> but what little there is looks very much like an attempt to sucker people
> who don't understand much about security.
>     Oh.  I almost forgot.  Their FAQ page mentions tor, complaining about
> tor's publicly available directory and arguing that their method is better,
> while not mentioning bridges.
>
>
>                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
> **********************************************************************
> * Internet:       bennett at cs.niu.edu                              *
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