Project Orca

[Confused]

Project Orca is a small program, which logs the number of keystrokes you make, and uploads this number to the server, where you can get stats on the amount of keystrokes you make!

Many other forums have set up Teams for this, but I feel that with the amount of members here in AT, we can make a huge impact on this project!

It is very simple to install, and uses just a couple of MBs of RAM. To join up on the Anandtech team, please visit the homepage, register, and download the client. Once installed, you will need to change the Pulse Server Name to http://www.project-orca.net/ (the trailing / is important) from the Program Settings menu when you right click on it in the Task Bar

Once you have done all this, go to the Account link on the side, and join Anandtech, by clicking on the join next to the name


Lets show these other forums that Anandtech cannot be beaten!


Confused

 

[Centaur6]

This will rank highly on the list of the stupidest ideas ever posted on these boards.

Edit: moderators, i suggest you get rid of this thread to avoid any possible legal complications that may arise if this project proves to be as fishy as it looks.

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: Centaur6
This will rank highly on the list of the stupidest ideas ever posted on these boards.

I'm honoured

But, seriously, don't you want to show other forums that we're more active than them!?


Confused

 

[Centaur6]

Originally posted by: Confused

Originally posted by: Centaur6
This will rank highly on the list of the stupidest ideas ever posted on these boards.

I'm honoured

But, seriously, don't you want to show other forums that we're more active than them!?


Confused

No. If for some unknown reason, someone would actually care about that, they could easily visit any of those forums and check the user/post statistics which are usually available on the forum index.

 

[Walleye]

wow, they tell you flat out it's a keystroke logger. apparently they feel that they dont need a shady reason. It's like telling a person right out, "we're gonna hack your computer. Kindly send your IP address, and all your passwords to ....@hotmail.com, so we can do this in a timely fashion.

your gall is simply amazing.

 

[brtspears2]

Uhh, if you want my keystokes, you can come here and count them yourselves.

 

[BennyD]

Here's 33 strokes for ya stats!!!

 

[Confused]

If this was really a keystroke logger, do you really think that so many people, from so many forums, would be running it on their computers?

There are a number of programmers, coders, hackers etc on a lot of the forums and individuals running this project, who i'm sure could easily, if they wanted, track the program, see what it was sending out etc.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Confused
If this was really a keystroke logger, do you really think that so many people, from so many forums, would be running it on their computers?

There are a number of programmers, coders, hackers etc on a lot of the forums and individuals running this project, who i'm sure could easily, if they wanted, track the program, see what it was sending out etc.

What other purpose could it serve?

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

Originally posted by: Confused
If this was really a keystroke logger, do you really think that so many people, from so many forums, would be running it on their computers?

There are a number of programmers, coders, hackers etc on a lot of the forums and individuals running this project, who i'm sure could easily, if they wanted, track the program, see what it was sending out etc.

What other purpose could it serve?

Maybe, just maybe, some people out there don't actually have malicious intent with everything they do, and someone is just interested in how many keystrokes, and kps (keys per second) people get.


OK, an email from Adam Israel, project creator, saying the following:

This is most definitely not a key logger. It simply counts the number of keystrokes (not what the keystrokes actually are), and when you "pulse", it sends that count to the server. The only username and password that is sent is the one you use to register with the project, so we can verify and track your stats.

I'm not sure what kind of hard evidence you're looking for. You could sniff the packets and see exacly what is being sent to the server. This is based on the former project dolphin, which has its source readily available. The code for our client is being modified, but to ensure the integrity of the results being sent (i.e., blocking cheaters).

In order to maintain the integrety of the results, we are not releasing the source for the simple reason that having the source available makes it easier for those who try to cheat to find a way to do so.

If you want to verify my references, I'm a news poster and contributing author at Ars Technica, as well as a moderator of one of the Forums there.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help in this situation.

Adam

If anyone else wants to question the integrity of the project, please feel free to email him, visit the forum for the project, or go look it up on Ars Technica



Confused

 

[StoneTable]

Originally posted by: Walleye
wow, they tell you flat out it's a keystroke logger. apparently they feel that they dont need a shady reason. It's like telling a person right out, "we're gonna hack your computer. Kindly send your IP address, and all your passwords to ....@hotmail.com, so we can do this in a timely fashion.

your gall is simply amazing.

I'd really like to know where I state that it is a keystroke logger.

Project Orca is the successor to Project Dolphin. The idea behind the project is simple, to count the number of keystrokes and generate statistics based on that number. It does not log or send what you actually type, only the number of keys you've typed. Project Dolphin was around for about a year.

 

[flyingember]

keylogger?

some people can be so dense.

 

[ChrisIsBored]

This truely is one of the biggest waste of times evar!

Donate your spare CPU cycles to help find a cure for cancer or something... why the hell would you want to know how many buttons/day you press. You're pretty pathetic if you think flexing your typing keys is something to brag about.

 

[nachiketa1]

 

[DrHanser]

If one simply looks at the number of bytes sent to the Orca servers, you would see that there is simply no possible way that it could be a keylogger.

Originally posted by: ChrisIsBored
This truely is one of the biggest waste of times evar!

Donate your spare CPU cycles to help find a cure for cancer or something... why the hell would you want to know how many buttons/day you press. You're pretty pathetic if you think flexing your typing keys is something to brag about.

The project does not use spare CPU cycles; it wasn't designed to. I've had the first pulse running for over a month and not use more than five seconds of CPU time in those 40+ days.

Pulse is not a distributed computing project in the traditional sense. It doesn't "compute" anything. It just counts your keystrokes: it doesn't want your cycles. It was designed to be as small, unintrusive, and resource-friendly as possible.

 

[jarsoffart]

Wowzers, everyone is so mean. It was just an innocent fun idea. I think I might try it.

 

[jarsoffart]

Hello, JarsOfFart


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last Pulse:
None
Total Keys:
None
Current Rank:
Dead last


hahahahaha, dead last!!

 

[DoctorPizza]

In what possible regard does "counting" keystrokes consitute an equivalent to "logging" keystrokes?

Any muppet with a packet sniffer could see that it obviously wasn't sending a log of the keystrokes to the server.
Any moron with a basic knowledge of C++ could see that the client wasn't logging the keystrokes in the first place.

 

[DoctorPizza]

Donate your spare CPU cycles to help find a cure for cancer or something... why the hell would you want to know how many buttons/day you press. You're pretty pathetic if you think flexing your typing keys is something to brag about.

Errrrm. The Pulse client uses about 2 minutes of processor time per day of wall time. It's hardly going to hinder any processor-bound tasks you may be running.

 

[DrHanser]

Five seconds of CPU time, riiiiiiiiight.

Correction:

People have been seeing about 2 minutes of processor time per day of wall time, which is about what I'm seeing.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: DrHanser
Pulse is not a distributed computing project in the traditional sense. It doesn't "compute" anything.

i don't think it is a distributed computing project in ANY sense, because -> "It doesn't "compute" anything."

how could it be "distributed computing" if it only is "distributed" but NOT "computing"?

i think there is a lot of misunderstanding about this mainly because distributed computing enthusiasts were the first to be courted by this "distributed NON-computing" project and distributed computing enthusiasts are promoting it despite -> "It doesn't "compute" anything."

have a nice day!

 

[BDawg]

The group here could win a stroke contest easily...just not a keystroke competition.

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: BDawg
The group here could win a stroke contest easily...just not a keystroke competition.

I'd have to agree with you here!

 

[Eli]

Interesting. I think I'll try it out.

My first reaction was, Eww.. too.. but I don't believe that it's a keystroke logger.


Woo.. I joined Anandtech... will be interesting to see the stats in a few months, lol..

We should get more people to join.

 

[Eli]

Bump..