Comment by initramfs | Hacker News Reader

Comment by initramfs | Hacker News Reader

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That's because I wrote about QUIC & UDP in my previous post yesterday.

https://inavoyage.blogspot.com/2026/06/5-things-to-lighten-d...

https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-road-to-quic/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUIC#Client_support

https://nordvpn.com/blog/what-is-quic-protocol/

https://www.fastvue.co/fastvue/blog/googles-quic-protocols-s...

My writing is tangential as it is, so I try to keep the layers separate in different analyses.

Java ME, Azul & OS (Symbian): https://inavoyage.blogspot.com/2026/06/how-about-new-java-ba...

Edit: One thing I didn't include in the article was file sharing protocols, because of security vulunerabilities. I recall IPFS had some known issues, but others have tried to use similar protocols:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_synchroniza... There are at least two that use QUIC, such as Kubo/IPFS and Syncthing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterPlanetary_File_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncthing

Do they work faster than the regular web? Well, torrents can download faster. But I do not know how much the web depends on it or needs it. I know Microsoft and Steam servers allow downloading games and updates from other PCs, including ones outside a local network. Why they offer it (for Windows system files), is beyond me. Maybe some areas (public networks) share an unsecure wifi network more often and do not own a separate router for trusted internet access. I guess the files are encrypted enough that there is a checksum that can determine if the files are not tampered?

>That's because I wrote about QUIC & UDP in my previous post yesterday.

Ok

>My writing is tangential as it is, so I try to keep the layers separate in different analyses.

I must admit I am still having a hard time following you.

>Why they offer it (for Windows system files), is beyond me.

Why should a household or office download windows update files more than once? Seems like a great idea.

>Do they work faster than the regular web? Well, torrents can download faster.

IPFS in my limited experience is slow but reliable. Torrents are slow in peer discovery but fast after that.

>I guess the files are encrypted enough that there is a checksum that can determine if the files are not tampered?

Digital signature also.

>I must admit I am still having a hard time following you.

You're not the first. A "sister" project I started in 2020 is hardware focused, and later on, I determined that a lightweight suite for internet would complement the offline stack: https://ei2030.github.io/FemtoTX/#about

One could say it's a "solution in search of a problem", but game development also is an incubator:

https://www.thediff.co/archive/a-solution-in-search-of-a-pro...

There are other Jobs inspired R&D groups out there- a notable one is Ink & Switch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s8OA08ggbM They use an aircraft carrier vs. bicycle comparison, as Steve Jobs preferred the bike metaphor as an extension of user capabilities.

Someone here mentioned WAP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Application_Protocol which I completely forgot about, and AJAX:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(programming) These techniques/protocols helped make the Symbian internet experience fast, before other smartphones had many solutions.

>Why should a household or office download windows update files more than once? Seems like a great idea.

I agree with you on that. I also use it to share files and updates on my own network, often when transferring Steam games from one PC to another. I meant for non private networks (like internet cafes) is where I thought there might be a security issue. https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/windows-is-using-your-in... I do not really know whether it's secure enough, but I'm going to leave that to the experts.

I also think they could be useful on internet nodes that are at the end of a network, like an an ad-hoc wifi chain, such as Guifi: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/how-to-build-a-low...

>IPFS in my limited experience is slow but reliable. Torrents are slow in peer discovery but fast after that.

You have more experience than I do on IPFS, so I will take your word for it.

>Digital signature also.

Did not know that, but I've heard of them.

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