Is this project possible?

[Benji Smith]

Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
> On Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:35:14 +0300, Benji Smith 
> <dlanguage at benjismith.net> wrote:
> 
>> But consider yourself the application consumer. You've just purchased 
>> a new piece of software, and the first time you launch it, your 
>> firewall notifies you that "StatisticalCollectionAgent.exe is 
>> requesting access to the internet".
> 
> Well, IMHO before the first Internet connection your application should 
> ask the consumer if they wish to participate in anonymous statistical 
> data collection which will help improve the software in the future, etc. 
> At least, that's how the big guys (Microsoft etc.) do it. I don't think 
> anyone would be unhappy if they got a firewall warning after approving 
> that :)

I agree 100%.

But since I'm just providing the technology for the collection, I can't 
enforce anyone asking the user for permission. And I think the user 
experience is at least somewhat better if the process making the HTTP 
request is the same process that's being monitored.

It's no big deal, really. The in-process solution, accounting for 
Java/Linux, will be slightly trickier to code, but it's not impossible, 
so I think it'll be okay.

--benji