It's been a while. A little too long. Which makes it all the harder for me to have to inform you all that SDS will not be reaching all the promised objectives, and will be put on an indefinate suspension until those objectives can be reached.

The project isn't dead quite yet. I'm going to make a full working client that accomplishes some of the major objectives, then put it to bed for a while.

If you want to know more, here is a very apologetic status report:
http://blakecode.blogspot.com/2012/04/sds-status-report-april-2012.html

Sorry, guys.

Oh hey there! I thought I'd let everyone know that there is a technical demonstration (pure client beta) available now. If you are interested, check out this blog post: http://blakecode.blogspot.com/2011/01/sixdegreesteam-166-pure-client-beta.html .

As it says, it isn't a full-fledged release of SDS, it runs kinda slow (its totally dependent on your own internet service and computer), and it will likely only find people 5 or less profiles away from you. But, its pretty cool for the techy users!

And before you ask, if a link is found between the profiles you give, the output is a list of SteamIDs. You can view the profiles by putting it in your browser like so: http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/##############

Let the feedback and waves of "it doesnt work" emails begin! :p

Thanks for your continued interest in the project and patience in me,
Blake

The massive amount of sales Steam was promoting were, as I'm sure everyone had noticed, slowing down pretty much all Steam services. This included game downloads and CDS, the store itself, and the Community services. Because of this, I couldn't exactly test 1.6.6 for speed or do any effective optimizing. Unfortunately, I will be back to class starting tomorrow, so expect SDS to slow down again for a little while. I'll try my hardest to get 1.6.6 done and prepped for testing before February.

Again, don't get too excited about this first release. SDS 1.6.6 "Pure Client" is a simple proof-of-concept version meant to showcase some of the potential the project has. In no way should it be expected to do everything I hope to have the final project do, neither functionally nor speedily.

Today, I sat down and rewrote the entire client program as a proof of concept and early launch entry. This version of the program is a "pure client" edition, meaning there is no reliance/assistance from the server. The good thing about this is that the only lag you will notice will be your own, not any server clogged-up-ness. The bad thing about this is that the only lag you will notice will be your own...Unless you have a pretty high bandwidth, you will most certainly be banging your head against your desk while waiting for the crawling to finish.

Anyways, I still have a lot of polishing to do on this edition. At the moment, the only data presented to the user is a bunch of debugging information and a "Ladies and gentlemen, WE GOT 'EM" notice when the shortest path is found. I would be too embarassed to release such a non-user-friendly program. So, hang tight! After a couple tweaks, a text-based proof-of-concept program will be available to you all.

Merry Christmas! :)

The answer to the question on everyone's mind, "Is SDS still getting any attention", is an emphatic yes.

Over the past few months, the SNR/NME crew and I have been trying to figure out the best way to approach a server architecture that allows high availability AND ensures a bareable speed. We are still far from optimal, but a lot of thoughts have been thrown out there and only one has really stuck. I'll be testing and tweaking this concept to see how far I can push it. Once I feel comfortable with the usability of the backend, a super-simple client program will be slapped together in order to allow beta testing.

Did I say beta testing? I did! As a reward to everyone who has followed us despite our seeming inactivity, all members of this group will receive pre-access to the work-in-progress site and a chance to give us critical feedback! More on this will come down the pipe as we come closer. (We still may be a couple months out from getting all the bugs out the backend. While you wait, maybe you should read up on what's shaking up the TF2 community now! http://blakecode.blogspot.com/2010/07/drunken-f00l-got-ripped-son.html )

As always, the SNR group and I personally would like to thank everyone who is following and has followed the project. You guys are absolutely awesome! <3