WASTE is a peer-to-peer and friend-to-friend protocol and software application developed by Justin Frankel at Nullsoft in 2003 that features instant messaging, chat rooms and file browsing/sharing capabilities. The name WASTE is a reference to Thomas Pynchon's novel The Crying of Lot 49. In the novel, W.A.S.T.E. is (among other things) an underground postal service.
After its release, WASTE was removed from distribution by AOL, Nullsoft's parent company. The original page was replaced with a statement claiming that the posting of the software was unauthorized and that no lawful rights to it were held by anyone who had downloaded it, in spite of the original claim that the software was released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Several developers have modified and upgraded the WASTE client and protocol. The SourceForge edition is considered by many to be the "official" development branch, but there are several forks.
Read more about WASTE: Description, WASTE Networks, Nullnets, Strengths, Shortcomings, Versions
Famous quotes containing the word waste:
“Whilst all the land was ringed with bristling arms
And flames laid waste our world,
All that was left me was a little garden
And thou within it, my beloved, my comrade.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“And the one bird singing alone to his nest,
And the one star over the tower.
I thought of our little quarrels and strife,
And the letter that brought me back my ring;
And it all seem’d then, in the waste of life,”
—“Owen” “Meredith” (1831–1891)
“But waste was of the essence of the scheme.
And all the good they did for man or god
To all those flowers they passionately trod
Was leave as their posterity one pod
With an inheritance of restless dream.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)