Nmap Development mailing list archives
Re: GSoC: Hosted Scanner
From: Brandon Enright <bmenrigh () ucsd edu>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 23:41:29 +0000
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Mon, 5 Apr 2010 17:54:44 -0400 Mike Smith <scgtrp () gmail com> wrote:
Hello, So far I've only gotten one comment on my proposal, saying that I type way too fast and managed to submit it before all the questions were up. I've answered the additional question and haven't heard from anyone since then. It's a bit frustrating, because I'm not sure whether I need to change anything else. So, does anyone have any further comments on my proposal? http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/student_proposal/show/google/gsoc2010/scgtrp/t126990612841
Mike, First off, I have NO SAY in who gets selected so take these comments as constructive criticism and not bad news. You won't get official any comments until applications are finished and the deadline is past. I just read through your proposal and I feel that it roughly describes the minimum I'd expect from a hosted scanner proposal. Unfortunately, GSoC gets a lot of great applicants so you MUST sell your skill set and why you are the right choice. Imagine the most bad-ass technical genius, a real Mozart/Torvalds/Dostoevsky of OSS development as your GSoC competition -- if your proposal doesn't make THEM nervous your chances are poor. Also, you also need to sell your *idea* and not just yourself for a hosted scanner. Here are my recommendations: * What projects have you worked on that showcase your skills? As long as the code is available they don't have to be "big name" projects. * What attracts you to working on a hosted scanner? * Why is your hosted scanner proposal a killer app and why is your proposal for a hosted scanner better thought out and better planned than all the others? * You should provide a few links to bug fixes and other contributions you've made to other OSS projects that showcase your skill and troubleshooting/programming ability. * Your hosted scanner should be generic enough that it can at least work with both PostgreSQL and MySQL. DBs arguments get religious fast so don't choose sides just yet. * Phrases like "depending on how difficult it turns out to be" as disconcerting. It is easy to do a diff -- it is hard to diff in a way that produces meaningful data. I can tell you from years of experience scanning the network here that scan deltas are HUGE. You need to have ideas here for how this algorithm will work. The heuristics you'll build into it, etc. If you diffing can't produce useful results when 100,000 machines are scanned your code won't be used. * Why is a daemonized scanner better than say, on-demand scanning? I agree with the daemon but you need to explain in more detail your overall design as well as some finer details. Finally, I suspect you intended this ("Slacker. I'll gladly accept payment for sleeping. ;)") as a joke and perhaps Fyodor/David/others will see it that way but I don't read it as a joke. I strongly believe that being a good developer (or being good at anything, really) requires hard work and personal sacrifice. The best always became the best through hard work and spending their free time improving and sharpening their skill sets. I wouldn't want a GSoC applicant who would take being paid for sleeping over being paid to learn and contribute. David Fifield's GSoC application from 2007 did a very good job of selling his skill set: http://www.bamsoftware.com/wiki/Nmap/Proposal I would recommend reading over some other successful applications for ideas. Again, please take the above as constructive criticism. Good luck, Brandon -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAku6dS8ACgkQqaGPzAsl94LvHQCdFnIxYeUVzLgEQX6CPZPdSsuM zfIAoINd/r9kfgMDE06nf09KMtERGmJT =j2Gw -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Sent through the nmap-dev mailing list http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev Archived at http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/
Current thread:
- Re: GSoC: Hosted Scanner Mike Smith (Apr 05)
- Re: GSoC: Hosted Scanner Brandon Enright (Apr 05)
- Re: GSoC: Hosted Scanner Mike Smith (Apr 05)
- Re: GSoC: Hosted Scanner David Fifield (Apr 06)
- Re: GSoC: Hosted Scanner Brandon Enright (Apr 05)