Man arrested for subversive Internet posting

Grok Headline matches for Man arrested for subversive Internet posting

Man arrested for posting subversive
messages on Internet

Man arrested for posting subversive
messages on Internet 02/17/2004 01:25 AM
Xinhuanet Feb 17 2004 5:32AM GMT

Onlines Grades - Internet Grade Posting

Onlines Grades - Internet Grade Posting 12/30/2004 07:37 PM
Online Grades Coming Soon!

China Jails Woman for Internet
Posting-Report

China Jails Woman for Internet
Posting-Report 04/12/2004 02:19 PM
HRIC Apr 12 2004 6:46PM GMT

How long is the average Internet
discussion forum posting?

How long is the average Internet
discussion forum posting? 03/17/2005 03:23 AM

A friend of mine who works at a database management system company asked for thoughts on how long a string a database table needs to be able to store, as a practical matter, to serve most Internet programming needs.  This prompted me to do some queries into the photo.net discussion forum.  Here's my message to him, which I thought would be interesting to nerd readers....

Three basic issues for Web development relating to varchar/clob:

1) Strings are uploaded from a browser-rendered TEXTAREA are of a length that is impossible for the programmer to predict. In a sense, then, every text slot in the database must be prepared to accept a string of arbitrary length. http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/textarea.html#brow serlimits reveals that some browsers have limits of 32K or 64K but that as Microsoft and Mozilla get more sophisticated these seem to be disappearing.

2) Software developers of Internet applications are often first-time SQL programmers and sometimes first-time programmers altogether. Unless a DBMS can make CLOBs work with every SQL function and command these novice programmers must learn a whole new computer language, essentially, to deal with CLOBs.

3) Internet applications are often developed using feeble ad hoc tools, such as PHP (my students in 6.171, MIT's Software Engineering for Internet Applications, mostly picked PHP to do their semester project even though I would have discouraged this, being a mistruster of thrown-together unnecessary new languages). Many of these tools don't have facilities for dealing with anything beyond the basic SQL data types so they couldn't use CLOBs if they wanted to.

I think for Web development it is reasonable to expect the average string length from the user to be 300 chars, despite wanting to be prepared for a maximum of 32K or even larger. Oops. Typing that prompted me to do the query (see below). Averaging 2 million messages on photo.net, the correct number is 425. The histogram query reveals that out of 2 million messages over a 10-year period a 32K limit would have resulted in 6 messages being rejected and a 16K limit something like 30 rejections.

If you wanted to implement something like Salon.com as a single RDBMS table for both articles and comments on articles I think a 64K limit might be required. If someone authors a 5000-word magazine article in Microsoft Word and then saves as HTML that will be 25-30k of content plus at least a factor of 2 in HTML tags and other Microsoft-added filler. http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=002oFh is an example of one of the big postings on photo.net. It is 37962 chars long, the HTML is very clean (i.e., much less filler than if saved by Word), and yet the page doesn't seem excessively long.

So... my conclusion from looking at the queries below is that 32K would do the job for a pure discussion forum system and that it would be marginal for storing articles unless a publisher decided that everything should be broken up into "part 1", "part 2", and "part 3". Looking at the .html files on photo.net, the vast majority are in fact under 32K and most are under 64K.

However, if you look at http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/ the largest chapters are 88.7k.

If you want to facilitate novice programmers building full-scale content management systems where all the content is uploaded from browsers it might be necessary to make the varchar datatype bloat up to 100k-ish. But 32K would be adequate to build something like eBay, amazon (user-uploaded content and much of the publisher content as well), or photo.net discussion forums.

----------- some stats from photo.net

select avg(dbms_lob.getlength(MESSAGE)),count(*) from bboard;

AVG(DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(MESSAGE)) COUNT(*)
-------------------------------- ----------
  424.672669  2052290

select round(dbms_lob.getlength(MESSAGE),-3), count(*)
from bboard
group by round(dbms_lob.getlength(MESSAGE),-3);

ROUND(DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(MESSAGE),-3) COUNT(*)
-------- ----------------------------- ----------
  0  1452035
1000 510236
2000  58330
3000  11972
4000 3399
5000 1303
6000  481
7000  264
8000  138
9000 93
10000 66
11000 38
12000 22
13000 21
14000 17
15000  6
16000 12
17000  9
18000 14
19000  4
20000  4
21000  1
22000  2
23000  1
24000  4
25000  3
26000  2
27000  1
30000  2
32000  1
33000  2
34000  1
37000  1
38000  1

Note:  Oracle did a much better job formatting these in SQL*Plus; for some reason the tabs didn't carry through after cutting and pasting.

------------------------------

Epilogue (not from my email to the friend):

Look how much fun it is to program SQL.  Three lines of code and you get an interesting answer (and those three lines would have been much cleaner and simpler if we hadn't been forced to use the CLOB datatype, which has its own strange accessor functions).  Compare to Java and C where typing until your fingers fall off usually doesn't result in much of anything.  SQL, Lisp, and Haskell are the only programming languages that I've seen where one spends more time thinking than typing.

Islamic Internet posting claims British
hostage has been killed

Islamic Internet posting claims British
hostage has been killed 09/26/2004 01:47 AM
eTaiwanNews.com Sep 26 2004 6:34AM GMT

Chinese worker detained for posting
articles, poems on the Internet

Chinese worker detained for posting
articles, poems on the Internet 12/20/2003 08:42 AM
AFP via Yahoo! Dec 20 2003 7:30AM ET

China Arrests 11 Falun Gong Members for
Posting Torture Photos on Internet

China Arrests 11 Falun Gong Members for
Posting Torture Photos on Internet 12/31/2004 02:04 AM
Digital Chosun Dec 31 2004 4:39AM GMT

Surrogate mother and husband charged in
child trafficking after posting baby on
Internet

Surrogate mother and husband charged in
child trafficking after posting baby on
Internet 02/01/2005 09:51 PM
China Post Feb 2 2005 1:48AM GMT

Girl accused of threatening to kill nine
students, posting list of targets on
Internet

Girl accused of threatening to kill nine
students, posting list of targets on
Internet 03/26/2005 07:20 AM
Financial Post Mar 26 2005 11:57AM GMT

BAMBI FRANCISCOHedging your nets With
Internet stocks posting impressive gains
for 2004, next year may be the

BAMBI FRANCISCOHedging your nets With
Internet stocks posting impressive gains
for 2004, next year may be the 12/29/2004 08:44 PM
CBS MarketWatch Dec 30 2004 12:40AM GMT

BAMBI FRANCISCOHedging your netsWith
Internet stocks posting impressive gains
for 2004, next year may be the t

BAMBI FRANCISCOHedging your netsWith
Internet stocks posting impressive gains
for 2004, next year may be the t 01/04/2005 04:21 AM
CBS MarketWatch Jan 4 2005 8:50AM GMT

China: Spam May Be Subversive

China: Spam May Be Subversive 02/10/2004 02:53 AM
China has a new message for its computer users: Spam isn't just annoying, it might well be subversive. Government to crack down on "reactionary" e-mail.

Hedging your netsWith Internet stocks
posting impressive gains for 2004, next
year may be the time to hedge so

Hedging your netsWith Internet stocks
posting impressive gains for 2004, next
year may be the time to hedge so 01/04/2005 04:21 AM
CBS MarketWatch Jan 4 2005 8:50AM GMT

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A posting on an
Islamic Internet site Saturday claimed
that an al-Qaida-linked group has

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A posting on an
Islamic Internet site Saturday claimed
that an al-Qaida-linked group has 09/25/2004 09:55 AM
940 News Sep 25 2004 2:14PM GMT

Hedging your nets With Internet stocks
posting impressive gains for 2004, next
year may be the time to hedge s

Hedging your nets With Internet stocks
posting impressive gains for 2004, next
year may be the time to hedge s 12/29/2004 08:44 PM
CBS MarketWatch Dec 30 2004 12:41AM GMT

"Subversive Software" - O'Dowd's Linux
Security Controversy Continues

"Subversive Software" - O'Dowd's Linux
Security Controversy Continues 04/19/2004 11:03 AM

Cop Arrested in Internet Sting

Cop Arrested in Internet Sting 04/02/2005 06:33 PM
1010Wins Apr 2 2005 9:46PM GMT

Priest arrested in internet sex sting

Priest arrested in internet sex sting 05/26/2004 02:51 AM
Irish News May 26 2004 7:02AM GMT

Police Officer Arrested For Internet Sex

Police Officer Arrested For Internet Sex 04/04/2005 11:15 AM
Wstcwnlk.com - Mon Apr 4, 10:42 am GMT

3 arrested in Internet child sex sting

3 arrested in Internet child sex sting 04/02/2005 09:19 AM
Pittsburghlive.com - Sat Apr 2, 07:07 am GMT

Man Arrested over Internet 'Phishing'
Scam

Man Arrested over Internet 'Phishing'
Scam 04/29/2004 06:33 AM
PA News via The Scotsman Online Apr 29 2004 10:56AM GMT

28 Internet Fraudsters Arrested,$3.5m
Recovered

28 Internet Fraudsters Arrested,$3.5m
Recovered 09/17/2004 10:22 PM
Nigeria Guardian Sep 18 2004 2:56AM GMT

Former Ohio Cop Arrested On Internet Sex
Charges

Former Ohio Cop Arrested On Internet Sex
Charges 07/15/2004 07:02 PM
Officer.com Jul 15 2004 10:53PM GMT

China internet dissident arrested

China internet dissident arrested 02/17/2004 03:53 AM
A Chinese internet dissident, Du Daobin, has been formally arrested on charges of subversion.

Teenager Arrested over Internet Virus

Teenager Arrested over Internet Virus 05/08/2004 05:11 AM
PA News via The Scotsman Online May 8 2004 9:24AM GMT

Priest arrested in Michigan in Internet
sex sting

Priest arrested in Michigan in Internet
sex sting 05/26/2004 06:17 AM
Hindustan Times May 26 2004 9:52AM GMT

Student Arrested After Internet Threats
Against School

Student Arrested After Internet Threats
Against School 03/31/2005 09:13 AM
Thecarolinachannel.com - Thu Mar 31, 12:46 pm GMT

760 Suspects Arrested in Internet
Gambling Cases

760 Suspects Arrested in Internet
Gambling Cases 02/05/2005 10:13 PM
Article.wn.com - Fri Feb 4, 07:34 am GMT

Priest in Michigan arrested in Internet
sex sting

Priest in Michigan arrested in Internet
sex sting 05/25/2004 04:35 PM
San Francisco Chronicle May 25 2004 8:16PM GMT

Queens Teachers Arrested In Internet Sex
Sting

Queens Teachers Arrested In Internet Sex
Sting 06/23/2004 09:06 AM
1010Wins Jun 23 2004 12:57PM GMT

Valdostan arrested in Internet drug
sweep

Valdostan arrested in Internet drug
sweep 07/23/2004 06:38 AM
Valdostadailytimes.com - Fri Jul 23, 06:26 am GMT

65 arrested in Internet child porn
crackdown in US

65 arrested in Internet child porn
crackdown in US 05/15/2004 07:14 AM
NewIndPress May 15 2004 10:50AM GMT

At least 65 arrested in Internet child
porn crackdown (AFP)

At least 65 arrested in Internet child
porn crackdown (AFP) 05/14/2004 04:36 PM
AFP - At least 65 people have been arrested on child pornography and related charges involving the use of Internet file sharing, US officials announced.

Mormon church leader arrested in
Internet ...

Mormon church leader arrested in
Internet ... 06/26/2004 04:44 AM
Wvgazette.com - Sat Jun 26, 09:13 am GMT

Police officer arrested in Internet sex
sting

Police officer arrested in Internet sex
sting 08/17/2004 07:45 AM
Newsday.com - Tue Aug 17, 08:44 am GMT

MAN ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY ENTICING A
MINOR OVER THE INTERNET

MAN ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY ENTICING A
MINOR OVER THE INTERNET 04/17/2005 09:24 AM
Cbs5.com - Sun Apr 17, 01:08 pm GMT

Man arrested for money swindling through
Internet advertisements

Man arrested for money swindling through
Internet advertisements 06/15/2004 02:57 PM
Channel NewsAsia Jun 15 2004 6:20PM GMT

65 arrested in Internet child porn
crackdown

65 arrested in Internet child porn
crackdown 05/15/2004 02:24 PM
Philippine Daily Inquirer May 15 2004 5:45PM GMT

/articleshow/829195.cms">Interne
t crime: over 100 arrested in US

/articleshow/829195.cms">Interne
t crime: over 100 arrested in US 08/27/2004 01:35 PM
Economictimes.indiatimes.com - Fri Aug 27, 08:55 am GMT
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Man arrested for subversive Internet posting

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