Topic: dispop - Distributed PNG Optimizer

[DarkWolf]

This is the project I posted about several days ago.  For those of you who didn't read the original post, dispop is an API that allows you to upload PNG images, and have them compressed by other machines.  Kind of like those grid computing projects, but not nearly as sophisticated.  I've decided to open the project to user registration.  This means you can create an account and use the basic web-interface.  I have chosen not to release any API documentation as of yet (if you're determined enough, you can figure it out via the source of the web tool), but it will be available once enough images have passed through the system.

http://dispop.pngoptimize.com/

[Maxim]

Did you get permission from Ken Silverman regarding this? I'm not sure whether this counts as "reusing the PNGOUT executable".

[DarkWolf]

As it stands right now: the actual machines that pngout is installed on are my own machines.  There are no redistributable packages or even publicly available code to run a worker for the API.  When I read the license I didn't think I need to ask for permission until I wanted to distribute a worker client.

[Maxim]

I just gave it a go...

It did all the images as "single pass", I'd hoped it would do more than that. It's not really faster than running PNGOUT locally, so it's not really useful to me yet.

[DarkWolf]

The database shows most of them at the Multi-Pass stage, with the exception of the ones that were aborted.  My worker at home went down, so there were only two processes working on multi-pass images.  I didn't really drum up as much interest as I thought I would, so I haven't done much work on the project and only check it once in a while.

And you're right, if you're willing to use the command line or write your own scripts (or have paid for the GUI version) this tool really doesn't compare in terms of speed.  The idea was a "upload and check back later" type system.  The API was supposed to allow web masters to, over-time, re-compress their images without using their own server's processing time (which is generally frowned upon with shared hosting).  However I got such little interest in the tool that I didn't really find the motivation to try and finish the API docs.

Maybe I went about it the wrong way.  I thought maybe about axing the web tool and just using the API to spider web sites for web masters that wanted it.  I don't know, any ideas?

[Maxim]

Ah, there was no indication that it was about to do some multi-pass runs.

You generally get a huge compression boost from running a single pass compared to not doing so at all; the multi-pass stuff is really just for being really crazy about saving a few bytes extra (although sometimes it makes a big difference). On the James Bond maps I tried it with, the multi-pass seems to have crunched by an extra 0.88%, for which is hard to justify the hassle.

What I really want is some way to just run a single pass of PNGOUT on upload, which is not your concern, just up to me to add it in to the upload system on my site