------ [ About PATT ]

PATT, or Put All The Things, at its core, is a simple web application built around
a simple web server.  The concept was born out of a brainstorming session where we
were trying to figure out how to back up private keys that would normally be stored
on a user's cell phone.  What would happen if they lost their phone?  Who could 
they trust with their private key?  The answer is a common one in this type of 
situation: "no one."  With this in mind, I set out to create a haystack so huge one
could hide a thousand needles within it, and no one could ever find your key.

------ [ PATT's Properties ]

1). PATT allows any user to write any content to any /path/ on the web server.  You
may even supply your own HTTP response headers and PATT will honor them and send 
them along with your content.  If you don't supply your own HTTP response headers 
PATT will generate some for you.

2). PATT resists attempts to "crawl" our namespace.  PATT does so by keeping track 
of the number of times a given IP address attempts to "read" or "get" data from a 
path that is known to be empty.  If you make too many requests where there is no
data, you end up in a "waiting" state.  None of your requests work at all until 
this state clears.  Further, every time you attempt to connect while in the wait 
state results in another penalty!

3). PATT allows you to "protect" (make read-only) content for a certain length of 
time (up to 5 years, default 1 hour).  PATT also allows you to "expire" content 
after a specified amount of time has elapsed.  Please note: these values are only 
writable when you create a new PATT of something, you can not go back and edit 
them.

4). In addition to allowing users to upload content to any path on the web server
PATT also offers the ability to create feeds.  Feeds are pieces of content that, if
known by multiple parties, can be used to communicate.  A great example of what is 
possible with feeds is pattchat, available as helpers/autochat.html in the PATT 
distribution.

5). All content stored on the PATT server is stored encrypted with Twofish.  The
key used to encrypt the files is a substring of a SHA256 hash of the reverse of the
URL used to store the content.  Requests to PATT are not logged, and so if you are
communicating with PATT over SSL, it is damn near impossible for anyone to know the
location of the content you're uploading or retrieving unless you gave it to them
yourself, or they found it in your browser's history.  This scheme is relatively 
air tight, provided you are using SSL and connecting to a PATT server run by either
someone you trust, or a PATT server you set up for yourself.

------ [ PATT_that ]

PATT also has a pretty handy command line tool that can upload files recursively to
any location that you choose.  It will even generate file indexes in HTML that you
can use to navigate your PATTed content.  There are quite a few options for you to
try out on the command line.  If you spend a lot of time in the command line PATT 
becomes an easy replacement for any pastebin or image hosting site.

------ [ PATTchat ]

PATTchat is the first web application built for the PATT platform.  It proves a few
concepts and actually ends up being a lot of fun.  Allowing anyone to write any 
content to a web page is a really unique experience.  Embedded YouTube videos and 
animated gifs stream up your screen as you laugh with friends.  It's a free for all
so anyone can pretty much do anything they want.

------ [ PATT and Politics ]

PATT is a great way around SOPA and other crazy nonsense.  You can't be held liable
for things that are encrypted on your hard drive.