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Zetangole™ Frequently Asked Questions


Click on these links to read the most relevant FAQ.


  • Who writes the Zetangole™ client software?

    Zetangole.com offers at least one basic unembellished client. We hope that many other clients will also eventually be available for download from Zetangole.com. These will be written by contributors such as yourself. We will try to ensure that they meet basic quality, privacy and security criteria before publishing them. For developers intending to code and contribute a game client, the protocol for interacting with the Zetangole™ game server is published here.

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  • What is the relationship between Zetangole™ and HashThySelf?

    Zetangole™ is a unit of HashThySelf, LLC. It is offered using an exclusive limited license to the Zetangole™ intellectual property from its inventor. The underlying distance computation algorithm is the same in both HashThyself and Zetangole™, and the distances pertain to the same HashSpace as that used by the HashThySelf Internet service.

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  • What is the history of Zetangole™?

    The idea behind Zetangole™ was inspired by a 9-year-old boy, P, in the evening of Halloween day, 2005. That morning in school, P had puzzled over which of his two costumed friends would have gotten Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) as their Zeta. At about 7pm, while browsing the HashThySelf experimental website trying to see if it contained the answer to his predicament, he made the perspicacious comment to his father that it didn't matter who got Radcliffe as their Zeta. All that mattered was who was closer to Radcliffe than the other. He asked if the service could be inverted to do this, and that they could then use the inverted service to play a look-alike game. Very soon afterwards, the Zetangole™ game was born, derived from the very same technology that powers HashThySelf Zeta.

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  • Are there any restrictions upon the use of the service?

    Your use of any game software that we make available is entirely at your own risk. We will try our best to ensure that the software is bug-free, virus-free and clean. But we cannot offer any warranties or guarantees.

    Please read our terms and conditions to know more about this. Use of the Zetangole™ software provided through our website is is completely free, but only for non-commercial purposes.

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  • How Do I Play?

    To find out how to play, check the How To Play section.

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  • Why does skin of the example game look like a phone?

    It looks like a phone because we originally envisioned Zetangole™ to be a phone-based game. We're still working on the possibility of developing a phone-based client for Zetangole™. If you'd like to author it and have us distribute it, please do contact us soon.

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  • Where is the SEND button in your Java game client?

    The SEND button looks like this:



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  • Can I write a Zetangole™ client application?

    Sure. We will be pleased to distribute it for you. Please contact us to register for development. Zetangole.com will distribute your game for you, but it will be provided for free to users with standard disclaimers. We have a strong preference for client software written in Java and will need to be persuaded to distribute clients written in any other language. (Part of the reason for this is that we only have the free resources to compile and run Java code). If you want to write a Zetangole™ client to sell, you must contact our office to discuss the terms.

    In any case, all Zetangole™ clients distributed by our website must pass our screening process where we verify the integrity of the software and ensure that it does not compromise the security, privacy or integrity of our users' computers or phones. We will therefore require you to deposit the final source code with us and compile it ourselves prior to distribution. Attribution on the download site will clearly show you to be the developer of your client.

    One final note: All Zetangole™ clients must meet the "DOD" criterion (See the next question).
    If you are agreeable to the above, you may peruse the Game server protocol here to get an idea of how your client should interact with the game server.

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  • What is dead-on-deletion software?

    DOD means that if users don't like the software for any reason, they can completely uninstall it by just deleting it. No vestiges should be left behind. A further subtlety not apparent in the expression is that the software must decidedly not require super-user or administrator privileges to either install or uninstall. The software should ideally consist of one executable file and perhaps a directory to store configuration information. If a user deletes these, the client should be completely gone. Users should not need to worry about invisible files or obscure vestigeal registry entries.

    Installation must consist, at most, of uncompressing the contents of a folder containing the game client and perhaps configuration information. Uninstallation must be a simple matter of just deleting this folder.
    We will only distribute Zetangole™ game clients that are dead on deletion.

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  • What are your terms of use regarding your content?

    All images used by Zetangole are believed to be in the public domain. If you feel that the use of any of these images infringes upon your copyright, please contact us giving us further information and we will promptly remove the offending material. See our terms and conditions for your use of the Zetangole™ software and service.

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  • How was the logo designed?

    The logo and most image artwork for Zetangole were created using the fine and free GIMP toolkit and most HTML content was originally written using GNU Emacs under Linux.

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  • How do I pronounce Zetangole™?

    Zay-Tan-Goal

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