I've put together a small node tracker program (mostly just out of boredom). It's not currently as full featured as the web based one, but it's functional.
If you want to try it out, you'll need version 1.4.0 of Sun's Java Runtime Environment for whichever OS you're using. That should be available at http://java.sun.com/downloads.html The tracker itself is at http://asofel.dyndns.org/NodeTracker.jar. It is only 13K, but please go easy on my connection (dialup).
The jar file is executable (meaning that, under Windows you can just double click it and it will run, if you have the right JRE). To run from the command line use "java -jar NodeTracker.jar".
It can save username and password between sessions (in the registry or elsewhere, depending on platform). It keeps the last downloaded set of node data in a file of your choice and compares whenever you download new data. It can track when the rep of writeups change, when writeups get cooled, and a bunch of stats.
Source is in the jar file (and, unfortunately, is not very well commented. Contact me if you need help understanding it.).
Latest News (August 19, 2002): Sexy new version uploaded, works much better. It's pretty much on par with the web based versions now (or so I'd like to think).
Changes:
- UI cleaned up a bit
- Cleaned up the source a lot
- Put network I/O in its own thread so UI doesn't block
- Lists are now formatted nicely
- A few changes in the way usernames and stuff get saved
- Now tracks writeup adding, removing, and renaming as well
- Merit calculation ought to work right now
- Proxy stuff should work