Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Grok Headline matches for Wednesday, February 12, 2003

February 04, 2003

February 04, 2003 03/11/2003 09:44 AM
I've moved Joel on Software to a new server, at a colocation facility operated by Peer 1 Network. In the process of finding a new home and getting it up and running I've learned quite a bit about how web hosting works, so I thought I'd describe a bit of it here and in the process provide a glimpse Behind The Scenes.

February 14, 2003

February 14, 2003 03/11/2003 09:44 AM

Due to the poor sound quality of the previous CityDesk online demo, I decided to invest in a real studio quality microphone instead of using one of those cheap computer headset/mike combinations.

It took me a while to figure out what I needed. The mike itself is a Shure SM58, probably one of the most popular professional microphones in use today and generally available for about $100.

I bought the Mic from Sam Ash on 48th street, hoping that they would be able to get me the right combination of cables and adapters I needed to plug this thing into a standard sound card. The stoner DJ sales dude sounded very confident but he didn't tell me that I needed a preamp, and he gave me the wrong kind of cables.

If you're trying to do this yourself, here's exactly what I have:

1. the Shure SM58 microphone
2. A basic desk stand. The clip part that connects the mike to the stand comes with the mike.
3. a 3' mic cable (it only needs to reach the preamp). I bought a CBI LowZ Microphone Cable from Zzounds.
4. A preamp. This boosts the level of the microphone to something that is called "Line Level" which is what a computer sound card needs. I got an M-Audio AudioBuddy from Zzounds.
5. To connect the preamp to the sound card, you need a cable with a 1/4" stereo phone jack on one end and a 1/8" stereo "mini" phone jack on the other end. I assembled this out of two cables which I bought at my neighborhood Radio Shack. For some reason the professional music stores like Sam Ash and Zzounds think it is beneath their dignity to stock any parts with 1/8" jacks, but that is what your sound card needs.

The sound quality is really quite a bit better. Here are two MP3s, before (with the computer mike) and after (with the professional mike).

February 05, 2003

February 05, 2003 03/11/2003 09:44 AM
Dave asks: "When I get Slashdotted we get about 5000 reads. I've noticed that number is about what some Manila and Radio sites have gotten when they were Slashdotted. Now, according to Joel Spolsky he gets about 400,000 reads from a Slashdot link, about 80 times the flow. Now here's the question. Why?"

Actually, I said 500,000, not 400,000, and I was referring to hits, not "reads." I'm not sure what a read is, but a hit is a single file served by the web server. Even the simplest page on this site consists of four files: the header GIF, the Made with CityDesk GIF, the CityDesk logo, and the article itself. Articles with pictures have a lot more. The number of page views we get, which only counts HTML files, is about 120,000 on "slashdot days." Since the average day has about 30,000 page views, only 90,000 are "extra." Still a lot more than Manila sites, but not 80 times the flow.

Another difference is that I almost always get slashdotted on a day when I release a new article. This is coincidentally the same day I send email to 16,000 subscribers telling them about the new article. And on average a few dozen webloggers will link to me on the same day, bringing in their traffic as well.

Some percentage of those people say, "Aha! This precisely proves my point!" and forward the URL to their boss or underling to hit them over the head with it. "See? Nya!" So there's always a multiplier effect.

Finally, Joel on Software has enough old content that many new visitors stay a while and click around. That accounts for a lot of the extra traffic on Slashdot days.

February 28, 2003

February 28, 2003 03/11/2003 09:44 AM

The social scientist Ray Oldenburg talks about how humans need a third place, besides work and home, to meet with friends, have a beer, discuss the events of the day, and enjoy some human interaction. Coffee shops, bars, hair salons, beer gardens, pool halls, clubs, and other hangouts are as vital as factories, schools and apartments ["The Great Good Place", 1989]. But capitalist society has been eroding those third places, and society is left impoverished. In "Bowling Alone," Robert Putnam brings forth, in riveting and well-documented detail, reams of evidence that American society has all but lost its third places. Over the last 25 years, Americans "belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often." [2000] For too many people, life consists of going to work, then going home and watching TV. Work-TV-Sleep-Work-TV-Sleep. It seems to me that the phenomenon is far more acute among software developers, especially in places like Silicon Valley and the suburbs of Seattle. People graduate from college, move across country to a new place where they don't know anyone, and end up working 12 hour days basically out of loneliness.

So it's no surprise that so many programmers, desperate for a little human contact, flock to online communities - chat rooms, discussion forums, open source projects, and Ultima Online. In creating community software, we are, to some extent, trying to create a third place. And like any other architecture project, the design decisions we make are crucial. Make a bar too loud, and people won't be able to have conversations. That makes for a very different kind of place than a coffee shop. Make a coffee shop without very many chairs, as Starbucks does, and people will carry their coffee back to their lonely rooms, instead of staying around and socializing like they do in the fantasy TV coffeehouse of "Friends," a program we watch because an ersatz third place is less painful than none at all.

In software, as in architecture, design decisions are just as important to the type of community that develops or fails to develop. When you make something easy, people do it more often. When you make something hard, people do it less often. In this way you can gently encourage people to behave in certain ways which determine the character and quality of the community. Will it feel friendly? Is there thick conversation, a European salon full of intellectuals with interesting ideas? Or is the place deserted, with a few dirty advertising leaflets lying around on the floor that nobody has bothered to pick up?

— Excerpted from my latest article, “Building Communities with Software,” which will only be sent to email subscribers. Please subscribe now to receive the article, which will be sent out on Monday morning.

February 03, 2003

February 03, 2003 03/11/2003 09:44 AM

New Column

I just got the March copy of the Programmer's Paradise catalog, which contains the first installment of my new column, a review of VMware, on page 11. “By the twentieth time I'd installed Windows 2000, I could do it in my sleep, even though I don't know a word of Chinese.” The only way to read the column is to get the catalog, which you can do for free here.

I've already written the next two columns for the catalog: a review of ERwin and an article about user interface design. Also in the pipeline: reviews of LeadTools, Camtasia Studio, and DevPartner Studio. Unlike most software reviewers who write for the magazines, who spend just enough time with a the product to get 750 words worth, I plan to review things that we actually use on a daily basis here at Fog Creek and talk about how we use them.

Commoditize Your Complements

Remember when I wrote that “smart companies try to commoditize their products’ complements?” We decided to take some of our own advice, here, so as of today, FogBUGZ can be run on top of MySQL, which is free, in addition to Microsoft SQL Server, which is expensive.

We also support two more source code control systems: CVSNT and Visual SourceSafe.

"February 2003"

"February 2003" 01/03/2004 07:07 PM

February 25, 2003

February 25, 2003 03/11/2003 09:44 AM

The discussion forum for this site generates a lot of questions and commentary. As I said when I launched it, it's a bit of an experiment. Although it may seem simple, there are a lot of subtle design decisions and magic-behind-the-scenes in hopes of improving the quality of discussion that takes place there. So far, it has mostly worked.

Later this week I'll write an essay explaining everything, but because it's full of Heisenberg effects, the essay won't appear on this web site, it will only go out via email to email subscribers. You can subscribe here or at the bottom of any page on my site:

Email:

 

Don't worry, you can unsubscribe at any time; every email I send includes a single-click unsubscribe link. I will never sell your email address. Subscribe by Friday to be sure to get the essay. Once again -- the essay will not appear on the web and will be copyright so I'll ask you not to forward the email around. It's an exclusive benefit for email subscribers.

News : February 27, 2003

News : February 27, 2003 03/13/2003 10:20 AM
The Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK) board of directors announced on February 24th that it had authorized an additional $25 million for use in repurchasing its common stock, bringing the total authorization to $50 million.

Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Tuesday, February 25, 2003 03/13/2003 10:23 AM
Through the Reeds

CodeBitch : February 24, 2003

CodeBitch : February 24, 2003 03/13/2003 10:20 AM
In which CodeBitch ruminates on the fate of Opera for Mac

Pro News : February 28, 2003

Pro News : February 28, 2003 03/13/2003 10:20 AM
Stop-motion animation app comes to OS X; Group aims to put Mac in home theater; Mask Pro gets X rating; Quark opens a Jaguar-lined kimono; Snowmint updates Budget, unleashes Planner; Ham radio apps get updated; iLink get tweaked; ODBC middleware moves to X; 4D gunning for Apache; Scrapbook apps finetuned; Online training app gets new features

Monday, February 10, 2003

Monday, February 10, 2003 03/13/2003 10:23 AM
The true story of Giggle and Boggle.

The Parting Shot : February 28, 2003

The Parting Shot : February 28, 2003 03/13/2003 10:20 AM
Thirty days hath September...

The Parting Shot : February 21, 2003

The Parting Shot : February 21, 2003 03/13/2003 10:20 AM
Connectix releases Version 7

Release Digests: KDE, February 12, 2003

Release Digests: KDE, February 12, 2003 02/13/2003 01:54 AM
Today's KDE apps: Digital Video Recorder 2.7.9.3, KSEG 0.351, KKeyled 0.8.6, Design Recovery Tool 0.2.5, Kile 1.4, KMuddy 0.4.1, KMySQLAdmin 0.6.1, and Kcube 0.55.

Release Digest: KDE, February 14, 2003

Release Digest: KDE, February 14, 2003 02/14/2003 08:43 PM
Today's KDE apps: Licq 1.2.4, KSteak 0.9.3, PerlQt 3.006, Gwenview 0.16.2, KMySQLAdmin 0.6.2, KPilot 4.3.7, Kcube 0.61, krename 2.5.2, and KnetmonApplet 0.6.7.

Linux Advisory Watch - February 7th 2003

Linux Advisory Watch - February 7th 2003 02/07/2003 08:39 AM
- by Benjamin D. Thomas - Linux Advisory Watch is a comprehensive newsletter that outlines the security vulnerabilities that have been announced throughout the week. It includes pointers to updated packages and descriptions of each vulnerability. This week, advisories were released for cvs, mcrypt, slocate, qt-dcgui, bladeenc, cim, mysql, kernel, kerberos, php, OpenLDAP, windowmaker, xpdf. The distributors include Caldera, Conectiva, FreeBSD, ...

Archives | February 23-March 1 2003 |
Yourish.com

Archives | February 23-March 1 2003 |
Yourish.com 03/14/2003 12:58 PM
International Eat an Animal for PETA Day, .. Meryl Yourish .. Meryl

track this site | 7 links

Linux Advisory Watch - February 28th,
2003

Linux Advisory Watch - February 28th,
2003 03/11/2003 01:22 AM
- By Benjamin D. Thomas - This week, advisories were released for slocate, nanog, tcpdump, kde, openssl, WebTool, syncookie, webmin, acupsd, tightvnc, vnc, vte, hypermail, libmcrypt, openldap, mysql, postgresql, initscripts, krb5, lynx, and shadow-utils. The distributors include Conectiva, Debian, Guardian Digital's EnGarde Secure Linux, Gentoo, Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE, and Trustix.

Linux Advisory Watch - February 21st,
2003

Linux Advisory Watch - February 21st,
2003 02/21/2003 07:28 AM
- By Benjamin D. Thomas Linux Advisory Watch is a comprehensive newsletter that outlines the security vulnerabilities that have been announced throughout the week. It includes pointers to updated packages and descriptions of each vulnerability. This week, advisories were released for mod_dav, w3m, cups, php, mysql, openssl, mailman, syslinux, nethack, bitchx, util-linux, apcupdb, pam, shadow-utils, and imp. The distributors include ...

CBS News | U.S. Presses For Decision On
Iraq | February 25, 2003 14:12:43

CBS News | U.S. Presses For Decision On
Iraq | February 25, 2003 14:12:43 03/13/2003 10:25 AM

CBS News | Transcript: Saddam Hussein
Interview, Pt. 1 | February 26,
2003 20:31:07

CBS News | Transcript: Saddam Hussein
Interview, Pt. 1 | February 26,
2003 20:31:07 04/11/2005 03:50 AM
CBS News Transcript: Saddam Hussein Interview, Pt. 1 February 26, 2003 19:23:27 .. an interview with Dan Rather on CBS .. Complete transcript is here .. interviewed

cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/26/60II/main542151.shtml
track this site | 3 links

Update Fever! February / March 2003
Google Update finally arrives

Update Fever! February / March 2003
Google Update finally arrives 03/11/2003 01:22 AM
The long awaited, eagerly anticipated February, 2003 Google update finally arrives in March. The early returns say that the pre-update jitters were unwarranted.

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: February 08, 2004 - February
14, 2004 Archives

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: February 08, 2004 - February
14, 2004 Archives 02/10/2004 01:35 PM
sounding evasive, incoherent and out of touch .. Josh Marshall .. said

talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_02_08.html#002539
track this site | 5 links

"Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: February 01, 2004 - February
07, 2004 Archives"

"Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: February 01, 2004 - February
07, 2004 Archives" 02/10/2004 02:52 AM

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: February 15, 2004 - February
21, 2004 Archives

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: February 15, 2004 - February
21, 2004 Archives 02/17/2004 12:57 PM
This is the arsonist in your house telling you that stranger outside with the hose can't be trusted .. Democratswould threaten fiscal health .. ever .. Heh

talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_02_15.html#002565
track this site | 5 links

Wednesday, 5/5

Wednesday, 5/5 05/05/2004 05:30 AM
techtv May 5 2004 9:41AM GMT

Wednesday must-reads

Wednesday must-reads 06/23/2004 10:59 AM

Et Cetera: Wednesday already!

Et Cetera: Wednesday already! 06/10/2004 11:18 AM
Another Et Cetera. What can be said? It has a lot of stuff in it. Some important, some less important. All link-worthy!

Wednesday in Chicago

Wednesday in Chicago 07/15/2004 10:42 AM
Our second (and last) full day of vacation in Chicago ended well but began with a disappointment. We slogged off to the Museum of Science and Industry. Despite its Stalinist name, it's actually one of those interactive science places that seems to be the offspring of a museum that got lusty with an amusement park during shore leave. You're always just a twist or a yank or a pop away from learning something. Unfortunately, the science seems aimed squarely at the Square Pants set. Why, did you know that DNA is all helixy, that friction generates heat, and that...

Wednesday in Singapore

Wednesday in Singapore 12/17/2004 06:31 PM
Ah, sleep! Amazing what a full night of it can do. For example, it turned my exhaustion into sleepiness. I work up early and re-wrote my presentation, as I inevitably do before a speech. I'm at the first International Conference on Knowledge Management, a truly international gathering of practitioners and academics. I, of course, am neither, so of course they had me keynote it. Nevertheless, it seemed to go well. I bugged out at 11 to see if I could see just a little more of the city. After a quick cab ride, I was in Little India, the streets...

Wednesday Wishbone

Wednesday Wishbone 12/29/2003 11:52 PM
Last news before Turkey Day. Mathematician and father of Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, was born in 1894. Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz, was born in 1922. France became the third space power in 1965 with the launch of the Asterix-1. A...

Windows XP SP2 RC2 set for Wednesday

Windows XP SP2 RC2 set for Wednesday 05/22/2004 06:27 PM

The Wednesday Wikki

The Wednesday Wikki 01/28/2004 11:19 AM
Today's technology news. The space shuttle Challenger exploded on this day in 1986 killing all seven astronauts aboard. The collateral damage from MyDoom continues to reverberate through email systems. As much as 10% of all email is MyDoom related -...

Wednesday photos

Wednesday photos 07/29/2004 01:35 PM
View from Blogger Blvd Rebecca Blood and Dave Winer in Bloggerland Edwards pauses while the crowd cheers Press banks on the floor At the DCCC & Google party Rebecca Blood sees the sign of the end of blogging as we know it Bloggers party. Can you spot the garofalo? Granny D, not walking across America Jessamyn West, with Christian Crumlish in the shadows...

Wednesday Whiffler

Wednesday Whiffler 01/16/2004 12:59 PM
It's time for tech news! Carlo Ponzi, creator of the scam that bears his name, immigrated to America on this day in 1896. Henry Ford introduced the assembly line in 1914. The FCC removed restrictions on the number of...

Stanford: Wednesday, December 1

Stanford: Wednesday, December 1 02/05/2005 09:37 PM
At many places there is a holiday-time practice called “Secret Santa” (sometimes de-Christianized to “Secret Snowflake” or something similar). Everyone…

Computers in Libraries -- Wednesday

Computers in Libraries -- Wednesday 03/19/2005 02:36 AM
I went to four sessions yesterday in addition to the keynote and went to the dead technologies night session, and I wonder why I'm tired when I get to the...

A Mea Culpa or "Its Wednesday and I'm
Stooopid"

A Mea Culpa or "Its Wednesday and I'm
Stooopid" 10/28/2003 11:08 PM

A Mea Culpa or "Its Wednesday and I'm Stooopid"

Sigh.  I thought I was making a valid point about Atom (and I do still kinda think that) but Dave correctly pointed out that RSS supports enclosures too -- something that I didn't realize.  And, thus, everything I said applies to RSS as well.  Yeah I should have definitely known that -- considering what I do -- and I do know it -- but ....  So this is an egregious example of overwhelming stupidity.  I'm not proud.  So consider this an apology.  I shouldn't have labeled / titled the post as I did.

I'm tempted to just delete the previous post but that would lead to the whole arguments from a few weeks ago about post deleting / editing [Shudder]. 

Grok Description matches for Wednesday, February 12, 2003
GrokA matches for Wednesday, February 12, 2003

"Loki Torrent - Torrent Search, Torrent
Download, You name it..."

"Loki Torrent - Torrent Search, Torrent
Download, You name it..." 12/31/2004 10:23 AM

Loki Torrent - Torrent Search, Torrent
Download, You name it, we've got it.

Loki Torrent - Torrent Search, Torrent
Download, You name it, we've got it. 12/30/2004 11:53 AM
fights back .. lokittorrent .. Loki Torrent

lokitorrent.com
track this site | 5 links

Forza Viola

Forza Viola 06/20/2004 03:52 PM
FIORENTINA PROMOSSA IN A!!!! Forza Viola!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!!! Fiorentina got promoted back to Serie A, about four minutes ago. The dogs and I are off into town to see what gets burnt down. Meanwhile, the points in the Euro 2004 are...

Motorsport: F1 stars join Audi

Motorsport: F1 stars join Audi 02/10/2004 11:54 PM
Ex-Formula One drivers Johnny Herbert and Allan McNish will race for Audi in sportscars in 2004.

Motorsport: McRae leads Dakar

Motorsport: McRae leads Dakar 01/02/2005 08:55 AM
Britain's Colin McRae leads the car class of the Dakar Rally after winning Sunday's third stage.

Torrent 0.61

Torrent 0.61 01/27/2004 02:58 PM
An arcade game with colored tiles.

My first torrent

My first torrent 07/30/2004 03:00 AM

Thanks to Jim and Ado for setting up the BitTorrent tracker. Here is a torrent for Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture talk in Helsinki that I blogged about earlier.

UPDATE: Please standby. It doesn't seem to be working.

Comment - TrackBack

Torrent Zip

Torrent Zip 03/31/2005 11:44 PM
The project is live!

Xcode .torrent

Xcode .torrent 08/08/2004 02:13 AM
Apple just released an update to is Xcode development tools, but Apple's content distribution network is slow and poky, and as Danny notes, it "won't let you resume downloads using wget -c." So here's a .torrent for Xcode. Link (via Oblomovka)

It's the torrent, stupid

It's the torrent, stupid 12/22/2004 01:29 AM
Xeni Jardin: Mark Pesce rants about the recent shutdowns of BitTorrent supersites Suprnova.org and TorrentBits.com.

Hey, Hollywood! Can you feel the future slipping through your fingers? Do you understand how badly you've screwed up? You took a perfectly serviceable situation - a nice, centralized system for the distribution of media, and, through your own greed and shortsightedness, are giving birth to a system of digital distribution that you'll never, ever be able to defeat. In your avarice and arrogance you ignored the obvious: you should have cut a deal with SuprNova.org. In partnership you could have found a way to manage the disruptive change that's already well underway. Instead, you have repeated the mistakes made by the recording industry, chapter and verse. And thus you have spelled your own doom.

It's said that the best sequels are just like the original, only bigger and louder. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for one hell of a crash. This baby is now fully out of control.

Link (via waxy)

Following up on Torrent Shutdowns

Following up on Torrent Shutdowns 12/22/2004 01:40 AM
Slashdot Dec 21 2004 6:33PM GMT

CC Torrent Hosting

CC Torrent Hosting 12/17/2004 06:33 PM

Torrentocracy has announced a free BitTorrent hosting service for Creative Commons licensed content: Prodigem.

Download one of the beta torrents currently available. Send an email to Torrentocracy creator Gary Lerhaupt to request an upload account.

Update: Download all of the Duke Law School Arts Project Moving Image Contest finalists via one torrent at prodigem.

Bit Torrent : An Analysis

Bit Torrent : An Analysis 12/19/2004 03:10 PM
Hardy news site, The Register, recently published a detailed analysis of the file sharing protocol Bit Torrent. Bit Torrent has received attention in the main stream news after reports that it was carrying as much as 50% of all peer 2 peer (p2p) traffic, which in tern amounted to a massive 30% of all the traffic on the internet. The paper, by Dr. Johan Pouwelse, examines the protocol and looks especially at one of the largest bit-torrent hubs, Suprnova.org. He examines how just 20 moderators solve the problem of fake files, something that plagues the traditional file sharing networks like Kazaa.

Dr Powelse notes that the major problems facing hubs like suprnova are fakes and maintaining hub availability. The availability of files on bit torrent is based on a centralised system; without it, the network fails as users cannot access the trackers. Decentralising bit torrent has already begun - Suprnova have started a project called "Exeem" which apparently has 5,000 beta testers trialling it, and has an ultimate aim of taking the best of Kazaa (a decentralised network) and merging it with Bit Torrent. Decentralisation removes the issue of poor availability at the tracker end, yet0 it also provides more scope for fake files and a reduction in data integrity at the user end.

The paper concludes that bit-torrent needs to evolve to create incentives to users to seed files. Bit-torrent as a protocol is a system that’s here to stay; it enjoys more and more usage from more main stream content providers. Yes, there is a lot of illegitimate use of the protocol, but unlike Kazaa, these users should not be allowed to over shadow the usefulness to legitimate users of the bit torrent protocol.

[Update] Since this article was published, Suprnova has shutdown as a hub for torrents. Although this cannot be confirmed, the shutdown is very likely related to legal action from the Hollywood against tracker websites; earlier in the week many other sites were taken down. The effectiveness of the takedowns could be massive; the paper below notes that when on the Suprnova mirrors went offline during their monitoring period, they saw a massive reduction in the number of users downloading files through the site.

Download: The Paper (pdf) | The Register

Read full story...

Torrentocracy = RSS + Bit Torrent + Your
TV

Torrentocracy = RSS + Bit Torrent + Your
TV 06/21/2004 07:41 AM

Bit Torrent question

Bit Torrent question 04/09/2004 10:30 PM
Bit Torrent and the ability to download everything in one click (is this the end of Direct TV, Tivo and the music business?!).

Used BitTorrent a little bit when it first came out and was a bit underwhelmed. It didn’t work, there weren’t a lot of places to find files, etc.

I decided to take another look at it when a designer friend of mine was telling me that he has the latest version of every single piece of design software on his Mac compliments of bit torrent (yes, I know it’s wrong… not the point I’m trying to make, the point is coming :-).

Part I: I installed bit torrent and immediately noticed an amazing new trend (prob. not new to all of you) of people posting dozens of albums in one RAR file for download. Huge file sizes in the 500 to 4,000 meg size range. The last season of seven seasons of Southpark, every Nirvanna album and here is another file with every Howard Stern radio show from March in one file.

In one click you grab one really well organized, clean and deep sets of files—scary.

Part II: A couple of month ago I got the Gateway Connected DVD player. For $195 it connects via WiFi to my desktop and I can hit the My Music or My Videos button on the remote control and pull up those directories on my hard drive (in the other room).

Part III: Today I moved into my new apartment in Santa Monica and was faced with the standard $100 month cable/dish bill and I’m thinking “dang, I only watch less then a half dozen TV shows and they are all here on bit torrent… maybe I should save the $1,200 a year and just download the shows and watch them via my Gateway Connected DVD player?”

The Point/Question: How soon before you’ll be able-with one click-download every prime-time TV show or last year’s top 500 CDs in one click?!

(Note: This is not a trick question, I have yet to find a file containing that much content—however, I did find a file with last weeks top 100 singles that someone put together in one nice package).

[The Digital Music Weblog]

Sri Lankan hip-hop mix: torrent

Sri Lankan hip-hop mix: torrent 03/17/2005 03:55 AM
Xeni Jardin: Boing Boing reader Lucas Emery says,

Your big article on M.I.A over the weekend reminded me that I had downloaded a mix mp3 shortly after the Tsunami disaster comprised exclusivly of Sri Lankan hip-hop. I can't remember where I originally found the mix (boomselection, maybe?) so I just made a .torrent. 58.4 Meg mp3 mix by Dr. Auratheft.

Link

Previously: M.I.A. is, well, MIA; and MIA for intergalactic overlord

ShiftyGames Torrent 0.8.2

ShiftyGames Torrent 0.8.2 05/05/2004 10:52 PM
An arcade game with colored tiles.

Battle Torrent

Battle Torrent 08/11/2004 09:45 AM

Thanks to Dave over at Scripting News for the link. The already easy process of downloading files via BitTorrent has just gotten easier. [Downhill Battle]

"Torrent Link for 74 briefs in 20.7MB"

"Torrent Link for 74 briefs in 20.7MB" 03/27/2005 10:28 AM

Torrent Site Status

Torrent Site Status 01/07/2005 04:15 AM
Don’t download too much pr0n .. Torrent Site Status

orbdesign.net/bt
track this site | 3 links

Torrent of video from DV Guide

Torrent of video from DV Guide 08/30/2004 02:55 AM

dv.open4all.info/bblog/torrent_files/20040828_kinberg.mov.torrenttrack this site | 3 links

Microsoft builds a better Bit Torrent

Microsoft builds a better Bit Torrent 06/17/2005 03:18 PM
Researchers at Microsoft's computer science lab in Cambridge have developed a peer-to-peer filesharing system that they say overcomes the scheduling problems associated with existing distribution protocols such as Bit Torrent.

The researchers claim download times are between 20-30 per cent faster, using their network coding approach, than on systems that only code at the server, and between 200 and 300 per cent faster than distributing un-encoded information.

View: Full Article @ The Register
View: Avalanche Whitepaper

Read full story...

Grokster briefs torrent

Grokster briefs torrent 03/26/2005 05:13 AM
Cory Doctorow: Thad sez, "This is a torrent of all of the briefs submitted re: MGM v. Grokster, in the zip format provided on the U.S. Copyright Office site." Torrent Link for 74 briefs in 20.7MB

SP2 Bit Torrent Legal Challenge

SP2 Bit Torrent Legal Challenge 08/11/2004 05:20 PM

Download the Windows XP Service Pack 2: The guys who were doing Microsoft a favor by pushing Service Pack 2 via Bit Torrent got slapped down by Redmond.

Microsoft sent DMCA takedown notices to our two webhosts, one of which was just linking to a torrent file on another server. We've stood up to these kinds of legal threats before (see the Grey Tuesday protests), but we decided not to bother this time, because we started this site primarily as a demonstration and to that end it's already been a huge success.

Click here to comment on this entry

Better Than Bit Torrent, For Internet2
Users?

Better Than Bit Torrent, For Internet2
Users? 11/18/2003 07:54 PM

Comrade - Bit Torrent Client

Comrade - Bit Torrent Client 06/24/2004 12:03 AM
Working.

Torrent for Windows XP Service Pack 2

Torrent for Windows XP Service Pack 2 08/09/2004 04:48 PM
Microsoft needs to distribute its new Win XP Service Pack 2 to 260 million Windows users at 75MB each. Moving a wodge that big to that many machines is too much even for the biggest software company on the planet. So the folks at Downhill Battle have seized upon this as an opportunity to prove the substantial noninfringing uses of P2P by releasing a .torrent of SP@ (complete with checksum info so that you can verify that this isn't some malware-riddled trojan, except to the extent that it is a typical piece of the Windows XP OS). Join the mesh, shoulder the load, get your medicine -- the 21st Century way. Link (via Waxy)

BeeTV - automatic torrent downloader

BeeTV - automatic torrent downloader 04/15/2005 10:02 AM
Prototype version released

Eyes on the Screen torrent mirror

Eyes on the Screen torrent mirror 02/01/2005 08:38 PM
Cory Doctorow: Eyes on the Screen is an amazing Downhill Battle project that we blogged earlier. The idea is to get people to download the seminal documentary Eyes on the Prize, which chronicles the American civil rights movement. It's a Black History Month perrennial, but because of the prohibitive cost of clearing the copyrights to the archival footage used in the series. Once the series has been downloaded, you'd be encouraged to host a screening party for your friends and neighbors on February 8th, and ensure that the vital messages of this documentary don't fade away due to outmoded laws.

The Downhill Battle torrents for Eyes on the Prize have gone away, but there is still a mirror of them available. Please consider using the mirror to get your own copies and host a party of your own.

At 8pm on February 8th we will celebrate the struggle and triumph of the civil rights movement with screenings of Eyes on the Prize Part 1: Awakenings. Eyes on the Prize is the most renowned civil rights documentary of all time; for many people, it is how they first learned about the Civil Rights Movement (more about the film). But this film has not been available on video or television for the past 10 years simply because of expired copyright licenses. We cannot allow copyright red tape to keep this film from the public any longer. So today we are making digital versions of the film available for download. Join us in building a new mass audience for this film: organize or attend a screening in your city, town, school or home on February 8th.

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Wednesday, February 12, 2003