December 7, 2006 at 3:19 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I saw two interesting announcements this week in the bittorrent community.
I think they may hint at great changes afoot in the bittorrent world, as the two of the most popular bittorrent clients, Azureus and µTorrent start focusing on making money.
Zudeo want’s to be the “HDTV” version of YouTube. It’s an interesting idea, but I think YouTube’s popularity is BASED on the idea of “click” and “watch” in real time. And bittorrent is NOT real time. It’s the “Click” and “wait a few hours” and then “maybe watch tomorrow”. And that will be especially true if Zudeo’s focus is on higher resolution material.
For those familiar with Azureus 2.5, you may be in a slight surprise when you install the 3.0 beta. By default, it starts up with a VERY different user interface than the one we all know and love (or hate). It’s ALL about the Zudeo site! I found it okay, but not really as clean as it needs to be to compete yet with the big boys.
I panicked for a few minutes after I started it up. I was worried that my trust old Azureus had been totally swallowed up in some GUI driven “Simple” interface. But I found the “Advanced” button. (It’s over on right upper side). Hit that and the interface will return to something familiar (with all the features you had before).
It’s clear that open source Azureus is now being integrated into what looks like the commercial venture Zudeo. With the original Azureus project owners now involved in a money-making venture, I would assume that the focus of future code changes may have more to do with making Zudeo better than Azureus better. Even now, you can ONLY GET Azureus 3.0 beta from the Zudeo site, not from the original azureus sourcesafe site.
Does this mean that when Azureus “flips the switch” and sends the Azureus 3.0 update to current 2.5 users, will I suddenly have to cope with Zudeo interface?
I still think that Azureus has too many issues with it (heavy RAM and CPU issues, setup issues) to make it a good choice for the average consumer. We will see how succesful Zudeo is in turning into something consumer friendly.
I think this is a smart move by Bram Cohen. Cohen’s clients have ALWAYS been a little minimalist from a GUI interface perspective. He may write GREAT P2P protocols, but his GUI has always seem a little inferior compared to the others. And BitTorrent, Inc. a easy to use interface for downloads, if they are going to be succesful at attempting to sell and rent movies online.
I personally prefer µTorrent’s speed and ease over Azureus’s bloat. If they could just get µTorrent to integrate cleanly with Google Desktop! (I’ve tried all suggestions, and I can’t get it to work - I switched back to Azureus). If Azureus seems to be able to play friendly with Google Desktop, why not µTorrent?!?
With the two largest bittorrent clients now going commercial, what’s anti-DCMA, TV show swapping, internet rebel to do? Once both of those companies start being beholden to the studios for their bread and butter, how long will it be before they start having to add “features” to the clients to help reduce illegal movie sharing?
We know that Cohen is going to release a new “Movie Studio” friendly version of a bittorrent client that will allow legal downloads. Do you think that same client will also allow you to head over to the Pirate Bay also? Bram may like that idea, but I doubt that his new investors will.
I’m anxious to see how this all plays out. But it does seem like 2007 may end up being the “Year of Bittorent!”.
December 6, 2006 at 9:05 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I didn’t know him personally, but had read his columns and TechTV broadcasts. I’m deeply saddened by today’s news.
I wish his family and friends my sincere condolences. He was a excellent human being.
I’ve been personally moved by the unfolding story of the Search for James Kim and his family.
I was even surprised how overjoyed I felt, when Kim and the kids were found alive and well. I’m usually a bit of a curmudgeon, but this truly was a miracle in my book.
I’ve also been AMAZED to see how the use of the internet has helped raise the awareness and support. I’m certain that it was the internet that led to satellites being re-routed in the search. Which is apparently going to cost the Satellite company a pretty penny. “We’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do,” they said. Thumbs up in my book.
Like everyone else, I’m eagerly awaiting the news of James Kim’s safe return to his family.
What I am NOT doing is figuring out how to make money off the news.
After you take the test, there is nice assuring message:
“The Myths Quiz is for dducational entertainment purposes only.Responses to questions are not saved, and the CIA has no access to your personal information. This quiz is will not effect your ability to qualify for a career in the CIA.”
November 26, 2006 at 2:14 am · Filed under gadgets, xbox
This is NOT going to be another complaint about long and ineffective support calls, and horribly slow downloads. There is enough Microsoft bashing on the internet this week, and I’ve done my fair share.
It seems that Microsoft has made good strides in the last few days at resolving their performance issues. I’ve been reading positive reports of people getting their refunds in just a few minutes over the phone. And I have personally seen that the bandwidth issues are improving. I also expect these guys to implement fixes to their billing problems ASAP.
So for the rest of the article I’m going to ignore the bandwidth and stability issues. Microsoft already knows what’s wrong and they also know how to fix it. And it DOES seem more stable in the last 36 hours than it did on launch day.
My overall impression so far - it’s not a bad service. We rented one HD movie (V for Vendetta) and purchased a few TV shows. We’ve spent a few hours watching stuff, and it’s actually pretty good viewing experience.
November 25, 2006 at 11:49 am · Filed under gadgets, xbox
Did a quick check on the old download this morning - and it’s done!
Maybe stopping and starting the download caused to find a faster bit of bandwidth?
Doing some bandwidth math –
The first 35% of the download took 19 hours. That means it was clocking about 256Kbs.
The LAST 65% took something less than 12 hours. that means it was clocking at LEAST 750kbs. Possibly faster, since I’m not sure exactly what time it finished downloading. I would be happy for anything close to 1mbs.
November 24, 2006 at 10:00 pm · Filed under gadgets, xbox
My son somehow managed to briefly hit the button on the living room powerstrip. Everything in the room (xbox360 included) power spiked. The xbox front button started flashing red and green, like a undercover police car in my rear view mirror. I got a little bit worried, but we’ve had interrupted xbox downloads before.
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