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How do I download BitTorrents?

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:03:46 -0400

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol, which is to say, it works by organizing your computer and others to share the workload of hosting and moving files around the Internet.

To start with, you’ll need a BitTorrent client application to run on your computer. I use the well regarded Transmission for Mac. I hear good things about uTorrent for Windows.

If you don’t already know where to find the torrents (items) you want to download, a popular clearing house is the infamous anti-copyright site The Pirate Bay. Here you’ll find an overwhelming wealth of items, some legal, many pirated, some infected with viruses (primarily a concern for you Windows users). FYI, The Pirate Bay makes money for it’s operating expenses by selling advertising on their site; most of this advertising is porn.

(Evidently, some of the same people who will steal copyrighted material will pay for web porn. There’s some kind of business lesson in that seeming contradiction.)

You want to select torrents that have lots of active peers (aka seeders). Generally, the more computers there are lifting this load, the faster and more reliably your downloads will proceed.

To use BitTorrent effectively, you need to leave your client application up and running, day and night, in the background on a computer. This is a good use for an older computer that might otherwise be collecting dust, as a faster computer won’t help much. The bottleneck will be the plodding peer-to-peer file sharing network, transferring your selected torrents just a few bits at a time, over a period of hours or days or weeks.

I leave it your good judgement to do the right thing, when it comes to acquiring the intellectual work of others. If you’re looking to use BitTorrent to download free media (be it software or music or videos), know that (1) finding the exact items you want can be time consuming, (2) you won’t be sure of their quality or problems, until after you’ve downloaded it, (3) downloading large torrents (like expensive software install discs and high definition videos) can takes weeks, or sometimes won’t finish at all, and (4) you’ll need one (or more) large hard drives, if you download a lot of stuff. At this stage in the evolution of Internet speeds and technology, it is often faster and more reliable to purchase large software packages and rent videos on discs. Netflix will deliver a DVD to my door faster than i can download it via BitTorrent.

I don’t mean to suggest that all uses of BitTorrent are stealing. The technology itself is neutral; the protocol could care less what it’s used for. Because it’s an effective tool, many people employ it for legitimate purposes. For example, the excellent and free application Miro (available for Windows, Macs, and Linux) will helps you to find and download a wide variety of legitimate videos (and other media) from companies and individuals who are using the peer-to-peer Internet to distribute their media directly to you, cutting out the middle men (TV networks, iTunes, Amazon, etc.).

If you have more questions about BitTorrent, come ask me about it on Twitter.

what is a Torrent? is BitTorrent legal? Chris Pirillo gives...

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:16:00 -0400

what is a Torrent? is BitTorrent legal? Chris Pirillo gives his take (21 November 2007).

"Good blogs … occasionally vex readers with the degree to which the blogger’s obsession will..."

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:49:01 -0400

“Good blogs … occasionally vex readers with the degree to which the blogger’s obsession will inevitably diverge from the reader’s. If this isn’t happening every few weeks, the blogger is either bored, half-assing, or taking new medication.”

- Merlinn Mann

"Hell, there are no rules here — we’re trying to accomplish something."

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:39:01 -0400

“Hell, there are no rules here — we’re trying to accomplish something.”

- Thomas A. Edison

if you're not buying an iPhone

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:34:00 -0400

Following are some quick and dirty overviews, facts and links hastily gathered for a friend who (1) needs a new smart phone, (2) might benefit from an iPhone, but (3) is compelled to use Verizon Wireless, because only their network offers coverage where she works and lives. This is by no means exhaustively, nor even adequately, researched. But it’s a starting place.

All of these devices come with very little memory, usually 64 megabytes, compared to 8-16 gigabytes (aka 8000-16,000 megabytes) on the iPhone! So, to store anything more than some phone numbers and a few photos on these phones, you’ll also need to buy a microSD memory card (1-8 GB sizes available). Amazon has a SanDisk 8GB microSDHC Card for $28.

All these devices have wireless Bluetooth capabilities, though each may support slightly different Bluetooth features (known as “profiles”).

I will post the phones one at a time, below.

(FYI the following product photos all come from Amazon.com. Clicking on the photos will take you to a page listing that product and/or accessories. Full disclosure: I’ll earn a small commission if you click these links and buy from Amazon.com. But you may find it more convenient, and immediately gratifying, to buy and activate your new phone in a retail store.)

Verizon Wireless XV6800

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:05:00 -0400

pros:

qwerty keyboard
web browser
edit Word & Excel
view PowerPoint & PDF
Missing Sync for Windows Mobile ($40) will sync to Mac (Address Book, iCal, iPhone, iTunes)
WiFi
camera

cons:

$295 from Amazon.com
Windows Mobile designed by Microsoft
not an iPhone
no GPS
call quality

reviews:

Blackberry 8830 World Edition

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:04:00 -0400

pros:

$150 from VerzionWireless.com
qwerty keyboard
good reputation for interface
sophisticated email integration & services
Missing Sync for BlackBerry ($40) will sync to Mac (Address Book, iCal, iPhone, iTunes)
GPS
potentially funtions overseas

cons:

mediocre web browser
no camera
no touchscreen
no stereo headphone option

fyi:

doesn’t try to be an iPhone

reviews:

Blackberry Curve 8330

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:03:00 -0400

pros:

$100 from VerizonWireless.com
qwerty keyboard
web browser
good reputation for interface
sophisticated email integration & services
Missing Sync for BlackBerry ($40) will sync to Mac (Address Book, iCal, iPhone, iTunes)
GPS
camera
good battery life

cons:

no touchscreen
mediocre IM

fyi:

doesn’t try to be an iPhone

reviews:

LG Dare

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:02:00 -0400

pros:

3” touchscreen
web browser
good camera
GPS
touchscreen

cons:

$200 from Amazon.com or VerizonWireless.com
no keyboard
no keypad
not an iPhone
does not sync contacts or calendar w/ Mac
Mobile Email is a joke

reviews:

LG Voyager

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:01:00 -0400

I wrote about this phone back when I decided to buy one for myself.

pros:

$100.00 from VerizonWireless.com.
qwerty keyboard
web browser
good camera
GPS
touchscreen
call quality

cons:

not an iPhone
does not sync contacts or calendar w/ Mac
Mobile Email is a joke

fyi:

a new model is coming soon.
this is the phone i own.
i bookmarked many reviews and other info about this phone.

"Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:19:49 -0400

“Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.”

- Chinese proverb

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube by Michael Wesch

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:56:24 -0400

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube by Michael Wesch

The Machine is Us/ing Us by Michael Wesch

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:26:43 -0400

The Machine is Us/ing Us by Michael Wesch

cramped but powerful my full portable office set up on a small...

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:24:00 -0400

cramped but powerful
my full portable office set up on a small table

pocket-size WiFi for $60

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:49:45 -0400

I always carry one of these tiny WiFi routers with me when I travel. Plug it into an existing high-speed Internet connection or local network, and you’ve got a nearly instant wireless network. Like most Apple products, you don’t need to be a tech geek to setup the AirPort Express Base Station 802.11b/g, using the AirPort Utility software that comes with it. Both this software and the router work with both Macintosh and Windows computers.

This is a good price from MacMall (probably won’t last long) for a discontinued model. This model is compatible with the WiFi-B and WiFi-G standards. (In geek parlance, these are called 802.11b and 802.11g. Catchy moniker, huh? You can see why the marketing types invented the name “WiFi” instead.) This means it will work with virtually any WiFi-enabled computer (or any other device compatible with either the B, G or N versions of WiFi), but it will not work at the faster speeds and longer ranges which are possible with WiFi-N devices. However, if you aren’t actually using a WiFi-N device, there’s little reason to spend the extra $40 for the latest AirPort Express Base Station 802.11n. (In fact, if you have even one B or G device on a WiFi-N network, every device will be limited to the slower speed; lowest common denominator rules with WiFi.)

Oh, and these make a perfectly good router in a small home, for many folks, especially if you only have one computer, or all your computers use WiFi (none need an Ethernet connection). Or it can be used as second router, to extend the reach and features of another AirPort Base Station. I’ve written in more detail about this in the past. But today, if you’re one of those folks that have seen me on the road and envied my “portable network”, now is a good time to get your own, on the cheap.

"One of the Net’s founding ideals is reducing toward zero the functional distance between any two..."

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:34:27 -0400

“One of the Net’s founding ideals is reducing toward zero the functional distance between any two people, or any two devices.”

- Doc Searls

iPhone 3G reviews

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:04:00 -0400

Reviews of the new iPhone model are starting to appear. I’ll be bookmarking those I read here:

Routers

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:03:07 -0400

To share your Internet connection between two or more computers — as well as to share files, printers and other devices, if you like — you need to connect them (and your modem) on a home network. About the easiest and least complicated way to do this is with a router. Furthermore, a WiFi router will enable your laptop (and other WiFi equipped devices) to connect to that network wirelessly. I’ve written a few articles about computer networks for non-technical people:

Are you spreading lies?

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:37:00 -0400

Are you about to forward an email to your friends or associates? Do you personally know, for a fact, that the information it contains is essentially accurate? Do you actually know where this message originated? Is it one of those emails that was clearly forwarded many times before, or professes great urgency about passing it on? Than, please, do us all a service — and protect your own credibility: verify that it’s true, before you do.

Web sites like these that can help you to quickly search for some keywords (like the subject line) from the message you’re thinking about forwarding:

(I bookmark such sites on del.ilio.us, as I find them.)

It usually takes no more than a minute to uncover a hoax (one that you were about to perpetuate). If you can’t be bothered to confirm the information you spread, than it probably isn’t important enough to pass it on in the first place.

Steve Jobs WWDC Keynote in 60 Seconds(from Mahalo Daily via...

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:13:00 -0400

Steve Jobs WWDC Keynote in 60 Seconds
(from Mahalo Daily via YouTube)