Bit Torrent

If you've run into the error message KDEInit could not launch '/usr/bin/ktorrent' on KDE 4, you are not alone. It appears that this is a KDE Bug that should be resolved in a bug-fix update in the near future. This also apparently affects other applications besides KTorrent.

In my case, when I clicked on a torrent file, the error message cropped up, but the file itself was open fine ...

Recently, when I was just about to shut down my Windows box, I noticed that my ethernet system tray icon was all lit up even though I had closed all applications. These kinds of things usually point at some kind of trojan in your system. So, I took some time to investigate it.

Apparently, there is this private torrent site named Funsharing where one of the rules is to only refer to it as FSC on the Inner net for "security reasons". Like seriously ... ha!

Google also returns 905 seemingly relevant results.

Three cheers for BT and piracy. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly CAMs, preview screeners etc. spread like wild-fire even before the movie has had its première. This has happened with Spiderman 3 as well and I am sure will happen with every movie that gets released regardless of all the security, DRM and all other TLAs that are heaped on.

Initial reviews are very exciting!

I'm sure everybody out there who use Bit Torrent is aware that being connectable is highly recommended for best speeds and the general well being of the "swarm". For the unfortunate few who aren't, connectability is where you open an incoming port on your computer thereby allowing other peers in the Bit Torrent swarm to be able to contact you. It is however only required for one of the parties (connector or connectee) to be connectable for a connection to be made.

Azureus is definitely one of the more popular torrent clients out there, and it just became a lot cooler in my eyes: I finally explored the LAN peering plug-in that it is packaged with. This is way beyond cool and accomplishes the equivalent of link bonding using torrents. So, essentially, consider the following scenario:

• You have two PCs on your local network.
• You have two Internet connections (both 1Mbps, for e.g.), one for each PC.

OiNK, which is one of the most popular torrent sites out there (primarily for music) is letting all its users download as much as they want over the holiday season. Normally, they'd have to maintain an download/upload ratio greater than or equal to 0.5 (else they'd get castrated, drawn, quartered and fed to the dogs), but it's a free for all at the moment. To quote:

Download! w00t

Between the 22nd of December and the 1st of January GMT (inclusive), downloading will not adversely affect your share ratio.

We will still be recording uploaded amounts, but ignoring downloaded.