eDonkey / eMule sucks.

I recently had to get a file from the eDonkey (eD2K) network and can honestly say that it sucks.

First, for those of you who will be confused when I start throwing around terms like eDonkey, eMule and eD2k, you may want to know the differences between them..

eDonkey / eDonkey2000

I use it to refer to network that software such as eMule uses. However, there is also a eDonkey client made by the original creators of the network called eDonkey2000. It's generally not that popular, since you either must pay for it or use an ad-supported version.

eMule

An open-source eDonkey client. The most popular client used on the eDonkey network. Download it here.

eD2k

Most people use this to mean an eD2k link, which is sort of like a .torrent file in BitTorrent terms.

Anyway, back to why eDonkey sucks donkey balls (har har). First, a disclaimer; yes, I have used it before, and have all my settings right. I used to use eDonkey on a more regular basis until I discovered BitTorrent and even then I thought it sucked. Sorry, but even Kazaa is better, IMO.

Why do I think eDonkey sucks? Well, I'll do a pros and cons chart, because it certainly has its pros as well. I'll throw in a few comparisons to BitTorrent, too, and Kazaa, although when I speak of Kazaa I'm technically referring to the FastTrack network it uses.

Pros

• eD2k links, which function by embedding the hash of a file into a URL so that someone can spawn an eDonkey download with their client by clicking a link on a website. (They're typically prefixed by 'ed2k://'.) This functionality is available in BitTorrent as a .torrent file, and in Kazaa as a Sig2Dat link, although Kazaa requires an external addon to utilize these.
• 'Chunk distribution', which is basically a way of redistributing a download before you actually have the complete file. I'm not 100% sure how, technically, eDonkey achieves this, but it doesn't seem to work as well as the equivalent feature in BitTorrent, which is essentially the same concept but chunks are called 'pieces' instead. There's no such feature in Kazaa.
• Many ways of searching. You can search via the server you're connected to, distributed search over several servers and the Kademlia decentralized network it uses, or using a number of web-based solutions like FileDonkey.

Cons

• It's slow as hell. Typically it takes around an hour to get anything to even start downloading, and I'm really not sure why, although I personally attribute it to lack of policing...
• ...because eDonkey doesn't really have a big 'sharing community' any more, nor a way of preventing leechers. For example, private BitTorrent sites use BitTorrent's trackers to monitor the amount uploaded or downloaded by a given user and in this way prevent users from abusing the network with leecher modifications. I think there are quite a lot of people using such mods on eDonkey. For example, once I'd downloaded over 0.5% of the file I was looking for, I had already started maxing out my upload speed allocated to eDonkey (~100KiB/s). I limited this to 30KiB/s since my download speed was less than 15KiB/s. By the time I had finished downloading the file, my share ratio was over 6.5. Seriously. That's how many people were leeching the file off me, and I wasn't even leaving it open for that purpose.

So, screw eDonkey. The other thing is that the whole thing seems to be a more seedy affair than BitTorrent. For example, consider when I set eMule to automatically connect to both the Kad network and a server. (eMule supports a hybrid of P2P, similar to latest versions of BitTorrent clients with DHT - you connect to a server, similar to a tracker, which was the original method of distribution, but you can also connect to the Kademlia - or Kad - network at the same time, which is decentralized, and works basically the same as DHT in BitTorrent.)

"Sexy-sex-o-sex? Gotta get me some of that."

Yes, that is the server I was automatically connected to.

5.98 + 8.03 = 14.01. There are more than 14 thousand users on a server called 'zoo sex'. I think I'll pass.

Here's the wide selection of servers I could have picked. Go eDonkey!

Oh well, I don't have much more to complain about. Just stay away from this crap network, except as a last resort. Look for stuff on BitTorrent instead.

Firefox

What is Firefox? Firefox is an open-source web browser that is making significant headway in the online world.

However, every person who uses a browser other than IE and Firefox is familiar with the rabid Firefox fanboy. The person who starts up their own page on how brilliantly awesome Firefox is because of all it's innovations, including:

• Tabbed browsing! First present in Opera v1, 1994.
• Popup blocking! First present in Opera v5, 2000.
• More secure! The main reason Firefox is "more secure" is because it doesn't load ActiveX controls, which isn't exactly a feature. Opera has obviously had this since v1 also. However, the "Privacy" tab in the Options window features several convenient methods for deleting your "browsing tracks". This is essentially a duplicate of the "Delete private data" dialog first introduced in Opera v4 (2000).
• Smart searching! This means three things: Google search integrated into the toolbar (Opera v5, 2000), "instant find in page" searching (ie. searching as you type) and "smart keywords" which allow you to type for example "wp BitTorrent" into the address bar to search for BitTorrent on Wikipedia. Both of the latter two features have been present since I started using Opera (v7, 2003) but may have been present earlier.

Just for reference, Firefox was first released as "Phoenix" in late 2002, however at this stage it was extremely immature and had very few features compared to what it has today (as well as a much smaller number of extensions and extremely unstable extension code).

These are the main advantages first preached by Firefox fans and most prominently featured on the main Firefox website. However, there are a number of others that are also Opera innovations or were already present in Opera before Firefox. I've also left out a lot of features present in extensions that are also in Opera already.

For a larger list of Opera's innovations, read Innovations by Opera on the Opera 8 Wiki. Also this blog post by haavard is an interesting writeup with a similar theme.

There is one major feature I like about Firefox though, which is why I install it whenever I can on computers I'm working on (ie. fixing - a computer that is usually not used by a "power user"). You can read more about it here, but basically, Firefox is a lot simpler and closer to IE "out of the box" than Opera is. For starters, the panels on the left are way different to IE. The tabs don't quite look right to someone used to IE in Opera. However, overall, Opera is a better browser for power users, once you get used to it.

Also, the rendering engine in Firefox (Gecko) appears to be a lot closer to that in IE than the one in Opera

What annoys me is people that really are, in my opinion, power users (or at least approaching it) who use Firefox and remain ignorant of Opera's advantages. People that say things like "Firefox is better because it's faster/simpler" or "Firefox is better because of all its extensions" when those features are already in Opera, and Opera being an integrated program is much more efficient resource-wise.

This blog is going on about how great Firefox is for BitTorrent.

If the “open with” box is greyed out for some reason, I advise to download the mimetype extension. This extension allows you to edit the way all filetypes are handled.

In other words, if Firefox screws up for some unknown reason, you need to download an extension to activate a simple feature that's already built in to Opera! The page also features a" number of comments by Firefox users on how awesome the article is.

A veggie and damn proud… there is no god.. because IE exists.. Firefox pwns" - Null

"I wish I could use FireFox. It works fine on my old computer, but for some reason on my new one it always works fine for about 10 minutes then doesn’t respond and eventually crashes." - Nereus (but he still loves Firefox!)

"Good" - Kaoiri

"thx for all those “beautiful words” related to firefox! indeed, a GREAT browser." - Adeekos

"oh hoh I LOVE FIREFOX" - IRAQMANIAC

"cool" - Alex

"fire fox is cool" - Alex

Nobody has come up with a good reason for me to switch to Firefox yet, however, every time I talk about Opera someone tries to tell me how much better Firefox is. I've yet to see someone do this without claiming something that's just not true. The only thing that tempts me (apart from the fact that Firefox is open-source, which doesn't appeal to me all that much now that Opera is free) is that Google's code (which is often a little kludgey) is as far as I can tell designed to work in Firefox and IE - if it works in other browsers that's just a bonus. Thus I can't use the full benefit of some of their applications like Reader and to an extent Blogger. However, hopefully things will become more standards-compliant in the future as the standards become more mature, and webmasters are able to achieve more without resorting to ugly hacks.

On a more positive Firefox-related note, I discovered The Firemonger Project the other day. If you do any work that might involve you promoting or installing Firefox, you may find this interesting - basically an ISO including Firefox, Thunderbird and a whole lot of documentation which could come in handy if you're teaching a newbie how to use Firefox or the internet in general.

PS: Anyone know how to stop Blogger from switching to preview mode when you press CTRL+SHIFT (when you're coding in HTML)? It's pissing me off. :-(

Canon EOS-350D (Digital Rebel XT) Digital SLR camera: first impressions

Skip towards the bottom to see the photos I've taken with the camera, and ignore all the camera-speak if that's your thing.. :-)

I recently picked up a Canon EOS-350D digital SLR from Plaza Cameras in the city. So far it's looking pretty good, although I'm pretty sure my photography skills still need some work :-)

To start with, I'll run over some of the camera's basic specs. In other parts of the word (USA and Japan) it's called the "Digital Rebel XT" or "Kiss 'n' Digital" for some reason unbeknownst to me, but I'll call it by the name everyone else uses, the EOS-350D. EOS ("electro-optical system") is the prefix Canon affixes to its digital SLRs. For those of you who don't know what that is, you may want to check out the Wikipedia articles on SLR photography and digital SLRs. A full review of the EOS-350D was linked above, and is available on dpreview.com. You can see a picture of the camera here.

The camera features a 8 megapixel CMOS sensor and I purchased it with the "kit lens" which is the Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens.

I have some minor problems with the camera... but then again there are a lot of great features it has that I'm pleased with. I'll get the bad things out of the way first.. to start with, the method of downloading your photos to your PC pisses me off. Instead of using the USB mass storage device class it uses some sort of shitty other standard that I don't quite understand, and you either have to use external software or WIA (Windows Image Acquisition) to get the images. I guess I'll be picking up a card reader soon, because this kinda sucks. Also, I keep losing my USB cables so if I get a card reader that should simplify things somewhat :D

Another thing that annoys me is that in my opinion, the automatic modes (ie. where the camera decides how to take the photo for you) are too simplistic. I can understand where Canon are coming from - they assume that since this is an entry-level DSLR, you buy it to get into photography, and when you're starting off or someone who is not familiar with your camera is trying to take a photo, you don't want to be confused by additional options, when the camera should be taking care of it for you.
However, even though I'm starting to get a feel for what works well in manual mode, I still like to use the basic modes as backup - just in case I screw up the manual ones. The problem here is that the camera doesn't just set the options for you - it hides them. So I can't manually change the ISO speed for example, which even the most basic photographer could understand in a second. What really annoys me most about this though, is that you can't shoot in RAW or manually disable/enable the flash. There is a 'no-flash' mode, but if the camera deems it necessary, the flash will pop up and the camera shoots with it if you're in any other mode. And no-flash mode is the same as the full-auto mode, what if you're trying to take a portrait or landscape shot? I'd like more control over the flash, which is the main reason I started using the manual mode so quickly (ie. full control over it).

Finally, and apparently this is a gripe all 350D owners share, you don't see the ISO speed in the LCD screen or viewfinder. Let me explain. Canon have moved all the key information about your shot (shutter speed, lightmeter, shot mode, aperture etc.) on to a black-and-white LCD above the "main" LCD, although some of this info is still available when looking through the viewfinder. This LCD is backlit when you press a button, and obviously consumes a lot less power than the full colour LCD (which is only activated when looking at the advanced menu or reviewing your shots). I think this is a great idea, since it's often difficult to read a colour LCD in the sunlight. However, for some reason, they neglected to put the ISO speed on this readout. What the hell?

As for the good side, the camera performs as you would expect it to, which doesn't sound like much, but it really is. The sensor gives you excellent detail with almost no noise even at ISO 1600. If I had any complaints they would relate to the flash and lens - but I'm using the standard flash (inbuilt) and lens, so I really can't expect the absolute best quality from them compared to professional photos. Also, these problems are easily fixed by throwing money at the camera and buying a Speedlite (for fill and bounce flashing) and a good lens.

As soon as I have enough money I'll be buying myself a new lens, probably a decent telephoto lens (for those used to point-and-shoot digital cameras, a "zoom lens", although technically this refers to any lens that can zoom in and out, even if it is from wide-angle to 55mm like mine - which means the closest it can zoom is basically the same as your regular eyesight). The lens I have my eye on (haha, optics pun) is the EF 100-400mm USM IS "super-telephoto" lens, but I'm really not seriously considering it; seeing as it costs more than double the cost of the camera's body (around $2 500 AU as far as I can recall). ;-) Also this has Canon's Image Stabilizing technology as well as USM AF (ultrasonic motor auto-focus) which in a nutshell, means really clear and bright images and extremely quiet and fast focussing without a flash.

Anyway, for those of you who I'm sure would rather see some of the photos I've taken than read endless camera-speak, here are some photos I've taken. Click the thumbnails to enlarge them. The only post-processing I've done is resizing/encoding (from 3.5MB JPGs) and on a few, cropping or rotating. (I'll be updating more photos on my deviantART page as I take them..)

Damn, that took a long time. Thanks to ImageShack for the free image hosting.

Just sue a games company!

Youth's Death Linked To Game (via Red Herring)

Blizzard faces a lawsuit from Chinese parents, who say World of Warcraft caused the death of their son.

This seems pretty stupid. Read the article and you'll realise just how stupid.

The parents filed a suit against Blizzard Entertainment on Wednesday, saying their son jumped to his death while reenacting a scene from the game, the report said. The parents are backed by the anti-Internet addiction advocate Zhang Chunliang.

That's right, their son was addicted to World of Warcraft, and as a result, he "jumped to his death". What the hell? How is it Blizzard's fault that some kid was stupid enough to jump out of a fifth-storey window or something and die? There's something wrong with your parenting/education if your child thinks that just because something on a computer screen can fly, so can he.

A related article from the Onion: Fun Toy Banned Because Of Three Stupid Dead Kids.

Each of the deaths was determined to be the result of gross misuse of the toy, an incredibly cool device that could shoot both plastic missiles and long jets of water, as well as maneuver over the ground on retractable wheels.

The first death occurred June 22, when 7-year-old Isaac Weiller of Grand Junction, CO, died after deliberately firing one of the spring-loaded plastic missiles into his left nostril. The missile shot into his sinuses, shattering the roof of his nasal cavity and causing a massive brain hemorrhage. Shortly before dying, Weiller told emergency medical personnel at St. Luke's Medical Center that he had shot the missile into his nose in the belief that it would travel through his body and out his belly button. "I've heard some pretty stupid shit in my time, but that has to take the cake," said Dr. Anderson Hunt, the attending physician. "Why would any kid think he could fire plastic missiles up his nose and expect them to come out his belly button? There's no point in feeling bad about this child's demise, because the deck was obviously stacked against him from the start.

Less than one month after Weiller's death, 5-year-old Danielle Krug fatally suffocated on fragments of the toy after repeatedly smashing it with a claw hammer in the garage of her parents' La Porte, IN, home. "I'm not kidding," said Dianne Ensor, an emergency-room nurse at Our Lady Of Peace Hospital in La Porte, where Krug was pronounced dead. "She thought the broken shards were candy. That's what you'd assume after breaking a plastic, inedible toy, right? Absolutely un-fucking-believable."

Yep, that site is a parody, but hey, I found it pretty funny. It is ridiculous how people will go and sue someone over anything these days. Comments on the Blizzard lawsuit at Slashdot.

Review of FrostWire

Recently (or not so recently, around September) LimeWire made the decision to start to introduce forced licensing of content ("Limewire Moves to Block Unlicensed Material", Slyck). In response to this, a dev team started work on a "new" program called FrostWire ("FrostWire Prepares for Gnutella's Future", again via Slyck). (LimeWire is an open-source program, so altering it is fairly simple for anyone who knows how to code in Java.)

According to the Wikipedia article on FrostWire:

FrostWire is an open-source file-sharing program. It uses the Gnutella network and is heavily based on the more well-known LimeWire program. The project was originally started in September, 2005, after it was discovered that LimeWire's distributor was placing code in LimeWire that could eventually block LimeWire users from sharing unlicensed files. The first release was in October, 2005. LimeWire is rumored to be developing its "blocking" code in response to RIAA pressure and the threat of legal action in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in MGM Studios v. Grokster. FrostWire claims to be based outside the United States, presumably to avoid legal liability. In any case the FrostWire team has stated that no "blocking" code is placed, or will ever be placed, in FrostWire. Like LimeWire, FrostWire is written in Java and is capable of supporting multiple platforms. However, while LimeWire is available in both free and paid versions (with the paid version, LimeWire Pro, ostensibly offering better searches and connectivity), FrostWire is only being released in a free version (which its makers claim is equivalent to LimeWire's paid version). FrostWire's developers also claim that their program is completely free of any adware or spyware. As FrostWire's coding is based on LimeWire's, their user interfaces are virtually identical.

So there's your brief introduction to the program. I'll also leave you with a nice picture of its incredibly inventive logo:

It's not just an icecube.. THEY PUT SOME KIND OF WATERCOLOR FILTER ON IT! :O

Well, at least it matches the name (which is admittedly odd, but at least not as odd as "LimeWire"). Anyway, as the article mentioned, back in October the first betas of FrostWire were released (Slyck, "FrostWire Betas Released"), and FrostWire is now downloadable from here. I grabbed it a few weeks ago, and decided to try it out today. (This review is based on v4.9.37 beta.)

First impressions are overall good, despite the strange version numbering. The developers seem to be quite keen to distance themselves from LimeWire to avoid confusion and trademark issues ("Since LimeWire is a registered trademark, we cannot distribute the client under its old name") - and yet they number their first (or one of the first, I'm not sure) version as version 4 as per LimeWire's numbering. Right. However, the installer has a pretty icon, and a nice splash screen, which despite their uselessness, are appealing to a lot of people, and say a lot about the professionalism of the project. However the professional look of the splash screen is offset somewhat by the ridiculous sound that plays when it appears.

All's well and good. The installer is your typical InstallShield thing, but it does look nice. The code is also GPL'd, as the EULA states (screenshot). Additionally, the installer checks for Java, although I'm not sure what it actually does if you don't have it, since I already did (screenshot).

However, once you actually run the program, things start to go downhill a little. You are presented with this splash screen on opening the program.

Argh, my eyes.

Additionally, I soon discovered that if you happen to be using the Royale (WinXP MCE 2005) theme, the icon is practically invisible in the system tray.

Right. Well, moving right along. The user interface looks exactly the same as LimeWire, ie. not that great, and it's fairly unremarkable (screenshot). I decided that I would search for some Linux ISOs, since that's what everyone uses P2P for, right?

49 people are sharing it? It must be good!

As you can see, I promptly decided to download "linux iso.mp3", since it was clearly so popular and was less than 150KB! WOW! What a Linux distribution! FrostWire helpfully warned me that I may be breaking the law by downloading Linux, or something.

rezpeck copyrites yo

However, I was disappointed upon the completion of the download. It was just a sound file saying the following in an extremely poor impression of Bill Clinton's voice (listen here).

My fellow Americans. I would once again like to say that I did not have sexual relations with that woman. I did, however, go to eFreeClub.com, where they offer hundreds of free products: computers, notebooks and accessories; televisions, home and portable audio and video, fashion and cosmetics, housewares and much more. Visit them today at www.eFreeClub.com and do like I do - just get it free.

Right. So my first attempt to get a Linux ISO was disappointing. By the way, visit that eFreeClub site if you really want to, but I'm not linking to them as it would increase their traffic and PR, which is bad. (Companies that advertise on P2P networks suck.)

My second attempt was even more of a failure. I've heard that ISO is short for "ISO image", and I have received images in my email before as "jay-pegs", so I figured that "LINUX ISO.JPG" was exactly what I was looking for.

The download finished in a matter of seconds. Go FrostWire! However, I was to be disappointed when I opened my newly-acquired "Linux image".

WTF FFS I WANT TO BE A 1337 HAXOR ND HAV LINUCSK

Failing that, I pressed on in my noble quest to obtain 1337 hax0r open-source linux warez, and downloaded some things that looked a little more promising.

WTF if i wanted to wati in a line i would have gone 2 a museum. LOL Get it

I left these files to "download" in my system tray for around half an hour with no luck. Then I thought "maybe FrostWire isn't designed for people who like Linux ISOs?" My fears were quickly confirmed.

hootie nd da blowfist, tubgirl THE REAL THING! dam thats roxx

Finally, I decided that in lieu of being able to actually download anything legal, I would instead turn myself into an UltraPeer (ie. router for the network), sit back, relax and watch what other people were searching for on the network. (Yes, fortunately, FrostWire preserves this option.)

iv been lukin everywere and i just cant fukin find 'touch'!

The verdict: To be completely honest, this isn't that great as a client by itself. However, I would recommend it over LimeWire, because apparently, it will eventually have an advantage over it. The comments I made earlier about not being able to find anything actually relate to the Gnutella network - FrostWire searches exactly the same files as LimeWire. However, if you don't already use LimeWire, there's no great reason to start using it now just because it has a new name.

What surprised me the most about this client was the ugly theme and crappy graphics that initially came with it, when there are a whole bunch of much better logos and themes available from the FrostWire website. So, if you plan on using FrostWire, I suggest you check out those pages as soon as you finish installing it.

Sony rootkit debacle

Well, I think it's about time I blogged something about this whole rootkit fiasco, since nobody else I know personally seems to be doing it.

Basically, a whole bunch of people are up in arms because Sony's DRM software which is included with certain CDs. It includes allegedly insecure code that could allow your machine to become 'compromised' - and comes with a whole bunch of other problems that people are complaining about.

I could go on about the whole fiasco, which has been happening for more than a week, but instead, check out this summary on BoingBoing. It sums up basically what's been happening, including the original rootkit discovery, the WoW anti-cheat exploit, and the accusation of the rootkit's inclusion of open-source LGPL-licensed code.

Here's a list of the Slashdot articles that have been posted covering it, in case you want to read some opinions..

• Sony DRM Installs a Rootkit?
• More on Sony's "DRM Rootkit"
• Blizzard's Warden Thwarted by Sony's DRM Rootkit
• Sony Rootkit Phones Home
• California Class Action Suit Sony Over Rootkit DRM
• Trojan Using Sony DRM Rootkit Spotted
• Sony Music CD's Contain Mac DRM Software Too
• Sony Pulls Controversial Anti-Piracy Software
• Where are the Prosecutors?
• Sony's EULA Worse Than Its Rootkit?
• Sony Rootkit Allegedly Contains LGPL Software
• Bad Day To Be Sony

You might also want to have a look at the Sony Boycott Blog.

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Read this blog entry in its original format at splintax.blogspot.com.

Comprehensive review of µTorrent

A short testament to how much Blogger (and Opera) kicks Spaces' (and IE's) ass: I'm using a pre-beta version of Opera to write this, which crashed in another tab - and yet I didn't lose any data from this entry. *cough* IE *cough*

Screenshot of µTorrent v1.2, click to enlarge.

I introduced µTorrent on my MSN Spaces blog. I'm going to write about some of its features here in a bid to get you to convert. ;-)

As you can see from the screenshot, µTorrent tries pretty hard to be like Azureus in a couple of ways, but in most, outshines it totally. To start with, its main feature is its incredible efficiency - almost 0% CPU usage, typically less than 10MB RAM, and to top it all off, it comes packaged as a single executable - no installation necessary - at just 105KB. (However, future versions obviously increase its size. I'm happy with it under 1MB. ;-))

First off, I'm going to admit that that screenshot isn't taken directly from the application. I installed the Junior theme by FOOOD first. Here's a couple more screens from that theme.

Mouseover the images to get a description.

Now, onto the actual features of the client. µTorrent is a full-featured client - as far as I can see, there are no mainstream features that are directly present in another client (ie. without plugins) but aren't in µTorrent.

The main screen offers you a horizontally-split dialog, with current torrents at the top, and details at the bottom. Details available include:

• Download completion, showing pieces complete in a graph, and availability
• Time elapsed, ETA, downloaded/uploaded bytes, download/upload speed, share ratio, hash fails, number of seeds and peers - all the usual stuff
• Tracker URL, status, time until next scrape, and DHT status
• Download location, file size, torrent creation date, number of pieces, piece size, torrent hash, and torrent comment

So not much special there. Any item can be right-clicked and copied to the clipboard. The interesting stuff is in the other tabs.

Peers tab. Similar to what's in Azureus, giving you a list of connected peers, their BT flags, their national flags (ie. which country they come from), their client, their % completion, the download speed from them and the amount uploaded or downloaded to them. You can copy the peer list to the clipboard with right-click, or even add a specific peer if you're trying to seed directly to or from a friend. (screenshot)

Pieces and files tabs. Same as in Azureus - shows you the active pieces and files, the pieces needed and obtained on those files, etc. Also allows you to set a specific file to not download, or set it to High, Normal or Low priority.

The speed graph. Just your regular speed graph, but hey.

The logger. If you turn it on, it'll dump all info relating to the torrent here. If not, it just displays info about hash fails.

Finally, there are a couple of features unique to µTorrent that really seal the deal..

• When a download completes, there is an option to make it appear in a balloon at the bottom-right of the screen, along with the cool popping sound.
• You can get it to move files to a different location once the download's finished.
• It supports UPnP, and you can get it to randomize the port used on startup.
• It supports global bandwidth limiting. You can also set a torrent's bandwidth usage as high, medium or low priority, or to a specific speed.
• Torrents can have trackers added to them, be set to stop seeding at a certain ratio or after a certain time, and be super-seeded.
• It has a full-featured scheduler built-in. (screenshot)
• You can set it to automatically load torrents in a given directory.
• It's updated frequently, and updating is as simple as clicking 'yes' - after a few seconds the executable replaces itself with the new version.
• It has an excellent webpage with an informative FAQ and an active forum.

So, what are you waiting for? Download µTorrent now!

I've had enough of MSN Spaces' bullshit.

Alright, I've had enough of MSN Spaces' bullshit. I don't want them editing my friggin' HTML after I put it in. Oh, and their service generally sucks.

The only reason I use it in the first place is just for MSN Messenger support. Now that I can get this working in Opera, fuck that. I'll just use Blogger and post a note on my Space everytime I update this.

scott