Now that we have officially made the transition into the new extendend Daylight savings time, I want to remind people of an interesting change!

Instead of changing our clocks in the last weekend in October, we now won’t turn our clocks back a full week.

Of course, this now means Halloween is now included as part of day light savings time!

Which should mean approximately ONE MORE HOUR of daylight, for tricker or treating, or maybe just tricking!

Yippee!

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 released a beta of Azureus 3.0.

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).

The Zudeo/Azureus relationship is discussed here.

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.

The Second big news is that BitTorrent, Inc is acquiring µTorrent.

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!”.

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.

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Thanks to Wonkette for pointing to the new CIA’s personality test!

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.”

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.

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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.

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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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It’s been 14 hours since I started my V for Vendetta download.

The download is currently at 26% percent. Extrapolating, it seems I’m looking at about a 56 hour download!

Damn.

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So it appears that it’s true:the squeeky wheel does eventually get the grease.

I never expected my little rant to hit the front page of digg, but apparently Microsoft bashing is a national geek sporting event now.

It also seems that I wasn’t alone in having problems.

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Okay. Before I start my tale, I should say that I am a big XBox360 fan. A really like Xbox 360.
It’s a very well designed piece of equipment. A little too much fan noise, but overall a VERY well built user experience.

I like it so much, I have two. Yes. That’s two xbox360’s. It’s actually a bit embarrassing, but for the sake of full disclosure, I admit I have a problem.

I had developed a VERY heavy Oblivion addiction problem. I also got tired of competing with my sons “Call of Duty” shootout sessions. So in a moment of Circuit City dementia, I walked home with another 360. I mean, I had 2 HDTV sets, why not two 360s?

I’m also a Big Live Arcade fan. Xbox Live Arcade is a very slick, and a clear cash cow for Microsoft. I’ve purchased at least a half a dozen games, and have clocked too much time on “Outpost Kaloki” that I wish to admit.

So when XBox announced their video download service, I thought it was a slick move on Microsoft’s part.
As I was sitting down tonight to finally try to save Cyrodiil from Daedric invasion (I’ve been taking my time through all the quests - I’m a level 32 battlemage!) I noticed the “V for Vendetta - Get It Now” message.

Cool. I haven’t seen that movie before. Let’s check this out.

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An EXCELLENT link, outlining Ben Franklin’s advice on picking a mistress. Somehow, my history curriculum left this out!
He truely was a man of great insite!

read more

Okay. I’m only a day into using the new updated Google Reader, and I’m hooked. It’s slick. It seems to actually let me read feeds the way I want to - as soon as each feed is updated. I can read ALL my feeds, or sub folders, or a single feed. It also seems to be VERY clever in the way it displays each item, often including graphics and other features I don’t see in some other readers. And this is all in my browser, so no software to install.

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I found a VERY COOL widget for google customized homepage, that exports all of RSS feeds to an OPML file.

This is very useful if you want to export your RSS feeds to a different RSS reader. (like the new google reader!).

If you are using TABS, then it will only output the tabbed section where you place the widget. But it was easy enough to move it around multiple times to create a seperate OPML file for each of my tab sections.
I then imported them into the new google reader, and viola, I have moved my 20-30 feeds to google reader in MINUTES!

Thank you Mihai Parparita of New York, NY!

UPDATE: found his post about it here.

I have NOT YET found a RSS reader that I love. I didn’t like the old version.
I’m going to switch over to this new version see if it’s any better than just using the Google Customized homepage.
check it out yourself.

ALSO:Use the Customized Google home page and want to switch? Check this widget out!.

So Slate has published an interesting article about how internet pornography reduces rape.

The original report, filed by law school professor Todd Kendal, tracks how as internet access increased in each US state, the corresponding number of reported rapes dropped.

Now this has been long suspected by scientists for years, but this study really demonstrates some compelling information.

Of course this DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS one of the conclusions of the Meese Report. Now most scientist immediately disregarded the report the moment is was published, but it’s conclusions are still used today by most anti-porn politicians.

I’m sure politicians will ignore it. In this era, where sexual politics are driving more and more people to the polls, it’s standard fare to ignore facts and instead use fear and anxiety. Just read Wonkette any ANY DAY for the last 3 months. It’s just one sex scandal after another!

Gotta love America. We hate sex by day, and then go home buys billions of dollars worth of it at night.

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And today he print this Dilbert:

Sounds like he’s talking to me!

Okay. I’m in.

A researcher as discovered hundreds of cases of people who claim to be unknowingly having sex in their sleep.

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Now it looks fun, but the entire episode is not online yet. I’m itching to see the whole thing, but we have to bug him to get the entire episode online.  Hurry up John!

Check it out.

Want to get your girlfriend into video games?

Men’s Health Magazine’s “Girl Next Door” recommends that “you should buy that new Nintendo system with the stupid name, Wii. It was designed to suck video-dissing women into the virtual world.“
Of course, now she might rather stay up late playing with your fancy new controller, instead of your boring old joystick.

Some patent describing a video ipod has hit the patent office again.  Let’s begin another round of total speculation.
read more | digg story

A mathematician has attempted to disprove the existence of vampires mathematically.

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