Politics & P2P

Common Bittorrent Mistakes, Part 1

2012-01-30T09:49:00.001-05:00

There’s a number of common mistakes made by people, when they decide to torrent things Some of these are long-standing mistakes, and others are more common. The one thing they have in common, is that they’re all easily avoidable.

We’ve covered some typical mistakes and some handy tips in the past, but it’s always good to have a refresher. To many of the more advanced users, much of this will seem old hat, but as the saying goes, “we were all n00bs once”. In fact, some of these mistakes are not only made by those who have recently come to bittorrent, but by those who consider themselves ‘experts’ as well.

Part 1 here concentrates on mistakes by people who just don't understand bittorrent.

Running more torrents than is advisable / trying to micromanage torrent activity

People are, by nature, impatient. When we’re trying to get something, we want it now, or better yet, 20 minutes ago. That torrent not going fast enough? Start another one! Got lots of torrents to seed? Start them all, so you can seed a little bit to all of them.

The problem with this is, your connection is only a finite size. The more you split it, the less each gets. Worse, each torrent uses data to maintain itself, called ‘overhead’. With a lot of torrents going at once (over 150 in some cases) the overhead consumes most of the bandwidth, leaving very little for actual transfer.

µTorrent, for instance, will start a queued torrent if there's no activity on one already running, and will do that until it reaches it's limit for active torrents, at which point it'll queue the others. In other words, your client had manage eleventy billion queued torrents to try and keep the optimum number running at once. And unlike you, it's keeping an eye on how much bandwidth is being used... and it knows the bittorrent protocol better too.

High numbers of connections

Again, it’s impatience. People see ‘there’s 20 seeds, and 80 leechers. I want to connect to them all! Because that’s going to be faster than connecting to half of them, right? Wrong. As above, more peers, means more overhead. Significantly more, as much of the overhead is telling peers what pieces you have, and being told what pieces they have.

In both cases, these efforts to speed things up, actually slow things down. Worse, it can set up a negative feedback loop, where a slow speed causes people to do one – or both – of these things. As that can slow things down more, they start more torrents or try for more connections, and make the problem worse, thinking they’re making it better.

Settings based on download speed, not upload speed.

This has the same effect as those above. It’s it’s more a mistake of misunderstanding, rather than intentional though, as most internet connections are advertised and sold based on their download speed, not their upload speed. It’s fixed by a simple speed-test and then changing settings accordingly.

Making downloads “faster”

This is always amusing to see. Someone wanting a way to ‘make’ their download speed up, because it’s too slow for them. It’s not like a file-locker, where there’s a set server, with a fast connection, and it’s deciding to limit you. It’s a collection of other peers, just like you, running the same kind of software as you’re using. Your download is their upload, and vice-versa, your upload is their download.

The only way to MAKE your download faster, would be to force these peers to upload to you. There’s only one problem with that. If you can do it to them, they can do it back to you. That’s why they don’t exist.

There are only two ways to speed up your torrents.

Use the optimum settings for your connection
Buy a faster connection.

Even funnier is when someone wants their UPLOAD to be faster. Doesn't happen much (mainly on overseeded 'private' torrents - but thats for part 2) but it does happen.

Next time

In part 2 we're going to cover mistakes made by 'experts', which require a deeper understanding of the bittorrent protocol

No Safe Harbor NOW AVAILABLE!

2012-01-24T17:30:00.002-05:00

A little over two weeks ago, I let slip about a little book coming out. Called No Safe Harbor, it featured two of my essays, one that had been here before, the other written specially for the book.

It is

NOW AVAILABLE TO BUY

Unfortunately, I posted the book info to slashdot, and it's... well, taken www.nosafeharbor.com offline.

So, here's the links for the various formats, INCLUDING the torrent, which has them all

Torrent - http://bit.ly/x5gtHe
TXT - http://bit.ly/xrPGl5
ODT - http://bit.ly/zC6TE1
RTF - http://bit.ly/xHI7MO
PDF - http://bit.ly/xVI0t1
MOBI - http://bit.ly/wtYRQQ
EPUB - http://bit.ly/zt99zw

WE're going to work at getting the site back online ASAP

Meanwhile, enjoy

And you can get more info on Twitter, @nosafeharbor

I'll also add the press release here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Jan 24 2012
The Pirate Party is proud to announce the release of its first book, No Safe Harbor.

No Safe Harbor, released January 24th 2012, is a collection of political essays, texts, and discussions that help explain and educate about Pirate Party positions. While some have been published before, many others are original to the book.

Contributors range from first-time writers being published for the first time, leading academics, to Pirate Party officials, and even international organizations like the United Nations.

Adding color to the book are cartoons by artist and free culture
activist Nina Paley, creator of the animated film Sita Sings the Blues.

Topics covered include notes on the 4th Amendment, the history of
copyright, biopatents, and corporate personhood.

The book is released under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY-NC-SA) and sharing of it is strongly encouraged. To further that, the book is available in a number of DRM-free formats, free of charge. In addition a
paperback edition can be purchased through Amazon.com for $9.99

"For anyone concerned with our rights today, but unsure where to start, this book is an invaluable guide," says Assistant Editor and contributor Andrew Norton. "Education on these very important topics, and their immense potential for harm, has been sadly overlooked in recent years. We felt it was time to correct that."

Further information, including the book and press resources can be downloaded from www.nosafeharbor.com

###
About the US Pirate Party

The US Pirate Party was founded in 2006. Its aim is to bring
transparency and accountability to government, while restoring personal liberties and privacy that have been discarded in a panic since 2001. It also seeks to bring copyrights and patents back to their Constitutional mandated purpose of promoting the progress of science and the useful arts.

The Pirate Party is currently recognized in Massachusetts and Florida. Efforts to gain recognition in the entire country is underway.

Contact:
press@nosafeharbor.com
+1 352-658-3824
Twitter: @nosafeharbor

Republican Caves to Homophone Pressure

2012-01-23T22:56:00.000-05:00

You would think that a job based on public perceptions, and paying a fortune ($174,000/year) of taxpayer money would take the time to do their job properly, or at least employ someone who can pass middle-school English class.
It seems not.
A tweet from Freshman Republican Austin Scott [R-GA8] has cause to question the competency sometimes of those we put in office.

In addition to voting for the Housed passed Budget, in the passed year, I have also voted for all 28 of the House... fb.me/NnTmaEos
— Rep. Austin Scott (@AustinScottGA08) January 24, 2012

It's lovely and clear, isn't it?

Ok, let's go to what the facebook post it comes from says.

Looks like some unhappy people commenting there.

Well, shortly after I went to post a comment and got an error.
The post had been deleted and another put in it's place.
Saying the same thing, except he corrected one of the misspellings (Republicans don't like homosexuality, but they dare not mess with homophones)

Here's the corrected version on Facebook.

Yes, that's me at the bottom, pointing out that his claim of 28 jobs bills is an erroneous claim isn't erm, well true. It's a lie in fact. (for those wondering THIS is the link he promoted, and THIS is the one I responded to.

And of course, while he deleted it from facebook, he didn't delete it from Twitter....

(those tweets are TOP, MIDDLE and BOTTOM respectively, get em before they're gone!

Frankly, the partisan rhetoric is getting tiresome. Is it so hard to have a Congressman who can understand that his job is to represent his constituents in Washington? Why do we always end up with members of Congress who feel it's their duty to represent their party to their constituents. If there's a problem in the US, that's what's causing it. And the sooner we solve that, the better.

First Look – No Safe Harbor

2012-01-07T13:24:00.001-05:00

On January 15 24 (publisher issues), the United States Pirate Party (USPP) will be launching its first book, titled No Safe Harbor: Essays about Pirate Politics. It will not only be offered in eBook formats free of charge, but you can buy it in paperback from Amazon.com

The book will be a collection of essays, some you will have seen before, others written especially for the book, along with comic strips from Nina Paley. As a special bonus, we have even included the UN Declaration on Human Rights, because documents like that are handy to have available.

We’ve already had some of the proofs, and they’re looking rather nice, as you can see in these photographs.

So mark your calendars, and get ready to read 250 pages of political joy.

Contents

Government and Corporate Transparency and Accountability

Assassinating Citizens

Marcus Kesler

The Worst Part of Citizenship

Ryan Moffitt

The Parable of the Pasture

Howard Denson

Indie Authors Shaking the Pillars of Publishing

Reagen Dandridge

Breaking the Two Party Two-Step

Andrew “K'Tetch” Norton

Fluid Democracy

William Sims Bainbridge

Privatizing Life

Kembrew McLeod

Killing the Corporate Person

Andrew “K'Tetch” Norton

Privacy

“Real Names” Policies Are An Abuse of Power

danah boyd

Criminal of Innocence

Travis McCrea

Privacy Now, Nothing Later

Ryan Moffitt

Personal Privacy

Travis McCrea

Notes on the 4th Amendment

The Electronic Frontier Foundation

No Safe Quarter

Loreley MacTavish

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The United Nations

Intellectual Property

History of Copyright

Rick Falkvinge

The DRM Sausage Factory

Cory Doctorow

Pirates

Lawrence Lessig

Questions Concerning Copyright

Brad Hall

This Gene is Your Gene

Kembrew McLeod

A SOPA Response from Rep. Austin Scott [GA-8]

2012-01-06T15:51:00.002-05:00

NOTE This was also cross-posted at the Pirate Party of Georgia site

A week or two back, an email was sent to Rep. Austin Scott, who represents Georgia's 8th District in Congress.

The letter you can read here, but finally we got a response.

This is the entirity of the response which came in a 18kb html email (yes, a nasty html-formatted email) *shudder*
It was so bad, that when it was forwarded on, it was flagged as spam by gmail.

January 4, 2012
Dear Withheld,
H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, was introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith on October 26, 2011 and subsequently referred to the House Judiciary Committee. If enacted into law, it would authorize the Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of infringing on copyrights, or facilitating copyright infringement. This issue has generated significant support and opposition in recent weeks. Because of this, I am following its progress in the Judiciary Committee closely. While I am not a member of the Judiciary Committee, I look forward to the Committee's findings on this legislation and I will be sure to keep your views in mind should H.R. 3261 be scheduled for a vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to do so in the future. It's an honor to represent the Eighth Congressional District of Georgia.
Sincerely,
Austin Scott

Amazing, all that, and nothing of substance was said. The original email contained more details of the bill, than the response, and the response was all about information ABOUT the bill. Worse, it even got parts wrong. There isn't 'significant' support, there's a few companies and trade associations supporting it, but even those who should know best about the industry situation (artists, software companies etc) are against it. A 'grass roots' effort to drum up support flopped. Perhaps that's why the list of supporters includes people who DON'T support it (and never have), and has shrunk as other companies pull their support.

The one thing that's clear is that there is STRONG opposition to SOPA/PIPA. Over 100,000 have asked for their names to be read out as part of a fillibuster by Sen. Wyden against PIPA. More and more companies are coming out against it.

And while Rep. Scott might be looking forward to the Committee's findings, I think the only think they'll be finding is how much fatter their campaign bank accounts are (or what jobs they're going to get when they're not re-elected). If they were actually interested in the truth, they'd not have had only ONE hearing, with 5 supporters (getting close to half the total supporting companies) and only Google appearing for the hundreds of thousands in opposition. Or maybe they wouldn't be trying to legislate based on sheer ignorance, and making out that stupidity is something to be admired.

Frankly, I think it's a foregone conclusion, it's going to pass the committee, because a bill THIS BAD would have been killed by now if it wasn't going to pass due to a sudden outbreak of honesty, integrity or common sense.

*update*
Just so you know HOW bad this email was, I'll include the html portion below.
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<head
><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
><title>New Page 3</title
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<body>

<div align="center">
 <table border="2" width="775" bordercolorlight="#151D29" cellspacing="0" bordercolordark="#000000" cellpadding="0">
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&nbsp;
   <td
><div align="center"
><table border="0" width="750" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
><tr
><td align="left"
><IMG 
src="http://austinscott.house.gov/images/stories/enews_banner.jpg" width="750">
&nbsp;</TD>

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<div align="center"
><table border="0" width="750" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
><tr
><td width="750" align="left">
<p align="left">
<p class="Normal-P" style="text-align:center;"
><span class="Normal-H">January 4, 2012</span>
</P>
<p class="Normal-P" style="text-align:center;"
><span class="Normal-H">&nbsp;</span>
</P>

<p class="Normal-P"
><span class="Normal-H">&nbsp;</span>
</P>
<p class="Normal-P"
><span class="Normal-H">&nbsp;</span>
</P>
<p class="Normal-P"
><span class="Normal-H">Dear ***********,</span>
</P>
<p class="Normal-P"
><span class="Normal-H">&nbsp;</span>

</P>
<p class="Normal-P"
><span class="Normal-H">H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, was introduced by
Rep. Lamar Smith on October 26, 2011 and subsequently referred to the House Judiciary Committee.&nbsp;
If enacted into law, it would authorize the Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites
outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of infringing on copyrights, or facilitating copyright infringement.&nbsp;
This issue has generated significant support and opposition in recent weeks.&nbsp; Because of this, I am following
its progress in the Judiciary Committee closely.&nbsp; While I am not a member of the Judiciary Committee,
I look forward to the Committee's findings on this legislation and I will be sure to keep your views
in mind should H.R. 3261 be scheduled for a vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.</span>
</P>
<p class="normal-p-P"
><span class="normal-p-H"
><span style="font-size:12pt;"
></span>&nbsp;</span>
</P>
<p class="normal-p-P"
><span class="normal-p-H"
><span style="font-size:12pt;"
></span
><span class="normal-h1-h1-H" style="font-size:12pt;">Thank
you for contacting me.&nbsp; Please feel free to do so in the future.&nbsp; It's an honor to represent the Eighth
Congressional District of Georgia.</span
></span>

</P>
<p class="Normal-P"
><span class="Normal-H">&nbsp;</span>
</P>
<p class="Normal-P"
><span class="Normal-H"
><span style="font-weight:bold;"
></span>&nbsp;</span>
</P>
<br
><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt" Face=Times New Roman>Sincerely,<br>
<br
><IMG 
src="http://austinscott.house.gov/images/stories/Austin_Scott_Sig.JPG"<br>

<br>
Austin Scott<br>
<br
><A 
href="https://iqs3.solutions.lmit.com/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=GA08AS&crop=14253.7395454.7062060.9172519&redirect=http%3a%2f%2ftwitter.com%2fAustinScottGA08"
><IMG src="http://austinscott.house.gov/images/sqtwitter.jpg"
border=0
></A
>&nbsp;
<A 
href="https://iqs3.solutions.lmit.com/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=GA08AS&crop=14253.7395454.7062060.9172519&redirect=http%3a%2f%2fwww.facebook.com%2fRepAustinScott"
><IMG src="http://austinscott.house.gov/images/sqfacebook.jpg"
border=0
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>&nbsp;

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href="https://iqs3.solutions.lmit.com/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=GA08AS&crop=14253.7395454.7062060.9172519&redirect=http%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2fRepAustinScott"
><IMG src="http://austinscott.house.gov/images/sqyoutube.jpg" 
border=0
></A
>

<br
></TD>


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<br>

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><table border="0" width="750" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
><tr>

<td align="center"
><CENTER
><B
><I
><FONT face=Calibri>P.S. To stay up-to-date on this and other important
issues from the Eight District and Washington, please sign up for my e-newsletter at-- <A 
href="https://iqs3.solutions.lmit.com/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=GA08AS&crop=14253.7395454.7062060.9172519&redirect=https%3a%2f%2fforms.house.gov%2faustinscott%2fwebforms%2fenews-form.html">

E-News Updates.</A

></FONT
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&nbsp;</TD>
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><tr>

<td align="center">

<I
><FONT face=Calibri>P.S. Please do not reply to this email.&nbsp; The mailbox is unattended.
<br>
To share your thoughts with Congressman Scott please go to--<A 
href="https://iqs3.solutions.lmit.com/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=GA08AS&crop=14253.7395454.7062060.9172519&redirect=https%3a%2f%2fforms.house.gov%2faustinscott%2fwebforms%2fzipauthen_contact.shtml">
Email Me.</A

></FONT>

&nbsp;</TD>


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><TBODY
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><B
><FONT color=#ffffff face="Trebuchet MS">Contact
Information</FONT
></B>
</P
></TD>

</TR
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><TD vAlign=top width=350 align=middle
><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt" color=#000000 face=Verdana
><B>Washington
DC 
Office</B
><BR>516 Cannon HOB<BR>Washington, DC 20515<BR>Phone: (202) 225-6531<BR>Fax: (202) 225-3013

</FONT
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<TD vAlign=top width=350 align=middle
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Office</B
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[HoM] First Two-Time Moron!

2011-12-27T02:24:00.002-05:00

There is just something stupid about people sometimes. They act without thinking, they don't check facts, and they believe they're always right, despite evidence to the contrary. It's bad enough when this happens once, but for it to happen twice is incredibly bad. Yet it HAS happened, as a previous Hall of Morons entrant decided to try and confront the person he believed blackened his name.

Unfortunately for him, he failed badly, AGAIN.

This was taken from the #utorrent irc channel on Monday December 5th 2011.

01:45:49 «ev1luti0n» DWKnight thanks for the blog post about me
01:45:55 «ev1luti0n» :3
01:46:05 «ev1luti0n» it just goes to show how you don't actually help anyone
01:46:18 «ev1luti0n» and instead pick and think you're a tough guy
01:46:35 «K`Tetch» where?
01:46:51 «ev1luti0n» http://ktetch.blogspot.com/2011/08/another-week-another-idiot-with.html he posts on his blog
01:46:56 «ev1luti0n» about people he doesn't know how ot help
01:47:27 «ev1luti0n» also dismissing my location details
01:47:28 «ev1luti0n» big no no
01:47:30 «ev1luti0n» reporting the blog
01:48:01 «K`Tetch» er, thats my blog
01:48:36 «K`Tetch» might notice the ktetch on the front
01:49:38 «K`Tetch» looks like you might be the first person to get TWO entries
01:50:20 «ev1luti0n» if you don't remove my location details i will report the post
01:50:55 «ev1luti0n» also as you notice, he never addressed my issue.
01:51:01 «ev1luti0n» which he nor anyone has a solid answer to.
01:51:03 «K`Tetch» try it and see how far you (don't) get
01:51:08 «ev1luti0n» this is typical.
01:51:12 «K`Tetch» there was an answer - your settings
01:51:18 «K`Tetch» well, that and you're an idiot
01:51:18 «ev1luti0n» lolol
01:51:23 «ev1luti0n» active torrents?
01:51:25 «ev1luti0n» and file send feature?
01:51:29 «ev1luti0n» if those are integrated
01:51:34 «ev1luti0n» coding is fail
01:51:48 «K`Tetch» you can't jump to step3 of what's wrong, when you can't address step 1, so we can see what else is wrong
01:53:19 «K`Tetch» It's called common sense, when your ignorance has created a situation where further potential problems are obscured by this one, we couldn't work on further diagnoses until that was fixed.
01:53:25 «K`Tetch» it's really simple
01:53:41 «ev1luti0n» still avoids the answer
01:53:47 «ev1luti0n» further trolls/acts like a know it all
01:54:10 «ev1luti0n» i think DWKnight was having a bad day
01:54:26 «K`Tetch» the first issue was your settings, we couldn't do anything more until you fixed that, but you insisted you knew better. you don't
01:54:36 «ev1luti0n» so there is a limit?
01:54:45 «ev1luti0n» and what do you suggest?
01:55:12 «ev1luti0n» my network reacts finely to having that many active torrents
01:55:24 «ev1luti0n» and if you go to any private torrent sites irc channel and ask around
01:55:32 «ev1luti0n» plenty have hundreds of torrents active
01:55:39 «ev1luti0n» so maybe you could think a little deeper
01:56:24 «K`Tetch» right, and the competency of private tracker admins is well known to be absymally low
01:56:44 «K`Tetch» but you don't want to listen, so there's nothing more to say
01:57:07 «K`Tetch» you can TRY complaining about 'your location' being given, but I promise you, it will fail
01:58:12 «ev1luti0n» well i think it's pretty pathetic that the ops around here poke fun at users who are having problems
01:58:22 «ev1luti0n» that's incompetency
01:58:37 «K`Tetch» it is, incompetency, YOUR incompetency
01:58:38 «ev1luti0n» if he would've said hey i think your settings are inhibiting the feature so cool out
01:58:57 «ev1luti0n» pathetic.
01:59:04 «ev1luti0n» general internet tough guy antics
01:59:28 «K`Tetch» ghguy antics "01:50:20 «ev1luti0n» if you don't remove my location details i will report the post"yes, general internet touc
01:59:40 «ev1luti0n» no, that is my basic right
01:59:46 «K`Tetch» yes, general internet tough guy antics "01:50:20 «ev1luti0n» if you don't remove my location details i will report the post"
01:59:46 «ev1luti0n» i requested that you remove it
01:59:50 «ev1luti0n» it's simple really
01:59:52 «K`Tetch» what basic right?
02:00:07 «ev1luti0n» to request that you remove it or i report the post
02:00:08 «ev1luti0n» that simple
02:00:13 «ev1luti0n» hard to understand K`Tetch?
02:00:13 «K`Tetch» what right?
02:00:22 «K`Tetch» hard to understand what mystical right you're claiming
02:00:23 «ev1luti0n» well you can't stop me now can you?
02:00:31 «ev1luti0n» thus it is a right of mine
02:00:35 «ev1luti0n» so keep trying
02:00:57 «K`Tetch» I think you're confusing 'right' with 'ability'
02:01:41 «ev1luti0n» you are citing this stupid argument
02:01:43 «ev1luti0n» i'll have you know that
02:01:56 «ev1luti0n» maybe you should stop defending a jerk like DWKnight
02:02:14 «ev1luti0n» i reported the post, i doubt anything will happen but i hope it does
02:02:35 «ev1luti0n» i really don't appreciate this.
02:02:39 «K`Tetch» shame I posted another hall of morons entry about an hour ago
02:02:44 «K`Tetch» this one will ahve to go up Tuesday
02:02:50 «K`Tetch» shame,
02:02:54 «K`Tetch» try not being a moron then
02:02:56 «ev1luti0n» well im sure all your friends will love it
02:03:01 «ev1luti0n» have fun
02:03:06 «K`Tetch» actually, it's been very popular
02:03:32 «ev1luti0n» >_> right
02:03:45 «ev1luti0n» about as popular as the inside of my shoe it seems
02:04:04 «ev1luti0n» wanna pull up your google analytics maybe screen shot it to include in the post?
02:04:14 «ev1luti0n» haha!
02:08:11 «ev1luti0n» im also having delusion report your post about him as well
02:08:29 «ev1luti0n» i wonder how many of my friends i'll notice in your witchhunt against private trackers
02:08:38 «ev1luti0n» us pirate party, sure
02:23:16 «K`Tetch» Anyway Lawrence, isn't it past your bed time?
02:25:43 «K`Tetch» (it is 2:24 in Frederick after all)
02:25:59 » Crust gets popcorn
02:26:51 «K`Tetch» For location, I just used your obscured hostmask, which every IRC user has here
02:27:08 «K`Tetch» whick shows you're a Maryland comcast user.
02:27:23 «K`Tetch» It's not like I said you were 24, after all
02:27:35 «K`Tetch» (which I find hard to believe)
02:27:48 «Crust» you forgot the part about him living in his moms basemsnt
02:28:16 «ev1luti0n» lol
02:28:19 «ev1luti0n» internet tough guy!
02:29:35 «Crust» is that a new tard phraise
02:29:51 «Crust» I havnt heard that one before
02:30:05 «ev1luti0n» no it's been around for as long as internet tough guys have.
02:30:14 «K`Tetch» I think Dunsmore here was upset he's been outed as a Dunce [some] More!
02:30:22 «ev1luti0n» heard it
02:30:32 «K`Tetch» I'll bet you have
02:30:34 «K`Tetch» frequently
02:31:14 «Crust» isnt whining about free software a bit lame?
02:31:23 «ev1luti0n» ?
02:31:42 «Crust» I mean it looks like you didnt take any advice
02:31:44 «ev1luti0n» LAME is an mp3 encoder
02:31:56 «Crust» just sayin
02:32:08 «Crust» maybe you shouldnt whine so much
02:32:17 «ev1luti0n» im having a good time
02:32:20 «ev1luti0n» :3
02:32:27 «Crust» but thats typical for dumbases
02:32:31 «K`Tetch» Crust - I think it's even funnier he came to blame DWKnight about it, when ti have my nick at the start of the damned URL!
02:32:57 «K`Tetch» oh, and at the end of the piece, as the authour
02:32:57 «ev1luti0n» ooooo
02:33:05 «K`Tetch» OH, and lots of references to me IN the piece
02:33:10 «ev1luti0n» i was blinded by rage
02:33:13 «ev1luti0n» ^_^
02:33:21 «K`Tetch» s/rage/ignorance
02:33:25 «K`Tetch» there, fixed that for you
02:33:36 «MasterChief» ur both assholes lol
02:33:47 «K`Tetch» hush Mc, you know you love it
02:34:41 «ev1luti0n» so can you teach me how to take someones host mask and find their personal info k'tetch
02:34:44 «ev1luti0n» i am a good listener! :3
02:35:03 «Crust» http://i.imgur.com/fSx0O.jpg
02:35:13 «ev1luti0n» tldr
02:35:13 «Crust» ^ fill that out and get back to K`Tetch
02:35:17 «ev1luti0n» tldr
02:36:04 «MasterChief» what asshole come in here asing for help, and when then tell him the problem he says no thats wrong
02:36:13 «K`Tetch» and we've found his problem, etldr

From there it decended into general sillyness, with a number of people ripping into ev1luti0n.

But the salient points,

He thought DWKnight posted it. Despite the ktetch in the URL, it saying K`Tetch at the end of the post, and the references that say DWKnight passing me the rest of the log because I don't have it, he STILL thought it was DWKnight that wrote it.
He believed that just knowing he was in Virginia was a horrible crime which would get this site pulled down. Perhaps he was thinking of Internet Privacy Act?
Complaining that your private info is being given out goes a bit hollow when a quick google of the nick ev1luti0n gives half a dozen sites where his town, full name and age are listed, including last.fm, steam, and icheckmovies.com. As I tell my kids, if you don't want your personal information available to anyone, don't put it up there in the first place (or double-check the privacy settings REALLY well)

As a side note, I'm still waiting for the form Crust mentioned to be sent to me.

And if you're going to whine, at least get your facts straight first. For failing to do that, ev1luti0n, aka Mr Dunsmore of Maryland, you are the first DOUBLE-DUNCE and get inducted into the Hall of Morons as a Flaming Moron.

A SOPA Plea to Rep. Austin Scott [GA-8] [UPDATED]

2011-12-17T18:30:00.003-05:00

One of my friends passed on to me this letter that they had written to their representative on the Stop Online Piracy Act (HR 3261). It was sent Thursday December 15th 2011, to the office of Representative Austin Scott, of Georgia's 8th District.

UPDATE: He responded

To give some background, Austin Scott is a freshman Republican Congressman, who replaced Jim Marshall, a two term Democrat, in the 2010 elections. He is a former businessman, with a degree in Risk Assessment, as well as a member of the NRA.

But to the letter.

Dear Rep. Scott,
I am writing to you to URGE you in the strongest possible terms to vote AGAINST HR.3261, the misleadingly named ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’.

To say that this is an absolute travesty understates things. It is perhaps one of the worst possible examples of corrupt legislation I think it is possible to have.

It’s a bill to give wide-ranging powers to appease a group that has for decades, railed against every technological progress that has come along. The Printing Press, Radio, Television, the player-piano, phonograph, CABLE television, the cinema, photocopiers, reel-to-reel tape, audio cassettes, VCRs, mimeographs, and now the latest ‘scary threat’, the Internet. In every one of these, the claims of ‘great harm’ have been rejected by legislators who have examined the facts and found their claims laughable. In the last decade, however, we have seen a steady erosion of support for the facts, under a torrent of lies from those that seek to control information.

In 1982 MPAA Chairman Jack Valenti told Congress that the VCR is to the US film industry what the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone. In 1987, over 55% of Hollywood’s income came from VCR sales. In 2005, the MPAA released a study claiming that Piracy worldwide brought a $6B loss to the US economy. In 2005, Blockbuster Inc. had over $6B in turnover in the US. Just one company, that the lobby group had tried to outlaw not 25 years earlier, had offset ALL the losses they claimed.

Other claims include the MPAA president, former Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, and his recent claims that the movie industry employs 2.2 million people, and they’re losing 373,000 jobs every year. Unfortunately, the Congressional Research Service shows that the ACTUAL number employed in that industry is 374,000, meaning that next year, the only people employed will be those who have actively directed 2 or more TV episodes in the US in the past year. This, like most other claims in support of SOPA is a lie, and one they hope you are stupid enough to fall for.

This bill is nothing but corporate welfare for a group that refuses to move with the times, to innovate and compete. It is a situation that I know well. Until this summer, I was a graphic artist working for a book company, in Athens. I was laid off when the company started downsizing. It downsized because the company had become too entrenched and too comfortable in its niche to keep up and innovate. When one of its big contracts, with UGA, was up for renewal, they failed to get it because they had not innovated.

Hollywood and the music industry can continue to point fingers and claim that it’s losing out because of piracy, but because they claim it does not make it true. In reality, they are improving, when logic says, all things being equal, luxury goods sales should fall. Unit sales of music are up; box office revenues have been climbing for the past few years, and broke records in the years 2007-2010.

This bill is not about economic losses, or jobs, then. It’s about one thing. Control.
The bill gives them the ability to take down any content, including that of their competitors, just by making an allegation. At the same time, they can also freeze their accounts, and kill any attempt at competition. I should put it in terms you might experience if the bill is passed.
When you run for office again next year, your opponent decides to utilize SOPA for his own gain. He makes the claim that you have infringed his copyright. He can take that claim, and FORCE your campaign website to be taken down. He can FORCE your campaign accounts to be frozen. He can have any promotional content of you on the internet taken down. All of a sudden, you have no campaign, at least until you can get things straightened out, which will take a lot of time. That is the reality of this bill. It is why it is considered a censorship bill, and has received strong support from the Chinese Government.

If you think this wouldn’t happen, you’ve maybe missed similar abuses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). That act, passed in 1998, has similar takedown provisions for online content based on a notice - counter-notice system, and requires that any claim be made under penalty of Perjury.

The first case to deal with a false notice has been winding its way through the courts since 2007, in Lenz v Universal. It’s still not settled. In the past week, however, Universal Music Group has upped the ante, issuing countless takedown orders under the DMCA for a music video where all the copyrights are owned by another company, MegaUpload. The most accurate estimate so far is that UMG has committed at least 50 acts of perjury (through false DMCA notice) in this case alone, including takedown requests on a daily news video which referenced the case. Federal Judge Claudia Wilken has given UMG today to explain these takedowns.

And of course, there’s the simple fact that this bill was written by the technically inept. It was a lobbyist wish list converted into a bill without any input from experts in the field, who would have told them that this is a disastrous bill, and not feasible without severe impacts on civil rights. The Constitution says that copyright exists for ‘the progress of science and the useful arts’. It does NOT say ‘to protect the profits and business models of the incumbents in the field’, yet that’s what we’re going for.

Finally, let me leave you will another example. Say that instead of digital information under the allegation of piracy, we were talking about guns and allegations of gun crime. That someone could accuse you of armed robbery, and so your guns would be taken from you, your bank accounts frozen (proceeds of crime!!!!) and then you would have to prove your innocence. And all because a union or two claimed it would ‘help’ things. The unions are the parasitical lobby group; instead of an actual serious crime, we’re talking about the civil matter of copyright infringement (to which no independent study has found caused any harm, and has in some instances been a BENEFIT); and your First Amendment rights are being targeted, instead of your second.

No matter how you look at it, it’s still an extra-judicial process based solely on an accusation, with no penalties for false claims, or even a requirement for any evidence. A bill based on lies and claims that do not stand up to any sort of scrutiny. While I’m aware that you would not intentionally break your oath of office by defending, or supporting this bill, I wanted to make sure that you were aware of all the facts concerning this legislation, and ensure you were not misled into voting for this disgusting, anti-American bill.

Yours,
Name Withheld

No response has yet been received beyond an acknowledgement of receipt, but when one has, this will be updated.

REAL Copyright Theft

2011-12-09T19:25:00.000-05:00

Rogue Websites don’t Obey DMCA notices, is the claim we’re seeing now about the new SOPA and Protect-IP laws. Yet there’s a flipside, as the penalties – CRIMINAL PENALTIES - for filing a false notice are ignored. Who watches those that watch for copyright infringement?

For a while now, I’ve been involved with the Muon1 project. Some of you may have seen the videos, which show parts of a particle accelerator. One of my projects over the past few months has been to go through the sub-projects (called Lattices) and recreating the best designs. Since the program is silent, I add in a soundtrack, usually an “ambient” track from Jamendo.

The reason I use Jamendo sourced music is simple. The music is CC-licensed, and available to download, which makes it simple to make the videos, while staying legal and giving some potential exposure to an artist.

However, these artists are not without their enemies. The growth of direct-to-consumer marketing methods, such as Jamendo, has caused a backlash in the music world. Artists are less likely to seek the work of middleman publishers, which puts such people increasingly out of work. One way they can fix that is to use their contacts and their experience in the industry to inconvenience people.

Since they’re already representing several artists, they have pre-existing communications with certain companies and entities. That includes companies like Google, where they have the knowledge and ability to claim videos and make copyright enforcements. That can lead to problems.

In 2009, singer Edwyn Collins was unable to share his track ‘girl like you’ on Myspace. He owns the copyright but according to the database that Myspace uses, the copyright belonged to Warner, and they were the controller of it. That’s because Myspace uses a private database, provided by companies like Audible Magic.

These databases make it really easy to steal copyright, and I do ACTUALLY mean ‘steal’, as in ‘takes it away from the owner’. Most of the time when you hear copyright theft, you are actually hearing about infringement, which is a completely different thing. In order for it to be copyright theft, you have to steal my copyright. If you are just violating that right, that’s different. There are even US Supreme Court rulings on this, so it’s not some debatable nuance of law.

So, people are making claims of copyright where it’s not applicable. Now, what’s interesting is that under the DMCA, claims are required to have with them, an assertion that they are acting with the permission of the copyright holder to enforce this copyright, and they do so under penalty of perjury. Perjury is a criminal action, for lying under oath. Just to give you an example of its severity, President Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury.

The thing is, there’s been NO enforcement of this perjury clause in the 13 years of the DMCA. The nearest there has been to any enforcement has been in the case Lenz v. Universal. However, that case is still ongoing, and no penalties for perjurous copyright takedown notices have yet been decided.

Ok, you ask, but where’s this heading?

The explosion of automated systems to ‘detect’ copyrights is growing. Claims are being filed against anything, and claims are being made BY anyone. Just last week, I uploaded a video containing some music for the Muon1 project. It’s embedded here.

So let’s recap what was written earlier. The music in question was from Jamendo, and was listed on the site as being under a CC-BY-NC-SA license. I was abiding by that license, so felt there was no problem. However, I got a copyright claim on it from a group. Here’s the youtube grabs showing the claim.

The claim, as you see, is made by ‘Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society’ ,a name that actually means nothing. Some believe that it’s a collective name for any number of collections agencies, which exist to siphon wealth under the guise of giving money to artists. The major issue with them is they’ll claim rights no matter what, and try to collect money for artists that are not their members, or even for imaginary songs.

Regardless, I wanted to make very sure of the issues, so I did what anyone would do when trying to find out the truth, I contacted the artist. Maybe he was signed up to a rights society, and there was some miscommunication.

No. Here's the reply.

Hello, Andrew,

I appreciate your message very much, I am always interested in other people's works using my tracks, so.. thank you a lot.

Now back to the point:

Yes, copyright is very sticky (that's one of the many reasons I was, am, and will be against it). Just a quick search on google and I found this: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=52c90a1fd014c616&hl=en

So far I released all my music under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. And that's only because I wanted people to know, that I do not require any payment or anything. But lately I decided to switch to Attribution only, because it is the only license that is the most consistent with my philosophical views on this issue.

As you experienced yourself, it doesn't matter what the author is claiming, there will always be groups of people like "Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society" who will harass anyone just because they can (I am pretty much sure they have government support, otherwise you could ignore them, like spam).

Well, there is also another thing: in my video of "Billions And Billions" I used video footage from Carl Sagan's "Cosmos", and after the upload I got the notice from YouTube that it "may include the content that is owned by Koch Entertainment". However, they didn't take the video down. Good for me.

So anyway, just to be clear: all my music is free (under Creative Commons license, doesn't matter whether BY-NC-ND or just BY) and I have never signed nor thinking of signing any contract that could violate the freedom of use of my own digital content.

Once again, thank you, and feel free to do anything with my music.
-Edgaras

So, I've done the only thing I can do, and file a counter-notice.

We will see if anything more comes of it, but the music claim was clearly false. But groups like "Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society" will, as Edgaras says, always be around until penalties for false claims are even in the same ballpark as the penalties for infringement.

If there are any further developments, y'all will hear of it.

[HoM] I wrote this guide on this topic I don't know...

2011-12-05T00:50:00.000-05:00

There are idiots everywhere, but not many make pumpkins look smart. If you're going to write a guide, for instance, then you REALLY need to know your topic. If you don't know your topic, then DON'T WRITE A GUIDE BOOK ABOUT IT. Often it makes you look stupid, but on occasion, can cause a LOT of problems for those that follow it, expecting things to work.

There are many such guides, this is just one that caught my eye.

There's a simple rule when it comes to bittorrent settings, One size-fits-all settings are a success for no-one.

Bittorrent has, at it's core, a setup that focuses on the thing it can control - it's upload, and not on the download. your download is based on how fast other people can send to you, but EVERYTHING hinges on your upload. The more peers you're connected to, the more overhead information you have to send out, which means more information uploaded. What makes it even more critical is the asymmetrical setup of most internet connections - connections tend to have a higher download rate than upload. Perhaps most critically though, the vast majority of settings relate to upload, not download.

I've already given a guideline for decent settings, based on upload. In fact, it was right after the first settings entry in the Hall of Morons that I posted them.

So to the specifics. This user was so confident in his guide, that he posted it to The Pirate Bay, not just once, but TWICE. After I pointed out the problems, he decided to change his nick name, from fiesta569 to Audi-A4. Perhaps the worst thing is he's considered 'trusted', which means people might trust these guides.

So, on to the guides. He's done them in two formats, one as a pdf, and the other as 4 separate images. I'm going to cover the images version, but the content is identical.

First picture shows the 'Bandwidth' section of the Preferences of Bittorrent 7.5, but the contents are identical to µTorrent 3.

Step 1

Working down the list, we see that he's set the upload as unlimited. This is bad for most home connections as your upload will saturate and you'll have terrible performance, unless you're exclusively using µTP. Ideally, you should set your upload between 75-85% of your maximum upload capacity to leave a little space on your upload throughput.

Equally puzzling is his connection settings. 100 Global connection is acceptable for a low-speed connection but then to have 70 connections per torrent makes no sense. That's a lot of peers for a torrent, meanng lots of overhead, and it means by the time you're at the second torrent, you're already running out of connections. In a word, stupid and contradictory.

Step 2

Picture 2 is actually perfectly acceptable. That is optimum, but then again, it's also, I believe, the default. You don't get any prizes for that! Note the check-mark that says 'Enable bandwidth management [uTP]" It'll be important in a moment.

'Step 3' and there should be a robot crying out "Danger Will Robinson", because well, it's a bit stupid. First of all, it says at the top "WARNING: Do not modify!" It helps to pay heed. however, let's look at whats he's suggesting. It's easy enough, as non-default values are marked with *.

Step 3

The first option is bt.tcp_rate_control. It is defined in the help file.

bt.tcp_rate_control: Enabling this option tells µTorrent to use information from the uTP transport as hints for limiting TCP transfer rates.

So, he's disabled the way for the client to actively adapt to congested network connections. Smart.....

Step 4

Picture 4 is actually superfluous, it's just the other marked change hi-lighted; bt.transp_disposition. He suggests changing the value to 255, but what does it do? The help file again includes a description. it says

bt.transp_disposition: This option controls µTorrent's level of bias towards using TCP or uTP for transporting data (assuming the peer at the other end of the connection supports both transport protocols). The following is a list of the accepted values:

1 allows µTorrent to attempt outgoing TCP connections
2 allows µTorrent to attempt outgoing uTP connections
4 allows µTorrent to accept incoming TCP connections
8 allows µTorrent to accept incoming uTP connections
16 tells µTorrent to use the new uTP header. This is an improved communication header, but is not backwards compatible with clients that do not understand it.

This option is interpreted as a bitfield, so values can be added together to obtain a combination of behaviors. Setting this value to 255 guarantees that all behaviors are enabled.

So his change means turning them all on. For comparison, the default value is 31, which, er, means turning everything on....

If there's a howto for bad settings, this would be up there. While it's not in the ludicrously bad territory (and we'll get to them at some point) it's not good. In fact, the very understated nature of the changes might convince some that it's on the level. In reality though, it's a very poor setup.

AUDI-A4 (or fiesta569) You are not just a moron, you are a COMPLETE moron, and so it's fitting that I induct you now, into the Hall of Morons!

A SOPA Supporter is Just A WIMP

2011-11-16T00:53:00.003-05:00

If there's one thing that makes US Politics amusing, it's the sheer effort that is put into legislation, or at least the legislation's name. Wrap a bill in a catchy backronym, even if it is the opposite of the bill, and it is almost certain to pass!

US politics is filled with acronyms. From positions – POTUS, FLOTUS, SCOTUS (President, First Lady, and Supreme Court of the United States respectively) – to bills, USA PATRIOT Act being the most famous (standing for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, possibly the LEAST patriotic act in 50 years). Currently, SOPA and PROTECT IP are the two hot bills in Congress (Stopping Online Piracy Act, and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act) and in the spirit, it's time to christen the supporters of that act with their own moniker.

They are... A WIMP

It stands for Advocating Welfare for Influential Media People.

That is what SOPA, and ProtectIP and their ilk are, after all, Welfare. A benefit given to a group in exchange for doing very little.

It's not the first time they've tried for welfare, but recent years, with cherry picking of stats and the ease by which their exclusiveness has been undermined, they've been able to play the facts (that they're doing well, but starting to lose out thanks to a lack of effort and innovation) into some kind of fiction (that they're trying their hardest, but everyone's against them!)

We can even turn this into a little story, based on the tortoise and the hare. In media terms, the 'industry' hare tore off ahead, years ago. We, the consumer-tortoise, have plodded along ever since. We've not stopped, though, while the hare has taken a nap. Now the tortoise has started to pass the hare, the hare is in a quandary. It COULD get up and get back in the race, and win. That's too much like work for the hare though, so instead, it's called in an eagle, to try and swoop down the the tortoise, take it away and dash it on some rocks so it can feast on it. All because hare really needs help, and will promise to do nice things for the eagle in the future.

The hare could still win, without the eagles help, but the hare is A WIMP, and would prefer not to do anything itself. And let's face it, the tortoise is the much easier target for the eagle, despite the fact that the hare would be a better meal for it. But the eagle is A WIMP too.

The need to focus on short-term things, rather than long-term goals, is a major problem. It means you're always bouncing from one crisis to the next, as each poorly thought out solution causes more problems. All because it's easier to be A WIMP, focused only on the here and now, rather than stand up and look at long-term solutions.

And I am not alone in pleading for members of the US Congress not to be A WIMP, everyone from lawyers, academics, activists, technology companies (even sleazy ones like Zynga), politicians all around the world, and even the Vice President has spoken out against it. Yes, it can be hard to say no to that easy money, and publicity, and associated fame, but it's a short term benefit, and destroys any competent long term goal. Let's just hope Congress takes heed, and does its best to avoid being A WIMP.

But here's a list of co-sponsors, just so we know who is A WIMP

Rep. Lamar Smith [R-TX21] (who introduced the bill)
Mark Amodei [R-NV2]
John Barrow [D-GA12]
Karen Bass [D-CA33]
Howard Berman [D-CA28] (aka "The gentleman from Hollywood")
Marsha Blackburn [R-TN7]
Mary Bono Mack [R-CA45] (Wife of Copyright Term extending Sonny Bono)
John Carter [R-TX31]
Steven Chabot [R-OH1]
John Conyers [D-MI14]
Ted Deutch [D-FL19]
Elton Gallegly [R-CA24]
Robert Goodlatte [R-VA6]
Tim Griffin [R-AR2]
Peter King [R-NY3]
Ben Luján [D-NM3]
Thomas Marino [R-PA10]
Alan Nunnelee [R-MS1]
William Owens [D-NY23]
Dennis Ross [R-FL12]
Steve Scalise [R-LA1]
Adam Schiff [D-CA29]
Lee Terry [R-NE2]
Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-FL20]

This piece was first published on Falkvinge.net and the text is released under a CC0 license

Three Policies to Rule Them All

2011-11-12T21:36:00.001-05:00

In March of this year, Rick produced his 'Pirate Wheel'. A system that tried to set out his view on what the Pirate Party stands for. I, myself, had my own version, one that was based on 3 legs or pillars, without which there is (in my opinion) no stable support.

CC-BY K`Tetch

It seems to be a truism in Anglo-politics, that a 'single issue party is a waste of time'. Same with a 3, or 5 issue party. That, in fact, if you don't have a comprehensive plan on every conceivable topic, you must a waste of time, because you've 'not thought things through'. The idea is one that seems to resonate, but isn't all that true when you think about life. How detailed are the rules and regulations you have to follow every single day? Do you need a specific set of instructions for handling each and every junction as you travel to work/school, do you need to plan out ahead of time what you plan to say to people you might meet? No, of course not, that's crazy, but that's what is 'expected' when a political party runs for election.

Society runs on a series of generalisations. "this sort of thing is bad", or "when something like x happens, do y" and so on. Those are the best kinds of instructions, the ones that are general enough to cover almost all situations, and simple enough to be understood easily, while being flexible enough to follow. The more things are mired in detail and specifics, the less flexibility is left to deal with the unexpected.

Many political parties put out manifestos before an election. They're usually full of specific promises the party makes of the direction it wants to take legislation and policy. “We will make schools better by introducing standardised testing on the molotov scale thrice-annually” or “we will re-adjust the corporate tax rate to be 12% per annum for all companies with a net income over $20million, and 10% for those under that”. They are very definitive promises, which are great in theory, but terrible in practice, because they hold a party to a definitive position. If you don't make it to that goal, you are attacked by your supporters for breaking your promises, if you go past it, you're 'gone too far' according to your opponents, and that assumes you can do that policy anyway.

There's also a polarisation issue. If you had two candidates, Al, and Bob. Al is pro-choice (meaning he's not opposed to abortion) but anti-union. Bob is Anti-abortion, but pro-union. If, as a voter, I'm pro-choice AND pro-union, where do I go? I have to prioritise my views, especially in a system like the UK or US where a handful of major parties dominate politics, thanks to a First-past-the-post voting system), which means I've already started to lose out as a constituent, which means no matter what, I'm not going to be happy with my elected representative no matter what, being locked into a manifesto position means being stuck.

Politically, therefore, a 'full service manifesto' is not smart. So, what's the alternative?

When I reformed the US Pirate Party in 2007, I approached it as having only three 'policy positions'.

Increase in Government Transparency and accountability
Increase in Personal Privacy
Reform of Copyright, Trademark and Patent Laws.

These three things – although it might not seem it at first glance – encompass just about every topic between them that a traditional 'full service' manifesto does. On reflection, I'd probably add a fourth one to the list – All laws must be evidentially based, with the evidence released to the public. The thing is, most laws are passed on public opinion, and public opinion tends to be shaped by selective information release, or via media talking points.

The US economy is in a huge mess, because of extensive lobbying, and under-the-table deals. Point 1 will do away with much of that. When cons and swindles can't be hidden away, they tend to not be attempted, or even suggested, certainly not when accountability is added in. It also leads to a more fact-based approach to legislation, because lies and distortions will come back to bite people further down the road, when it can't be buried out of public view.

In fact, it's very hard to find an issue in which these three topics can NOT be applied.

The majority of laws passed today are championed either through some sense of obligation (we said we'd do it, so we must) regardless of it being the right solution, or because of some back-room machinations, between lobbyists and politicians that wouldn't happen so easily. Especially if there are some real teeth to it. Intentionally lie, on the record (once might be a mistake, and a simple public retraction will fix it, multiple times is deliberate) and expect to be removed from office.

It comes down to this. As a whole, we don't trust politicians. We think better of used car dealers, than we do politicians, and we'd not let either watch our kids, yet we give them the power to control not only who can watch our kids, but even if we get to keep our kids.

What's needed are not gimmicks, or catchy slogans. What we need, are politicians we can trust to work in the best interests of the country, and of its citizens, rather than for a handful of people who've paid a lobby group and a PR firm. The other up-side is this. Within these limitations, there's still a broad spectrum, of views possible, by method and by position. For instance, Marijuana. Many say that it's safer than alcohol and tobacco, and should therefore be legalised. Others say that it should be allowed, but tobacco banned, since tobacco is extremely hazardous. And there is a third position of banning the both of them. All three positions have facts supporting them. When the facts are kept at the forefront, then it's going to be down to the public will, rather than who can make the catchiest slogan and trick the most people.

Of course, this is my views, and my opinion, and Rick's Pirate Wheel is certainty more comprehensive. However, as a basis you can't go far wrong keeping this simple premise in mind.

Pumpkin Carving 2011

2011-10-30T18:36:00.000-04:00

There can be nothing better, or more satisfying that a pumpkin carving. You can either carve through, or on, and it seems a tradition at this time of year.

In fact, it seems that carving 'on' is becoming more popular than through, perhaps because of the ability to deal with details, it lasting longer, and perhaps most importantly, no need to hollow it out!

I've dabbled in a bit myself, and this year's 'Masterpiece' is here.

Death with his scyth before the moon

It was about 90mins work to get to this stage. i'm thinking about hollowing out (going all the way through) Death, and leaving the moon as a yellow background though. What's people's thoughts?

Also, here is an interesting pumpkin I saw last year.

Observed in Marietta, Ga, 2010

Of course, pumpkin carving wouldn't be possible without strong copyright exceptions, and expired terms. These are transformative uses of artwork, which means, under a copyright system desired by some, they would be criminal offenses and would lead to prosecution.

And that's just plain crazy. Crazy lady all alone in a cottage in the woods with a black and white cat crazy....
But it is what people want.

[HoM] But I'm connected to over 350 seeders...

2011-10-23T16:42:00.004-04:00

What do you do when people just won't listen to a word you say? When they're so concerned that they are in the right, because they tried one test (used to diagnose a different issue) and took it as confirmation that they had no problems. Me, i get mad, but I apologise here and now for that. I lost my temper, but I didn't lose my mind.

This is a prime example of someone thinking they know more than they do, and not listening to anyone else that tried to convince them they have the wrong end of the stuck. It's religious zealotry, starting with the belief in their own ineffability.

As before I've removed the joins/parts of people not involved in the conversation. This took place on the µTorrent support channel, #utorrent on Wednesday October 19th 2011

08:29:54 —› join » ‹Jaxxon› ‹quigg@P2PNET-475A408F.dsl.dynamic.sonic.net›
08:30:54 «Jaxxon» hello... what would case this kind of behavior? i.imgur.com/VCCXa.jpg
08:31:05 «Jaxxon» I have a new ISP which tests as pretty fast, but this is not fast
08:31:24 «Jaxxon» a direct d/l from microsoft works fine at 1.2MBps
08:38:23 «Jaxxon» the linked image is a speed graph btw
08:47:13 «Jaxxon» no one here?
08:50:32 —› join » ‹Jaxx› ‹~quigg@P2PNET-C1C302C9.dsl.dynamic.sonic.net›
08:50:46 «Jaxx» so as I was saying.. no one here?
08:54:54 —› quit » ‹Jaxxon› ‹quigg@P2PNET-475A408F.dsl.dynamic.sonic.net› ‹Ping timeout›
09:10:20 «K`Tetch» poorly seeded torrent?
09:10:47 «K`Tetch» when you get a high bandwidth peer uploading to you, you get a spike, otherwise you get what other peers have
09:13:30 «Jaxx» K`Tetch, this was seeded with over 2500 and I had about 350 seeds attached
09:13:43 «Jaxx» at any one time, I had at least 40 transferring
09:13:48 «K`Tetch» *facepalm*
09:13:56 «K`Tetch» you've got bad settings then
09:14:07 «K`Tetch» whats your upload speed?
09:14:26 «Jaxx» I just tried it with a well seeded ubuntu iso and it worked well, however
09:14:35 «Jaxx» so I'm confused
09:14:49 «Jaxx» upload was set to 10KBps
09:15:02 «Jaxx» my max is about 80
09:15:08 «K`Tetch» no, what is your line upload speed
09:15:11 «Jaxx» or 90
09:15:20 «Jaxx» oh, 0.9Mbps
09:15:22 «K`Tetch» 80, so lets say about 768kbit?
09:16:00 «K`Tetch» ok, you shouldn't be connecting to more than 55-60 peers TOTAL per torrent
09:16:09 «K`Tetch» and you're going to 350+
09:16:12 «K`Tetch» there's your problem
09:16:14 «Jaxx» if they're seeds, it should be fine
09:16:21 «Jaxx» no?
09:16:25 «K`Tetch» no
09:16:30 «Jaxx» why not?
09:16:42 «K`Tetch» http://ktetch.blogspot.com/2009/12/recommended-bittorrenttorrent-settings.html use the 900kbit line
09:16:58 «Jaxx» my d/l speed is 10Mbps
09:17:14 «K`Tetch» because 1) it's not set in terms of seeds, its in terms of PEERS, and 2) you still have overhead traffic with seeds
09:17:22 «K`Tetch» so what? your download speed is irrelevent
09:17:32 «Jaxx» very little overhead traffic with seeds, I'd think
09:17:47 «K`Tetch» don't think, you're not very good at it
09:18:22 «K`Tetch» bittorrent settings are ALWAYS in terms of your UPLOAD speed
09:18:28 «K`Tetch» NEVER your download speed
09:18:40 «K`Tetch» you press ctrl+g in utorrent, it asks for your upload speed
09:19:10 «Jaxx» what's the overhead per seed?
09:19:34 «K`Tetch» you telling them you have a piece, for instance
09:20:07 «K`Tetch» just put the correct settings in for your connection, job done
09:20:23 «Jaxx» I was looking for it in kbps
09:20:26 «K`Tetch» and be happy you're not going in my hall of morons (although that can change)
09:21:10 «Jaxx» you seem rather a moron if you think that 350 seeds could saturate a 900Kbps uplink
09:21:24 «Jaxx» show me some data that proves that, or admit you're just guessing
09:22:11 «Jaxx» besides, I said that about 40 were transferring at a time
09:22:30 «Jaxx» that would imply that the overhead per seed was over 20Kbps, which is absurd
09:23:02 «K`Tetch» I didn't say saturate
09:23:15 «K`Tetch» I said your bad settings are causing the issue
09:23:20 «Jaxx» again, with no stats I reject your hypothesis as stupid
09:23:25 «Jaxx» what's the overhead per seed?
09:23:39 «Jaxx» btw, I'm usually civil, but you started being rude so I'm continuing
09:23:42 «K`Tetch» you ask someone like DWKnight then
09:23:49 «K`Tetch» he'll say EXACTLY the same thing
09:24:05 «K`Tetch» you have retarded settings, until they're fixed, there's no way to diagnose any other problem
09:24:16 «Jaxx» ok, appeal to authority (whom I don't know) rather than actual data. another sign of idiocy
09:24:38 «Jaxx» want to continue uncivility?
09:24:38 «K`Tetch» try the op list, you'll find him right there at the top
09:24:56 «Jaxx» nice. so being an op makes you an expert? How would I know that?
09:25:20 «K`Tetch» and if you think I'm uncivil', just remember, we do this for the sake of the community, we see idiots who think they know best all the time
09:25:23 «K`Tetch» we get tired of it
09:25:55 «Jaxx» if your theory were correct, my test ubuntu download would have exhibited similar behavior, since a similar number of seeds were connected and downloading
09:25:59 «Jaxx» but it didn't
09:26:06 «Jaxx» X on that theory
09:26:16 «K`Tetch» except that's a chronically overseeded torrent
09:26:30 «K`Tetch» again, you don't know what you're talking about
09:26:46 «Jaxx» which means what in comparison to the other torrent I had problems with which had 2500 seeds?
09:27:14 «K`Tetch» you cme here, asking for help, because you don't know whats wrong. I've pointed out the first, major thing, you won't listen. you're clearly waiing for someone to tell you it's the fault of someone other than you
09:27:16 «Jaxx» your theory was that I had too many connections and this was somehow saturating my uplink and causing the spikes
09:27:44 «K`Tetch» no, I said you had bad settings, and that until you had DECENT settings for your connection, we can't start diagnosing any other problems
09:27:55 «Jaxx» I showed another similar test case without the spikes, your response is that it didn't happen in that case because it was "overseeded"?
09:28:00 «Jaxx» wtf does that mean?
09:28:14 «K`Tetch» because your retarded settings can mask any other clues that could address the issue
09:28:32 «Jaxx» retarded
09:28:35 «Jaxx» nice
09:29:16 «Jaxx» based on your comments I have no confidence that you have the technical knowledge to even begin to diagnose this problem. you just memorized some rules of thumb someone told you and are quoting them
09:29:24 «K`Tetch» here's the thing, even with 100Mbit upload, you shouldn't have more than 200 connections per torrent, you've got 1/100th of that, and at least 166% of that number of per-torrent connections, so YES, RETARDED
09:29:35 «Jaxx» and blustering with nasty words to hide the fact that you know little
09:30:00 «Jaxx» dude, that's for uploading
09:30:20 «Jaxx» you're thinking "upload slots" and yes, then I agree with you
09:30:26 «K`Tetch» I'm not the one with 350+ per-torrent connections, that says it all
09:30:34 «Jaxx» for a 100Mbps connection you should not have more than 200 upload slots, yes
09:30:39 «Jaxx» connections? no freaking way
09:30:52 «K`Tetch» upload slots - 40 for 100Mbit, for you, 4-5
09:31:06 «Jaxx» yes, I wasn't talking about upload slots, dummy
09:31:12 «Jaxx» I have those limited to 4
09:31:28 «Jaxx» try learning something before giving advice
09:31:38 «Jaxx» and try being civil to avoid unnecessary arguments
09:31:44 «&DWKnight» Jaxx: do you have room in your mouth for the other foot?
09:31:46 «K`Tetch» here's a thought then, go to utorrent, press ctrl+g. look at your settings
09:32:04 «K`Tetch» then select your upload speed, (1Mbit) and see the difference
09:32:33 «Jaxx» yes, quote some auto settings, that proves what the issue is
09:32:48 «Jaxx» DWKnight, what's your theory, if you've been reading?
09:33:09 «&DWKnight» K`Tetch is more right than you think
09:33:16 «&DWKnight» too many connections == bad for you
09:33:45 «Jaxx» except I know that my setup can handle many more than what I'm setting it for
09:33:48 «&DWKnight» trying to set your settings based on your connection's download speed is an automatic FAIL for bittorrent clients, uTorrent included
09:34:00 «Jaxx» and again, the number of connections was the same in the two test cases
09:34:05 «&DWKnight» doesn't mean it's going to handle it well
09:34:08 «Jaxx» one fluctuated wildly, the other was steady
09:34:18 «Jaxx» so that eliminates number of connections as the issue
09:34:26 «&DWKnight» no it doesn't
09:35:06 «Jaxx» because of known bugs, or something about the protocol or for what other reason?
09:35:22 «&DWKnight» protocol
09:35:34 «Jaxx» ok, so what about the protocol would explain this problem?

At this point, I was hit by some powercuts, which knocked me off, so we continue from DWKnight's log, hence the format change and the hour shift. The last two lines are overlapped.

[10:36:27am] <&DWKnight> protocol
[10:36:40am] ok, so what about the protocol would explain this problem?
[10:37:02am] <&DWKnight> differences in chatter
[10:37:08am] <&DWKnight> variances in clients you're connected to
[10:37:12am] <&DWKnight> swarm conditions
[10:37:34am] can that be visualized?
[10:38:12am] <&DWKnight> not easily
[10:38:20am] <&DWKnight> some swarms have increased peer exchange
[10:38:29am] <&DWKnight> others have low piece supply
[10:39:14am] <&DWKnight> there's a list of problems that will get their effects exaggerated by having more peer connections per torrent than your connection is properly capable of supporting (in spite of you may "knowing" that it can handle more)
[10:39:29am] so that would probably apply mostly on torrents with a large number of peers compared to seeds?
[10:39:40am] <&DWKnight> not always
[10:40:08am] <&DWKnight> and if you're getting more connections to seeds, you're dealing with the situation where you're not getting piece trade relationships to boost and stabalize your speeds
[10:40:23am] I can easily monitor the total outgoing traffic on my router. wouldn't that indicate whether this issue is happening?
[10:40:36am] <&DWKnight> no
[10:41:13am] <&DWKnight> and before you ask, 150 global, 30 per-torrent, 4 upload slots, 2 torrents active, 1 downloading is what I use
[10:41:27am] <&DWKnight> and I more consistently max my conneciton out with that than I do with settings like you use
[10:41:44am] for example, if I have 1Mbps uplink, and set my max upload speed at 500Kbps, if I see my total bandwidth going way above 500Kbps that would indicate an issue
[10:41:49am] what kind of connection?
[10:42:01am] <&DWKnight> 8m/640k
[10:42:18am] <&DWKnight> we're getting 15m/15m here later the month, I'm only going to be changing my upload limit
[10:42:22am] <&DWKnight> not changing anything else
[10:42:42am] I got to these settings because I was not getting the same speed with lower ones
[10:42:50am] * K`Tetch (~no@p2p.researcher) has quit IRC (Ping timeout) [61 people]
[10:43:01am] but I'll try 256/128 and see what it does
[10:43:20am] <&DWKnight> bittorrent isn't emule
[10:43:37am] * K`Tetch (~no@@p2p.researcher) has joined #utorrent [62 people]
[10:43:41am] <&DWKnight> trying to connect to thousands may work in emule, but it doesn't work well in bittorrent
[10:44:08am] dang powercuts
[10:44:42am] not convinced that explains it
[10:44:57am] why would the bandwidth fluctuate? If something were being saturated it would just drop
[10:45:02am] instead it drops, then goes up
[10:45:15am] DWKnight - can you email me the last 10mins log later? from '09:35:22 «&DWKnight» protocol'
[10:45:16am] <&DWKnight> burst saturation can do it
[10:46:41am] the issue is that if you limit connections to, say, 30 per torrent, you are likely to end up with very few good nodes
[10:47:34am] <&DWKnight> however those 30 will typically be the best ones you can get
[10:47:42am] <&DWKnight> because of how uTorrent churns idle connections
[10:48:57am] to saturate your 8Mbps link with 30, each one would have to be sending you 260Kbps, which is super unusual for any node
[10:49:14am] connections don't have to be idle to be bad
[10:49:15am] they just have to be slow
[10:49:30am] <&DWKnight> I don't have problems saturating my downstream with those settings
[10:49:56am] I almost never see any node uploading to me that fast
[10:50:13am] * K`Tetch (~no@p2p.researcher) has quit IRC (Broken pipe) [61 people]
[10:50:19am] <&DWKnight> I sometimes get single nodes saturating my line
[10:50:33am] rare
[10:51:21am] <&DWKnight> happens often enough that I don't increase my per-torrent connections above 50 anymore
[10:52:04am] ok, well thanks for the hypothesis
[10:52:12am] I'll test it out a bit
[10:53:15am] teach k'tetch some manners, "don't think, you're not good at it", "hall of morons" and "retarded" are just not the way to have technical discussions
[10:53:29am] <&DWKnight> he's been at this about as long as I have
[10:53:42am] <&DWKnight> too many people have lemming'd themselves off of the youtube setup guides
[10:53:46am] yes, but you're the op so you can set the standard of civility. by kicking himself
[10:53:47am] <&DWKnight> we're a touch jaded about it
[10:53:51am] kicking him
[10:53:53am] anyway
[10:53:55am] bb
[10:54:02am] * Jaxx (~quigg@P2PNET-C1C302C9.dsl.dynamic.sonic.net) has quit IRC (Quit: Leaving) [60 people]

Here's the thing. If you have bad settings, they can hide and disguise any number of other problems. We know you have bad settings, since you've told us, so before we attempt any other diagnosis, you HAVE to fix that. Else we're wondering 'is that because of the bad settings, or something else?"

In total, it took 45 minutes to explain that his issues were of his own making, a point first raised within 3 minutes. "Jaxx" is a worthy inductee into the Hall of Morons

Muon1 Presentation at Dragon*Con 2011

2011-10-06T11:36:00.000-04:00

Frequent readers will know of my work with the Muon1 project. One of the things I do is cover the PR aspect of it, where I run the twitter feed (@muon1) the facebook page, and the unOfficial blog. I also create videos showing the best designs. Occasionally, though, I'll do something else. Sometimes it'll be the press releases, and very occasionally, it will be a presentation.

Just over a month ago, I noted I was giving a presentation on Muon1 as part of the science track for Dragon*Con. For those that didn't make it (for one reason or another) here is the presentation in full.

A week ago, I posted about the bittorrent panel. That was more of a question and answer session for which there were no slides, and was mainly a two-way discussion with myself, TJ, and the audience. This was a presentation on a topic, which was followed by a Q+A session.

This is, however, just the presentation. The question and answer session afterwards was not captured on video, due to camera problems, and so only exists on the official audio, which I'm still waiting for. When the audio is made available, I will post it here as well.

The video has been tidied up as best as possible, but the camera was hand-held, as time shortages meant we couldn't get a tripod set up in time. If I am invited back to do it again next year, it will be Tripod'd

So, without further ado, here's the video, in glorious 720p

Many thanks to Stephen Brooks, for his assistance in the content of the presentation, and for providing a significant amount of the images used throughout.

Thanks also go to Rune Nordbøe Skillingstad for the use of the results timelapse video for Linac900ext6tc2

Seti@Home, distributed.net, and GIMPS are the properties of their respective owners, and are used under fair use (17 U.S.C. § 107) for the purpose of comment and critique.

This video is released under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA license.

A USPS-FedEx Race!

2011-10-02T17:53:00.001-04:00

A week or two back, I mentioned I was having some problems with my daughter's phone. The second one luckily was NOT broken, but when I was boxing them up to send back, I had the thought “I wonder which one would get back sooner?”

There was only one way to find out. Post them as close to the same time as possible, and see which one got back to Verizon the quickest. Was it the USPS flat rate system, or the FedEx 2 day return? Let's see.

First let's do a quick comparison. Both boxes were about the same size. Both were almost exactly the same weight (since they had identical contents). So the handling shouldn't be too different for either one. The biggest problem I had was finding drop-off locations. Mailboxes in the street no longer accept packages, while the Madison, Ga post office has no place to post parcels outside counter hours. It flummoxed me a bit.

Newborn Post Office to the rescue! They actually had a drop-off bin for parcels, and so off to the FedEx dropoff point.

So here's the details of the race.

Package sent via USPS

The USPS parcel, pictured here was posted at Newborn, Ga post office at 1:20pm on September 22nd with a listed pickup time of 15:45 (the day's only collection)

USPS, Newborn, Georgia

Package sent Via FedEx

The FedEx parcel was dropped off 20 minutes later with a posted pickup time of 18:30 (also the day's only collection) at a standalone drop-point (5211 Hwy 278 NE Covington, GA 30014)

FedEx Dropbox, Covington, Ga

Both were dropped off before their daily pickup on September 22nd, both heading from middle Georgia to fort Worth, Texas.

So, which one got there first?

It's actually a lot closer than you might think. Let's first of all compare on price. If I were sending it myself, the USPS service would cost me $10.95 for a Priority Mail flat rate package, Medium size.

For FexEx, the same sort of postage as was used, a 2-day parcel, would cost $20.09 (broken down by FedEx as $17.55 base rate and $2.54 Fuel Surcharge)

Now, both these parcels were merchandise return services, paid for by Verizon, so their prices will probably be cheaper than the retail rate, but it does help put things in perspective.

So, the results.
FedEx's parcel arrived at 05:44 on September 26th

USPS's parcel arrived at 03:24 on September 27th.

A flat rate USPS and a 2day FedEx, one takes 4 ¹/₂ days, the other takes 3 ¹/₂. A friend postulated today that it was the presence of a government sponsored entity, such as the USPS, that keeps prices low. However, if anything, this hasn't helped. FedEx had a 2 day parcel that took over 3 (ok, the weekend is included in that) but for half the price, the USPS only added a single day. I've also had bad experiences in the past with UPS (which my friend Ben wrote up at the time, for the delivery of a book)

I'll use USPS myself, best cost-effective way of mailing at present.

Bittorrent Panel at Dragon*Con

2011-10-01T11:29:00.001-04:00

I've been a little quiet in the past few weeks, as I rcoup from Dragon*Con and deal with some other things that have come up.The audio recording of my Bittorrent panel is now up!!!!!

Yes, it's up, which means you can lsiten to the ramblings of myself and TJ Milhil as we talk for an hour about random Bittorrent things. We cover everything from blocklists and so-called "private" trackers to legal aspects of cases like Jammie Thomas.

It's available in OGG or MP3 format from the EFForums site, or you can download it, and ALL the other panels via bittorrent. 34.5 hours of educational goodness

MP3 (1.38GB) TORRENT (Magnet)
OGG (689MB) TORRENT (Magnet)

Verizon's Phones Playing Up

2011-09-19T19:32:00.001-04:00

I've used LG cellphones for the past few years, because I've found they always work well. I currently have an EnV2 that is almost 3 years old, and works perfectly. That reputation has taken a bit of a hit in the past 2 weeks, after dealing with an LG Cosmos phone.

The LG Cosmos is a 'dumb phone', aimed at the texting market, it's a phone with a slideout keyboard. On September 1 2010, we added one to our contract for our eldest. We were about to go to Dragon*Con, where it would be essential to keep up with her, and she would be attending school functions and going off with her friends where it would enable us to keep tabs on her.

Fast forward a year. Dragon*con comes and goes, and the day after, in the middle of a SMS conversation, the screen stops working. The backlight comes on, but nothing shows up on the screen. That means texting is impossible, and you can't tell who is calling you.

The next day it's straight off to the local Verizon store, to have it checked out, and see what can be done. Walking in to the Covington, Georgia store, a woman asks us what we need. We tell her and hand her the phone. She takes the battery out and checks the 'wet spot' indicator (a small piece of paper that goes red when it gets wet) on both the phone and the battery. It's normal. She then takes it to the tech desk at the back and pulls up the account.

“The warranty expired on this on the 1st. Today's the 6th. You'll have to buy a new phone, otherwise, you're out of luck.” And then tosses the phone back.

No “lets see what options are” but an clear “this expired Thursday, today's Tuesday (and right after a holiday weekend) why are you bothering me with this?” Terrible customer service. That night I post on their support forums, and a Verizon wireless tech responds.

He asks for the broken phone's number to check on the account, and does so, offering me, later that night, to have it replaced with the same model, as a 'good will gesture'

Fast forward to the 13th, and I've still heard nothing. My neighbor also comes knocking, asking me to set up his phone for him (he's elderly) as he's just got a replacement handset. Lots of fun there, as he doesn't know the account password, and neither, it seems, does his ex-wife, whose account it is. After than took an hour to get resolved, I asked about the status of the replacement. They had no idea what I was talking about.

It took 6 calls and 4 hours to get it sorted but at last, they decided to honour what I'd been told almost a week earlier, and they'd send one out as a token of good will. We went with the standard shipping.

So the phone arrives Saturday (September 17th) and we fire it up and transfer things. I peel off the 'certified pre-owned' sticker (the Cosmos is only available as a certified pre-owned handset now) and hand it to my daughter. Later that night, I get a complaint from my teenager - “the screens all funny”.

Yes, the comprehensive inspection they put the phones through, missed the fact that the screen blinks when closed, and corrupts entirely when open. Whenever you do ANYTHING in fact (except the camera, which I suspect is using a different visual driver chip).

We then called Customer Services again, Sunday night. They're now overnighting a phone (which will actually take two days), arriving tomorrow. We'll see if it's also going to be broken.

And if you're wondering why it's a big deal, see for yourself with this video.

If this were the only problem, I probably wouldn't be bitching about it, but it's not. Part of that video above was filmed using a HTC Droid Incredible ('DInc'). It's a phone we've been having problems with for months. It will sometimes delete all stored text messages, or randomly call people. On the 14th alone, it called me without being touched, four times. When clearing up the issue of the replacement Cosmos, and having the first replacement shipped, we'd mentioned problems with the DInk, and were told there was a new software update being rolled out – Yes, Android Gingerbread was here, finally.

The only way to get it was to update it manually, as the Over the Air upgrades were upgrading phones slowly, over the entire month of September, (apparantly at random). I have done it before (upgrading to FroYo when we first got the phone, so once I found the right package it wasn't a big deal. At least, not a big deal to perform.

For the phone it was a big deal. Many of the apps not only didn't work, they apparently weren't installed any more. But the biggest problem is that now the phone wants Lebensraum. It will frequently say that it is running out of space and needs more, even when it's got more than half the phone free. And when it feels it's out of space, many things don't work, like email. Very annoying. It's not an isolated incident either, it's been widely documented over the past 2 weeks. An update that fixes one major problem with the DInc replaces it with another. Lovely.

UPDATE - October 2nd 2011
The second replacement phone worked! I then raced the two replacement phones back to their warehouse using two different mailing services - results here
And here's the three phones we had at one time.

LEFT - Original broken phone
CENTER - First replacement with broken graphics driver
RIGHT - Second replacement, working fine.

Panels at Dragon*Con 2011

2011-08-30T20:14:00.001-04:00

In a few days time I'm off to Dragon*con 2011. It's a science fiction convention, but more as well. I will be giving two panels there, one on Muon1, and one on Bittorrent.

This year I'm giving two panels, The first, is at 1pm on Friday, September 2nd, with the Science Track

Muon1–An Evolutionary Distributed Computing Project
Forget hunting for primes or alienspotting. See how genetic-based distributed computing can beat bruteforce methods.
A. Norton
Fri 1:00pm; 202 [HIL]

The second is on Monday September 5th, again at 1pm, with the Electronic Frontiers Forums Track.

Bittorrent: Happy 10th BirthdayIt’s been 10 years since file-sharing protocol Bittorrent was publicly launched. Why has it survived and prospered to dominate P2P?
A. Norton, TJ Milhil
Mon 1:00 pm; 201 [HIL]

Both are in the Atlanta Hilton.

Audio for the second will be posted as soon as possible afterwards, for the science track will hopefully be soon as well. Audio for last years EFForums panel on ISPs and 3-strikes is available here, on the EFForums website, in both MP3 and OGG formats.

I will be tweeting (@ktetch) throughout the con, and will give a post-con report as soon as possible too. If you're going to dragon*con though, stop by and say hi. I'll be around the Reality tracks most of the time (Hilton rooms 201-205)

Meanwhile, here's some video from last years Dragon*con

Why Knowing Your Own IP Matters

2011-08-29T18:13:00.011-04:00

There are some things you should just know, especially when torrenting. When it comes to troubleshooting, there are some things you absolutely MUST check first. This includes, but is NOT limited to... YOUR OWN IP ADDRESS.

If you don't check it, then you run the risk of doing something REALLY stupid, like this fellow, who posted to the utorrent support forum, and didn't notice the number of times the same IP address kept cropping up in the ban list. The post has since been removed, but for your entertainment, here it is....

WARNING - this is a big image file. you will have to click to enlarge it (will open in a new window)

click to enlarge

The error message he's seeing? It's the client adding his own external IP address to the ban list, so that there's no chance of the client ATTEMPTING to connect back to himself. As it is, this fool has managed to post his IP address, timestamped, all over a public forum.

What a buffoon. He's a prime canddiate for the Hall of Morons!

I Won’t Do My Job, Give Me a Better One

2011-08-23T17:39:00.000-04:00

Three of the current front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination are big on their fiscal conservatism, yet there's one area they're not so conservative on – their own salaries. All three are advocating 'business' positions to problems, but missing one vital fact. Were they in the private sector, all three would have been fired already.

When you have a job, you go to work, do what you're supposed to do, and then every 2 weeks, or once a month or whatever, you get your paycheque for it. If you don't do your job, but spend your time searching for a new job, then odds are you're going to get fired pretty quick. Unless you're a politician, elected to serve the people, that is.

There are three campaign hopefuls at present, vying for the republican nomination on the public purse. Texas governor Rick Perry, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. The Governor is getting $150,000/year (or $2,884/week) while the US House representatives are being paid $174,000/year ($3,346/week) from the public purse, money paid to them if they're doing their job representing the public, or if they're completely ignoring it to hunt for another. Currently, these three are doing the latter.

It's not a new thing though. In 2008, citizens of both Illinois and Arizona only had half of their constitutionally stipulated senate representation, as for more than half of the 110th Congress, Senators Obama and McCain were campaigning for the presidency, at $174,000/year each as well, and in the second half of 2008, then-Governor Palin ($125,000/year) and then-Senator Biden (another $174,000/year) were also so busy campaigning that their official jobs were not being done.

Clockwise from top left: Perry, Obama, Bachmann, Paul

Biden felt that wasn't enough though, as a fall back, he also campaigned for his existing job, as Delaware Senator, and won that. Biden was actually sworn in again as Senator for around 2 weeks, before resigning to let the person already selected (NOT elected) on election day to fill the seat until another election could be held, at taxpayer expense...

What we have is financial irresponsibility on a massive scale. People running for job, political grandstanding, with no worry of consequences, and no concern for the people they swore an oath to serve. It's an issue that's not gone unnoticed. In the past, Ex Minnesota governor Jessie 'The Body' Ventura, has remarked about the hard struggle he had campaigning for the position. He had no job, and that limited his ability to campaign, while his opponent the mayor of the city of St Paul’s, could campaign with impunity. Of course, that Mayor more recently gained notoriety for his 'never give up, never surrender' election fight for his Senate seat in 2008, but that's another story.

It doesn't just happen in the US, though. In the UK, Some MEP's have tried running for seats in the House of Commons, trying to abandon one elected position for one they would prefer instead. Nick Griffin, for instance, ran for MP in the London constituency of Barking, despite being an MEP for North West England, some 200+ miles away. Clearly his intention was about ideology and influence, rather than representing his constituents.

If it were anyone but politicians, we would call it theft, or fraud. However, politicians are above the law, they face no consequences. That doesn't sit well with me though, as politicians should not only be accountable to the laws they make, they should be held to the HIGHEST standards of those laws. So, what should be done?

The first thing is to require the repayment of salary for the time spent campaigning. You take time off from your job to campaign? Then it's at your OWN expense, not ours. We're not asking you to run, so why should we pay you to run?

Perhaps the best idea, though, is a 'make your mind up' requirement. If you want to run for another job, then you should give your current one up. That way, some arrangement can be made for replacement, so that the campaigning can be done at the candidates own expense, and not the expense of those supposedly represented.

It's also going to help keep some of the crazy out. Who's going to give up a job, when they know they're probably not going to win? It will also show come commitment, but most of all, it shows you actually take your word, your oath of office, seriously. That you are committed to representing effectively, because nothing says “unfit for a job with greater responsibilities” than “can't do they job they're currently employed at”.

Will this change happen? Unlikely. The current political machine works by keeping existing politicians safe. Making them have to risk their own jobs, as they so cavalierly risk everyone elses, that requires integrity, and there, current politicians are completely bankrupt. In the mean time, we'll continue the sad parade of politicians screaming "I won't do my job, I want a better one!"

This piece was first published at Falkvinge.net and is released under a CC0 license

Another Week, Another Idiot With BitTorrent Settings Issues

2011-08-21T21:30:00.001-04:00

Yet another idiot inducted into the hall of morons, who doesn't understand his settings, and can't be bothered to read the help file to understand what they do.

This is taken from the µTorrent support channel, #utorrent on Wednesday August 17 2011

17:42:56 «ev1luti0n» When using the send file feature
17:43:03 «ev1luti0n» i cant download other torrents
17:43:08 «ev1luti0n» drag and drop send*
17:43:22 «ev1luti0n» but when i remove the d&d torrent
17:43:32 «ev1luti0n» the downloads from various other trackers begin
18:06:26 «&DWKnight» ev1luti0n: preferences - queueing
18:06:27 «&DWKnight» screenshot
18:06:29 «&DWKnight» provide it
18:08:58 «ev1luti0n» http://www.filefreak.com/files/824396_xerf5/untitled.JPG

Note the number of active torrents....

18:10:36 «&DWKnight» just for giggles, preferences - bandwidth
18:10:48 «&DWKnight» and excuse me while I go smash my head against my desk
18:11:28 «ev1luti0n» http://www.filefreak.com/files/824397_ggxhi/untitled2.JPG

145 connections, at 40 per, means 3.6 torrents...

18:11:53 «&DWKnight» tl;dr: your settings are horrendous
18:12:22 «ev1luti0n» wat?
18:12:32 «&DWKnight» you're set up to attempt to open 40,000 connections with a connection limit of 145
18:13:09 «ev1luti0n» i rarely get anywhere near that many
18:13:42 «ev1luti0n» also im having an issue with the drag and drop file send vs tracker torrents
18:13:46 «&DWKnight» what? 40000 or 145?
18:14:38 «ev1luti0n» global max doesn't overrule the max number of connections per torrent?
18:14:50 «&DWKnight» it does
18:14:53 «ev1luti0n» ok
18:14:59 «&DWKnight» you'll never get more than 145 connections across your active torrents
18:15:04 «&DWKnight» so you're settings are stupid
18:15:37 «ev1luti0n» ok i will change them however, how this is relevant to my issue ceases to be known
18:16:31 «&DWKnight» it falls under the "we don't support youtube setup guide" settings category
18:16:56 «ev1luti0n» are you hearing me correctly, when i use the drag and drop file feature
18:17:19 «ev1luti0n» torrents that are from other trackers do not download until i've removed the seeding "drag and drop" torrent
18:17:50 «ev1luti0n» both the things you had me paste are irrelevant
18:18:10 «&DWKnight» except that you're ignoring your own connection limit related problems that are probably 98% of the cause
18:19:16 «ev1luti0n» ok i will run the speed test
18:19:29 «ev1luti0n» however i seem to think the issue might still be there when im done
18:21:53 «ev1luti0n» the speed test within utorrent failed but i did do this
18:21:54 «ev1luti0n» http://www.speedtest.net/result/1437762602.png

18:22:13 «&DWKnight» oh yeah, comcast speedboost
18:22:20 » &DWKnight headdesks again
18:22:44 «ev1luti0n» ok
18:23:40 «ev1luti0n» so where are some places i can look for "suggested" values
18:25:37 «&DWKnight» we've got some in the speed problems subsection of the windows section of the forums
18:25:47 «ev1luti0n» thanks DWKnight
18:26:01 «ev1luti0n» i realize that the values i recieve from these tests are probably a result of the speedboost
18:26:29 «ev1luti0n» and that i need to figure out the correct values as "maximum seeding" isn't as consistant as around 80% of max upload bandwidth
18:28:00 «K`Tetch» ev1luti0n - I'm sorry, but I'm going to include you in my 'hall of morons' section on my website
18:28:14 «ev1luti0n» kk
18:28:39 «K`Tetch» but if you want settings - http://ktetch.blogspot.com/2009/12/recommended-bittorrenttorrent-settings.html
18:29:09 «K`Tetch» those are the 'conservative' settings you'll find on the forum,
18:29:20 «ev1luti0n» yeah i was just lookin at them
18:34:40 «ev1luti0n» this is showing me values higher than the ones i have set
18:34:41 «ev1luti0n» lolol
18:34:44 «ev1luti0n» nice
18:35:16 «&DWKnight» except for the number of active torrents
18:35:19 «&DWKnight» which is stupidly high
18:36:18 «ev1luti0n» i have 346 torrents in my client
18:36:30 «ev1luti0n» i set it to 1000 so i'd never have to deal with it again
18:38:08 —› mode » ‹DWKnight› sets ‹+b *!*@P2PNET-1128A9A5.hsd1.md.comcast.net›
18:38:08 —› This ‹*!*@P2PNET-1128A9A5.hsd1.md.comcast.net› ban affects: ‹ev1luti0n›
18:38:08 —› kick » ‹ev1luti0n› was kicked by ‹DWKnight› ‹(Banned) [M] you're now officially beyond help. <Q§> #9118›

There really is only so far you can help people. When they just play with settings without bothering to find out the basics, they're not going to listen.....

Seriously, too many active torrents, especially when you don't understand what active torrents are, is just going to mess things up. Also, arguing 'it's not relevant; when it is, is also a no-no. If you knew enough to tell if it was relevant, you'd already know where the issues were; that's why you've come to us.

Welcome to the Hall of Morons ev11iti0n, of Maryland, USA.

Make Him Download From Me!

2011-08-11T07:29:00.010-04:00

Yes, it's time for another touch of idiocy. This one comes from the Pirate Bay's IRC channel, a good source to pick up rumors relating to bittorrent. There have been many similar ones in other channels, but none quite so blunt about what they expect.

The following took place on Wednesday August 10 2011 in #thepiratebay on EFnet.

19:18:20 «zahid» hi

19:18:52 «zahid» some peers are connected to me but my full upload speed is not used y

19:19:02 «zahid» only 1 kb or so

19:19:15 «zahid» it should upload more than 100 kb

19:19:22 «zahid» i am only one seeder in torrent

19:20:05 «K`Tetch_» maybe their downstream is full

19:20:28 «K`Tetch_» don't know what you want us to do about it

19:21:52 «zahid» i wanna know how can i forcely upload to them

19:22:39 «K`Tetch_» you can't

19:23:11 «K`Tetch_» any more than they can control your client

19:23:18 «zahid» okd

19:23:32 «K`Tetch_» thats so stupid, it's going on my idiocracy pile

Clearly, someone didn't realise that you can only upload to someone that wants something. If no-one wants the data in the torrent, you can seed all you want, but you won't transfer. This is fairly common with users of so-called "private" trackers, where torrents are usually chronically overseeded. The other popular one is the person that wants to force people to upload to them, because their download isn't fast enough. Again, they're oblivious to the counterpart, that if other people can be forced to upload to them, then they can be forced to upload to others (to the point of making the download ground to a halt)

So to Zahid, in Pakistan, I hereby induct you into the Hall of Morons.

The Consequence of No Consequences

2011-08-10T11:09:00.001-04:00

As the smoke clears after riots in several cities in the UK, including my own home city of Liverpool, the underlying question has to be asked 'why did this happen?' While some will pass it off as 'they just want to rob', that overlooks the question of WHY.

I grew up in a 'not great' area of Liverpool, and just down the road is one of the most deprived areas, not just of Liverpool, but of the UK and Europe, with less than 6% going on to higher education, and over 70% of households below the poverty line. The main secondary schools in the area, were around my house, so their students all came (those that could be bothered) past my house.

Now, most of the people I keep in touch with from my area growing up did go to those schools, and did not take part in the 'activities' last night. No-one is saying that just because of the socio-economic conditions growing up, people are going to riot, certainly not me. Nor is it 100% true what the DJ on the major local station was saying while this was going on “They just want to rob”. There is some aspect of that, yes, but unless you address the why, you'll never come close to addressing it.

The problem is one of CONSEQUENCES.

The basis of law is that society decides something, which is codified in laws. Those laws apply to everyone, and they have a consequence (a punishment) for violating them. In the UK, this has broken down, badly.

Firstly, Laws are over-broad, and getting worse. Secondly, the enforcement of the laws is being applied unequally. Thirdly, the consequences are often dialled back in many cases, and taken way beyond sanity in others. Fourthly there seems to be a distinct lack of accountability within the police, and the government. The result is the sort of contempt for laws that we see in the violent actions over the last few days.

The incident that sparked this, the police shooting of Mark Duggan is a good example of some of this. Immediately after he was shot and killed, news stories came out about him being 'in a gunfight', that he'd fired at a policeman. Evidence released in the last 24 hours indicates that Duggan's gun was never fired, and might not even have been immediately accessible. The policeman who was shot, was shot by another cop. The use of deadly force was thus not warranted. Will the police officer be arrested, put on remand and charged with Murder/manslaughter? Unlikely, even though this, if the latest evidence is true, a 'gun crime'.

Experience tells us no. In 2009, Ian Tomlinson was attacked by a police officer and died, during a protest. He was not involved in the protest, and was walking past on his way home, yet an officer struck him several times with a baton, and pushed him over. He later died a short distance away. At first statements by the police claimed he had 'collapsed around the corner', and that police officers went to give him medical help but were being pelted with rocks and bottles. Over the next week or two, video clips were discovered that showed a very different story. They showed Tomlinson hit by a police officer, thrown to the ground, and then protesters offering medical help, while a single (plastic) bottle is thrown. An unprovoked attack, leading to death, and the initial reaction was not to prosecute. Only after significant public pressure was a decision to even take it to court made, which will happen in October 2011, some 42 months after the incident. For most of this time, the officer has been suspended on full pay. Similar issues arose in 2005 with the investigation into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005. In these situations, a mere 'belief' was acceptable justification for their actions.

The News International scandal has also tarred the reputation of the police further. It's emerged that the newspaper employees had frequent contact with police officers, who they would pay for information, from £200 for looking up a car number plate, on up to £30,000

Yet it's not the London police's (Met and City of) fault alone. Police elsewhere are similarly viewed with distrust. Last week, five members of Merseyside Police's 'Matrix' task force were fired after an investigation into inappropriate behaviour, and thefts by officers at raid locations. British police reality shows (such as 'Police Interceptors' and 'Traffic Cops') have also shown police officers exceeding their authority, stretching laws, or using reactions to illegal orders as justification for arrest.

Now, it's not all the police's fault. While they're being overzealous, the court system is failing society too. A series of 'initiatives' have removed any sort of consequence from the system at all. The care worker/blogger /writer winstonsmith33, for instance, paints a picture of youth offender systems that are utterly dysfunctional. Far from enforcing any sort of consequence, the system often encourages the assistance, and covering up of further lawlessness. Young teens who want to get drunk, are driven by their youth workers to get alcohol, even if the teens are already drunk. A youth offender, high on drugs, smashing up an office and threatening the staff at his hostel? He might lose his good behaviour bonus.

So we have a police force that expands the laws to suit themselves, and then a justice system that spits them right back onto the streets, to carry on at the tax payers expense. Is there any surprise then, that there is little respect for the police from these groups? The unequal way the police enforce laws, their lack of accountability, coupled with the glaring indifference the police often have for concerns of the public, mean the general public now have general contempt for them.

There is another aspect as well, a seeming political indifference. Banker bonuses were a huge bone of contention, as bankers which caused a massive crisis, were paid off with massive bonuses and pensions (such as Sir Fred Goodwin, who was head of the Royal Bank of Scotland when it crashed and had to be rescued at taxpayer expense, yet walked away with a £700,000/year pension). Another issue that raised public ire was the MP Expenses Scandal. The thought that MP's, some of them Ministers, committing what was essentially fraud, yet going unpunished was a major kick to credibility of the politicians. More than 100 were guilty of one crime or another, from tax avoidance/evasion, to false accounting and fraud, but only five were charged. All 5 were convicted, but the maximum sentence handed out was 16 months in prison, with three of them out after just 4 months. The rest just had to pay some of the money they STOLE back, easy to do when you earn £60k+/year.

So, with a combination of over-aggressive police, a pathetic justice system for dealing with the convicted, groups of people (police and politicians) effectively above the law. Financial cuts to areas of public interest, while MPs and bankers gorge themselves at the public purse. Is it any wonder parts of the country are breaking down into violence.

So what should be done?

The police want more powers, or worse, blanket immunity. Will that work? No. It will just breed more resentment, more violence. Already police officers have too much power, which is frequently abused. The police needs to be held more accountable for their actions. The public trust has to be regained, the key word there is TRUST. More powers won't do it, instead the police need to be held to a standard which is not just the same as the general public, but higher. The role of police officer, is the embodiment of trust to uphold law and order. When that trust is broken by the officer, as well as the crime committed, the breach of the public trust has to be considered. Many countries increase punishments for actions committed against law enforcement officers, so let's apply the reverse. Likewise, we need to do the same with our politicians and judges. No-one is above the law. There comes a breaking point where police actions are deemed unacceptable, and the public snaps, as in this video clip from (I believe) Portugal.

Secondly, the criminal justice system in the UK needs reform. Instead of trying to bribe the under-classes into behaving, and excusing behaviour, it needs to be dealt with, and discouraged. Those 'robbing' are doing so because they have nothing but contempt for the police. They know that if they are caught, they will often be sent to a 'home', where their every whim will be catered for at the tax payers expense.

So what's left is the poor people in the middle. Those who are not poor enough to be considered 'so poor' that the state takes care of them, but not rich enough to be above justice; the taxpayer. Politicians more concerned with themselves, their own holidays, and keeping their friends in jobs and contracts, while thumbing their nose at the taxpayer. The taxpayer that, if targeted by police can lose everything, because they don't know how to game the system that sustains the yobs. A system that keeps the yobs as yobs to justify their continued existence.

In a Britain this Broken, these 'riots' were inevitable. Bad politicians, untrustworthy police, a government sponsored underclass. All a product of a lack of consequence. As with medicine, you treat the disease, by treating the cause, not the symptoms. Bringing in 'The Army', rubber/plastic rounds, water cannons etc. might put an end to the violence now, but the cause of it will still be there, ready to explode at the next flashpoint. To fully deal with the situation, we need to address these wider issues, and we need to do it soon, while there's still a Britain to save.

However, that's not what we're going to get. MP's have broken their holidays off early, and a special session of Parliament will convene tomorrow. Will we get a response that takes in the facts and accepts their own culpability in causing this? Unlikely. Instead we'll get speeches about how they're 'upset', and 'condemn' the rioters. We'll get more laws, and they will almost certainly be bad laws, passed in a knee-jerk fashion to stop the violence, rather than prevent it. You can stop a car with no brakes by crashing into something, but unless you fix the brakes, it will run away again the next time.

This piece was first published at Falkvinge.net and is released under a CC0 license

Muon1 Best Designs - PhaseRotA

2011-08-06T15:17:00.000-04:00

Part 4 is the other new design at the time, PhaseRotA. Like ChicaneLinacA, it starts with the SolenoidsOnlky decay channel, but instead of a chicane and a linac, it uses a phase rotation system.

The best design was 0.785352% and was again by Sobi of Team Seti Germany.

This piece is cross-posted from the unOfficial Muon1 Blog

Like it's partner, this lattice also required 4.4and introduces the phase rotation system, running at 31.4MHz, to help insert into the cooling ring.

The search-space has also taken a radical jump here, with 707 parameters giving around 10²¹²¹ different permutations. This lattice, like ChicaneLinacA, was however flawed and modified lattices were released a week later.

This is the 'best' design as recreated in v4.45. Some modification to the lattice was needed to add a backend, as earlier clients had this hard-coded. It is also sped up. The original simulation length as recorded was 20 minutes 44seconds.

Next time, PhaseRotA

DATA

Lattice: PhaseRotA
Date of release: May 11, 2004
Total possible number of permutations: 10²¹²¹ (1 with 2121 zeros after it)
Number of Simulations Run: 32,000 (approximately)
Total MPTS: 2,386,232.6

Design
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0.785352 (2651.5 Mpts) [v4.4] <PhaseRotA> by [SG]Sobi

Web Sheriff Upset at Losing Potential Business Tools.

2011-08-06T10:11:00.003-04:00

The Infamous Web Sheriff, John Giacobbi, has today posted an impassioned plea on HuffPost today, about how some aspects of the Digital Economy Act not being implemented are really bad. Of course, he forgets that the law as it is, isn't killing the industry now.

HuffPost only allows a 250 word response though, so I thought I'd put the entire response here.

Ah, Mr Web Sheriff. You, yet again, make all these sire claims about how the industry will die, and yet, you conveniently forget to include a SINGLE PIECE OF EVIDENCE. In fact, you have ignored all the evidence that actually shows your talking points to be as truthful as the geocentric model of the universe, and for much the same reasons. Of course, if your past history was pointed out, we could let readers decide for themselves.

In 2007, you 'represented' Prince. You sent letters to people saying 'it doesn't matter if you're in the Netherlands, we can sue you in the US', ignoring the basics of Jurisdiction - something a first year law student should know (if you want it explained, John Steele, another 'copyright protector' in the US can explain it - he's had to drop most of his cases because they were in the wrong district, let alone the wrong country), and earlier you'd made a claim when 'protecting' the White Stripes, that "your refusal to act, opens you and your company up to the possibility of law suits in - inter alia - the United States and the United Kingdom. Such law suits could result in your being refused entry to both the US and the UK". In this letter, you also claim that publishing the letter would be a violation of copyright. I mean, I can understand why you'd not want it published, because it actually shows your ignorance of the whole topic. And how did your Prince campaign work? Oh yeah, last year Prince decided 'the internet's completely over'. Not another successful customer then.

Or maybe we could ask Abba, who you tried to 'coerce' into assisting you with a Swedish lawsuit (that I don't remember going anywhere), coupled with, yet again, a LACK of knowledge about jurisdiction, claiming you'll sue someone in Sweden AND the US, because the site's available there. Well, it's available in every country of the world, that's how the internet works, so you missed out on 161 other lawsuits, one for every other signer of the Berne Convention (you can't do Antigua, since it's been excused having to abide by US copyrights, a lot like the US did with non-US copyrights in its early days)

Or there was your Franz Ferdinand campaign, where you decided to represent them just after they'd confessed to piracy, and urged their fans to download their latest track via limewire, When someone asked you for clarification on this, you started threatening them. As you did to someone else, who pointed out they couldn't comply with your demand, because it was factually faulty, you responded with"

You must also arrange for the following apology to be published on the relevant page of the site for a period of seven (7) days : “RSLOG wishes to apologies to Franz Ferdinand, Domino Records and Web Sheriff for the disruption caused to their sales, marketing and promotion plans by our publishing of pirate file details relating to the unreleased album “Tonight”.

RLSLOG, not RSLOG, as was pointed out, and a site which vastly eases your job by listing new releases, which is a LONG way from any sort of copyright infringement, as anyone with the slightest basis in copyright law would know. Nevertheless, despite complying with your wishes, you still decided to file a false claim with their host to take them down.

Of course, my favourite claim of yours, has to be the one against Jamie Oliver. As part of the promo for his show "Jamie’s American Road Trip" he dressed as each of the members of the Village People, which represent most of the American people, stylistically, between them. You believed this was 'trademark infringement'. Funnily enough, when Channel 4 decided not to back down at your empty threat, you gave up. Almost as if you knew you had no chance, but had to try bluster, to say you tried.

I myself used to be in the copyright enforcement business. It was people just like you that made me get out around 2000. Legally ignorant, vexatious people, in it for the money, rather than for the love of the arts. In fact, I've seen you described as 'bullies for hire, with a legal dictionary'.

If you want to fix 'piracy', John, here's a hint. Address the cause, rather than the symptoms. If you lose a finger doing something, demanding that the digit be re-attached doesn't help, if you continue to do what severed the finger. You talked about radio, but you forgot that radio was treated at first, as the internet is now. Likewise tapes, TV, photoocopiers, etc. Or should I point out what you missed out on that? That COMPOSERS get radio royalties, as do PUBLISHERS, but ARTISTS get squat. Or that royalties are paid to collection groups, even if you're not signed up to them, and don't want them collecting for you, where it's often given to the majors?

And your first point... maybe you didn't read OFCOM's report, about how the blocking doesn't work. I mean you did read the law, rather than just a quick high-points press release? OFCOM have followed it, and found it unworkable. One of the reasons is.... The US and UK Governments! The same systems you wanted used to block piracy, are the exact same methods used in places like China, and Libya to stifle free speech and political dissent. To counter this, circumvention methods have been tried, tested and distributed to counter these blocks, meaning they're absolutely useless here.

The other reason is companies like yours. You've shown a marked indifference to legal facts, or actual facts in your claims. Yet the law, as written, would have let you censor swathes of the web as you deemed fit, according to whoever was paying you. Who could think that was a good idea? And of course, last weeks revelations that much of the DEAct was pushed forward because of private meetings between the head of a music label, and Mandelson. Meetings that focused, much as your piece has, on claims which have turned out to be fictious (who can forget the claims that the music industry was being decimated, when singles sales had been up 30%+ per year for 5 years, and 2009 was the best year ever for the music industry)

If you want someone to really feel sorry for your position, that a handy tool you could market (that incidentally trampled all over free speech) has been denied, then you need to try harder. Oh, and tell reality to stop contradicting your talking points, because nothing makes you seem like an unprincipled opportunist, rather than someone 'looking out for artists', when you take money from artists, but fail to deliver.

Of course, you'd be much happier with a digital version of the Red Flag Act (aka Locomotives Act 1865, which required all traction engines to an absurdly low top speed, and require a man with a flag or lamp to walk in front, to 'warn' of it's approach, so as to protect the incumbent transport industries) especially since that would then make you a person that enforced the flags. Surprised I am not.

Andrew Norton (@ktetch)
-

We'll see how, or if, he responds.

testing, please ignore

2011-08-01T22:04:00.001-04:00

UM99MT3B5ZQ2

Muon1 Best Designs - ChicaneLinacA

2011-07-30T16:09:00.003-04:00

In part 3, we move away from just the solenoid channel, and on to a more expansive simulation. ChicaneLinacA takes the design of SolenoidsOnly, and expands on it, adding a magnetic chicane, and a linac.

The best design was 0.988441% by Sobi of Team Seti Germany

This piece is cross-posted from the unOfficial Muon1 Blog

The first lattice of 2004 also required a new version. 4.3x clients were no more, and 4.4 was now required. This was, in part, due to the requirements of the new lattices, which added complexity and needed more realistic modeling.

This lattice also has features based on SolenoidsOnly, but includes the chicane featured in the 4.2x series of simulations. The reason for the chicane is simple, particles that are too fast, or too slow are unable to make it through the bends and are thus eliminated. At the end of the chicane, it was fed into a linear accelerator ('LINAC') which again attempted to unify particle energy levels, by speeding up or slowing down the extremes.

As a result of this added complexity, the number of parameters has vastly increased (from 117 to 408 here), and so the search space is well up, from the 10³⁵¹ of SolenoidsOnly, to 10¹¹²⁴. Unfortunately, after about a week, a flaw in this lattice was discovered and a corrected lattice, ChicaneLinacB was released instead.

Next time, PhaseRotA

DATA

Lattice: ChicaneLinacA
Date of release: May 11, 2004
Total possible number of permutations: 10¹¹²⁴ (1 with 1124 zeros after it)
Number of Simulations Run: 26,000 (approximately)
Total MPTS: 1,850,000 (approximately)

Design
#gen=6;d10l=000;d11l=000;d12l=000;d13l=000;d14l=000;d15l=000;d16l=000;d17l=001;d18l=000;d19l=000;d1l=003;d20l=000;d21l=000;d22l=000;d23l=000;d24l=000;d2l=000;d3l=000;d4l=000;d5l=169;d6l=000;d7l=000;d8l=099;d9l=000;gen=008;ld1=000;ld10=000;ld11=000;ld12=000;ld13=000;ld14=003;ld15=000;ld16=000;ld17=000;ld18=000;ld19=000;ld2=000;ld20=000;ld21=000;ld22=000;ld23=000;ld24=000;ld25=000;ld26=000;ld27=000;ld28=000;ld29=000;ld3=004;ld30=000;ld31=000;ld32=000;ld33=000;ld34=000;ld35=000;ld36=000;ld37=000;ld38=000;ld39=000;ld4=000;ld40=000;ld41=000;ld42=000;ld43=000;ld44=000;ld45=000;ld46=000;ld47=000;ld48=000;ld49=000;ld5=000;ld50=000;ld51=000;ld52=000;ld53=000;ld54=000;ld55=000;ld56=000;ld57=000;ld58=000;ld59=000;ld6=000;ld60=000;ld61=000;ld7=000;ld8=000;ld9=000;linaccells=000;ls10f=908;ls10l=908;ls11f=912;ls11l=913;ls12f=908;ls12l=908;ls13f=911;ls13l=909;ls14f=914;ls14l=913;ls15f=911;ls15l=909;ls16f=913;ls16l=908;ls17f=908;ls17l=914;ls18f=908;ls18l=908;ls19f=913;ls19l=910;ls1f=874;ls1l=907;ls20f=910;ls20l=908;ls21f=909;ls21l=913;ls22f=914;ls22l=913;ls23f=911;ls23l=912;ls24f=914;ls24l=913;ls25f=914;ls25l=909;ls26f=912;ls26l=911;ls27f=911;ls27l=912;ls28f=918;ls28l=912;ls29f=908;ls29l=910;ls2f=911;ls2l=913;ls30f=910;ls30l=908;ls31f=911;ls31l=908;ls32f=912;ls32l=914;ls33f=911;ls33l=908;ls34f=913;ls34l=908;ls35f=912;ls35l=908;ls36f=908;ls36l=909;ls37f=910;ls37l=910;ls38f=909;ls38l=914;ls39f=912;ls39l=908;ls3f=914;ls3l=910;ls40f=909;ls40l=911;ls41f=908;ls41l=909;ls42f=913;ls42l=909;ls43f=911;ls43l=911;ls44f=909;ls44l=999;ls45f=910;ls45l=999;ls46f=911;ls46l=909;ls47f=909;ls47l=999;ls48f=914;ls48l=912;ls49f=910;ls49l=913;ls4f=911;ls4l=908;ls50f=912;ls50l=908;ls51f=908;ls51l=913;ls52f=909;ls52l=910;ls53f=908;ls53l=913;ls54f=908;ls54l=909;ls55f=911;ls55l=912;ls56f=910;ls56l=913;ls57f=910;ls57l=908;ls58f=910;ls58l=911;ls59f=908;ls59l=913;ls5f=912;ls5l=911;ls60f=912;ls60l=910;ls61f=907;ls61l=910;ls6f=913;ls6l=911;ls7f=913;ls7l=912;ls8f=908;ls8l=999;ls9f=914;ls9l=909;rf10p=366;rf10v=600;rf11p=374;rf11v=607;rf12p=381;rf12v=615;rf13p=380;rf13v=618;rf14p=382;rf14v=607;rf15p=395;rf15v=606;rf16p=410;rf16v=609;rf17p=425;rf17v=608;rf18p=438;rf18v=612;rf19p=424;rf19v=600;rf1p=357;rf1v=602;rf20p=415;rf20v=588;rf21p=393;rf21v=587;rf22p=380;rf22v=588;rf23p=381;rf23v=601;rf24p=382;rf24v=605;rf25p=390;rf25v=598;rf26p=388;rf26v=606;rf27p=386;rf27v=608;rf28p=381;rf28v=618;rf29p=398;rf29v=610;rf2p=363;rf2v=999;rf30p=408;rf30v=607;rf31p=405;rf31v=602;rf32p=387;rf32v=609;rf33p=370;rf33v=999;rf34p=365;rf34v=609;rf35p=369;rf35v=606;rf36p=380;rf36v=591;rf37p=387;rf37v=602;rf38p=397;rf38v=598;rf39p=397;rf39v=596;rf3p=377;rf3v=347;rf40p=398;rf40v=608;rf41p=399;rf41v=611;rf42p=390;rf42v=631;rf43p=397;rf43v=637;rf44p=398;rf44v=627;rf45p=402;rf45v=999;rf46p=401;rf46v=634;rf47p=396;rf47v=624;rf48p=392;rf48v=613;rf49p=402;rf49v=588;rf4p=387;rf4v=592;rf50p=413;rf50v=583;rf51p=412;rf51v=578;rf52p=411;rf52v=583;rf53p=414;rf53v=591;rf54p=419;rf54v=607;rf55p=412;rf55v=639;rf56p=395;rf56v=651;rf57p=368;rf57v=641;rf58p=358;rf58v=608;rf59p=000;rf59v=584;rf5p=386;rf5v=587;rf60p=374;rf60v=564;rf61p=372;rf61v=562;rf6p=378;rf6v=895;rf7p=360;rf7v=585;rf8p=354;rf8v=594;rf9p=356;rf9v=594;s10f=910;s10l=909;s10r=910;s11f=912;s11l=913;s11r=998;s12f=914;s12l=913;s12r=901;s13f=909;s13l=908;s13r=999;s14f=910;s14l=913;s14r=913;s15f=914;s15l=912;s15r=999;s16f=909;s16l=909;s16r=913;s17f=909;s17l=912;s17r=908;s18f=901;s18l=910;s18r=914;s19f=913;s19l=914;s19r=909;s1f=915;s1l=832;s20f=909;s20l=912;s20r=910;s21f=908;s21l=909;s21r=910;s22f=915;s22l=912;s22r=911;s23f=909;s23l=907;s23r=910;s24f=837;s24l=909;s24r=911;s25f=912;s25l=911;s25r=911;s2f=912;s2l=999;s2r=913;s3f=913;s3l=715;s3r=910;s4f=915;s4l=856;s4r=913;s5f=917;s5l=999;s5r=911;s6f=914;s6l=915;s6r=917;s7f=909;s7l=910;s7r=911;s8f=913;s8l=909;s8r=913;s9f=912;s9l=912;s9r=909;tantalumrodr=000;tantalumrodz=407;
0.988441 (483.9 Mpts) [v4.4] <ChicaneLinacA> by [SG]Sobi

The New Terrorism, Part 2 – Countering

2011-07-30T09:11:00.000-04:00

In the first part, we identified that terrorism is widespread, but in the guise of 'anti-terrorism'. In this part, it's time to discuss how to deal with things.

Terrorism is bad, we can all agree on that, but many people fail to see that their actions and wishes against terrorism, are themselves, terrorism. Terrorism is Terrorism, it doesn't matter if your intentions are 'good', or 'for the greater good', because that's the same justification all perpetrators of terrorism use.

One of the better examples of how to deal with terrorism comes from the UK. Not the UK now, but the UK in the 80s and 90s. The answer was to not let it change anything. When the purpose of an action is to make you afraid, and act in a panicked way, the best thing you can do is NOT panic, not be afraid, and not change things.

Growing up in the UK in that time, we would hear about IRA, (or the Provisional IRA, or any one of the other splinter group's) and their latest action. I lived near some busy shopping areas, and the set of Brookside, I went to school near a famous landmark (Penny Lane) and I spent a lot of time on buses and trains in the area. There were a few bomb scares, but it was usually thought of, and then it would drop from the consciousness a week or two later.

I was even at a bombingonce. In March 1993, I was in Warrington, and walked past a one of the bombs, moments before it went off, killing two. I remember hearing it explode behind me, and while the experience shook the 12 year old me, I didn't let it stop me, or change anything I did. The experience will stay with me, it helps define me, but it does not lead my thinking, cloud my judgement, or remove any sense of reason from me.

I remember 9/11 as well. I was at work in Liverpool, and remember my (American) wife calling me when it happened. I came home as soon as I could, and we collected information via IRC. The end of October 2001, I went to the US, to work on the TV show Battlebots (the 4th time I had done so) in San Francisco. The change was incredible. The best way to describe it is to imagine if a hypochondriac had been knocked down, and then had their wounds tended to by a homeless person. The panic was palpable, Millitary, guns, checkpoints everywhere, and any sort of dissent was 'supporting the terrorists'

The result has been a vidication for the attack. Had it been dealt with calmly and rationally, it would have been an 'attack' and by now would have drifted from the public attention. Instead, a frenzy was whipped up for political gain, which we've already shown to be terrorism. In fact, the US (and UK) reaction to 'terrorism' over the last ten years has been exactly wrong. In attempting to milk it for political gain, they have not only given the terrorists everything they had wanted, but much much more as well. The fear and insecurity of the governmental leadership has led to perhaps the worst possible reactions to terrorism. Actions have led to the creation of more terrorists, rather than making the existing ones give up. The general populace is ever more afraid, and trusts less than ever, and people are LESS safe than they are before.

That's why the reaction of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg fills me with hope. “We are still shaken by what hit us, but we never give up our values. Our answer is more democracy, more openness and more humanity, but never naivete.” This is the kind of reaction that America should have had 10 years ago, rather than a blank expression followed by panic and fear.

The blank stare of panic

The solution to terrorism is to avoid the temptation to succumb to the terror. Disband the TSA, they do no good anyway. Put checks and balances back in, reinstate accountability. Most of all, though, the leadership that authorised these actions need to come clean with their fellow citizens. Admit they were afraid, and that, when the time came for their leadership to be tested, they failed miserably. Instead of thinking about the good of the country, they thought about the good of themselves – it's easy to sell a police state to a populace that is kept scared, it takes a real statesman (or woman) to stay calm and rational and do the right thing, and calm the populace.

The last thing the victims of a terrorist attack need, is their own government acting like terrorists. If Mr Stoltenberg had been President of the US in 2001, perhaps the world would be a lot safer.

This piece was first published at Falkvinge.net and is released under a CC0 license

The New Terrorism, Part 1 – Identification

2011-07-28T09:19:00.000-04:00

Across the western world, a new form of terrorism is breeding. It strikes fear into citizens, it attempts to change civilization as we know it, and it attacks and assaults people on a daily basis. It's name? “Anti-terrorism.”

To understand what terrorism 'is', we need an appropriate definition. One of the best is actually from the US Department Of Defense, which puts it as

“The unlawful use of violence or threat of violence to instill fear and coerce governments or societies. Terrorism is often motivated by religious, political, or other ideological beliefs and committed in the pursuit of goals that are usually political.
(Source: Joint Pub 3-07.2, Antiterrorism, (24 November 2010))

Broken down simply, it can be put as “People will try and change the way people live, by intimidation, to match their beliefs”. It's important to note that, unlike many definitions, this one recognises that the THREAT of violence is enough, those that only allow for actual violence forget that many (but not all) of the IRA's bomb attacks in the 1990s didn't harm anyone, as the IRA phoned in coded warnings to evacuate the areas. It also makes clear that whatever motivation is behind it, the goal is political. (The 'unlawful' at the start is intriguing though, since violence, or the threat of violence is, by custom, unlawful)

In the US, everything has become about 'the threat of terrorism'. A massive Federal agency (the TSA) was created, along with a cabinet post. Police got new powers, telephone companies started monitoring phone communications. There are roving checkpoints now, to 'scan people' for 'safety', and there are 'prisons' where someone can be kidnapped anywhere in the world, and imprisoned indefinitely, with no trial. They all have one thing in common – their justification.

“The Patriot Act provisions we are extending are vital for America’s national security and for the prevention of terrorism. They give law enforcement the authority and tools needed to track suspects and known terrorists in order to better protect our nation against those who seek to do harm to our families, our communities and those serving in our armed forces at home and abroad.”

That's a quote from Representative Shelly Berkley (D-NV1) in May over extending Patriot Act provisions (there's many others just like it). If we break it down, though, we get:
“We're going to get people attacking us (threat of violence), so we need to grant these powers (political aim), despite barely being used in 10 years, because they're essential (belief)”
Her statement qualifies as terrorism.

Terrorism can't be fought with terrorism. Humiliating old ladies, and groping kids isn't going to do it, certainly not by saying 'we have to do this, else you'll die'. When they DIDN'T do all this stuff, 10 or more years ago, people weren't dying all the time. At least, not on aircraft. In fact, in the US, you're more than 70x more likely to be 'murdered' than die in a terrorist attack, which is only going to grow as police forces across the US are having their budgets cut, while the TSA now has a budget of over $8Billion.

About as effective as the TSA

So, what have we got for that? Well, one study (PDF) found that the TSA led to 129 road deaths between October-December 2002, as people avoided the TSA by driving. That's on top of 3000-month average road deaths (or a 9/11 ever single month). Over 500 TSA agents have been fired or suspended for stealing from passenger's baggage in the last 10 years, yes only one was ever charged, and then only because he was caught by an airline employee. The TSA doesn't even pass on reports of baggage theft to the police – it's against policy even – which took a news investigation to find out. It's not their job to investigate thefts, they may claim, but if items can be stolen from luggage, it's easy to place items in the same way.

So what about their stated aim? To prevent hijackings by detecting bombs and weapons? Well, they're bad at that too, failing the vast majority of tests, and having to cheat on others to pass. So, since we've discounted their 'claimed' purpose, what does that leave us with? It leaves us with a Federal Agency, that has no accountability, does not have to follow the law, and can do pretty much anything as long as they claim they're 'trying to prevent terrorists killing people'.

That sounds a lot like terrorism to me!

It's not just the US though. The UK has also adopted such measures, despite terrorist activity being at a low in recent decades. Some months in the 90's there were a dozen separate terrorist attacks (bombs, sniper attacks, mortars, etc.), compared to a half dozen in the last 10 years (including some 'bombs' which were chemically impossible of exploding), and yet there has been a surge in 'Terrorist legislation', detentions and actions, including the shooting of an unarmed man by police, for which, again, no disciplinary action was taken. In fact, in a number of these cases, 19th Century laws were used to prosecute (usually the Explosive Substances Act 1883), undermining the need for terrorist legislation.

So what should we do instead? Well, that's a question for Part 2.

This piece was first published at Falkvinge.net and is released under a CC0 license

Dabbling With Android

2011-07-27T22:36:00.001-04:00

In an attempt (Brave, foolhardy or otherwise) to better myself, I'm attempting to learn how to code for the Android platform.

This will be quite a challenge for me, as aside from some c++ coding when I did my degree, in the late 90s, I've not done anything like this since my Dragon32.

So far, I've dabbled with App-Inventor, which was amusing but not very very powerful. Yet it's given me some ideas, and thoughts as to how easy things could be.

So, today, I've downloaded the Android SDK, Eclipse IDE, and the Java JDK, and installed them. Right now I'm updating with all the add-in modules (which is quite a serious chunk of data). I'm starting by using the book 'Android Apps for Absolute Beginners' (link at the bottom)

This will be, as I've said, the first time in more htan a decade I've done any coding - certainly anything in Java - and anything I did know, I've forgotten, so this is a 'completely from bare basics' attempt.

Who knows how much I can get done in the next few weeks.

I'll keep you posted....

UPDATE: Those wondering when I'll dabble with iOS (iphone/iPod/iPAD) the answer is probably NEVER. I just don't see myself spending $99/year for access to the SDK, AND I don't have a mac to develop it on.

Muon1 Best Designs - Solenoidsto15cm

2011-07-22T16:13:00.001-04:00

Originally posted at the unofficial Muon1 blog

In the second part of our series, we look at Solenoidsto15cm. This was the second lattice, and the first time that a change in the design paramaters had happened, without needing a new version of the client.

The best design was 13.369790% by Shish of Team Free-DC

The lattice simulated a solenoid channel only, comprising up to 34 solenoids. The design as tested comprised 116 parameters, meaning that there were 10³⁴⁸ permutations, and 4.71Million of these were tested totaling some 863,000,000 Million particle timesteps (Mpts). It is identical to SolenoidsOnly, except the last solenoid has it's radius fixed at 15cm (hence the name) which is also why it is one parameter (the final radius) less.

This is the 'best' design as recreated in v4.45. Some modification to the lattice was needed to add a backend, as earlier clients had this hard-coded.

Next time, ChicaneLinacA

DATA

Lattice: Solenoidsto15cm
Date of release: September 26, 2003
Total possible number of permutations: 10³⁴⁸ (1 with 348 zeros after it)
Number of Simulations Run: 4,714,232
Total MPTS: 863,106,299.6

Design
#gen=8;#runs=5;d10l=016;d11l=000;d12l=000;d13l=000;d14l=063;d15l=000;d16l=000;d17l=000;d18l=000;d19l=020;d1l=000;d20l=032;d21l=000;d22l=000;d23l=000;d24l=127;d25l=013;d26l=552;d27l=315;d28l=000;d2l=000;d3l=000;d4l=308;d5l=333;d6l=146;d7l=000;d8l=000;d9l=000;s10f=982;s10l=996;s10r=985;s11f=996;s11l=987;s11r=999;s12f=993;s12l=999;s12r=999;s13f=999;s13l=999;s13r=998;s14f=985;s14l=999;s14r=956;s15f=985;s15l=974;s15r=999;s16f=986;s16l=999;s16r=991;s17f=991;s17l=990;s17r=998;s18f=988;s18l=999;s18r=999;s19f=987;s19l=990;s19r=995;s1f=999;s1l=994;s20f=986;s20l=987;s20r=988;s21f=991;s21l=984;s21r=999;s22f=999;s22l=992;s22r=994;s23f=987;s23l=990;s23r=984;s24f=996;s24l=989;s24r=996;s25f=973;s25l=989;s25r=981;s26f=048;s26l=999;s26r=990;s27f=931;s27l=999;s27r=993;s28f=999;s28l=999;s28r=731;s2f=999;s2l=999;s2r=750;s3f=999;s3l=552;s3r=999;s4f=000;s4l=347;s4r=991;s5f=992;s5l=816;s5r=996;s6f=974;s6l=997;s6r=996;s7f=992;s7l=994;s7r=987;s8f=999;s8l=984;s8r=992;s9f=995;s9l=996;s9r=992;sfinalf=999;sfinall=000;tantalumrodr=029;tantalumrodz=494;
13.369790 (553.3 Mpts) [v4.43d] ; by [FREE DC]Shish

Muon1 Best Designs - SolenoidsOnly

2011-07-15T17:15:00.006-04:00

Originally Posted at the unOfficial Muon1 Blog

In the first part of our ongoing look at the best designs from each lattice, we start with SolenoidsOnly. This, the first lattice of the 4.3 branch of clients started by simulating only a decay channel, a step back from the v4.2x clients. And started in March 2003.

The best design was 16.047507% by PIT-V of Team Seti Germany

The lattice simulated a solenoid channel only, comprising up to 34 solenoids. The design as tested comprised 117 parameters, meaning that there were 10³⁵¹ permutations, and 3.75Million of these were tested totaling some 520,000,000 Million particle timesteps (Mpts)

This is the 'best' design as recreated in v4.45. Some modification to the lattice was needed to add a backend, as earlier clients had this hard-coded.

Next time, SolenoidsTo15cm

DATA

Lattice: SolenoidsOnly
Total possible number of permutations: 10³⁵¹ (1 with 351 zeros after it)
Number of Simulations Run: 3,752,890
Total MPTS: 520,428,308.8

Design
tantalumrodz=552;tantalumrodr=191;s1l=999;s1f=999;d1l=000;s2l=998;s2r=998;s2f=999;d2l=000;s3l=707;s3r=997;s3f=995;d3l=000;s4l=881;s4r=999;s4f=923;d4l=000;s5l=999;s5r=999;s5f=998;d5l=009;s6l=997;s6r=999;s6f=995;d6l=000;s7l=998;s7r=997;s7f=996;d7l=000;s8l=999;s8r=998;s8f=999;d8l=000;s9l=999;s9r=999;s9f=999;d9l=000;s10l=997;s10r=993;s10f=996;d10l=000;s11l=998;s11r=999;s11f=996;d11l=000;s12l=996;s12r=997;s12f=998;d12l=000;s13l=997;s13r=999;s13f=998;d13l=000;s14l=999;s14r=998;s14f=999;d14l=000;s15l=996;s15r=999;s15f=999;d15l=000;s16l=999;s16r=999;s16f=999;d16l=000;s17l=997;s17r=998;s17f=998;d17l=000;s18l=998;s18r=999;s18f=999;d18l=000;s19l=999;s19r=999;s19f=999;d19l=000;s20l=999;s20r=998;s20f=999;d20l=000;s21l=998;s21r=998;s21f=998;d21l=022;s22l=999;s22r=994;s22f=999;d22l=000;s23l=999;s23r=999;s23f=996;d23l=000;s24l=999;s24r=999;s24f=997;d24l=000;s25l=996;s25r=989;s25f=995;d25l=001;s26l=999;s26r=999;s26f=999;d26l=000;s27l=996;s27r=998;s27f=998;d27l=000;s28l=992;s28r=999;s28f=994;d28l=008;s29l=821;s29r=994;s29f=997;#runs=005;

16.047507 (1829.8 Mpts) [v4.31c] <solenoidsonly> by[SG]PIT-V

New Muon1 Lattices

2011-07-13T12:45:00.001-04:00

And now, 2 new lattices for the Muon1 Distributed Computing project. As noted over at the Muon1 Blog, the new lattices replaces two that have plateaued over the last week, giving tweaks to hopefully bring things along andbreak out of any local maximums.

The lattice are Linac900Ext6Xc2 has now been replaced with Linac900Ext6X, which halves the RF cycle over the old one, and is only for v4.45.

Linac900Ext10td2 has been replaced by Linac900Ext10tc2 where the phase has been changed by 180degrees. This lattice also works on the older 4.44x clients. Although why you'd still be running it I don't know.

There are some advantages to getting in early though. Even those with slightly slower systems (like me) can get at the top every now and then....

It's probably the only time I'll be top of the scores...

Firefox5, Opera 11.5 Compared (pt2 - Win7)

2011-07-02T20:03:00.000-04:00

source: technovore

In part 1, we have a quick look at browser performance in Windows Vista. Here in part 2 we're going to look at performance under Windows7, just as we did in April. Part 3 will deal with Ubuntu.

The test rig is, again, a Toshiba Satelite C655 laptop run in 'high performance' power mode. The specs are:

Intel i3-380m Processor (2.53 Ghz, dual core with hyper-threading for 4 effective cores)
4Gb DDR3-1066 RAM (PC3-8500)
Mobile Intel HD graphics
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit)

Note
This is a different system to the Vista test rig, so the results are not directly comparable. and are instead for relative comparison.

The test method was identical to the test method used for Vista. Tests were run on a clean user session, with no extensions running, just a plain vanilla configuration. The tested browsers were:

Chrome 12.0.742.112
Firefox 5
IE9 *
Opera 11.11
Opera 11.50

* As previously tested

Peacekeeper
First, the obligatory Peacekeeper graph

Only IE9 was unchanged from the last test, back in April, but this time around, it's scored almost identically (5686 then, to 5683 now), so the results are fairly comparable. Opera 11.11 scores almost the same as 11.01 did 3 months ago, but the big shock is the much poorer performance of Chrome. We'd seen this already on Vista, but it seems that Chrome is starting to lose it's reputation for 'blazing speed'. Firefox is improving, but still hasn't closed the deficit to IE. Let's break down the tests.

As you can see, Opera is kicking butt in the rendering and complex graphics tests (and these overall scores don't factor in some of the complex graphics), DESPITE it not being optimized to use the video card yet, while Chrome is blazing fast at data processing. Both IE and Firefox fail to take the lead in any category, though, and really need to step up their game.

Sunspider
Three months ago, the order was IE9, Opera just ahead of Firefox, and then Chrome at the back. have things changed? not so much. IE and Firefox have shaved off 2-3 milliseconds, while Opra has added slightly (meaning it just drops behind Firefox) while Chrome adds 20. Chrome really does seem to be going backwards.

HTML5+Acid3
With the new version, still doesn't pass the acid3 test, again turning in a score of 97. This is, let's not forget, a test that Opera and chrome aced years ago.

On the HTML5 side, All 3 new versions have upped their game, according to html5test.com. Opera has gone from 234 with 7 bonus points ("+7") in 11.01, through 278+7 in 11.11 and up to 286+7 in 11.50.
Chrome has gone from 293+13 in version 11, to 328+13 in version 12, another big jump, and the best score of those tested. Firefox 4 scored 255+9 back in April, and now with Firefox5, it's upped it's game to 286 points (equal with Opera 11.50) with 9 bonus points. Things have really moved on!

NEXT TIME
Browsers under Ubuntu 10.10

Muon1 hits 25 Million-Billion Particle Timesteps

2011-07-02T17:50:00.001-04:00

The Muon1 project hit another milestone recently. Last year I posted about it hitting 20 quadrillion (or Million-billion) particle timesteps, well less than 11 months later, it had added another 5 Quadrillion to that number. a 20% increase in work in less than a year!

It's quite an incredible achievement. While it took 10 years (almost) to get to 20 Quadrillion, it took just 11 months to get to to 25. A lot comes from the BOINC wrapper client, over at Yoyo@Home.

Here's the press release

Muon1-25quadrillion-20110610

BitTorrent Turns 10

2011-07-02T01:43:00.002-04:00

Bram

Internet protocols and 'systems' are either hit or miss. They last for ages, or only a few months. The web, email, IRC, all things that have lasted, eXeem, Google Wave, hardly any time at all. In the fast paced world of the web, it's often the frantic turnover that kills a new product, especially when it's launched into the middle of a rapidly developing area by a lone developer. BitTorrent has made the grade, as it today celebrates it's 10th birthday.

On July 2, 2001, Bram Cohen released the first version of bittorrent via a yahoo mailing list. While it seemed like a small program, it entered the crowded P2P scene (filled with over a dozen competing - and incompatible) -protocols & networks) and today is by far and away the most popular. It had the file verification, and multi-part downloads of the eDonkey protocol, but the spread centralization of a website.

In fact, the web-site aspect is one that helped it enormously. most p2p networks could only be browsed via the client, which was often clumsy. There were websites that allowed you to search the eDonkey network, and load into it, but it was hard to keep track of which were good, and which were bad, as all search results could be poisoned by just one peer.

The separation of the search and the distribution was one of the two things that helped make it lasting. The other was the individuality of torrents. Each torrent was completely independent of any other, a departure from other P2P systems, which often emphasized sharing as many files as possible. It was completely contrary to what conventional logic said P2P should be, and yet, it worked.

How BitTorrent works
(Source Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-SA)

Another key decision was to open up the protocol. As well as Bram's BitTorrent client (usually refereed to as 'Mainline', to differentiate the client name from the protocol) users could use clients for a variety of operating systems, or code their own. Again, this was contrary to other protocols, which aimed to keep the client and protocol under wraps, both to monetize, and to try and keep the spam off the network.

All these aspects combined gave Bittorrent users flexibility, with an easy way to deal with spam and other problem torrents. It's also extremely easy to keep the data private - just don't distribute the torrent file, and you can share data without anyone else accessing it.

That's not to say it was perfect, it wasn't, and there have been some tweaks over the years. The first two focused on the tracker, the keeper of the information, and enabler of torrents. The protocol was changed to incorporate a 'Private' flag, at the behest of certain tracker owners. This locked down any method for finding peers except for the tracker, meaning only those who can access the tracker and get peer info can (in theory) get the data. The second was the exact opposite, and made trackers an option, not a requirement. DHT (Distributed Hash Tables) enabled anyone to share torrents, and mean a single link could be used to share the torrent, rather than having to transfer the torrent file itself, via the magic of Magnet Links.

The third came out in late 2009, and was an attempt to make Bittorrent more network friendly. µTP is still gaining acceptance amongst clients, but with Bram's Bittorrent Inc. owned clients (mainline, and µTorrent) being the most popular clients by far outside China, it's got widespread acceptance.

The question to wonder is 'can Bittorrent be improved?' There is little to improve in the flexibility, and efficiency, but many have major issues with the privacy of the torrent. To kill Bittorrent, anything that replaces it will have to deal with that, as well as do everything else, and that's will hopefully not take 10 more years....

Firefox5, Opera 11.5 Compared (pt1 - VISTA)

2011-06-30T09:40:00.000-04:00

source: technovore

It's been only 3 months since the release of IE9 and Firefox 4 and yet here we are again. This time, with two new browsers, Firefox 5 and Opera 11.50, both with new rendering engines. I've split things into three parts. This first part is on Windows Vista browsers, the second on browsers under Windows7, and the third will focus on Ubuntu 10.10 browsers.

Previous tests

June 2010 July 2010 September 2010 March 2011

Introduction

As always, we're using the Q6600 test rig (HP a6535c). The specs are,

Intel Core2Quad Q6600 Cpu (2.4 Ghz quad core)
6Gb DDR2-6400 Ram
nVidia GeForce 9500GS graphics card
Windows Vista home Premium (64bit)

and the following browsers were tested

Firefox 3.6.13 *
Firefox 3.6.18
Firefox 4.0 *
Firefox 5
Chrome 13.0.782.32
SR Iron 10.0.650.0 *
Opera 10.63 *
Opera 11.11
Opera 11.50
Internet Explorer 9 *
Safari 5.0.5

* Identical builds to the previous test.

Peacekeeper

We start with the (now standard) Peacekeeper test. First, the nice Peacekeeper graph, which orders them by score. The surprise is that SRWare Iron takes the top-spot. In fact, it was such a surprise, I re-ran the tests after I was finished, and came back the same.

Of course, these scores don't give the whole picture, for that we need to see it broken down. Also, they don't include the canvas test in the final score, which does alter things slightly. Accordingly, here's the breakdown of the scores, with the browsers grouped together.

SunSpider

Here are the sunspider (0.9.1) results, again, ordered by browser manufacturer. To be honest, there's very little to chose here between the Chrome, Opera, and modern Firefox browsers. IE9 still seems to be extremely optimised for this benchmark, so should be taken with a pinch of salt. Safari does seem to be lagging behind here now though.

HTML5 & Acid3

All three new versions (chrome 13, Firefox5, and Opera 11.5) have increased their HTML5 comparability. Chrome still leads the way, while Opera and Firefox are tied.

Meanwhile, there's no change at all in the Acid3 test. Each new browser scored the same as the last tested version,

Tomorrow, Windows7 browsers tested.

Raw Data

Browser	Peacekeeper	SunSpider	HTML5 (Base+bonus)	Acid3
Firefox 3.6.13	2393	997.2	155+4	94
Firefox 3.6.18	2424	949.5	179+4	94
Firefox 4.0	3361	318.6	269+9	97
Firefox 5	3773	329.1	286+9	100
Chrome 13.0.782.32	8051	301.2	329+13	100
SRWare Iron 10.0.650.0	8437	317.0	322+9	100
Opera 10.63	6303	322.6	231+7	100
Opera 11.11	6611	328.7	278+7	100
Opera 11.50	6660	317.9	286+7	100
Internet Explorer 9	3782	269.5	141+5	95
Safari 5.0.5	4354	387.1	253+7	100

The Red Flag Act and P2P

2011-06-26T10:09:00.000-04:00

Today, my good friend Rick Falkvinge in his op-ed over at TorrentFreak posted about the Red Flag Act. For those that don't know, it was a protectionist law enacted in 1865 to slow down steam traction engines, ostensibly because they were a threat, but in reality because they were encroaching on the profits of existing big business. A law to restrict new technology because it was threatening the profitability of the old, gee that sounds familiar!

I first came across the connection almost 2 years ago, when writing my consultation response for the Digital Economy Act. A response that was badly mangled by the government in it's processing.

I've not heard of anyone since even aware of the similarities, and ideas I put forward in the response, (which might mean that my response was a failure) until today, when Rick piece was published on TorrentFreak. I did, however, get contacted by someone writing a book

Here's hoping the idea, that trying to protect existing business from being made obsolete by technology (especially when those businesses were themselves enabled by technology a few decades before) is shown as ineffective and stupid. We can only hope.

Here's the section from the response.

I find there is not only insignificant evidence that such a restriction is needed, it would be significantly harmful to the future development of technology. It is an attempt to restrict the development of technology, worse, to grant increased powers to those who have a business model that favours the old technological methods and equipment. What it does not do in any form, is encourage any business, or industry to evolve and adapt their business to technology.
Such regulation has been attempted before, and a prime example would be the Locomotive Act of 1865. This act required that traction engines would endanger the safety of the public, and thus legislation was introduced to address that apparent danger. This was in the form of severely inconveniencing the adopters of technology, and hoping to dissuade new users. In this acts case, it required a man to walk some distance ahead, with a red flag, to 'warn' other road users. The engines were also limited to an extremely slow speed, 4mph in the country, and 2mph in towns. This limited the use of such engines, as it was no quicker than walking, and usually slower (walking pace is 3-3.5mph).

It was not until thirty years later that these laws were repealed, in the 1896 Emancipation Act. One year earlier, the Daimler Motor Company was formed, the UK's first car company, ten years after Gottlieb Daimler invented the Internal Combustion engine. Without the Locomotive act, the internal combustion engine may have been developed in the UK, and the British Motor Industry started earlier. Ultimately, there is little doubt that the act was significantly harmful to both the industrialisation of the UK, to the technological development and spread of motorised vehicles in the UK, and to the economy of the whole of the UK in the latter half of the 19th Century.

Some have speculated1 that the act was an attempt to prevent the development of the automotive industry, and was led by members of government and highly influential personages with a vested interest in the dominant method of motorised transport of the day – the railways. This despite the actual economic harm the act caused.

Similarly, these proposals are prompted by those with a vested interest in the dominant methods of distribution and dissemination at the present time. They seek to control the extent of the use of a piece of new technology that threatens the viability of their pre-existing business model. The proposals are based in inaccurate and distorted facts, and with exaggeration on the 'harm' the new technologies cause, with complete disregard for the advantages, opportunities, and economic benefits afforded by the new technologies.

In this case, the traction engines are people's internet connections, and their ability to share culture. The red flag is the threat of disconnection or throttling merely on the accusation of another (GATSO's were not common in the 1870's after all). The prospective motor industry, delayed by needless protectionist regulation are the prospective culture industries that will arise. We can only hope that it will not take present day governments 30 years to see the grave errors of their proposals.

25 Years of Computing

2011-06-24T01:00:00.023-04:00

CC-BY by liftarn

As this publishes, it will be exactly 25 years (give or take a few moments) since I got my first computer. Oh how much has changed in that time.

June 24 1986, 6am (UK time) and I awoke with eagerness and boundless enthusiasm. Running downstairs, a huge box is waiting. Well, when you're 6, a large box looks huge, but waiting it was, with a bow, and a big “Happy Birthday” on it. Inside was something that has had a profound change on my entire life. My First Computer.

It wasn't new, and it certainly wasn't the most powerful of systems, but it was all mine. A mess of wires,cables and boxes, bags of tapes, and even a few folders; it was a near overload of information. Sorting the system out from everything (my parents had even included a black&white TV set to run it on) and setting it up with the tape deck took 20 minutes. There was time to load a single game from the audio tape before school, but I was hooked.

CC-BY by Museo8bits

While the Dragon32 in the box was not the most powerful system at that time, it was a nice system to work with, certainly compared to those of today. The 1982 built system was a single unit, with the keyboard part of the mainbox. A power button on the back, a reset button on the side, and a bunch of connection ports on the back and sides gave easy connectability. Hit the power button, and it was ready to use with 2 seconds. BASIC was already running, and accessed via the Command Line Interface (CLI). The 32kilobytes of RAM was plenty for the time, as coders had to know their job.

Two other peripherals in the box made me feel like a REAL computer geek. One was the disc drive. A huge single-side, double density drive, that could store 180KB. The cartridge to plug it in was roughly the size of a paperback novel, and the drive was too heavy for a 6yo to comfortably move, let alone carry. The other was even bigger. A wide format (15-inch wide paper) daisywheel printer, which made a wonderful mechanical clatter and buzz as it powered up and ran, rattling away at some 40-60 characters per minute, roughly typing speed.

Today, 32KB will get you about 3000 words in a text document, or a 400x300 image. 25 years ago, it would get you a full game (some of which TALKED!), database software AND database, or a full-on word processor. How things have changed.

These days, most people have smartphones instead. Most Android phones are not only more powerful than the computers of the early 80s, but have as much power as desktop computers of less than 10 years earlier. In January 2000 I built the BEST system I could get. A little over 6 months ago, my wife got a new phone, a HTC Droid Incredible. Just look at the specs.

	Dragon 32	PC system Build January 2000	HTC Droid Incredible
CPU	0.9 MHz Motorola 6809 (8bit with limited 16bit)	TWO Pentium-3 CPUs, 550MHz	1000MHZ Snapdragon QSD8650
RAM	32KB	256,000 KB	512,000 KB
Storage	Audiotape, 180kb 5.25” floppies	6,400,000KB HD	8,000,000KB on board storage, 32,000,000KB per sd card optional
Graphics	256x192 – 9 colour.	1600x1200 true (24bit) colour.	480x800 true colour
Display	TV	Monitor	Built in screen
Sound	Mono, Simple synthesiser	Stereo sound (Sb live!)	Stereo sound.

In 3 years, though, the phone will be useless. With its requirement to be connected, and it's planned obsolescence, parts will need replacing, and just getting software to continue to run on it will be a challenge. The Dragon, on the other hand, with no internet connection, still had the seals over the case screws when it was put into storage in 2001. In 19 years of use (15 of them with me) it had never failed, never needed to be opened, and still ran as well now as it did then.

Of course, It wasn't my only system. A 48k Spectrum joined the Dragon in 1988 ,and an Amiga A500+ was the first new system, in late 1991. At that point I was also spending significant time on my first native-GUI system, the Acorn A3000 system, the computer of choice for UK Schools, a system I would work on until 1998, as the school phased them out for Windows systems and I moved to University.

In September 1995, I bought my first x86 (or 'windows' PC) a cyrix dx5/100 AST (Advantage! 611). Replaced with a P120 in 1997 (HP Vectra 6L) and then the custom system above.

Computers have come a HUGE way over the last 25 years, but in many ways, things are changing for the worse. Computers have lost their reliability, and while they are now easier to use, they've become harder to actually work with. The drive for ease of use has resulted in making things more complex, and slower. In the time now takes to boot up a Windows system, and load a program, I could have turned on an 80s computer, and loaded the program from cassette tape.

It's this level of speed, and clarity that needs to come back, and should be a prime focus in the next 25 years.

A New Western Theocracy?

2011-06-15T15:24:00.000-04:00

If there was one stand out recommendation on the Hargreaves report on copyright in the UK, it's that legislation should be made based on evidence, not belief. It sounds obvious, but with an ever-increasing swathe of issues, laws are written based on feelings, beliefs and opinions, rather than actual facts. So, the question is, when you start making laws based on beliefs, at what point are you a theocracy?

There seems to be little place for facts in western democracies these days. Sample some news from a major mainstream news source (in the format of your choice), and you'll doubtless hear of some new law, or a lawmaker making a 'statement' of a position that needs to be taken. If you poke a bit deeper, you'll tend to find that there are usually few facts supporting the position or law – in many cases the facts flat-out oppose the law.

It's happening all over the world. In March, German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked of getting rid of nuclear power in Germany in the aftermath of the Fukushima incident. A month ago, she shut down 7 power plants, for a 'safety review'. The incident she was reacting to, listed as one of the worst nuclear accidents ever, had one death (heart attack), 37 physical injuries, and two taken to hospital for radiation exposure and quickly released. This is a power plant hit by a Magnitude 9 earthquake, and a tsunami, and it was still kept safe. An oil refinery in a heavily populated area outside Tokyo burned for TEN DAYS, but there was little mention of that. Nuclear energy is the safest, cleanest and most ecologically sound reliable power source we have right now, according to the facts. However, belief says it's dangerous, uncontrolled, and about to kill everyone on the planet within 6 months. Guess which one won out? It's the same story in Italy, where nuclear power was abandoned by public referendum in 1987, shortly after Chernobyl. A position that was reaffirmed earlier this week, in the wake of Fukushima, and turned into a protest action against Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi. No fact-based decision-making there, either.

The “War on Terror” has been another source of belief-based legislation. In the US, there's the USA PATRIOT Act, which gives huge sweeping powers to law enforcement and government agencies. A huge boost in spending on scanners and toys, and a vast erosion of rights. None of it fact based. The body scanners are pretty ineffective, the TSA regularly fails it's 'red tests' while groping everyone it can (unless you're a celebrity, where they'll make exceptions), including children. The liquids ban was based on a hypothetical threat, later discounted, but it's still in force. Even the ugly shadow of terrorism is more about belief, than reality. You are more than 70x more likely to be murdered in the US, than be caught up in a terrorist incident, and twice as likely to be killed by the weather. Yet police funding is being cut, and police are working on more 'anti-terrorism' things.

Of course, the best example of this came during the recent USA Patriot Act provision extension, where it was rushed through with no debate and reauthorized for another few years, because 'without it our safety would be jeopardized, and active investigations would have to be dropped.' That's the belief. The facts are, the provisions have been collectively used less than a handful of times in the past 10 years (so they're hardly essential tools) and any investigations into actions that occurred before the provisions expired were free to use them still. The facts, plainly available to anyone that could read the bill in question, flat out contradicted the beliefs of those supporting the extension.

There's a very good reason for this. Politics is all about perceptions. It's not about being right, or honest any more. Exposed in a lie? Say you were mistaken, misquoted, you misspoke, you didn't have all the facts, or simplest of all, blame it on a political opponent.

Western politics these days has managed to make lying stigma-free. Politicians are so distrusted and disliked by their electorate, that this sort of behaviour is expected. A honest politician doesn't stand a chance in the governments of the world these days. And that's a real problem, because when you're ignoring facts and embracing beliefs, then issues will only get worse.

This is also why whistle-blowers are becoming so persecuted. Wikileaks is hated, because it exposes the claims of politicians as being beliefs, rather than facts, often by showing they knew that the facts showed something different to the belief.

Facts can be challenged, their basis questions, the values disputed. There's no challenging beliefs, because they are a belief, and their only basis is that someone feels that way. Any fantasy-land belief can be turned into a real-world law, through the application of spin-doctors and lies. When the beliefs lack of realistic basis shows up in its consequences, do we get some humility, a 'hey I was wrong, let's fix this'? No. It's more beliefs.

Belief is fine, in it's place. That place is not in government. When you try to govern the real world, leave your fantasy world at home, and stick to the facts, and we can start dealing with problems, rather than creating more, which is all a theocracy tends to do.

This post was written for Falkvinge on Infopolicy, and was first published there. The text above is published under a CC0 license.

Good Photography on the Cheap

2011-06-09T16:31:00.001-04:00

Photography can be a rewarding hobby . Yet not everyone can afford an expensive camera to take their pictures. Good photography, however, doesn't always need the best camera though, as even cheap digital cameras can give good results, if handled properly. So, here are some examples of pictures taken using cheap cameras, or even cameraphones.

For many people, better equipment means better results, and so people spend hundreds on cameras, and lenses and bags. While that can help, without a good 'eye' to decide on the shot, no amount of money can buy a camera good enough. I was encouraged to write this, and show these pictures, after seeing a recent (when I first wrote this) competition on Wired, a photography competition where the only restriction was it had to be taken on a smartphone.

There are 4 cameras represented here. Two models of cellphone (both by LG, a Cosmos [1.3MPix] and an EnV2 [2MPix]), a cheap DXG video camera in stills mode (DXG-567V [5MPix]), and a 'traditional' digital camera (Olympus C-5050 Zoom [5MPix]). The camera can be identified from the filename. Files starting with 'P' are from the Olympus. If it starts "File" it's from the DXG, and if it's just numbers then it's from the cellphones

Any questions about any of the photos, don't hesitate to ask in the comments.

**NOTE** These photos have not been edited, or manipulated in any way. The files have come off the memory cards of the cameras, and posted straight to Flickr. No HDR, no photoshop, no nothing.

Clicking the links will take you to the photos on Flickr.

All pictures are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike License. For more information, see the license page.

TPB Raid - 5 Years On, Still Going Strong

2011-05-31T03:31:00.001-04:00

It's now been 5 years since the Pirate Bay was raided by Swedish police, after extensive 'urging' by US trade groups and politicians. 5 years of wrangling to take down that bastion of piracy, that cocker-of-snoots to the influential and rich, and that distributor of torrent files and magnet links (and NOTHING ELSE!)

When it comes to major events in the tech world, one of the major ones is The Pirate Bay's raid. On the morning of May 31st, 2006, dozens of police officers entered the PRQ data center and seized servers, hardware, and even blocked up CCTV cameras, as they attempted to shut down The Pirate Bay (TPB).

There is not much that compares in scope, when you consider that the Swedish Justice Minister was involved. That it took place because of the direct urging of the US White House (meaning the President) and that more officers than you'd get at any other event (except large public order policing, such as a football match) were involved only makes it more remarkable.

The icing on the cake is that the site spent very little time offline, which the TPB crew were quick to point out in a blogpost, saying

Just some stats... ... here are some reasons why TPB is down sometimes - and how long it usually takes to fix:Tiamo gets *very* drunk and then something crashes: 4 days
Anakata gets a really bad cold and noone is around: 7 days
The US and Swedish gov. forces the police to steal our servers: 3 days
.. yawn.

It wasn't just TPB's server that were taken though. The newly formed Piratpartiet (Pirate Party - more about them in a minute) lost some servers, as did many other businesses. A long time friend, Ben, talked to one business owner, Christopher Adams of Gameswitch, who said “Our hardware was severed from the internet at approximately 12 noon Swedish time today without notice or explanation and currently is believed to be in the possession of Stockholm Police, although this cannot be confirmed", adding “As a result of this seemingly irrational and disproportionate move by police, our entire business, in effect, has also been seized.”

And 5 years on, the case is still ongoing. At a first trial, dubbed 'Spectrial' in February 09, it was almost like watching a comedic farce as it proceeded, but ended in April with a year of jail time for each of the 4 accused, and fines totalling $3,620,000.

In September 2010, the appeal started, delayed by claims of biased judges handpicked for the case. While the hand-picking of the judges was acknowledged (picked because they belonged to a pro-copyright association) it was ruled they weren't biased by that. At the end of the appeal, the jail time was reduced, and fines/damages were increased.

So now it goes on to the more important appeal, which is still yet to happen. In the mean time, the site still goes on, as it did before, but now with a vastly greater public image, thanks mainly to the case. So in it's attempts to stop the site, it's only made it bigger, spreading publicity.

But what of other consequences?

The biggest one has been the emergence of Pirate Politics. When the raid happened, it sparked something in people, and they went upset with what they saw. Some get angry and rant, others show their immaturity, and try and deface or take down websites. Many though, got together and started to form political parties, based on the Swedish Piratpartiet.

Suddenly, instead of just one small party that had been formed 6 months earlier, there were now 20 around the world; Australia, US, France, Germany, Netherlands, the UK, Austria, etc. It was an explosion of parties, and all made possible because of the raid.

Piratpartiet Membership (source)
* = TPB raid
**** = Spectrial

It gets better though. Shortly after the Spectrial, was the European Parliament elections. Buoyed by the strength of feeling over the trial, including the allegations of bias, and what were considered overly-harsh sentences, membership in Piratpartiet skyrocketed. Membership rose elsewhere too, but nothing like in Sweden. This translated to a bit over 7% in the national votes for the party, giving them one seat (held by Christian Engstrom) and a second if the Lisbon Treaty was ratified (which it was later that year, but it's holder, Amelia Andersdotter, has yet to be seated).

Without the raid, there would be no Pirate Party outside Sweden, and it's very unlikely that they would have gained their seats. There are now over 40 elected representatives across Europe from the City Council level, to the international European Parliament, and it's all thanks to that raid.

So as we look back on the past 5 years, we note that the aim of the raid, to take down The Pirate Bay, has totally failed. The site is still going, stronger now than it was then. It's also galvanized the actions of many, pushing them into a common collective to work directly at a political level, to oppose the lobby groups, and their interests.

When you look at the actions, their intentions, and the actual effects, there is only one conclusion that can be drawn. That the raid was probably the stupidest thing they could have done. It's produced very little to their benefit, while provoking a lot of action against them directly. It really might have been better had they not bothered with it, and let it die of apathy. It's certainly hard to see what action they could have taken that would have made things worse for them.

The big question is, What will it take to actually shut down TPB for good? If a police raid, 5 years, and 2 trials won't, what will?

(doodles from the Pirate Bay's doodle archive)

Andrew Orlowski: Drunk, Unethical, or Just Plain Crap?

2011-05-13T21:52:00.000-04:00

In the old days, reporting was easy. You took the facts of the story, and arranged them into a nice pleasant format that makes for easier reading. Nowadays, however, “Journalism” means taking a set of facts, discarding those that don't fit with the story you aim to write, and then writing a piece of prose that fits the story you want to tell. It's editorialising, it's writing 'fact-based fiction', but it is NOT Journalism.

There are many examples where journalism takes a back seat to editorialising, and grinding axes, but in the tech news sector, no-one does it better than TheRegister. And at TheRegister (aka ElReg, or The Vulture – presumably for its cowardly tactics, and only going after prey too weak to fight back) no-one does it better than their Executive Editor, Andrew Orlowski.

In particular, this piece caught my eye this morning (in case it goes 'missing', here's a screengrab of it, I'll mention the red and blue lines in a moment). It's a 500-word (including the title and byline) piece about an Ayr woman who pleaded Guilty in court in scotland yesterday to copyright infringment.

Well, why it started as a piece on that, before it's half-way through, it's turned into a rant against the UK Pirate Party. Not only that, in those 209 words on topic (marked in red below), there are at least 3 factual inaccuracies – underlined in blue. In order to pad out the other 281 words, he has to dig up random forum posts from 2 years back, as well as crop photos from a year earlier, attacking two people who were not mentioned at all in the article, or the press release sent to The Register.

So, let's look at the piece in full.

Mentally ill file-sharer had 'low self-esteem'
Still guilty, though
By Andrew Orlowski • Get more from this author
Posted in Crime, 11th May 2011 11:21 GMT

Freetards, beware. A file-sharer convicted of copyright infringement has had her mitigating pleas of mental illness rejected by a Scottish Court.

OOPS. First line and we already have a first GLARING error. At no point has her plea been 'rejected'. In fact, "Sheriff Jack McGowan deferred sentence until May 31 to obtain a psychological report." is in one newspaper, a sentence also repeated verbatim in other sources, including STV's report that pre-dated Orlowski's piece by 20 hours.

If you've 'rejected' a plea, you don't then put off sentencing for independent experts to assess the severity of that plea.

STRIKE 1

54-year-old nurse Anne Muir pleaded guilty to sharing £54,000 worth of songs over P2P after an investigation by the BPI and IFPI. But her defence lawyer argued that – in mitigation – she was suffering depression and had low self esteem, as well as having some obsessive-compulsive traits. She admitted to downloading 30,000 songs – in order to build up her self-esteem. She was found with over 24,000 karaoke songs on her PC, and almost 8,000 tracks.

"Learning this new technology and picking up new skills gave her self-esteem a boost. But to be allowed into the network she had to have a certain number of files already," her lawyer argued.

The Pirate Party of Scotland supported this.

I'm sorry? WHO?

The Pirate Party of Scotland? Never heard of them. Apparantly the Electoral Commission hasn't either. I did a quick search for "parties with pirate in the name', and only got one result, for the Pirate Party UK. I guess that's who he means. It is an easy mistake to make, though, especially when the email that has the quote he uses in the next line starts like this:

This is a press release from the Pirate Party UK.
For immediate release.
It is available online here: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/press
***** Pirate Party UK outraged by Scottish filesharing conviction *******
The Pirate Party UK was appalled to hear today of the conviction of 58 year-old auxilliary nurse Anne Muir in the Ayr Sherrif Court under section 107(1)(e) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act for alleged peer-to-peer filesharing. This is the first criminal conviction for P2P filesharing in the Scotland.

Oh wait, it says the proper name three times in the first five lines, and then gives a link to their site in another of those lines (which also has lots of 'Pirate Party UK Branding'. Amazing. It's almost like he didn't care, or bother.

STRIKE 2

"It is disgraceful that Mrs Muir should have been so pursued in such an aggressive and potentially damaging way, rather than given the support she needs in this difficult time," said the Pirate Party's Laura-Anne Riach.

Quite right: social services should step in. Muir should have been given free songs to cheer her up, forgoing the 79p per song demanded by the tyrannical copyright industries and their heartless, jackbooted henchmen.

You're so right, it's only 79p/song. Except it isn't. ooops. Not even the prosecution agrees with Andrew here. She apparantly had 7,493 digital music files and 24,243 karaoke files - a grand total of 31,736. at 79p each, that's £25,071.44. The prosecution says it's £54,792. So how is this possible? well, if we take the 7,493 as being 79p each (£5,919.47) from the total amount, that leaves £48,872.53 for the Karaoke files, or just over £2 each. That ties in with the court who is quoted on the STV site saying "Each music file can be sold for 84 pence and each karaoke file is worth around £2. The accused had 24,243 karaoke files on her computer, and 7493 music files, with an estimated total worth of £54,792."

STRIKE 3

This is, of course, where the legitimate reporting ends, and the personal attacks start.

Low self-esteem and obsessive compulsive behaviour? None of this will be news to anyone following a copyright discussion online.

I was intrigued to find this comment left by a poster called "Rancidpunk", urging the formation of a UK Pirate Party. It exhibits many of the symptoms:

hmm, yes, you 'found' it Andrew. Here's the hardlink to the comment, which was left 2 years ago, the 5th post on the thread, and one of the first of 973 posts. Whats more, the person hasn't even logged in since May5th (at the time of writing), FIVE DAYS before this topic. So, why is he bringing it up? It has no relevance to the story - Rancidpunk is not quoted in the press release, or mentioned in any way.

Even funnier is that it's an OLD screengrab. The signature had changed a LONG time ago, so it's more a case of 'got the screenshot, need to use it'.

Rancidpunk's YouTube channel includes a mash-Up celebration of Pirates called I Can't Get No GIRLS. I hope I'm not labouring the point.

The point is that you have an axe to grind?

And the pictures offer further clues.

My word, is this the infamous RancidPunk? Of course not. It's a random Pirate Party member (who uses the nickname 'xadet') and isn't in Scotland, or has anything to do with the news issue either. This is from a protest to the Digital Economy Act in April 2010, more than a year ago.

And it's hardly fair for Andrew to pick on people for looking a bit 'sad' - people in glass houses etc.

A sure sign of an obsessive is a 2,000-word comment that appears below a story. With copyright-related stories, one of these can be guaranteed to appear appear within minutes. They only ever come from one side.

How about a 500 word article about a news story, 60% of it nothing to do with the story, using comments and photos from a year or two back. Sure sounds like an obsession...

Of course, there's real oppression, then there's having to pay for music you want to keep. You can listen to almost anything for free, anyway, thanks to YouTube.

... Assuming it's on there, which isn't likely for karaoke tracks, which was 90% of the 'value' and over 75% of the files. Oh yeah, sorry, that's more facts...

Your reporter's view is that file-sharing is a real joy – that should be legally available. The music industry should concentrate on innovation, and delighting the substantial majority of us who are prepared to pay with new services, as its Number One priority. But it's their stuff, and they're entitled to go after the odd idiot who is too selfish to pay, or too stupid to know the law, if they want to.

It's funny he mentions 'too stupid to know the law'. That would be the same group that endorsed ACS:law's tactics then? (oops). The same group that lied to the police (against the law) to get Oink raided (whoops!) and a few other 'legal' issues where it's been proven they don't know the law. While we're ont he subject of knowing the law, and since this is about Mrs. Muir, funny how he didn't mention that Section 107(1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA) 1988 is meant for counterfeiting, and that section 107(2a) was added in 2003 to specifically deal with online stuff.

So... Who's too stupid to know the law then?

By the way, the content of your piece here falls FAR short of the basic standards to call yourself a Journalist, you might be able to get away with 'columnist', but I think 'overpaid blogger' is probably more accurate.

One music writer friend of mine attended the small "Open Rights Group" demonstration at Parliament last year, and having taken a look at the assembled huddle, discovered a positive side to internet disconnection.

"Disconnection would be the best thing to happen to some of these people," he told me. "They'd get out the house, meet girls, and go for a walk."

Maybe this could work for 54-year-old nurses, too? ®

Oh my, another dig. Many members are married, have a life, heck, some of them ARE girls. Facts passing you by again, eh Andrew?

Anyway, I've fired off an email to his boss, John Lettice, asking if this is the kind of 'journalism' he expects and feels proud of. We'll see what kind of response we get.

It's not wholly unexpected that such a piece comes from Orlowski. Many of his pieces are equally factually inaccurate. In fact, that's almost certainly why they tend not to have comments turned on. I even posted a comment laying out pretty much everything I've said here. It's still not 'approved' (wonder why...)

So then, we leave it to you. Was he:

Drunk?
Unethical in attempting to portray his personal views as news, and using a supposed news story to launch an unwarranted personal attack? or
Utterly crap at his job

Answers on a postcard or the comments below.

With Love, to Tery

2011-05-11T11:10:00.000-04:00

I've had several pieces I've worked on, and ready to go over the past few days, but I've been unable to finish them, or concentrate on them at all. On Friday, a dear friend, who was not only a shining example of goodness ,a good friend, and in many ways a surrogate mother, died.

While she had been sick for a while, I had hoped to spend a fair bit of time with her over the summer, but now I won't get that chance. A lovely, warm, kind and generous lady, who was both technologically gifted (rare in her generation) and artistically brilliant, an amazing mother to her children, and who toiled relentlessly, without ever lettings adversity get her down.

Tery made me want to be a better person, a stronger person, and a more giving person, and with her loss, I, and many others, are greatly diminished.

Here's to you babe, I miss you.

Tery Hicks 1956-2011

More Muon1 Information

2011-04-29T19:17:00.003-04:00

I guess this will also become the semi-official Muon1 blog, at least for now.

There are some common questions that are asked about Muon1, including 'what is it about', 'why should I bother?', 'what's so special about it?' and 'what does it do?'

So let's answer them, shall we?

What's it about?

It's about finding the most optimal design for part of a particle accelerator. Specifically an accelerator that will generate Neutrinos, in an attempt to detect them. Neutrinos, by their nature, barely interact – there are BILLIONS passing through your body each second. Being able to create a reliable, sensitive detector not only tells us a lot more about the particles, but can open up new possibilities, such as communication links that go THROUGH the Earth, rather than around it. If you want to see a bit more about the overall Neutrino Factory Project, there's this handy infographic

Why Should I Bother?

Advances in science often come with the fundamentals. Understanding atoms meant we could use nuclear materials effectively. Our understanding of photons has led to lasers, and fibre-optic cables. Understanding Neutrinos can lead to a massive shift forward in technology and scientific research. While seti@home is looking for radio signals from Extra-Terrestrials, perhaps the signal is being send by Neutrino, since it has less 'interaction' and thus less degradation

What's so special about it?

Muon1 is one of the very few projects that doesn't follow the traditional 'brute force' approach.

In most projects, there's a fixed batch of work. You request some work from the project, process it, and send it back, then request some more. You can only work if you're internet connected, usually.

Muon1, by contrast uses a genetic algorithm method. The workspace for each lattice (sub-project) is so huge, and each one so time-intensive, that to attempt a brute force method would be pointless. Instead, the client focuses on what works, and tries to make it work better. Starting with random designs, the client tweaks things to make things better, using its own results as a baseline. These results, when returned, can be used to compile team or project-wide 'best design' lists, which the client can incorporate in its data. It's an intelligent way of analysing a problem, following design leads, rather than mechanically processing things sequentially. It also allows for human interaction since work is not dictated, participants are free to try their own designs.

Here's a visual representation of the differences.

click to enlarge

It's also incredibly modular. To try another design theory, a new lattice file is all that's needed, which tells clients the parameters for generating simulations. The time between thinking of a new design idea, to having the first results come in can be as little as 12 hours. It's a level of flexibility no other project can touch.

What does it do?

In short, “It simulates particles in a particle accelerator”

The more complex answer is it tracks particles given off by a rod that has been struck with a high-energy proton beam. It follows tens of thousands of them, as they move down a series of components, which attempt to focus the particles and get them to the right energy. It works in 0.01nanosecond (0.0000001 of a second) steps, as they go through the design. Then, when it's done, it tweaks the design based on that result, and previous results, and repeats.

It's not something that's easy to describe, and it is better shown. So, there's now this video showing a typical simulation in v4.45. It's a little long, but is shown in it's entirety. (it may be better to run it full-screen)

If you want to know more, leave a comment here, or on the project forum, and you can join the project at it's website:

http://stephenbrooks.org/muon1

Or join the facebook group, and get weekly updates on progress, as well as other news.