You Torrent... but do you know how it works?

BitTorrent transferring, also known as just 'torrenting' has become a huge amount of bandwidth across the world. BitTorrent is one of the most common ways to transfer large files, and it has been estimated that it accounted for roughly 27% to 55% of all Internet traffic as of February 2009. If you think about how many people use the internet and for how long each day, you'll realize how much that is. But let's go to the basics here.


Torrenting, as I previously mentioned, is primarily used to distribute large files without bogging down a single network for all the transfer. If you've ever downloaded a fairly large file from a web server, you've probably noticed that, at times, it can become extremely slow based on the amount of users also downloading the file. Where torrenting comes in, is its unique ability to distribute the data usage across several hosts that can even include old computers.

First, a user creates a file and sends it via website, email, or other medium to a bunch of people who want his data. That user then activates it through a torrent program and starts sending it to the people who are waiting for that file. As the file is sent successfully to the other users, they become what are known as seeders, or users who are also sending the files data to other people. Each person receives segments, or pieces of the file, and then proceed to distribute their pieces to the other downloaders until everyone has every piece, and therefore the whole file. Over time, the original person who created the file may not even be sending it out anymore. Instead, everyone who ever downloaded that file has the option to do it for him. The more people seeding, the better your chances are for higher download speeds.

You'll be able to download the pieces of the file from several users at speeds a single home user could never match even if he wanted to. You see the advantage here? You create networks of people sending more people the file. Now it can be distributed to thousands of people with great ease. Where it'd take you months to send a truly large file to a ton of people, it can be accomplished in hours with the power of torrenting.



If you've never torrented before, or were wondering how to do it, it's actually quite simple. To start, you'll need a program. There are well over 50 different torrent programs, including uTorrent and BitComet among others. You'll need to find yourself a torrent website and start searching for things you want to download. All you have to do is search google for torrent sites.

BitTorrent in-it-of-it-self is not illegal. What's illegal (if it gets there), is the content you download. there are plenty of sites who distribute using torrenting legally. Blizzard had a torrent for a while to distribute patches and updates to their games, for example. Use it how you want to, but at least know what you're doing.

/techie.post

Addicted to the internet?

[Alexandra V. Tobias], 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. A shame any person would kill anyone, let alone a 3 month old. What I haven't told you is why, and it just so happens that it ties into the topic of this post today.

So this Alexandra apparently killed her child and has plead guilty to shaking the baby profusely for crying, and even may have hit its head against something during the process. Why? Over interrupting her FARMVILLE game on Facebook. FARMVILLE. Are you kidding me?! While they should put a gun to her head for being a complete moron, I'm happy she's going to at least have the joy of spending 25 to 50 years, if not a life sentence for second degree murder, in prison as a baby killer. And a baby killer over something as stupid as a Facebook flash game. This story is a huge outlier from the normal of course, but it shows a prime example of how pervasive Facebook, or even the internet as a whole, has become in our lives.


Apparently research has been done on what they like to call "Internet Anxiety." Internet addiction has now become a serious mental malady that has gained acceptance from the scientific community, according to Ars Technica, a technological news and information website created in 1998. A large portion of the US population feels what they're calling 'disconnect anxiety' when away from either a computer or a cell phone with internet connection. The Solutions Research Group has headed the research project on this.

27% of Americans feel acute anxiety during a long break, while 41% feel it only on occasion. Unsurprisingly, age plays a large role in these percentages. The youth of today has been inundated with various mediums of technology, whether it be a hand held game, console, computer, or cell phone. Everyone has at least one way to connect to the internet while most of us have several methods. People over the age of 50 are less likely to experience this anxiety.

Did you know the average person spends up to 90 minutes a day on Facebook alone? Each day, there are more than 500 million active users at any given time, and 50% of all accounts on Facebook are active at least once per day, averaging over 700 billion minutes spent per month on Facebook. That's a large amount of time, and a majority of the people aren't addicts, which bring the average way down. But don't worry ,there are plenty of people who spend more than 90 minutes a day. Another little fun fact about Facebook? in July of 2008, there were 27.8 million accounts in the US. In 2010, there are over 125 million, in the US alone.

For you Internet addicts (including me I guess!), [Net Addiction Recovery] is here to rescue you from your addiction to the internet. To the tune of $14,000 a month, they will house you, and teach you the ways of 'returning to the real world.' Oh, if you're poor, I guess you're S.O.L.; not that most of people who are addicted want to quit in the first place. There is a lot of counter arguments, stating that it isn't even a problem to begin with... But of course there is; it's politics after all.

To leave you with a little food for thought, here are the 5 signs according to psychologists, that you're addicted to Facebook, or the internet:

• Losing sleep: If you're tired every morning because of late-night-friending, take a break, a UCLA psychologist advises: "You shouldn't be neglecting yourself because of Facebook."
• You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook: "Probably no one needs more than 30 minutes," one therapist said.
• Reigniting old flames: Here's where the divorce comes in. "Facebook is a fun, pleasant, happy, beautiful world," a psychologist said. But it's not real, and people are watching.
• You're not working: Obviously, "if you're not doing your job in order to sneak time on Facebook, you could have a real problem."
• Withdrawal: "Try going a day without Facebook. If you find it causes you a lot of stress and anxiety, you really need to get some help."

Today's playlist, three more great songs for you to enjoy!
[The Catalyst - Linkin Park]
[Runaway - Hail the Villain]
[Monster - Skillet]

Running out of Internet?

While the space and content of the Internet is virtually unlimited, the amount of users based on our current I.P. system IS running out. So for those non 'techy' people, you ask "What is an I.P.?" An IP is the series of numbers separated by a period; for example: 192.168.1.1 (Standard for connecting to an in house router). The way we get an IP address is from an internet service provider, such as comcast, wow, at&t, etc. Through these providers, you are given access to a single IP address, or sometimes a pool that everyone shares. They are how website URLs work, and how others can communicate with each other from across the world. It's an integral part of how technology communicates with other technology. Phones also are given IP addresses.

So if that's the case, how on earth are we running out of addresses for devices? Well, if you do the math on the quantity of addresses, which range from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255, you end up with approximated 4 billion addresses. The problem is that there are almost that many devices in the world today, and the market for said devices is only expanding. As more and more people get computers and smart phones, and more people enter that market, the demand for these addresses will continue to increase. These numbers are controlled by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA,) so blame them. (just kidding)



What are we going to do? Well, in 1998 the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) devised a new number scheme called IPv6 under RFC2460 (Click the RFC to read the official document if you want to be very confused.) IPv6 uses a number scheme called hexadecimal, which uses the numbers 0-9, and letters A-F to create new combinations of addresses. An IPv6 example IP address would look something like: 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:1:1. Very different huh? Well with this convention, a ton more addresses are possible. To give you an idea of how many more... There would be enough addresses for everyone on the planet to have 4 billion unique IPs for their PERSONAL devices. That's a LOT of addresses. If I had to guess, we'll be transferring gradually as the addresses run out over the next several years.

Those who already have IP addresses don't really have to worry, seeing as how you already have it. What we'll be seeing is a hybrid network that accommodates both IPv4 and IPv6 for a while, as there's no really need or rush to get everyone off of IPv4. While IPv6 has other benefits (that are far too nerdy to post here), IPv4 is good enough for now. Expect to see IPv4 run out of addresses before 2012.