Spotted on digg: On his last day at Google, Jason Shellen is handed a unique gift from his kids. Can't guess? Head over to best daddy ever to find out! Now you know who's your daddy (at least for his kids :) ).
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The main goal of this plugin is simple -- to improve download speeds for your BitTorrent client. For most P2P applications, the decision regarding which peer to download from is generally arbitrary. When most peers offer good download performance, the random solution works well. However, if most peers are in a different part of the world from you, your downloads can really suffer.
The Ono plugin avoids this by proactively finding peers that are close to you (in a networking sense). These peers generally offer better response time, which can lead to significantly improved performance. We identify those peers that are near you by reusing network measurements from content distribution networks (CDNs), i.e. without performing extensive path measurement or probing.
Ono's idea is simple - it finds peers who are close to you. How does this help your torrents? Closer peers result in lower latency which means that the response is also faster. Consider this situation. Which of these would be faster if you were limited to a fixed transfer rate - sending and receiving messages from someone living on earth or an alien in outer space? The same idea applies to Ono. Local peers in general can communicate quicker with your computer so that your torrents will finish faster.
Another benefit is that the amount of errors is likely to drop. If you have downloaded a large torrent before, you shouldn't be surprised to know that some data has to be discarded due to errors. Torrent clients file this data under the wasted category. The reasons that errors occur are varied but one of them could be due to the long time they spend traveling from your computer to your peers' computers or vice versa. With peer location optimization in Ono, it should be possible in theory to reduce these errors.
Although peers closer to you have lower latency, it doesn't necessarily mean your torrents will download quicker. This is due to the fact that the bandwidth of local peers may not be as high as those elsewhere. Consider the hypothetical situation earlier about sending messages. The person on Earth may receive his message in one second, while the alien waits for two seconds before his message arrives. If you could only send one message per second to the person on Earth while you could send one large message (which is equivalent to 10 Earth messages) in two seconds to the alien, communication with the alien would be faster. Even though it may take a longer amount of time for messages to reach the alien, it would be faster than the one on Earth if you could send more messages at once to the alien.
While Ono may not speed up your torrents, anything is worth a try especially when you're getting low download transfers. There's always the option to uninstall if you don't like it. If you're planning to try out Ono, you'll need to download Azureus (torrent client) as well. Azureus is cross-platform, so you can use it whether you're on Windows, Mac OSX or Linux.
[Source: TorrentFreak via digg]
Friday, September 21, 2007
So you're a hardcore Flickr addict who can't wait to upload more photos of yourself dancing, singing or perhaps simply flashing the V sign for the camera. Ever wondered if your photos could be used by someone else without your knowledge? Say a large multi-million dollar company, especially photos with a Creative Commons License?
It seems that Alison Chang found that out the hard way when Virgin Mobile used her picture in their ad without telling her in advance. Alison's photo was taken by her youth counsellor, who posted it on his Flickr page. As you may have noticed, the ad isn't very flattering (Dump your pen friend) and has caused Alison Chang and her family much distress.
Depending on the type of Creative Commons License, the rights of a certain piece of work could range from very little to the full blown rights that everyone is familiar with. What does this mean for Alison Chang and her family?
I am not a lawyer (IANAL), but it looks like it boils down to the type of license that was chosen for that particular photo. In this case, the photo in question has a license that allows usage under the following conditions:
Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page.
Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.
And this is what the family is banking on in this law suit. They claim the photographer was not mentioned by name which is true to an extent. Although the ad doesn't contain the name of the photographer, it does have a link to his Flickr page at the bottom. I guess this is going to be a tough one to call.
If you want to read about what others are saying on Flickr, see the links below.
[Link: Virgin Mobile advertising campaign using Flickr photos at Flickr]
[Link: Dump Your Pen Friend ad photo and discussion at Flickr]
[Image: Alison for peace at Flickr]
[Source: The Sydney Morning Herald]
On another note, isn't it ironic that this story pops up on the International Day of Peace? People are going around promoting peace and harmony while someone is suing over an ad that features them flashing the peace sign. Things are definitely not going well for this year's Peace Day.
PopSci has a look at a working prototype of Texas Instruments' cellphone projector, the Pico Projector. If you had no idea what that meant, think of a laser pointer. Except that instead of a tiny little dot on a screen, it's a full blown image of anything you want to show. Vacation pictures, Youtube videos or even game/movie trailers.
It would be pretty cool if a camera handphone like the iPhone got equipped with one of these mini projectors. Throw in a slideshow function and some simple transition effects, and you've just got yourself a bunch of Flickr folks who would be dying to get their hands on one.
[Video from PopSci]
And while you're drooling over the Pico projector, here's the latest Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer for your viewing pleasure.
MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots TGS07 Trailer
If you never liked how tedious it was to plan your room/house, then FloorPlanner.com is the site for you.
FloorPlanner.com is a website that allows anyone to quickly design layouts for rooms, houses and much more. Will your favorite sofa fit in your room? How about adding a new bar fridge? With FloorPlanner, you can preview and detect any potential hiccups in your floor plans.
There are different types of accounts available, ranging from free to enterprise. The free account is limited to only 1 project and 5 design variations, but it is sufficient for personal projects.
With its drag and drop functionality, floor planning has never been easier. Simply click and drag something to where you want it to be placed. If you made a mistake or change your mind, just click undo or redo.
And when you're satisfied with your work, there's even an option to share your designs via widgets. This is particularly useful for sharing designs with relatives or clients. Or if you're simply designing your dream home, you could share it with others on your blog, etc.
This video demonstrates the ease and some of the functions available in FloorPlanner.
For a demo without registering with FloorPlanner, click here.
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