BLOCKBUSTER Total Access click to activate coupon for $10 off your first month. Free Information on EVault 1-866-928-0735 Price of Controls More on Srizbi Botnet Open Source Software Accelerates SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3) Download today’s show. SDR News Links If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here. Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST Avoiding Mistakes in 2009 by Andrew McCaskey The Biggest Mistake: Not Making One For several months, there has been talk about the advantages that entrepreneurs have at this moment. And, if they can keep the television turned off and remove the negative stream of newsworthy but backward focused news of layoffs, closures and troubles, they might have a good chance. Layoffs are injecting a steady stream of talent into the marketplace. The combination of a good idea, a few skilled coders, a coffee shop wtih good wifi will insure that the seeds have been planted for the recovery. But, as Paul Graham points out, a startup has to act like a bumbling toddler - slamming into things, falling down and getting back up. That means that the larger the organization, the more successful it has been in the past, the higher the probability that it will begin to hire others from large companies, each with their own set of checks and policies. The biggest mistake that a startup company can make is to bring that mindset into the startup. They can still be successful with close teamwork, clear priorities and good execution. If they are smart enough to keep the television turned off. Contact Us CES 2008 Coverage for Tech Podcast Network Dabble DB Cleaning Excel Data Watch Today’s Video Episode Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . . If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com! Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable. Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2 .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3 More blogs about SlashdotReview… Slashdot Review by Email - Sign up here: Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz Less

The Internet is close to a meltdown, according to The Register. The culprit, according to author Richard Bennett, is the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent, which introduced a new type of file transfer with its most recent alpha version. BitTorrent clients have long been using the TCP protocol to facilitate file transfers, but now uTorrent is moving to UDP, a protocol that is very popular for streaming media, VoIP and other real-time transfers. This will essentially lead to torrents eating up all of the bandwidth available for VoIP, according to Bennet, who calls uTorrent’s UDP transfers a “net-killing feature.” Of course, the same argument was made when UDP-based VoIP connections and video streams became popular — and the Internet hasn’t ceased to exist. The truth is that uTorrent’s UDP implementation could actually be a step toward alleviating congestion problems. Bennet, however, decided to ignore this and instead serve up nothing more than a thinly veiled rant against net neutrality. Bennet’s piece is based on a belief that UDP traffic is “aggressive” and uncontrollable, whereas TCP is the nice and proper protocol that can be easily managed. This notion ignores the basic fact that P2P developers, in order to make the protocol work at all, need to implement TCP-like functionalities on top of UDP, one of which includes congestion control. You simply can’t operate a P2P client that eats up all of its users’ bandwidth, much less build a successful business model on top of it. BitTorrent Inc. has been working on establishing itself as a CDN solutions provider, offering media companies the ability to tap into its vast user base to deliver video and other huge files. Of course, this only works if end users are actually willing to provide some part of their upload bandwidth, and they are only willing to do so if file transfers don’t stop them from doing other things, like playing online games or making VoIP calls. BitTorrent has traditionally entrusted its users with figuring out how to balance their network load, meaning that users had to manually limit their client’s maximum upload and download rate in case they encountered choppy Skype connections or similar problems. uTorrent’s new implementation wants to automate this process by regulating its UDP traffic in relationship to ongoing TCP transfers. The company has tested its congestion control in recent months, and the first results seem encouraging, as a quote from a report (PDF) that the company recently shared with the IETF reveals: “In one example, (BitTorrent) was used to download and seed game updates while an online multiplayer game was being played. With TCP used for transport the way it is usually used in BitTorrent, ping times shot up to 2000 milliseconds and beyond and stayed there while seeding. With the novel congestion control, ping times were in the 50-100 millisecond range, while the upload rate remained essentially unchanged.” For now, we do have to take the company’s word for it that this actually works. uTorrent is not open source, and the client’s UDP file transfer protocol hasn’t been publicly specified, either. BitTorrent Inc. V-P Simon Morris has declared in a public response to the Register article that his company is working with the IETF to find “solutions that can be standardized and broadly adopted in due course.” In fact, BitTorrent engineer Stanislav Shalunov is co-chairing an IETF working group for this very purpose. So why did Bennett chose to ignore all of this? Because a little scaremongering can go a long way to make the case for an ISP-based network management clampdown on P2P traffic. The only way to prevent the coming Internet meltdown, he contends, is to filter out uTorrent’s UDP transfers on the ISP level, and the only way to get this done is do away with net neutrality. Right — because if there’s one thing that we’ve learned from the financial sector, it’s that meltdowns are best prevented by doing away with regulation. Less

BLOCKBUSTER Total Access click to activate coupon for $10 off your first month. Free Information on EVault 1-866-928-0735 Why Whitespace is Needed Netbooks Headed to $99 Windows 7 on Bittorrent SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3) Download today’s show. SDR News Links If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here. Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST Free Perfect Now - Getting Closer by Andrew McCaskey And it looks like One is Sufficient It’s been almost ten years since I wrote and presented a Lawrence Lessig style presentation that included a riff on the topic of Free. Perfect, Now. The idea was that customers, in their ideal world, could be satisfied only where their needs were anticipated and met immediately with no cost. The premise was that a product delivered quickly might be very competitive if it was a good match to needs, (although not a perfect solution) . But, the same product delivered with less speed or more process would be much less satisfactory. Two of the sessions at PodcampAZ have confirmed that - in the case of video and social networks, those three degrees have been reduced to one. Free: Free is good, and the ten years of progress now in Web 2.0 interactivity and access are moving close that goal - assuming net access and the time Perfect: Social networks have essentially eliminated much of the uncertainty of the Perfect - in that the filtering of the group and the contributions and comments by the group that add to the video submitted by one of the group refines and qualified the content. That moves it closer to to Perfect Now: On demand or pushed via RSS -the mechanics are in place. And the only missing link is the content to be posted now. As one of the PodcampAZ presenters spoke : There is an audience for every video product - the problem is getting people to put their videos up NOW. Contact Us CES 2008 Coverage for Tech Podcast Network iPhone Heart Rate Monitor App Watch Today’s Video Episode Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . . If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com! Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable. Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2 .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3 More blogs about SlashdotReview… Slashdot Review by Email - Sign up here: Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz Less

My colleague Barbara Esbin, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Communications and Competition Policy at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, was asked to pen a short history of the net neutrality wars in the U.S. for a French publication, La Lettre de l’Autorité.  Her essay provides an excellent, concise overview of where we’ve come from and where we might be heading on this front.  I’ve pasted the entire essay down below, or you can download the PDF here. ________________________ Net Neutrality Regulation in the United States by Barbara Esbin PFF Progress Snapshot Release 4.21 October 2008 The United States moved closer to “Net Neutrality” regulation this year when the Federal Communications Commission found that Comcast, a cable broadband Internet service provider, violated a set of Internet policy principles the FCC adopted in 2005 by limiting peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic. The ruling was the culmination of a ten-year effort that began as a call for wholesale “open access” to the cable platform for third-party Internet service providers. Requests for open access first emerged in 1998 when the FCC considered AT&T’s acquisition of cable operator TCI. The FCC rejected open access, but the issue quickly re-emerged in a subsequent proceeding to determine the appropriate regulatory classification of cable Internet service. Depending on how the FCC categorized cable Internet service, it would either be subject to telecommunications “common carrier” requirements, “cable service” requirements, or treated as a then-unregulated “information service.” In 2002, the FCC classified cable Internet service as an “information service.” This meant that the telecommunications common carrier requirements — that service be provided upon request, without unreasonable discrimination as to rates, terms and conditions of service — would not apply to cable Internet services. The FCC’s decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in NCTA v. Brand X. Afterwards, advocates of open access re-directed their efforts away from advocating wholesale access for third-party ISPs, and towards rules aimed at consumer rights to a “neutral network” or “net neutrality.” In 2005 the FCC extended its deregulatory “information service” approach to wireline broadband Internet services provided, thus freeing telephone companies of traditional common carrier mandates for these services. The FCC’s decisions not to impose cable open access and to relieve telcos of common carrier obligations reflected a policy of fostering infrastructure deployment through market operations. Concurrently, the FCC released a “Policy Statement,” declaring four “entitlements” that Internet service consumers should enjoy: (1) access to lawful content of their choice; (2) ability to run chosen applications and services; (3) ability to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network; and (4) competition among network, application and content providers. The Policy Statement expressly stated that the FCC was not adopting rules and that the principles are subject to reasonable network management. The FCC subsequently stated that it would entertain complaints concerning violations of the principles, and in early 2007, the FCC opened an “Inquiry” into broadband industry practices, seeking information about network management and asking whether it should impose rules. In late 2007, an advocacy group filed a Complaint alleging that Comcast had violated the FCC’s Policy Statement by “secretly degrading” BitTorrent traffic, thus interfering with the Internet rights of its subscribers, and that its practices did not constitute reasonable network management. Several months later, Comcast and BitTorrent agreed to work together to resolve network congestion issues through the use of protocol-agnostic network management. Yet on Aug. 20, 2008, the FCC released an Order purporting to rule on the Complaint, finding that Comcast had violated the Internet policy principles, and rejecting its defense that its practices were reasonable. The FCC ruled that Comcast’s network management practices: discriminated among Internet applications and protocols rather than treating all equally; effectively blocked Internet traffic; posed significant risks of anti-competitive abuse; were inconsistent with “an open and accessible Internet;” and that Comcast’s failure to disclose its practices compounded the harms. Alternative means of managing network congestion approved by the FCC include metered usage and throttling the connection speeds of excessive users. This action was said to be an “adjudication,” although traditional agency complaint rules were not followed. Comcast was given 30 days to disclose to the FCC “the precise contours” of its network management practices and describe what it will do instead to address network congestion. The effect of the Order is to establish a fifth “non-discrimination” Internet policy principle, to be implemented by the FCC through case-by-case adjudication of individual complaints rather than ex ante rules. Thus, 10 years later, and without explicit acknowledgment, the FCC has effectively abandoned its “hands off” approach and imposed a form of common carrier regulation on ISPs. I have written elsewhere on legal and procedural flaws that may doom the Network Management Order. In summary: (1) the FCC has not been granted explicit authority to regulate the provision of broadband “information services;” (2) the “ancillary jurisdiction” on which the FCC relied was not reasonably related to its other statutorily mandated responsibilities; (3) having failed to adopt enforceable rules concerning broadband network management, the FCC could not lawfully subject Comcast to an “adjudication” concerning its practices; and (4) the Complaint filed against Comcast was defective in several respects and should have been dismissed. The Network Management Order has been appealed by Comcast and several advocacy groups. Comcast challenges the basis on which the FCC found that it had violated federal policy in the absence of pre-existing legally enforceable rules. The advocacy groups appealed the FCC’s failure to order Comcast to immediately cease and desist interfering with P2P traffic. The appeals have been consolidated and will be heard by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, a court that has shown little patience for the FCC’s unusual procedures and the FCC’s use of the doctrine of “ancillary jurisdiction” to expand its reach. Meanwhile, several network operators have announced bandwidth caps or plans to implement them. In addition, there are renewed calls both for the FCC to establish ex ante rules and for legislative action to grant the FCC express regulatory authority over broadband Internet service providers. In short, the legal and policy debate over net neutrality continues. ______________ * Barbara Esbin is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Communications and Competition Policy at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Less

My colleague Barbara Esbin, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Communications and Competition Policy at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, was asked to pen a short history of the net neutrality wars in the U.S. for a French publication, La Lettre de l’Autorité.  Her essay provides an excellent, concise overview of where we’ve come from and where we might be heading on this front.  I’ve pasted the entire essay down below, or you can download the PDF here. ________________________ Net Neutrality Regulation in the United States by Barbara Esbin PFF Progress Snapshot Release 4.21 October 2008 The United States moved closer to “Net Neutrality” regulation this year when the Federal Communications Commission found that Comcast, a cable broadband Internet service provider, violated a set of Internet policy principles the FCC adopted in 2005 by limiting peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic. The ruling was the culmination of a ten-year effort that began as a call for wholesale “open access” to the cable platform for third-party Internet service providers. Requests for open access first emerged in 1998 when the FCC considered AT&T’s acquisition of cable operator TCI. The FCC rejected open access, but the issue quickly re-emerged in a subsequent proceeding to determine the appropriate regulatory classification of cable Internet service. Depending on how the FCC categorized cable Internet service, it would either be subject to telecommunications “common carrier” requirements, “cable service” requirements, or treated as a then-unregulated “information service.” In 2002, the FCC classified cable Internet service as an “information service.” This meant that the telecommunications common carrier requirements — that service be provided upon request, without unreasonable discrimination as to rates, terms and conditions of service — would not apply to cable Internet services. The FCC’s decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in NCTA v. Brand X. Afterwards, advocates of open access re-directed their efforts away from advocating wholesale access for third-party ISPs, and towards rules aimed at consumer rights to a “neutral network” or “net neutrality.” In 2005 the FCC extended its deregulatory “information service” approach to wireline broadband Internet services provided, thus freeing telephone companies of traditional common carrier mandates for these services. The FCC’s decisions not to impose cable open access and to relieve telcos of common carrier obligations reflected a policy of fostering infrastructure deployment through market operations. Concurrently, the FCC released a “Policy Statement,” declaring four “entitlements” that Internet service consumers should enjoy: (1) access to lawful content of their choice; (2) ability to run chosen applications and services; (3) ability to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network; and (4) competition among network, application and content providers. The Policy Statement expressly stated that the FCC was not adopting rules and that the principles are subject to reasonable network management. The FCC subsequently stated that it would entertain complaints concerning violations of the principles, and in early 2007, the FCC opened an “Inquiry” into broadband industry practices, seeking information about network management and asking whether it should impose rules. In late 2007, an advocacy group filed a Complaint alleging that Comcast had violated the FCC’s Policy Statement by “secretly degrading” BitTorrent traffic, thus interfering with the Internet rights of its subscribers, and that its practices did not constitute reasonable network management. Several months later, Comcast and BitTorrent agreed to work together to resolve network congestion issues through the use of protocol-agnostic network management. Yet on Aug. 20, 2008, the FCC released an Order purporting to rule on the Complaint, finding that Comcast had violated the Internet policy principles, and rejecting its defense that its practices were reasonable. The FCC ruled that Comcast’s network management practices: discriminated among Internet applications and protocols rather than treating all equally; effectively blocked Internet traffic; posed significant risks of anti-competitive abuse; were inconsistent with “an open and accessible Internet;” and that Comcast’s failure to disclose its practices compounded the harms. Alternative means of managing network congestion approved by the FCC include metered usage and throttling the connection speeds of excessive users. This action was said to be an “adjudication,” although traditional agency complaint rules were not followed. Comcast was given 30 days to disclose to the FCC “the precise contours” of its network management practices and describe what it will do instead to address network congestion. The effect of the Order is to establish a fifth “non-discrimination” Internet policy principle, to be implemented by the FCC through case-by-case adjudication of individual complaints rather than ex ante rules. Thus, 10 years later, and without explicit acknowledgment, the FCC has effectively abandoned its “hands off” approach and imposed a form of common carrier regulation on ISPs. I have written elsewhere on legal and procedural flaws that may doom the Network Management Order. In summary: (1) the FCC has not been granted explicit authority to regulate the provision of broadband “information services;” (2) the “ancillary jurisdiction” on which the FCC relied was not reasonably related to its other statutorily mandated responsibilities; (3) having failed to adopt enforceable rules concerning broadband network management, the FCC could not lawfully subject Comcast to an “adjudication” concerning its practices; and (4) the Complaint filed against Comcast was defective in several respects and should have been dismissed. The Network Management Order has been appealed by Comcast and several advocacy groups. Comcast challenges the basis on which the FCC found that it had violated federal policy in the absence of pre-existing legally enforceable rules. The advocacy groups appealed the FCC’s failure to order Comcast to immediately cease and desist interfering with P2P traffic. The appeals have been consolidated and will be heard by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, a court that has shown little patience for the FCC’s unusual procedures and the FCC’s use of the doctrine of “ancillary jurisdiction” to expand its reach. Meanwhile, several network operators have announced bandwidth caps or plans to implement them. In addition, there are renewed calls both for the FCC to establish ex ante rules and for legislative action to grant the FCC express regulatory authority over broadband Internet service providers. In short, the legal and policy debate over net neutrality continues. ______________ * Barbara Esbin is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Communications and Competition Policy at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Less

In a somewhat ironic chain of events, uTorrent alpha for Mac has been leaked on Pirate Bay.  Initial reviews are positive, with some saying that it runs better than its windows counterpart. The search function seems to be broken though. [via BoinBoing Gadgets]        Less

PPLive, a Singapore start-up that has a P2P video platform for distributing television in Asia has developed a way to accelerate and distribute Flash videos over peer-to-peer networks. The application called PPVA, sits in your task bar and when it detects a Flash video stream, it tries to find folks using the PPVA network who may have cached the same clip. This is good for solving the problems with very-popular files, since there is a likelihood that many more people would have watched the clip. While this seems like a good idea, the guys at NewTeeVee who uncovered the story are being cautious, mostly because of the beta nature of PPVA. The other issue with this technology - it could make the video aggregators like YouTube crazy. Why? Because the first few seconds of the video are streamed from say YouTube and rest from the PPVA network. “This becomes an even bigger issue when advertisers start requesting more detailed statistics about online video usage,” NewTeeVee writes. Nevertheless, it could have some interesting implications for P2P CDN offerings. Less

Byte Podcast # 116 - Descarga directa Esta semana, en Byte Podcast: El ataque injustificado a un sitio que usa el protocolo BitTorrent, y el regreso del podcast Comunicando. La Página de Poncho por partida doble, una actualización del firmware para cámaras Canon Powershot que les agrega muchas nuevas funcionalidades y un par de programas para examinar visualmente el uso de su disco duro en Windows y en Mac. Además, recomendaciones y saludos en la sección de retroalimentación que cierra este episodio, que incluyen un programa para evitar las lesiones por esfuerzo repetitivo en las Mac y un evento de seguridad en León, Guanajuato. Recuerden visitar los foros de Byte, en foros.bytepodcast.com Buzón de voz de Byte: 55 8421-9856 Byte, tecnología aplicada… a la vida. Podcast 116. Duración: 40 minutos Enlaces: Comunicando Podcast Las Páginas de Poncho: 50 cosas que todo mundo debería saber hacer ¿Cómo hacen esas animaciones? Cómo mejorar tu cámara digital Canon Powersho (enviado por Lester) Google Talk Labs Edition DriveSpacio (Windows) y Grand Perspective (Mac OS X) AntiRSI (Mac OS X) (enviado por uqd vía Twitter) Seguridad en Linux 2008 - León, Guanajuato, Sábado 14 de Junio del 2008 (enviado por Héctor) Puzzle Solver, otro sitio para aprender a solucionar el Cubo Rubik (enviado por Julio) Developer Day de Google México. 23 Junio, 2008. Foros de Byte Podcast Byte Podcast @ tumblr Byte Podcast @ Twitter Grabado y Producido en los estudios de Dixo.com Espacio para el archivo MP3 cortesía de Alterno MX Less

ISP and P2P Co-Operation Solar Film Cells with Inkjet Digital Television Investment SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter Contact Us Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3) Download today’s show. CES 2008 Coverage for Tech Podcast Network BumpTop 3D Desktop Prototype Watch the You Tube Episode Today’s Headlines Include… ISP and P2P Co-Operation Solar Film Cells with Inkjet Digital Television Investment SDR News Links If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here. Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST BLOCKBUSTER Total Access click to activate coupon for $10 off your first month. Digital Television Investment by Andrew McCaskey First of all, some words on the 31 Days of The Dragon promotion, with thanks to HP and Buzz Corps. We had some major luck today, with a mention in the UK Guardian - and hope that at least some of you are checking out the podcast for the first time. Welcome. The 31 days are in full swing, with contests in progress now . Each of the 31 sites has an award date, and can begin their contest seven days prior to the award date. Please go to these sites, look up their contest info and register 02 May - 09 May www.absolutevista.com 03 May - 10 May www.arstechnica.com 04 May - 11 May www.osnn.net 05 May - 12 May www.jkontherun.com 06 May - 13 May digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com I’ll be updating each day and keeping you informed on where to go to make sure that you have the rolling registration and maximize your chanced to win. ========== The article on Digital Television- and the government’s interest in making sure that goes smoothly - touched on a viewpoint that I had not considered. Basically, something like 98.5% of the population has television access, and literacy rates are in the 85% range. The $40 coupon /converter box is one of the cheapest ways to reach those remaining 15%. Simple as that. And actually, not a bad thing. Especially if you are a politician. The concluding question- how long will be be before the government pursues broadband access for these same citizens with the same vigor ? As Boss Tweed remarked in the 1870’s - Regarding Nast’s cartoons, Tweed reportedly said, “Stop them damned pictures. I don’t care so much what the papers say about me. My constituents don’t know how to read, but they can’t help seeing them damned pictures! [1] That might explain why there’s not quite as much emphasis on broadband. Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . . If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com! Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable. Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2 .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3 More blogs about SlashdotReview… Slashdot Review by Email - Sign up here: Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz Less

Half of Internet traffic is carried on peer-to-peer networks. For Internet Service Providers handling this traffic, new network management technologies are being explored and implemented. After highly publicized "throttling" of P2P traffic by Comcast and subsequent FCC inquiry and Congressional uproar, Comcast and BitTorrent have entered into a pack to to develop technology to properly manage P2P traffic. Comcast announced a separate initiative with P2P platform Pando. Earlier this week in Manhattan at the Contentinople conference, I interview Erick Klinker, CTO of San Francisco-based BitTorrent. He explained that his company is working closely with Comcast and other ISP's in solving network traffic issues. The work is also future leaning. In this interview, says BitTorrent is working with ISP's on a "new generation" technology which will "significantly speed the delivery of video in the years to come." We didn't get details, but this will be something to follow. P2P is Green! Since I interviewed Eric on April 22, Earth Day, I asked about the environmental value of P2P technology. He explained that P2P can deliver and scale the video needs of the Net without the addition of a single energy-hogging server farm. -- Andy Plesser Less

One Billion Hard Drives Google’s Solar Startup Octoparts Search Engine SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter Contact Us Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3) Download today’s show. CES 2008 Coverage for Tech Podcast Network Singing Tesla Coils - ArcAttack Watch the You Tube Episode Today’s Headlines Include… One Billion Hard Drives Google’s Solar Startup Octoparts Search Engine SDR News Links If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here. Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST BLOCKBUSTER Total Access click to activate coupon for $10 off your first month. Jockey for Position by Andrew McCaskey The sharp elbows and mistruths are not limited to the current Democratic political campaign. There is more than enough to go around in the jockey play between folks like Comcast, AT&T, the FCC and members of Congress. The latest testimony regarding Comcast seems to point to traffic shaping that does not particularly target peer to peer traffic. In fact, it looks like the latest culprit for resource consumption is not p2p but streaming video from the likes of YouTube, Hulu, and the low profile but apparently heavily used Veoh. Add in Joost, Livestation, uStream, Mogulus and a half dozen other video sites, and you will begin to see how the traffic concerns of ISP grow. Peer to Peer - and especially bittorrent make such an easy and attractive target, mainly because the RIAA and MPAA have been doing the heavy attack publicity for so many years that ISP’s feel relatively safe calling out politicians to “solve” that problem. It looks like the greater bandwidth consumer, by far, is the streaming services - and operators like Comcast want a piece of that. In fact, a large helping. So in the guise of fairness - punishing shady characters who are probably stealing anyway - ISP’s assert their property rights to the pipes . Net neutrality be damned. If ISP’s get the political muscle to negate net neutrality then it’s theirs. All of it. And with care, those pesky competitiors can be snuffed out, one by one. After all, they control the pipes. Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . . If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com! Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable. Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2 .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3 More blogs about SlashdotReview… Slashdot Review by Email - Sign up here: Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz Less

Sleep Hacking Terrorists and Web 2.0 Friendly Botnet Defence SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter Contact Us Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3) Download today’s show. CES 2008 Coverage for Tech Podcast Network Moon Buggy and Duct Tape Watch the You Tube Episode Today’s Headlines Include… Sleep Hacking Terrorists and Web 2.0 Friendly Botnet Defence SDR News Links If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here. Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST BLOCKBUSTER Total Access click to activate coupon for $10 off your first month. Friendly Botnet by Andrew McCaskey It looks like that Juvenile Delinquent Bittorrent has some community service time lined up. The University of Washington Phalanx system recruits a number of friendly computer systems to act as front ends for a computer that is subject to Distributed Denial of Service attacks. The simulation showed 7500 such friendly installations could defend against a million machine botnet targeting a friendly installation for DDOS attack. Although the initial idea was to organize these defender processes on machines owned by someone like Akamai or Limelight Networks, researchers suggested that a better way would be to include the code as a process in bittorrent clients. Doing a little good for the community while being used in other ways. That is going to give throttling or shaping ISP’s like Comcast something to think about. It might just be to their advantage to let some of that bittorrent traffic thorough. It might be on a legitimate mission. =================== 31 Day project ? No word yet: I did not get the contracts that I was expecting to be delivered today. (Tuesday). Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . . If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com! Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable. Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2 .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3 More blogs about SlashdotReview… Slashdot Review by Email - Sign up here: Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz Less

Edison Photograph Gets Scooped Amazon Now #2 in MP3 Digital Divide in Search SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter Contact Us Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3) Download today’s show. My Touch Keys Skin for iPhone Watch the You Tube Episode Today’s Headlines Include… Edison Photograph Gets Scooped Amazon Now #2 in MP3 Digital Divide in Search SDR News Links If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here. Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST Digital Divide’s Deepest Divide by Andrew McCaskey The study in a Boston based Psychology Journal offers insight into one of the more subtle issues in the access of information via the internet. We had always been operating under the assumption that the digital divide was caused by socio-economic factors, and that the high cost of equipment and access was the villain. This study indicates that this may not be the case. As the amount of public access in libraries increases, the price of computer hardware drops to the point of almost any consumer entertainment device. And, with the grow of music downloading, IM, social media and higher speed connections, access has become more open. And, we have had ten or fifteen years of at least some skill building in use of computers as they spread throughout society. What has not been keeping pace ? Apparently this study indicates that critical thinking (as manifest by search skills) has not kept pace. While Google is the automatic starting point for the vast majority of educated and skilled workers, the first AOL result is often satisfying and the end point of the investigation. At the rate we are going hardware wise, maybe we should spend less time on keyboarding class, and more time building search skills and the skills in evaluating the information that is found. Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . . If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com! Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable. Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2 .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3 More blogs about SlashdotReview… Slashdot Review by Email - Sign up here: Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz Less

Motorola Split Soap Opera The Digital Presidency Old Technologies Still Kicking SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter Contact Us Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3) Download today’s show. How to Make A Bristle-bot Robot Watch the You Tube Episode Today’s Headlines Include… Motorola Split Soap Opera The Digital Presidency Old Technologies Still Kicking SDR News Links If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here. Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST Old Technology Lessons by Andrew McCaskey The death of radio has been forecast at least four times during the past ninety years - and each time it has been able to reinvent itself as a news and entertainment medium. Even in spite of it’s current state of decay in a Clear-Channel dominated world, the Public Radio segment is alive and well and as the demographic of the Baby Boomers tracks into retirement, radio is well positioned ( along with Podcasting - a form of time shifted / location shifted radio) to fill news and entertainment needs well into the future. The New York TImes reported the same phenomenon in movies and mainframes. It’s sort of encouraging - the fact that after a brief period of orientation and adjustment, the old tech can evolve to meet consumer needs. Not necessarily will evolve, but can. And the fact that it is possible is what means the most. Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . . If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com! Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable. Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2 .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3 More blogs about SlashdotReview… Slashdot Review by Email - Sign up here: Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz Less

40th Birthday for the Cubicle X-Prize $10Million for 100mpg vehicle Airport adds USB for Time Capsule SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter Contact Us Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3) Download today’s show. Global News Special - 92mpg & 0-60 in 5 seconds. N FuelVapor Auto Design Seeks X-Prize Watch the You Tube Episode Today’s Headlines Include… 40th Birthday for the Cubicle X-Prize $10Million for 100mpg vehicle Airport adds USB for Time Capsule SDR News Links If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here. Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST X-Prize at the Right Time by Andrew McCaskey You could not have selected a more suitable time to introduce the X-prize competition if you were seeking some way to capture the imagination of the public. Even those of us who are fortunate to spend most of their working time working from home - as long as the VPN stays up - feel the pinch when we do venture out. RIght now there is a minor blip down to $3.25 a gallon, but within weeks we will be tagging along at the $4 a gallon gasoline limit which extends the pain to the point where almost everyone is affected. The cup holder / chrome competition from traditional American car makers may have finally been broken - and this is an opening for both style and technology to begin to make a real difference. Regardless of the appearance - jet plane or batmobile - if the levels of performance are there, it will certainly capture the imagination of the public. And the zero to sixty in less than five seconds + 92mph will attract attention like nothing else. Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . . If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com! Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable. Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2 .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3 More blogs about SlashdotReview… Slashdot Review by Email - Sign up here: Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz 40th Birthday for the Cubicle X-Prize $10Million for 100mpg vehicle Airport adds USB for Time Capsule Less

As previously predicted and then reiterated last week another public television network has started to dabble in DRM-free BitTorrent distribution. (yeah!) According to Michael Geist the CBC is going to use bittorrent to distribute the program "Canada's Next Great Prime Minister" which airs this Sunday the 23rd. This is not quite as adventureous as Norwegian Public Broadcasting's first try, but it's a good start. Pardon me I spoke to soon. Upon reading up on the CBC's "Next Prime Minister" show, I see now it's an ambitious ongoing show, not just a single special as I had prematurely assumed. This release of an ongoing show is a very ambitious start for the CBC as it will give viewers a chance to establish regular viewing habits week after week. By the end of the series the CBC should have a really good idea if they can establish a regular audience for Internet based TV viewing. While I haven't heard of anything from the Participatory Culture Foundation I certainly hope the two are working on a specialized distribution of the Miro open source TV platform for the CBC, as this would not only be tremendously beneficial to both parties, but I believe it may be essential to the success of the CBC's trial. (hint hint ;) My guess is sometime in the next six months either the BBC and PBS will be the next to embrace BitTorrent distribution on limited programing. Once again I must point out that the model of distribution that the Participatory Culture Foundation has attempted to promote with Miro is exactly what I believe to be the winning model and that a partnership with the CBC would be a logical step on forging alliances with either the BBC or PBS. As to my supposed success in predicting the popularization of BitTorrent by public TV providers it doesn't take a genius to spot this trend. It is one I and other video bloggers have been promoting since as far back as 2004 and it's one the Participatory Culture Foundation has been working on since at least 2006. P2P technology is the only distribution technology that can effectively scale to meet the demands of timely full length and high definition TV programing on the Internet. It is an inevitable part of the future of media distribution on the Internet especially as Internet distributed video gets more timely and gains the attention of large global audiences. Add to this the fact that public radio and television stations such as NPR, the CBC and BBC were some of the first to embrace audio and video podcasting and you have to deduce that sooner or later they would be among the first to start dabbling in BitTorrent TV distribution as well. In fact I have to point out that I'm still amazed that NPR has over 500 podcasts. With this embrace of podcasting by public radio and TV it was only a question was timing, and with Norweigen Broadcasting taking the lead January of this year other public broadcasters were likely to soon follow. If the trend continues then sometime possibly before the end of 2008 we may well see a commercial TV network dabble in BitTorrent distribution as well. Counterpoint Hulu.com Speaking of commercial TV networks there is a very interesting counter point with the launch last week of Hulu.com. Hulu.com is a very centralized, "page centric", albeit fairly sociable attempt at offering full TV and movie screenings to users. So far in my limited experience with it it seems to be holding up (scaling) well to the traffic. However I don't believe demand has been overwhelming do to Hulu's the very inconsistent offerings. To be specific even though there are some great TV and Movie offerings that I think the early adopter / high tech crowd would be interested in (i.e. Battlestar Galactica, Serenity) these offerings often have very inconsistent episodic offerings. It would seem that instead of building viewing habits (an audience) Hulu.com and it's partners are "expiring" older episodes in what I can only guess is some misguided attempt to "tease" fans into purchasing further options. However this just leaves would be fans just as befuddled as the TV scheduling experience, perhaps more so. In short, they have failed to fix the major problem. Hulu.com does not even solve the basic problem that Tivo has solved in letting your return to old episodes you may have missed or might want to see again. If a user has missed an episode there is once again no alternative source for the fan to find these episodes but turning to the bittorrent grey/black markets. Hulu.com should be this catch all, not continue to perpetuate this problem of TV scheduling. Hulu should be offering back episodes so a fan can catch up with an episode they may have missed, or would be fans can preview early episodes to determine if a show is something they're interested in. This does not undermine TV viewership or DVD sales of a show. In fact it supports them. Hulu.com is not, nor is it likely to be an *alternative* to TV. Hulu.com's role in this future should be a *supporting role*. I know of no one who would rather watch their favorite TV show on a computer rather then live on TV or via DVD with no commercial interruptions. As long as content creators struggle to understand this new medium fans will keep returning to p2p grey markets as that catch all solution. It is all about building viewer habits, and as long as media companies fail to provide solutions on which fans can form good habits with good quality alternatives to cable or satellite fans of shows will build habits around p2p grey markets and it will be increasingly costly to lure them from those habits. This is particularly true of younger generations whom are growing up in this age of digital media prohibitions where all they have known is getting their media from the local speakeasy (p2p nets) because there has been know other digital option. To continue with this metaphor... once the prohibition is removed, and work is done to rebuild trust and remove the taboo of digital media consumption.. when these goods come back to an open and sociable market the people will return to the digital sidewalk cafe's of the future and business will be brisk... but it must be natural, and open. No one is likely to return to this market with an attendant watching over them like a hawk, eavesdropping on their conversation and constantly reminding them of the time. Respect, balance and trust must be restored to the digital marketplace and given how badly generations feel it has been betrayed it is not likely they will easily return. It's going to be costly. We need to drag media and digital culture back out onto the open Internet where it can benefit everyone and be a part of a naturally sociable vibrant and bountiful marketplace. This digital prohibition has gone on to long. This last week was the ten year aniversary of the mp3 player. TEN YEARS and only this year have the major labels finally started selling mp3's. If you failed to respond to your customers for ten years where would your business be? Less

Beatles on iTunes Demise of Hotspots Apple and World Domination SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter Contact Us Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3) Download today’s show. Retro Entabulator Watch the You Tube Episode Today’s Headlines Include… Beatles on iTunes Demise of Hotspots Apple and World Domination SDR News Links If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here. Thumbnail Views: Via Thumblicio.us SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST Hotspots Going Obsolete by Andrew McCaskey Ericsson would like us to believe that hotspots are going to go obsolete. OOps I thought that they were just now getting here. I am a bit skeptical on the predictions - not being sure that Ericsson/Sony are in a position to insure the unconditional success of HSPA as a wireless broadband technology. In the long run, though - they might be right. I expect that it will not be along the lines that they will be happy with - I expect that the next overbuild will be along similar lines that MCI and Sprint did in years gone by to traditional telcos . Simple bypass to commercial accounts, but now with the additional capability to use Wimax to hit early adopter and prosumer accounts are going to leave both Telcos and traditional (voice ) wireless in a race to the bottom - as if it’s not already close. Click to view videos submitted or recommended by other SDR podcast listeners. . . If you find a YouTube video that pertains to one of our news items, or have produced an item that would be of interest to SDR listeners, please send us the link slashdotreview{at}gmail.com Save $10 on any order of $50 or more at GoDaddy.com! Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable. Take 10% off any order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH Take $5 off any $30 order at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH2 .com Domains $6.95 at GoDaddy.com! Code SLASH3 More blogs about SlashdotReview… Slashdot Review by Email - Sign up here: Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz Less

Fascinating call this week as Mike Wolf of ABI Research talks to Ashwin Navin, the President and cofounder of BitTorrent. Ashwin gives some of the background on the founding of the company with Bram Cohen and goes on to talk about some of the company’s initiatives with its BitTorrent DNA, efforts to put the BitTorrent client in consumer electronics devices, as well as talking about the company’s efforts to work with media companies to overcome the long-held perception that P2P is a dirty word. Take a listen: download link Less