technology

This BoingBoing entry mentions a new product designed to block BitTorrent packets. Apparently the developer (Akonix) is getting companies to buy and deploy this product by spreading lies about the BitTorrent application and protocol, saying that it causes users to inadvertently share sensitive files. Sounds like a silly product in the first place, as a few simple firewall rules would accomplish the same feat. Anyway, I wish I only had to worry about BitTorrent being blocked....

Wired News has decided to no longer capitalize the “I” in “Internet”, which will now simply be spelled “internet”. At the same time, “Web” becomes “web” and “Net” becomes “net”. I wonder if this sets a big enough precedent that other people start adopting the new spelling. It kind of makes sense to me.

I found this nice website on anonymous web browsing. It covers official anonymizers as well as other services that can be used for this purpose, such as Altavista’s Babelfish. Interesting…

Here’s an interesting site: Bitoogle, a BitTorrent search engine (via Boing Boing). It’s funny how BitTorrent, which was really just implemented to speed up downloads of large files and not for filesharing, turned into a popular and efficient filesharing application…

We are very excited about moving into our new house this Friday. All of the basic utilities are taken care of, we have phone service and cable TV, etc. Unfortunately, DSL won’t be active until Wednesday, so we’ll be without high-speed Internet access for around 5 days! I guess we’ll be busy unpacking and therefore hopefully won’t miss it too much, but after having cable Internet service for a good 3 years and DSL for two years before, it’ll still be awkward....