#mini assignment

[beturbecky]

An angry moom!

[reginavaleria96]

Torrent: Between Advantages and Legality

Bittorrent downloads are illegal, right? Wrong. Almost everyone, especially those who are familiar with internet knows, or at least have heard of Torrent. Torrent or BitTorrent is mostly associated to piracy download. That’s because file sharing has generally gotten negative press. BitTorrent is certainly used for piracy, but it’s also used for many legal things. There are many legal uses of torrent and are plenty of websites out there that offer free and legal Torrent downloads to save bandwidth and make file sharers happy at the same time. There are still many copyright issues. Even so, file sharing using torrent is has been proven as beneficial for many parties, and people who want to get the most out of technology need to learn how to use it.

BitTorrent is a protocol supporting the practice of peertopeer file sharing that is used to distribute large amounts of data over the Internet. Rather than downloading a file from a single source server the BitTorrent protocol allows users to join a "swarm" of hosts to download and upload from each other simultaneously.

First of all someone will have to create a torrent. This can easily be done in any BitTorrent client such as uTorrent. Once the Torrent is created a small descriptor file (also called a torrent file) is created. This file contains metadata about the files and folders to be shared and usually also a list of the network locations of trackers which are servers that tell you where to contact other computers (or peers) that are also sharing or downloading this file. This very small torrent file that we created can then be shared with others over the internet by uploading it to a BitTorrent site or sending it via email.

When someone opens this Torrent file with a BitTorrent client the client will now know what it should download and it will then contact the tracker and download a list of peers and will attempt to connect to them. Initially there will only be one seeder and most clients support a function called "initial Seeding". This will upload a small chunk of data (usually about 4 megabytes) to one peer and then another chunk to the other etc. Eventually we are left with loads of peers with just a small chunk of data. These peers will then become seeders and will start uploading their own chunk to others while at the same time downloading other chunks from other peers.

 It is important to note however that your client will "prefer" to connect to peers with faster upload speeds. Meaning that if you don't share the chunk that you got the amount of connections to you will decrease. The big files that you share usually get transfered in "pieces". These pieces get prioritized by availabilty. The Bittorrent client is then able to sort these pieces out no matter what order they come in.

The basic principle of Torrent is “user has to upload data while they are downloading”. Therefore, a downloading user will act as a server at the same time. The download speed will be really dependent to the number of Seed (SE) and Peer/Leech (PE). A Leecher is someone who downloads the file but after downloading it stops sharing the torrent with anyone else.This results in slow download speeds for everyone else. Even if your upload speed is 2 Kilobytes per second it adds up. Say 100 Seeders are seeding at 2 Kilobytes per second then the total upload speed adds up to almost 2 Megabytes per second.

Here’s an example of the procedure: a) A has a file he wants to share (or seed), so he tells the detail to a main server (tracker). b) B notices a new file from A and download .torrent file. c) Torrent client in B PC will contact the tracker and get the respond that there is one seed (A) and told A’s IP address. d) B starts downloading from A. e) After B finishes downloading a part, it will starts seeding the part, so that burden taken by A will decrease. f) There are now 2 seed for the file. This will go on and on so number of seed will keep increasing and download will be faster. And that's how BitTorrent works.

µTorrent, or uTorrent, is an extremely popular BitTorrent client. I found 9/10 BitTorrent user around me use uTorrent as Client. BitTorrent is lightweight, with the size of a little over 1 MB, making it easy to set up and get running quickly. It also offers a fair amount of configuration and performance options and advanced settings such as automation, scripting, remote management and more. And most importantly, it is available for free on http://www.utorrent.com/ and does the job really well. uTorrent It is generally recommend to not use any port in the range 6881-6889 or ports under 1025. Any other port except for 25 or 110 is acceptable.

Torrent is identic to piracy. However, not all the files in Torrent is pirated files. Blizzard, for example, uses BitTorrent custom client to distribute updates for its games including World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo 3. Torrent may help to increase download speed for everyone by distributing their upload bandwidth to others. At the same time, this will also help Blizzard to reduce their bandwidth bill and they can save more money.

BitTorrent can be used to distribute large file without paying for web hosting bandwidth. A free movie, music album, or game can be hosted at BitTorrent, making it easier, where people downloading those files also help to distribute them. WikiLeaks distribute their data through BitTorrent to reduce significant resources on their server. Linux distribution uses BitTorrent to help their ISO CD. And if you search the internet, there are many sites for free and legal torrents such as LegalTorrents.com, SXSW.com, Legit Torrents, and so on. Of course, sites like The Pirate Bay are still the major source for Bittorrent traffic. But legitimate platforms offer just enough content for you.

Now you know the advantages of BitTorrent. BitTorrent is what is powering a faster, congestion-aware Internet. BitTorrent is how we keep classic books like 'Around the World in 80 days' alive for future generations. And if you want more proof, simply visit http://www.doesbittorrentequalpiracy.com/ and be convinced that BitTorrent does not equal to piracy, but beneficial instead.

Sources:

http://www.utorrent.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D43-Hv3nSHs http://www.bittorrent.com http://help.bittorrent.com/ http://www.warungtechnology.com/2014/03/bagaimana-cara-kerja-bittorrent.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BitTorrent_clients http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-legal-uses-for-bittorrent-youd-be-surprised/

[violettsirblou]

SoundHound as Music-Search Review

               When we talk about search engines, the first thing that will come to people’s mind will usually be Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Yet, there’s actually a lot of search engines that is specified for particular types. It could be video-search, such as Youtube, film-search; IMDB, book-search; Goodreads, music search, or any type of search on the internet. These search engines are usually provided in the shape of an application to help user do the searching more convenient. Music search, in particular, is  one of the most important search-engine that was ever invented. Because, we listen to music, non-physically, which means sometimes when we wanted to search a particular music or song, we can’t describe it with words and writing, instead we could only sing the song or hum it. It needs an advanced kind of search engine to do the search. Luckily, through a lot of evolution and development, nowadays music-search are packaged with sound recognition. One of the most popular music-search is SoundHound.

SoundHound is an audio recognition application that can listen to a music/ sound and then search the song/ music title and details (including the lyrics if there’s any). In short, it’s a music search engine that use sound-recognition and sound-search technology.  SoundHound application is available on the Apple Store, Windows Phone Store, Google Play, and Blackberry 10 platform. SoundHound enables users to identify sound or music recorded through their device’s microphone. It’s special feature is that it could recognize tracks from singing, humming, speaking, and recording from a poorly-hummed performances to professional recordings that are achieved through “Sound2Sound” technology. On the other hand, user can also do the search by speaking or typing the name of the artist, composer, song and piece of the lyrics. SoundHound has the option to register so user can keep their SoundHound history safe and sync’ed across multiple devices.

Feature Details:

Music Search --- When user listens to a music that he or she wanted to identify, user can directly record it using their device’s microphone on the app’s main page. If the device is offline at the moment, SoundHound will store it on Pending Searches, which will be able to be identified later when the device is connected online. User can also just hum or sing the song if they couldn’t get the actual recording of the song.

Music Player --- Aside from helping user to search music, SoundHound also provides music player. It could detect the device’s collection ofmusic and playlists and enables user to browse the song’s lyric on the internet if there’s an available connection to the internet.

World Music Map (partnering with Rdio) --- SoundHound’s World Music Map is a mapping feature that allows users to see, at that exact moment, what songs are being discovered and listened to by people on their street or anywhere else in the world. Amplified by Rdio, a digital music service with a library of more than 18 million songs, SoundHound’s music mapping feature enables users to explore what songs are trending in their backyard and around the world. Users can dig in and learn more about the song and artists and have the option to share with their friends and colleagues through various social sites, buy the song, view videos or link directly to the Rdio app where they can listen to the full track.

Charts (Popular Songs, New Songs, Trending Near You, Artists Born Today) --- SoundHound chart features the popular songs, new songs, songs that are popular/ trending near you (if you enable GPS and and network), and the birthdays of popular artists of the day.

Disadvantages and Advantages

Disadvantages – SoundHound application is quite “heavy” because it takes a lot of memory. Which is why intially, when user launch the app, it takes some time to load everything. Most probably because the collection of songs in the music player that needs to be loaded first when user opens the app. This also effect the sound-recognition search to become slower and sometimes crashes.

Advantages – SoundHound’s sound-recognition is what makes it stand out among the other music search engines. Because, as said before, not all the time can people search music by words and lyrics, sometimes the closest way to identify a strange song/ music can only be done by playing, singing, or humming the tune of the song, which makes sound-recognition as an important feature.

Profit

SoundHound is a product of SoundHound Inc., an audio recognition and cognition company, which develops sound-recognition and sound-search technologies that was found in 2005 by Keyvan Mohajer. With over 260 million users worldwide, SoundHound Inc. has a total revenue of $15.859 for the income statement. SoundHound actually captured three profit sources. If user finds a song after searching using SoundHound and decides to buy it, SoundHound gets a share of the profit. The other income is from applications download. There is a free version and a paid version of the app. With the free version, users can only listen to 5 songs per month, or pay for more, and upgrade to the paid version. Users can either choose to pay $0.99 for every 5 additions, or pay $4.99 at one time for access to unlimited songs. The third one is advertising. The free apps are embedded with advertisements which also contributes greatly to SoundHound’s income. SoundHound also encourages the users to record music through online recording studios, so as to contribute songs to SoundHound’s database. If a musician is talented enough, they might be able to produce themselves and generate a cash flow. Currently, there are user recordings in more than 30 languages.    

Improvement

I personally think that all features that are currently available in SoundHound app are satisfying enough. The only deficiency is that sometimes SoundHound still doesn’t have a complete database for the lyrics of the songs that has been searched. So I think SoundHound should always update their song lyrics database to satisfy their user needs. And also fix the bugs that sometimes cause the app to get crashed and closed.

In conclusion, I think SoundHound has done a great contribution for the music industry by facilitating user with an advanced search engine by using sound-recognition feature, which also makes SoundHound unique among other music searches.

References:

Wikipedia.org

The Priniciple of Profit Models by Guiping Lin, Wei Wei, Wuxiang Zhu

[marensdailysnippets]

Mini Assignment for September 21

On your dashboard, use the text button to post some information about:

who you are

what your interests are

what you want people to know about you

what you are hoping to learn from blogging

This can be done in one post or more.  Don't forget about GRAMMAR!

[uclaroleplay]

Assignment: Getting to know your character better

Each day is a small assignment, nothing major. Once again participation is not mandatory but is encouraged. It will start today, Wednesday August 15th, and go until sunday and hopefully a bigger assignment will be posted on monday. Don't worry if you miss a day, you can still participate. I know this seems to be a busy time of the year with school picking back up again. Pick and choose at your will. This is just so we can hopefully get the ball rolling again like that anon pointed out.

Wednesday: Post a song and lyrics that your character would enjoy or that relates to your character.

Thursday: Post a picture of your characters dream house, dream place to live.

Friday: Post a quote that relates to your character or that your character takes to heart

Saturday: Post some pictures of things your character would typically wear. Clothing choice can say a lot about a person.

Sunday: Post a picture of your character's idol.

[makeup1101]

It's a mini me c: