bitTorrent, it's a nice idea...

I have found a nice, and easy way to show why I think BitTorrent is a nice idea, but will not work in it's current implementation. My brother told me that the new Podcast Ctrl+Alt+Chicken was really really funny, so I decided to pull it and watch it when I get home.

I decided to try the torrent of the file, since it was released today, and would have loads of people both pulling and seeding the file, right?

Here is my result:


Click the pic for a popup of the full size image...

So... like I said. nice idea, but in the end, it ain't werkin with the current implementation. Especially, with all the leeches that just pull the file and drop off their torrent client. Then again, I understand that too. I mean, really, who wants your sys admin knocking on your cube wall?

a pretty decent combo...

This was an interesting lil combo that I noticed. A friend of mine had asked about a good remote to control the audio playing through an Airport Express. After having told him that his best option was to plug his computer into the TV, and use an IR remote, I came across an application called iSee iTunes on one of the Mac News sites that I frequent. What it does is remotely control the audio playing in iTunes. It even shows the album art, and a time bar that animates along with the current time of the song. Now this got me thinking why not take your Mac desktop that sits running in your office all day long. Put all you songs on your iTunes share on that computer. Then get a Tivo and plug it into your TV. Now, here is where it gets fun. Buy an Apple Airport Express with AirTunes, and plug that into your home entertainment system.

Viola!

You should now be able to see/control your iTunes music on your TV with your Tivo running the iSee iTunes software.

iSee iTunes - $free (donations happily excepted. ;-)
iTunes - $free from Apple
Airport Express with AirTunes - $129.00
Tivo - $99 after mail in rebate (small print: service fees apply. Either monthly or lifetime subscription required. but hey... who doesn't have a Tivo these days? My mother-in-law has a Tivo...... ok.... ok.... i don't have one)
Total: ability to control all your music from your TV, and feel the true power of a geek.....priceless

--Audio Version--

I had an idea today...

I had started a homepage for my default page on my local machine. The reason that i did this was so that i could spawn my DotMac bookmarks in Firefox. Having stopped using Safari as my default browser it was nice to have access to my bookmarks again. So, now I have a page that when I hit it I can get quick and easy access to my bookmarks and the window pops up and jumps out of the way to the right hand side of my screen. Now this got me to thinking. Side note: I work at AOL, so having access to info like how many new mail messages i have and if I received new mail from any application is pretty standard. Anyway, I was thinking, what if Apple offered up an API that I could tap into and then include this on my homepage(default page). I could then get my bookmarks and my mail, or maybe just a new mail notification. I could even put it in Flash if it is based on XML. hhmmmm.....

First place I found was here:

http://developer.apple.com/internet/dotmackit.html

No time to look now, but more later....

--Audio Version--