Bit torrent’s were developed as a P2P protocol which allowed fast sharing of information on the internet. The owner of the company Bram Cohen released the first version in 2001 as a way for researchers and others in the IT community to share information over the internet fast and hassle free. The initial design had a server or <"tracker" who holds information of who has which files among the several hundred if not thousands of users out on the internet. Those who conducted searches checks in with the tracker to see who has which and re-directs those who search for a particular file and then commences downloading the contents. The advantage is that if there were several users logged on with the same file (say a program) the one’s that are most likely to succeed are elected to be the primary source of the parts of the file and if that user happens to log-out out of the net, others with the same files can become alternates sources continuing the download without interruptions.
Anti-Piracy advocates have been after the technology which has taken on the role left by the many file sharing sites that have since been shut down due to the fact that the information being shared (well mostly all of them) are subject to copyright. The files or information themselves stay within the individual user’s computer with them only being made available if chosen to or if registered as a viable source on the tracker.
The newest version of the Bit torrent system as of 2007 eliminates the need for a tracker system instead making each and every computer a server on its own getting set up in so short a time to get starting downloads. The technology is mainly aimed at those who are connected at least to broadband services with those on dial-up being denied access to save on bandwidth consumes by the said slow-connection computers.
A company owned by the developer of Bit Torrent known as Bit Torrent Inc. who develops and distributes the system for more real-world applications such as RSS feeds, Content Updating and many other should we say useful applications continues to develop the technology for more commercial applications.
When things go wrong: Internet Casualties… US.
During the infancy of the internet much thought was given to the free exchange of ideas and thoughts and everything was accessible to everyone. Sad to say those who were up to no good saw the potential for spreading their dark ways and used the net as a way to promote their handy work. Public outcry resulted in some form of control in the form of credit cards which was a sure indicator of age and status. Then came credit card fraud and so on and so forth. By this stage, the internet has become a very harsh place where information was made available as long as it was general knowledge. All information that was termed as sensitive was locked behind tons of security (as if it never was, and that’s why you can get schematics for building your own nuclear bomb on the net…Uhuuuh).
The Net continued to evolve till today when there is another net the so-called Net-II, which was pioneered by who else, Microsoft. Nowadays, you can still find information that you think should not be available to the public but rest assured you are being watched. Government’s across the world employ security measures and counter-terrorism precautions such as leaving bait pages and see who bites, then they have all the fun by snooping for more and more information about the said individual. This investigation that they call can span the globe and the respective governments allocate billions of dollars in the pursuit of such intelligence (which is kinda’ paranoid if you’d ask me). Let’s just hope it does what it is supposed to and prevents another plane from crashing into some other landmark or high-profile building.
The World’s Fastest Computers
Some of the world’s fastest computers are actually purposely designed machines that are used mainly in the Medical industry to analyze Viruses and in the drive to map the Human Genome project. IBM has released a new processor chip that is designed to run three times faster than Intel’s current Itanium processors. The said supercomputer chip was integrated into their latest supercomputer and was labeled the Power6 Microprocessor Chip that run’s at a whopping 4.7Ghz and at a processor bandwidth of 300 Gigabytes. Wow… Now if that were inside your home desktop, won’t that be pretty. The said chip doubles the capacity and speed of past chips and the good thing about it is that it runs basically on the same power requirements.
The new supercomputer servers come in 2 to 16-cores beating HP’s current Superdome Server by three times. Now, we can be sure the price of such computers run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars but we’re quite sure the companies who do have them makes use of them for the embitterment of mankind. IBM is expected to release another fastest computer later in the year adding to the list of computers that run in the tera-flop range. With their lead in the server-wars first won by IBM-Blue in 2004 which was known as the first ever super computer and was used to simulate the effects of the US’s ageing nuclear arsenal. Major clients of such machines are NASA, the Defense Department and major Pharmaceutical firms.