August 24th, 2007 by Jake
A little contradictory considering my last entry, I know. But I just recently found out that Comcast, using a special network application, is blocking BitTorrent seeding. Using specific software known as Sandvine, it allows Comcast to allow upload traffic, but only when a download is in progress. As soon as you start seeding, this application tags all BitTorrent traffic with the “RST” flag (read more about the RST flag at Wikipedia).
I’ve recieved mixed reports about this. Some of my fellow Comcast subscribers say they have been affected by this new software, others closer in proximity to my location have reported that this is not the case (yet).
Either way, this is the beginning of the end for the internet, as far as I can tell. First one protocol, then another, then it’s $5/mo extra to access YouTube, then it’s $1/mo/service you want to use on their lines (HTTP, FTP, SSH, etc). Okay, maybe it won’t be that bad, at least not for awhile. But it could be the future of the internet for your kids… and guess who’s gonna pay that bill? :)
August 7th, 2007 by Jake
Comcast, my ISP, is great. They sign you up for (in my case) an 8MB/1MB connection, but after the first few months of service, I noticed my bandwith increasing. I did a speed test, and the download was for the most part unmetered. The upload had a small increase. I don’t know why Comcast does what they do, but my internet is about 3x faster than it was (I get burst speeds of up to 2.5MB/sec, and solid downloads at about 1.2MB/sec). Here’s a speed test I ran just a few mintues ago:
For the most part, I can tell what kind of internet or bandwith limits a server has when I’m downloading from it (i.e. one site may cap its downloads at 200k/s whereas another may give me as much as 800k/s, others are as fast as my cable line). I really like their policy on home networks, too, they guarantee an internet connection to your house, but after that it’s up to you to configure your home network the way you want it to run (no router support unlike AT&T DSL, for example).
August 2nd, 2007 by Jake
Maxthon2 has just moved out of release candidate stage and is now ready for public consumption. Give it a try, download it here.
Maxthon2 sports a new look, free accounts that hold your favorites and other settings online so you’ll never lose them, and other neat little features like a built-in screen capture utility, built-in ad hunter/popup blocker, and content control (disable images, javascript, flash, ActiveX, etc). I’ve only just named a few, so go give Maxthon a try.
April 11th, 2007 by Jake
Awhile ago I blogged about a new guitar I had bought from a cousin of mine, and I hosted the picture of it in my images directory here. Funny how the Internet works… here are some statistics pertaining to that image file from April 1, 2007 to current date:
#reqs #pages %bytes URL
2492 1557 8.48% http://images.google.com/imgres
1535 0 14.07% http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm
Which basically means that the image has moved high up in Google’s image search (try searching for ‘warlock guitar’ on Google Images, it’s on the first page), as well as being on over 25 MySpaces, some forum signatures, and other miscellaneous sites around the ‘net. That image is the top file requested off my server, and contributes to my bandwith usage somewhat considerably. What’s neat, too, is that I actually “made” that image to an extent. There was originally another guitar behind this one, so I had to do a bit of editing work and cut it out. Oh, and the shadow was me, too. Incidentally, this image is more popular than the original I took it from.
Considering its apparent popularity, here it is again in all it’s (mysterious) glory:
Rock on.
Update: If you search for ‘guitar’ on Google Images, this very guitar is second in the list (at time of update, will probably change). I don’t know if that’s supposed to make me feel good about myself, or if that’s supposed to be some sort of achievement or what, but I think it’s pretty neat.
February 13th, 2007 by Jake
Prompted by a friend who was prompted by Teach42 who was prompted by Chris Craft who called for an Internet Speed Test meme. Funny how these things move along the internet, isn’t it. Too bad it isn’t accurate, I wish I had 14Mbit internet.
Results of a real speed test are below.
