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Wil Wheaton: Yo Hollywood, Let Me Download Ubuntu
- todd3834 14y agoUbuntu is the only thing I ever use BitTorrent for and I'm so happy BitTorrent exists when I need to download Ubuntu
- paulhauggis 14y agoYo liberals, let me go hunting with an AK-47.
- sp332 14y agoAn AK is an assault rifle, not so good for hunting. A nice Remington 700 will do you better. But if you really want to... who's stopping you?
- nfriedly 14y agoIt is illegal in at least some parts of the USA... still not sure how it's related to bit torrent and Linux though.
- sp332 14y agoOh? I know there are restrictions, like magazine size etc. but I didn't know it was outlawed.
- jack-r-abbit 14y agoI believe they are trying to compare the argument for not blocking BitTorrent to an argument for less gun control. Argument A: While BitTorrent is widely used for piracy, it has practical uses too so please don't ban it outright. Argument B: While the AK-47 is widely used for mass shootings, it has practical uses too so please don't ban it outright. Argument X: While [some thing] is widely used for [some bad stuff], it has practical uses too so please don't ban it outright. But as others have pointed out, the AK-47 is not a suitable hunting weapon... unless you plan to totally mess up the deer.
- subway 14y agoTotally mess up the deer? I'm not sure how you've come to that conclusion. An AK-47 fires a 7.62x39mm round, which is smaller than rounds like a .30-30 (7.62x51) or .30-06 (7.62x63), commonly used for deer hunting. And as I mentioned in another comment, while an AK-47 is not an ideal rifle for hunting, it is a very cost effective choice.
- jack-r-abbit 14y agoThe AK-47 is capable of getting out more rounds in less time than a traditional hunting rifle. So you'd be able to shoot the crap out of something a bit easier. So if that was your plan then the AK-47 is ideal. Otherwise... not so much. That was all.
- subway 14y agoYou do realize the vast majority of AK-47s (at least those available in the US for less than $10k) are semi-automatic, right?
- jack-r-abbit 14y agoDoesn't matter. Parent post made no mention of what type of AK-47 they were using and where. The fact remains, AK-47s can be full-auto thus are capable of putting out more rounds faster. If you would like to go with the assumption that the parent post was referring to only a semi-auto AK-47 (in the US?) then we can certainly agree that it would not mess up a deer any more or less than a traditional hunting rifle. I'm cool with that. ;)
- maxerickson 14y agoA typical AK-47 is select fire. So someone hunting deer with a fully automatic capable AK-47 would likely set it to semi-automatic.
- mjwalshe 14y ago
- subway 14y agoWhile a Rem 700 would certainly be a more accurate and effective rifle, it is also significantly more expensive to purchase and feed than an AK variant or SKS would be. 7.62x39mm is dirt cheap, as are rifles capable of firing the round, and that is a strong selling point for impoverished families who help feed themselves by hunting.
- sp332 14y agoOK that's a good point.
- GFKjunior 14y agoNot a good choice for hunting. AK's have pretty terrible aim, sure you can throw them in mud or have rocks in the magazine and they will work but the accuracy is hardly worth it. I have an ak merely because it looks cool. If you must use a semi-automatic to go hunting get an ar-15.
- sasha-dv 14y agoSure, compared to some other rifles it's not as precise, but I can shoot you in the head from a distance of 150 m - and I'm not exactly Thomas Beckett. There were guys in my ex-platoon who could shoot you in the eye. (Not that I want to shoot you :)
- rmc 14y agoComparing hacking tools to weapons might be a clever hack to get the US courts to allow you to use it, however that'll be used against the rest of the world. "Sorry we have to ban this, it's a weapon! Even the US courts think it's a weapon!" Please consider hackers all over the globe.
- dfc 14y agoClever hack of the legal system? Good luck. A similar argument was tried in the old days of ITAR v. Crypto and it never worked.
- jes5199 14y agoThat takes me back to the days of "military strength encryption", in the 90s, when you weren't allowed to let any code that used a longer than 40-bit encryption key to leave the country because it was too dangerous.
- kprobst 14y agoGood luck hitting a whitetail at 400 yards with one of those.
- Sanddancer 14y agoYou can, even in pinko California. Just make sure you get a bullet button kit for your AK and you're set to go. If you want an automatic, I'm not finding any hard and fast rules for if fish and game allows it, but if you pay your $200 tax stamp and get approved by the sheriff, it's totally cool. I don't think your decision is very logical, though. An AK-47 is a pretty craptastic rifle -- unless you're going to be trudging for miles and miles without a cleaning kit, you don't need its legendary reliability. If you need the rapid fire, then there are one of two issues here. The first, is that the deer are coming at you in such quantities and ferocity that suppressive fire is needed, then you're going to need at least a platoon sized group here, possibly with airstrike backup, and well-coordinated plans for dealing with the cervine hordes. Either that, or you are a pretty crappy shot, and need to spend some range time before you try hunting.
- whalesalad 14y agoThe funny thing is, as far as I can tell, these are the only two widespread uses of BitTorrent. 1) Pirating movies, music, etc... 2) Downloading Linux distributions.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- aphistic 14y agoMore and more games are using it as a patching tool these days. Blizzard has been using BitTorrent to distribute patches for years with WoW.
- whalesalad 14y agoIndeed I have noticed this. I think it's great technology and more services should be using it. The Blizzard case is a great example of it being used pretty transparently/behind-the-scenes. I'd love to hear more non-transparent cases though. I genuinely cannot think of a time i've used it aside from stealing an album or grabbing debian.
- cryptoz 14y ago> I genuinely cannot think of a time i've used it aside from stealing an album or grabbing debian. It's definitely not stealing. I'm not sure what the preferred legal term for "pirating" is right now, but it's something like "intellectual property infringement". Stealing implies that you removed the original from the owner and refuse to give it back. That is not the case.
- stinkytaco 14y agoEvery time someone makes this argument I feel like they're undermining the point they are trying to make. You sound like a politician trying to couch his corruption in some legal technicality ("depends on what the definition of "is" is"). There are lots of reasons to look at the content industry and say "You are screwing us over, taking our rights and laughing all the way to the bank while you cry to our faces, you suck" but making up bullshit only makes you seem like you’re pedaling it too. Instead of buying it, you took it. That's basically stealing.
- snowwrestler 14y agoI think this is a bit of a straw man. Hasn't the FCC already made it clear that blocking entire protocols is illegal? And, I don't know that I can recall many content folks arguing that BitTorrent as a whole should be blocked. My memory is that they complain that BitTorrent is heavily used for piracy (which is factually accurate), and propose ways to stop the piracy. For example SOPA did not target BitTorrent as a protocol or technology, but instead tried to shut down foreign websites that provide links to pirated content.
- megaman821 14y agoWhy do ISPs even bother try to shut down BitTorrent? It is not the protocol that makes people share files. If file-sharers had to they would be sharing files over SMTP. Instead the media companies and ISPs should be using BitTorrent as a way to reduce their distribution costs.
- nkassis 14y agoBecause it's very bandwidth efficient. It will try to maximize the bandwidth it has available to download and upload which ISP do not want. Sustained 100% usage of your bandwidth is not what they optimize for. At least that's what I think is their reasoning.
- rmc 14y agoBecause lots of people only can BitTorrent. If you stop BT, then lots of your customers who are using bandwidth will give up and get their pirated files elsewhere. A dedicated advanced minority will not. The purpose of blocking isn't to block all pirating (which it fails at), but to significantly reduce bandwidth (which it does).
- ticks 14y agoBitTorrent moves the bandwidth load towards the street-level networking gear, which is expensive to upgrade because there's lots of it. The copyright lobbies just give them a convenient excuse for getting rid of the problem.
- ender7 14y agoI just installed Diablo III, most of which was delivered to me via BitTorrent. It worked pretty great. In theory, Apple et al could also use BT to distribute movies, yes? Have iTunes run a modified BT client that only connects to other approved clients?
- oskarth 14y agoThere are some somewhat big, and most importantly legal, actors that do this already for music :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify#Technical_information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify#Technical_information
- libraryatnight 14y agoIf there were a TV network sponsored torrent site with a monthly subscription, and no DRM, I would throw my money at them so fast. I doubt this will happen, though.
- periferral 14y agoDRM or not, this seems like a great way to distribute content.
- rmc 14y agoBitTorrent is a great technical advancement. It's a fantastic, brilliant, genius new invention that makes it much much easier to share data. It, paradoxically, gets faster the more people who want to download! It's a brilliant technical solution to a big, pressing, expensive problem. I am annoyed when such a marvelous technical solution is seen as nothing more than a shady, illegal software. ☹
- biot 14y agoBitTorrent is like a lock pick set. There are valid uses such as if you've locked yourself out of your house, but if the majority of people use a lock pick set to unlock the back door to a movie theater and sneak in to watch movies without paying no doubt it would be perceived similarly.
- gcb 14y agoyou just made their case against bittorrent easier! Ubuntu have a bittorrent client, and everyone knows that's only used to pirate movies and music! so it's a facilitator.
- radarsat1 14y agoIt's too bad debtorrent hasn't taken off. It won't happen until it's made available by default.
- B-Con 14y ago> One of the things that drives me crazy is the belief in Hollywood that bittorrent exists solely for stealing things. Efforts to explain that this is not necessarily true are often met with hands clamped tightly over ears, accompanied by "I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA." When has this actually happened? I don't know of anyone who has said that bittorrent is inherently illegal, they've just argued that it's mostly used for illegal activities. It's not that bars are illegal, it's that 80% of the people in that bar meet to smuggle things on the black market. That invites attention toward the medium. It's a valid complaint. Bittorrent is abused for piracy a lot. It's silly to pretend otherwise. But this is a case where you can't shut down the medium just because it's abused. In some cases it actually is a perfectly valid solution, but this just isn't one of them. I think that they might come to understand that, but I don't think they assume bittorrent is itself illegal. They just see it as a medium for copyright infringement. Who wouldn't at least consider attacking a widely abused medium?
- throwaway54-762 14y agoWhat's faster than one mirror and works when bittorrent doesn't? Twenty mirrors: aria2c --split=20 MIRROR1 MIRROR2 MIRROR3 MIRROR4 … MIRROR20
- readme 14y agoOf course the people who wont listen to you are probably ignorant enough to think that using free software is stealing the opportunity of a proprietary software developer to make a sale.
- rglover 14y agoI think Hollywood should try one of the following: 1.) Limited, free, online streaming of films (a la NPR doing previews of new music releases). 2.) Seed torrents of films that are heavily advertised. Essentially, give consumers the whole film, but overlay ads during it or edit in commercial breaks. 3.) Post the first :30 minutes of new films as torrents/streaming and offer a few bucks off your movie ticket if you check it out in theaters. Any of these could easily be attempted for a new major release. Pick a film that's almost guaranteed to be a hit and try one of the above. You're bound to get some interesting data either way.
- tomdtpink 14y agoTrolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. Trolls kill HN. HN is ignorance. HN is ignorance. HN is ignorance. HN is ignorance. HN is ignorance. HN is ignorance. HN is ignorance. HN is ignorance. HN is ignorance. HN is ignorance. Hackers are dead. Hackers are dead. Hackers are dead. Hackers are dead. Hackers are dead. Hackers are dead. Hackers are dead. Hackers are dead. Hackers are dead. Hackers are dead. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Staartup Junkies are just greedy cunts. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards. Long Live Neckbeards.
- mjwalshe 14y agoNo one realy needs to use bit torrent to download distros I must have built 10 od machines from distros in the last 9 months - just dowload the net isntall (which is tiny) and do it that way Will is clutching at straws here
- yalooze 14y agoBittorrent integration with Steam would be a godsend on release days. Obviously they would need to consider those users whose uploads count towards their limit, but still.
- mcos 14y agoI've always thought that using some sort of internal torrent mechanism would be a good way for applications to download their updates, especially something like Chrome, which updates quite frequently.