The BITwise Blog

"BroadCatching"

By now many of you have read my posts regarding BT, RSS, and the use of both to automatically download files and TV shows.  Well, rehashing on my last post about the subject, I now link you to an even more in depth guide to "BroadCatching", the process of automatically catching tv shows from RSS streams and downloading them for viewing.  With broadband access exploding, Tivo crumbling under pressure from the big broadcasters, and Tivo falling victim to new tactics, the users who turn to the internet for their TV fix will continue to increase.  Maybe the next step is to see a merging of the technologies of Tivo, BT, and RSS, into a new uberhybrid filesharing tv recorder... On second thought, I doubt that will ever happen.

How to never miss an episode with BitTorrent and RSS (pealco.net)

How to never miss an episode with BitTorrent and RSS (pealco.net).

The definative guide to creating your own Tivo-esque recording system using nothing but the bandwidth of your internet connection.  I touched on this topic in a post about distributed RSS (thanks google).  The process described is pretty much the same process I used to accomplish the task.  This way, even though I don't get showtime, I never have to miss an episode of Dead Like Me, not to mention the headaches avoided by conflicting time slots.

#1 of 2.5 million

If someone went into google and typed the words "distributed" and "rss" and then browsed through the results, you would find that this blog is the #1 page out of 2,500,000 indexed pages.  Although this is pretty cool, it is kind of sad that I have nothing but commentary instead of actual technical input to give on these topics, but none-the-less, what google says, goes.

You can try it for yourself here: distributed rss

(This was also an underhanded attempt to secure that number one spot by repeating the words distributed rss in conjunction, TAKE THAT GOOGLE!)

Videoblog Revolution

Slashdot takes a shot at hyping the Videoblog Revolution.  Just when you thought mobloging and photobloging where the hot new thing, it seems that videoblogging is the way of the future.  One of the issues that comes up is production costs and technical difficulties of maintaining a photoblog, however one user shows off his videoblog made completely on open source software.  On the other hand, aren't videoblogs just a stepdown from live webcam streams? Why show in a clip what could be constantly streaming from your camera?

Google News and RSS

I was browsing the class blogosphere this morning and noticed that Scott had blogged about google news.  This reminded me of an interesting article I had read about google news and their attempts to block RSS scraping.  Obviously, the next step for google news was to provide an RSS feed, thus making it the most complete source for all news on the internet.  However, not only did google not pursue this avenue, but they actually went so far as to stop people that were trying to make their own google news feeds using third party scripts.  The article explains:

Google issued a cease-and-desist order against British programmer Julian Bond with a warning that the creation of a news feed from the results of Google News was against its terms of reference.
According to Bond, the company requested the removal of RSS-powered Google News headlines from his Ecademy business networking site and made it clear Webmasters are not allowed to display headlines from Google News on third-party sites.

and the author provides this gem of a quote:

"I find it a little strange that Google was among the first companies to use a SOAP API but they've done nothing to extend it beyond Web search. Contrast that with Yahoo, which has introduced their own RSS aggregator and provides feeds from all sections of the search. I think Google is missing a trick here," Bond said.

For the time being, not only will google continue to fail to provide users with RSS feeds, but they will also discourage people from attempting to make their own with google's sources.  This whole concept is against the entire vision of google, which has been known to allow third parties unmetered access to google search APIs for development of new software.  Untill google realizes that they are missing the evolution of RSS and website syndication, users will turn toward sites that are already supporting RSS including Yahoo! news.

Yahoo! discovers BitTorrent

Because everyone in this blogosphere is captivated by BT and because I  have not found much else that is blogworthy here, I bring you some interesting information on everyone's favorite mass distribution tool.   This story on p2pnet.net discusses the Yahoo article and adds some of its own analysis.  From the Yahoo! article:

Even as lawsuits from music companies have driven people away from peer-to-peer programs like KaZaa, BitTorrent has thus far avoided the ire of groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America. But as BitTorrent's popularity grows, the service could become a target for copyright lawsuits.

 

According to British Web analysis firm CacheLogic, BitTorrent accounts for an astounding 35 percent of all the traffic on the Internet -- more than all other peer-to-peer programs combined -- and dwarfs mainstream traffic like Web pages.

 

Some more interesting things of note from both of the articles are the continued assertions from the authors that BT is not annonymous and the MPAA and RIAA are out to get you.  What does p2p.net have to say about it all? They turn around and hype a new technology, Roti a tool based on the idealogy of BT with the security and annonymity that users demand.  Looks like the next wave of P2P is already being born and it doesn't look like it will ever be stopped.

Customize Your Sage!

Do you hate Sage's default interface as much as I do? Come grab some Sage StyleSheets! Just download the stylesheet as a css file to your desktop, goto your options in Sage, and select "use custom stylesheet". Mine is looking quite good now, and it's flowing as one linear page, instead of multiple numbered boxes.

Gmail Invites

Bud offered to give away six invites to students interested in getting Gmail accounts and I also happen to have six invites to give away. If this offer is very popular he may very well run out. If you are unable to obtain an invite from Bud just email me, or post in comments with a link to your blog and your email, and I will be happy to share.

Is it time for SQL to move on?

As far as standardized computer languages go SQL is one of the oldest that still remains in constant use today. Maybe it is time for SQL to go the way of the dinosaur? And if it did, what would replace it? Recently, a new method of querying relational databases is being discussed in this article,

Techworld.com - A new approach to querying databases?

The article talks about a new query language entitled "Tutorial D" that promises to do away with the problems inherent in SQL. It exlplains,

In a nutshell, Tutorial D is intended to be a "proper" implementation of a database query language. The idea is that there should be no arbitrary restrictions on the syntax of the query language (Voorhis cites SQL's rather arbitrary habit of allowing nested queries in some places but not others, for instance), but at a lower level the database shouldn't run up against idiotic limitations. The limitation in existing implementations that generates the most comment from the various parties in the debate is the problem with "null" values in relational databases. Put simply, a database field has a type (50 characters, for instance, or a floating point number to two decimal places, or an 8-bit integer), but when you don't fill the field in (i.e. it's "null") it loses all its meaning. Even the ANSI standards state that if a field is null it's said not to exist – so if you ask a database for "all entries where field X is not equal to 47" it won't return any of those where field X is null because instead of saying "Null doesn't equal 47", the value "null" is deemed not to be comparable with any non-null field.

What does it mean for SQL? Well, probably nothing. SQL has really only lasted so long because, even considering it's shortcomings, it has stood the strenuous test of time and growth. However, as with all good things, it's more than likely that SQL's glory days may come to an end and a new language like Tutorial D may take its place.

CNN X-Prize Blog

For any of you following the $10,000,000 X-Prize attempt by SpaceShipOne, there is a CNN reporter on site maintaining a blog via his blackberry PDA. The blog is available here. While this type of news format lacks a lot of the on topical detail you would find in a typical news article, and the content is being pushed out by a reporter's thumbs, I find the blog to be successful in immersing the reader in the event taking place. By knowing stupid details about press breakfasts and other mundane details, one gets the feeling like they are actually there, participating in a historical event. Score another one for the bloggers.