bit torrent

BitTorrent For Dummies
$24.99
I've always been a fan of "For Dummies" books. I can't get enough of them, and learning there was one of these titles about BitTorrent made my day, since I had been very much in the dark about this technology... in general in the dark about anything remotely related to Peer-to-Peer for more than three years. So I gave the book by Susannah Gardner and Kris Krug a shot, and it was all that I expected.

After a primer on the technology, the purpose of BitTorrent in the spectrum of peer-to-peer protocols out there and tools to find, download and manage torrents, the book deals head on with the copyright implications of downloading illegal torrents, offering resources to help find legal (and fun) torrent material.

While a few of the chapters were about topics that were slightly peripheral to the main subject (production and promotion of torrents, for instance), the bulk of the book was fantastic for the newbie (a.k.a. ME!) to get on the know about BitTorrent and start getting my first streams of torrent juice flowing into my machine's hard drive. [...]

Peer-to-Peer : Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies
$29.95
I work in the MP3 player industry, so the title of my review is only a slight exaggeration. P2P technology created the MP3 revolution. This book takes an honest look back at where P2P came from and where it is going from several different viewpoints. I think it is a must-read for anyone working on the future architecture of computing technology. And it is just plain interesting if you are sitting on the sidelines--and you might just find a role you can play in the game.

Tentative Response
$13.98
Got this cd for my brother but I've heard some of it and it's good industrial stuff. A lot of instrumental parts but I like that. This style of guitar-heavy industrial music is hard to come by these days so check it out if you like that.

Take care, God bless.

PLANEX IEEE802.11N Wireless Broadband Router with USB2.0 port supported by OpenWRT MZK-W04NU Designed in Japan
$59.99
I bought this product specifically to run the OpenWrt firmware. It works very well for that, and I couldn't be happier. The wireless signal strength is much better than my previous draft-n router, and it has a fast CPU and plenty of on-board flash.

The factory-installed firmware did have some annoying issues, but flashing an update from the manufacturer's website fixed most of the problems. The web interface is still somewhat clunky, but I would cheerfully give this router (running the latest manufacturer firmware) to a non-technical friend.