In an experiment to find out the popularity of different operating systems with illegal file sharers, I thought I would query isohunt.com to give me the answer..

There are two numbers associated with every download. Firstly you have the number of seeds. These people have a complete copy of the files, and are purely uploading them to share with others. Secondly you have the leechers. These second type of people are both downloading and uploading - although they don’t have complete copies of the files. So seeds are the people allowing others to get access to the files, and are an indication of interpreted demand (how much they themselves think people might want the OS), and also past demand, while the leechers are an indication of the current demand. Or at least, that’s how I see it. So how did the different OS’s fair?

Windows Vista

Vista is, surprisingly after all the bad press, one of the most sought after OS’s in my test! With 1142 people actively trying to get hold of this particular version, the demand is higher than any other. Interestingly there are only 303 seeds. This (rightly or wrongly) says to me that not many people are hanging onto it once they get it!

Windows XP

In a not-so-surprising twist - Windows XP has the largest number of seeds for any OS. At 656, a lot of people are hanging on to this. Is it because they’ve read the news and think people will want it more? Or are they just lazy? Equally as interesting in the number of leechers, at 152, it appears not many people actually want it. Now you could argue it’s because most of us have a copy now, of one description or another..

OSX Leopard

Apple’s latest OS is looking strong amongst the Windows contenders. A lot stronger than recent years, which probably shows a move away from Microsoft for the home user towards something a little more intuitive. I’m sure all you Mac users out there will have smug faces on now..

Windows 98

Wow - now this is pretty cool. 10 years after it’s official launch, Windows 98 is still going strong with a lot of interest. 202 people have the OS available, although demand is a little low with a meagre 58 leechers.

Windows 2000

Demand is pretty low for this OS - a lot lower than I thought it would be. I was expecting half to a third that of Windows XP. I thought Windows 2000 was a solid OS and I’ve still got it running on a few PCs at work - and it never gives me any problems.

OSX Tiger

Incompatibility problems with PC architecture probably are the reasons this OS is so far down the list. Not a bad OS, and not particularly old, I think it’s just the superior Leopard that’s always more likely to be a hit with intel-based PC pirates looking for a change.

Windows 95

20 Seeds? Who are these people? Sure Windows 95 was groundbreaking, but only for a couple of years until Windows 98 came along! And that lonely leecher, downloading it in the hope it will work on the old 486 he found in his dad’s garage. I have one piece of advice for you my friend - Linux. It’s a question, and answer and a solution all in one word.

Windows 3.1

I was half expecting a “no show” for 3.1. How surprised I was to find, although demand is 0, there are still people that have a copy of the OS on their systems for anyone that might be passing - and only 5 less than Windows 95! I can’t think of a use for this OS nowadays of course, the hardware it was destined to run on has probably rotted away by now at the bottom of some garbage heap somewhere.

Windows ME

No graphics for this one. Why? I couldn’t find it! Please don’t think I want a link to it, I made sure I did the most basic search, hopefully copying what a normal pirate would type into the search box. I guess you could try different search terms, but why would you repeatedly try to find this OS? Is this the biggest OS mistake Microsoft ever made? Or is that happening now?

So what does this all mean?

Well, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure.. On the face of it, the demand for Vista is strong. Windows XP has a strong perceived demand, by the seeds that are keeping it available for other potential downloaders. Windows 98 is still “downloadble” now, 10 years later, and Windows 95 is just a poor cousin of Windows 98, as we’ve always thought. Windows 3.1 is available for the hardcore elite, and Windows ME will always be the mutated-dog-from-the-fly-2 we love to look in disgust at.

Finally, I thought this wouldn’t be a balanced test, without the most talked-about OS amongst geeks - although it is also worth noting that this is a free OS - read into that what you will with the figures, but I presume it’s because people have 0 hangups about downloading a free OS, where they may have moral issues with pirating software.. Anyway, ladies and gentleman, I give you:

Ubuntu 7.10

How many seeds????

The micro-blogging site that’s big in America, has been used to good effect in the current US election race. Of course, it’s main users are the geek types, who like to check up on what other geek types are up to (check the links on the left!)

Well now 10 Downing Street have jumped on the bandwagon and started their own twitter feed. If you want to know the latest political developments as they happen, then head on over to twitter, create an account and start following. It will make you a more efficient person at slating the government in real-time!

US Robots posted in Iraq apparently tried to take out their human counterparts, The Register revealed today. It appears that the robots, which had a fitted M249 (usually used by soldiers to suppress fire) for some unknown reason began to train their fire on the soldiers they were there to protect. A high ranking official said, “The gun started moving when it was not intended to move.”

So all this talk of robotic murder led me to a question: What other steps have robots made to try to kill mankind?

It didn’t take me long before I found a report on Slashdot of a Robot lawnmower killing a Danish man. The “Dvorak Spider” didn’t kill him in the obvious way, by slicing him into small human chunks, instead it hurled itself off of a cliff to crush the hapless bacon lover below.

And then I re-stumbled across the recent news of a man in Australia who had built his own suicide-bot to fire a handgun into his head. But then the only witness was the robot.. Maybe the robot faked the suicide note?

Finally, after blowing the dust off of the internet, it appears as early as 1979 a robot had taken out a human with intricate precision. Of course it was made to look like an accident. According to this Wikipedia article, the workers at a Ford factory had overridden the safety features on the robot. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t take Isaac Asimov seriously.

So it’s been on the cards for a long time, according to the evidence. Robots have been systematically taking humans out - in relative quiet - for the last 30 years. Robots are being used more and more to make our lives “easier” so we will eventually get to a point when we’re surrounded. As it stands now there are robots that can park your car, robots to babysit your children or Japanese robots trained to trick you into thinking they are humans. And then there’s the small child-like Asimo. At what point will the authorities actually open their eyes to what’s going on around us?

There has been a lot of news covered on Microsoft in the last month or so - and a lot of it on this blog. But what does all this different news mean? What is Microsoft trying to accomplish?

I think it all comes down to one thing - to get the support of the community. I think Microsoft has woken up to the fact that the community matters on the internet and is starting to influence more and more what happens in the home and therefore the desktop market. And I think Microsoft are desperately trying to tap the community before they’re left too far behind. They can see Google running away with the show, and desperate times call for desperate measures. Here is some of the recent news and what I think it all means..

Microsoft’s potentially hostile take-over of Yahoo!
The biggest news, I think, in all of the things coming out of the Redmond campus just recently. If they have Yahoo! they have the search engine, sure, but they also get the most popular instant messenger & the social photography site “flickr.” Plus they would also get del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site. You also get lots of other things, like Konfabulator - the desktop widget program, which is installed on a lot of XP user’s machines. Then there’s MyBlogLog - a facility bloggers can install on their websites that will track like-minded visitors to their sites, enabling a different social aspect amongst bloggers. This will give Microsoft a large, established community and will also really push them up the ladder towards Google.

Microsoft rumoured to be after digg.com
Again, another social networking site. This time with a strong & dedicated user base. I’m sure people will moan and bitch about Microsoft taking over the site, but it won’t stop them using it. Give it 3 months after the takeover and nobody will even care. If you have digg.com, you have a large crowd of people (as long as they stay) with you.

Microsoft opening up their APIs to developers
A little bit of a shock, as Microsoft have always kept their cards close to their chest regarding their source code. Why make it available now? To hopefully win brownie points with the open-source community. And to hopefully get them on-board to develop software. They realise there is a huge wealth of programming expertise out there that is untapped (by themselves).

Microsoft to give students free access to programming tools
Get them while they’re young. A move to win brownie points with the up-and-coming (and more importantly) poor students. If you get in early enough, maybe you can influence some of the opinions about Microsoft that might be formed less favourably if they used other programming suites.

IE8 to support web standards
Aimed again at the community. Everyone knows that Firefox is better - it supports the web standards as closely as possible, and it’s more secure. Internet Explorer has always been a law on to itself. Within the last few months Microsoft stated that websites should make themselves “Internet Explorer friendly” rather than the other way around. Well, now, Microsoft have had a change of heart. IE8 will be trying very hard to make itself web standards compliant. Why? Because they are seeing dents in their browser dominance. People are opting to go out of their way not to use Internet Explorer, and Microsoft have to stop the rot.

Silverlight Released
This one is a bit of a reach - and I apologise for that. I really believe the Silverlight platform is aimed at the Youtube & other online video websites. Very similar in spec to flash, Silverlight would be in direct competition with it. And the real uses for flash? Well firstly it’s Youtube & other online media, secondly is probably games and thirdly is website content. Just those three alone would get your name spread a little further, and if a little Microsoft logo popped up in one of the corners everytime a video played - even better.

So what have they achieved, what is going to happen next, and what does the future hold? Well the first thing they’ve achieved already is lots of media exposure. People, websites, bloggers are talking about them - myself included! They’ve also shown their intentions to make themselves “friendly Microsoft.” By opening doors to the community. What will happen next? Well Yahoo will be bought and if they want Digg they will buy that too. Kevin Rose won’t say no to the deal he’ll get. Initially I’m sure everyone will be really upset, while Microsoft continues to make soothing sounds to the rest of the community. And the future? Well we all know Microsoft want to rule the world, so I guess it’s still global domination - at least in the computing world. Maybe they’ll take a chunk out of Google’s market share, but I still don’t think they can beat them in the search / on-line advertising game - they’ve got too much of a head start. But targeting the community, present and future, on the internet itself? That’s an interesting move which could make for an interesting year.

A sad day today, for sure. For today is the last day that Netscape Navigator will be supported. Today is the end of a great browser and one that still has echoes in everything we use today. For those of you too young, or otherwise interested in other things (like WHAT?) I’ll give you a run-down of the beginnings of Netscape Navigator and the controversy that is still around today with it’s war against Internet Explorer.

It all started in the early 90’s. A guy called Marc Andreessen, who worked for a company called Mosaic which was originally born out of a University project to develop a Unix based web browser, decided to go it alone and develop a Web Browser based on the same code. The Mosaic browser was basic by today’s standards, but was instrumental in the development of the browser market, and what we use today. The University were unhappy with the use of the name Mosaic, so Marc changed the company to Netscape Communications Corp. Marc and his team made the Netscape web browser and initially decided to give it away free for personal use, but quickly back-peddled and restricted who could use the browser without a license. The thing that a lot of people don’t realise about web browsers is that they didn’t used to be free - they are pieces of software like any other, and the companies expected you to pay for them. Thankfully for the general public, Netscape was essentially free, so we used the non-profit version & companies paid for the licenses to use it on their PCs - although at that time the internet was really more of a curiosity than the necessity it is today.

So up until the mid 90’s, everything was good. The few that could afford to use the Web were using Netscape, and the browser very quickly took hold - at it’s peak it had almost 80% of the market share (with some reports stating 90%!) At this point the internet was starting to explode - normal people in the street were starting to take notice of the potential for the global superhighway, and corporations were taking notice too. One of the companies that were taking note was Microsoft.

Previously just a company that made an OS & some other software, Microsoft too could see the potential of the internet and to involve it in their OS. If they could have an environment that was seamless - where all of your information was available in one place, they felt their OS would cement it’s place in the market. People were getting excited by the internet and Microsoft wanted to make sure that interest was used to their advantage.

So Microsoft, previously only interested in the desktop, was now looking to create their own browser, which would interface with their OS. Obvious now, but back then it was a bit of a curiosity - it was almost like a company that had always built cars, to suddenly go out of their way to make garden furniture - just because the weather was hot! The problem was they didn’t have any expertise or history to back them up. What to do? Well they went to a company called Spyglass, which was originally part of the University that helped to develop the original Mosaic code - the same code that was used to develop the Netscape browser.

In a $2 Million deal, Spyglass would give Microsoft a license to use the Mosaic code in their browser, in return as well for royalties they made from sales. Microsoft agreed to these terms. Little did Spyglass know that Microsoft were going to give the browser away for free. At this point people started to realise that Microsoft weren’t just about an OS, built around a geek, but a cutting edge software manufacturer with a ruthless attitude to business. The idea of a free browser for everyone, corporations and personal usage really set the cat amongst the pigeons with Netscape - as it was obviously direct competition to their business model. And from Internet Explorer version 5, Netscape’s market share starting to take a dent. The biggest thing in those days with Internet Explorer, was the ease of use. Netscape was a great, fast and compliant browser, but Internet Explorer slotted well into the system - and considering most people were on dial-up internet - would even dial the modem to hook up your internet connection for you if you were offline and tried to use the browser. Users were given the choice when installing ISP software, what browser they wanted to install, and quite a few were starting to choose Internet Explorer. Just as Microsoft were starting to get some of the market with Internet Explorer, along comes the biggest piece of controversy for Microsoft - and one that people still know about today.

Windows 98 was on the cards, so Microsoft in their wisdom decided to supply Internet Explorer - built right in to the OS. If you wanted to use the file manager, it was basically Internet Explorer. If you wanted to move icons around the desktop - it was basically Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer was intertwined with the OS in such a way, it was difficult to remove. In fact the only way was with a hack, and a copy of the Windows 95 CD. Netscape immediately could see the writing on the wall, and started the ball rolling, with other software companies help, for an anti-trust law suit against Microsoft. The Department of Justice deemed it anti-competitive and monopolistic to supply a browser with their OS. They thought users deserved the choice. Microsoft’s reply was that users could still install Netscape or any other browser if they so wished. But then why would they? There was already a browser built right into the OS.. No picky installation routines, no setting up and no long-winded downloads over dial-up - it was right there. Users were much more likely just to use what they had than to go searching for something else - therefore stifling the competition. The DoJ thought so too and Microsoft were essentially given a slap on the wrist, told to divide up into smaller companies and were to open their books for the next 5 years to prove they were not doing anything of an anti-competitive nature. Users were also given the option of uninstalling Internet Explorer from their OS, which was previously missing from the menus. This was the primary reason for the release of Windows 98 SE (second edition) to comply with the DoJ’s rulings. What did that really mean? Well it meant that blame had been attributed to Microsoft, and opened the way for lawsuits from rival companies to cash in on Microsoft’s activities. Realistically, however, the damage had already been done. For years people would refer to Internet Explorer as “The Internet” - and some still do today - as it was their gateway to the web. Internet Explorer essentially killed off Netscape in one move.

After this time, Netscape found it increasingly more difficult to meet demands and keep up with security updates - funds were scarce and the company was struggling. In steps AOL in 1999 and acquires the company. With AOL’s backing, Netscape launch a lawsuit against Microsoft - blaming them for the downfall of the company. [Microsoft settle] with Netscape for $750 Million and essentially the last battle of the browser war is finished. Moving onwards, the Netscape developers with AOL’s help found “Mozilla” (which was the project code word for Netscape, in the early days.) The Mozilla Foundation as many of us today know, are the open-source community driven body that have been instrumental in the creation of Firefox, Thunderbird, Flock, Seamonkey and many other projects. It looks as though the Netscape legacy will live on in the form of Firefox, which is making big dents into Internet Explorer’s current dominance. It seems that people won’t just use a browser for convenience today - people will use their judgement to find the best solution, rather than opting for the first thing that they see.

So users of Netscape, what should you do? Well as today’s browser market is very much focused on security, you should move on to Firefox. The code-base is virtually the same, and you can even download a netscape-esque skin for Firefox to make you feel more at home! Indeed, just recently, Netscape has pretty much been reduced to little more than a “skin for Firefox.” The good news is Firefox will continue to be supported by the community, and will continue to be the safest browser of choice.

So it’s farewell to the Netscape browser, and thanks to all of the people behind it - past and present. It’s been fun. [SHOW ME]

There’s a serious “Geek alert” on this article. If you don’t know what IPv4 or IPv6 is then I suggest you look away and read the next article.. For those who are still reading, IPv6 address have been implemented on almost half of the root servers which means that IPv6 systems can communicate with each other without any legacy IPv4 stuff being used.

Why do we care? Well the number of IP addresses that are currently allocated on the internet is going to hit a very real limit in about 3 years time. This is because the pool of IP addresses available within IPv4 is nearly all used up. Of course back when the IPv4 standard was drawn up in the 70’s, it was never thought that there would be a need to address more than 4 billion computers on the internet. Thankfully with the IPv6 standard, which has had a real push for implementation, that upper limit of IP addresses goes up by a factor of 4 - a number roughly equivalent to 3 followed by 38 zeroes. Hopefully this will be enough for another 30 years! [SHOW ME]

OK, this may be a little misleading, but this has been around for ages, and thanks to a guy in Holland, you can watch starwars from the command prompt. Obviously lacking a bit in the sound department, this is still a work of genius. Do it tomorrow at work - no "boss" key required!

All you need is access to a command prompt (Windows, Mac, Linux - it doesn’t matter) and you can have access to starwars. Open up the command prompt, type the command "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" and be amazed.

Yeap, it’s apparent from this article that the GPU inside a Geforce 8 card is better equipped at the billions of math calculations required to crack passwords than the standard CPU. According to the report in this article, the Graphics processor is better by up to 25 times! I guess if you get loads of ATI cards hooked up over PCI-Express with Crossfire, you could have the ultimate home password cracking machine. [SHOW ME]

Yeah, this is pretty geeky. If you’ve ever been interested in Cryptography (the study of crytograms - or code making / breaking) then this will be really useful to you. But then as children I think we were all interested in spies and spying - and even more so if you were a boy - so I think anyone can benefit. I still have the PGP manual written by Simson Garfinkel and published by O’Reilly which I must have read it 5 or 6 times, just because the history and the technology is so interesting. Have a look - I may also, over the next day or so download the book and offer it on my website, along with the copyright notices. [SHOW ME]

Quite a quick post this one (which is testament to how easy it is) to show you how to share your iTunes library over the internet, without any complicated SSH tunnels, or port forwarding or anything - but still have it secure. Also, this method allows multiple remote connections with ease (as long as the computer hosting the iTunes library has enough upload bandwidth, of course.) How?

First things first, share your iTunes library on the host machine. Edit preferences, Sharing, Share My Library Over My Local Network (ticked.) Secondly - obviously - make sure you have iTunes installed on your work PC, or any other PC you want access to your iTunes library. And the second to last step - install Hamachi (google it) on both computers. Turn on Hamachi on both machines - create a new network on the host machine & connect to it using the client machine. Start iTunes on both PCs and bingo! You can even play protected content, just by authorising your works PC. Simplicity itself!