I don't know whether to keep this up or not

I never feel like updating, although I've been keeping a real life journal ever since Jess suggested it. meh.

Stripey, my cat died on Sunday, while I was still at Drew. He's been sick. They think cancer. Every time I've left for college, I thought it would be the last time I'd ever see him. I was finally right. :(

So we buried him yesterday, in our back yard, in the spot where we used to bury our goldfish. I miss him a lot. Maybe it's stupid, but in some ways, he's the only living thing that I was moderately close to that never let me down. More likely, I'm just being oversentimental.

Pick

So, about a month ago, I broke a guitar pick.

Well, not broke so much as wore out.

I mean, whoa. I've used that pick for two years, and I finally wore it out. It's probably no big deal, but I mean, wow. I wore out a guitar pick. I've kept at it this long.

I think eric burns wrote a similar piece a while ago, but I can't find it.

eh, comments?

Thoughts about BitTorrent and SuperSeeding Mode

or

Hitting the Wall

Today, since I didn't get to watch Pink Floyd's performance on Live 8, I'm downloading a torrent of files containing that performance. However, it's taking an extremely long time. There's one person seeding the file right now. And, either they don't have SuperSeeding mode on, or it's not working well.

BitTorrent is a way to download files from other users instead of a centralized server; a p2p method. However, its main benefit is that it breaks files into smaller chunks, to allow a user to upload part of a file before they finish downloading it. You can upload as soon as you download any chunk of the file.
SuperSeeding mode is a technique for uploading, when only one person has the complete file (if you're hosting the file). It makes it faster for everyone to get the file. I won't go into the details right now, because I don't understand them fully myself right now, and there are multiple methods of SuperSeeding.

However, I just hit the wall. (I know, I know, pink floyd reference, but not really). That happens when SuperSeeding mode is off or not working correctly. Basically, other than the one person that is hosting the file, no one else has more than a certain percentage. In this instance, it's about 30% right now. Only the host has the other 70% of the file. That's bad. I know that everyone has the same 30% because my download speed dropped by over 80% when I got within a few tenths of a percentage point of the person (besides the host) with the most file percentage. Because the rest of us can share the 30% rather rapidly to newcomers to the download, they will also quickly get to 30%, but the swarm definition: everyone that's downloading or uploading the file, collectively won't get much more from the host in that time.


Think of it this way: Consider a swarm of 11 people. One person is hosting. SuperSeed mode is off. 10 people are at 30% of a 100 MB file. They all have the same 30%. Each person can upload at 10 kBps, and download at 100 kBps.

Now, a new person joins the swarm. Downloading at 100 kBps (10 kBps from each of the other people in the swarm), it will take them 300 seconds to download the 30 MB chunk that is available. In the best-case scenario, the host will upload each chunk once. So in that 300 seconds, the host will upload 3 MB. Now, because SuperSeed mode is off, the host won't care if the 3 MB it uploads are chunks that the swarm has, or chunks that the swarm doesn't have. So it might be sending data to the new user that the swarm already has 10 other copies of, and no need for the host to be sending.

But in SuperSeed mode, the host will give one rare chunk of data to a user, and then not give any more to that user until it sees that chunk somewhere else. This way, it gives more data to faster uploaders, and tries to push through the rarest chunks of data.

There, I'm done. If you wanted to know what I've been up to, too bad.

Holy crap it's been forever

And I have little motivation to do more. I really should take these posts more seriously. I'd really like them to actually show some semblance of writing skill, instead of being stream-of-consciousness. But that means editing. or outlining. Neither of which I do that well, especially when I have to force myself to do it. Gad, I'm lazy. I know a few posts I want to make, but they deserve some time to be taken. Which I don't feel like doing. So I haven't updated for two months. That's a good tradeoff. right? right? no. no it's not.

I think I'm going to start tagging posts with whether they're stream-of-consciousness, or good.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I just saw it tonight...and let me say, it was amazing. They changed a lot of stuff, but it's exactly true to the spirit of the books/radio/tv series/whatever. And that's all I think one can ask of it. Some really good stuff was cut, but oh well. It was a really good movie. Just go see it.

and yes, I did bring my towel.

it was dedicated "to Douglas". it was very fitting.

Long time no post

I've been busy. and lazy. story of my life. well, not so much the busy part.

President Clinton came and spoke at my college. It was good. He wasn't amazing, and a lot of the stuff he said was good in theory, or didn't say anything about how to implement changes, but I'm glad I went. I was in the back of the gym, just in front of the wall. There wasn't as much security as I would expect. Although, this was the first thing I've seen here that actually warrented the metal detectors, unlike freaking Jamfest.

Another few weeks and I'm out of here. I'm kind of looking forward to not having finals over my head. I've got two finals for my two hardest classes on the same day. That's not good. I'm not sure if I'm going to try to take one early, or even if they'd let me. meh. I need to decide if I want to take 4 upper-level math/csci courses next semester or not. I think I might not want to. I'd really only know if I want to two or three weeks into next semester, but I obviously can't wait that long.

I need to get stuff off amazon. I don't know what, though. meh. -out.

busy and busier

I've had a lot of work that I've had to do. Including tests, and such. At least that's over. except I have a compsci test on monday. eew. I just remembered about that.

I get a lot of sleep on the weekends, yet I'm still tired. grar.

there was something else I wanted to say, but what was it? heh, this post is turning out very flow-of-consciousness. basically. kind of. not really.

ooh, clinton's coming to speak at my school. on wednesday. I'm so going. it'll be really really cool. I hope. He's the first speaker that has been brought to campus for Thomas Kean's program of getting really good speakers. We've had other ones (like Guliani a month or two ago), but this is big. Kean rocks. Even though he's leaving.

oh well, there was more. but I forgot.