Results tagged “bittorrent” from 60 Second Science

Astrophysicist John Dubinski has been running simulations on his supercomputer of galaxies forming, colliding into each other, and otherwise moving around as they are wont to do. Last year he compiled nine animations onto a DVD, wrapped them up with "the soundworlds of renaissance and baroque counterpoint, free improvisation, Middle-Eastern music, minimalism, techno and electronica to create a musical feast that crosses time and dimension," and sold Gravitas.

As of this week, he's begun giving the DVD away for free via torrent, but he's posted the series of animations on YouTube, making my day far, far happier than otherwise possible.

Continue reading 'Free galactic simulations are the best part of my day' >

Actually, the chances for wiretapping immunity are probably a good deal higher. We mentioned the AT&T wiretapping scandal back in November with a handy-dandy introduction to the ongoing vote over granting telecom companies immunity from lawsuits for their complicity. Now it appears to be less of a scandal, and it seems like that whole voting thing may be winding down as well.

On Tuesday the Senate voted 68-29 to keep a provision in the current spy bill that would grant retroactive immunity to any of the network providers who happily looked the other way or encouraged the NSA to use their services to eavesdrop on American citizens.

For those of you interested in what your candidate thinks about science, you might want to take a gander at how they feel about tech: Obama voted to strike immunity, McCain to preserve it, and Clinton couldn't be bothered to show. Bush is pressing the House to follow suit.

Continue reading 'In this week's tech fright forecast: 50% chance of wiretapping immunity with potential breaks for net neutrality' >

The House Education and Labor Committee just passed the College Opportunity and Affordability Act (PDF), and now it's up for a House vote. Wow, sounds like a really great act. I mean, there's "Opportunity" AND "Affordability." Those are two things that are great in college. But many educators are worried that most of the opportunities to make college affordable are only going to be available if they crack down on peer-to-peer file sharing networks and come up with alternatives.

Continue reading 'College students just want their P2P; Congress says, "Nope!"' >

Early today OiNk, an invite-only BitTorrent tracker responsible for leaking 60 major albums already this year, was shut down. Now the site is responding again, but with only one message: "This site has been closed as a result of a criminal investigation by IFPI, BPI, Cleveland Police and the Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch Police (FIOD ECD) into suspected illegal music distribution. A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site's users." The only other content on a site that used to provide access to gigs of data are the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and British Phonographic Industry (BPI) logos.

Continue reading 'Private BitTorrent site OiNK shut down by raid; users next target?' >