Continue reading MechRC is here to dance, not enslave

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MechRC is here to dance, not enslave originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Kudos to the wife for posting this video on her Facebook page. Now, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” is clearly not targeted to my demographic, but consider me mesmerized. The tune is catchy as hell. But make no mistake, I could just as easily turn the volume down and enjoy it too.

Zoweee.

Fierce!

Rockstar has announced that het first downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV will be coming exclusive to the Xbox LIVE Network on February 17, 2009. The first DLC pack will be called The Lost and Damned. This is the first of two DLC packs that wil...

LittleShoot is a new web-based p2p file sharing site founded by one of the creators of Limewire that could live up to its pedigree and then some. While being web-based naturally makes the service more attractive than downloadable file-sharing apps, LittleShoot has a few other killer features that could make it the new model for p2p.

For one, LittleShoot is starting off by serving as a search index for services that already have billions of files, like YouTube, Flickr, and yes, Limewire. Thus, searching for just about anything will yield a plethora of results that you can download right to your computer. LittleShoot includes its own player too, so as a video or song is downloading, you can view and listen from the browser.

Once those files are downloaded, they become part of the p2p network that is LittleShoot. Like other p2p services before it, LittleShoot works by downloading pieces of content from other users that have a given file, in the most efficient way possible. The service is optimized not just to find the most nearby computers with the file, but also defaulting (when possible) to users on the same ISP to further pump up the download speeds.

Publishing files to LittleShoot is also exceptionally easy. You simply browse your hard drive and select the files you’d like to upload. You can add tags to your files to help improve the search index. You can access your files from a “Publish” tab on the site, where you can edit, open, or delete them. LittleShoot requires no registration, which should give users some sense of anonymity in uploading their files (of course, whether copyright holders demand IP addresses at some point is another issue).

Although not live yet, another big feature LittleShoot has in the works will essentially turn Twitter into a file sharing service. When you upload files, you’ll have the option to tweet a link to them, which in turn will be tremendous viral marketing for LittleShoot while significantly improving the performance of the p2p network, since files will be hosted on more and more computers as they get downloaded.

LittleShoot also plans to offer tools to external developers, so “any site can include our javascript library and create a p2p YouTube, for example, but where flash files stream just as if they weren’t p2p,” says co-founder Adam Fisk.

There are already a ton of p2p download services, many of which are under constant attack by copyright holders and industry groups. Essentially, Fisk and his team think file sharing has evolved in the wrong direction in the Web 2.0 world.

“People flocked to put their videos and photos on sites like YouTube and Facebook, and those sites now control an astonishing percentage of our digital content. Corporate ads are slapped on personal videos. Privately shared content is taken down due to bogus copyright claims. Sharing has become synonymous with forsaking one’s right to manage one’s own content,” the company says.

LittleShoot could certainly shake things up, and given how long Limewire has managed to survive, I wouldn’t bet against it being a new disruptive force in p2p file sharing with some staying power.