Alternatives To Using P2P to download Music

With Eircom now watching what you MP3’s you download from Bit-Torrent and P2P Networks a lot of folks are wondering what now? Well you can stop using “LimeWire” or “Kazaa” to get your music fix and buy your music online which you should do. 

You have three choices here;

1) An Online Digital Music Store (e.g I-Tunes which are going DRM Free)
2) Buy them online at CDWow.ie ,Amazon.co.uk,Play.com
3) Your local music shop which will more than likely rip you off (shop around recommend here)

Buying music is a great whay to thank the artist for the great work they have created and downloading MP3’s without paying for them is illegal. If your a fan of “XYZ” band then you should buy their CD.
If your not going to play fair then there are some alternatives that may get around the problem of Downloading of MP3’s.

A) Alternatives to Peer2Peer Networks:

1)Rapidshare.com / Megaupload.com
The biggest and fastest site on the net used to share files of all kinds. You cant search the site (you can use 3rd pary sites to search) and you will need to know a link before you download anything. Typically links will be found in various websites sites.
Note this site requires a paid subscription for unlimited access.

2) UseNet:
Usenet is just as fast as Rapidshare.com and probably better as you can search for whatever your looking for.
Note this site requires a paid subscription for access.

B)Hide Your IP Address:
These methods involve hiding your PC’s IP Address from prying eyes and continuing to download MP3’s illegally.

1)hotspotshield.com
“Hotspot Shield creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your
laptop or iPhone and our Internet gateway. This impenetrable tunnel
prevents snoopers and hackers from viewing your email, instant messages,
credit card information or anything else you send over the network.
Hotspot Shield security application is free to download, employs the
latest VPN technology, and is easy to install and use. So go ahead – Get
behind the Shield – Try Hotspot Shield today!”

2)www.relakks.com/?cid=gb

“You’ll exchange the IP-number you get from your ISP to an anonymous IP-number .
You get a safe/encrypted connection between your computer and the Internet.”

Only EUR 5.00 per month or EUR 50.00 for 12 months

3)ivacy.com
“You can simply use a VPN solution where all your incoming and outgoing
traffic goes through a secure VPN connection. This technology is often
used by companies which need to provide access to their internal
network from all over the world and not just from the office.”

4) Proxy Servers:
Are special servers on the internet that Hide your IP Address from websites and assigns you usually a IP Address that looks like your in another country.
These are usally very slow and youll need to pay for a good one.

All these methods require a certain know-how and they’re all abit “messy” its simpler to buy music that mess around with different services like that.

ATI Radeon 9.1 – Drivers Hugely Improves Performance in GTAIV and Saints Row 2

I had some serious problems with both the PC Versions of GTAIV and Saints Row 2 and ATI have released a new Graphics card drivers that solve most of the slow downs. Both games run very well now on my PC where as before they would hardly hit 15fps and were unplayable.

GTA IV looks incredable in high-resolutions like 1680*1050 plus of course you need a very good PC but its good to see that it was a Graphics card problem that sorted it all out in the end.

I might add that i run Windows Vista 64 bit as my main O.S and i was getting huge problems with both games until i also ran a Windows Update and installed every single Windows Update that i was missing.  It seems the combination of these sorted out the huge slow-down problems i was having.

Saints Row 2 now is playable at last but still makes we wonder if the Xbox 360 version is better.

Eircom And Record Labels go after Mp3 Downloaders

Well the news yesterday that Eircom and 4 major record labels are on the attack against illegal Mp3 downloaders came a bit out of the blue tbh.

Basically its a 3-strikes/warnings and you get disconnected. This is going to cause such a storm and how eircom are going to police it will remain to be see. I stopped downloading Mp3’s at least 2 years ago and joined the I-Tunes bandwagon as much i hate I-Tunes at least now there are going “DRM-Free” so you can play your “legally purchased music” on other Mp3 Players.

From what ive read on various forums it seems folks are going to be using there neighbours un-secured Wifi connection to download Mp3’s which is probably gonna end up with innocent folks getting wanring letters and maybe even disconnected.
It looks like its going to be a free-for-all so if you have a WiFi (Wireless Net Connection) make sure its secured.

Some links on the story;
Torrentfreak.com
boards.ie

“svchost.exe” Process takes up too much CPU time?

I recently installed the new Realtek audio Drivers for my Vista 64 installation only to notice that while i played Youtube videos there was a bit of slowdown during the videos.

Anyway to cut a long story short by downloading a tool called “procexp64.exe” (Process Explorer) i was able to find out that the problem came from the process “svchost.exe”. it was using up to 30-50% of the CPU time. Meaning that things were running way slower than normal.

It took quite a few hours to figure out the problem and them i found it, by disabling the ATI HDMI outout in the “DEvice Manager” of the Control panel and restarting did the problem go away. Im Posting this this for future reference by anyone who finds this page. I was using ATi Catalyist 8.12 Drivers at the time with Vista 64 and a Ati Radeon 4870 512mb graphics card.

Fuck Apple and I-Tunes!

Today i was searching my Music libaray and i realised that something was wrong, i didnt quite know at the time but then i remember that Current Operating system i was runing (ive got 3 setup) didnt have the “Coldplay” album i had bought from I-Tunes 5 months ago. After searching i found the album but of course the files i found where “.m4p” i.e they were “protected Mp4” music files so i couldnt have them in the Mp3 format.

I only wanted to listen to the music i legally bought online with my money  but it wasnt to be, so fuck Apple and fuck I-Tunes i hate them both with such a passion. So now im stuck with 12 “.MP4” Files that i cant listen too in anything but apples “Quicktime” and “I-Tunes”.

New Year- “It cant be as bad as the last one?”

“It cant be as bad as the last one?”, is something i always say to myself every new year. I just hate the “New Year’s” Celebrations, the older you get the more this seems to increase until you get to a point where you just wanna hide really until all the fuss is over.

But the good thing i guess is thats an excuse for a good party and boy-o-boy does the world need that excuse. With the constant doom and gloom about the world economies, Stealth Taxes arriving in the new year and a country in disaster really with cut backs in public spending the misery never ends. Im turning into a grumpy old man really.