Gaming // Current

Proof that Xbox 360 is better than PS3

It's a Microsoft press release, so handle with care, but the company's claiming it did more than admirably on Black... more

IMMININT
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16 responses

5 hours ago

Will uTorrent Really Kill the Internet?

Full Article:

An inflammatory article published by Richard Bennett in The Register makes the claim ‘BitTorrent will kill the Internet’, or at least VoIP and games. However, are Bennett’s claims based in reality, or is it just another round in the FUD war that envelops the Internet?

A lot of buzz around the net today has been generated by Richard Bennett, with his article “BitTorrent declares war on VoIP, gamers”. There’s just one problem with it – it’s utter rubbish.

We’ve mentioned Richard Bennett before, he was at the FCC hearing back in February, dealing with the Comcast-Sandvine issue. At the time, as we noted, he made the statement “If we can’t control network management, we’ll have to shut down the Internet”. With uTorrent’s new transfer protocol (uTP) that’s currently being tested in an early Alpha release of the BitTorrent client, Bennett sees another potential threat.

In his article, a doom scenario is painted where the Internet may collapse, even though uTorrent’s uTP is intended to reduce network congestion. Thankfully, the readers at The Register are a little more diligent in their fact-checking, and pointed out that many of his statements were inaccurate, or simply flat-out ridiculous.

Statements like “UDP was intended for real-time data transfers such as VoIP” and “Bulk data transfers are supposed to use TCP, in large part because it shoulders the burden of congestion control for the Internet’s end-to-end layer”, for example, are simply not true. It is highly unlikely that when UDP was conceived, that VoIP was in the forefront of anyone’s minds. There is also nothing anywhere that can be found that states bulk data transfer is ’supposed’ to use TCP over UDP. It is preferred to use TCP, because if you’re transferring a lot of data, you want it to be intact. BitTorrent, however, uses several relatively small transfers, and has it’s own data checking system in place. It doesn’t need TCP’s delivery control as well.

uTorrent Community Manager ‘Firon’ explained to TorrentFreak: “We are using UDP for uTP because it is the only way to provide our own congestion control mechanism. It is designed to better react to changing network conditions and throttle itself back, even with other TCP connections active, such as the user doing video streaming or VoIP while torrenting.” The BitTorrent protocol also has a handshake for P2P communications, so using UDP just removes a duplicate connection handshake. Thus, in many ways, the move to UDP actually reduces traffic, hardly the way to cripple the net.

Bennett also made some other questionable statements, such as “Upset about Bell Canada’s system for allocating bandwidth fairly among Internet users, the developers of the uTorrent P2P application have decided to make the UDP protocol the default transport protocol for file transfers.” However, the truth is quite different. “uTP is not a response to Bell Canada,” said Firon. “It’s been in the works for a long time, since technically, since Ludde (Ludvig Strigeus, the original coder of uTorrent) was working on it.”

In response to concerns from other client developers, Firon mentioned that the specs for uTP will eventually be open. So, perhaps in time when all clients use this - and the Internet doesn’t crash and burn - fearmongers like Bennett be ignored. Of course, had Bennett any serious concerns he, like any of us, would probably have contacted someone at BitTorrent Inc. to express their concern. “No, he hasn’t contacted anyone,” said Firon, “that’s why his article is so blatantly wrong. It is disappointing that his only interest was sensationalism.”Full Article: An inflammatory article published by Richard Bennett in The Register makes the claim ‘BitTorrent will kill... more

Sons_Of_Liberty
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1 response

20 hours ago

Global Gaming Expo

Coverage of the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Interviews with the President of the American Gaming Association, the... more

Chilipoker
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0 responses

1 day ago

Compulsive gamers 'not addicts'

'"I liked gaming because people couldn't see me, they accepted me as my online character - I could be good at... more

rimoeng
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2 responses

7 days ago

Immersion: kids pull funny video game faces

Kids show us their V-face in photographer Robbie Cooper's goofy video. From this film, I've come to the following... more

abbym0308
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9 responses

7 days ago

Gaming is not an addiction

Ninety per cent of the young people who seek treatment for compulsive computer gaming are not addicted, claims Keith Bakker, the... more

Sumiboom
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0 responses

7 days ago

Entire NES stuffed into its cartridge kinda makes you cry ...

... except the pure cheek of this concept really made me laugh. The mod is complete with power and reset buttons, controller... more

purplefox
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35 responses

11 days ago

Ozzy Osbourne's World of Warcraft advert

What's your f**king game?

abbym0308
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2 responses

11 days ago

Alizma triplets, Kenny Loggins and The G2E Global Gaming convention

The G2E Global Gaming convention kicked off last night with a Kenny Loggins concert at The Orleans Arena -- and our hometown... more

LasVegasWeekly
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0 responses

12 days ago

Transparent Billboards Promoting Sony PSP

To see other billboards click on the link above.

YesWeDid
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3 responses

13 days ago

10 things you should know about the new Xbox Experience

Xbox's new Experience, aka the new Xbox 360 Dashboard, goes live today . As well as new Mii-like avatars and the ability to... more

richjm
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16 responses

13 days ago

How your gaming console got pwned by your fridge.

This is a new report by NRDC on gaming console energy use. A console left on uses more energy than your fridge. So much more that... more

apollogonzales
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2 responses

13 days ago

PETA Releases ‘Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals’ Videogame

Well the lunatics at Peta are at it again. According to the article: "Not to spoil the ending, but after preparing the... more

YesWeDid
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2 responses

14 days ago

Market drama continues with Eurozone admitting recession

World stock markets took another tumble last week with the major US indices penetrating the October lows intraday. The FTSE finished the week down around 4%, but it was UK plc that took a battering. The Pound fell to record lows against the European single currency, even breaking through the synthetic Euro/ Deutsche Mark lows from 1996.The week’s action was all the more damning considering the Eurozone’s admission that it too is in a recession. The Euro managed to end the slightly down against the dollar, but the pound plunged through the 1.5000 level for the first time since 2002. However there is still some way to go before the low of 1.3685 from 2001 is breached.

Financials were amongst the worst performing companies as Libor broke its 23 day decline. 3 month Libor increased to 2.15% and overnight Libor also pushed higher. The main catalyst was Paulson's announcements of changes to the Troubled Asset Relief Program. As this originally was seen as getting to the heart of the matter in terms of offloading toxic assets, investors are confused as to what this means for future prospects for financial firms in the US. In the US, the insurance giant AIG had its earnings estimates cut, as did Wells Fargo. Much worse are the rumours that Fannie May may have to tap into US government cash to avoid liquidation. Previously unaffected stocks such as HSBC were also down hard after poor results, and there was speculation that it too may need to follow Santander's lead in raising money through a rights issue. Until very recently HSBC and Santander were seen as being at arm’s length to the current crisis due to their relatively low exposure to the US housing market. However, with news of the UK property crash worsening and Asian markets faltering, HSBC is coming under increasing pressure.

More than anything market participants hate confusion or indecision, with the common reaction being "if in doubt, get out". This is reflected in the performance of financial shares across the globe. Even when the wider market attempted a rally, financials were weighing on sentiment, like a ship trying to sail with its anchor still deployed...................

For complete article, please visit http://www.regentmarkets.com/subpress_143.phpWorld stock markets took another tumble last week with the major US indices penetrating the October lows intraday. The FTSE... more