Lifehacker reports a clever tip to remotely download Bittorrent files using Dropbox synchronization tool/service. More here:

BitTorrent: Start BitTorrent Downloads at Home from Any Computer with Dropbox

Mashable published a very good list of tools for Bittorrent. Bittorrent is a very powerful tool but not so easy to use. The list covers:

• Distribution Sites
• Information Sites
• Torrent Clients
• Browser plugins

It’s not a complete reference but it’s a good start.

50+ New Tools for Torrenting via kwout

Lifehacker blog published a very useful post, that lists the options available to protect privacy when using Bittorrent:

• Use PeerGuardian IP-Blocking application: This is not a bullet proof solution, as people or organizations monitoring the network could use any IP address. Anyway it’s a first level of protection.
• Use Tor or SSH Proxy to hide P2P communication: This solution works only with public trackers. Admins of private trackers usually bans users with such configurations as a user is identified by its IP address and with Tor the IP address changes all the time and is not the true user IP address.
• Use BTGuard: It’s a proxy hosted in Canada. You just have to configure your bittorrent client to route all the communication to this proxy. This service costs about $7/month.

Feature: Protect Your Privacy When Downloading via kwout

Technorati Tags: bittorrent, Privacy, Download, Proxy, Security

Wired published a very good introduction to Bittorrent. Everything that is important is packaged in this very short article:

• Background introduction
• Client softwares required: µTorrent (Windows) or Transmission (Mac)
• Popular bittorrent tracker to find files: Mininova, The Pirate Bay and isoHunt
• Basic Bittorrent jargon definition: .torrent file, seeders, Leechers, trackers
• Advanced important topics: Selective download, Bandwidth control, port forwarding
• Etiquette: Follow the Leech:seed 1:1 ratio
• Privacy:  Use PeerGuardian2 to block blacklisted IP address

Torrentfreak reports that the iPhone introduction video is available on bittorrent network here. There are also some comments from Arstechnica, that reveal some doubts about the iPhone success. 

Slick published a interesting review of available practical solutions for online anonimity. I listed below the summary of the solutions, by usage type:

• Web surfing: Tor  and Anonymizer. Tor uses a chain of onion router to transfer the data. Tor security is good but it’s rather slow. Anonymizer is a paid web surfing anonymizing program that routes one’s data via an encrypted SSL chanel.
• Access unsecure computers: Sandboxie and  “Live” Linux distributions. Sandboxie is a virtual sandbox. Data flows in both directions between programs and the sandbox. During read operations, data may flow from the hard disk into the sandbox. But data never flows back from the sandbox into the hard disk. The lived Linux distributions offers the same kind of security: Nothing is written on the host disk.
• Anonymous p2p:  Ants and Mute. The communication between peers is secure with those applications but they are much slower than open p2p applications. Another hybrid solution is Azureus (the bittorrent client) on top of the i2p network.  

Torrentfreak reports that The Corporation a documentary that received 20 awards at the Sundance film festival is available for download for free on bittorrent networks. The synopsis taken from film web site states:

THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda, illuminates the corporation’s grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a “person” to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist’s couch to ask “What kind of person is it?” Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation includes forty interviews with corporate insiders and critics – including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore – plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

The download link is below:

Download The Corporation Filmmakers’ Official Download Edition (1.76GB)