Release Idea for making shared Pandora SD cards ..

[torpor]

So .. what about this for an idea:

- ctorrent is ported to the Pandora environment
- someone sets up the *ultimate* 8-gig/16-gig SD card crammed with apps
- the SD card is itself .torrent-file'd
- the .torrent file is shared
- everyone can 'sync' with the master SD card rig by simply downloading the .torrent to their fresh SD card, firing up ctorrent, and waiting .. waiting ..
- every so often, updates are made, and the process repeats

Think this would fly? I for one hope to try it out pretty soon. I think torrent as a means of distributing standardized SD images across a wide range of devices is pretty interesting ..

 

[Spirit]

Torrents have fixed contents. You cannot add things to a torrent. (But maybe you meant also creating a new torrent.)
There probably would be other p2p tools to do such thing, however I doubt it would be too useful. After all the Pandora will have it's pre-installed set of tools and what else people need will very much differ on personal needs.

 

[cosam]

Could be useful, although don't forget that the notion of the "ultimate" set of apps can vary greatly from person to person. Maybe build up different collections with different focuses? Then again, it'll probably take a while before we even have 8GB's worth of apps for the Pandora ;-)

You may want to consider a more efficient means of distribution like jigdo or rsync for keeping the contents up-to-date. These work by sending only the changes between two datasets over the network and therefore reduce the bandwidth and time required for updates.

 

[disjfa]

If we make a good guide for software i think that would be better than jam packed sdcards with software. I rather know what apps i have and download just the ones i like. But a guide is always useful to have,

 

[torpor]

See, the thing is I'd just like to see a Pandora SD image that is easily updated - from the perspective of the user - and now that we have the prospect of having a network-connected game machine, having this sync go out to all users is really appealing.

I guess the same thing will be possible with a standard package manager, but I can't really see much information about how the distro will work on the Pandora yet .. so I figured I'd discuss some of the issues/ideas I've had.

Having a shared filesystem for all Pandora users (who want it) seems to me to be a really interesting way of making sure we all get access to nice apps.

 

[Kyosys]

Sharing it with the pandora is unnecessary, but I wouldn't mind a torrent with all kinds of cool stuff in it

 

[mindlord]

If such a service existed, I would subscribe. I like to keep up with all the latest and greatest. This would take the hunt out of it, and save me loads of time. It doesn't even have to be gigs and gigs of stuff, just like maybe only 1 or 2 gigs tops. Just the top rated apps for each area. top NES emulator, top file manager, top word processor, top browser (If Firefox doesn't work out nicely). I don't mind using someone else's layout for mt SD card. So long as it's logical.

 

[Spirit]

How about:
-A site with Media RSS feed posts each new update or release of programs, tagged with categories (maybe a parent and a subcategory so you could have "audio" with "players", "trackers", "editors" etc underneath. The feed contains both a torrent hash and a direct download link (in case the torrent has passed out).
-On the Pandora a tool that grabs the feed. It a) lets the user subscribe to certain categories for auto-download and b) let's him browse through the posts and select specific packages to download.

-One tag category could be such "top" category.

 

[dinglebery]

about torent updateing ... not entirely true..

it is possible one group im with uses it for very large distro's of data we use (50 gigs +) the trick is the host sets up the share makes the torent , when he makes changes he rescans and releases a new torrent link , users download the new link but save over their old files and chose to rechech .. bittorrent then deleates any files that are changed and redownloads just those files. its a bit of extra work but it sure beats trying to redistribute 50 gigs of data.

its a neat idea not sure how viable it is but still neat, guess if it was me ide set it up as a "virtual SD image" folder of varring sizes (8,16,32) that folks can keep on thier pcs and sync with the distro. then when thier ready just copy them over to thier card. ide also have a lite version for the pandora that could browse said image and update only what the user wanted to (for on the go needs)

 

[PoisonedV]

uh, no... no matter what you do, update tracker scripts or whatever, you can't make automatically updating torrents. its not in the protocol. if you have to download something, then its not automatically updating and takes away the whole point.
i wouldnt mind a pandora equivelant to gp2x torrents. might have to set one up

 

[dinglebery]

i dont own a gpx so know nuthing of auto updateing torrents and your right in the fact that theres no way to make it automatic as far as i know (not sure how its acomplished on the gpx ).. but honestly downloading a link and clicking yes is not the big of a deal if it comes to that :>

 

[PoisonedV]

i dont own a gpx so know nuthing of auto updateing torrents and your right in the fact that theres no way to make it automatic as far as i know (not sure how its acomplished on the gpx ).. but honestly downloading a link and clicking yes is not the big of a deal if it comes to that :>

then it removes the whole point. why not just redownload it by http, then? or anything else?

 

[amnesiasoft]

uTorrent/BitTorrent use torrents for the automatic update feature. They just check if there is a new version available, then download a torrent that provides you with the files you need...

So it's entirely possible to do auto-update with torrents. Though I honestly don't see this whole idea as particularly useful.

 

[PoisonedV]

uTorrent/BitTorrent use torrents for the automatic update feature. They just check if there is a new version available, then download a torrent that provides you with the files you need...

So it's entirely possible to do auto-update with torrents. Though I honestly don't see this whole idea as particularly useful.

thats not part of the torrent protocol, thats part of the client... youd have to program it in yourself, at that point, so why not just use a different method?

 

[dinglebery]

like i said i dont know how gp2x handles it , and while your right in the fact the user still has to fetch a link its still better than killing everyone and trying to DL a 32 gig sd card every time theres an update . if someone has the drive to code a client just for pandora props to them(to auto fetch new torrents or whatever) . but personaly i have no issues haveing to fetch a new link for an update .. (probably am going to be anal and build my own cards thou).

that being said i do see something like this being usefull for those not interested in setting things up themselves and just DL'ing a torrent onto a SD and tossing it in the Pandora 'n' their off and running.

one thing i didnt mention is the torrent client we use for that big file is a recompiled version of Azerus (now Vuze i think) and it has a tab were it actualy lists the torrents and updates from the tracker so its pretty click n go. its not like we have to go to a web page or anything. but i have no clue how thats being accomplished.

 

[PoisonedV]

azureus would bring the pandora to its knees and make it cry
also its closed source

 

[dinglebery]

grin oh i relize azureus would blow the lid off the Pandora i was in no way suggesting that get ported (and i know its closed source ).. as is our version is pretty damn old since we cant update past when it changed to that bloated media like app ..

just saying if someone wants to pick up the time it is posible to make it pretty seamless. and regaurdless preconfigered Sd's might be handy for those looking at the pandora but with serious lack of skill or knowledge of how to set all the stuff up .. was just pointing out that while not for everyone i can see this idea haveing some use ..

then again i also see 300000 req for roms to be included on the sds too so thats the other side of the headache..

 

[PoisonedV]

well, things like NES, gameboy and gbc, and other classic consoles could have full romsets fit on there

 

[dinglebery]

agreed but i (mabey wrongly) was under the impression the original posters had the intent of this being something semi officialy supported.. or atleast openly accepted in the main site ..

unofficially ide say rock on. but if their looking at this from the standpoint of being some sort of pandora.org tied in deal ide wager the devs would want to keep it squeeky clean and the rest of us can go look in the usual spots :>

 

[Yigguth]

What about SVN?