Pandora For Downloading?

[DarthScape]

I bet I'm not the only one thinking about this. What if you could run some kind of torrent application on the Pandora, so wherever you are, it will pick up a free wifi signal and use the internet for torrents. Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to develop that type of application. Only thing I would be concerned about is the battery life. Also, is there any other device that might work for that?

 

[MrBlais]

I don't believe torrent applications are open-source. However, I could be wrong

EDIT: I Stand corrected.

 

[GPJosh]

Off the top of my head, I believe Transmission would make a good port. That said, I don't think anyone is working on it (yet).

 

[Consequence_9]

I don't believe torrent applications are open-source. However, I could be wrong

There are tons of open-source bittorent clients, what gave you that idea?

i'm pretty sure we've got one, if not several already in the angstrom repo. should be a trivial install.

As for getting wifi anywhere, you will be to do that granted it's not pass-protected. Or you could tether it to your phone, but i wouldn't recommend that for torrents.

 

[El Jefe]

A transmission binary for ARM is already in the Angstrom repo. I've got my eyes on that one....

 

[Critical_Impact]

The ability to download from usenet would be nice as well. Having it as a usenet downloader overnight would be great as it would be low power and as long as the wireless speeds are good i'd hit my top speed easily.

I believe there are quite a few open source NZB downloaders so when I do get my Pandora I'll see what I can do in terms of porting one across.

 

[rabidpoobear]

sabnzbd is pure python I believe, so it should just work out of the box. It's pretty decent but not incredibly lightweight. I hope you do port one but if not I will probably just use sab. Also I agree, hook this thing up to an external hard drive and I can power off my main machine. Didn't think about this before, great idea.

 

[grasshoppir]

common linux programs existed before the pandora was announced. and will long after its death

 

[Zotty]

I'll take rtorrent any day of the week

 

[michaeljustman]

In congested areas like large cities one might be able to pick up an open wireless network while out and about and never lose a connection as long as you configure it to connect to any open wireless network. I've used a wifi Skype phone in Seattle and went all over downtown and never was disconnected, but that might have just been the huge amount of Starbucks in that area.

 

[dflemstr]

I've used a wifi Skype phone in Seattle and went all over downtown and never was disconnected, but that might have just been the huge amount of Starbucks in that area.

I propose that we all from now on measure our WiFi signal strength in starbucks/m².

It's a valid SI unit after all, and therefore superior to the imperial "bars" unit...

 

[Aninhumer]

Off the top of my head, I believe Transmission would make a good port. That said, I don't think anyone is working on it (yet).

Definitely, Transmission is suitably lightweight, and the interface is simple enough to work well on smaller screen.

 

[DaMummy]

the only real problem here is that constantly writing to sd cards shortens its lifespan in theory, but as far as using a torrent or usenet client, thats no problem at all

 

[renwils]

Most open networks block ports used for things other than web browsing.

 

[lulzfish]

Off the top of my head, I believe Transmission would make a good port. That said, I don't think anyone is working on it (yet).

Definitely, Transmission is suitably lightweight, and the interface is simple enough to work well on smaller screen.

transmission-cli in case you want to drop the GUI and look more like a hacker.
"Yeah I'm pirating sum warez lol"
Then you can even run screen, so you can start a torrent, detach from transmission, close the console, and do something else.

 

[Aninhumer]

the only real problem here is that constantly writing to sd cards shortens its lifespan in theory, but as far as using a torrent or usenet client, thats no problem at all

Well downloading a video with bittorrent on the Pandora would use no more writes than copying the same video over from your computer, not really a problem.

 

[dflemstr]

the only real problem here is that constantly writing to sd cards shortens its lifespan in theory, but as far as using a torrent or usenet client, thats no problem at all

Well downloading a video with bittorrent on the Pandora would use no more writes than copying the same video over from your computer, not really a problem.

You forget the checksum, that's 16 bytes! Oh, the youth nowadays: assumes that everyone has infinite amounts of space on their SD cards, grmbl grmbl...

 

[Aninhumer]

You forget the checksum, that's 16 bytes! Oh, the youth nowadays: assumes that everyone has infinite amounts of space on their SD cards, grmbl grmbl...

Oh I suppose the torrent file is needed...

...which is quite a bit larger than 16bytes?
(Not massive, but still several kB)

Even just the SHA1 hash is 20 bytes.