torrents

Post by **hugh** » February 4th, 2008, 1:14 pm

one really important thing is to have good meta data about the book etc. description etc.

Cori · Post by **Cori** » February 4th, 2008, 1:42 pm

http://piratebay.org

Mininova has fewer pictures of scantily clad ladies attached to it, but I like the torrent choice at PirateBay better. And the fact that it's European, too, so there's lots of languages represented, not just English. (Not that I speak any of the others, but I'm always happy to support in any way I can, even if pretty puny in this case.)

delibab · Post by **delibab** » February 4th, 2008, 1:46 pm

Robert,
If you are going to use the 64k MP3 zip'ed version from archive.org...
- download the 64k zip file (100, 200, 300 megs - whatever)
- copy the MD5 and SHA1 hashes for the file
- check the hashes (i.e. generate a new hash from the copy downloaded to your PC, and compare to the archive.org hash)
- set up to seed the zip file
- on some Librivox page, it should contain details on the torrent, plus the hashes (theses are just long numbers, like..
tomswift_planetx_20_appleton_64kb.mp3
sha1 991aab0a1b91d8bff8f6c270f4128e25cbaeaf60
md5 4faad7c6d2374e060fa5091f0e0c128e
- to be hyper careful, somebody should download from the torrent and double check the hashes

(if you want to use the 128k files - you would need to download the individual files, create a zip, then create hashes for the new zip)

From the end users point of view, they would be directed to the torrent from the Librivox site (..well..), they would download the zip file to their hard disk. To check the 'integrity' the would run a program to create a hash of the the downloaded file. If it matches the number on the Librivox page, all is well - if not, something is wrong.

Hope it helps a little.
Regards, DB

delibab · Post by **delibab** » February 5th, 2008, 1:23 pm

Robert,
Happy to help. Let me know what you are seeding and I will download it.
But - always a but...
As a test - I downloaded the torrent of 'a tale of two cities', after downloading I was left with a directory with the MP3's plus a text file (who recorded it, various Librivox details). To provide hashes for that, you would need to provide the hashes for the individual files - hmmm, not really so practical!
It would be better if the archive.org 64k zip file was seeded, then we have only one hash number to consider, post in on librivox, and point to where the hashes can be found. (As a start, is it possible to have a wiki page that is only editable by an admin?)

So what to do? Seed our own versions of the 64k zip files, or contribute to the seeding of the files already there? (with fingers crossed there are no issues with them..)

Long term - wouldn't it be great to create a DVD image a whole pile of books of one genre!

(perhaps its just me, but I dislike downloading large files by bit torrent, without any assurance it realy is 'what it says on the tin'!)

Regards, DB

Cori · Post by **Cori** » February 5th, 2008, 2:34 pm

perhaps its just me, but I dislike downloading large files by bit torrent, without any assurance it realy is 'what it says on the tin'!

I can understand that position -- but on the other hand, that's exactly what Torrenting is all about. Else why not just send would-be-downloaders to our catalogue or archive.org?! This is a method some people like, and it has advantages (allowing interrupted downloads, or even the social-hacking aspects of sneaking legal content into an often illegal environment) so ... if it can be catered to, why not. It's been difficult to organise this consistently, though, as you'll see if you do a forum search for threads about torrents.

I would say, for me, that I prefer downloading many parts (either individual MP3 files, or RAR sections or the like) than trying for one single file. Easier then to download one to sample, than getting the whole zip file and finding I'm not keen on the narrator's voice, or it's too quiet or something.

I'm not at all clear about the hash part of the conversation above. This should be something your Torrenting software generates and verifies as part of the seeding process -- it shouldn't need to be done manually.

Also, just to mention, a verified file download is almost impossible to achieve. There's no more proof for a random torrent user that your file is the real deal, than anyone else's version of it. That's why number of downloads, and positive comments, are so useful -- they act as a rough credibility meter, on the assumption that people wouldn't keep and seed on files that are corrupt, virused or incomplete. That's not always a sound assumption, especially in downloading software, but for MP3s, I think it works reasonably well.

Cori · Post by **Cori** » February 5th, 2008, 4:29 pm

Sorry, I wasn't clear. If one includes a virus with the original file, the hash when generated will simply take account of that slight increase in size. Hashes say the file is identical to the original, not that the original has any implicit quality or validity of its own. They're useful to verify that an entire file has arrived, but that's all.

Also, because a new hash is created with each torrent, it's not going to be useful to include the hash on LV catalogue pages, which might otherwise seem like a good way of "digitally signing" the file. It'll only work as long as that particular torrent is active. (Plus, of course, if people are at the cat page, they'll be downloading directly anyway, or using the archive.org hash.

)