The Register has posted an analysis of BitTorrent, it contains nice stats, graphs, suggestions to revisions of the protocol and more…

The BitTorrent P2P file-sharing system | The Register

Slashdot reader wiggles writes “The BBC says, ‘The relentless pace of development in the hi-tech world and rampant competition in many of its sectors, particularly among mobile phone firms, all suggests that 2005 is going to be a very good year.’ They talk about that (overused?) buzzword ‘convergence’ and the implications for gadgets in 2005 as we further approach the ‘convergence’ asymptote. So what 2005 gadgets are Slashdotters looking forward to?” I’m forecasting that 2006 and 2007 are ALSO looking good for gadgets. You heard it here first…

Slashdot | BBC: 2005 Looking Good for Gadgets

Slashdot reader nomrniceguy writes “The new year is sure to be memorable for SETI, as glossy new instruments come on-line. At Harvard University, a survey telescope designed to sweep massive swaths of the sky in a hunt for extraterrestrial laser flashes is becoming a reality. In Puerto Rico, the famed Arecibo telescope is getting a new feed that will speed up searches by seven times. And in California, the SETI Institute and Berkeley’s Radio Astronomy Lab will soon be scanning the star-clotted realms of the inner Milky Way with the first-stage implementation of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) and will eventually boast 350 antennas, each 20 feet in diameter. This impressive antenna farm will be spread over about a half square-mile of terrain.”

Slashdot | New and Improved SETI

Anonymous Slashdot reader from Manitoba writes “BBC news is reporting more details about Burt Rutan’s proposed SpaceShipTwo.
Apparently the new flyer will include five to eight passenger seats and have the ‘same diameter crew cabin as a Gulfstream V business jet’. It will fly much higher than SpaceShip One – up to ’135-140 km’ that will permit an additional 90 seconds of microgravity. This will be important, since ‘we want this roller coaster-type bar that you fold out of the way and you can float around’. They are also planning to ‘have the option of landing in a different place from where they took off’. I can’t wait until we can ride SpaceShipThree across the Atlantic in 20 minutes!”

Slashdot | More SpaceShipTwo Details

Slashdot reader Chessphoon writes “NASA’s Deep Impact, a spacecraft named after the 1998 movie, is scheduled to launch on January 12. If all goes as planned, the spacecraft will collide with Comet Tempel 1 six months later on July 4, and create a crater so that the inside of the comet can be analyzed.”

Slashdot | NASA Prepares to Launch Comet-Buster