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www.opera.com

“Unite,” as the service is called, is included in a beta release of the company’s Opera browser, which ranks a distant third behind Internet Explorer and Firefox in user adoption worldwide.

How It Works

A Unite-enabled Opera browser allows users to designate the content they want to share and who should have access to it via a custom URL. Access can be set to public, password-restricted or private access for the account owner only.

Users who want to access the Unite browser-based server need not be running Opera, according to the company, but some services did not appear to work Tuesday when accessed from Firefox.

Opera did not respond to an email request for comment about the new service. However, in a statement, Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner called the technology “one of our most significant innovations yet, because it changes forever the fundamental fabric of the Web.”

The service currently lets users share files and photos, stream music, chat and leave messages for friends using a virtual refrigerator motif. In a posting to the company’s blog, Opera product analyst Lawrence Eng said the initial set of applications constitutes little more than a demo.

“The key to Opera Unite is that it enables a whole new class of social software on the Web, applications that benefit from two or more people being online at the same time,” Eng wrote.

User-Made Apps on the Way

Developers, including average users, will be able to use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to make and upload new services that others can install on their own Unite sites, according to Opera.

An example, Eng wrote, might be a jukebox that mixes playlists submitted by a group of online friends. Each user would hear the same distributed playlist, “harking back to the days of going to a friend’s house to listen to records,” he wrote.

Democratizing the Web, Again

With examples like that, it’s clear Unite is making an effort to bring the Web back to its peer-to-peer roots, Carl Howe, director of consumer research for the Yankee Group, told TechNewsWorld.

“It’s an attempt to change consumers from, well, consumers to producers,” he said. “The idea is that the Internet doesn’t have to be asymmetric. It was originally designed as a peer-to-peer world, and Opera is trying to make it go back to that.”

The service isn’t exactly peer-to-peer, though. It still requires Opera’s servers to act as intermediaries, Howe said.

Neither is it a novel technology. Other services have mimicked the ad-hoc server concept, he noted.

Still, Unite could appeal strongly to “up and coming digital citizens” who are beginning to chafe at the conventions of the Internet world, where the content users want to share has to be uploaded and accessed remotely.

“In many ways, it’s what people do on Facebook today, without the Facebook,” observed Howe.

It’s too early to say whether other browser providers will mimic Opera’s offering, or when, he said.

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Windows 2000 and XP are built on NT technology and both are generally better optimized for networking than Windows 9x and even NT4. Regardless, both XP and 2000 are still configured with respect to Ethernet rather than high-speed Internet connections, where latency plays a major role in throughput. Here, you will find specific information on how to optimize the Windows 2000/XP Registry for Cable Modems, DSL, or any similar type of broadband Internet connection.

Customizing the Windows Registry assumes some proficiency in tuning Windows configuration files. If you don’t feel comfortable editing it, please use our TCP Optimizer program, or the Windows 2000/XP registry patches from the Downloads section of the site. both those options will add all the parameters and set all the optimal values in the Registry automatically for you.

If you’d rather make the changes yourself, or prefer to experiment with different values to fine-tune your connection, follow the directions for editing the Registry below.

Editing the Windows 2000/XP Registry

To edit the Registry, you need to use an editor, such as Regedit. As with previous Windows versions, it can be accessed from the Start Menu ( START > Run > type “Regedit” ). Note that most of the values recommended on these pages are not present in the Registry by default and you might have to add them manually. Also, for most of the tweaks to take effect you must Reboot.

It is strongly recommended that you backup your Registry before editing. The easiest way to backup your Registry is from within the Registry Editor, just choose “Export Registry File” from the pull-down menu.

Recommended settings for Windows 2000 / XP

Windows 2000 & XP, unlike NT supports large windows as described in RFC1323 ( the ‘RcvWindow’ has a maximum value of 2**30 rather than 64K), and includes some other improvements over its predecessors you can use to speed up any TCP/IP transfers. The best settings are listed in red, the descriptions and other options are added to provide you with better understanding and enable you to customize your settings.

All the following entries, unless otherwise noted should be placed in the Windows 2000/XP Registry under the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

TCPWindowSize

The value of the TCP Window in the Windows 2k/XP Registry is probably the single most importan setting that will offer the most benefit to improving your internet connection. The recommended value (in red) will optimize TCP for any high speed broadband internet connection. It will work well for most cases, however, if you’d like to use a custom value make sure to follow these guidelines: For best results, the TCPWindow should be a multiple of MSS (Maximum Segment Size). MSS is generally MTU – 40 (20 byte TCP and 20 byte IP headers), where MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) is the largest packet size that can be transmitted. MTU is usually 1500 bytes (1492 for PPPoE connections). To determine the exact MTU value of your ISP, check out the Advanced Registry Editing section of our site or use the TCP Optimizer.

There are three places in the Windows Registry where you can add the TCP Window parameter.

HKLM/SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize=”256960″ (DWORD, number of bytes) Valid range is from MSS to 2^30. Add the value as a decimal. Note: For best results RWIN has to be a multiple of MSS lower than 65535 times a scale factor that’s a power of 2, i.e. 44 x 1460 = 64240 x 2^2 = 256960. If you choose to use a RWIN lower than 65535, you can simply make it multiple of MSS and turn scaling off (Tcp1323Opts=0)

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
TcpWindowSize=”256960″ (DWORD, number of bytes) Valid range is from MSS to 2^30. Add the value as a decimal.
Note (10/20/00): Seems MS has found another bug in Windows 2000, the TCPWindowSize should be configured with the global setting (GlobalMaxTcpWindowsSize) rather than this one – Q263088

TcpWindowSize can also exist under TcpipParametersInterface – if added at this location, it overrides the global setting for this particular NIC.

Note: For best results RWIN has to be a multiple of MSS lower than 65535 times a scale factor that’s a power of 2, i.e. 44 x 1460 = 64240 x 2^2 = 256960. If you choose to use a RWIN lower than 65535, you can simply make it multiple of MSS and turn scaling off (Tcp1323Opts=0).

Tcp1323Opts

Tcp1323Opts is a necessary setting in order to enable Large TCP Window support as described in RFC 1323. Without this parameter, the TCP Window is limited to 64K.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
Tcp1323Opts=”1″ (DWORD, recommended setting is 1. The possible settings are 0 – Disable RFC 1323 options, 1 – Window scaling but no Timestamp options, 3 – Window scaling and Time stamp options.)

Note: Tcp1323Opts=”3″ might help in some cases where there is increased packet loss, however generally you’ll achieve better throughput with Tcp1323Opts=”1″, since Timestamps add 12 bytes to the header of each packet.

DefaultTTL

DefaultTTL determines the time in seconds and the number of hops a packet lives (every hop reduces it by at least 1). While it does not directly affect speed, a larger value increases the amount of time it takes for a packet to be considered lost, discarded and retransmitted. A value that’s too small can cause packets to be unable to reach distant servers at all.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
DefaultTTL=”64″ (DWORD, recommended setting is 64. Other settings that are widely used are 128 and 32)

EnablePMTUDiscovery

When set to 1 (True), TCP attempts to discover MTU automatically over the path to a remote host. Setting this parameter to 0 causes MTU to default to 576 which reduces overall performance over high speed connections. Note: setting is different than our Windows 9x recommendation

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
EnablePMTUDiscovery=”1″ (DWORD – boolean, valid settings are 0–>False and 1–>True. Many connections perform better with this entry at 1, however, if you prefer to set your upstream to send fixed 1500 packets, you might want to use 0 instead). When set at 1, establishing connections and initial transfer speed might slow down a bit, however you will get better throughput if somewhere in the path large packets need to be fragmented.

EnablePMTUBHDetect

Setting this parameter to 1 (True) enables “black hole” routers to be detected, however it also increases the maximum number of retransmissions for a given segment. In most cases you’d want to keep BHDetect at 0 (False).

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
EnablePMTUBHDetect=”0″ (DWORD – boolean, valid settings are 0 = False and 1 = True. Recommended setting is 0)

SackOpts

This parameter controls whether or not SACK (Selective Acknowledgement) support is enabled, as specified in RFC 2018. SACK is especially important for connections using large TCP Window sizes.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
SackOpts=”1″ (DWORD – boolean, recommended setting is 1. Possible settings are 0 = No Sack options, or 1 = Sack Option enabled).

TcpMaxDupAcks

This parameter determines the number of duplicate ACKs that must be received for the same sequence number of sent data before “fast retransmit” is triggered to resend the segment that has been dropped in transit.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
TcpMaxDupAcks=”2″ (DWORD – range 1-3, recommended setting is 2).

Additional TCP/IP Related Parameters

The additional TCP related parameters are not necessary in most cases, and you shouldn’t expect any drastic improvements, however we added them for those of you who like experimenting. You might be able to gain that last bit of performance, or customize your TCP/IP behavior even more with those. Keep in mind you should familiarize yourself with what the parameters mean and how they affect your connection before changing their values

MTU
Setting MTU overrides the default MTU for the network interface it is added to. Note that if EnablePMTUDiscovery is set to 1, TCP will use the smaller value of this local MTU and the “Discovered” MTU of the underlying network connection. If you’d rather use only the MTU value specified here, you’d have to disable PMTUDiscovery, which would prevent your system from detecting the network MTU.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
MTU=”1500″ (DWORD, valid range is from 68 to MTU of network).

Note: For Windows XP PPPoE, there is an additional location for MTU that might need to be adjusted (to 1480, or up to 1492 as per the PPPoE specs), depending on the PPPoE software you use. Check the following location in the Registry:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NdisWan\Parameters\Protocols
ProtocolMTU=”1480″

AFD Parameters

Afd.sys is the kernel-mode driver used to support Windows Sockets applications.

DefaultReceiveWindow
The number of receive bytes that AFD buffers on a connection before imposing flow control. For some applications, a larger value here may give a sligtly better performance at the expense of increased resource utilization. Applications can modify this value on a per-socket basis.

Registry Location:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Afd\Parameters
DefaultReceiveWindow (DWORD, not present by default. Recommended: leave blank as is, since this value limits the TCP/IP TcpWindowSize RWIN value)

DefaultSendWindow
Same as the above setting for the send side of connections.

Registry Location:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Afd\Parameters
DefaultSendWindow (DWORD, not present by default. Recommended: leave blank as is. Alternatively, you can enter a value up to the TCP/IP TcpWindowSize RWIN setting)

Datagram Size
MS Windows supports a fast I/O path which is utilized when sending “small” datagrams (packets). The default setting for what is considered “small” datagram is 1024 bytes; increasing this value to match your network MTU (normally 1500) can significantly improve network performance.

To adjust this parameter:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AFD\Parameters
FastSendDatagramThreshold=1500 (DWORD value, 1024 by default when not present, recommended: 1500 decimal)

Note: setting not in the current version of the TCP Optimizer.

FastCopyReceiveThreshold
When an application posts a receive with a buffer that is smaller than the current packet being buffered by Winsock, AFD can either make an additional copy of the packet and then copy data to the application buffers directly (two-stage copy because application buffers cannot be accessed directly under the lock), or it can lock and map application buffers and copy data once. This value represents a compromise between extra code execution for data copying, and extra code execution in the I/O subsystem and memory manager.

To adjust this parameter:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AFD\Parameters
FastCopyReceiveThreshold=1500 (DWORD, 1024 by default when not present, recommended: 1500 decimal)

IgnorePushBitOnReceive
Setting this parameter to 1 causes Afd.sys to treat all incoming packets as though the push bit was set. We recommend leaving this at the default of 0 (disabled).

Registry Location:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AFD\Parameters
FastCopyReceiveThreshold (DWORD boolean, 0 by default when not present, recommended: don’t set)

Web Patch

According to the HTTP specs, only limited number of simultaneous connections are allowed, while loading pages. To increase that number in Internet Explorer, you can add the following entries to the Registry (they are not present by default). For Firefox, refer to our browser tweaks article.

HKEY_USERS.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
“MaxConnectionsPerServer”=dword:00000010
“MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server”=dword:00000010

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
“MaxConnectionsPerServer”=dword:00000010
“MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server”=dword:00000010

Notes: Keep in mind that increasing those values exceeds the HTTP specs. Increasing them much over 10 may cause problems with some websites. While these entries might improve web page loading considerably, they tend to strain webservers more and have no effect on throughput.

]]> http://navaneetnews.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/improve-broadband-internet-speed-windows-2kxp-registry-tweaks/feed/ 0 cjnavaneet http://navaneetnews.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/the-pirate-bay-has-been-bought-by-a-public-company/ http://navaneetnews.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/the-pirate-bay-has-been-bought-by-a-public-company/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:30:30 +0000 cjnavaneet http://navaneetnews.wordpress.com/?p=3 ]]> The Pirate Bay Has Been Bought By A Public Company

The news that The Pirate Bay has apparently been sold to a public company for 60 million SEK (about $8 million US) — at least according to a press release from the supposed buyer, Global Gaming Factory X (GGF). Apparently it’s 30 million SEK/$4 million in cash and another the rest in shares in GGF. The company claims the acquisition will be complete in August, and that it will “launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners.” Separately, it appears GGF is also buying another technology company, called Peerialism.

Press Release

Global Gaming Factory X: Acquisitions of The Pirate Bay and New File – Sharing Technology, p2p 2.0

Pave the Way for Compensation Model

STOCKHOLM, Jun 30, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The listed software company, Global Gaming Factory X AB (publ) (GGF) acquires The Pirate Bay website, http://www.thepiratebay.org, one of the 100 most visited websites in the world and the technology company Peerialism, that has developed next generation file-sharing technology. Following the completion of the acquisitions, GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners. The responsibility for, and operation of the site will be taken over by GGF in connection with closing of the transaction, which is scheduled for August 2009.

“We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site, ” said Hans Pandeya, CEO GGF.

“The Pirate Bay is a site that is among the top 100 most visited Internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary. Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it. File sharers ‘need faster downloads and better quality, ” continues Hans Pandeya.

GGF acquires domain names and related web sites, including http://www.thepiratebay.org. The consideration for the purchase amounts to MSEK 60 consisting of at least MSEK 30 in cash and up to the equivalent of MSEK 30 in the form of newly issued shares in GGF (according to valuation in connection with the completion of the acquisition). The stock share of the purchase price is expected to be equivalent to a maximum of three per cent of the total number of outstanding shares of GGF after the acquisition. In the case that three percent of the shares is not equivalent to 30 MSEK, the major shareholder of GGF has declared that he will contribute the equivalent in cash.

GGF has entered into an agreement to acquire the shares in Peerialism AB. Peerialism AB is a software technology company with its origin in KTH Royal Institute of Technology and SICS, Swedish Institute of Computer Science and which presently is owned by the employees. The owners as well as the employees will continue to work for the company. Peerialism develops solutions for data distribution and distributed storage based on new p2p- technology. The access to the technology is secured by the acquisition. The consideration amounts to in aggregate MSEK 100 consisting of at least MSEK 50 in cash and up to the equivalent of MSEK 50 in newly issued shares in GGF (according to valuation during a period of ten days after the announcement). The share part of the purchase price should not exceed five percent of the total number of shares in GGF after the transaction. In addition GGF has undertaken to make initial investments of MSEK 25 in the acquired business.

“Peerialism has developed a new data distribution technology which now can be introduced on the best known file – sharing site, The Pirate Bay. Since the technology is compatible with the existing it will quickly allow for new values to be created for all key stakeholders and facilitate new business opportunities”, says Johan Ljungberg, CEO Peerialism.

Completion of the acquisitions are primarily subject to GGF obtaining financing for the acquisition, that any necessary resolutions are adopted by a General Meeting of GGF, and that GGF and the Board of Directors consider that the acquired assets can be used in a legally and appropriate way. GGF intends to issue new shares in order to obtain the necessary financing for the acquisition. The acquisition is deemed to be completed in August 2009. In connection therewith, the ownership of, and responsibility for, the acquired assets will be transferred to GGF.

“As a result of the acquisitions of The Pirate Bay and Peerialism, GGF will have a strategic position in the international digital distribution market. File sharing traffic is estimated to account for more than half of today’s global Internet traffic. The Pirate Bay has a global brand and holds a key position with over 20 million visitors and over one billion page views per month,” says Hans Pandeya.

A Press briefing will be held on June 30th 2009 at 11.00 at Sparvagshallarna, Birger Jarlsgatan 57 A, Stockholm.

Global Gaming Factory X AB (publ) has been listed on Aktietorget since 2006 GGFX has the largest network of Internet cafes and game centers and provides software. GGFX thus has access to the largest group of games players on the Internet. The company’s principal shareholders are Magnus Bergman (Chairman), Hans Pandeya, (CEO) and Johan Sellstrom, (CTO) (for more details see attached CV and http://www.globalgamingfactory.com).

The Pirate Bay is one of the 100 most visited Internet sites in the world and one of the leading search engines for file sharing. The site has more than 20 million visitors and over one billion searches per month.

Peerialism AB develops solutions to transport and store data over Internet based on new p2p technologies. The solutions are capable of large scale media distribution with clear advantages over existing solutions; it makes better use of networks resources whilst reducing ISP traffic and significantly lowering the cost of media distribution. The technology has its origin from research projects within SICS (Swedish Institute for Computer Science) and KTH (Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan). The head of research at SICS, Seif Haridi who also is a professor at KTH will continue to be advisor to Peerialism.The company was founded in 2007 and has 14 employees and is based in Stockholm (more information http://www.peerialism.com, http://www.sics.com, http://www.kth.se).

Background The market for the consumption and distribution of digital media is characterised by a complex landscape of both national and international legislation with difficult conflicts between different areas of law – not least in balancing copyright law and rights of privacy. This has led to a widespread global debate among opinion-makers, politicians, academics, the general public and business people.

In addition to the responsibilities of the individual Internet user, the responsibility for user-generated material is diversely allocated between different market participants and may also vary from country to country. However, both U.S. and European law place certain obligations on Internet Service Providers (ISP) and on Information Society Service Providers (ISSP) to prevent the distribution of unauthorised or illegal material. Time consuming legislative work and costly litigation are taking place in all parts of the world as a result of the demands posed by the technological evolution on the rules that are to apply.

All market participants, e.g. technology and broadband providers, various service providers, search engines and rights’ holders would all benefit from a clearer legal landscape that enables safe investments and the continued evolution of the information society. GGF wants to accept the challenge to position itself as a respectable participant in the market and contribute to Internet’s infrastructure, with the goal to establish working models for co-operation and a clear allocation of responsibilities on market terms, respecting both intellectual property rights and the rights of privacy.

Below you can find a selection of links related to the discussion; http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4206.html

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/04/18/is-google-the-next-pirate-bay-in-a-word-no/http://cci.mit.edu/research/prediction.html

CV – Global Gaming Factory X AB Hans Chandra Pandeya, CEO St. Columba’s School, New Delhi, MSc Engineering Physics, Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Sweden and MBA Harvard Business School.

Co-founder of Bargain Pages, an advertising paper for free ads in Birmingham, UK. Sold to one of the biggest classifieds publishers in Europe. Co-founder of Ad-Mag, advertising papers for free ads in India. Co-founder of advertising papers for free ads in Australia. Sold to John MacBain’s Trader Classified Media, the biggest classifieds publisher in the world.

CEO of Interline Networks, an Internet telephony network in Sydney, Australia. Launched a web phone for free phone calls in 2000.

Founder and owner of Unika Bostader AB, a property developer in Stockholm, Sweden.

Worked with advertising papers, IT companies, and property development for 17 years.

Johan Sellstrom, Technical Director

MSc Engineering Physics, Royal Institue of Technology, (KTH) Sweden.

Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Icon Medialab, one of the biggest IT consultancy firms in Europe.

Analytical methods and implementation, Aeronautical Institue of Sweden, SAAB Military Aircraft, Volvo.

Magnus Bergman, Chairman

MSc in Aeronautics, Royal Institue of Technology, (KTH) Sweden, PhD in Physics, Institute National Polytechnique, Toulouse, France.

Co-founder and CEO of Parallel Consulting Group AB that was sold to Icon Medialab in 1999.

Former Director of Icon Medialab. Co-founder and CEO of Cross Connect Network Group AB.

Chairman of Mobispine AB, Efield AB, CrossVenture Capital AB.

More than 20 years of experience in development of IT companies in the areas of parallell computing, advanced computer technology, IT security, application interfaces, communication and methodology.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com

SOURCE: Global Gaming Factory X

Hans Pandeya, CEO, Global Gaming Factory X AB, +46 733 16 42 10
or
Media contact, + 46 706 55 24 36