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Comment by CodeCube | Hacker News Reader

I don't know why, but I had a visceral reaction to the browser prompt to install the extension in the paddleover demo. This is despite the fact that I'm a developer, and I'm well familiar with bittorrent. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I feel like I have to be keenly aware of what my BT client is doing at any given moment. The thought of letting a BT client run unchecked in my browser is disconcerting ... am I completely off base here?

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After downloading the demo (which was super cool!) the biggest unanswered question I have is:

Am I seeding? If so, how do I stop?

I guess their purpose is to make torrent irrelevant but that may just work for "normal" users.

Out of all the comments here, only your question on seeding and no answers. It's the only reason I came to the comments!

No. I also like the restrictions on time, speed and bandwidth I use on my client. Almost no traffic during the day and lots between 00:00 and 08:00 due to half bandwidth "cost" from my ISP. I also want to keep track of how much data has been transferred due to a bandwidth cap.

I had a similar reaction. I installed OneClick, but when I realised there wasn't even an options menu, I uninstalled it stat. I like the promise of the technology though. If anyone could run large-scale file/video distribution from any site, that would be pretty amazing.

I think BitTorrent (the company) need to address two things though:

1. Clarify the implementation. It's early days for Torque, but it should be clear to the user when they're uploading data and who can access that data.

2. Address the fact that the brand is (understandably but unfairly) associated with piracy and legal liability. Most people associate bittorrent with illegal downloads and most people don't know much at all about how the technology works. Even if they do, it's often obscured, which I guess brings us back to point 1...

Yeah, I felt the same thing. It just felt wrong somehow. But at some point BT is going to cease being a technical and controversial process and will be as simple and straightforward for everyone as normal transfer protocols are.

You guys are certainly correct. I'd recommend dragging the files on your bubble to the trash can if you're concerned. That will delete the torrent under the hood.

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