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The Internet is littered with torrent indexes and search engines, all offering a wide range of content to their visitors. However, for this content to travel from A to B the BitTorrent ecosystem needs reliable trackers. Unfortunately, good public trackers are harder to find. For several years PublicBitTorrent and OpenBitTorrent have been dominating this space, coordinating the communication between dozens of millions of peers every day. The two trackers surfaced after The Pirate Bay shut down its BitTorrent tracker back in 2009 and haven’t seen much competition since. In recent weeks, however, a new tracker called “Demonii” entered the scene. Similar to other standalone trackers Demonii doesn’t host any torrents. TorrentFreak caught up with the operator behind this new kid in town, and he told us that the name is inspired by Demonoid. “I planned to revive Demonoid because they disappeared so quickly, so I registered the domains demonii.com, net and org,” Demonii’s Qarizma tells TorrentFreak. “Then I actually realized that for me it wasn’t a good idea to start something like Demonoid. It would get me into trouble which I’m not interested in. So I decided to start the Demonii Tracker Project.” After a slow start, traffic to the new tracker suddenly experienced a massive spike in traffic two weeks ago. Overnight it went from dealing with a handful of peers to millions, a surge that can be solely attributed to The Pirate Bay. As it turned out, TPB had added the new tracker to all their magnet links, as they also do with OpenBitTorrent and PublicBitTorrent. Needless to say, Demonii wasn’t prepared and the newly gained attention quickly took the tracker offline. “I didn’t expect it, Demonii was tracking about 100 torrents for testing and debugging, then I heard TPB used Demonii as tracker. That explained why my server went down,” Qarizma tells us. However, Demonii did welcome the Pirate Bay blessing and after moving to a new server it quickly recovered. At the time of writing Demonii tracks 875,365 torrents and handles 4,165,485 peers, which makes it the fifth largest BitTorrent tracker on the Internet. Like most of the other large BitTorrent trackers Demonii runs on the beerware licensed Opentracker software. Demonii’s operator made some small modifications to make it run smoothly on his VPS, which he can expand later if needed. “Demonii currently runs on a KVM based VPS on my own nodes. The main node is a Xeon X5677, and the VPS specs are 512MB RAM and 1000Mhz is still enough to run it now. When it needs more I can simply allocate more resources to the VPS.” In addition to operating the Demonii tracker the owner also offers privacy protection software that may come in handy for some. Dprotect The free application named “dProtect” is a blocklist addon for uTorrent. It bans a long list of IP-ranges that may be connected to monitoring companies, government agencies and other outfits that may interfere with BitTorrent traffic. “dProtect is our software released to increase people’s privacy on the internet. The software adds a layer of protection when you are downloading using uTorrent,” Qarizma says. The dProtect software uses a list of ranges maintained by The Blocklist Group. Similar to other blocklists, the list is only partially effective. It will be interesting to see if Demonii remains among the top trackers in the months to come. If The Pirate Bay keeps supporting it there is no doubt that the new kid in town will stick around for a while. Source: Pirate Bay Blessing Propels New BitTorrent Tracker to Great Heights

Speaking at a festival in the U.K., Google's executive chairman offers that the things teens do now will stay with them forever, by way of the Web. He also suggested some people are sharing too much online. Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

Figures provided by popular site PornHub suggest that those who live in allegedly more religious communities enjoy as much online release as the allegedly godless. Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

The Scotsman has launched a subscription initiative linked to the right to publish editorial content. It is inviting organisations – such as charities, universities, trade associations, professional bodies, societies and interest groups – to become "Friends of The Scotsman", which would give them the right to contribute to a new editorial section.If the initiative takes off, the paper's editor, Ian Stewart, envisages publishing an extra four pages a day in a new section.To take up the offer, the "friends" will be able to take advantage of a discounted subscription package, costing less than £300 a year.Individuals, companies and political parties cannot become friends. Stewart, in announcing the scheme, writes in today's paper: "Over a period of years we have seen an ever-narrowing news agenda. As a result, I believe there are innovations, debates, research and informative views across broad spectrums of Scotland and beyond that are not getting the airing they need and deserve because they fall outwith the narrow news agenda of the day.I want to tackle that and put the debates and issues that face industry, academia, law, charities, the arts, sports, science, medicine – every area of Scotland – in front of the tens of thousands of people who read The Scotsman every day."He explains that 'friends' can decide the topics and set the agendas, using their own words. Their articles will appear every day "close to our perspective, letters and business sections" with a daily front page signpost.They will also be published online as part of The Scotsman's website.Stewart concludes: "I think this is an exciting innovation for The Scotsman that will open up new channels of information and debate across Scotland and beyond, highlighting work and issues that currently struggle to get heard."The Scotsman, owned by Johnston Press, has seen its print sales fall away rapidly over the past 10 years, was selling 32,435 (only 21,806 at full cover price) in January when it was decided to pull it out of the ABC monthly audit. Its sales are to be reported on a six-monthly basis in future.Source: The ScotsmanThe ScotsmanJohnston PressMedia businessScotlandRegional & local newspapersRoy Greensladeguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Updated 5.20pm: Peers have been warned to beware a newspaper sting operation. The whips of all three main parties were informers earlier this week that journalists from "a prominent Sunday newspaper" had approached members of the House of Lords asking them whether they would ask questions in return for payments.Some members who rumbled what the paper was doing are known to have reported the approaches to Black Rod, David Leakey, the parliamentary official who deals with issues connected to breaches of privilege. It would appear that the paper was re-enacting exercises that have led in the past to various cash-for-questions and cash-for-access scandals. (The first was in 1994, involving the Sunday Times and The Guardian).Evidently, certain peers were contacted by journalists using the names Robyn Fox and James Fox who said they represented a company based in Zurich. It was made clear that money was on offer should they be prepared to ask questions, with more available if they were prepared to pilot legislation through parliament.Though the proffered email addresses were genuine, one peer who smelled a rat went online in an attempt to discover more about the company. I understand that he realised "within three minutes" that the company address was false. He warned colleagues and the word soon spread. One source told me: "Several lords are feeling very pleased with themselves after exposing what they believe is a bungled sting… The scam was stupid and most peers saw through it." The opposition chief whip, Lord Bassam, sent an email on Wednesday, which began:"One of our members has been approached by a lobbying company that we can find little trace of internationally. We are concerned that this may be linked to a prominent national newspaper and timed to coincide with the arrival in the Lords of the government's energy bill. If anyone is approached you should be extremely cautious."This email was later passed to crossbench peers as well in order to stymie the sting. It is unclear which paper was involved. One peer told me: "It's a toss-up between the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday."It seems that this time around the stingers have been stung. Then again, perhaps we will discover later, in spite of the warnings, that some peers were caught out.Update 5.20pm: David Rose, deputy news editor of the Mail on Sunday, tweets that it is "definitely not" his paper.Sources: Confidential/WikipediaHouse of LordsNational newspapersNewspapersSunday TimesThe GuardianRoy Greensladeguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

What is digital curation and why is it important to you? Leading experts in the curation and preservation of digital objects (such as databases, photos, vide...Robin Good's insight:Here is a 5-minute video recorded at the DigCurV Final Conference which took place on the 6th and 7th of May 2013 in Florence, Italy, in which several academic and research professionals in the fields of curation and preservation of digital objects (such as databases, photos, videos, websites, etc) share their views on what exactly is digital curation, and why it matters.DigCurV is a project funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme to develop a curriculum framework for training in Digital Curation. To learn more, visit http://digcur-education.orgOriginal video: http://youtu.be/6cuOdgvYRGMSee it on Scoop.it, via Content Curation World

Highlight, focus or magnify objects in PowerPoint presentations, on the fly and with zero preperationRobin Good's insight:MagPointer is a downloadable Windows PC software which provides a set of highlighting tools to support the delivery of a PowerPoint presentation.MagPointer leverages in-depth PowerPoint traits and characteristics, enabling the user to highlight and manipulate easily objects inside any slide.The toolset includes:Selecting and enlarging a specific slide objectCreating frames around specific elements present on a slideLaser pointerZooming toolDimming screen outside of the highlighted areaMagnify and freezeElement Highlighting toolMagPointer auto-activates itself when you are in PowerPoint slideshow mode and it appears on the right side of the screen as a vertical toolbar.It can be used only in conjunction with PowerPoint.My comment: Very useful tool for presenter and effective feature set. The integrated features and tools are very useful but when MagPointer is active I dislike seeing subtle grey areas appear under every object in a slide. Usability leaves something to be desired especially when it comes to the vertical toolbar and cursor-contextual menu. Could prove very useful and handy for certain trainers/educators who find themselevs at ease with this small downsides.Free trial version available: http://www.magpointer.com(padi version $19.95)Download: http://www.magpointer.com/download.htmlGet started: http://www.magpointer.com/getting-started.htmlUser Guide: http://www.magpointer.com/uploads/1/2/1/2/12121421/magpointer_user_guide.pdfBuy: http://www.magpointer.com/buy.htmlSee it on Scoop.it, via Presentation Tools

The folks at Grovo paint a terrifying picture of a future dominated by obnoxious, Glass-wearing photophiles. Originally posted at Crave

The MPAA-backed Federation Against Copyright Theft is well known for its anti-piracy actions around the UK, tracking down alleged movie pirates with the help of the police and hauling them, if at all possible, through the court system. What remains remarkable about FACT operations is how they are able to persuade the police to invest significant resources towards detaining individuals for non-violent crimes. This week witnessed yet another example of that ability. Five undercover cars containing 10 police officers and officers from the Federation Against Copyright Theft arrived at a property in the West Midlands at 07:30 Thursday morning. The person they were looking for no longer lived at the address but in the space of 15 minutes three cars, four detectives and two FACT officers had made it to the correct location. Armed with an emergency search warrant issued out of hours by a judge, police and FACT officers entered the suspect’s home. “This morning I was arrested at my home under suspicion of recording and distributing Fast and Furious 6 and a few other titles,” the arrested man told TorrentFreak. After seizing numerous items including three servers, a desktop computer, blank hard drives and blank media, police detained the 24-year-old and transported him to a nearby police station. Despite the ‘emergency’ nature of the raid, no movie recording equipment was found. “At the police station I was interviewed by the police together with FACT (Federation Against Copyright and Theft). During questioning they asked me about Fast and Furious 6, where I obtained a copy from and if I was the one who went and recorded it at the cinema.” Despite police involvement, as in previous cases it appears they were only present in order to gain access to the victim’s property, sit on the sidelines taking notes, and for their powers when it comes to presenting crimes for prosecution. “I was detained for 3 hrs 12 minutes, out of that I was questioned for approximately 40 minutes. One police officer and two FACT officers conducted the interview. The police officer sat back and let FACT do all the questioning, so FACT were running the show,” the man reports. TorrentFreak has seen copies of the issued bail sheets. Surprisingly they do not state any law under which the man was arrested, instead referring only to “Miscellaneous Offense”, apparently due to the police being unclear on what to write down. “The custody officer could not find the relevant charge, however I remember them saying it came under Section 17 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,” the man explains. As can be seen from the snapshot of bail sheet shown below, conditions have been attached. “Although I have been released on police bail until September 23rd I have been banned from entering any cinema in England and Wales, while the investigation is being carried out,” the arrested man concludes. Earlier this year FACT revealed that the Film Distributors Association had handed out cash rewards to more than a dozen cinema workers who managed to disrupt the work of alleged movie cammers in UK cinemas. Despite the successes, not a single individual was prosecuted. They will be hoping for a better result from this week’s arrest. Source: Five Undercover Police Cars Sent To Arrest Single Alleged Movie Pirate

We were hanging around last Monday as the bands got ready for our Word In Your Ear show with David Ford and My Darling Clementine. The sound and lights were being looked after by a young woman dressed like Tank Girl. The guitarist with My Darling Clementine, pub-rock veteran Martin Belmont, was talking about back pain and anti-inflammatory pills. The drummer mentioned he used to subscribe to my magazine. Which one? The Word? No. Smash Hits.I get glimpses occasionally but I can no longer accurately work out generations of music people.Music's like a long train. Some people got on at the beginning of the line. Others join it later. They can explore the rest of the carriages but their experience of the journey will not be the same as the people who got on earlier. The passengers who've been there longest may point out that the train is going round in circles and has passed certain landmarks before. The newer passengers don't care. It's new to them. In fact they might get excited about a station which they previously passed through without comment. Their view of the journey is a different one. Unlike real trains, this one has unlimited capacity. Once you're on the train, nobody checks your ticket.And here's the really significant thing, the thing which has more bearing on the music economy than file sharing and whatever happens to be the latest thing. More and more people get on but hardly anyone gets off, unless, of course, they're compelled by forces beyond their control.