May 14, 2002

11:45 PM

I've been using Kazaa for about a year, but yesterday it spewed out a 30 second audio advertisement for a casino that you couldn't stop, and couldn't get rid of. Quite apart from getting me in deep piles of poo with my boss, surely this is going too far? Audio adverts you can't do anything about - maybe it is time to move on...
posted by wibbler (35 comments total)

It's AG and WinMX for me, every time. I've found nothing else as satisfying usage wise. I got pissed with Kazaa pretty quickly and as soon as I heard talk of riskiness I went back to using WinMX, which is pretty good. I use it especially for video downloads and the quality is excellent; it's a good piece of software. The resumes are seemless (more or less), which is pretty cool.
posted by boneybaloney at 12:02 AM on May 15, 2002

kazaalite
posted by azazello at 12:07 AM on May 15, 2002

i received a audio spam email the other day. i can just picture being at work and having "INCREASE YOUR EJACULATION BY 660%" blasting out of my speakers.
posted by centrs at 12:39 AM on May 15, 2002

Look into edonkey which is linked into sharereactor. Personally I use Direct Connect the most.

These programs are more for downloading movies than for mp3's.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 12:50 AM on May 15, 2002

kazaalite is indeed spyware free, as discussed before on some thread I'm too lazy to find. I've been using it for more than a month now, no problems at all.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:27 AM on May 15, 2002

Audio adverts you can't do anything about

The mute button perhaps? I never ever have my speakers on at work - just in case anyone sends round that bloody "I'm looking at porn" joke flash animation again....

I know what you mean though. KaZaA (capitalization may vary) is definitely taking the piss these days. Especially when you consider that they.... well, they don't actually do anything for you apart from leech increasing amounts of your bandwidth. They didn't write the software, they certainly haven't improved it. It still crashes every 10 minutes on my machine.

Yet FastTrack is still without doubt the most effective P2P stack out there. How come the competition is still so poor?
posted by dlewis at 1:44 AM on May 15, 2002

WinMX is the only way to go, and version 3.1 just came out.
posted by McBain at 2:04 AM on May 15, 2002

Hello! Kazaa bundles software from Brilliant and that's bad, bad juju.
posted by shinybeast at 2:21 AM on May 15, 2002

MetaTalk
posted by Su at 3:12 AM on May 15, 2002

a) headphones.

b) try WORKING while at work.*

:/

*the real reason for the dotcom collapse. file-sharing.
posted by jcterminal at 4:47 AM on May 15, 2002

I'll admit that I am more or less clueless about filesharing apps, etc etc...so I pretty much latched on to Soul Seek without doing too much shopping around...and it more than satisfies my hip-hop/downtempo/electonic music sharing needs. I don't hear that much about Soul Seek, but then again, I don't really keep my ear too close to this ground...
posted by tpl1212 at 5:36 AM on May 15, 2002

Isn't it just horrible when you're in the process of ripping off someone's copyright and you're interrupted by an unwanted ad? Terrible.
posted by delfuego at 5:39 AM on May 15, 2002

> Isn't it just horrible when you're in the process of ripping
> off someone's copyright and you're interrupted by an
> unwanted ad?

Not so fast thar, podner. I only download songs from Planet 7X, where nothing is copyrighted. (Only problem is, all their music sounds like Can.)
posted by jfuller at 5:45 AM on May 15, 2002

Alll music should sound like Can! What is Planet 7X?
posted by rodii at 6:18 AM on May 15, 2002

Do yourself a favor and try IRC. It is where alot of the content that show up on these new filesharing apps originate.
posted by neo452 at 6:19 AM on May 15, 2002

I experienced the horror that was that advert myself. I decided to try taking a risk and just clicked on the mute sound button in the ad - it doesn't transfer you to another site, and the sound is muted every time you load the program from then on. Still bloody irritating to have to do that though.
posted by jzed at 6:37 AM on May 15, 2002

I got a virus through Winmx, be careful. It was pretty benign, but I've worried that there may be more that norton didn't catch. I generally don't like fooling around in the registry deleting subkeys.

Furthur is one that only allows sharing of bands with a permissive copy policy.
posted by mblandi at 6:51 AM on May 15, 2002

Blubster!
posted by yangwar at 7:01 AM on May 15, 2002

Kazaa, Verizon propose to pay artists directly.

"An unlikely alliance of swap-service Kazaa and telephone and Internet giant Verizon is floating a proposal to break the logjam of lawsuits: Computer manufacturers, blank CD makers, ISPs and software firms such as Kazaa will pool funds and pay artists directly. ... Kazaa lobbyist Phil Corwin says a $1-a-month fee per user on Internet providers alone ... would generate $2 billion yearly. ... Recording Industry Association of America president Hilary Rosen calls the proposal "the most disingenuous thing I've ever heard. It's ridiculous." But Guerinot [board-member of the Recording Artists' Coalition] isn't ready to dismiss it out of hand."
posted by Marquis at 7:02 AM on May 15, 2002

Looks like I'll be trying a new program soon. LimeWire users are experiencing a problem (many, but not all) where the program won't connect any more, no matter how you tweak your settings or even reinstall the program. Tech support is clueless as to the cause, and it affects all versions equally, free and "pro." :(
posted by rushmc at 7:05 AM on May 15, 2002

I should say permissive "recording and copying" policy in regards to furthur. It does not allow trading of official releases as far as I know.
posted by mblandi at 7:10 AM on May 15, 2002

rushmc: Limewire....

I got an email from them yesterday stating that there was an issue that they'd fixed already. Is this still ongoing with you? I'd check mine, but I don't run it at work....
posted by dwivian at 7:22 AM on May 15, 2002

All music should sound like Can!

No, Neu '75. Please make a note of this.
posted by y2karl at 7:38 AM on May 15, 2002

I don't think it's being actively developed anymore, but if you can find a copy of Gnotella (try here) floating around, it's great. You will probably have to add some new servers to it's default list (like gnutella-again.hostscache.com), but after that it's pretty much foolproof. And don't forget to buy the albums of good new musicians you find out there, make the RIAA wrong.
posted by Hackworth at 8:30 AM on May 15, 2002

No, Neu '75. Please make a note of this.

You are so, so wrong. The flexi-funk of Jaki Liebzeit vs. the monotonous robotic pound-pound-pound of Neu? No contest.
posted by rodii at 9:42 AM on May 15, 2002

i hardly listen to music while i'm working and i don't have any file sharing programs installed. i usually forget that i have my sound "on" to begin with. that email ad made me jump out of my seat! it had a mute button, (it was flash), but it only worked once. then i forgot about it and closed and reopened outlook and the damn thing got me again. heh. homey don't need no talkin' emails.
posted by centrs at 9:51 AM on May 15, 2002

You are so, so wrong.

< edwardgrobinson>
So, where's your God now, Moses?
< /edwardgrorobinson>

kiddin'!
posted by y2karl at 12:13 PM on May 15, 2002

dwivian, the email I got was actually regarding a different issue. And yes, I am still having the problem, as are many on the tech support bulletin boards.
posted by rushmc at 12:48 PM on May 15, 2002

dwivian, the email I got was actually regarding a different issue. And yes, I am still having the problem, as are many on the tech support bulletin boards.
posted by rushmc at 12:48 PM on May 15, 2002

Gnutella is interesting technology, but because it doesn't scale to large networks of peers well it isn't nearly as reliable as something like WinMX that uses a central index. Granted, that central index is what killed Napster, but while WinMX still breathes I will wait for a Gnutella with a more efficient indexing system.
posted by McBain at 1:28 PM on May 15, 2002

Gnutella is interesting technology, but because it doesn't scale to large networks of peers well it isn't nearly as reliable as something like WinMX that uses a central index. Granted, that central index is what killed Napster, but while WinMX still breathes I will wait for a Gnutella with a more efficient indexing system.
posted by McBain at 1:28 PM on May 15, 2002

Sorry, had to go for the trifecta.
posted by Mach3avelli at 2:16 PM on May 15, 2002

Sorry, had to go for the trifecta.
posted by Mach3avelli at 2:16 PM on May 15, 2002

So which filesharing programs are currently free of spy/adware? This seems to change weekly....
posted by rushmc at 5:31 PM on May 15, 2002

Wow...that many!
posted by rushmc at 9:13 PM on May 16, 2002