As I write this the Mini is downloading the latest episode of Tekzilla and the latest Ubuntu disk image. Those are big files (300 and 700 MB), but a direct HTTP download would be a matter of minutes. Trying to be a nice guy, I chose the torrent link instead, and I am willing to wait, say, a couple of hours. But at rates of 600 bytes per seconds, there is really no end in sight. I do not even know what 63:38:46 hours remaining means in real life. I think organisations that can afford to host direct HTTP downloads should also make sure that their torrents are adequately seeded, otherwise it is just totally useless.

There is talk on the Internets about a scary network that uses millions of malware-infected PC to send out spam mail, and how those guys could probably bring down the whole net if they wanted. Apparently, the botnet is also available for rent to third parties interested in running denial-of-service attacks or other nefarious co-ordinated effort.

If I had a botnet, I would start my downloads on 5000 machines at the same time. That should provide for acceptable transfer rates.