Don't you wish you'd never met her.... - Placebo

You are not logged in. Click here to login.

Page: <- 6 7 8 9 10

Nicotine+ - A review of an open-source Soulseek client

Posted on Wednesday 14th of April, 2010, 11:56:58 AM.
(or, naming this app after a deadly substance that gives you nausea and the shakes is wholly appropriate). Recently I decided to look into alternatives to the official Soulseek client, the de facto application for accessing a huge centralised p2p network of the same name. While the current release is a stable and feature-filled application, a few minor issues like the inability to share a drives' root folder (I have to go through and add every folder, A to Z, manually) and it's inexplicable feature of reindexing my entire collection - via a 100mb ethernet link - every time I start it up lead me to look for a client that fits my needs a bit better. Thus, friends, does our folly commence. Enter Nicotine+, an open-source Soulseek client coded in python, based on PySoulSeek. I downloaded the newest release (1.2.14r4) from the official site at nicotine-plus.org, fired it up and got to work. Pros: As a long-time user of Linux and open-source software for both servers and desktops wherever I can, a fully OSS client for an otherwise proprietary network has its attractions to me. In fact, it's because of it being OSS that I was able to find a few of the problems in the "Cons" section. After extensive thought and a timely cigarette, that was all the pros I could think of. In every other way imaginable, Nicotine+ is a steaming pile of cross-eyed badger shit that I wouldn't wish on the lowest minion of Hell if they were sticking me with a cattle prod and forcing me to listen to Celine Dion. Cons: OSS is generally noted for its stability and hardiness in a world of blue screens and application crashes. Someone should tell this to the Nicotine+ developers, who seem to have gone to an effort in order to have their flagship product fuck up in so many interesting and dramatic ways it's a list unto itself. From straight-up crash-to-desktop with no error report or notification to long, slooooooooooooow lockups that drag the entire system to a shrieking halt with it, Nicotine+ made me swear more at a single program since Frontpage2000. In a final act of indignity I woke up this morning and noted the act of my screensaver coming on had apparently caused Nicotine to freeze. My computer locks up on occasion during, um.... intensive computing sessions. Ok fine, it's when things in WoW get hectic - the video card gets overexcited in its old age and I have to hard reset. After one particular such event, I reloaded Nicotine+ to carry on with my downloads only to notice that suddenly there weren't any; Nicotine+ managed to lose my entire meticulously constructed queue, and then for a coup de grace deleted the contents of it's temp folder (the logic here is sound, if stupid - "it's not in the download list, so it's old stuff that can be deleted!") so I couldn't even go and look what I'd had downloading at the time. Nicotine+ decided to share my entire C:Documents and SettingsMalek folder by default, via a "Share my Download Directory" tickbox. This would normally be more than enough to attract my ire; not only do I hate p2p clients that try and tell me what to share (I'm looking at you, Limewire), but there's things in My Documents that I don't particularly want available to the entire world - photos, songs-in-progress, varied documents ranging from shopping lists to tax returns to phone numbers, stuff I've saved from SA or /b/, and generally, well, MY Documents. But wait, go back and read that share folder name again; this was not merely the My Documents folder that got shared. In a stunning act of WTFery, Nicotine+ shared the entire user directory: my browsing history, cookies, bookmarks, application settings, temp files, web cache, recently opened files, and even my god-damn desktop folder was shared with the world for the better part of 30 minutes before I wondered why the hell my local harddrive was thrashing with an index when my shares were supposedly on a different machine. After adding myself to the buddy list and going "browse files", I nearly shat my pants at seeing the current history of my internet and computer usage exposed to the world. For bonus points, I couldn't unshare it until the current "indexing" had finished, resulting in exiting, baleeting the config file and starting over. Fuck you, Nicotine+. At random intervals files (often ones in mid-download, this is important for later) will change status to "Waiting for peer to connect" and stop. A brief foray through the code shows me that this happens when Nicotine+ can't connect to the remote client and is waiting for the client to connect back to them instead - this makes perfect sense for remotely firewalled connections, but like everything else in this clusterfuck of an application there's a catch: you cannot restart these files. At all. Retry doesn't actually retry anything. Abort->Retry doesn't work either. Leaving them for an entire day to see if the remote peer connects like its supposed to is an exercise in futility. The ONLY way to get these files back into a downloadable state is to restart the application; keep in mind this often happens to files that are in the middle of downloading, but then the next file from that user will then start up without a hitch. Let me say that again: Files that glitch during download need to have Nicotine+ restarted in order to retry them, whereupon they connect and transfer flawlessly. The interface itself, whilst your standard "designed by programmers GUI" and thus fairly counterintuitive, has foibles that turn it from "workable with some quirks" into "howling bowl of electrified cockgoblins". Right-clicking on a search result does not change the current highlight to that result, so if I go "RC->download containing folder" on a desired file without paying attention I start downloading whatever's selected, not what I just clicked on. Further to that, it's completely random whether left-clicking on a file will do nothing at all, select it, select it with a slightly lighter shade of highlight bar that confuses the hell out of me why it exists or what the difference is, or simply start downloading said file as if I'd double-clicked. Every search is an adventure with Nicotine+! Half the time the standard "RC->download" or "RC->download containing folder" does absolutely sweet fuck all. Nothing is added to the queue, no visual alert or even line in the log appears to inform you it wasn't added, it Just Doesn't Work. This seems to apply mostly to files that have no available queue spots, but it happens on currently-available files as well. Interestingly enough, doubleclicking the files to add them singularly to the list works every time. While a minor quibble in comparison, the unchangeable colour scheme uses a light-grey on white scheme for "search results where the queue is full". I have to select a file to read it, and half the time I end up adding it to my download queue by mistake. In what is seemingly an exercise in irony, the built-in chat client has so many colour and format options that it needs an entire configuration menu to itself, while the main program - you know, the reason for the application - is about as configurable as a coma patient. So, to summarise: anyone that uses the Soulseek p2p network and is looking for an alternative to the official client, do not use Nicotine+. Don't even try. It's horrible to use, horrible to look at, has the stability of a giraffe on a jetski, and exposes you to personal information breaches in a way so fundamental it makes my head spin. Nicotine+ is complete shit.
	Add a comment

Posted on Sunday 25th of January, 2009, 03:42:17 PM.
Today, I noticed my tarot cards had fallen from atop the bookcase. About half the deck was on the ground, and right in the middle of the scattered cards - and the only one face up - was The Devil. Next to it was my pentacle necklace that thought I lost when I moved and have been searching for since. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
	Add a comment View Comments ( 3 comments )

Wanted: 3 burly men for heavy work. Apply at rear.

Posted on Monday 29th of December, 2008, 11:49:54 AM.
Well, the moving company I usually use (Cool Moves, mainly I just love the guy's accent) is closed until Jan 10th, which puts a bit of a spanner in my trousers.... works. I mean works. Recommend me other good moving companies, people. I don't want to get stuck like I did getting out of Eva St with the oh-so-fucking-shithouse Horizon Moving, where the seemingly one-man company insists he doesn't know me, never heard of me, and I hadn't booked - despite having called me to give me a time they'd show up earlier in the day - before starting to swear at me, call me names that'd make a sailor blush, question my parentage and finally hang up. For a coup de grace he then refused to answer any further calls I made to his cellphone. The off-site third-party call centre that doesn't have the guy's cellphone number or any way to contact him directly wasn't much of a help either. Fuck you, Horizon Moving & Storage Ltd. I hope googlebot picks this up and plasters it all over the interwebs.
Listening to	Karnivool - Scarabs
	Add a comment View Comments ( 2 comments )

Posted on Sunday 28th of December, 2008, 03:04:34 PM.
I should really, really be packing, but I really can't be arsed. I have a horrible lethargy about me today, right when I need to be proactive and motivated and all those other really fun words that mean "able to get out of bed in the morning". It's all moot since I can't do jack until I get a hold of a) the movers and b) the landlord anyway, but I should probably do a little more. Speaking of doing Jack, I'm playing a house party on NYE at Allenby Terrace, which I'm totally, utterly and completely not ready for. Come see the ever entertaining Starfig Newton make a complete fool out of himself once more! Woo! You should come! Yes, you. No not you, the one on your left. With the teeth. Yeah. I have a list of things to do and promises to keep in the new year half a mile and some inches long, which is one of the main things thats keeping me from going down to get cigarettes, the other being the aforementioned "but I don't wanna get out of my chair!" mode I find myself in. I imagine addiction, as always, will win out in the end. I half-wrote a song in my head on the plane ride home and now I can't remember it. It was good, too. This post about not a lot has been brought to you by boredom and people not answering their MSNs.
	Add a comment

Posted on Sunday 23rd of November, 2008, 11:59:32 AM.
Today I am in an atrociously bad mood, and cant quite figure out why. I wish people would pick up subtle hints when I send them songs.
	Add a comment

Spent the night sloshing around on google maps....

Posted on Saturday 22nd of November, 2008, 02:36:24 AM.
None of Wellington yet, more's the pity, but.... the internet is bad for you. Curse you, Google StreetView.
	Add a comment View Comments ( 5 comments )

Got a bar tab bigger than Jesus...

Posted on Friday 07th of November, 2008, 11:32:40 PM.
I had a huge-ass entry here, but it got eaten by a computer crash, so you get lyrics instead... Everybody knows that there's no way out of here Everybody's trying but we just can't leave We got pushed about and the end's not worth the means Packing our bags to kiss it goodbye In our wildest dreams
Mood	Melacholy
	Add a comment

Posted on Thursday 16th of October, 2008, 02:12:27 PM.
I want a piano keyboard purely so I can learn to play the Evelyn Evelyn Theme by Amanda Palmer.
	Add a comment

So this is getting sent round the office at the mo...

Posted on Tuesday 23rd of September, 2008, 10:51:31 AM.
Oh /b/, will you ever learn...?
Listening to	Neikka RPM - Sacrifice
	Add a comment View Comment ( 1 comment )

Posted on Thursday 11th of September, 2008, 04:51:19 PM.
So yeah, things are going well. Here's some rants and random thoughts I feel like subjecting you all to. My spine! It burns! Work has gotten to the point where I don't actually do anything at all any more, even though I have 3 projects in "pending" state. I figure that since my boss does absolutely nothing (seriously, we're losing customers from his inability to reply to an email - but I feel that needs an entire post to itself), I don't really need to either; I'm basically waiting to see if it gets me in trouble. It probably won't. In addition, I'm showing up late and leaving early and haven't even had a word in my ear about it. I'm talking an hour or more at each end. Essentially, I'm doing what I always do and seeing exactly how far I can push it before it breaks. Because that's never cost me before. I saw Alastair, an old friend from Masterton, up in Auckland when I randomly stopped into a Starbucks (Emily likes it, I claim coercion and innocence) and found him behind the counter. Strange coincidence, as I haven't seen him in about 4 years since he was at uni in Wellington, but there you go. It occurred to me yesterday that I've lived in 5 houses in 8 months this year. There is nowhere in Wellington to buy an affordable powered USB hub. All I can find are hideously ugly, overpriced, and impractical Targa things, or unpowered ones. Also, a retailer tried to tell me that you can use an unpowered hub if you just plug an adaptor into the device, which they just happen to sell. I left soon after, my bank balance unaltered. Amanda Palmer's new video "Astronaut" is fricken awesome. I want the album. I got into the Wrath Of The Lich King Beta. Go me. Assassination spec rogues are now total and utter OP (I'm doing about ~9k damage in the first 2 seconds of combat), and Mutilate is now Your New God. 90% of my mods breaking sucks balls, but I need to replace a few of them anyway. I want a song to cover at my next gig; give me suggestions, ppl. Speaking of which, I've fired up Reason and my TonePort software for the first time in ages, and work is recommencing. I have surprisingly little left to do to get things together, and a bunch of new Refills is helping to flesh the sound out a little more than it was. Hometime, I think.
Listening to	Delain - Frozen
	Add a comment View Comment ( 1 comment )

Free to a god home..

Posted on Sunday 07th of September, 2008, 05:23:07 PM.
1 x TV, no idea what brand, 15" or so. 1 x Lenoxx (??) DVD player. Perfect for a bedroom or small lounge. No idea if there's any problems or faults; they were left here by the last tenant and I simply don't have any need for them.
Listening to	Emilie Autumn - Swallow (Filthy Victorian Mix By Perfidious Words)
	Add a comment

Call all your friends, and tell them I'm never coming back....

Posted on Friday 29th of August, 2008, 10:47:38 AM.
Cause this is the end. Pretend that you want it. Don’t react. It's been a long, long time since I updated. Honestly, the main reason is the huge amount of spam comments I was getting - ~5,000 a week when I disabled commenting, and my poor little server was melting. There's now a captcha setup going on; it seems to be working. The damage is done, the police are coming too slow now. Since I last posted anything worthwhile, I've been homeless, couched, semi-homed, homeless again, re-homed, Torrenated, and now I finally have a flat - a week shy of 7 months after the Evadus. I'm living perched above Cuba St with 6 others, just along from Indigo - photos will come soon. As will the flatwarming. And I would have died, I would have loved you all my life. So much has happened, both on and off the field, and I'm wavering between wanting to bore everyone to tears with the details or keep it snappy. I suspect I'll oscillate wildly between the two; an apt metaphor for the content as well as the construction. You're losing your memory now. I succumbed to consumerism and bought an iPod. I've found so much great new music I want to play at every opportunity. I seem to be listening to a lot of punk recently. I dropped a harddrive containing A to L of my "to listen to" music and lost the lot. I adding colour to the English language until it somewhat resembled a Jackson Pollock. I've missed my guitar terribly. And where have you gone, the beach is so cold in winter here. I've lost friends and found them again; they were right where I left them. I took out the garbage and sorted paper from plastic. I've joined a gym. I've been drunker than I've ever been before. I've laughed so hard I think I broke something, and I've cried harder than that. I've torn at the walls until I took a nail off. I've screamed until I couldn't talk for three days. I got passed over for my payrise at work. I dinged my second 70. I discovered The Colbert Report. Remember the day, 'cause this is what dreams should always be. I replaced my NewRocks. I broke my phone, and then the replacement phone, and had to borrow one; I should probably buy one at some point. I haven't read as many books as I would have liked. I've watched a lot of movies I've been meaning to. I perfected my 4-Cheeses sauce. I made a fair attempt at a Spinach & Feta Tart. I needed to use less lemon. I didn't realise the entirety of my wardrobe for the last half year fit into one duffel bag. I had a cat sleep on my head. I just want to stay, I just want to keep this dream in me. I've spent a lot of time moving my CDs onto hard drives. I've thrown away a lot of things I thought I cared about. I've retrieved some of them from the bin a few minutes later. I got a Facebook. I discovered Facebook Applications. I hate Facebook Applications with a fissionable passion. I still haven't gotten my jacket back from Jordan. I want to finish my EP. Wake up, it’s time. Little girl, wake up; All the best of what we’ve done is yet to come. I think that's just about enough for now. You're losing your memory now.
Mood	cupcakes
Listening to	System Syn - All That Now Has Left Your Reach
	Add a comment View Comments ( 4 comments )

Posted on Friday 28th of March, 2008, 06:48:24 PM.
You are 91% 4chan material. You are the true face of 4chan. You're the type of person who finds racist jokes and sick humor hilarious, raids CoS, makes personal army requests whenever you see someone you dislike on Youtube, gets off to 5-year-olds, and calls Gamestop at 3 AM to ask for Battletoads. You scare me... and yet, I love you. How 4chan are you? See All Our Quizzes
	Add a comment

Posted on Friday 15th of February, 2008, 02:41:56 AM.
You know what? Fuck this.
	Add a comment View Comments ( 2 comments )

Posted on Saturday 11th of August, 2007, 07:57:18 AM.
When I find the bastard that made the auth mechanism in SquirrelMail, I'm going to have Many Words with him. Grrrrrr.
	Add a comment