Downloading Godot

This is showing the potential for turning into a rather successful running joke, along the lines of "MacTab's 2nd Anniversary: Torrent had only 5 days remaining". This could become the blog equivalent of Waiting for Godot. (Thinking about it, "Godot" would make a rather good name for the kind of application like a bit torrent client which you find yourself waiting on.) It could even become a meme.

I wish it would just hurry up and end.

We are now eleven days in and still only 82.71% downloaded. I can be precise because I have just swapped over from Acquisition to Transmission, and after a week of 3kb/s trickling we now have a proper torrent on our hands plus a proper percentage read-out.

83.19%.

In case you feel like doing the same, it's actually quite easy. Carefully shut Acquisition down, pausing the download first. Then copy the partially downloaded file from its "Incomplete" folder (typically found inside the "Music" folder) to wherever you've told Transmission to store its downloads (the Desktop by default). Then start up Transmission and feed it the original .torrent file. After a bit of thinking about things it should continue the download where Acquisition left off.

83.48%.

Acquisition is a great Gnutella client, but when it comes to Bit Torrent it seems to have a few issues. Top of the list is the way it slowed my internet to a crawl. I have been living the last week at dial-up speeds, which was not pleasant. Now with Transmission running things I can actually browse at the same time.

83.67%.

Don't get me wrong. I do like Acquisition. Hey, I even bought a copy. But for all its polish it still has a few rough edges. For a start, it could let me download the latest update without trying to sell me another set of licenses. (I'm sure that'll be resolved before too long.) For another, it really needs a proper manual. (For instance, can anyone tell me what the "Retry" option - available when you right-click on a download - does?)

84.21%

I might try one of these while I'm waiting. Hmm. On second thoughts, having read the instructions maybe I won't. I do own a soldering iron, but more as a threat than with any real intent of using it. Perhaps I'll just knit a fancy iPod cover instead.