Niall's Weblog

I have been working quite a bit recently on my BitTorrent implementation. My project is faring reasonably well so far – it can successfully download large real-world torrents at decent speed. In the course of development, I have been focusing solely on the core specification, as documented here. Having gotten support for peer connections – [...]

Bicycle project continues. Many of my bicycle parts have arrived – frame, bottom bracket, moustache bars, SPD pedals and shoes. 700C wheelset with flipflop hub should arrive today. Last night I went to American Cyclery on my way home from work and purchased a Sugino RD crankset (165mm), tires, tubes, a cheap seat post (didn’t [...]

Fundamental to Jazz guitar playing are chords. You need to know lots and lots of chords to be able to play chord-based solos, or to accompany, well. This can be quite daunting, given the number of chords and variations. An easy way to break down learning these chords is to simplify into “6th string root” [...]

After being outbid on various frames a few times on eBay, I finally won a very nice bicycle frame for my fixie project. Its a 34 year old Atala Campagnolo with very nice chrome lugs. It doesn’t have any down tube shifter bosses. This means it will be a particularly clean looking fixie upon completion. [...]

Weightloss is an emotionally charged subject for dare I say the majority of people in the West. Asking someone’s weight is widely considered rude, suggesting someone could do with losing a few pounds similarly so. Huge amounts of money are spent on dangerous fad diets, pills and the Devil knows what else. Why is losing [...]