Issue 1404 83
THE
EXPERTSGoodGuyTorrent
I keep seeing Bittorrent mentioned online and in magazines,
includingMicro Mart. I understand it's a way to download files,
and resume them when needed, as well as sharing data. WhatI
don't understand is why you mention it when it's only used for
illegal downloads, and why it's not been banned before now.
Care to explain?
SteBittorrent certainly does have a bad reputation, and for
good reason. It's undeniably the most popular method of
downloading pirate content, and the majority of Bittorrent
traffic likely falls into this category. However, there's alsoa
large legitimate take up of the tool that makes use of the
download method's features.
Bittorrent is one of the best ways to download any data,
especially large sizes. It also alleviates the stress on a single
server providing content, as the download is gathered from
multiple sources, meaning there's far less bottlenecking when
there are high levels of download requests. In fact, due to the
nature of the P2P system, the more people who download
a file, the faster it goes. It's fast, reliable, and generally far
superior to standard browser downloads.
There are plenty of legal Bittorrent sites that serve a host
of perfectly legitimate content. This includes music, video,
applications, and even games. Simply search on Google for
legal torrents and you'll find no shortage of them.
Aside from this, many websites and companies use Bittorrent
as an alternate download option. Drivers, patches, and other
larger content often have a Bittorrent link, as companies wish
to make use of Bittorrent's features, and reduce stress on their
own networks.jBittorrent has an understandably bad reputation, but it's not all
illegal downloadingNotSoSweetSixteen
I would be most grateful for your
helpregarding my problem to get my
copy ofThe Concise Oxford Dictionary
9th EditionPC CD-ROM to load onto
Windows 10, which I havereluctantly just
moved over to.
When trying to install, I'm advised that
the app is 16-bit and not compatible
withWindows 10 (which I know is
64-bit). I'm unable to find out what to
do in the absence of areissue of the
CODin 64 bit. I do not wish to use
the internalWindows dictionary. Can
you please advise what I have to do to
convert theCODto whatever bit will
work withWindows 10?
JohnSadly, getting 16-bit apps to work ona
64-bit system is difficult, and in some
situations, even impossible. The issue
here is the age ofThe Concise Oxford
Dictionary 9th Edition, which was released
a long time beforeWindows 10 and 64-bit
systems. It's easier to get older programs
to run on 32-bit systems, but 64-bit
creates a much more difficult situation.
I'd usually suggest the use ofWindows'
compatibility mode options, which you
can find by right-clicking the application's
.exe file, but this will almost certainly not
work. You can try, but be prepared for it
to fail.
One possible option is to use an emulation
tool like DOSBox (www.dosbox.com). This
is able to run older programs within more
up to date versions ofWindows, even DOS
applications, and 16-bit programs on 64-bit
versions ofWindows. DOSBox is free, so it'll
cost nothing to give it a go.
Another option would be to use
virtualization, using a tool likeVirtualBox
(www.virtualbox.org). With this, you
could set up a virtual PC and install an
older copy ofWindows on to it that
naturally supports your program.With
this, you'd be able to install and run
the software as normal. This requires an
actual copy ofWindows with a license,
space and resources from your PC, and
the time to set up, so DOSBox may bea
far more accessible and practical option.
With an older version ofWindows
running on your system in a virtual
machine, however, you'd be able to easily
run any older program.
The only other real options would be
to upgrade to a more recent version of
the program, or an alternative dictionary.
There are many free options around,butThe Concise Oxford Dictionary 11th
Editioncan be found online for next to
nothing if you look around (when we had
a peruse, we discovered you can get it for
as little as 66p on Amazon).jSome older software simply won't work
on Windows 10, but with emulation there's
usually a way