WizBit's history

Whoah! So I have this idea of creating a BitTorrent client for my phone, as none exist at the moment. I start doing this for my final year university project. It's a lot of work but I'm learning lots and it's quite fun, although quite difficult.

Suddenly the final report deadline gets really close. I need to write thousands of words for a write-up, including the testing for the program. To test the program it has to at least work a bit. I code like a monkey (google for that song, it's good). I code some more. Then I think: hmmmmm.

During that thought I decide to create a small page about my program (now called "WizBit", as I couldn't think of a better name) on my GooglePages page. This is for "distribution" as my report puts it. Even though the code isn't finished I decide to advertise the site in an IRC channel.

People tell friends, some friends have lots of friends, friends tell friends, people google for "s60 bittorrent", people blog: WizBit becomes almost famous. It's exciting but almost scary. So many people now know about WizBit!

I have to give a demonstration the day after my last exam (7th June, silly timetabling), which means by then it should have basic functionality. That's quite a lot of coding in not a lot of time.

After the 7th I'll probably chillax for a bit, then try to get WizBit working really well over the Summer. I'll release what I've done under the GPL so after the 7th people will be able to help if they want. It's really amazing to create something that lots of people really want. I really hope I can get it working all properly.

How popular is WizBit?

In just a few days the popularity of WizBit has increased like a super-popular thing. There are now many sites linking to WizBit, even though it's currently unfinished!

You can see the stats for this blog or view it on delicious, technorati, or google. You can also see the stats for the Official WizBit Website or view it on on delicious, technorati or google. Google News is also a good place to look.

Some sites which link to WizBit:

• Gizmodo have an article about WizBit! Very cool. They're apparently the 15th most read blog on the net.
  
• The Spanish site MobuzzTV has a video blog with the first section about WizBit! It even has some screen shots! I don't speak Spanish, so if you can translate any of it then let me know.
• Slyck news emailed me some questions and have written an article all about WizBit.
  
• S60.com blogger Tommi has written an article about WizBit.
• Various other blogs including FeetUp, Esato, ErikSmartt, PostNeo, Robert Price and many Spanish sites mention WizBit.
• There 's 2 Digg posts here and here.
  

Thanks to everyone who's linked to WizBit. What's next? Maybe I'll get on the front page of Digg or Slashdott. Maybe the BBC will want to interview me...

Project WizBit

The code is comming along and is now available here. Note that is is an unfinished version and will not fully work yet. The report, which needs to be finished by tomorrow is currently about 5000 words.

Unfortunately the code will (probably) not be fully working tomorrow. It should hopefully be done by the presentation on July 7th. Wish me luck.

The BitTorrent client has been named WizBit.

Final week status

Less than a week to go! The write up has to be done by Friday. The code doesn't have to be complete by then. I don't think it will. Hopefully it'll be working though.

I have got the front end just about done! I'll make screen shots at some point. Today I'm going to try to get the .torrent file processed and hopefully connec to the tracker.

PyS60 doesn't have a SHA module but there is one here, which I've just got working.

Also, when testing in Windows HyperTerminal, by scrollback buffer was getting corrupted, which made it really hard to debug errors. I changed the font (to Fixedsys) and now it works fine!

If anyone's reading this, what specific features do you think I should try to implement? What's most important in a Bit Torrent client?

Also, if anyone would be willing to test the code then please either email dave1010 at gmail dot com or leve a comment. All you need is a Nokia smartphone (slight knowledge of Python on Nokia may be useful but is notrequired).