At this point, file sharing warnings via snail mail and e-mail are pretty commonplace. But this is the first time I've heard of an ISP taking the matter straight to the browser. At first I was worried, and then I was a bit annoyed, but I have to say, I give them credit for giving me the benefit of the doubt here.

The purpose of this email

and by email they mean the electronic message they forced onto my screen

is to remind you that the distribution of copyrighted material in this fashion may violate both copyright laws and Road Runner's terms of service, and to tell you a bit about peer-to-peer programs, the dangers they can pose to your computer and our network, and the steps you can take to protect yourself.

Considering all of the horror stories you hear, this was a pretty reasonable intervention. All I had to do was click, "I am aware of this issue and will take steps to resolve it," and I was on my merry way. Whether those steps should be deleting all the copyrighted material off my computer, removing my P2P software, getting my shit together and using a private tracker, or just trying a little bit harder to resist the urge to download Nic Cage's entire filmography on Mininova, they don't say. But as Road Runner didn't treat me like a criminal, I'll respect them by not being one. Or at least being a sneakier one.

For some people, one copyright violation notice from their ISP is enough to scare them straight forever. Others wear their warnings like badges of honor. What are your experiences with ISPs and copyright infringement? Weigh in in the comments.

Then it surpassed IBM's 1.04 petaflop/s supercomputer, achieving its 1.74 quadrillion floating points operation according to the Top500 Linpack benchmark. I mean, it was probably some extra CPUs coming online, but I'm pretty sure the main reason for the boost was that drawing.

Roadrunner took a dip from June's 2009 test, which gave it 1.105 petaflops. That's probably Wile E. Coyote's fault. My recommendation to IBM: Paint flames on it to win the #1 spot back.

This is the current top ten:

1. Jaguar, Cray, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA (1.75 petaflop/s)
2. Roadrunner, IBM, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA (1.04 petaflop/s)
3. Kraken XT5, Cray, National Institute for Computational Sciences, USA (832 teraflop/s)
4. JUGENE, IBM, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany (825.5 teraflop/s)
5. Tianhe-1, NUDT, National SuperComputer Center, Tianjin, China (563.1 teraflop/s)
6. Pleiades, SGI, NASA Ames Research Center, USA (544.3 teraflop/s)
7. BlueGeneL, IBM, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA (478.2 teraflop/s)
8. BlueGene/P, IBM, Argonne National Laboratory, USA (458.61 teraflop/s)
9. Ranger, Sun, Texas Advanced Computing Center, USA (433.20 teraflop/s)
10. Red Sky, Sun, Sandia National Laboratories, USA (423.9 teraflop/s)

[Top500 Supercomputers via Cnet]

Designed from video game components, and costing $133 million, Roadrunner contains 12,960 chips redesigned from an I.B.M. Cell microprocessor that was originally created for Sony’s PlayStation 3 video-game machine. Add to that a bunch of Opteron processors from Advance Micro Devices, which are commonly found in corporate servers, and there's your supercomputer.

It runs on around three megawatts of power—around the amount that a shopping mall needs if it is to function properly—and needs three separate programming tools to run the trio of different processors. The complicated bit for programmers is to keep all 116,640 processor cores occupied simultaneously, or else the supercomputer does not run effectively. [New York Times]

But then we've got the DRM/studio content restrictions: No transfer to portable devices or burning, and content automatically withers off of your computer when it hits the expiration date in 4-12 weeks. Better than the iTunes timeframe nonetheless. And that whole Roadrunner requirement, it's totally literal, as in you can only pick up new content while connected to Roadrunner.

On the upside, you can register up to five computers per household, and you've got features like series passes that auto-download within five minutes of a show airing on TV. Since the file size runs about 1.2GB for a two-hour flick, the res is probably pretty close to what iTunes offers. Besides, it's free, and you can't beat that. [DVD Dossier via Engadget]

It looks like Time Warner has finally decided to try to counteract Verizon's FiOS Fiber Optic Home Network service, which is much faster at 30mbps/5mbps but is glacially spreading itself around the US.

Jump to see the text of that slippery email, and then we rip them a new one.

Here's Time Warner's semi-secret "special notice" to customers (italics and boldface theirs):

"Time Warner Cable, the company that was first at fast and first at fiber optics, is increasing your speed again. We're doubling it in the new year ... for no extra cost.

In the first quarter of 2007, Road Runner will be doubling the download speed for its residential customers to 10 Mbps. Our Time Warner Cable Business Class customers will experience similar increases in speed.* The same monthly price that you've been paying will stay the same.

Increased speed. Same price. Great deal.

We haven't told the media yet. This is a special notice directly to you, our loyal and valued Road Runner customer. In the coming weeks, you'll see more information about this exciting improvement in your internet service."

We can only hope that Verizon and other competitors will release captive customers from this stranglehold of slow and unreliable broadband service that seems to be prevalent across the board in the U.S.

We say, who cares if it's going to be twice as fast? Road Runner throttles us down to zero on a daily basis, and even though we're using $70/month Business Class service that's supposedly 7Mbps, its speed is frequently 0Mbps. Do the math: 0 x 2 = 0. Bah. – Charlie White

Road Runner Doubling Bandwidth [Loot Ninja]

The magic word? "L3," referring to Level 3 tech support, putting you in touch with those anointed ones who can not only help you figure out what's wrong, but authorize a truck roll or give you a refund. If you recall, it took us a couple of weeks of going through Road Runner hell before we could talk to someone who could do this. Maybe someday they'll put these people on the first call instead of fobbing us off on those worthless louts whose only trick is to tell us to reboot the modem. – Charlie White

HOWTO: Get Actual Customer Support From Time Warner Cable [The Consumerist]

Mysteriously, the next day, after no modification whatsoever of our network equipment, the problem seemed to be fixed. This is the second time this has happened in the past week. So we put this question to you, readers: are ISPs such as Road Runner concealing problems with their networks, blaming it on the users' equipment, and then furtively attempting a fix later? Are they throttling your connection? Any insiders have info for us? Let's find the truth. Let us know in Tips. – Charlie White

• Man-made diamonds, indistinguishable from nature's (or the one Christopher Reeve makes in Superman III), can radically improve gadgets in the future. At the very least, they'll make those diamond-encrusted iPod cases a lot cheaper. [USA Today]
  
• Hackers unleash a Trojan horse onto PSPs running homebrew applications. Sony is saying: 'why didn't we think of that?" [Los Angeles Times (reg)]
  
• DirectTV is spending $30 million to convince you that its DVR is better than TiVo's. At least until 2007, both services will be available to DirectTV subscribers, but since the company saves itself a buck for every customer who gives up the TiVo service (TiVo gets a $1.13 monthly residual for every subscriber through DirectTV), DirectTV is pulling out all the stops. [NY Times (reg)]
  
• Level 3 and Cogent wage a stealthy battle of Internet titans. The little guy (mostly people using Time Warner Cable's Roadrunner service) probably doesn't understand what they're fighting about; all he knows is that he can't see his email or his favorite websites. [Wall St. Journal (reg)]
  
• A Detroit Free Press writer rediscovers the venerable CB radio. Among the things he learns: truckers use CBs and WiFi, plus they'll most likely beat you up if you call them 'Good Buddy'. Those words have, um, a different meaning nowadays. [Detroit Free Press]