Well, this is a first, at least to my knowledge: a US government agency using BitTorrent. OF course, it would have to be NASA (what, you expect the Department of Health & Human Services? Or the Justice Department? Ptui!). NASA has this really cool app called World Wind (Windows only, which totally sucks) that allows you to zoom around satellite images of earth, from space to the ground, from the top of Mt. Everest to the middle of a hurricane, & in 3D. Dude, it's like you're totally on earth!

Here's a hint: when you start playing with World Wind, definitely print out or keep this helpful chart open, which tells you how to use the program. Very helpful.

If you go to the Download page, you'll notice that you can download just the app, which is a paltry 6.3 MB, or you can be a real pioneer & use BT to download the app and the associated data, which is 171 MB. Folks, this is your tax dollars at work, and it's cool. Go get this & play to your heart's content. And be a good netizen: use BitTorrent, & leave it open & running for a while after you've downloaded it, so that others can share in the BT goodness. 'k?

(BTW: guess this puts the lie to the RIAA & MPAA claiming that Peer2Peer has no good legal uses, eh? Anh, those people can put a sock in it anyway.)

(Read all my postings about BitTorrent.)