My downloader! In thy days of glory past
A beauteous halo circled round thy brow
and worshipped as a deity thou wast—
Where is thy glory, where the reverence now?
Thy eagle pinion is chained down at last,
And grovelling in the lowly dust art thou,
Thy minstrel hath no wreath to weave for thee
Save the sad story of thy misery!
Well—let me dive into the depths of time
And bring from out the ages, that have rolled
A few small fragments of these wrecks sublime
Which human eye may never more behold
And let the guerdon of my labour be,
My fallen Morpheus! One kind wish for thee!
[This is Henry Louis Vivien Derozio’s poem--I have modified just two words in it; Originally titled ’To India My Nativeland’, this poem is one of my favourites, and speaks so aptly about the depths at which India is at now. And somehow these words echo what I feel about Morpheus! And hence the adaptation! Please note, no offence meant to the poet or to the original poem.]
As many have said, in the good old days, it was Napster that ruled supreme. I couldn’t wait to get to office to start off Napster and begin my downloading of mp3s. It used to be fun...while it lasted. Then, I moved on to another software called iMesh, that allowed you to download mp3s, movies, documents, software etc...and also supported ’resume’. Well, that has nothing to do with your Curriculum Vitae...but here, I am referring to....ah well...let me tell you in layman’s terms how this damn thing works...
Once you have installed any of this software, you are part of the community. This means that you share some of your files (you decide which!) with the rest of the people in the community (others who have installed this software!). Now, when you search for a song/movie/document/software etc, using the software, you get a list of all the members in the community that have that particular file shared. When you double click on one of these, the downloading starts. This means that your system contacts the other member’s system and starts downloading that file. Now, there is every likelihood that the other person could shut down his system, or close that software. Then..??? Well...in Napster it meant that you ended up with a half downloaded file that was worthy only to be buried in the Recycle Bin!! However, with iMesh and Morpheus, this feature called ’Resume’, automatically searches for another user who has the same file, and continues downloading from the other person...and you are not even aware of it. At the end of it, you get your completely downloaded file. While using Napster, I used to make it a point to send a message to the one I am downloading from (yes, this is another feature that these software have...of being able to chat with one of these guys in the community!), to tell the guy not to shutdown as I am downloading from him/her. Now, with Morpheus/iMesh, I do not need to request/warn the guy. Moreover, in Morpheus, I have never been able to get the chat working!!!
Ah....so as I was saying, I started using iMesh, but then I realised that after a while, when I changed office, this software refused to work behind a firewall (something that these fellows in huge offices set up to ensure that their network is safe from hackers etc!). Then someone told me about Morpheus. I downloaded it and installed it. It worked like a charm. I really did fall in love with it. I downloaded several mp3s, videos, software...that was till Morpheus Preview Edition. Since then, nothing has worked!! Have downloaded nothing using this new version...as it does not work at all!! And hence the poem at the beginning!!! Just hope Morpheus rises from the ashes soon enough...before I find yet another p2p file sharing software!!