Well, I've been excited for a while for the emergin BitTorrent/RSS "Internet TV" revolution, but apparently it's not ready for prime time. I just attempted what seems like a very rudimentary use case: creating an RSS feed with .torrent files in the enclosure field.

This is allegedly how the tech is supposed to work in Democracy, Fire Ant and I/On. These are all still "beta" tools, true, but RSS enclosure + bittorrent (essential to low-cost mass distribution of content) is supposed to be at the heart of their purpose. It surprised me that none of them detected the torrent. The system apparently doesn't work.

Also, the Azeureus torrent program -- the tool for "power users" -- fails to recognize the enclosure field, but I was able to hack in support by including a link to the .torrent file in the link field, which seems a little odd but apparently is how their RSS plug-in is written.

Kinda diappointing all around. This idea has been floated for almost two years now, and I know there's actuallly been money sunk into it. It should work by now.