New post on VLC plugin.

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+Title: Web browser integration of VLC with Bittorrent support
+Tags: english, video, verkidetfri
+Date: 2018-10-21 09:50
+
+<p>Bittorrent is as far as I know, currently the most efficient way to
+distribute content on the Internet.  It is used all by all sorts of
+content providers, from national TV stations like
+<a href="https://www.nrk.no/">NRK</a>, Linux distributors like
+<a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> and
+<a href="https://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>, and of course the
+<a href="https://archive.org/">Internet archive</A>.
+
+<p>Almost a month ago
+<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/vlc-plugin-bittorrent">a new
+package adding Bittorrent support to VLC</a> became available in
+Debian testing and unstable.  To test it, simply install it like
+this:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+apt install vlc-plugin-bittorrent
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>Since the plugin was made available for the first time in Debian,
+several improvements have been made to it.  In version 2.2-4, now
+available in both testing and unstable, a desktop file is provided to
+teach browsers to start VLC when the user click on torrent files or
+magnet links.  The last part is thanks to me finally understanding
+what the strange x-scheme-handler style MIME types in desktop files
+are used for.  By adding x-scheme-handler/magnet to the MimeType entry
+in the desktop file, at least the browsers Firefox and Chromium will
+suggest to start VLC when selecting a magnet URI on a web page.  The
+end result is that now, with the plugin installed in Buster og Sid,
+one can visit any
+<a href="https://archive.org/details/CopyingIsNotTheft1080p">Internet
+Archive page with movies</a> using a web browser and click on the
+torrent link to start streaming the movie.</p>
+
+<p>Note, there is still some misfeatures in the plugin.  One is the
+fact that it will hang and
+<a href="https://github.com/johang/vlc-bittorrent/issues/13">block VLC
+from exiting until the torrent streaming starts</a>.  Another is the
+fact that it
+<a href="https://github.com/johang/vlc-bittorrent/issues/9">will pick
+and play a random file in a multi file torrent</a>.  This is not
+always the video file you want.  Combined with the first it can be a
+bit hard to get the video streaming going.  But when it work, it seem
+to do a good job.</p>
+
+<p>For the Debian packaging, I would love to find a good way to test
+if the plugin work with VLC using autopkgtest.  I tried, but do not
+know enough of the inner workings of VLC to get it working.  For now
+the autopkgtest script is only checking if the .so file was
+successfully loaded by VLC.  If you have any suggestions, please
+submit a patch to the Debian bug tracking system.</p>
+
+<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
+activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
+<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>