making our own napster so we can party like it’s 1999! by Martin Gaston Shamefully, the first MP3 I ever downloaded was Ricky Martin’s Livin Da Vida Loca. And I downloaded it from this magical new application called Napster. Using Napster felt bold, daring, and exciting. It peaked at the dawn of the 21st century, where we felt like the future was right now. Napster introduced peer-to-peer software to a mainstream audience, creating an unspoken community of punk outsiders (some of whom downloaded Ricky Martin hits) who felt like they were about to start playing society by a new set of rules. In this talk, we’ll look back at the tech which powered the core of Napster - a centralised, peer-to-peer network. We’ll explore how a P2P connection works, how to create a protocol to send data between two computers and then we’ll create our own toy project that really whips the llama’s ass! Between frequent conversations about the magic of the 90s, Martin works as a software consultant at 8th Light. He likes fiddling around with fussy protocols, wants everyone to feel like they can pursue a career in tech, and is absolutely no good at writing a personal bio.