…by using Block Combinator at http://ip2k.com/bl. Just follow the instructions there and put the resulting URL into the “Enable blocklist” line in Transmission, enable automatic updates, and sleep safer knowing that you’re using all the blocklists you want in Transmission or any other blocklist software that supports P2P format blocklists. Block Combinator can grab remote blocklists in P2P format, either gzipped or not. It outputs a single gzipped file that is a combination of all your specified blocklists.

Clicky kitty:

One pain point that I’ve heard a lot with Vista and 7 is regarding the “condensed” control panel. Ever since XP, I’ve been using a quick tip that will really speed up your control panel access. Basically, you’re just launching the control panel applet directly, but it’s much faster than trying to hunt down the elusive (and probably most often used) control panel applet: Network Connections.

If you don’t already know the “Windows Key” + r shortcut to open Start -> Run, well…you’re welcome. Type in ‘ncpa.cpl’, hit enter, and marvel at how much time you just saved. There are many more:

‘TIL’ is commonly used on the internet as shorthand for ‘Today, I Learned’, and it inspired me to make a little tool to keep track of things that I’ve learned. I can’t recall a day in recent memory where I didn’t learn something, no matter how seemingly insignificant. I think it would be interesting to keep track of these things over the course of a year or so, then go back and look through all the little bits of information that have been picked up along the way.

This is really a simple little CLI app, but it faithfully records whatever you have to say, across multiple lines and with (hopefully) whatever funky symbols you choose. It’ll also pick 3 of your old random entries and show them to you, to remind you of things you found interesting enough to write about in the past. Hopefully, it’ll surprise you some day and bring back some great memories. If nothing else, it’s a good way to prove to yourself that you do learn something every day.

Installation:
NOTE: Rubygems is broken right now so it’s not available as a Rubygem just yet…hang tight!

$> gem install clispell

Usage:

$> til
What did you learn today?  Press ^d (ctrl+d) when done.
You can pass fsck '-O -' to show a progress bar while it's running
=> Saved!
On 2011-09-06 23:18:53 -0400 you learned how to use Jeweler to release stuff again

On 2011-09-06 23:36:29 -0400 you learned You can pass fsck '-O -' to show a progress bar while it's running

On 2011-09-06 23:18:23 -0400 you learned eggs.

Clicky kitty:

Since Cisco has the worst compulsory registration I have ever seen, I’m posting an account you can use after the break. Warning: Username and password contain potentially offensive text.


Username: fuckmecunt
Password: Fuckyoucisco1
e-mail: lzfysqqp@sharklasers.com


Whoa, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted here. I’ve been working on a lot of fun stuff lately; SomaSeek.com is running an updated version using PHP-PDO and much-improved javascript. I’m also working on integrating Sphinx or Solr search (Sphinx is a bit more appealing to me but seems like it should have a generator that would analyse your DB schema and rough out a configuration for itself), and working on a JSON / SOAP / XML-RPC API for it (which I *might* just end up doing in Node.js for funsies).

Anyway, here is a quick diddy in Node.js that should help you get started a bit more than the super simple examples they usually provide. Pay close attention to the scope of everything and how the callbacks are working..it’s a bit to wrap your head around at first.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS (Want to fix it? Get on bitbucket and submit your patch!!! https://bitbucket.org/ip2k/simple-nodejs-fetch-and-display-page-body )

• It will fail / barf if you request a page that redirects (like http://msn.com).  This is because msn.com redirects to www.msn.com and the HTTP status code is either 301 or 302.  Still working on better error trapping for that!
• It won’t get secondary page resources.  Not sure how to solve that without involving sessions and/or forking, which is kind of beyond the scope of this right now.  I’m not going to implement this unless there is serious interest in this…not sure why there would be; you’d be better off using a proxy.

var request = require('request'),
  url = require('url'),
  http = require('http');

function getPage (someUri, callback) {
  request({uri: someUri}, function (error, response, body) {
      console.log("Fetched " +someUri+ " OK!");
      callback(body);
    });
}

var server = http.createServer(function (request, response) {
  requestedUri = url.parse(request.url).pathname;
  requestedUri = requestedUri.substring(1);
  console.log("Got request for " +requestedUri);
  if (!requestedUri.match('^http')) {
    console.log("requested URI is not a valid URL!  Dropping request...");
    response.writeHead(400, {"Content-Type": "text/html"})
    response.end("Invalid url");
  } else {
    getPage(requestedUri, function(body) {
      response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/html"}),
      response.write(body),
      response.end("ip2k.com NodeJS simple server demo")
    })
  }
});

server.listen(8000);

console.log("Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/http://example.com");
console.log("To use, just append some URL as a request, like this: http://127.0.0.1:8000/http://example.com");

somaseek.com is a new search engine for the history of all the great internet radio stations at http://somafm.com . It has near real-time history (updated every 5 minutes) and browsable history for each station. I’m working on getting pagination going for history, as well as a datepicker for browsing and Sphinx-powered search instead of the current MySQL fulltext search. I’m trying to keep it simple and not clutter it up with junk. I do plan on moving away from the very plain look of the site, but for now it’s usable and I’ve been tracking all of SomaFM’s stations since late February 2010, so there is already quite a bit of history that you can look through.

This project was born out of a few needs: I needed to get better at actual PHP / MySQL coding, I was annoyed with the twitter history of SomaFM (As of about a month ago, song history isn’t even listed on Twitter for the soma stations), and I always found good music through SomaFM but wanted to quickly learn more about the artist / song.

SomaFM has these key features to solve the above problems:
- Written in simple and extensible PHP / MySQL / JavaScript / CSS / HTML. Sphinx search coming soon.
- Tracks all of the stations, all of the time, so you can always search for what you were listening to.
- Provides links to LastFM, iLike, and Amazon Music (via SomaFM’s reseller link, so they get a portion of your purchase if you click through and buy via somaseek.com or somafm.com) to quickly find out more about songs / artists and give back to the community.
- Open source in actual implementation, just like Reddit. Other sites are starting to “see the light” and do this too. Hosted on Google Code is all the actual source code to the website, minus the database passwords, of course!
http://code.google.com/p/somaseek/

Please use and enjoy SomaSeek, and leave comments on this post if you have any ideas on how to improve it that weren’t listed above. I played with the idea of Facebook / Twitter “share” integration as well as trying to link to the groups on Facebook.

1.) Download the update file from http://ip2k.com/droid_2-0-1.zip
2.) rename the file “update.zip”
3.) Upload the zip file (do NOT extract it, leave it zipped!) to the root of your MicroSD card (not in any folders, just on the root of the card)
4.) You needed to pull the battery in your Droid to get the card out, so replace the card and open the keyboard.
5.) Hold the “x” key on the Droid’s keyboard and power it on. Continue holding “x” until you see a triangle with an exclamation point.
6.) Release the “x” key. Simultaneous press the “volume up” and “camera shutter” buttons. A menu should pop up.
7.) Using the D-Pad, select to update the system software from the update.zip file.
8.) The update will take a few minutes. During this time, do NOT pull the battery or attempt to turn off the phone. Doing so may corrupt the firmware on your device and render it unbootable.
9.) Once the update is complete, select “Reboot system now”. Enjoy!

This was written based on the original article at http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Want-to-manually-update-your-Motorola-DROIDs-software-Heres-how.-article-comments-a_8232-p_2.html
md5sum of orig file (and my mirror): 3af35446905040a3123ec09195299596

Safari 4 has known issues with showing just a white screen randomly. There are many threads on the Apple support forums regarding this, here is an exmaple: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9785751 . Personally, I use Google Chrome which is also a WebKit-based browser and I’ve never had an issue.

It seems that with the iPhone encryption issues ( http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r22999133-iPhone-31-breaks-Exchange-Sync-for-pre3GS-phones , and even on the new 3GS: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/07/new-iphone-hardware-encryption-not-even-close-to-hack-proof.ars ), the Snow Leopard data loss issues ( http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10373064-260.html ), and Time Capsules dying early ( http://gizmodo.com/5379865/are-apple-time-capsules-short-lived , http://timecapsuledead.org/ ) Apple doesn’t have it’s software development in line just quite yet.

With all these issues, it’s no surprise that at least a few people feel the same as this columnist: “I suspect that Apple has set back its enterprise cause several years, if not permanently.” ( http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=54536&PageMem=2 )

Sucks.

Check it

Source: engadget

Apple is now shipping (and probably has been shipping) iPhones and iPod Touches with a bit of extra software in firmware 2.0 in the form of a rootkit.

This is an outrage.  The fact that phone / device manufacturers get away with this kind of crap makes my blood boil.

It seems that Apple has finally taken things a step too far with the whole notion of “It’s still our device”.  When you buy a piece of electronic equipment, you are entitled to use it however you see fit; if that entails throwing it at a brick wall, flushing it down the toilet, using it for a sanding block, etc.

This also included hacking the living crap out of it, in my opinion.

When you buy a computer or build a computer, no one is there to tell you “don’t load Linux onto it or I’ll turn it off remotely from BigBoxHQ”, yet that is exactly what Apple is trying to do.  Some enterprising individual took apart an iPhone’s software only to discover that embedded deep within the core of the OS lies a “phone-home” rootkit.  It is a rootkit by the very definition of rootkit, and after the break we can examine the examples of how Apple ships your iPhone and possibly iPod Touch with a rootkit installed.

Source: Wikipedia

“A rootkit is a program (or combination of several programs) designed to take fundamental control (in Unix terms “root” access, in Windows “Administrator” access) of a computer system, without authorization by the system’s owners and legitimate managers.”

1.) They aren’t the owner or manager of your device any more than GM, Ford, or Chrysler are the manager of your car.

“Access to the hardware (i.e., the reset switch) is rarely required as a rootkit is intended to seize control of the operating system running on the hardware.”

2.)  They do this all remotely and without your consent.  Can you say invasion of privacy?

“Typically, rootkits act to obscure their presence on the system through subversion or evasion of standard operating system security mechanisms.”

3.)  I stopped wanting an iPhone when I heard it was nearly impossible to have the newest firmware and keep a root shell.  Unix on a phone?  Where do I sign up?  Full remote root access for someone that isn’t me?  Fail.

“Often, they are Trojans as well, thus fooling users into believing they are safe to run on their systems.”

4.)  Not only are the customers fooled, they’re taken advantage of.  I can safely say that most iPod / iPhone owners probably don’t want Big Brother watching their every move.  There is no disclaimer that mentions this anywhere when your purchase an iPod / iPhone, no documentation of it on Apple’s site, no public knowledge of it whatsoever.  This is the kind of thing the USA does to terrorist organizations to trace them, not what private industry in the USA should be doing to its citizens / customers.

“Techniques used to accomplish this can include concealing running processes from monitoring programs, or hiding files or system data from the operating system.”

5.)  And that is EXACTLY what is being done.  You can’t just run a quick ps auxwww to see what’s up, nor can you sift through the source code one one of the most personal pieces of electronic equipment that nearly everyone interacts with intimately.

Case in point, now that I know this I wouldn’t be caught dead with an iPhone.  A-GPS + all your contacts, text messages, call history, e-mail, calendar, Internet activity + Big Brother tech in every bite?  No thank you Apple, I will stick with my totally hacked to pieces HTC Apache.

The topic of the tyranny of carriers deserves its own topic, locking down phones (infamous Verizon / RAZR example) with crap firmware, selling devices then never offering software updates.  My current handset was sold with Windows Mobile 2003, I upgraded it manually to 5, 6, and now 6.1.

Why do carriers not offer these upgrades that greatly enhance the customer experience with the device for free?  I paid $400 out of pocket for my device, and through software upgrades that I have performed myself I have made the device worth close to that.  However, it is still a CDMA phone and thus locked to a certain network, out of my control.  My carrier could shut off my service tomorrow and I would have no fiscally feasible recourse.  Sue them for mistreatement?  Ha.  Get out of my contact early for free by means of litigation defining breach of contract?  Bah, this is why they have legal departments.

The point to all of this is to maybe influence just one person to avoid getting locked into a two year contract at $60-$120 a month plus a few bills up front, only to find their device, which ended up costing them almost as much as a lease car minus gas, insurance, etc, is not only a complete lie, but a huge security risk.

Until there exists a decent Android phone, I shall stand by my HTC Apache as it has given me two years of semi-reliable service thus-far and will probably continue to crash and lose all my contacts, unable to be recovered except by hard reset, albeit with my favorite apps: Google Maps, Skyfire Beta, Skype Mobile, Internet Connection Sharing (note that Verizon told me that it is impossible to tether my phone and would thus not sell me a tethering plan, a $15/month addition to the already-ridiculous $45/month EV-DO unlimited data plan), WiFiFoFum, Resco Radio, Pocket Putty Beta (supports public key auth), and others.

R.I.P. iPhone 3G, you’re dead to me as I write this on my Hackintosh.