Epic fail

Well, seems like the Windows Vista Data backup feature failed on me... It refused to install my existing programs and restore my existing preferences... (but it did what it was obviously meant to do - backup your personal files). Fortunately, I had a full "Complete PC backup" copy made with the same backup tool that worked perfectly, so I'm back at x86 level. It's a pitty, but I'll hold on... Wish there was an easier way to switch from x86 to x64...

Add comment April 28th, 2008

The great leap forward

To upgrade from a 32bit version of Windows Vista to a 64bit one is a pain, because it is not possible without a clean install. That's why I'm making a complete PC backup using Windows' backup and restore center. If all goes well, I should be running a 64bit Vista in a few hours... The advantages? Possibly speed and the ability to add more RAM. Tis' all.

Add comment April 27th, 2008

How to be cool online

How to be cool online – a short guide

1.       Make sure everybody knows you use Firefox, Safari, Opera or even Omniweb instead of IE. IE is the devil – repeat – “IE is the devil”. Get bonus points for claiming you use Lynx and by posting “IE sucks” banners on your blog/website.

2.       Advocate Linux. No matter if your Linux experience is limited to booting an Ubuntu DVD and then hitting the reset button because you panicked when you saw the command line interface - Linux rules, or better yet – “Linux r00Lz0r!!!11 one”. Make sure everybody knows that Linux is stable, easy to use and perfect in every way by engaging in YouTube comment flame wars or any other flame wars such as the ones on Digg, online communities, or blogs.

3.       Hate Microsoft. As much as IE is the devil, Windows and just about any other Microsoft product comes with a 666 sticker on it. “Closed source sucks”, “proprietary software deserves to die”, “enjoy your blue screens lolz”, “windows is teh suxx0r” and just about any other blurb you post online about the eternal corporate damnation that Microsoft has thrown upon us is a great contribution. Bonus points: if you do all of the above and still use Windows.

4.       “Testing, testing, 123”? It’s the new thing, it’s “hip”! It’s the beta button! Hey, if Google can use it, why can’t you, right? Stick a “BETA” sticker on your website/blog and enjoy the visitors thinking that you are a developer that, for some reason, has a beta sticker on his/hers website for years while using online blogging services such as Blogger that you can’t even customize properly. Want bonus points? Hell yeah! Place a “web 2.0” banner next to the beta one!

5.       Use massive signatures. Make sure everybody sees your forum signature, along with about 300 userbars (bonus points for: “Toilet user”) and the lyrics for your favorite song. If you really want to go extreme, use a glitter generated sig. Remember – if it’s not the same size as the screen height of a 20” monitor, it’s no good!

6.       Post comments on YouTube for every video you view with the following contents “This is so scary don’t read this your mother will die if you don’t post this comment on 20 youtube videos oh my god omfg…J*(@!”. Get unlimited points for actually believing in that.

7.       Use a Mac like a pro – be smug about it. You DID spend a grand of two of $ for it, so why not show it around like it’s a Rolex? Be sure to let everybody know you use the great apple, and that, obviously, any other product that does not come from Apple is blasphemy.

8.       Intel vs AMD? Advocate the one you use, not the one that has better benchmark scores. (and let’s face it… both are pretty equal in the end, but who cares when you can claim that you are better than somebody just for owning a piece of silicon!)

9.       Make sure your blog tagline contains one of the following words:  “Scribbles, Ramblings, Thoughts” (check! )

10.   There is no number ten, otherwise, this would be just another top 10 blurb. Sorry.

1 comment April 23rd, 2008

New Windows Ultimate Extras

Well, Microsoft is certainly in a giving mood today

If you own Windows Vista Ultimate, and use Windows Update, you should check whether you have some Windows Ultimate extras available. 3 new dream scenes and 2 new sound schemes should be waiting to be downloaded. They look awesome, and the sound schemes are so-so, but worth a download.

Add comment April 23rd, 2008

Opera Mini - A browser worth the attention

Although I would always prefer the built in Nokia Symbian browsers (Java will always be a synonym to S-L-O-W for me), the concept of Opera Mini is a top solution right now for mobile phones that do not have regular browsers built in on their phones, and for others who like to save on cash when surfing on an expensive GPRS data rate (like me). Using this tiny JAR file, I can browse the full web without having to count the kilobytes that just fly by when visiting a few pages (although I do turn off picture displaying - much less traffic). The only thing that gets my goose is the lack of support for custom fonts that I can install on my phone... Pity.

Here are some screenshots of the newest beta - 4.1:

Add comment April 15th, 2008

Trillian Astra

I pretty much hate every official IM client because it's usually bloated with ads, and apparently thinks that you like to play flash games while chatting (I'm talking 'bout you - icq), but clients such as Trillian, Miranda and Pidgin (Adium on MacOS) make IMing worth your while. The support for multiple IM accounts makes you available to everybody, and everything is integrated in only one program, fairly less resource hungry and ad free. Perfect.

I am a big fan of Trillian, but the v3 that served my needs for a while quickly got replaced (due to my uncontrollable urge of curiosity towards new software) with Trillian Astra - an alpha version of Trillian IM. For an alpha version, it runs fairly quickly and steadily (although I have to bare with the fact that it crashes about two times in a month, for no apparent reason). One of the key benefits - it looks beautiful. No excessive smileys or hippie-like color mixes... Just plain old IM. Also, the built in effects go great Windows Vista! Oh, and there's the iChat behaviour that I like - chat bubbles!

If you can't get a hold of Trillian Astra just yet, I'm sure you can get one from a torrent somewhere out there (wink wink)... But seriosuly, I think the Trillian crew at Cerulean studios won't mind you testing their alpha version outside the official alpha program, after all, it's in their best interest to get that thing done with as few bugs as possible. So if you are willing to take a different approach to IM, be sure to go for Astra.

Add comment April 9th, 2008

TeamSpeak flood protection

Since I am having a hard time controlling flood attacks on my TeamSpeak server, I decided that it would be a good idea to automate the protection of the server's integrity by upgrading an already great app - TS2PerlMod. If you don't have TS2PerlMod already installed, grab a free copy of ActivePerl and install it on your Windows machine (for *nix systems, I'm assuming perl is already present), then configure all the needed settings as you would usually do (see the ReadMe).

Now, here's the perl code snippet that I coded today (I am not very familiar with perl, but the C like syntax made it easy to write), it will enable you to ban every bot that tries to flood your server:

ts2perlmod.pl

# update TeamSpeak2::TCPquery::Server object
$server->getServerinfo();

Add this below the above code:

# bureX-ANTISPAM-MOD: making life a bit more easier on TeamSpeak...
    my @cplayerlist;
    my @iplayerlist;
    my $i;
    my $j;
    my $kicked;
		foreach my $player (@playerlist)
		{ 

      if ($player->{loginname} eq "")
      {
         $i=0;
         for ($j=0;$j{"ip"})
           {
             $cplayerlist[$j] = $cplayerlist[$j]+1;
             $i++;
           }
         }

         if ($i==0)
         {
           push(@cplayerlist, 1);
           push(@iplayerlist, $player->{"ip"});
         }
         $i=0;
      }
    }

    $kicked = 0;
    for ($i=0;$i 3) #number of allowed players to connect from the same IP address
        {
          $server->sendMessage("Spam Attack detected from ".$iplayerlist[$i]);
          $server->sendMessage("Initiating retaliation sequence for ".$cplayerlist[$i]." bots...");

          	foreach my $player (@playerlist)
            {
                if ($player->{ip} eq $iplayerlist[$i])
                {
                  $player->banIp(240); #ban spammers for 240 minutes
                  $player->kick("Spam protection");
                  $kicked = 1;
                }
            }

          $server->sendMessage("Retaliation sequence executed.");
          $server->sendMessage("Done... Have a nice day!");
          $server->sendMessage("TS defence system - crafted by bureX");
        }
    }

    if ($kicked == 1) {sleep(10);} #Let the TS Server rest for 10 seconds before updating the new list

    delete @cplayerlist[0..scalar(@cplayerlist)];
    delete @iplayerlist[0..scalar(@iplayerlist)];

1 comment April 4th, 2008