Green Stuff

VMware Clone

2011-09-24T20:35:00.002-08:00

A really cool feature of Vmware is the Clone feature.

With this, I can have a "Linked clone" which references the same disk (hardlinks probably) file and just clones. I'm talking seconds you have another virtual machine. It's sick.

From 95 to 8

2011-09-14T09:12:00.005-08:00

The copy dialog, from 95 to 2012

More information on Windows 8.

2011-09-13T12:17:00.001-08:00

How to remove the Navbar from blogger

#navbar-iframe {
display: none !important;
}

Iphone 4

2011-09-09T11:31:00.004-08:00

My new iPhone 4, of about a month and a half,
now has 2 scratches on it. Now I must say I have only dropped it once, and I didn't get the scratches then. No this scratches just creeped up on me. I'm telling you.

So I'm reading about the oleophobic coating. Trying to fix the scratches actually removes it.

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you know i tried toothpaste to get out a minor scratch on my iphone 4, and it made it completely worse. It also rubbed off the coating and is very noticeable, so DONT use toothpaste!

New Calendar Interface

2011-07-01T19:48:00.003-08:00

I have to say, Google has done right again, and I am intrigued as to what the next few weeks will bring with their new interface layout.
The google Calendar as it is currently is quite wonderful...very Beautiful guys.

Howto access iPhones remotely using OpenSSH

2011-06-27T09:51:00.002-08:00

I already kind of knew this, but this script is very useful.

http://meinit.nl/howto-access-iphones-remotely-using-openssh

A jail broken Apple iPhone with OpenSSH installed is accessible over the internet using ssh and the default root password "alpine".

#!/bin/sh

fourth=1
third=0

mkdir -p /tmp/scan-iphones/open
mkdir /tmp/scan-iphones/closed

while [ "$third" -lt 192 ] ; do
while [ "$fourth" -lt 255 ] ; do
if [ ! -f /tmp/scan-iphones/94.157."$third"."$fourth" ] ; then
if [ ! -f /tmp/scan-iphones/open/94.157."$third"."$fourth" ] ; then
if [ ! -f /tmp/scan-iphones/closed/94.157."$third"."$fourth" ] ; then
if [ -f /tmp/scan-iphones/stop ] ; then
echo "Stopping because /tmp/scan-iphone/stop exists."
exit 1
fi
touch /tmp/scan-iphones/94.157."$third"."$fourth"
nc -w 1 -z 94.157."$third"."$fourth" 22-22 > /dev/null 2>&1 && touch /tmp/scan-iphones/open/94.157."$third"."$fourth" || touch /tmp/scan-iphones/closed/94.157."$third"."$fourth"
rm /tmp/scan-iphones/94.157."$third"."$fourth"
fi
fi
fi
fourth=$(($fourth+1))
done
fourth=1
third=$(($third+1))
done

The rest of the information is listed in the above url with more explanation.

Managers vs IT

2011-06-26T09:41:00.002-08:00

http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2271446&cid=36576938

I agree with this-- you need enough knowledge to judge the work of the people you're managing, but often enough, it's detrimental for managers to "pitch in".

I'm sure there are people here who would disagree. If you're the person being managed, sometimes it's nice to see your manager pitch in and help. They're suddenly doing "real work". And as a manager, sometimes it's helpful to experience first-hand the difficulties that your subordinates are facing. It gives you perspective, and it gives you a better grasp on how to help your subordinates.

On the other hand, one of the primary jobs of a manager is to be detached from some of the nitty-gritty details and to be keeping an eye on the big picture. It might be that while everyone else is obsessed with making their code perfect and efficient, your time is better spent looking at the product as a cohesive whole and figuring out whether you're actually achieving your goals. It's a challenging job in its own right, and it's a job too often neglected.

Gci

2011-06-01T11:54:00.005-08:00

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r24328213-

Re: Is GCI.net misleading customers?

Yes, GCI is overcharging customers and they have been on their unbundled tiers for a very long time. Now GCI wants to overcharging the rest by setting limits on ultimate package tiers that previously were labeled as "unlimited downloads". I've been having an academic argument with koolman2 for awhile, but I thought I'd post the more revealing information about how GCI is ripping off residential customers

As an academic argument let's compare what data transfer is possible vs. what GCI now expects customers to use on it's "unlimited downloads" tiers. lol

1 Mbit = 1,000,000 bits

1,000,000 bps * 60 = 60,000,000 bpm
60,000,000 bpm * 60 = 3,600,000,000 bph
3,600,000,000 bph * 24 = 86,400,000,000 bpd

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that we have a baseline measure of the total data transfer possible from a 1Mbps line PER DAY, lets convert bits to bytes and gigabytes.

8 bits = 1 byte
86,400,000,000 bits / 8 bits = 10,800,000,000 bytes

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now let's convert this to gigabytes

1,000,000,000 bytes = 1GB
10,800,000,000 bytes / 1,000,000,000 bytes = 10.8 GB

This means that 10.8GB of data transfer is possible with a 1Mbps connection operating 24/7 PER DAY.
NOTE: This figure doesn't take into account network overhead or other loss.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ultimate package speed tiers.
»www.gci.com/forhome/internet/ult···rnet.htm

(Total Throughput possible PER DAY)
4Mbps = 10.8 * 4 = 43.2 GB
8Mbps = 10.8 * 8 = 86.4 GB
10Mbps = 10.8 * 10 = 108.0 GB
12Mbps = 10.8 * 12 = 129.6 GB

(Total Throughput possible PER MONTH)
Assume 30 days = 1 month

4Mbps = 43.2 * 30 = 1296 GB = 1.296 TB
8Mbps = 86.4 * 30 = 2592 GB = 2.592 TB
10Mbps = 108.0 * 30 = 3240 GB = 3.240 TB
12Mbps = 129.6 * 30 = 3888 GB = 3.888 TB

Now this is what GCI expects its customers to use.
4Mbps = 40 GB
8Mbps = 60 GB
10Mbps = 80 GB
12Mbps = 100 GB

GCI expected utilization factor (actual/possible usage)
40 / 1296 = 0.0308 = 3.08 %
60 / 2592 = 0.0231 = 2.31 %
80 / 3240 = 0.0246 = 2.46 %
100 / 3888 = 0.0257 = 2.57 %

It should be no surprise that as technology continues to develop the true costs of broadband have continued to fall.
(it costs well less than .01 per 1GB)

Given the true cost of bandwidth today , GCI's forced bundling, and the price it's asking this is pathetic.

Some might choose to ignore it or want to be a water carrier for GCI and similar US ISP, but advertising a service and expecting less than 3% usage is overbilling IMHO. It's overcharging, and GCI and other US ISP can get away with thanks to franchise agreements that allow ISP to retain a regional monopoly. It's also manipulative because the general population doesn't understand IT and can be easily duped into believing whatever they're told to believe by an ISP.

How to ruin a wiki article

2011-05-30T23:38:00.001-08:00

Different Form Factors

2011-05-29T22:02:00.010-08:00

Different Motherboard Form Factors per Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comput er_form_factor

The AT form factor was is in the A+ test. Not sure why as this was invented in 1984? And it's obsolete?

Piping and the Pipeline

2011-05-29T17:39:00.008-08:00

Technet is awesome.

iPhone Tracker

2011-04-24T12:08:00.001-08:00

It's alright if you track your own movements but,
looking at my consolidated.db

These were done with this.

Referenced here.

natty narwhal

2011-02-18T19:04:00.001-09:00

First thing I noticed was when I opened terminal in one of the daily builds
was the integration of the GNOME program's features into the GNOME bar.

Interesting!

As this is similar to Macintosh integration.

But the obvious problem is that not all linux applications will conform to this standard but oh well!
Great job guys.

RAID Gparted

2010-12-18T01:29:00.002-09:00

My MSI board utilizes RAID. Gparted will not initialize it without this package:

kpartx
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1637482

http://linux.die.net/man/8/kpartx

Apparently the livedisk for gparted works just fine with Raid implementations rather than rendering them as the single drives they are. I am not sure about this.

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PPA for Nvidia Latest

2010-12-18T00:04:00.002-09:00

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-current-modaliases nvidia-settings

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Free Backup Incremental

2010-12-11T00:39:00.001-09:00

Yes I've used the bloated Norton Ghost, and I've done my own rsync snapshots (I prefer this)

but when using an NTFS filesystem and for the majority of your time being on a MS OS it's helpful to use a native backup utility. As I've mentioned VirtualPC pwns at virtualizing Microsoft operating systems because of its utilization of background dll's. (I'm guessing). The memory footprint is outstandingly small, and this can't be argued away otherwise. It's an awesome...awesome concept.

But anyway, regarding backups.. I've recently been messing around with my system. With RAID 0's etc... I've found the 2tb limit with MBR. And I've become annoyed.
But the performance (at least for me) with smaller drives in a RAID 0 was quite larger.
I don't think I'll ever RAID 0 1tb drives again in the near future...

I found that the native, MS provided backup utility can be used to have a relatively painless backup..and it really is a system image, and can be restored with the installation disk. Easy right?

I found the restoration with Ghost images crusty and yeah it worked but still..
Actually, everything is crusty compared to good old rsync cron snapshots but this is Windows damnit!

The Windows Backup utility itself will walk you through the setup, and that's the easy part. Use your better judgement. When adding the incremental part.. go into the Manage space option and look at your checkmarks..

And the final denoting factor would be in the Task Scheduler, as by default you're limited to daily incrementals. (Utilize your System Protection (I'm telling you!))

Within the Task Scheduler Library you'll find a list of folders and within that hierarchy is Windows Backup...

Go to the task scheduled and edit it's option (Within Properties>Triggers)

Windows Backup utilizes the Shadow Copy scheme which works in the background so you can backup files/systemfiles in use. It's essentially a block level copy. And Norton Ghost uses the same thing to make it's backups.

Also Windows Server 08 R2 backup:

Seems a bit more refined. Kind of cool.

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Ext4 Data loss

2010-12-06T12:40:00.001-09:00

"Ext4, on the other hand, has another mechanism: delayed block allocation. After a file has been closed, up to a minute may elapse before data blocks on the disk are actually allocated. Delayed block allocation allows the filing system to optimise its write processes, but at the price that the metadata of a newly created file will display a size of 0 bytes and occupy no data blocks until the delayed allocation takes place. If the system crashes during this time, the rename() operation may already be committed in the journal, even though the new file still contains no data. The result is that after a crash the file is empty: both the old and the new data have been lost.
Ext4 developer Ted Ts'o stresses in his answer to the bug report that Ext4 behaves precisely as demanded by the POSIX standard for file operations"

EXT4 fsck times are much improved
● 1TB FS fsck with 45 million files ran under 7 minutes – much faster than
the ext3 1 hour time
● Close to a 10x improvement for new file systems!
● Credit goes to better contiguously allocated blocks for directories

"Again he described the delayed effect in writing data. Synchronization in ext3 occurs every five seconds, whereas ext4 normally writes from cache every two minutes. "

1. http://bit.ly/g8gn2f
2. http://bit.ly/icY9OX ["Next Generation File Systems and Data Integrity"]
3.[Linus Torvalds Upset over Ext3 and Ext4] http://bit.ly/hdJ3wC
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MSI board having problems

2010-11-23T21:04:00.001-09:00

I was getting hyper transport errors within Windows when trying to play Crysis.
Then I was getting them on Youtube videos, and other videos. And randomly when browsing images.
Then I decided to try this out on linux and of course.

Raid setup

2010-11-13T20:34:00.002-09:00

4 drives, in a motherboard RAID 1,0

You'll notice a predictable increase of about 2x the drive's capability. Plus a redundancy of 1/1.

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2010-10-19T17:41:00.002-08:00

Microsoft Uses Winrar

2010-09-28T08:48:00.002-08:00

Zip just couldn't do it this time.

Xbox Partition Table

2010-09-27T08:05:00.001-08:00

I suppose reinventing the wheel comes in its many forms. Not sure about this one..

Mac? Organized?

2010-07-27T08:01:00.001-08:00

The root of the local drive.

Chrome's find feature

2010-07-21T09:14:00.001-08:00

2010-07-07T14:31:00.002-08:00

MobileMe, and the case of the missing Italic

2010-07-06T22:36:00.001-08:00

MobileMe saves drafts! Sends Emails, and accounts for your trash!
Yeah, tons of features with MobileMe! And no ads at 100dollars a year!
...
:|

Indeed it does save drafts...

And it does scroll with the mouse as well. At about a pixel a second (even in their native browser. :|

And funny as it seems, when composing a window pops up (I hate that too),

and their CTRL Bold works, but not to turn it off.

The italics works. But can't turn off either. Strange.

... :|

iPhone users are much better off using iLocalis

and sticking to gmail and dropbox,

ditching the sexy interface of mac (without options is their subtitle) mail

Unfortunately I did lock myself in because of the find-my-phone issue. Which at the time I wasn't jailbroken (which is another thing I despise having to do, to have options)-

But the phone is better. Don't forget this...

Att data usage

2010-07-02T07:49:00.001-08:00

ms virtual pc

2010-06-28T02:31:00.001-08:00

VirtualPC's integration into windows is amazing. VHD's (the disk image) can be booted from. More about VHD.

I was highly impressed with this program after seeing the latest 2007.

Unfortunately an option has to be appended to the install option for a successful install of ubuntu (still hasn't been fixed).

This is discussed here.

Booting from a vhd.

Google + Bingism = FAIL

2010-06-09T23:51:00.002-08:00

My new background for google.

9/11 - Now it's a lot better

3

2010-05-17T10:11:00.002-08:00

My phone bill after tethering.

Tether iPhone Ubuntu

2010-05-06T21:31:00.001-08:00

3.x.x

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmcenery/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gvfs ipheth-utils

iPhone Jailbreak Apps

2010-05-06T21:30:00.010-08:00

20 Second Lock Screen
afc2add
attachment= for mailto:
*AttachmentSaver
CyDelete

Autolocation

*Cyntact

*Synchronocity

*CallLock

*Tv tube sleep

file://schema in safari
flashlight
*gv mobile + (cydia only)
*iFile

*Anyring

*Lockinfo, 2do Plugin, calender plugin
*Lockscreen Clock Hide
*Lockscreen Dim Delay
*Longitude
*My3g
*MyWi 4.0
*Nexus Live wallpaper
OpenSSH
Popup Blocker
*Quickreply for SMS (cydia only)

rsync

*Safari Download Manager (cydia only)

*Safari Download Plugin (cydia only)

SysInfoPlus
*Voicemail Forwarder
*WeatherIcon
WifiFofum
Winterboard

Themes

Suave

Matte Nano

*Babo

AnnMe

Black Status Bar

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How to telnet into a buffalo

2010-03-09T12:04:00.002-09:00

Currently I am running a linksys WRT54GL 1.1 (dd-wrt flashed) as AP, with Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 (tomato, then dd-wrt flashed) as Client.

Telneting confused me because it uses the default username, but your assigned password for whatever username you chose within the WEBGUI interface..

anyhow, it goes like this:
telnet routerip
root
thepasswordyouchose

This, http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Telnet/SSH_and_the_Command_Line
Was actually misleading.

In Win7,vista telnet can be enabled in control panel, add/remove features.

Powertop

2010-02-26T20:57:00.002-09:00

Save power!

sudo apt-get install powertop

http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop/

Better wireless (ubuntu)

2010-02-26T20:42:00.002-09:00

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-*distroyourun*-generic

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Disable Auto Restart on update (Windows)

2010-02-19T05:38:00.001-09:00

Edit group policy by running
gpedit.msc (Winkey R)

Computer management>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Update>
No Auto restart with logged in users. Right click, enable.

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Live Android/Chrome OS

2010-02-18T13:42:00.001-09:00

The Android OS can be downloaded as a live disk here:

http://code.google.com/p/live-android/

It is annoyingly limited but worth trying.
As well, ChromiumOS (something I have not tried)

http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/

In my opinion the author is a bit full of himself, and the fact that it is only one person lends my disinterest.

I also personally think that Chrome has a long way to go. My main interest at the moment is in small distributions/functionality and their relation to battery life.
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Pandora Skip Limit

2010-02-06T10:54:00.001-09:00

Pandora subscriptions are still limited to 6 skips per hr.

Last.fm Discovery Mode

2010-02-06T10:52:00.001-09:00

Last.fm discovery mode makes the player only play things that you haven't heard before.

Windows/Linux Battery life

2010-02-04T18:47:00.004-09:00

http://wlmtips.com/2008/04/18/linux-friday-save-battery-life-in-linux-using-powertop/

Linux advocates

2010-01-27T13:10:00.002-09:00

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/25/157209

Ganty writes "I recently purchased a Lenovo W500 notebook, and after 'downgrading' to XP and creating a dual partition, I found that I had a battery life of nearly three hours using the long-life battery, at this point I was a happy camper because it means that I can watch a DVD during a flight. I then tried various Linux distributions and found the battery life under FOS to be very disappointing, with an average of 45 minutes before a warning message. After settling on Ubuntu I then spent three days trying various hardware tweaks but I only managed to increase the battery life to one and a half hours. Unwanted services have been disabled, laptop mode has been enabled, the dual core CPU reduces speed when idle and the hard drive spins down when not needed. Obviously Apple with their X86 hardware and BSD based OS have got it right because the MacBooks last for hours, and a stock install of MS Windows XP gives me three hours of life. Why is battery life on notebooks so poor when using Linux? Some have suggested disabling various hardware items such as bluetooth and running the screen at half brightness but XP doesn't require me to do this and still gives a reasonable battery life."

by SendBot (29932) writes: on Tuesday August 25, @11:05AM (#29187885) Homepage Journal

I may sound like a jerkwad here, but why waste all that battery power watching a dvd when you could watch the divx version off local storage?

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday August 25, @11:17AM (#29188121)

This post is exactly what is wrong with Linux advocates. Instead of answering the question - why does Linux die when watching DVDs where other OSes don't - the GP blames the user and suggests another, harder way to do the same thing.

by Dr_Barnowl (709838) writes: on Tuesday August 25, @11:16AM (#29188087)

Go a step further - if you have enough RAM, copy the file to a RAM disk and let the disk spin down.

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What a bigger laptop battery looks like

2010-01-15T19:51:00.001-09:00

Utorrent Tutorial

2010-01-02T20:41:00.002-09:00

Jacked from somewhere. Referenced here. (Slightly older, still applies). Read carefully.

My settings.

Key:

C Means "check this box"

U Means "uncheck this box"

If either of the above are followed/substituted by a *, it means settings may vary.

The reason why to C or U a setting will follow the name in (italics)

Don't forget to click "Apply" when making changes to settings! Otherwise they won't be saved. You may have to restart uT for some to take effect.

This is the "General Preferences" screen, which is opened simply through "Options -> Preferences" (or by pressing CTRL+P).

User Interface Settings

-> The language setting is self-explanitory.
->C - Check for updates automatically (always best to have the latest version!)
->C - Confirm when deleting torrents (can save you from deleting a torrent by mistake)
->C - Show confirmation dialog on exit (can save you from accidentally closing uT

System Tray

->U* - Close to tray (personal preference - X goes to tray instead of prompt to close)
->U* - Always show tray icon (personal preference - I feel it clutters the System Tray!)
->C - Show balloon notifications in tray (saves you from having to open it to check on the status
->C - Minimize to tray (keeps the Task Bar clear as I always have uT open!)
->C - Single click on tray icon to open (I'm a busy guy... good to save a click)
->C - Always activate when clicked (same as above... good to save a click

Display Options

->C - Alternate list background color (very nice for a long list of torrents; keeps order)
->C - Show current speed in the title bar (always nice to have as much info handy as possible!)
->C - Show graphical progress bar (same as above - as much info as possible is nice)
->U* - Show speed limits in the status bar (personal preference... I've found this actually hides other info)

Windows Integration

-> HIGHLY RECOMMEND clicking the "Associate with .torrent files" as this greatly increases productivity!
->C - Check association on system startup (makes sure other rogue programs don't alter .torrent association)
->U* - Start ÂµTorrent on system startup (personal preference; can degrade computer performance)

This is the "Downloads Preferences" screen, which is shown by clicking "Downloads" on the left of the Preferences window.

Location of Downloaded Files

->C* - Put new downloads in: (Allows you to properly organize your torrents and save time)
* Upon checking the above setting, you'll be prompted for a location to put the torrents into. This is where torrents will
download to by default. This is an excellent way to save yourself browsing for a location (likely the same one) for each
torrent. I've got mine set to a secondary hard drive in a folder named "_Active Torrents_". This is also the location
you'll want to put the files for torrents you create before you start seeding.
->C - Always show dialog on manual add (this allows you to alter the default location or pick and choose files)
->U* - Move completed downloads to: - (personal preference, good if you have limited space and for organization)

When Adding Torrents

->U - Don't start the download automatically (Defeats the purpose of showing the dialog box)
->C - Show a window that displays the files inside the torrent (to pick and choose files)
->C* - Activate the program window (personal preference, I like being able to instantly start the torrent)

Other Settings

->C - Append .!ut to incomplete files (best way to keep track of downloading files)
->C - Prevent stand-by if there are active torrents (keeps system from entering power saving mode)
->C* - Pre-allocate all files (great for saving on fragmentation and the disk health, but not for limited HDD space)

This is the "Connection Preferences" screen, which is shown by clicking "Connection" on the left of the Preferences window.

Listening Port

-> The port used for incoming connections will vary for everyone. I recommend something above 10,000 for good measure.
You'll want to make sure this port is allowed through your router and/or firewall. (See your router/firewall
documentation for instructions on how to do that.) Without having this port "open to the Internet" you will not be
connectable. Not being connectable will greatly reduce your Bittorrent speeds.
->U - Randomize port each time ÂµTorrent starts (will likely make you not connectable)
->U - Enable UPnP port mapping (UPnP isn't a very good solution; try to manually forward the port first)
->U* - Add ÂµTorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions (only check this if you use the WinXP SP2 Firewall; not advised)

Proxy Server

-> Most private trackers don't allow the use of proxy servers, so this shouldn't be used UNLESS you know exactly what you
are doing (say on a corporate network and you need a proxy server to connect). If you know what you're doing in this area,
you don't need me to tell you how to set this up.

Bandwidth Limiting

-> "Global maximum upload rate (kB/s)" is a useful feature. Keeping in mind that your download speed is directly proportional
to your upload speed, limiting your upload just below your maximum possible speed will help your Internet performance (not
just uT) as a whole. Find out your upload from your ISP (say 384kbps), then divide it by 8 to get your kB/s (kilobytes per
second). Now shave about 20% off of this number and enter it here. For example... if you have a 384kbps upload, dividing
that by 8 gives you 48 kB/s. 48 - 20% (=8) is 40. This will give you the optimal upload cap to allow other minor tasks (email
checking, web browser AV updating, etc) to function while giving you the fattest pipe possible for upload speed. Keep in
mind that trial and error works best. The percentage rate (20%) isn't set in stone. Use it as a starting point and try higher
and lower to see what works best for you. ;)
->U - Alternate upload rate when not downloading (though it can help the above scenario, I've found it hinders)
-> "Global maximum download rate (kB/s) can also be useful, especially if you're on dial-up or a slower DSL service. Capping the
download speed using the same formula as above will allow you the necessary bandwidth to perform the other tasks mentioned.
If you have a 1.5Mbit or better ISP connection, don't worry about this (leave it as 0; unlimited). If you notice issues using
other Internet apps (like browsing the web) while downloading torrents, you can try capping your download rate here.

This is the "BitTorrent Preferences" screen, which is shown by clicking "BitTorrent" on the left of the Preferences window.

Number of Connection

-> "Global maximum number of connections" is just that - the total number of connections that BitTorrent will create across the
board. Setting this number too high will cause instability and slowness. Setting this number too low will produce the exact
same results. The number to use completely depends on your speed. The best "formula" to use is stick in whatever kbps upload
speed you have (such as 384). Again, playing with this will give you the best results, so don't be afriad to deviate from this.
-> "Maximum number of connected peers per torrent" is also one of those "grey areas" when it comes to definitive settings and
calculations/formulas. What I've found the most effective is use the number you calculated for the "Global maximum upload
rate" above (40 in my example) and double it. Again, tweak it here and there to find the sweet spot. Too high and you'll
expereince bandwidth choking. Too low and you'll find your speeds moving slowly.
-> "Number of upload slots per torrent" is, again, heavily dependant on your Internet connection. The most efficent way to calculate
this that I've found is to take that same number we doubled for "conected peers" just above (again, 40 in this example) and
divide it by 4 (10 in this example). This number should obviously never be 0 or else you'll never connect! For dial-up
users, 1 or 2 at most should suffice. Otherwise try the mentioned calculations and toy with it from there.
->C - Use additional upload slots if upload speed < 90% (waste-not want-not! Lets it use it if it's there...)

Additional BitTorrent Features

->U - Enable DHT Network (not allowed on private trackers - NEVER check this!)
->U - Enable DHT for new torrents (not allowed on private trackers - NEVER check this!)
->C - Ask tracker for scrape information (regularly checks the health of a torrent like seeds/leechers)
->U - Enable Peer Exchange (similar to DHT, it allows peers outside of the tracker to connect)
-> "IP/Hostname to report to tracker" should be left blank UNLESS you know what you're doing. ;)

Protocol Encryption

-> This setting allows some users to bypass traffic shaping techniques used by some ISPs. By encryption the BitTorrent traffic,
the traffic shaping applications can't identify the traffic as BT traffic, hence it is left uncontrolled. Doesn't always
work. "Enabled" means it will attempt to encrypt the traffic, but fall back to unencrypted mode if it can't. "Forced" will
always encrypt the traffic, but won't allow the fail safe of unencrypted traffic. (Not recommended unless you have to.)
->C - Allow incoming legacy connections (without this you would only receive encrypted connections, very limiting)

This is the "Queueing Preferences" screen, which is shown by clicking "Queueing" on the left of the Preferences window.

Queue Settings

-> "Maximum number of active torrents" is always up for debate. There is no real "right or wrong" answer... just use common
sense. By uploading small amounts, it will hurt the BT community (and your ratio). Be cautious when downloading and don't
try to run EVERYTHING at once. Pace yourself! Always remember to seed when finished as well. :thumbsup:
-> :Maximum number of downloads" is the exact same as above. Use common sense.

Seed While [Default values]

-> "Ratio is <= (%)" means you can automatically stop seeding when your ratio reaches a certain percentage. Only useful for
limited connections or limited system resources. It's in your best interest to seed forever if you can. (I've got
mine set at 10,000%.) You also have the option (via the drop-down box) to stop seeding after a certain period of time.
Again, this is only advised if you have a specific need. (I've set mine to ignore.)
->C - Seeding tasks have a higher priority than downloading tasks (great for your ratio and the BT community!)

This is the "Scheduler Preferences" screen, which is shown by clicking "Scheduler" on the left of the Preferences window.

Scheduler Table (if enabled)

-> Here you can adjust the bandwidth uT is allowed to use depending on the time of day. It's nice for allowing uT to still
run during the day, but also allow more bandwidth when others are using the nerwork/computer. (I use the scheduler at my
office to allow us to function during work hours, but still continue to seed.) The settings are pretty much self-explanitory.
(Hover your mouse over a box to see what time frame it represents.)

This is the "Other Preferences" screen, which is shown by clicking "Other" on the left of the Preferences window.

Storage For Torrent Files

->U* - Store .torrent files in: (personal preference; only used to change location of the .torrent files)
->U* - Move .torrent files for finished jobs to: (personal preference; only used to save the .torrent files automatically)

Auto-Load Torrents

->U* - Automatically load torrents in directory: (personal preference; used to load all torrents from a specific directory)

Other

-> "Boss-Key" is a keyboard combination you can setup to instantly hide uT (like if your boss, or wife/husband, walks in).
Just click "None" and type whatever key you want. ALT will be added to it to make the combination. Press this combo to
hide it, press it again to make it return.
->C - Allow ÂµTorrent to send anonymous... (this helps improve uT and doesn't invade your privacy)

This is the "Advanced Preferences" screen, which is shown by clicking "Advanced" on the left of the Preferences window.

Advanced Options

-> This section is for advanced tweaking only. This is not the place to go playing around and seeing what everything does. You
can royally screw up your uT expereince that way. I'm only going to address those settings which are believed to give
your Client a boost. All others are better left alone, unless you know what you're doing. Locate each bolded option
below in the list, then left-click it once to highlight it. This will allow you to change the value in the line below. Type
in the new value, then click "Set" to save it. (Click Revert to go back to the default.) the recommended values I've found
to be the most useful are noted in blue. If curiosity gets the best of you, you can always see more information
in the Official uT FAQs.
net.max_halfopen (How many connection attempts ÂµTorrent will make at any one time.) This setting depends on whether or
not you've hacked your TCPIP.SYS file (if you have SP2 installed). If you're unsure, you probably haven't patched it. If you'd
like to, or if you just want to check, grab this utility from my website.
-> If your file is unhacked, NEVER set this higher then 8!
-> If you have patched your TCPIP.SYS file, the best way to determine this number is to divide your upload kbps (384 in my example) by 4 (96 in my example).
net.low_cpu - FALSE Unless you're living in the stone age and have a really old CPU, it's ok to let uT use more CPU. (This is the default.)
peer.lazy_bitfield - TRUE This is handy if you think your ISP may be using traffic shaping, or simply if you're having
trouble maintaining your upload speeds (or can't seed properly). This may help with such problems! (TRUE is the default setting.)
peer.disconnect_inactive_interval - 600 This setting can help stabilize your connection. The most accepted idea
is to set it to a higher value. Some say turn it off completely, though I disagree. I believe it is still a useful thing in some
cases! Best to play around with it and see if it helps. uT will ignore anything below the default value of 300.
diskio.write_queue_size - -1* This setting can help you if you are having hard drive issues, such as the hard
drive not being able to keep up with the download speeds, or if you are seeing the "Disk Overloaded" message in the status bar.
Modifying this may help... You can safely set it 2 or ever 4 times your maximum download speed. NEVER set it below 2MB (2048)
or higher then 32MB (32768). For example, if you have a 4Mbit download speed, multiply that by 1024 to get the byte value (4096) and
then again by either 2 or 4 (at most) to get the new value (or 16384 in this example). The latest version of uT are optimized quite
nicely, so messing with this setting rarely helps. (The default of -1 is best if you aren't having any problems.)

This is the "Disk Cache Preferences" screen, which is shown by clicking "Advanced -> Disk Cache" on the left of the Preferences window.

Disk Cache

-> The default settings are best left alone UNLESS you are noticing issues. (Especially the "Advanced Cache Settings" -
these is setup to keep the wear and tear on your hard drive at a minimum.) Pop up a post if you think you may need to modify
these settings and we'll help.

This is the "User Interface Preferences" screen, which is shown by clicking "Advanced -> User Interface" on the left of the Preferences window.

Actions for Double Click

-> As you can imagine, all these settings really are personal preference. I encourage you to explore the pull-down menus to
see what other options you have when double-clicking.

Speed Popup List

->U* - Override automatic speed popup list (allows you to customize the upload/download cap override limits)
-> To use this, keep in mind that you can right click on U: or D: in the status bar to quickly change the upload and
download caps. Entering different numbers in this section will allow you to customize the automatic values available.

Persistent Labels

-> This is a very cool feature! It allows you to label your torrents in any fasion you choose. I personally use this to
simply keep track of which tracker a particular torrent is for. (If you're like me, you have a ton of trackers for
multiple torrents going at once. Labels keep things organized.) Here you can enter labels that you always want to
have access to, even when no torrents are assigned that label. (More on labels later in this guide.) Be sure to separate
the labels with the indicated character ( | ). They will be available in alphabetical order from the drop-down box.

Search Engines

-> You may have noticed the FireFox-like search bar in the upper right of the main uT window. Here you can define additional,
or edit the existing, search engines. I have added BitMe and Demonoid, for example. (See screenshot above.) Just do a
search on whatever tracker you'd like to add, then copy/paste the URL of the search, but remove the search terms you typed.

Now that we've gotten out settings tweaked out, lets take a peek at how to use all these goodies! Above is a screenshot (reduced
size, obviously) of my uT "main window". You can see my labels on the left, followed by the number of torrents under each label.
Clicking on a label will allow you to instantly see all the torrent associated with it. Excellent for keeping tabs on your
favorite trackers! I also find it useful to be able to click the "Active" label to instantly see all active torrents from all trackers.
If you right-click a torrent, you have lots of options. Some of the most useful for productivity are...

Bandwidth Allocation - Allocate more bandwidth to your most important torrents or less to others. (Upload only)

Advanced -> Reset Bans - If a torrent doesn't seem to be connecting to peers, try that. (Clears the auto-bans)

Update Tracker - Performs a manual scrape (data sync) with the tracker. This is done automatically every 30 min or so.

Another way to optimize your torrenting expereince is to tweak what colums are displayed, and in what order they are. This is easy!
Right-click anywhere on the displayed colum names (such as on "Size"). You'll get a list of all possible colums, with check marks next
to those that are displayed. If you have no need for certain information to be displayed, simply click on its name and it will become unchecked.
This will also make it disappear from uT, allowing you more room to see what information is important to you! If you're missing some info
you'd like to have, simply reverse the process (click on an unchecked item to have it be displayed). You can drag and drop the colums to have
them displayed in any order you like.
Something else that is wonderful to be able to do - details stats. Look at the bottom half of the screen. Here you can obtain
specific information about whatever torrent you have selected. The "General" tab is useful for basic information. (I've blocked
out a few details for my own privacy. ;) ).

The screenshot above is the "Peers" tab, which allows you to see detailed information about the connected peers. (Again, some
information has been removed for privacy.) The next tab (Pieces) will give you detailed information on the data chunks that
compose the torrent. More useful is the "Files" tab as seen below. This lets you quickly see the progress of your download by
the individual files it contains.

The next tab, "Speed" gives you a graphical representation of your transfer speeds. (I rarely look at it.) the last tab is an
important one - "Logger". Here you'll be able to see any important system messages, such as failed hash checks, auto-bans (for
bad data received), internal errors, etc. I check this tab frequently to see what's been going on.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
So there you have it - this is how I have optimized my uT settings, as well as take advantage of the features available. There
are two more wonderful aspects of uT that I'll likely touch on at a later point. (They are the RSS Downloader and the Speed
Guide.) Of course there is also the ability to create a new torrent; however that has already been covered in the FAQs, so no
need to include it here. I sincerely hope this guide helps you get the most out of the best BT client available for Windows.
P.S. Please feel free to spread the knowledge and copy/paste this guide on other forums and such if you deem fit. Proper credit
is always appreciated! (Written by GuidoZ originally for BitMe.org) I will continue to polish this as time goes on. (From
simple formatting to adding more information.) Please post up any questions you have as I'd be happy to help answer them! (Avoid
PMs if you can as others will be able to learn from your questions.) Enjoy.
--
Peace. ~G

(Advanced Settings)

bt.allow_same_ip: Enabling this option allows multiple incoming connections from the same IP address. This option affects a single torrent job at a time, so you can still have the same IP address connect to you on different torrent swarms. It is recommended that this option be left disabled, as it weakens the anti-leech protection.

bt.auto_ul_factor: This option sets the portion of the largest reading to use for throttling. This value is interpreted as a percentage, so please enter it as such.

bt.auto_ul_interval: This option controls how often µTorrent tests the upload rate for setting the upload rate limit automatically. Every time this interval passes, µTorrent disables the upload rate limit and lets it run while sampling the rate. This option is interpreted in seconds, so please enter it as such.

bt.auto_ul_min: This option determines the smallest upload rate µTorrent will use while in auto-uplink throttling mode. If the sampled average is less than this value, µTorrent ignores the sampled average and uses this value instead. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so please enter it as such.

bt.auto_ul_sample_average: This option sets how many seconds to average the amount of uploaded data over (sliding window).

bt.auto_ul_sample_window: This option controls how long each sampling run will take. This value is interpreted in seconds, so please enter it as such.

bt.ban_ratio: The lowest acceptable ratio of good to bad pieces a peer can send before it gets banned. This takes effect after bt.ban_threshold is exceeded and bt.use_ban_ratio is enabled.

bt.ban_threshold: This option specifies the maximum number of hashfailed pieces any single peer can send before µTorrent takes action against it (either banning it outright, or enforcing bt.ban_ratio if bt.use_ban_ratio is enabled).

bt.compact_allocation: Enabling this option allows µTorrent to create files in a manner such that the data are incrementally written to disk without file pre-allocation. Because writes are compact, enabling this option may potentially lead to an increased level of disk fragmentation while the file remains incomplete. In addition, this option further decreases the already-low probability that a file can be previewed before completion, since it may write the data for in-progress files out of order. Here are some things to take note of when using this option:

• If you tell µTorrent to pre-allocate all disk space, this option is ignored, and µTorrent will pre-allocate the file anyway.
• If this option is enabled, files can’t be skipped. If a torrent job has skipped files, it will not use compact allocation.

bt.connect_speed: This option specifies the number of connections µTorrent should make each second up to the net.max_halfopen limit.

bt.enable_tracker: Enabling this option enables the rudimentary tracker embedded in µTorrent. If you wish to use this tracker, the URL is located at http://IP:port/announce, where IP is your WAN IP address, and port is the port µTorrent is listening on (or the alternative listening port if set and enabled). If you use a dynamic DNS service, your domain may be used instead of your IP address. The embedded tracker allows tracking of external .torrent files, and provides no way to limit them. There is no interface for viewing the .torrent files that are tracked. It is imperative that µTorrent is able to listen for incoming connections for this feature to work properly, so you have to make sure you have completely forwarded your ports in order to use the embedded tracker.

bt.graceful_shutdown: If enabled, µTorrent will take as long as it needs to finish its shutdown sequence (writing in-progress pieces to disk, deleting files in deletion queue, and waiting for tracker replies to stop messages — among other things). That means that even if it takes several minutes to shutdown gracefully, it will wait for that long, and the process will remain in memory until then. If disabled, µTorrent will limit how long it waits to to 13 seconds, and regardless of the state of the shutdown sequence, µTorrent will force itself to exit.

bt.multiscrape: Enabling this option allows µTorrent to send multiple hashes each time it scrapes a tracker, which is more efficient than sending one hash at a time. In most circumstances, this option should not need to be disabled, as µTorrent will fall back to single scraping if it detects that the tracker does not support multi-scraping.

bt.no_connect_to_services: This option tells µTorrent not to connect to peers using ports specified in bt.no_connect_to_services_list as their listening ports. This stops firewalls from complaining about µTorrent trying to send an e-mail.

bt.no_connect_to_services_list: This option specifies which ports µTorrent should not connect to when bt.no_connect_to_services is enabled.

bt.prio_first_last_piece: Enabling this option prioritizes the first and last pieces of each file in a torrent job, increasing the chances that they can be previewed before download completion. µTorrent will prioritize at least the first and last 1 MiB of data in a file.

bt.scrape_stopped: Enabling this option allows µTorrent to get seed and peer counts for torrent jobs that are stopped.

bt.send_have_to_seed: Enabling this option tells µTorrent to send a message to other seeds indicating how many pieces you currently have.

bt.set_sockbuf: This debugging option allows µTorrent to automatically detect the TCP buffer size (so_sndbuf) and adjust it based on your upload speed. It does not adjust based on latency.

bt.use_ban_ratio: This option tells µTorrent to use bt.ban_ratio to decide when a peer gets banned after it has exceeded bt.ban_threshold.

bt.use_rangeblock: When enabled, µTorrent will automatically attempt to determine whether an entire range of IP addresses should be banned for sending hashfailed pieces rather than banning individual IPs one at a time. When µTorrent bans 4 IPs from the same /24 CIDR block, it will ban the entire /24 CIDR block. When µTorrent bans 4 CIDR blocks of size /24 from the same /16 CIDR block, it will ban the entire /16 CIDR block. When µTorrent bans 4 CIDR blocks of size /16 from the same /8 CIDR block, it will ban the entire /8 CIDR block.

dht.rate: This option specifies the amount of bandwidth that DHT will use. The default value, -1, tells µTorrent to manage the bandwidth usage automatically based on your maximum upload rate. The automatic value is obtained by dividing your maximum upload rate by 16. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so please enter it as such.

diskio.coalesce_write_size: This option determines the size threshold for which µTorrent should write data out coalesced, and is relevant only if diskio.coalesce_writes is enabled. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so please enter it as such.

diskio.coalesce_writes: This option tells µTorrent to try to minimize the number of writes to disk by writing more data at once. It doesn’t have any effect on download speeds, but might increase memory and CPU usage to achieve less disk writes.

diskio.flush_files: Enabling this option causes µTorrent to close file handles every minute. It helps to reduce the effect of Windows managing the system cache badly for some people and causing apparent “memory leaks.”

diskio.no_zero: Enabling this option causes µTorrent to skip the zero-filling process for file allocation. This option works only on Windows XP or newer, and requires administrator privileges by default. However, it is possible to make this work on limited accounts by setting the “Perform volume maintenance tasks” policy appropriately in the Windows Group Policy Editor. Skipping zero-filling speeds up the file allocation process, but because the allocated files have shared read access, there is a risk that any sensitive data that may have once existed at that location in disk but isn’t wiped will potentially be exposed for other applications and users to read, including those without volume maintenance privileges.

diskio.smart_hash: This option makes µTorrent hash data from memory (if in the write queue) instead of flushing to disk, re-reading from disk, and then hashing. This should help reduce hard disk reads, especially when transferring at high speeds.

diskio.smart_sparse_hash: This option is a workaround for a problem in some versions of Windows that return incorrect data to µTorrent regarding sparse files and the amount of data that has actually been completed on disk.

diskio.sparse_files: Enabling this option causes µTorrent to allocate only the data that it writes, but will inform the filesystem of the file’s size (so that it can attempt to reserve enough contiguous space on the hard drive without having to physically zero all of the space out for the file). Even though space is reserved for the file, no space will be taken for the unwritten parts of the file. Enabling this option may potentially lead to increased disk fragmentation in rare cases where the drive does not have enough free space available to honor the space reservation for sparse files. Here are some things to take note of when using this option:

• Sparse files work only on partitions that are formatted as NTFS.
• Hash checking sparse files tends to be quicker than hash checking pre-allocated files, as µTorrent won’t have to hash zeroed-out pre-allocated data.
• On Windows Vista, sparse files can cause µTorrent to run into a file system limitation.
• If you are using a non-administrator account with a disk quota, sparse files won’t work, and the file will still get fully allocated. This is a limitation with Windows that µTorrent can’t do anything about.
• This option cannot be used in conjunction with pre-allocate all files. If both options are enabled simultaneously, pre-allocation will take precedence.
• When used in conjunction with bt.compact_allocation, µTorrent will reserve space for each file in the filesystem, but it will continue to use compact writes.

diskio.use_partfile: This option is used to store data that is downloaded from files that you told µTorrent to skip. This is necessary to prevent the file from being allocated. It separately stores the parts of the skipped files that come with a piece, since µTorrent must download and save the entire piece in order to confirm that it is uncorrupted, and each piece can contain data from multiple files. The partfile is removed when you remove the torrent job from the torrent job list.

gui.bypass_search_redirect: Enabling this option tells µTorrent to search directly on the selected search engine rather than being redirected through http://search.utorrent.com.

gui.compat_diropen: If you experience abnormal behaviors while browsing directories in µTorrent, such as a blank browsing dialog, try enabling this option.

gui.default_del_action: This option tells µTorrent how it should remove torrent jobs when pressing the Remove button or Delete on your keyboard. Note that any value above 3 will cause the “Remove” button and the Delete button on your keyboard to do nothing in µTorrent. To be safer, you’d best be setting this option in the GUI through the toolbar method.

• 0 means “Remove”
• 1 means “Remove and delete .torrent”
• 2 means “Remove and delete Data”
• 3 means “Remove and delete .torrent + Data”

gui.delete_to_trash: Enabling this option tells µTorrent to attempt to delete files to the Recycle Bin rather than directly erasing them from the disk. It is easier to set this option in the GUI through the toolbar method.

gui.graphic_progress: This option tells µTorrent to draw a progress bar for each torrent job in the torrent jobs list, behind the Done column.

gui.log_date: This option causes the date to be included in the timestamp shown in the Logger tab.

gui.piecebar_progress: This option tells µTorrent to draw the lower Downloaded bar as the progress bar for each torrent job in the torrent jobs list, behind the Done column. This option works only if gui.graphic_progress is enabled, and will hide the percentage from the column.

gui.tall_category_list: This option toggles the Category List’s height between short and tall. When taller, the Category List displaces the Detailed Info Pane’s left-hand side. When shorter, the Category List’s lower section is displaced by the Detailed Info pane. A taller list might be more optimal for users with many labels and RSS feeds.

gui.update_rate: This option controls the amount of time between each update of the µTorrent main window. The higher it is, the less frequently µTorrent updates the main window, meaning that if you select 1000, the information displayed on the main window is at most 1000 milliseconds (1 second) old. For users of slower computers, you might want to increase this number to decrease resource usage when the main window is displayed. Any value below 500 will be ignored, and 500 will be used instead.

ipfilter.enable: This option, when enabled, tells µTorrent to load ipfilter.dat and apply the rules on connections established after it is loaded. Note that disabling and re-enabling this option will force µTorrent to reload ipfilter.dat.

isp.bep22: This option enables Local Tracker Discovery, allowing µTorrent to attempt to discover ISP-local trackers via a series of reverse DNS lookups. The ISP-local tracker can return a list of peers and caches (most likely ISP-local). Note that if your ISP is known to interfere with BitTorrent traffic, careful consideration should be taken in deciding to enable this option. Announcing to a ISP-hosted tracker indicates to the ISP that you are using BitTorrent, and as such, can make it easier for the ISP to interfere. Private torrent jobs are not announced to local trackers.

net.bind_ip: If your computer setup requires that you use a specific LAN adapter for incoming connections, you may specify that adapter’s IP address here.

net.calc_overhead: This option causes µTorrent to include communication overhead in the transfer rate calculations.

net.low_cpu: Enabling this option reduces CPU usage slightly. You may achieve faster speeds with this option disabled. In general, this option is useless for most people unless they have extremely fast connections.

net.max_halfopen: This option specifies how many connections µTorrent should attempt to establish simultaneously at any given time. On systems running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or newer, if your TCPIP.sys file is unpatched, you should leave this option at its default value.

net.outgoing_ip: If your computer setup requires that you use a specific LAN adapter for outgoing connections, you may specify that adapter’s IP address here. Note that Windows will sometimes ignore this setting and use other adapters due to their binding orders in Windows. To fix this, read Microsoft’s knowledge base artile KB894564.

net.outgoing_max_port: This sets the upper limit for the outgoing port range. If this option is set to some invalid port number or some value less than net.outgoing_port, it gets ignored, and only net.outgoing_port gets looked at (meaning the outgoing port “range” will actually be a single outgoing port).

net.outgoing_port: This option specifies the port that µTorrent should use to make outgoing connections. Normally, µTorrent selects a port from the ephemeral port range (between 1024 and 5000 by default on Windows) at random. “This can be used with full cone NAT routers to reduce the number of NAT table entries and thus prevent cashes on some router models. When the outgoing port is bound to the same as the incoming port that might even solve NAT problems on full cone NAT routers” (Advanced Network Settings on AzureusWiki). This option only works on Windows 2000 and above. This option is ignored if it is not a valid port number.

net.upnp_tcp_only: This option disables automatic forwarding of the listening port for UDP via UPnP, telling µTorrent to forward the port for TCP only. This fixes an issue with some broken routers that overwrite the TCP forwarding with the UDP forwarding.

net.wsaevents: This option is used for tweaking if you are experiencing odd firewall issues. Decrease the value one by one to see if it helps.

peer.disconnect_inactive: Enabling this option tells µTorrent to disconnect from a peer that is not transferring with you after peer.disconnect_inactive_interval seconds of inactivity. A peer gets disconnected by this option only if the connection limit has been reached.

peer.disconnect_inactive_interval: This option sets the amount of time µTorrent should wait before breaking an inactive connection. This value is interpreted in seconds, so please enter it as such. Any value below 300 will be ignored, and 300 will be used instead.

peer.lazy_bitfield: Some ISPs block seeding by looking for the complete bitfield and closing the connection. When enabled, µTorrent does not send the complete bitfield, but a sample of it, so as to prevent blocking of seeding.

peer.resolve_country: Enabling this option tells µTorrent to use an Internet database of IP addresses (a DNSBL) to determine a peer’s country. Even if the settings directory contains flags.conf and flags.bmp, this option will take precedence, and the internal flag images will be used instead.

queue.dont_count_slow_dl: Enabling this option tells µTorrent to ignore slow downloading torrent jobs as part of the queue. If a torrent job is downloading at less than the value specified by queue.slow_dl_threshold, it will not prevent the next item in the queue from starting.

queue.dont_count_slow_ul: Enabling this option tells µTorrent to ignore slow uploading torrent jobs as part of the queue. If a torrent job is uploading at less than the value specified by queue.slow_ul_threshold, it will not prevent the next item in the queue from starting.

queue.slow_dl_threshold: The rate below which µTorrent should consider a torrent job to be downloading slowly. If µTorrent is downloading at a rate above this value, it is considered to be actively downloading. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so please enter it as such.

queue.slow_ul_threshold: The rate below which µTorrent should consider a torrent job to be uploading slowly. If µTorrent is uploading at a rate above this value, it is considered to be actively uploading. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so please enter it as such.

queue.prio_no_seeds: Enabling this option gives torrent jobs without seeds higher priority when seeding than other torrent jobs.

queue.use_seed_peer_ratio: When this option is enabled, µTorrent will determine the seeding queue order based on the ratio of the number of seeds to the number of peers connected in the swarm. The lower the seed:peer ratio is for a torrent job, the higher priority it will be given in the seeding queue. If a torrent job has 0 peers and queue.dont_count_slow_ul is disabled, it will be given the lowest priority. Otherwise, if the aforementioned option is enabled, the torrent job is treated as if there is 1 peer in the swarm.

rss.smart_repack_filter: This option tells µTorrent to select an RSS item designated as REPACK over an item without the REPACK designation if both show up in the RSS feed.

rss.update_interval: This option sets the length of time µTorrent should wait between each RSS feed update check. This value is interpreted in minutes, so please enter it as such. Any value below 5 will be ignored, and 5 will be used instead.

sys.enable_wine_hacks: This option enables several workarounds for bugs found in Wine (like list-view flickering, or improper display of files list-view in Add New Torrent dialog). This option has no effect on Windows. For changes to this option to take effect, you must restart µTorrent.

webui.token_auth: This option enables the token authentication system for the Web UI, which is a method for preventing cross-site request forgery attacks that use the authenticated browser session to issue commands to µTorrent. This option breaks backwards compatibility with applications that are unaware of the token system.

(from: here).

Google DNS

2010-01-02T13:07:00.001-09:00

http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html

Setup is simple.
Addresses for Google DNS are as follows:

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4 (alternate) Put in both.

No more ISP redirects on address input! :)

Make a partition (mom)

2009-12-31T12:41:00.002-09:00

You should be able to click all of these images (and they will show a bigger version).
In RL (real-life) this takes about 5 minutes, so don't stress over the detailed examination, I'm just OCD.

Right click "Computer" in the Start menu.

Click Manage.
Click Disk Management.

Right click your system partition (That would be c:\). Click Shrink Volume.

Assess the amount of space your pictures will consume. I would suggest 15GB so you never have to do this again.
15gb is 15000 in mb. Type that into this area.

The black box is called unallocated space.

You will right click the black box and select New Simple Volume.
Next through until you see this box:

Type Pictures (or anything you want) for the Volume label.
Volume labels are important, as when/if you deal with partitions later, you know NOT to delete that partition. ;)

Next until Finish (it's that simple) and you will see it create a partition like below.

The partition will look like any old hard drive within My Computer.

You should right click the drive, and include in your pictures library. (Allowing transparency for your Pictures directory and easy access.)

Then you can just put them in here and they're automagically added to the partition like any other regular folder. This can be done for anything. I use libraries all the time.
Click 1 location (within the library folder) to see the displayed properties below.

(Click to see)
Within your library you can optimize each one to tailor to what's in it. Just right click your library and you will see the options.

If you ever have to make more room you'll go through the same shrinking steps as above (but you'll have to delete the partition your pictures are on.) So, you would have to move all of your pictures over to the system drive before you do anything.
There are ways of doing this a simpler and faster way, but Disk Management within windows does not give you the option of moving partitions.
That's why I suggested earlier for you to make the partition a decent size that you will never have to mess with again. (Not 50gb though.) ;)

Now below I have shown you how to "make the system partition the same size as it was before," or extend it.

You will right click the system drive and it will have an option for Extend Volume.
What this means is that it resizes itself over the unallocated part of the hardrive.
It's just like adding pages to a book, and it's not complicated at all or dangerous.

(null) means unallocated. You'll just hit next.

And as you see, just as we started.

In the future if you ever plan on installing a newer (or same) version of windows you will see your Pictures partition within the disk management viewer within the installation:

Obviously the pictures partition will not be the one you will install on, nor delete (BE CAREFUL).
Yes, your partition will be detected in another installation and will show up in My Computer in the event that you have another version of Windows installed.

-Love.

Virtual Box (Shared Folders) auto

2009-12-16T04:22:00.002-09:00

Install VirtualBox Additions from the auto.sh script on mounted iso.

This is how to automount shared folders.

Add in Settings (Virtual Box) all folders. Open fstab.
sudo gedit /etc/fstab
Add lines for drives
Example:

Vmware (Linux Guest)

2009-12-15T09:44:00.002-09:00

Vmware by default sets the connection of the guest to NAT. Change that to:

Now the guest can connect. Under the VM tab there is "Reinstall VMware Tools"
Hitting that will mount the cd. Extract

with right click. Not through terminal. Extracting through terminal is gay.

If on desktop it will go as follows.

Press enter all the way down.

When done, restart.

In VMware under View, an option to Autofit Guest (click yes).

The above ^ is the whole reason of having Vmware tools.

Truecrypt USB

2009-12-07T19:04:00.001-09:00

I go to school with the USB, and I figured I would update how I set it up. Currently they make a big deal about installing stuff on the computers (and I recently found out that there is no portable true-crypt out that works unfortunately).

Default prog provides a disk create feature- but this requires having a cd to bring with you.

Portable Start Menu allows for automatic mounting (and configuration of the default mount drive) for Truecrypt containers.
As far as I know its limited to the container but I could be wrong.
I recommend using a container with the USB anyway (copy extracted truecrypt files) as well as Portable Startmenu installation onto standard usb with its container.
Then setup Portable Startmenu with the wizard.

On insertion there is an autorun feature but I saw no popup. I just provided myself a shortcut within the standard drive and open the program that way.
It sits in the tray (and on its opening prompts for the pwd.)

A recent message on logon (warning not to install shit on the computer) caused me to go to this length. I like the setup now and run Xchat/Firefox/Pidgin portable.

http://www.aignes.com/beta.htm
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads

Portable Firefox has no problems. Noscript is an amazing addon that I have used for quite awhile. Synchronizing the whitelist helps to solve insanity.
Now it supports synchronization through a bookmark under its own folder. The feature must be enabled in the General Tab of its options. It is titled: Backup NoScript configuration in a bookmark for easy synchronization.

---
--
-

Setting Firefox(Portable) as default

2009-09-03T05:08:00.001-08:00

Yes, you can set it as default,
but when a program calls for firefox,
the system doesn't realize you mean Firefox Portable.

here
^This will make it work.

I shortcut my FirefoxPortable through Vbox so it's up to date, and I can just put it on a flash drive if I ever have to replace it.

--
-

Disable Run Security Warning -xp

2009-08-25T23:44:00.001-08:00

Windows Key + R
gpedit.msc
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components >
Attachment Manager
Open Inclusion List for low file types
Set to Enabled,
include .exe .msi in the dialog box.

--
-

How to change the default shell

2009-08-21T07:32:00.001-08:00

To change the shell, you type:
chsh

--
-

Nvidia Settings

2009-08-19T20:20:00.001-08:00

To actually use this program open with
gksu nvidia-settings (so you can save as root.)

Startup Manager

2009-08-19T20:13:00.002-08:00

I like this program. Suggested settings;

Start Pidgin minimized

2009-08-19T19:53:00.001-08:00

From this,
Buddy List Options allows
to force hiding the buddy list when it is initially created always.

Available in synaptic.

--
-

Installing an rpm

2009-08-19T05:09:00.001-08:00

I've known this for awhile, I just forgot the command for it (since I never come across rpms)

You'll do,
sudo apt-get install alien
sudo alien -k name-of-rpm-file.rpm

then you can
sudo dpkg -i filename.deb
--
-

Removing all your Wine settings

2009-08-12T23:21:00.001-08:00

The problem with deleting the Wine entry in both GNOME and KDE environments,
is that if, say you want it back, reinstallation does not re-place it.
And so,
this told me how to fix my problem.

Updated list of things to do from terminal (in order):

sudo apt-get remove --purge wine

sudo rm ~/.wine -R
sudo rm ~/.local/share/applications/ -R
sudo rm ~/.local/share/desktop-directories/ -R

sudo rm ~/.config/menus/ -R

sudo apt-get install wine
winecfg

...
..
.

Linux Mint

2009-08-01T09:01:00.001-08:00

has a nice design. Includes Wireless Drivers (which suck, and go out all the time.)
Has applications that I do not need, which I filled out a script for here.

I had many problems with this distro.
Yes, codecs are preinstalled. I like that.
They add ads to Firefox Google Search. (I don't like that, and removed it by replacing the google.xml (located somewhere in /usr/lib/firefox-addons/)

Yes, I tried to find an addon, but apparently they really hid it from me.
I don't like the look of their forums (which is all it comes down to besides the amount of people to be honest.)

I like the function of Right Click, Open as Root, or Open this Location as Root (this is nice.)
But I think I'll go back to a real distribution. (That doesn't include software that is impossible to uninstall (and problems that mysteriously surface for no reason.)

The bootscreen is sub-par.
apt-get installs lead to a forced installation of unauthentication ubuntu repos (which is kind of..idk.)

They did a lot of work on the theme.
And I like the inclusion of the codecs.
I also understand why Ubuntu did not include them.
So, oh well to this distro, I am off to the new Debian (which I heard there were problems with.)

--

Easy repo add

2009-07-31T13:46:00.001-08:00

Example: wine,

I just download the gpg to /home
sudo apt-key add Scott\ Ritchie.gpg
echo deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt jaunty main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

View hidden files

2009-07-29T14:15:00.002-08:00

ls -a

or CTRL-H

--

tar xvf

2009-07-29T14:08:00.001-08:00

The above command will extract your files.

bla.tar.gz

tar -xvf bla.tar.gz

--

dpkg search

2009-07-29T14:07:00.001-08:00

dpkg -S
will search for a package. And show the packages which have the said phrase within them.

--

Fstab

2009-07-28T20:39:00.001-08:00

# gedit /etc/fstab

/dev/sda1 /media/Seed ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/sdb5 /media/Lib ext3 defaults 0 2

A program to do this: pysdm
After install, run with gksu pysdm
In GNOME (under System/Administration as Storage Device Manager)

I specifically like this program's easy editing of the journal mode.

UUID for partition can be specified, instead of "/dev/sda1"

found by running these commands.

UUID is very useful. (Like if you move your hardrive.)

--

Swappiness

2009-07-26T08:39:00.001-08:00

# sysctl vm.swappiness=15 (0-100, default 60.)
# swapoff -a
# swapon -a

About swappiness. Link.

---

Root, Ubuntu

2009-07-26T08:10:00.002-08:00

sudo passwd root

Enable the root login:

Go to System> Administration> Login Window. Click Security tab. Check “Allow local administrator login”

---

Eac Settings

2009-07-26T08:09:00.004-08:00

aji@aij-dtp:~/Desktop$ montage -geometry 500x500 /home/aji/Desktop/*

---

Rhythmbox Settings

2009-07-26T08:09:00.003-08:00

are stored in
~./local/share/rhythmbox

---

Turn off USB automount

2009-07-26T08:08:00.004-08:00

turn off Nautilus' auto-mounting of external media:

$ gconf-editor
apps > nautilus > preferences
Uncheck the "media_automount" option

---

Hide mounted drives

2009-07-26T08:08:00.003-08:00

gconf-editor
apps > nautilus > desktop
unclick volumes_visible

---

Xchat- Disable server messages

2009-07-26T08:07:00.001-08:00

Type in the command:
Code:
/SET irc_conf_mode 1

Also, here is a list of all the SET variables.

-encrypted- partitioning (1)

2009-02-03T17:11:00.004-09:00

[ubuntu]
My new layout is as follows:

I have a few hard drives. But I'll only concern you with what matters.

Basically:
1. 40gb
2. 300gb

Going through the alternate cd, to be able to implement LVM and encrypted partitions.

The thing about the alternate cd, is that if you want to set up the general directories on their own partitions automatically you have to go through the expert install. (This applies if you want to enable root; I've already said that.)
Having to go through the expert install to have it default size all of your (example: 'all on one,' 'separate home'; or 'separate tmp, var, home, usr') system folders is a bit, I don't know, counter intuitive (as they call it.)

I suppose they'd like to hide that feature from people who don't know how to deal with it.

I used the 8.10 (intrepid) ubuntu,
This alternate cd includes all the packages. (Obviously decreasing the installation time in comparison to 8.04's alternate.)

Also, I didn't see an option for doing cli. (Just base install.)

I'm sure you'd just have to literally cancel out after doing the base install in the menu.
Example:
The menu has a list of things to complete before the installation is done.
In expert mode, it actually displays this menu. (Allowing you to go back and forth, or whatever.)

So, I'm supposing (and not recommending you do just a base installation unless you're just fucking around, or know what you're doing.)

That you'd just install everything, do everything until the base system is installed, and then skip down to GRUB.
After that, skip down to finish. And then complete.

Obviously I'm not entirely sure on this issue. Googling it will most certainly help.

--
Anyhow, I set up my shit as follows:

I'm dealing with two hard drives. I'm encrypting the /home and swap.
I set up the swap on the 300, (as 4gb or so)- I let the rest of the 296g's just sit there for later formatting.

The reason I did this is, well, think about the process of encryption/decryption.
Now think about how much shit is going back and forth, and how hard the hd is working.
It's best to separate shit. And considering that much, I'd rather separate the swap.

The swap is going off and on all the time, and it's better to separate the process with various hard drives.
Then you have the rest of the system unencrypted under /.
You can also split the partitions as follows (at least according to what worked roughly for me.):

On a 40gb drive I do:

/home 25gb
/boot 400mb (I raised this from 200mb because I had problems with old kernels filling up the partition.)
/ 306mb (This is the default I believe)
Swap 4gb (Setting swap should be double your ram, but there's a lot of different reasons to do different things with your swap partition. (or not having one @ all.))
/tmp 1500mb (This depends on what you do. I use 50mb of tmp space with Firefox. I use VMware and move files; this stores in /tmp, and, if it doesn't work right, it sits in /tmp until you either delete it or restart(logout?)) Default was 411mb

/usr 6000mb (default was the same) (I actually never used even close to this much. I was around 2.5 gb; but I like pillows for the /usr (because that's all your personal progs.
/var 2500mb (default was 3.1gb. (Vars for logs. I don't like logs very much. :) ) (but they're necessary.)

-lately I've been going something else with the partitions.

Private folder

2009-02-03T17:11:00.003-09:00

I like the encryption provided by the Private folder. You can move all your shit

.mozilla
.evolution
.fbidocs

in there and sym link them.

Example:

mv ~/.mozilla ~/Private

(yes, the private folder is unhidden for you, but I believe it's stored in the root folder (so pay attention to your root partition if it's on a separate partition!))
ls -s ~/Private/.mozilla ~/.mozilla

Obviously, make sure the app is not running before doing this.

More information.

Thanks guys

2009-02-01T12:11:00.001-09:00

Indeed, Spectrogram checking in linux

2009-01-31T16:19:00.001-09:00

Audacity supports viewing spectrograms. (FLAC too. What's up Adobe Audition?)

The newest version supports setting it as the default view.

So pop it in, and it goes. If you know what I mean.

GNOME browser windows

2009-01-31T16:13:00.001-09:00

Didn't know this,
but see the difference here:

Indeed; checking "Always open in browser window" enables big, bulky, buttonny wonderfullness!

(that's default.)

So, I prefer to revert back to Debian-like lookyness-wonderfullism and go with the first option.
(File Management is hidden, in the Preferences menu. (Unhide by right click/edit menu.)

GNOME keyboard shortcuts

2009-01-30T02:34:00.001-09:00

GNOME has metacity- a window manager;

To create shortcuts (say, open terminal)-
You need to go through gconf.

You'll find this hidden in the menu, editting the menu by right click;
And it'll be found in system tools.
It'll be called Configuration Editor.

You'll open that up.

As well;
Setting keyboard shortcuts is possible in the preferences/keyboardshortcuts menu.

The first way allows you to append dimensions
(eg: --geometry 80x50)

So your command would be:

gnome-terminal --geometry 80x80

80x80 being whatever numbers you like.

-encrypted- partitioning (0)

2009-01-29T03:06:00.001-09:00

LVM (Logical Volume Manager) partitioning allows for resizing later on, if say, you need more room. (Or less room.)

LVM goes hand in hand with drive encryption. (Why?) Cause you can only have one partition on an encrypted drive.
I suppose that makes sense. (Considering how complicated it is.)

You can move over to LVM drives manually. (A bitch.)
Just google that.. I don't prefer to do so, I don't like doing things that way.
(Just consider the fact that, if it does screw up, your data is gone.)

That is why I install linux on a 40gb hd, but have everything else on separate hard drives.
The /home is the one major thing that needs to be taken into consideration.
It's not like you can just truecrypt it. (Yes, fucking up your /home is not good.)
I've done so, many many times. :)

It's definitely good practice to become familiar where everything is, what most things do within the /home folder because that's where most of your settings are stored. But not all. (Just to make things complicated.)

Yes, things vary. Not all programs shoot out from the same person.
Most things work the same.
This helps us.

Also, most people use the same programs, so they can tailor their backup shell scripts accordingly.
And all things separate is the way to go. Organization is wonderful.

Standard installation is not much more secure then windows.
Reboot into single user mode allows for root access,
reboot into a live cd allows for my going-through-your files.
etc.

LVM-ing everything is not the answer.
I tried doing the entire drive, with the default sized separation of /tmp /var /usr /home (I think that was it);
And /tmp wasn't set high enough, but swap was given a ridiculous 4gb.

And then today, I ended up trying one way of doing things.

Say, your one 40gb hd (w/e it may be)
Obviously you're going to have to have one section that's encrypted -if you're me.
And through that alternate installer cd,
you set a bit of space out for the encrypted bit.
Go up to configure, (it configures, and you do your pwd.)
Then you go to the bit that's encrypted, lay out lvm.
(Configure.)- make 2 volumes.
One Swap.
One Home.
Let those take up that encrypted bit.

Then just let the rest of the system reside in its own partition under /;
unencrypted.

Hmm, I thought.
How secure is this...

Yes, temporary files (what, logs of restarts, scraps of flash files?)
are stored in /var and /tmp.
/var being logs
/tmp being your youtube video, and installation temporary directories (etc)

But, is there a possibility that they could do something with that?
I don't think so. I mean, they may know what you have installed;
having /usr/bin shown, etc.
But the default Permissions is set to (Others)-View Only

I'm still checking a bit about permissions, but I believe this may be the ticket.
Obviously I'll do a few screenshots to illustrate this, but I think it's good.

Although I worry a bit, about having most everything under /,
I consider fragmentation, and sure do wish resizing (etc) was a lot easier for encrypted volumes.
*Eyes Gleam over.

---

Truecrypt Stale Lock

2009-01-28T11:48:00.001-09:00

If you don't unmount the encrypted drives held by Truecrypt before restarting;
Don't open Truecrypt too fast when you login.

Because it'll say it's already running when it's most surely not.
After you've been logged in for a minute, then you can open it and it'll delete the stale lock from within its hidden folder in your home directory. (It lists that directory in the notification.)

Resizing Encrypted partitions

2009-01-28T07:40:00.001-09:00

Bodhi:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=726724

Obviously a bit much.
I'm looking into my preferred system directory sizes, and I think I may refrain from a whole lvm setup this installation.
Just the /var /home I think...

---
--
-

cli-expert -ubuntu- overview

2009-01-28T04:23:00.001-09:00

This is 8.04. (Hardy Heron.) The installation was done from the alternate cd.

The main difference in this release, in relation to Intrepid, is that the alternate disk contains 9mb of data compared to Intrepid (the latest release), which has everything on the disk. (This makes the installation faster.)

So, that means that this tutorial is about an installation that will take a long time.
But also, it's about an expert install.
Expert installs allow you to enable the root account (with ubuntu)
Other distributions allow this for main releases and GUI installations.
One example would be bloated and dysfunctional Fedora.

I respect that we shouldn't allow the root account. (just google the reasons.)
Anyhow, in this installation I do LVM encrypted hard drives.
And NO, I do not do it manually. I'll do that in another one, and no, in that other one I will not walk you all the way through. So this one is basically for giving you the idea, What It Looks like...

Don't do this shit if you don't know what you're doing. You'll only get pissed off when it doesn't work and then you'll never use linux again (obviously not the desired outcome of your experimentation.)
Trying Mandriva is not the solution for that either.

I typed cli-expert.

The only human related difference in these is the enabling of root.
I'm just going through this to give you an idea.

Another good one to do is the Debian Expert install.
But I prefer Ubuntu for their close ties to proprietary software/drivers, (making it easy to get shit working.)
And no, that is not always the answer to everything.

Most of the time you're just going to be pressing enter.

The installation is very detail oriented.
From what I remember, the installations are as follows:

cli means after the installation, you're going to have to install your own packages.
People go through this one for older machines, or for making their shit fast without installing everything. (Also, you have to know what you're doing. No really, think of over heated cpus and bad power management and dysfunctional desktops that you don't know how to fix because you don't know what packages do what.
Yes, you have to reinstall linux a few times to lose your virginity.)

And expert gives you options for everything.

Pressing enter in the beginning would have installed everything you needed without much input. (It's just in a bad looking alternate environment. (Which goes faster.)

And obviously tying cli to expert led us to this.

Selecting the lvm option allows for making lvm partitions.
Just pressing enter continues on, you don't have to worry about this part.

This is like, if you wanted to do something weird, like install off of another server.

Separating system drives allows for separated fragmentation, leading to a longer lasting system.
And, if you have problems with one thing, you don't have to scan the entire hd for the problem. (Get it?)

This can be done automatically by selecting this option, or done manually.
Obviously doing it manually is a bit of a bitch, but I've done it before and it's not that bad.
(I mean, the bitch of it is setting up the lvm stuff.)

VMware and the fubar keyboard effect

2009-01-27T08:02:00.001-09:00

Will VMware ignore your keyboard input?
Do:

sudo gedit /etc/vmware/config

At the bottom put: xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true

I raped this title from: this place

(Excellent, by the way.)
---
--
-

Converting Ogg to AVI -linux

2009-01-27T05:50:00.001-09:00

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4951666&postcount=6

I could just convert the ogg screencast I've recorded to avi via ffmpeg. To install:

sudo aptitude install ffmpeg

and to carry out the conversion:

ffmpeg -i [input_file] [output_file]

---
--
-

Record my desktop -linux

2009-01-27T04:00:00.002-09:00

http://recordmydesktop.sourceforge.net/about.php
Available in repos.

It's literal. So type: recordmydesktop into synaptic search or terminal
The gui is: gtk-recordmydesktop
That's for gnome.

Recording sound in linux is like finding a needle in a haystack.
When it comes to sound, I'd just like shit to just "work."
But, of course; that is not how linux works..

I got my sound-recordism working by the following informative screenshots;

That means setting the Mixer capture to OSS in system sound settings, and installing Gnome Alsa mixer to check the capture volume.
Fuck with it.
Ask questions in the forums.
Figure it out.
I hate fucking with sound, big time.

*Set the device to DEFAULT in recordmydesktop settings. (Regardless of what everyone else says, in their n00bish forum knowledge.)
Uncheck that JACK shit.

Make GRUB img

2009-01-25T20:40:00.002-09:00

http://ooboontoo.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-create-photo-for-grub.html

1.Resize the picture to 640x480.
2.Reduce Colors to 13.
3.Save as xpm file and compress to .gz.

In GIMP:

1.Image->Scale Image to 640x480.
2.Image->Mode->Indexed to 13.
3.Save as xpm.
4.Create archive as .gz.

Staying away from preaching -linux

2009-01-25T15:43:00.001-09:00

I guess I should probably stop putting [-linux] since everything is about linux now.
--

This article is about today's web culture in relation to linux.
Yes, linux is not the only unix, and not all unix is around anymore, nor the greatest.
So far I've loved the functionality of linux. I've only wished a few different things:
One of them being the interaction between the users and the repositories- (Shouldn't be so dependent on the repositories to deal it out, at least make it optional to turn yourself into a mirror. That would make you feel less like a freeloader would it not?)

Everything costs money. I see bright futures for Linux. The underpinning philosophies behind anything cause its growth to either shrink or grow, or to grow in different ways.
These things are shaped by different forces, and so most times its hard to tell which is which, or what a linux personality is. I won't go into that, but I will talk a little bit about it.

Most seasoned linux people have lost their drive to convert Windowians to the ultimate platform. Seeing how most people's minds haven't shifted out of pure proprietary capitalistic mentalities, it is hard to envision a crowd sourced effort becoming successful. (Normally ringing together with the red dragon of communism/socialism/liberalism.)

I'd agree with that thought. To an extent. There are reasons for everything, and most people don't even pay attention to them.
I find everything political. All the figures (oh yes, all) in Hollywood, and making it big as artists are liberals (or at least tell you they are, act like they are, and get a lot of money for doing so.)

Considering the fact that everything goes through major companies nowadays, and everything is either regulated by the government or at least heavily regulated by the company, I find little possibility for a documentary film/film/album/show to reach through the grasps of shining, silver chained nests of propaganda filtering bureaucracies-(Essentially systems of people working off paper. Rules which line every activity, making sure everything is done right. Everything becomes an algorithm. Everything is defined perfectly. Perfectly in synchrony with scientists who do nothing all day but learn how to make things perfect.
And then pass the rules onto people who administer them,
To people who practice how to do them.
Kind of like religion I guess. (Everything is the same. Hard to blame one person. That's why I have trouble going along with either right wings or left wings.))
You see, we people need these people to a certain degree.

There are many divisions that I've found in an american society. And I don't find certain people to blame, I find the underlying principles that are sometimes missing; the unawareness of these lines which bind us to layers and layers of historical prejudices, conformed judgments accordingly, division and complication, less definition- hazy clouds which inspired the beginning illusionary possibilities from the introduction.

Eminem's wonderful (sarcasm) song White America, screams lyrics that all liberals love to hear:

Lyrics criticizing the president;
Talking about how much he wants to walk up and piss on the white house lawn.

How patriotic of him.

And what government would he propose?
I'm assuming democratic.
Do you even know what democratic means?
It's ironic that people preach things that actually have different definitions in reality, in different relations to the book definitions ironically.

Regardless of all of this there are dualities present in our current day and age.
There are problems with the mindset that both of these can't coexist.
Yes, the mind of a linux genius is different from the bill gates.
Crowd sourcing is absolutely not reliable on its own.
I feel everything proprietary can learn from the UNIX/LINUX system of security.
Just because everything in linux is open source, doesn't mean that everything in the universe should be open source.
I find that the underpinning current of our economy, the best economy in the world, capitalism, thrives off of trade and individualism.
And to destroy that is kind of ridiculous.
Most democrats are of young age, wanting more from the government, not realizing how much they are paying for increasing the size of a system that never shrinks.
Linux has a system similar to this. (Although at the moment we're not really Paying anything back. This is what kind of bothers me (not bothers, but), is that nothing in this world is free. Someone is getting fucked. And I don't feel that there's a conspiracy, I feel that people are looking at it wrong.
If Ubuntu wants to hand out repositories paid for by a millionaire, fine, go ahead.
The problem is with the general population's perception of this action. (Free!)

Considering I've only met a few Anarcho-Capitalist, Libertarians in my lifetime, I find the average individual's ability for appreciation far minimal; their awareness that we do not live in a democracy, and should not;
The inability to cope with the idea that, just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean it's the right thing;
And that, everyone wants something from the government, I find the slightly marxist-like grins of winning linux giants (just people who are smart, that's all I mean) to be a bit perturbing.
People come into this, and somehow they're transformed even more.

And the major example is that toting bullshit about hating microsoft.
Yes, I do not like microsoft for creating a product that I do not like, but I don't hate them for it.
That's because these people haven't gotten over their need for Windows.
It's kind of like a little kid who hates his parents.

And that's literally the entire gist of it.

You see, yes, people can work together.
But not Everyone can work together, because we're not all equal. Yes, we have equal rights, but that's all it means.
There are differences, in people.
And these differences cause our environment to climb in activity.
New things to be created,
Communes that are created that makes things ever greater for people who are not smart, or rich enough to make it on their own.
Communism is like taking a rich capitalist country, and putting everyone in the same house, and calling that productive. I think not.
And people blame capitalism for all their problems. Never heard of it?
Try your favorite director: Michael Moore. Expert economist he is not, on some youtube bullshit preaching socialism, saying capitalism is dead.

Talk about dead. Let's see some individual responsibility here.

Internet marxists feel they are raped in costs and so they pirate.
And so, in turn, people have learned from that and started selling their shit online.
Not bringing costs down.
Not learning much.

99cents an mp3, that's low.

Yes, and low in bitrate as well. :)

Anyhow, both sides need to learn from the stories. Ads aren't going anywhere.
And actually buying stuff is a good thing.
Sure, microsoft hasn't done much with their security,

But their product is in every home pretty much.
So, sure, hate them for that, but don't hate them for being excellent at business.
Don't preach your fuckin linux shit, no one wants to hear it.
I love linux. I only use linux. The linux world is mostly helpful, and it takes a lot of conviction and patience to finally get in the groove of things.
Most people don't like that. Most people would rather be like children to their parents.
That's why I find it ironic that most liberals always use windows.
Because it's easy.
They don't have to try to learn anything.
You know. Lazy hippies.

Peace man, no war.
Peace man.

Illogical, like little kiddies. (Yes, Saddam was a bad guy. We did a good thing, believe it or not Johnny. Now go to bed little one.)

Evil corporations! (Typing that on their HP keyboard provided in mass production; through I.E, on a media center edition of XP. +1 dude. Power to you.

Maybe people need to get off their fucking ass and stop watching tv.
Because tv is filled with propaganda, believe it or not.
Life is meaningless for you, because the experts tell you everything.
As Murray Rothbard said,
The elite, team with the intellectuals, in order to gain the trust of the public.
And in return, the intellectuals hold high places in society.

Just look at your universities.

I went to college for a bit down in Cali-
And the dude talked about politics for a bit (in computer science)
Always turning shit around to military, or bad, bad republicanism, etc, bla bla.

I mean. I was paying this guy, to filter the teaching from the book, through his mind, and lend emotionally robotic tinged neo-socialism through teaching about Object Oriented Programming.

And global warming came up, of course.
Oh... the things I would say if I could go back.
Maybe start with, "I'm not paying to hear your political opinion"

But of course, government teachers are not liberals. (I wonder why.)
Regardless. Linux needs to be itself, and to understand that capitalism is not evil,
And to also let people put in a little more;

Depending on a giant system is not the answer.
This leads to taxes.

(Just think)-
In a world where people paid taxes for a subsidized version of linux used by the government to place in school.
Ah. Yummy.
And of course, that would lead to free access from the public, to the repositories to download software and so forth.
I can just see the possibilities.

And no, that's not a conspiracy. That's just looking at the recent act of GM going to the government for money.
What ever happened to saying, "This is the government" and "this is what it does"

And now it's like. "I have a problem" "I should get a grant"

-ajzimm3rman

UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) -linux

2009-01-25T11:29:00.001-09:00

sudo apt-get install ufw

To enable:

sudo ufw enable

To disable:

sudo ufw disable

Logging:

sudo ufw logging on

sudo ufw logging off

Set the default policy (ie “mostly open” vs “mostly closed”)

sudo ufw default allow

sudo ufw default deny

To specify specifically do:

sudo ufw allow|deny [service]

See your status with:

sudo ufw status

Example:
Allow Port 53:

sudo ufw allow 53

Delete Allow port 53:

sudo ufw delete allow 53

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/ufw-uncomplicated-firewall-for-ubuntu-hardy.html

You can also do GUFW (a gui)-

Remember, as JDong said, "By default, Ubuntu ships with no open ports on public interfaces. In other words, a "port scan" would show all closed ports, nothing open. As a result, putting up a firewall would provide no more security than not putting one up."
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Amarok (Cover Manager)

2009-01-25T03:56:00.001-09:00

Amarok has the best cover manager I've ever used.

Replace Nautilus - linux

2009-01-24T20:10:00.001-09:00

::

http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/nonautilusplease

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Checkinstall -linux

2009-01-24T05:28:00.001-09:00

You might want to consider installing the package checkinstall (sudo apt-get install checkinstall). It will create a deb package for anything you install from source...

so when compiling a program replace 'make install' with 'checkinstall'

./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

then later if you want to remove the program compiled from source, you can do so with Synaptic or with the easy command of "sudo dpkg -r programname"

Found here.

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Linux Chown command

2009-01-22T16:35:00.002-09:00

If you don't have permission to do anything to some drive you mounted/created just do
sudo chown yourusername /path/to/mounted/location

For example:

sudo chown ajzimmerman /media/disk

It'll prompt for the sudo password. Then you can do whatever

Utorrent in Linux

2009-01-21T22:34:00.001-09:00

Utorrent is slightly more functional through Crossover, but I prefer Wine (for simplicity.)

The power of Utorrent is in the settings. So you can't open it in utorrent through the browser without hacking? So what?
Try this: Utorrent Preferences, Directories, Automatically load torrents on the desktop. Delete after loaded.

In the Firefox browser, automatically save all torrent files to desktop.

I organize all the torrents into separate folders. I have a folder for done torrents, current torrents- I have a folder for downloading files, and files that are done. All of this can be set in utorrent without any problems.
Organize!

You'll install it in Wine. And after it's installed, the Gnome display manager has to be restarted to show it in the menu (close everything and do Ctrl Alt Backspace), then log back in.

The only glitch I've seen is the columns in the program. (You can't move them.), but you can disable separate ones and so forth, so it isn't so bad.

It's excellent, and a better client then all the linux ones (mostly)

There's one called Ktorrent. (Don't install it in GNOME, it's KDE infected, meaning a lot of useless libraries will be installed.)
It's a nice interface, but I've always had it crash (even in the kde desktop)

Good day.

(Try linking it in the /home/ folder, browse to .wine/dir to the prog, make a link and rename it to something simple. Now the run command indexes it.)

Gnome-terminal

2009-01-21T21:56:00.002-09:00

I've never had trouble with this application.

One thing you can do is have a shortcut for opening it. (You can do this same thing with Gnome-Do and the default application opener)

Edit the menu.
Go to System Tools, Show Configuration Editor

As you see, this is where you will input the command of which you desire.
Obviously this action should be done with discretion as to permit other commands not to interfere. (Don't put the same command as another application's) (I normally do Alt, something.)

Let's say you want to do Alt t. You will input it as: t

Find the exact cli run command of your application. For the terminal in Gnome it is gnome-terminal.

This can be found easily by dragging one of the icons in the Menu to the Gnome Panel (Like you're creating a launcher)-, going to the properties of it, and seeing the command.
--

Gnome terminal supports effects and stuff. This can be found in Edit, Profile Preferences

Nautilus File manager

2009-01-21T21:52:00.002-09:00

Nautilus is the default filemanager for Ubuntu. (JFGI)

It's a bit hidden to change it.

Good luck.

"Open With" context menu

2009-01-21T21:39:00.001-09:00

Properties of the file(s)

And then to add custom:

Then obviously select the main .exe that rules your windows application.

Be careful when selecting Open With defaults.

What you select will apply to all files with the same extension. (.exe, .txt. etc)

Using Wine

2009-01-21T21:25:00.001-09:00

Wine's location is:

/home/yourname/.wine

This can be shortened to ~/.wine (For further notice.)

To shortcut a program you installed in wine, you do:

wine 'location to the program'

This can become useful in many situations. (You can easily open applications by creating aliases in your .bash_aliases file. bash alias article

To create a launcher (I hate launchers, but some people use them)-

More information:
here

Gedit

2009-01-21T21:20:00.001-09:00

This will be updated whenever I come across something.
I love Gedit. I like small editors, and there are many, and I have not tried them all.

Gedit supports plugins:

One
Two
Three
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Using Gnome Do

2009-01-21T21:04:00.001-09:00

Interesting implementation for GNOME= Gnome Do.
It's a simple Keyboard shortcut proggy, that can do a lot of things. (Also things that will go faster if you just know the normal window control commands. Be careful and don't enable all the plugins like a nimrod.)

The program goes off the Gnome Menu names.
That's why when you type gedit, you don't see it.

This can be solved by simply renaming the menu items.

GNOME Do comes with some shitty keyboard shortcuts. Go to the menu and change the keyboard shortcuts this way:

As you'll see I disabled the help dialog crap and replaced it with the default run dialog. And replaced the default run dialog with Gnome Do.

Eventually after renaming everything to how you like it, Gnome Do can prove to be beneficial overall I believe.

+++
*My problem with Gnome-do is its inability to index /usr/sbin.
Meaning all you'll find you can open is what's in the menu. I find this to be similar to:

Being kicked in the nuts after scoring...

+++

Bash Aliases

2009-01-21T20:56:00.001-09:00

Before anything we have to

gedit .bashrc

Find this section

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

#if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
# . ~/.bash_aliases
#fi

Uncomment (erase the #) the last three lines of that section.

Normal command (example:)

sudo apt-get install package

Save yourself by doing:

gedit .bash_aliases

Then list all your commands like so:

alias apt='sudo apt-get install'
alias remove='sudo apt-get remove'
alias search='apt-cache search'

These can be anything. Even: alias 1234='sudo apt-get install'

When you're done, save the file. (Really?. Yes.)
This can go for any command.

Then you will have to run the bash command to restart bash.
This will not do anything to your session.

Amarok Buffer rate

2009-01-17T19:29:00.001-09:00

Found here

Adjust Amarok Buffer Rate:
edit /home/(username)/.kde/share/apps/amarok/xine-config and find the line: #engine buffers_audio_num_buffers:230. Instead of 230, put 10000 then uncomment the line by removing '#'. That's it!

Directions for the Gma on the installation of GAIM (Pidgin) on Windows

2009-01-16T22:23:00.001-09:00

Click on the images to make them bigger.

Go here: http://www.pidgin.im/download/

When that pops up-if it does, just right click the bar (That says, "To Help Your Security bla bla) and click Download File.

Select Run.

When it's done downloading, this window should pop up, just click Run.

Just click next all the way through. It should be easy.

When it's done installing, Open the program by finding it in the start menu.
Or-

You can run applications faster by Holding:
the windows key down and pressing R.

This'll pop up:

And you just type pidgin in like above. (Way faster.)

Anyway, this window will be the first thing you see.
You're going to hit Add

This window will pop up, and now you click:

Select the icon that says MSN (With the butterfly)
Then you input the email I gave you. And the password. And make sure to check the box to the left of Remember Password.

Otherwise you will be typing it every single time you open it....

This window will come up. Just close it.

Now click on the Buddies button. Scroll down to Show. And click Offline Buddies.

I've already added me and Brett, so it's done. I should be on all day tomorrow.

Now see this:

This is for, if you want to add an avatar. What I mean is, it's a little box on the right hand side that shows me what you look like. If you don't choose anything it's blank. And you don't have to choose one. I'm going to show you how you would choose one. Let's say you put your picture on the Desktop!

This window is going to pop up.

You'll select Desktop.

This is just an example.

This is what it looks like when we chat.

Now.
If everything worked out, you should be set. There's a few things you should do to keep yourself steady...

Know where Pidgin is on the menu!
You can make shortcuts!
Keep your desktop clean! I never have icons on my desktop. It looks bad and it's unorganized.

Know where your files are!
Remember My Documents/My Pictures.
Make different folders, and remember them! Pooling everything in My Documents is a bad idea, but if you have to, at least keep them in separate, well titled folders!

The more you use a computer you'll get used to it. You should practice!
There's a million things I could advise you to do, but I can only help you so much...
It's your computer!

The longer you use an application, by default, it appears in the start menu. Keep that in mind!

After everything is set up in Pidgin. Let's say you've restarted your computer, or are just opening Pidgin, or whatever, this is what it will look like when it pops up.

You can actually close the window:

And it'll still be in the tray.

The above image is Pidgin in the tray. Double click that Icon to Open Pidgin.

This box here, with all the icons in it, that's the tray:

You can right click that icon to close the application.
I think I covered everything.

Linux Flash problems?

2009-01-16T17:42:00.002-09:00

Remove all your flash shit you may have installed in such a n00by panic.
sudo synaptic
search flash, be intelligent in your removing.

now,
http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html

download, extract, do this:
sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.4/plugins/

Restart Ff, and there you go.