Requirements

• SMS Gateway
• sendEmail
• uTorrent
• SMTP Server
• Any kind of CLI experience will help but is not required.

You will need each one of these, especially the SMTP server which will be responsible for sending the notification.

1. Find your SMS Gateway
   You can find your SMS Gateway using this list I found on Wikipedia. Since I use AT&T my SMS gateway will be “txt.att.net”.  This means sending an email to PhoneNumber@txt.att.net will send an email to the specified phone number in the form of a text message.  Write this down or save it in notepad.
2. Setting up sendEmail
   If you haven’t already downloaded it from the link above then you need to.  Put it some place easy to remember such as C:\ or something easy to get to.  This way there will be less for you to type.  I am using C:\sendEmail.exe in this example.
3. Servers
   You want to have this information ready.  You will need:  SMTP Server address, port, username, and a password all for the authentication and connection.
4. Set up uTorrent to run sendEmail
   This is the fun part.  Right click on a torrent and select properties and then open the Advanced Tab.  There is a field there for “Run this program when the download finishes”.  This is what we are interested in.
5. Build your command for uTorrent
   Since sendEmail is a command line utility we need to build the command for uTorrent to execute it.  You can follow this exact example below…

   C:\sendEmail.exe -f <from@domain.com> -t <phone@gateway> -u “subject” -m “message” -s smtp.server.com:port -xu “username” -xp “password”

   
   

   Also, uTorrent has some pre-placed variables for you to use : %N for the name of file and %D for where it is saved so you can be specific with your notification.
   
   
   

Want to share this post with others?

Hide Sites

In our previous post about customized Linux Distros we got you to a web app for creating customized linux distros based on ubuntu.

Maybe you’re not an ubuntu fan but an OpenSUSE fan..Well we still have another one for you.

Make your way to SuseStudio. It’s my personal favorite.

You get a nice intuitive ajax/jquery powered GUI and interface specifically designed to help you customize your very own openSuse distro.

Although at this moment they are constantly reaching their capacity and the only way you can gain access is by requesting an invitation from them.  As far as I remember it did not take very long (maybe a week or two at most?) to get my invitation.  From then on you can sign in using your google account and others.

Picking Your Purpose

The first part is where you decide what the purpose of your build will be.  Will it be a server?  Will it be a desktop GUI environment?  What are you going to use it for?

These are all the thoughts I had going through my head when I first started customizing my version of OpenSUSE.

You get to pick between Server, GNOME Desktop, KDE Desktop, Just Enough OS or Minimal (for the most part).  Again, this is just a baseline of what your disc will contain.

The rest of the software configuration is up to you later on in the setup of your custom OpenSuse LiveCD or install disc.

You will get to start out on the general configuration tab where you get to choose network settings and have it set as static, DHCP client, and whether or not you want the firewall on by default. as well as default language, keyboard, and time zone.  You will also have a chance to edit the default users.

Root will of course be there by default with a default password of “linux” which should be changed.  You can also add and delete extra users, set their passwords and home directories as well as their groups.

Customize Look

One of the phases that may come next (or later if you don’t care for it much) is to customize the look and feel.

This basically amounts to setting a custom logo and setting a custom wallpaper for it to use by default.

Unfortunately in terms of customization of looks this is pretty much as far as it goes since there is no *desktop theme* customization feature (for now anyways).

Either way the customization is one of the more exciting aspects because you know someone, even if it’s just you, will see it each time it’s booted up.

Appliance Settings

At the appliance tab of the configuration menu you can customize settings as if you were going to run it as a virtual machine.

Select memory size and amounts, add Live installers, VMWare support as well as Xen support.

Startup

Startup configuration is…well, startup configuration.  Although it sounds promising it only allows the configuration of the user modes and whether or not you want it to show a customized EULA.

The EULA part I like as well as choosing which run-level it starts in but I still think it needs some more customization to startup.

The run levels you have to choose from… Single User (1), Multi user / No Network (2), Normal Console (3), and Graphical (5).

The software customization tab is obviously the most useful piece of this entire “distro-generator”.  Add software packages, add programs, add repositories, etc.  It’s all there and it’s all for the adding (or removing).

Software

This of course is the main feature of any distribution authoring/editing/remixing web-app or third party software.

..and alas, the easiest part is building the distro because of course all you have to do now is wait.

You can have it built a few different ways.  ISO format for easy burning, VMDK for virtual machine disk images as a quick loading type (also a good way to test it), a Xen guest or a USB thumb flash drive.

Since there’s a few different ways to have it built it really cuts back on the whole *oh great I have to convert it 4 times* factor.

Building the Image

Also, after it is done being built, you can have susestudio open it in a virtual machine-esque web app for up to an hour.  You can then SSH to it and use the desktop GUI (if required) to check it out and make sure everything is A-OK before you download it.

Plenty of tools out there but OpenSUSE Studio is by far my favorite.

Go sign up for OpenSUSE Studio invites.

Want to share this post with others?

Hide Sites

Reconstructor

Once again another free (up to a point) web application for use for customizing a Linux distribution for whatever you want.

Reconstructor isn’t as pretty as some of the other Linux distro customization services I’ve seen but it gets the job done.  You still have the ability to customize the way it looks, operations, modules, addons, etc.

For the amount you can do it is certainly useful.  Not to mention it has been around since before 2007.

Reconstructor is a GNU/Linux distribution customization and creation toolkit. It allows for the customization of the Ubuntu andDebian GNU/Linux distributions. Customizations include boot logo image and text color, wallpaper, themes, icons, applications, and more.

To start using Reconstructor (it’s free) go to https://build.reconstructor.org and signup.

The reason I said it is free up to a point is that they do charge for the service but they give each account a $5 limit per month (for free).  Anything over that will have you paying up front for it.

Here is an overlook of their “Fees” page…

Fees

The following are the fees for using the Reconstructor services. Please note: each account balance will get up to a $5 credit each month (ending balance after credit will be no more than $5). Each transaction will deduct from your account credit. To add more funds, click the “Add Credit” button in your account details window (accessed by clicking your username in the upper right after you login).

• Upload and store a project file: $0.02 per MB per month
• Build a project: $0.30
• Download a built project: $0.45 per GB
• Priority build service: $5.00 (enabled for one month) Note: This charge is prorated based upon the remaining days in the month.

Project Hosting

• File storage: $0.45 per GB per month
• Download: $0.35

So yes for a one or two time use I would say the service isn’t that bad.  There’s still a lot of customization you can do and a lot you can get out of it.  However, the entire fee thing isn’t really the best but you have to understand the kind of loads you can put on servers when doing these kinds of operations.

Reconstructor

Want to share this post with others?

Hide Sites

Although BitTorrenting has many many uses as a legit method of acquiring files it is not always illegal.  What is it exactly?  It’s a protocol and it is up to you whether you are using it for legit purposes or not.

I will admit I do seed quite a bit of stuff.  Mostly it tends to be various free stock photos from various websites or one of the most popular; brush packs I have compiled for Photoshop.  These are both two things you could legally seed as they are freely available for download on the internet.

Lets say you want to hide your traffic as best as you can anyways…  Here are a few methods.

PeerBlock

1.    PeerBlock (http://www.peerblock.com/)

PeerBlock is becoming one of the more popular programs to use on your local machine or even your server (if that’s what you’re into).  The interface, operations, etc are all almost identical to PeerGuardian 2 which does basically the same thing.  If anything, it’s just a clone.

How does it work?  PeerBlock keeps lists of IP Addresses of known organizations and companies that are out to track you for illegal downloading or uploading.  PeerBlock will block the adMany of these companies for example, Dreamworks, will track your IP and downloads until they are reading to complain to your ISP.  That’s when you get the dreaded Cease and Desist letter

2.    SOCKS Proxy or VPN (Many Available)

Proxy

Of course there are always proxies and VPN’s available in a million different places.  What a proxy does is instead of someone seeing your IP they see the server that you are connected to.  This is because all traffic is going from You->Proxy->Outside.  This provides the *internet illusion* that you are operating from a different IP Address than your real one and keeping you hidden from the real world.

To this day, the biggest complaint of using a proxy or VPN is speed.  Download speeds or upload speeds can be significantly lower than normal.  My normal speeds went from 1.7 mb/s to at most, 80.3 kbps.  You can also set up your own proxy server or VPN.

One of the best free ones I have come across has been a service called “ItsHidden” (http://itshidden.com/).  However, they do disconnect free accounts every 20 minutes now but they didn’t used to back in the day.

3.    BTGuard (http://btguard.com/)

BTGuard is a relatively new service aimed specifically at BitTorrent users.  It serves as a major encrypted proxy server and VPN (like stated above) while maintaining great bandwidth speeds.  Also, since it’s a proxy you can (most of the time) bypass any limitations from ISP’s that throttle bittorrent traffic.  Check out this VuzeWiki article for a list of Bad ISP’s that are known to cause trouble for bit torrent.

“Your downloads will be routed through Canada which enforces some of the strictest privacy laws in the world, ensuring the protection of your identity, even from your own ISP!”

The down side?  It’s subscription based which honestly, for the price and the advantage you gain, is well worth it.  Their prices are as follows (as of 2010-06-05)…

• Continued Subscription : $6.95 per Month.
• Single Month PrePaid : $6.95
• Three Month PrePaid : $19.95 (5% Off)
• Six Month PrePaid : $34.95 (15% Off)
• Twelve Month PrePaid : $59.95 (25% Off)

There are of course many other ways to protect not just your BT traffic but your identity and privacy as well.

Keep you eyes out!

Want to share this post with others?

Hide Sites

Connecting...

First off I can’t knock this game too much.  It’s a real blast to play with friends; especially the Co-op missions which is what we look for in a game first before it’s even released.  So far since Modern Warfare (the first one) each one has been the same.  Play more, level up, unlock, restart.

Since the first release each Call of Duty game has been really good.  Not only that, each one has spawned other games that attempt the same concept of leveling up while blowing opponents away.  There is just something about games that you gain levels in that makes them addicting.  Maybe it’s the increases in power making you feel like a monster?  I don’t know.  It’s a new phenomenon that has emerged with some of these games.

With the recent release of of the “Stimulus Map Pack DLC” comes 5 new multiplayer maps.  Think about what you are paying for.

I can think of a few reasons off the top of my head to not buy this extra content.

• No Dedicated Server Software – This is one of those things that separates PC Gaming from consoles.  From what I have read there are millions of PC gamers that are quite frankly, pissed off, about this.  When joining a game it chooses the “best host”.  This is a bad idea considering I have ended up with some of the laggiest games ever conceivable.  I was once connected to a host that was running on wireless using a laptop with an AMD @ 1.8 ghz.  Imagine how quickly this game ended once everyone left.  Another point that needs to be made is the fact that since you can’t join a specific server/game/map, you don’t get to play where you want.  YOU ARE LIMITED to what the game gives you.  You wanted to play Terminal?  Too bad.  Oh there’s a cheater in your game?  That’s also a shame because you can’t kick, ban, mute, etc.  Which brings me to the next bullet.
• Hackers – Need I say more?  Of course Valve is responsible for the anti-cheat side (I guess..) running VAC but how up to date is that?  Get this, my roommate and I decided to play one Saturday afternoon.  We were put into a game with 2 players using aimbots.  We left and clicked “Find game” again.  It put us in the same game.  We left again and did the same thing but this time picked a different game mode.  We were put into another game with another aimbot that had just launched a nuke.  Wonderful.  This happened a (not surprisingly) SEVEN times.  Would you like to be level 70?  Maybe you’ll get put into one of those hacked hosts that instantly gives you 10e-11 experience points.  With that happening you’ve unlocked everything so why play anymore?  Waste of money if you ask me…
• IWNet does not care. – Welcome to earth.  IWNet’s forums have been flooded with numerous posts like this very one you’re reading.  Everyone is complaining about the hackers, lack of software and updates, glitches that need to be fixed, etc etc.  This goes on for pages and pages and there will be no response to them since, well, we are still giving them money.  The lack of response to the *needs* of the game are sickening.
• You are paying for maps. – The reason I made this post.  You’ve already payed $50 for a game that has been saturated with cheats, fails to release updates to fix reported glitches, etc.  You are giving them an extra $15 for something that should be free in the first place.  I can understand if you get bored with the maps it already has but guess what you can do with dedicated servers?  THAT’S RIGHT! Custom maps!  One of the biggest things that brings someone in the PC Gaming is not only the look at flexibility but the ability in itself to play maps that have been contributed by the community.

I’m sure there are a million reasons TO buy the game.  It’s fun, fast, and it’s good for LAN’s.  Problem is : this was a game that was to be made for the console and should have had major changes in it for PC release.

I’m sure the screenshot at the top of this post looks very familiar to console and PC gamers alike.

Update : Apparently there have been numerous reports of hackers being able to send trojans to other players machines..

“It’s possible if you host a game for a hacker client, and it’s possible if you don’t host a game, but are connected to a hacker hosting the game. If the game’s net code is not 100% secure then it could be possible to craft special packets of data to cause buffer over-runs (stack smashing). This injects hackers code into your computer, which executes it, and hey presto you have a remote code execution hack. If the code’s written well it’s possible to make it secure, but stack-smashing bugs are so often overlooked.  Yet another reason we need dedicated servers.”  -  Quoted from IW Forums ( Link )

Link to Steam Forums post stating this discovery in the IW Net Forums.

Want to share this post with others?

Hide Sites