Posts Tagged ‘geek’
Posted by ckhavoc »
Add Comment »Finding good applications for Mac OS X that’s free is not that easy as it is in the Linux world. I did some searching here and there for software that did the job for what needed to be done. For the most part I found some really great applications that do a really great job and that are free! I’m going to go through some of them and give a description of what they do and also provide links.
1. SMC Fan Control – This is a good for laptops, you can adjust your fan speed. It sits up at the top telling you some useful information, your current temperature and current fan speed. Also you can customize a little and make your own preference’s and change the reading out between Celsius or Fahrenheit.
** Download SMC fan control
2. Magnifique – Not much to this, this just lets you change the color of things like the toolbar. I got this because i was tired of having default colors.
** Download Magnifique
3. Geektool – I found this to be extremely useful. After you install, there is a preference in your preference panel. This allows you to display log files, run system command, display image files which you can use to show a weather map on your desktop. While having a log file shown or running a command it shows a borderless, scroll bar free terminal on your desktop, in terms it looks like built into the wallpaper. One thing i do not like about this is once you exit out of the Geektool preference panel you can no longer interact with the Geektool widgets. I still highly recommend this if you use os x.
** Download: Geektool
4. WaterRoof – If you’re lazy like me then you probably want to avoid doing stuff the hard way, which is exactly what this application does. This is a IPFW GUI front end. To keep it short and simple this lets you do some neat things like view your net connection, set Internet rules, deny and allow connections etc. If you have a ssh, ftp, http or any kind of server up then i would get this.
** Download: WaterRoof
5. Transmission – This is a great torrent client for OS X, unlike other torrent clients this doesn’t hog resources. Also shows a a little icon on your dock with stats of how much you are downloading and uploading.
Download Transmission
6. Onyx – Onyx is a system tool that lets you do system maintenance on your OS X. It allows you to do clear log files, clear browser data, smart status check, fix file permissions, view man pages and a couple of other neat things. This is something worth checking out if you have not already.
** Download: Onyx
7. Fink -
The Fink project wants to bring the full world of Unix Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X
With Fink, it opens the world even more when you want download software. It’s simple even though you use the terminal. I was never able to get Darwin ports to work, so i decided to use Fink and remove Darwin ports.
** Download: Fink
8. KisMAC – If you want to test out wireless security then this is the tool for the job.
** Download: KisMAC
If you have any handy applications that you like to use, let us know! 
Posted by Ty Clifford »
Add Comment »If only the world was open source so many things could be improved, with the help of many, many people.
First, I would start off with writing a chemical filtering system to filter out the bad chemicals that are released from factories into the sky.This is most equivalent to a packet filter.
I would then start off with deploying that application into many cities and countries so that each part would be able to adjust it to their needs. A useful GUI would be good for this. This is also where cloud computing comes into major play, literally.
So after that, I would begin working on nature tools. Example, a daemon that sat in the jungles world-wide and reported statistics to us so that we would know when an animal is going to drift away.. thus maybe being able to save them before it’s too late.
With that being said, this daemon would also report nasty spreading viruses, if at all possible.
I would then *try* to write an application that would scan the world for good places to dig up petrol. Lets face it, some places where oil companies decide to dig now is sometimes not good.
That doesn’t seem like much when you first read it but if you let it sink in it’ll become a lot.
I wrote this not to compare computers/software to humans only, I wrote it to compare what could really be done if people would help people to better the world.
Posted by Ty Clifford »
1 Comment »First things first, you can’t expect to run everything at full blast and have fast Internet. Set some boundaries for yourself.
Let’s see here..
Limit some of those connections. aka, a torrent client can run fine with just 50 global connections and 10 to a torrent. It doesn’t need to be exhausted. So yes, that means, you can only run 2-4 torrents at the most for best speeds. If you are running a PC Router (not a tinyPC router, such as a Linksys WRT—- or something) then the amount of connections isn’t really something to be worried about unless you have them pre-limited via the PC Router.
The average home-use modem and Internet service is not capable of pumping high speed both ways “at the same time.” For example, if your Internet package says 3mb download and 1mb upload, you can’t expect to fill the upload up and still reach 3mb download as well. So limiting each program (as stated above) to its proper use will help. Besides, your Internet line itself must be able to support that kind of activity. Top grade SDSL per se, or a DS. “Reguler DSL” is usually good with not being congested when you do fill up pipes.
What’s a good limitation on speed?
Well, in my observations experience, I’ve noticed that it’s good to only fill up 75-80% of your bandwidth. It’s not always the case, but anything from your area, to the street, to the node you’re on, down to the actual routing lines (e.g. cables, telephone line) that is being used in your house can affect these bandwidth readings. So pre-limiting these activities can let you see great improvement out of your Internet (and take stress off your equipment) allowing you to do more on-demand when you actually need it. For example, you have downloads and uploads going, and your friends is playing a game online – With ease you can go stream videos online without affecting their game play, or your streaming (remember 75-80%? ).
The odds of hitting that stress-line with these settings is slim, but not none. Depending on what you do (because everyone uses the Internet differently) you may find some other or combination ways to suit your setup even better.
DNS Options
Of course you want to reach services fast; Websites, IM, Game servers.. the list goes on. Using good DNS is at-most one of the things you should be concerned about. For that I recommend running your own DNS, or using a DNS provider that is to your needs, or well maintained. OpenDNS (or the famous 4.2.2.2, 4.2.2.3 
), is good ones.
Not to mention, using a “dedicated DNS provider” is a good way to avoid malicious activity from spawning on your Internet. Botnets, trojans, worms, all these can be blocked via DNS. OpenDNS can offer this. It’s hard to say how well but it’s better to be safe than cursing.
More detail on Routers
As most of you know, routers “route,” not exactly classified information. Choosing the right routing options?–Good knowledge to have.
If you’re running two or three computers, choosing a decent routing option is good – Not using a hub for any of this is NOT a bad idea, but you may not want to do TOO much on it. As hubs can become congesting if you use a lot of computers on them, or devices. You either want to have a “router,” or switch.
Wireless (Yay)
Have laptops, other mobile devices? Then you might want to have a router that can be used via wireless, too. However, loading down your wired/wireless router with wireless can become overwhelming for the little creature (on average routers). That can be a LOT of stress, especially if you’re doing what you’d normally be doing from a wired PC. So try to limit actives via wireless. Don’t be confused, a few iPods and a Wii and a laptop isn’t going to affect much.
I think that’s it for now, but I may have more some other time. I hope these options may help you. If you have any tips, suggestions, etc.. feel free to let me know. Glad to exchange information!
Posted by Ty Clifford »
1 Comment »For some time now I’ve been watching and reading the stories on copyright holders that have become upset at people who pirate their materials, and governments that have been taking privacy and piracy to a new level.
For the people you have been taking to court and sued for linking programs, distributing programs, etc, what crime is in that? If you ask me (which I don’t care if you do or not, this is my website I’ll say it regardless), I say that the people who help distribute programs are the ones who help the programs gain popularity. Especially for music artists.
Music artists and governments say they are losing money because people pirate their material? Are you kidding me? Half of P2Prs would’ve never heard of half the artists they have on their hard drives if it wasn’t provided free to begin with. Most of the people I know say that if they download something for free, and they like it, they will buy it to show their support – If they don’t like it, they trash it and don’t buy it.
With the governments wanting to take control of users activities on the Internet just goes to show that they didn’t use our money the right way to begin with (the first time) – So now they’re just pissed and taking people to court to gain what they thought they lost.
Music industries are also mad because they are facing having to live like the majority of people. Making less than $100,000 a year. Because they don’t make $5,000,000 and only make $3,000,000, they decide to take a few people to court and gain what money they have greed over.
Why don’t I ever see citizens taking the media holders to court? Why aren’t ISPs being sued for allowing P2Prs? Seriously, if The Pirate Bay is trying to be put in jail, why isn’t AOL, Comcast, Verizon, BT, Telstra, etc being taken to court? Why isn’t GM, Ford, etc not being taken to court for not making automated seat-belts that force themselves on the driver? Why isn’t Google being hassled & courted for indexing torrent sites? It’s the same damn thing!
I remember before this whole “Lets Kill the Pirates!” season, I used to see tons of people in the stores purchasing TV Shows, Music, Movies, etc. Now? Not so much as I used to. They raised the prices in some areas that I know of that drove some people away from buying at the store. I’m not surprised either.
Privacy
Oh, my opinions don’t stop there.
With the governments wanting to be able to record all communications with people/between people (like they probably haven’t already), that just makes me think:
What would they say if WE wanted access to their computer? What if we wanted to see who they were texting behind to their friends? Or what person they were viewing on a social networking website?
I’m sure you can guess.
