The One And Only Matt Parnell.com

Digsby - A New IM/Email/Social Network Client

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:58:56 PDT

Digsby is a neat little app I just stumbled across, and it integrates many cool features, which includes all of the usual IM networks, email, and social networking sites. What sets it apart is that it is multi platform, running on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. I may have just found something better than pidgin, eh?Give it a try and post here what you think in the comments section, I want to hear what you think about it. I personally am attracted by the features and the multi-platform support...click the image below to go and download Digsby.Give Digsby a Try - Download it Here (http://even-answers.com/digsby)

Timless Words That Speak A Great Deal

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:47:51 PDT

The Declaration of IndependenceAlas, we are far from independent as citizens anymore.When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such...

I Like Guns, And Should Be Able to Own and Carry Anywhere I Wish

Sat, 23 May 2009 16:15:19 PDT

When the government stops fearing the people, something has gone wrong. I forget who said something to that effect...was it John Adams? Anyways, the Federal Government always misreads the Second Amendment. It has no if , and , or but anywhere within it that allows for restrictions that keep us from carrying openly or concealed in public, or from owning fully automatic weapons all without license or permit, Federally, at least. Yes, the states are (supposedly) delegated (well, not so much anymore) any other powers to regulate not mentioned in the US Constitution. Even so, We The People own the right to be able to defend ourselves without a license to carry concealed or not within our Nation, our states, our districts, our counties, our cities, our neighborhoods, and our homes. Why should we have to be on a government list (state or federal) if we want to own or carry a particular weapon? I see this as preparation by the elites that rule the country and corporate world taking note of possible usurpers as a precaution against any people who may try to rise up as implied by the second amendment, in the event the government oppresses the people. It seems this oppression will eventually come. Let them try to take away our guns, our rights, our possessions, our wealth, and our lives. I for one won't stand for it. There do need to be exceptions of course, for courtrooms, schools, and other such cases, and for mentally ill and felons, as well as age, but our rights are being trampled on. the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed Pretty freaking clear.

Current Goings On, Updating Some Things

Thu, 21 May 2009 13:30:59 PDT

This is a general post that I'm doing to just keep my site alive and hopefully make sure that all 2 of you who read this are still with me.Items of interest include the following: I need to update the satellite TV article. Lots of changes in the methods of using it have happened, and soon, DishNetwork will be switching to a new encryption algorithm called Nagra3. You can read about this in more detail by clicking here (http://nagravision3.org/). I'll go ahead and update things. You can get current keys (http://www.livekeyz.com/) and plugins (http://currentbins.com/dvb-pci/) here...instead of vPlug, I suggest using EmuNation. In the political realm, lots of things have rubbed me wrong. It starts with the Rightwing Extremism Report, (http://www.mattparnell.com/politics/rightwing.pdf) (PDF) which implicates everyone who believes in Yahweh and has a gun in the Midwest and classifies them as terrorists. Apparently it's been revised since then and updated to profile even more white groups. Think about it, racial and religious profiling is frowned upon, except in this case where the feds are profiling innocent white churchgoers. How nice. Further is a house bill that gives the attorney general to take the right of anyone it deems a �possible terrorist� to purchase or own weapons. (HR 2159 (http://www.mattparnell.com/politics/HR2159.pdf)...PDF) This is bad if you combine it with the previously mentioned right wing extremism report. This is horrible. Our rights are slowly melting away. Those of you who would argue that it's ok, because it's just targeting terrorists are ignorant. People wanting to do bad and illegal things will always find a way to get weapons, regardless of laws. I could further say against this sort of thing is that the whole difference between long and short rifles and pistols as per the rules governing people building their own firearms...it's all really stupid, convoluted, and infringes upon our constitutional rights. Oh, and don't get me started talking about the Builderburgs...firstly, those members of the US government who go to such a meeting are violating the Logan Act by meeting with foreign leaders on an unsanctioned basis in order to plan the fate of the world. They should be imprisoned on a felony. Whether or not they have this �New World Order� in store for the world or not, they still are the same rich elite globalists who control everything by means of dumbing down the population with television, buy out the politicians, and make sure that the majority of the people of the world are passive dumb animals that they can herd around... That said, I have things a brewing...looking for a job, fixing on my project car, and maintaining my pickup. Other than that, I'm bored and on a bad sleep schedule.

McRoll'd

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:58:28 PDT

This has to be a combination of the most scary, but yet cool and captivating things I've seen in a while.

Still Chugging Along!

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:31:24 PDT

Despite the lack of new projects and posts, I'm still here, and still plan on doing fun posts in the future, I just have been weighted down lately with the next 4 weeks being the last weeks of this semester...class projects, finals, and more all are contributing to the lack of anything knowledgeable or fun being posted lately.Until I come back, look at failblog (http://www.failblog.org) daily...it's hilarious.

New Internet Money Method

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:55:26 PST

I talk about SEO, Internet Marketing, and other such tactics around here all the time, but purposely never offer all the pieces to the plan so that you develop strategies and techniques on your own for better success. If you'd rather just have a system that's set out for you that works, I suggest the Google Money Tree (http://linktohere.com//26). They'll tell you all about it before you actually buy it, but you have to request the info. Upon request, you'll get a nice kit that tells you everything you need to know about making big bank off of Google.This setup will help you go from poor to rich with a lot less effort than climbing up the corporate ladder or flipping burgers.Click here to give it a try. (http://linktohere.com//26)

An Analysis of MattParnell.com

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:22:46 PST

I was recently notified that an analysis paper was written about my site here, which honors me. I think this is the second one, as someone also cited this crazy place for the thermite article, which guides the reader on making it. Anyway, this was written by a nice guy named Brennon, and you can see his blog by clicking here (http://lulzisacorruptionoflol.blogspot.com/).And yes, I am slightly OCD. Thesis: I don't directly state a thesis but it is How Matt Parnell is appealing and why his blog is good. Today, there are hundreds upon thousands of blogs taking up space on the internet. If it exists, more than likely is it blogged about. Topics range from technology to personal information, music to cooking, science to religion, and whatever else you can think of. I, myself, tend to be into all things technology and, when searching for a blog to do my analysis, I came across a web-blog that seemed rather interesting. It was named �Matt Parnell�s Brain: Plugged In!� and after careful analysis, I can concur that this truly is a good blog for internet techies everywhere. First things first, the moment you go to the website you are greeted with a welcome message towards the top of the webpage. The welcome message gets right to the point and says this, �Welcome to my site. I usually write about technology, such as>satellite television descrambling, comparing Linux and Windows, and I also talk about other things when they fit my fancy. I currently have two past articles in 2600, regarding Internet Archeology, as well as Blackhat SEO. I also am interested in collecting SURGE merchandise, and enjoy all things Power Rangers and Super Sentai� (Parnell). The statement alone defines him, what he usually writes about, and what his whole purpose is for running that website. However, he defines himself even more by the style he has setup for the website. It all looks very neat and organized, as well as the color scheme seems to make everything look perfect, which could give off the impression that maybe he is a bit OCD or is just a perfectionist. Next, is how does he appeal to a certain demographic? He does it in a few ways. The first is with his welcome statement. By already stating what he usually talks about, he is getting rid of all people who are either not interest in technology, or just do not care what his website has to say. The second is by reading his about section. In it he states, �I am a devout Evangelical Christian, first, and foremost. I enjoy anything to do with hacking, cracking, modding, cooking, technical stuff, music, dumpster diving, etc. I may post some vocal music samples sometime, just for kicks�(Parnell) By showing all the things that enjoys, the reader can then compare that to their own likes and dislikes, then decide if they want to continue to browse the website or not. The final thing that gets a certain demographic in is the fact that he is some what knowledgeable in internet culture. In his about section there is a picture of him wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and you can link that to a certain internet group whom will not be...

4 Great Alternatives To Google

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:42:51 PST

Google is the generally accepted king of the search engines, followed by Yahoo and MSN. Other smaller engines exist, which aren't quite as useful, but some new Ajax-y alternatives (excluding Scroogle) exist. This article attempts to showcase some of the cooler and more useful engines.Scroogle (http://scroogle.org) isn't an ajax based engine, but I feel it deserves an honorable mention. Scroogle is a scraper that displays Google results to you, as a service to keep you anonymous. There is even an https feature for added security.Searchme (http://www.searchme.com) is a nice ajax engine which shows screenshots of the results, and they rotate as you drag a slider bar. It offers images, video, music, and shopping results with the shuffled results. It is really good looking, and works very well.Gigablast (http://www.gigablast.com/) is a powerful new search engine that does real time indexing. I think that means that it indexes the sites that refer visitors to it. That said, it currently has 4,822,055,863 pages indexed. Another one to try if you're sick of Google. RedZee (http://redzee.com), the coolest of these engines has a really great logo. It's animated and flashy. Outside of that, it displays the results in a carousel, with snapshots of the pages to be viewed, and it has an easy link back to the results that is displayed at the top of the pages discretely in the corner. The result pages look somewhat like a ferris wheel, and in general, this search, like Searchme is very cool functionally.

Good Things Ahead

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:14:08 PST

Another year, another semester of college class, and I have to do my taxes for the first or second time. That does not mean I won't have plenty of downtime for doing geeky things, including updating this site. I have several things planned for the future to write about, and hope that they will be useful to my readers. Here is a list of what you can expect of me in the coming weeks:A Guide to Linux on HP Laptops (This will be based on my experiences with my dv9205us, and includes the Zen Kernel).Several SEO Related Posts, including ethics, and content scrapingHopefully at least one joint article with Ask The Admin.com, and perhaps one with I-Hacked.comRandom postings that I may from time to time add about my life (usually ranting about something)Many link additions, as I plan to update my link collection here on the site, and add moreI have a new Samsung Delve. As an Alltel user, I can guarantee that I will be writing on my hack attempts to customize this phone.Tales of my staying up for marathon amounts of hours...like 36 or more hours (probably not, too boring...)I can't think of much more to mention right now, although there should be much more. I will post many new things in the days ahead, not just for this semester, but also for the entire new year.Until we meet again, why not torrent jPod (http://isohunt.com/torrents.php?ihq=jpod), and if you find it geeky and fun enough, find a copy of the book by the same name. Both are great, and if you are a true geek, I suspect you will thouroughly enjoy them.

Stop Leeching Me!

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:48:08 PST

Well, in an effort to have some fun with the sites who have recently been leeching pictures of my Surge Soda collection (see them in the left side menu) without giving a link back with a citation to me being the original picture taker/owner/source, I have replaced the originals with a citation of my own.See it in action at this bandwidth leeching jerk's site (http://thegreatblogofketo.blogspot.com/2008/10/dear-john-mccain-surge-is-working.html), or just scroll down a bit to see it.

Pirates of the Amazon Firefox Extension

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:03:55 PST

The Pirates of the Amazon Firefox Extension was taken down as a result of Amazon wielding the DMCA hammer. It will display images with a link to a torrent on the piratebay that says Download 4 Free if the product is up for torrenting.Here's the original site for documentation. (http://pirates-of-the-amazon.com/)Here's a backup link, for archival purposes only. (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BXUPEFK5)Here's another (Local, in a zip for obfuscation) (http://www.mattparnell.com/archivalpurposesonly/pirates-of-the-amazon.zip)And another (TorrentFreak) (http://torrentfreak.com/files/piratesoftheamazon.xpi)For any DMCA concerns, please email parwok (at) gmail dot com. I do not endorse piracy or the use of this extension; however it is a useful example of Firefox code.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:47:13 PST

What is Guy Fawkes day? Check Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes) Join the Guy Fawkes Day celebration here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=33799790962 We shouldn't be bitter about the elections. We should be happy about the turnout, and should rejoice in knowing that God uses all things for good, and that He puts all leaders in power, good or bad, in order to fulfill his Divine plan. If you want something to be concerned with, be concerned with the fact that OUR congress, our supposed representatives may do the same as they have for the last few decades, and not really represent us to the point they should be. It is very possible that these mostly careerist politicians will simply try to keep the right people happy in order to keep their cushy jobs and their lobbyist brib---erm I mean gifts. What can you do? Be a revolutionary. It doesn't require violence as Guy Fawkes attempted. In reality, it requires you to voice your concerns, convictions, thoughts, and oppositions to your representatives and senators, both state and national. Write letters/emails or make phonecalls on a daily basis. Tell likeminded others to do the same. Only when the populous does this will the majority truly have representation. No taxation without representation! When was the last time your reps accurately performed their duty according to their constiutents'? If it wasn't recently, we shouldn't have to pay our tax dollars in for their $160k a year + free health for life + pension benefits. Either kick them out in election, or try something bold and Guy Fawkes-like, like the following: Petition to have the person(s) removed from office, or go all out and call for a constitutional convention (this would require a petition and a gigantic public outcry). When called, a constitutional convention can totally reshape the country through removing people office (even the president), amendment the constitution, totally rewrite a new constitution from scratch, or simply fire congress. Then, the states all have to vote. A 3/4 or more vote by the states in favor of any action makes it law, and it thus happens. Fired the bad representation one way or another? Time for an emergency election. Make sure to choose the right person for the job! Happy Guy Fawkes Day! Be a revolutionary in your own right! God Bless the USA!

Blackhat SEO: Exploiting The Dumb Masses to Make A Profit (As Seen in 2600)

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:40:45 PDT

If you are coming here from Stumbleupon, Digg, or Slashdot, please give me a comment, vote, and a good review if you like this article/howto!This is an article I had in the latest Dreamhost (https://signup.dreamhost.com/) for a hosting account, and use the code ILIKENWF, you'll get 1 Free Domain Registration ($15 value!). Pay monthly, and get another $15 discount, sign up for one or more years and get a $30 discount! Assuming you have a good webhost, the first step is to set up your content system on a domain. Pick a domain that fits the niche you want to aim your site at. You can use subdomains, as well as folders within a domain to serve as multiple sites, although one site per domain will keep your sites indexed for a longer period of time. Investigate keywords related to your site topic ,and try to find those that are searched for many times, with no to few results. Insert keywords into the content areas and meta tags on all of the site's pages. Once complete, totally tweak the look of your blackhat site. Modify an existing free template, or create one of your own. Photoshop together some semi-good graphics and slap them up there, while you're at it. Assuming you are using Wordpress, you should make sure to install WP-O-Matic (http://devthought.com/wp-o-matic-the-wordpress-rss-agreggator/), a plugin that converts RSS feeds into posts, and allows keyword rewriting. Other wordpress plugins are geared specifically toward SEO, such as the automatic meta tag generators, which are highly recomended. Automatic Content When your site is running live and looking good, find several RSS feeds off of sites related to your niche, and plug them into WP-O-Matic. Use the replace function on all of them as a precaution to swap out common keywords, so that your content appears to be unique. Make sure to set up a cron job to use one of the many free PHP ping scripts hourly, to publicize your pages, and get them indexed. Make sure to use a ping script that is on your server, that sends the RPC requests from your server. This keeps your site from being reported as spam to the search engines by services like Pingoat (do not ever use Pingoat!). Try to get backlinks to your sites by either outsourcing or manually submitting to a few hundred to a few thousand link directories. Be gradual when building links to make the accumulation of linking power appear natural. The more links to your site, the higher in the search engine rankings your pages will appear. If you feel like being extremely evil, you can find and use tools to mass spam links on forums, comments, or by using cross site scripting (be careful!). These programs and scripts are easy to find, and I assume that by reading 2600, you are quite capable of finding them on your own. Get Indexed, Monetize The only step left is to wait. There will always be a few of your sites that don't get indexed...

Wootoff Bag of Crap Alarm - A bash Script

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:21:08 PDT

I wrote this little puppy to wake me up if I'm asleep and the Bag of Crap comes up during a Wootoff (like the one going on now) at Woot. It's simple to use, it keeps looping, just outputting the current item. Feel free to mod it as you wish...I've really been meaning to make it look nice with color, but I figured it would'nt matter anyway.That being the case, you can grab the tarball below. Otherwise, the source is below that. Just make sure to have an alarm.mp3 in the same directory as the script before your run it.Download Site One (Megaupload) (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QE7UY5IR)Download Site Two (Local) (http://www.mattparnell.com/down/woot_alarm_bash_script.tar.gz)Source: #!/bin/bash #Wootwatch Alarm #Written by Matt Parnell/ilikenwf http://www.mattparnell.com #This is totally free, take it and mod it however you wish, under the GNU. #This script goes every 5 sec to woot and checks for a bag of crap. If found, it sounds an alarm. clear i=0 r=0 while [ $i -lt 1 ] do r=`expr $r + 1` ITEM=`/usr/bin/curl -s -f http://www.woot.com/DefaultMicrosummary.ashx` echo if echo $ITEM | grep Crap ; then play -q alarm.mp3 echo echo BOC FOUND after $r runs. else echo No BOC found yet... echo echo Current item: echo $ITEM echo echo This script has run $r Times. sleep 3 clear fi done exit

School - After the Basics, What's The Point?

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:31:13 PDT

I am a lifetime student of Christ, as well as the knowledge of man, but I want it all to be on my terms. I'm starting to become more and more frustrated with the ridiculous nature of the education system. If a person learns to read, write, do basic math, and depending on future job choice take more specialized classes, should any more classes be required of them? College and highschool in these ways are somewhat follies of society. If one learns these things and can think abstractly, should they really be forced through extra steps in order to achieve their dream career? Anything over and above should be their choice, and not compulsory. In my case, independent study is much more conducive than having information forced down my throat at a specific rate decided by an expert. What amount of the knowledge I've learned will I actually use in my future? Let's talk about secondary/college education. Although I attend a liberal arts college, I find it ridiculous to pay what I have to in order to get a magic piece of paper that says I am qualified to do whatever task I major in. I don't really need such a thing to succeed, yet in a world filled with people who forgo any education at all, whether it be through the education system or independent study, some form of verification of skill and knowledge has to be there. Why not have a single test to allow one to show their skills in any given field and skill in order to speed things along? I don't like putting effort into what I see as a nearly fruitless venture (college), as I feel I have better things to do with my time, such as learn about things that I actually care about, acquire vocational skills I want to know, and do it all my way. I would rather learn from mistakes of my own than be tested over what I have memorized in short term memory, soon lost a semester later, only for that magic piece of paper that makes people want to hire you. Life experience seems to me to provide better education in some circumstances than secondary education. If you can read, write, do math, and think abstractly, learning from your cohorts in life and from your own experiences, life is easier, yet more productive and satisfying. For example, Why does somebody like me need to take 18+ credit hours of Bible classes if they aren't planning on being a minister. I learn what I really use in small groups, Bible studies, church, and discussion with those I look up to and am friends with. Specific terms like exegesis, hermanuetics, and pericope may be important if you plan on being in a theological field, but why do I need to know them in order to be a servant of Christ, sharing Him with those the Holy Spirit leads me to? Why do I need to take an English class full...

Me for President

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:54:35 PDT

My Bootchart Record: 12 Seconds to Boot, 7 Seconds to X

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:47:43 PDT

I may have to write how I did this at some point. I use Archlinux x86_64, with a custom kernel from Zen. It's got most of the stuff I need built in, and all other crap is thrown out. I further have added concurrency in rc.conf using @ before all but a couple of my daemons, and am using ReiserFS, with noatime notail nodiratime. I have further speed things along by editing rc.sysinit, and removed hundreds of lines of unneeded crap as well. One trick I found was that it is actually faster to mount an NTFS partition I have via rc.local, rather than fstab. That said, I can't think of anything else to make this faster!Really, I make it to the KDM login screen in 8 or so seconds but this is total start time.

Ubuntu is the Windoze of the Linux World

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:13:57 PDT

Ubuntu is the Windoze of the Linux world. It's big, fat, slow, overcomplicated, and breaks way too often... I already had converted my laptop's distro over to Archlinux, and due to the fact that I was so impressed with it's simplicity and ease of customization, I have now put it on what I call my remote box, which I keep headless at the family buisiness. It soaks up all the torrents I want, and I use it to store/backup my stuff, and bypass internet blocks. Anyway, it was running Kubuntu server for a while, with X setup so I could use VNC when I got lazy. I tried to upgrade, and I got into some package dependency hell issues, and got mad, which prompted me to install arch. No gui required. X isn't even on the thing. I have Azureus consoleui setup, using the web interface to control it, with ipblock keeping me safe from snoops. Furthermore, tools like Webmin are nice to have, and I went ahead and set it up as a LAMP, as it's convenient for testing, and RPC pinging my moneymaking blogs, as well as serving my files remotely...all protected, though, through whatever password schemes necessary. Whatever the case, it only uses 100mb of ram or so, and the install is only 800megs. Wow.I'm not saying that Ubuntu sucks, but it does for power users...for n00bs learning about Linux, it's a pretty good fit.

New! buildZen bash Script for Ubuntu and Debian Distros

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:57:00 PDT

For those of you using a Debian based distro, it's not been super easy for those of you new to kernel compilation to build the Zen kernel for various reasons. That said, the precompiled packages I used to build didn't usually cut it, because they weren't custom for you, and they didn't work correctly with certain drivers.In lieu of that, I have put together a bash script that will walk you through the entire kernel configuration and compilation progress, called buildZen. buildZen works, but is a beta. Please drop a comment if it doesn't work for you.To try buildZen, click here. (http://www.mattparnell.com/zen-kernel.html)

How to Use Google Web Accelerator With Firefox 3

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:15:22 PDT

Google Web Accelerator isn't officially compatible with Firefox 3, at the moment. This means that current users of the products don't really get the speed they are used to. At the same time, there are probably people out there who think the idea of an accelerator sounds interesting, and would like to try it, but they've already installed Firefox 3.Well, there is a little hack you can do to get it working; however it doesn't enable the little time savings counter, which you can probably live without until the accelerator is upgraded.To do this, all you need to do is open the Firefox Options (Tools > Options > Network > Advanced > Settings), and tick the box that says Automatic Proxy Configuration URL. In the box, enter this: http://localhost:9100/proxy.pacRestart Firefox, and watch the little accelerator icon Rev Up as you look at websites...you've got the Accelerator again!If you don't already have Firefox, get it here:

FIX: iTunes Not Working on XP? It's Quicktime's Fault

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:19:43 PDT

So, you're one of the poor souls out there scouring Google for a solution to the problem of iTunes not running on Windows XP. Either you get an error prompt with the option to send an error report, or you get nothing, and the iTunes process hangs and eats resources in the background.Sometimes, the problem is nLite related, with missing DLL's and all. You can find help for that elsewhere. I'd try this fix first, though, as it is much easier to accomplish.If you still have iTunes installed, go ahead and uninstall Quicktime Only! If you get an error and can't, delete the QuickTime folder in C:\Program Files and try it again. Then, go download QTAlternative (http://www.free-codecs.com/quicktime_alternative_download.htm) (not the lite version), the opensource clone of Quicktime. Install that puppy, and try to start iTunes...success?If you have already removed iTunes, grab the installer and extract it with WinRar or 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org/). Then, only run the iTunes installer, after you have installed QTAlternative.With this setup, iTunes runs, and I don't have to see those annoying Quicktime ads every time I watch a .mov file.

apt-fast and Axel: Roughly 26x Faster apt-get Installations and Upgrades

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:12:04 PDT

Yes, this will work for any distro that uses apt-get, and the concept should work for all of the others...it may even be as simple as removing wget and replacing it with a symlink to axel. I have created a little shellscript that increases the speed of apt-get by many times. You need to have the a (http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=100070)xel download accelerator installed (http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=100070), which is a simple, short process, but everything else is extremely straight forward. I started out downloading the upgrades for the newest version of Ubuntu, at 32kb/s. Not terrible, but not that great. When I was done with the script here, I was getting up to ~850kb/s. That's great, huh?To do this, you first need to download and install the axel download accelerator. It is really a good drop-in replacement for wget, as it is bash based. Once installed (just follow the readme), we are ready to download our updates at amazingly fast speeds.Paste the shellscript below into text editor somewhere, and save it as apt-fast and chmod +x apt-fast :#!/bin/sh#apt-fast by Matt Parnell http://www.mattparnell.com , this thing is FOSS#please feel free to suggest improvments to admin@mattparnell.com# Use this just like apt-get for faster package downloading. Make sure to have axel installed#If the first user entered variable string contains apt-get, and the second string entered is either install or dist-upgradeif echo $1 | grep -q [upgrade] || echo $2 | grep -q [install] || echo $2 | grep -q [dist-upgrade] ; then echo Working... ; #Go into the directory apt-get normally puts downloaded packages cd /var/cache/apt/archives/; #Have apt-get print the information, including the URI's to the packages apt-get -y --print-uris $1 $2 $3 $4 > debs.list; #Strip out the URI's, and download the packages with Axel for speediness egrep -o -e (ht|f)tp://[^\']+ debs.list | xargs -l1 axel -a; #Perform the user's reqested action via apt-get apt-get -y $1 $2 $3 $4; echo Done! Make sure and check to see that the packages all were installed properly. If a package is erred, run sudo apt-get autoclean and try installing it again without the use of this script. ;elif echo $1 | grep -q [*] ; then apt-get $1;else echo Sorry, but you appear to be entering invalid options. You must use apt-get and one of apt-get's options in order to use this script. ;fiOnce done, just use it like apt-get. To install a single package, make sure your database is up to date, and run sudo ./apt-fast install packagenamehere. Watch it download with incredible speed, and install. To upgrade or dist-upgrade, do the same thing. Just use sudo ./apt-fast dist-upgrade or sudo ./apt-fast upgrade. That's all there is to it!Should your download stall for any number of reasons, you'll need to go into the apt-get cache directory and remove the offending package, and then...

Unseen TechTV and ZDTV Episodes On the Way

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:54:14 PDT

I have been digging around all over the place, and have found between the Internet Archive and other sources, hundreds of previously lost episodes, clips, and other media from TechTV and ZDTV. I have around 5 gigabytes of video, which is growing, and am going to release a sequel to my TechTV and ZDTV zip file of other media, which is considerably smaller. It will contain more images, internal documents, and other interesting files that you wouldn't think still exist.I still have some other things to sort out, as I am going to be working, getting back in the swing of kernel compilation, and putting up many websites, while maintaining the 12 or so I'm already responsible for. Whatever the case, the episodes and videos I have found will be released in a torrent, eventually.Keep checking back!

Still Alive

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:27:57 PDT

I am still here, I have just been busy. I can't compile kernels right now, as I am between distros. The same goes for writing new articles, guides, hacks, etc, as I am on a 3 week tour with my college choir. That said, I should be back grinding away on all the good stuff I'm known for very soon, since this is my last week of the tour. If you're in the New York City area on Labor Day, come to the performance at Carnegie Hall. My choir does a pre-concert performance, followed by the performance of Brahms' Requiem. It should be some really good music!Whatever the case, I'm still here! Linux and hacking stuff will be coming at you again soon!