May 11, 2011
Get a free Server for a month or more!
By: dab
Hey everyone, I’m here to talk about a a Xen VPS host that I beta trialled a while back. They are offering a free month or possibly longer of their 512mb VPS package. The server was awesome. I don’t have any stats as it never crossed my mind to actually test the specs of the server. But I do remember it being snappy, and nothing seemed to lag. That’s why I’m posting this. Chunkhost is a great host that should be given a try. Their packages stack up similiarly to Linode.com, however I can tell they are doing their own spin on how that should be done with their control panel. Their panel is very simple, but seems to do everything you really need it to do. I suggest you give them a try. You should use my referral link to help me out. So take a spin with ChunkHost. All it costs is your time: http://chunkhost.com/r/dablog
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April 10, 2011
Linode, Cloudflare, IRC Contest, Life, and dabbit
By: dab
So, I recently lost my main server, dab Hub due to a spurt of DDoS attacks. This lead me needing a new server. I searched and searched. I wanted a powerful server, at an affordable price, with reliability. I had to be realistic. I knew that I had to drop one of those requirements, to get anything. I know that I was willing to drop a bit of power for the reliability. I don’t want my server on an oversold dedi. I don’t want my server to be run by some startup 12 year old who was given a dedicated server and a range of IPs. I wanted a host with experience and price. I saw an ad on Facebook about Linode, and realized “Oh yea, I should check them out”. So I went to Linode.com, and saw their servers. My goal was to be under $30/month and have more than 256mb of ram. I wanted Xen virtualization, since that disallowed simple over selling, I also wanted it to be reliable. Linode offered everything I needed. So a few weeks went by, and thanks to several donations from http://thebotnet.com and http://foxtrotwebhosting.com/ I was able to purchase this new server. It was activated instantly, I chose a location in Fremont, CA, USA, and away I went. I linked it to dab IRC, and things were good. Then Hurricane Electric had some packet loss issues. I realized my second IRC server, fox.dab.biz was also hosted in HE’s DC. So, I desired to move my Linode box since I had that option, the host didn’t allow for fox.dab.biz to be moved, they only had 1 DC. So I made a ticket. No more than 45 minutes later, I had my server set to be allowed to be moved. I moved to my panel, and it said “You have a pending migration, please shut down your server to proceed”. I shut down my server, clicked the button, and Linode’s control panel took over the rest for me. It moved my image there, and I was set to go. Turned on my machine, updated my DNS, and everything worked great! I have to say, so far I am impressed with Linode. Uptime is great, speed is great, and Support is AWESOME. Very fast response time for a Sunday evening.
In relations to my DNS host, I was using Cloudflare.com. I liked the idea of having my stuff protected from bots and attacks. I did not like however the fact that they went down frequently. It wasn’t the entire client base that went down. It seemed that only I was the one with the issues to connecting. During these spells, the site also took forever to load, when it did load. So I decided to move back to Dreamhost’s DNS management. Goodbye Cloudflare. You were pretty cool, just I need something up as often as I’m online. 
Also, due to the lack of entries in my IRC 50$ iTunes giftcard contest, I’m extending the date to June 15th 2011. This is so I can promote it a bit more!
I also moved into a new location this week. Moved from McCleary to Olympia, thus giving me a faster connection. YAY Comcast! I can’t complain about them so far! I love their support, I love their speed, I just plain out love this upgrade in speed. I went from a MAX of 1.5mbps to 30mbps. SUCH a difference. I’m honestly shocked I survived so long with my previous, terrible host, Centurylink.
Finally, I shall be releasing dabbit very soon! I’m upgrading my comet server to be able to support a more flood of users, so you can have the most performance available! I’m utilizing node.js, using my dabet protocol. I first made a Comet server using PHP, but it felt sluggish and I’m worried about the performance on a large scale. For this reason, I’ve moved to a node js, where I can host on 3 possible servers, which will alleviate the stress from 1 server.
That’s all folks, until next time!
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Buzzwords: The Cloud
By: dab
Buzzwords. Used commonly on the sheep shoppers. It is used to introduce a new idea or terminology in a simple way, so that anyone can understand and explain it themselves, appearing a professional at it. We witnessed this idea with Web 2.0. It was spread among every template and website and internet user. Making them think of the web as reborn and completely rewritten when all it was, was simply a newly re-discovered technique (ajax) and a few new design themes (the glossy, glowing look). AJAx in itself also became a buzzword. People thought of it as a new language, or protocol when all it was, was a javascript HTTP request sent in the background providing a smooth transition of data.
I was watching an Ad on Hulu and noticed a Microsoft Ad for the Cloud. I realized how much of a buzzword it has become. The “Cloud” as is being used refers to remote data storage. As loose as a term that is, it applies to everything we have done in the past 10 years. It’s called server hosting. The main idea behind Cloud hosting however, isn’t just that data is stored on the server, but your programs and your Operating system to a point is too. This alleviates many issues with software updates and such, but why is it a buzz word you might ask?
Cloud is being used for businesses to think that their data is safe off location. While this is cheaper, the buzzword comes from the fact that they think all they have to do is start paying money and it works.
Sure this works, assuming you’ve used up to date Microsoft Software. Thing is, there is a huge learning curve, your data is hostage to internet and Microsoft, and not everyone quite understands the negative sides to Cloud Hosting.
The biggest concern with cloud hosting is that the government doesn’t need a warrant to search (to my knowledge). Since it is a company, and companies like to stay on the government’s good side, they will usually provide any authority with any information they need, including data, who accesses it, and the sort. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a good idea if you are a pirate.
Really, Cloud is just mass remote storage or backup. We haven’t recently discovered this technology. We’ve had it all along, just storage devices have been getting cheaper with the release of Solid state drives. So, cloud storage is able to be sold to more common folk and not purely business with lots of space needs (Think YouTUbe but with high bandwidth and port speeds). We’ve had the ability to cloud store things, just now we feel customers should be sold this too. What’s more, the most a normal user will use this for, is for School documents, Music files so you can listen anywhere (Amazon MP3? 
), and work for things you want to work with on the go. Other than that, I can’t think of many uses for cloud other than to keep control of what you do with it. Only for things on the go.
That’s what I think of the buzzword cloud. Post what you feel/think about it!
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February 17, 2011
Win a Free $50 iTunes Gift Card + other Cash prizes!
By: dab
Do you like your iTunes library? Do you find the increasing prices a turn off for purchases. Well, I’m offering one lucky person a chance to win a $50 iTunes gift card.
How do I win?
What you have to do to win is start a community on dab IRC! Bring your IRC channel to dab IRC and bring your friends into your channel. The Channel with the most, unique (in other words: 1 user counts as a machine connection from 1 IP. So multiple IPs on the same server do not count as each unique user), and active users wins! The contest ends May 20th June 15th Summer, 2011, with the opportunity to extend the contest (if need be).
Prizes?
First place will win a $50 iTunes gift card, a 3 Month Free TheBottingNetwork Sub (http://thebotnet.com), and $25 cash. The card code will be emailed to your or mailed via snail mail. You can choose when I contact you.
Second place will win a $10 iTunes gift card as well as a 2 month TheBottingNetwork Sub (http://thebotnet.com) and $15 cash. As above, you will be emailed or mailed to you, your choice.
Third place will win a 1 month TheBottingNetwork Sub (http://thebotnet.com) and $5 cash!
Limit 1 channel/entry per person. No purchase necessary. I have the right to withdraw entries based on cheating, or unfair entries (proxies, ghosts, etc) or other reasons deemed fit by me (dab). Channel may not promote illegal activities as decided per network rules. This contest is in no way affiliated with Apple, and is not sponsored by such. These rules are subjected to change as seen fit.
I look forward to see what chats dab IRC can host for you! irc.dab.biz 6667
irc://irc.dab.biz/ Join #dab if you have any questions!
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January 5, 2011
IRC Nerds, dabbit, School
By: dab
So school’s started back up. Taking a C++ programming class in addition to my Calculus II and Physics class. Makes for an exciting quarter. Due to school starting back up, dabbit is put on hold until I take my SATs Jan 22nd. So yea 
In other completely unrelated news, I just had a pretty nerdy IRC discussion about using terminal In real life. Here is the log:
http://terminal.pastebin.com/mQQteaQJ
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December 18, 2010
dabbit, dabbit, oh and School
By: dab
So, I’ve been very busy lately with dabbit, dabbit and school.. During winter break. I have applied to MIT, where they require you to take 2 SAT Subject Tests. I’m not all that worried about the math one, its the science one I’m worried about. I haven’t taken enough Physics to do a test on it, otherwise I would. This leaves me with the only option of taking the Chemistry one. So I’ve been studying during my free time so I can kick these SATs’ butts!
In regards to dabbit, it has been my project for the past month or 2 (Maybe 3?). Anywho, it’s coming along greatly! I can’t wait until launch. :> It will rock your sox off!
I’ll edit with a screen shot once I remove an obvious bug… Actually no.. Here’s a screenie:
Sexy right? It’s a bit broked ’cause I updated the user list to allow me to sort them (Before it was random ) Now it sorts by privilege then by Alphabetical order. 
Anyway, dabberz out. I was just staying up to get sorting working. Now I gotta fix the bugs I introduced.
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October 8, 2010
Self Driving Cars?
By: dab
I was driving home one night, and came up with the thought of how nice self driving cars would be. No, I didn’t invent the idea of self driving cars, but I had an epiphany of how nice they would be! Think about it. Running late would hardly ever happen. If you are almost ready to go, you don’t have to waste those few extra minutes at home, or driving and doing them (makeup, brushing hair, among other small things that we tend to do while driving). Not only would this make it safer in the mornings, but we might actually get improved work flow due to the fact that people would be able to show up on time more frequently. You could even set a timer in your car to leave so you can just nap in your car! . Anyway, cell phones would no longer need to be frowned upon (texting). Why would it matter if you aren’t looking at the road? Your car is driving fool! Also think about bars. Those who have had a little too much don’t need to drink and drive because the car can’t get drunk (assuming the car isn’t being hacked ). That also brings up the point of a car malfunctioning or being corrupted. What’s the real difference between that and a human messing up? I’d have to say the chance of a computer vehicle messing up compared to a human messing up are substantially smaller. The main reasoning behind cars not making as many mistakes is that they can adjust based on weather conditions, they will know exactly what the other cars are doing and thinking. Humans could never do that unless we invent mind control 
. There are a few downsides. For example, cops and emergency vehicles can’t really be controlled automatically since those require special control and instructions. Also, the job of a bus driver would not really exist. I mean, an auto car to drive a defined route sounds pretty simple to me.
Well that was my rant and rave of self driving cars. Who knows, maybe my next step is to invent it! haha fat chance!
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October 2, 2010
Bigfoot!
By: dab
So, I’m watching the Travel channel while waiting on one of my sisters in the hospital, and they are doing this thing on bigfoot… They say he’s supposed to be 6-7′ tall. I say, bigfoot needs to come out, and join basketball! If he’s male, he’ll be tall enough to compete! If she’s female, then she’ll be the best in the sport! (Jokes, ok? ). Anyway, its funny how all these people think they’ve seen him and those that believe he exists…. C’est la vie. Each to their own.
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September 29, 2010
Windows 7 Feeling Sluggy After Use? Speed it up!
By: dab
So, I have a lot of people talk about how their computer has been running really slow, and are considering formatting, or switching Operating Systems. I have no issue with either, but you should know the fix-all solution to Windows isn’t always reformatting. Here are some tips I recommend that will get your computer starting and running almost like new (almost being a key word).
Step 1: Perform a Virus Scan.
A Virus scan solves many, many issues on Windows. Mostly due to the fact that viruses eat up resources when performing their operations, because they try to do everything they can quickly, before you recognize them (for the most part. There are some sneaky and silent viruses but that’s a different matter all together). If you don’t have an anti virus running on your computer, I strongly recommend one. Do not run more than 1 virus protection. Multiple virus protection does not protect you more. In fact, it does the opposite. An Anti-Virus software scans your hard drive for files that match a certain signature, shall we say. If both antivirus softwares are scanning the same places, they’ll conflict with each other and get read errors. This is not the only issue, but one that comes to mind at this time.
If you don’t have Anti-Virus Software, there are several free alternatives, one being AVG Free. Personally I use Nod32, which works better than AVG in my opinion. This is however, all up to opinion. I hear Kaspersky works wonders above all others. So give one a try. If you don’t like it, try another. But in the name of all that is good, don’t use Norton. Norton merges itself so deep into Windows that it slows your computer down. I HAVE heard that its gotten better and actually is becoming preferred, but I don’t trust Norton. They mark almost all even remotely suspicious files viruses, and have many false positives. I personally don’t like my antivirus getting too involved with my whole operating system. Just enough to keep me protected, not lock me down.
Please note that scanning can take several hours depending on the size of your hard drive.
I also recommend you run some spyware checking. I use Spy Bot Search and Destroy. It has always worked well and is pretty straight forward to use.
Finally, I suggest running a scan with Windows Defender. I believe this comes with all Windows 7 installs. Just hit the Start Button, and type “Windows Defender” (Without the quotes). Hit Full Scan, and let it do its thing. This combination of 3 has kept me personally secure and I haven’t noticed anything. That goes without saying of course 
.
Step 2: Remove Unused Programs / Clean Startup Programs
A lot of programs, like to make themselves known to Windows, even when you have no use for them anymore. Annoying programs like Windows Live Messenger, that startup when you turn your computer on, even if you won’t be using it today, should not be started. Also, installing those toolbars to get free smilies isn’t always a good thing. So what you want to do is first remove all unused programs. To do this, goto Control Panel, Then locate Add or Remove Programs (It might have changed in Windows 7… I donno \__(O.o)__/). Anyway, look through the list of programs that are there. If you know you don’t use it or won’t have a use for it, remove it. There is one issue with programs and Windows that I don’t recommend doing. The Registry. It is true. A program really dirties up the Registry when installing. Especially big programs like Adobe and others. Uninstall programs don’t always remove the registry settings, meaning that the Registry is mucked up with unneeded items. There are Registry cleaners out there, but I have not used any of them, nor do I recommend them. The Registry is a very special place for Windows. If you mess up a needed key, you cannot start up your computer. This is why mucking around in the Registry is not a suggested idea, let alone, getting a program automate it.
The next thing you’ll want to do is disable programs you don’t need to startup, when you login. Here is how you do it. On your keyboard, hit “Windows Key + R”. This will open a Run Dialog. Type in “msconfig” (Both times without Quotes) and you should get a dialog with a bunch of tabs. Select the Startup tab, and here is where our magic begins. Select things that you DO NOT need to startup when your computer boots up. This includes Adobe “Preloaders”, Apple stuff. Things you should keep running are Driver software, Anti-virus, and programs you know you’ll use every time (for me, I know I’ll be using my localhost Apache server, so I have that stay on startup).
That should be it. A restart will deal with all un-removed options from both things.
Step 3: Perform a Disk De-fragmentation
Imagine your hard drive as a bunch of CDs layered on top of each other. When you save a file, your hard drive is constantly spinning the disks, so when it writes onto the disk, it writes it in separate pieces, purely so it can keep up with the reading/writing demand. Well, when you need that file again, the hard drive needs to search the entire disk to find all the pieces of that file. This is what we call a fragmented hard drive. This isn’t good my friend! So what we need to do is get our disk back into order. There are many paid programs on the internet, but the Windows Disk defrag program works just fine for me.
To start it go to your Start Menu, and type “Disk Defragmenter” (Without quotes). Hit enter, and it will start up Window’s own Disk Defragmenter program. Its changed a bit since Windows XP, but it works just the same. What you will need to do is find out which drive is used the most. (PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT DEFRAG Solid State Drives!!!! The firmware inside them has a file management system that places the files where it needs. SSDs have a limited number of reads and writes compared to normal drives and defragging does not benefit them.) Choose the drive you want, and click Defragment Disk. This will run. A note from me personally. Do not use your computer while this is running. Please make sure programs such as Photoshop, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or anything really is closed. Using files on your disk while moving them around can get dangerous and messy. I’ve had a computer (Windows 98 computer, but still) become unrecoverable because I used it during defragmenting. You have been warned again .
Step 4: Enjoy your computer. I can’t remember what else I have for suggestions. These tips should get your computer running back to normal.
I hope this helps someone! Let me know if you have any suggestions of your own that I didn’t mention, or if I mentioned something that shouldn’t be done. I’d love to hear it! Until then folks!
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September 21, 2010
School, SoftModded PS2, DVD Burning, IE9!
By: dab
So, school started yesterday. I bought the eBook version so as to avoid lugging around 500 pounds of books everywhere I go. Not only is the weight difference better, but it is also cheaper. The heavy book cost about $200, while the ebook was only $50-ish. Physics books aren’t light, neither are Calculus books. The Statistics book isn’t that bad, but I still don’t want to be lugging around books this year. I have a laptop, I’m going to rape the beneifts (Macbook pro FTW, am I right?).
Anyway, I’ve also soft modded my Playstation 2! I really wanted to get back into game programming, and I figured the PS2 would be a great way to get some programming in. Plus it’d be for an ex popular console. I think it’ll be a lot of fun. Of course, this fun comes after my IRC client dabbit of course. Which is currently being designed by a friend of mine!
This morning, I got an email from Ashampoo subject: “Free: Get 50 Yiggles by opening this email”. Typically I check the email, hit delete and never think of it again. This title had me curious. I clicked it, and saw they were giving me 5 free software to me and my friends. I always wanted a piece of their software, but never could find the heart to purchase it (Especially when freebies alternatives exist). I figured this was the perfect excuse to try it. So I’ve downloaded it, and will fill out a review of it. I downloaded “Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 Advanced”. Seen here: http://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/2610/Burning_Software/Ashampoo-Burning-Studio-10.
On a final note, I’ve downloaded the beta version of Internet Explorer 9. They boasted a new updated UI. Intrigued by this new statement, I wanted to find out. I gave up hope after IE 7. IE8 didn’t help my endorsement either. I downloaded the 45mb installer; on my internet, that is a PAIN! I finally get the download done, and run the exe. “Downloading Internet Explorer 9 install files…”… Seriously? So 20 minutes later, it had finished installing. “Sweet”, I thought to myself. Getting ready to open IE9, I was greeted by a popup “Windows must restart your computer”. Seriously? I hate restarting my computer in the middle of my session. When I use the computer, I have several applications open, and none of it wants to be stopped (train of thought and such). So I waited till the next day to try out the new IE9. The next day, I opened it up. First of all, just like FireFox 4, they stole the Chrome layout, with the tabs not drooping, and the Menu bar gone. Friefox did it well. Internet Explorer, not so much. The placed them next to the URL Bar. So we have [==HTTP://google.com==] [TAB x][ TAB2 x ] etc…. WHY ON EARTH WOULD THEY DO THAT?! That’s what I want to know. Open more than 5 tabs and you start clipping most of the title. Faulty, faulty stolen idea. I mean, I know Microsoft tends to not re-create ideas properly (Windows), but this is sad. Not only this, but it doesn’t even render HTML 5 properly yet where as Chrome 7, Firefox 4 and Safari all render HTML 5 100% (If I recall the results correctly from other websites). Anyway, I know this is just a beta for IE9, but I really hope they make some major changes. One thing I’m glad though, is that they didn’t include the Twitter client on the browser (as an interview with a team leader for the browser project said). He mentioned wanting to place a Twitter client on the browser. Does that make sense to anyone else? I mean… how hard is it to type twitter.com in the url box?
Ok, enough rambling from me. I suppose I should let you get back to your life, as I must mine. Until later!
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