Author Archives: Abe Diaz

Internal to External IP’s (From Anywhere)

Ok you take the time to set up the FTP server, you even made rules in your Router to allow access to Port 21 from the outside, so you think you are ready. Now you are in class and forgot your homework…you say EASY I’ll just log to my dorm computer via FTP and download it. The problem is you try to log in and its impossible.

What happened? Well for starters the IP you wrote on your arm before heading out to class has changed. Secondly unless you have a roommate who can text you the new ip we… you are screwed. So what do you do? Well i have devised a ruby executable with just a couple of lines of code that can help. It will tell you your external ip when you run it. You will need Ruby and RubyGems also rubyscript2exe more info on the web.

But how do i run it if i’m not on my computer well you can do what i do:

1) Get a program that will run scheduled events (you could use Windows own sheduler or if you want something better try Dazzling Events great app for many things).

2) Shedule the program to run every hour with a BAT file and when runned it will output the IP into a text file.

3) Send that text file (unencrypted/unencoded) to an emai. This can be done with BLAT. What email to use well you could use Gmail (you will need to create a tunnel with SSL) if you want SSL encryption or Bluebottle (easier). Now why would i want to email it if all i want is to see it?

4) Now the fun part comes. You have runned the app every hour and are able to send it via email, why don’t you just post it on a blog or SMS to your cellphone (data charges will apply so unless you have an unlimited data plan don’t try this). For the blog you can use Blogger, it will let you update a blog from an email account. For SMS ask your provider usually it’s something like aaannnnnnn@provider.com (ie: 5555555555@txt.att.net). That way you will be able to know your computers IP from anywhere in the world.

This has been the cheap way to do this, with some time and luck I’m sure you can find a way to do everything easier. But for now try it out. Hope you have fun and now that we are in the subject try checking your torrents from afar uTorrent has a webui that you can set up and check your downloads from any browser.

Here is the code for all this:

Ruby (External IP Finder, let’s call it “externalipfinder.exe”)

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
 require 'win32ole'
 require 'open-uri'
 echocmd = "IP: "
 ip = ( open("http://myip.dk") {|f| /([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]
{1,3}/.match(f.read)[0].to_a[0]})
puts echocmd + ip

———————————————————————————————–

Bat file (This is what you run every hour)

@Echo off
 SET emailfrom=youremail@bluebottle.com
 SET emailto=blog.update@blogger.com
 SET password=yourpassword
externalipfinder.exe > MYip.txt
blat.exe MYip.txt -to %emailto% -u %emailfrom% -pw %password%
-f %emailfrom% -server mail.bluebottle.com:587 -s "External IP"

———————————————————————————————–

And that’s it… have fun for any more questions email me at info@abediaz.com

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Calendars

In this stressed day-2-day life we need some organization and this can be easily done with some simple free tools. For example Google has implemented a Calendar (http://calendar.google.com) where you can set public and private calendars and with the provided URL use a standalone program (or plugin Lighting) to update it offline. Here are the links to them…

Use Sunbird 0.5 for standalone (or Lighting for integration with Thunderbird) from:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/

Use the extensions to enable Google Calendar to download/upload automatically also holidays pr/us, and automatic export for backups

Also some extensions I use and Holidays to add:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QT28C3RU

Simple tutorial…

http://bfish.xaedalus.net/?p=239

To Publish a nice server is:

http://www.icalx.com

Other Links…

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/links.html

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Maine Solar House

Maine Solar House: “Yep you heard it right its an actual functioning solar house that not only generates its own energy but whatever energy it produces in excess gets directed to the grid. This idea has always been on my mind I hope that in the future i can equip my house with solar electric and solar thermal panels (Hurricane resistant of course) to economize money and leave a smaller footprint (once a boy scout always a boy scout).

CSI making DNA Interesting!

Classes give budding CSIs a reality check –: “Experts say curtailing some of the myths surrounding forensic science is becoming even more important because of what they call the “CSI effect” — the shows are giving juries unrealistic expectations of what their local crime labs are capable of doing.” This is something we have talked and fear, the fact that people are starting to believe Crime Labs are as sophisticated and Fun as the ones we see on TV every week. This has been known as the “CSI Effect” affecting jurors and judges all over the country. I have to say that CSI is one of my Favorite TV Series but this new phenomenon is making me shaky. Just remember people that TV is TV and Real life Crimes don’t take 1 Hour to be solved.

Muscle Twitch Switch — Genetic finding could mean “gain without pain”

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Muscle Twitch Switch — Genetic finding could mean gain without pain: “In the battle against flab, who wouldn’t love an ‘exercise’ pill? Such a quick fix might someday possible: biomedical researchers have found a way to rev up the metabolic machinery and thereby keep excess weight off–using genetics instead of the gym.”

“Ok what should I do this morning… Do I take the sit-ups pill or the jogging pill today”. Like MS used to say “Where would you like to go today?”

Do we really need a pill to do the exercise we should be doing? This is either Marvelous or Depressing you read and decide, but IMHO this makes Richard Simmons and many Nutritionists cry.

What will happen to Us? EPIC 2015 The Future

EPIC 2015 This is an amazingly put and maybe not so far from reality story. I strongly belief that Google will be the next “Microsoft” maybe not in OS’es area (even when a “GoogleOS” would be nice) but in every other aspect of our lives. No I’m not exaggerating, a few years back B. Gates said on a conference that “the future would be that the user didn’t have to go to the news but that the news went to the user via every appliance possible” (no we don’t have the New York Times on our fridges but close), nowadays this idea is a reality. The news, other media and every other piece of knowledge gets to the user via iPhones, PDA’s, RSS, Blogs, IM, etc. And what would happen if everything consolidated into a massive universal source? This is what this video presents. Interesting now… Maybe priceless on the future.

How Battlestar Galactica Killed TV

How Battlestar Galactica Killed TV: “While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for ‘word-of-mouth’ to spread about Battlestar Galactica.” This is absurd I can’t believe the shutdown these sites before actually reading the reports on ratings. This serves as an example of how the internet and specially “Bittorrent” has changed the way we watch TV. Form articles calling it “The Poor’s man TiVo” to people who just wanted to watch the show later. No it does not hurt Ratings, it does not hurt advertisers in fact as we have seen with Sci-Fi Channel it increases the range of audience and creates desires for shows on TV. This are the sites down and this is the post-script of “Piracy is good” A very good piece to read.

If the show has already been showed and you won’t be able to see it again, is it such a sin to download the episode of “Desperate Housewives” you missed. If you don’t have TiVo in your area, is it “ethically illegal” to downloaded and watch it on your “Media Center” later. And if you are seeing such a decrease in ratings (which I doubt), why don’t you step it up and move forward Broadband TV or why don’t you offer an iTunes for TV. Downloadable episodes with ads, maybe less Hi-Def but there is a long list of options to study before shutting down sites and people who in fact by “word-of-mouth” are bringing new viewers to their TV’s.

The Tech-Support Generation

MSNBC – The Tech Support Generation : “Millions of young Americans will head home next week to give thanks, eat turkey … and fix their parents’ computers” … UMMM Do you feel this way because I do. This is the new generation where the kids bring their playstaions, the elderly talk about their new disease or aching pain and we are mentally prepared and armed with a USB drive filled with all the tools they’ll need to fix the uncle’s computer or grandpa’s old PENTIUM III box. Yes if you are laughing or saying that is “SO” me, then let me welcome you to the club. We don’t mind actualizing your antivirus or even getting rid of spyware, we came prepare to eat turkey and spend 3 hours on the computer. Call us whatever you want nerds, geeks but remember “who’s gonna fix your computer on X-Mas”. I know some of us would love to see our family using Linux (heck that be great, grandma-SuSe (she just loves recompiling the kernel), uncle-Ubuntu, aunt-debian and cousin-freeBSD, would that be a happy family or what?) but face it that would be a Christmas miracle. Here’s a Link to Slashdot’s user comments . Just remember not to eat the whole turkey while we install Firefox and leave some pie while we run Spybot, but most important “Thanks” would be nice.

Are You A Comfort Addict?

Are You A Comfort Addict? : Is everything okay… but nothing great? This is the story of many, the pain of some and the only hope and strength for other. This article makes us go deep into ourselves, are we living the capitalistic dream, are we numbing our minds with cars, plasma tv’s and delicate quiches? Truly ask yourself are you living your dreamed life or are you “Martha Stewart Living”?

NASA – Hypersonic X-43A Takes Flight at MACH 10

NASA – Hypersonic X-43A Flight: “NASA’s X-43A Scramjet Breaks Speed Record”. This Nov 16 on the Pacific Ocean the X-43A Scramjet flew at MACH 10 that is at ten times the speed of sound (760 m/h). The most interesting part is that this rocket, instead of carrying liquid oxygen (as its oxidizer), takes the oxygen directly from the atmosphere. Finally some new stuff, I was getting bored by the same huge rockets attached to the “Space Shuttle” 😉 . For Video.