Hi, everyone, welcome back to the Fall 2007 semester. This post is a follow up to my previous post on instructions about how to get DC++ working at Stony Brook University. DC++ is a very fast and reliable file sharing client. But please do keep things legal. I do not endorse using DC++ for illegal purposes.

Please following the previous tutorial located here. The reason I wrote a part 2 to this tutorial is because after going though the tutorial, some people are getting this error.

<CroBot> This hub is running version 0.3.36 of the Shadows Direct

Connect Hub Software.

That error can mean two things:

• You are not sharing enough data, you need to share 2GB’s or more. Hash them.
• You have too few upload slots available. Go to settings and sharing and make 5 upload slots.

Doing these two things will allow you to connect to DC++ successfully!

Remember, our hub name is sbushare.no-ip.info. Use DC++ Legally!

If you keep up with my blog, you would know that I’m a regular at Digg.com. A social networking website and if you are familiar with Digg, then you should be familiar with the “Digg effect“. The Digg effect is term coined to mean the amount of digg users to visit your website to causing a server downtime.

Definition of the Digg Effect:
“Digg has grown large enough that submissions sometimes create a sudden increase of traffic to the “dugg” website. This is referred to by some Digg users as the “Digg effect” and by some others as the site being “dugg to death“. However, in many cases stories are linked simultaneously on several popular bookmarking sites. In such cases, the impact of the “digg effect” is difficult to isolate and assess.”

The Experiment
Out of curiosity, I decided to setup an experiment to see my University’s servers at Stony Brook have the bandwidth to withstand the force of the “digg effect“. The web page being used for this experiment is my personal homepage on the university student sites.

My Hypothesis
I believe that servers at a University such as Stony Brook University should be able to handle a sudden increase in traffic such experienced in a digg effect.

http://digg.com/design/Can_University_Servers_Stand_the_Digg_Effect…

I hope that this will be an successful experiment and that users of the Digg community will participate. I’m very excited to see the outcome of this!

BTW: This is my Stony Brook student page.

When Apple OS X 10.5 comes pre-installed with the shipped MacBooks — Will be the time I will purchase it with the Stony Brook University discount. Under the university discount, I’m able to get it for a small -$100. I hope by the time it, OS X 10.5 comes out pre-installed on MacBooks, the hardware would be upgraded as well. That means increased clock speeds on the Intel Duo Core CPU, more RAM or faster RAM, a larger hard drive and maybe a better integrated graphic chip. Anyhow Apple has always been good at surprises so I will keep my fingers crossed.

I’ve always wanted a Mac but never made that final decision because of software incompatibility issues but new features will make that problem non-existent. Some new features of OS X is the Time Machine feature which is similar to System Restore on Windows but would be much more user friendly. Another new feature would be BootCamp coming out of beta which allows you to install and dual boot with Windows on Intel based Mac’s. Improvements would be done to Spotlight, the system on-the-fly search tool.

This is a chart of improvements that I would like to see in the next MacBook.*

So if you’re ready for a Mac like me, get a discount through someones academic voucher. Save $100 and use it towards more RAM.

* Of course these specifications are just my hopeful predictions.

I’ve been using a web 2.0 application that was in beta and required invites only for about a month now (called Mint), and I have to say that it is one of THE BEST web 2.0 applications out there. The reason I did not mention it sooner is because I had to respect the press embargo they requested. I could not blog or post screen shots about the beta experience. But if I blogged about it, it would have all been positive stories! This is highly recommended! Learn more about mint, keep reading… Introducing MINT!

So what is Mint anyway? “Mint allows you to view all of your banking and credit card transactions side-by-side, making identifying all of your transactions much easier and faster than ever before.

How does this help you? We make it easy for you to track down erroneous charges or bank fees, and keep a closer eye on your money.

Mint even lets you label your transactions so you know what bills you need to split with your friends or roommates, know which ones need to be reimbursed for your company, and more.”

Features? Wow features! Too many great features to list, read them all here!

I think everyone who has any type of bank account should have a Mint account, it is essential just like having a Google Account. The green interface is robust and sexy. It’s just so easy and friendly to use!

Sign up for Mint today!

Just released from beta literally 30 minutes ago, get it while its hot!

People who are tired of seeing ads on their browsers have been using Firefox’s AdBlock plugin for some time now to block those annoying ads from websites such as MySpace an DoubleClick. But now they are saying that they will sue the creators of AdBlock because it is costing them substantial amounts of revenue.

There is an estimate of 2.5 million plus AdBlock users which means that all 2.5 million of those users skip out on 1,000+ ads we encounter everyday. Thats a whopping 250 billion ads blocked each day. You can begin to imagine how much money they are loosing. If you ever hosted ads on Google via their AdWords program, you know how expensive it can be. It was like $5 a keyword click they would charge you. Imagine Google loosing $5 x 2.5 million because of AdBlock!

AdBlock and Filter.G are again Firefox plugins that automate the blocking of these ads on any website. There is a lawsuit going on that might end the use of these programs. So take my advice and install them and update them before it may be too late! I’m a proud user of them and will hate to see it go away. For those of you who has never tried it, I highly recommend it, you will not be sorry, I promise! Ads are not just annoying, they make pages longer to load!

Actually by doing this, I’m loosing out on money too because my Google ads would be blocked but still I advocate for this plugin! My loss is your gain! Seriously!

If you refer to my previous blog here, you can get info on how to download them.

That’s right, too bad for the guys at iPhoneSimFree. They were the first to announce the software hack for the Apple iPhone which allows you to unlock the iPhone up to version 1.02. On their website, they sell it for $60 per license. But now a group of hackers announced a free open source version of the unlock software called iUnlock! Thank god for the open source community!

Currently the open source packages are scattered around the net, if you want to hack your iPhone, you can figure out what packages to use but if you want to wait a little longer, someone will put together the complete package with detailed tutorials. iPhoneSimFree should not have waited this long to release their hack to the public, that wait cost them a lot of potential money because that was the only hack available at the time, now there is a free competition.

Free Open Source v.s Commercial: Open Source wins if it promises to do the same job. iPhoneSimFree doesn’t even guarantee that their software works for versions after 1.02. I’m sure if the open source hack gets popular, they will make it work for any version of Apple’s firmware. That’s why I love open source, they update each step of the way!

For information about the packages and actually do the hack see here!
BTW, there’s also a GUI hack too which is confirmed to work!

:: Update :: anySIM Download
Get anySIM free for download here!

Okay, it’s about time I blogged to push Vanessa Hudgens down a slot. Over the past 4 days or so, blogging about Vanessa Hudgens and including pictures was a great hit, not only did I made $30 a day via Adsense but I got over 4000+ hits in that period of time. So enough of that! A little update about Vanessa though, generally Vanessa’s fans support her all the way and accepts that she made a mistake. Okay so next story…

A couple of days ago, I went to a photo shoot for my Stony Brook Blog and the pictures finally came in today. I personally wasn’t too happy of them. I initially thought that they were going to be great because they were taken by professional photographers but I guess it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Here are some of the pictures:

So moving on, I went to the NYPIRG office in Stony Brook University for the first time today. For those of you who reads my blog knows that I’ve been canvassing for NYPIRG since May. I love the organization so much that I signed up to volunteer to work on the campaigns at school! I’m going to do voter registrations soon! Watch out!

I got an email today notifying me that PayPerPost approved my account! I can now start making sponsored paid money. PayPerPost is another awesome way to make some good money using your blog and a great alternative to Google Adsense. The way it works is that sponsors will pay us bloggers if we talk and advertise their product or services.

How I got involved with PPP was simple. I was simply looking for a way to make money with my blog, you know.. a little money on the side. And I visited PPP and found that people were making thousands from just typing a blog post. It’s really that easy and anyone who owns a blog outside of MySpace or Blogger are basically eligible to do this.

What I plan to do with the extra cash? Well, I’m gonna first, pay for my hosting for my website. The extra money that comes out of it will go to investing in various web services to better my website and blogging experience, maybe get equipment for my soon to come podcast. So sign up for PayPerPost, it’s highly recommended by me!

PayPerPost is highly recommended for any blogger to make money, defiantly another service you should use if you are already using Google Adsense.

Blog advertising

Probably no one will read this because everyone is reading Engadget or something but I will post this anyway for those who frequent my blog. Rumors of Apple’s iTouch and the “Fatty” iPod Nano were true. They even reinvented the regular iPod and now calls it the iPod Classic. Three new designs for the iPod, the iTouch is exciting, Apple yet again continues to take the mp3 market by storm.

The “fatty” iPod mini was exactly what rumors predicted. Images were released last week on blog sites of the new iPod mini. Apple quickly took legal action to get them to take it down. That move by Apple directly confirmed that the ugly design was indeed the one that they manufactured. By the looks of that thing, it’s essentially a regular iPod that shrunk in height. In my opinion, it is pretty ugly, for those of you out there still looking for an iPod mini, buy yours today before they sell out. They are cheaper now and still better looking than the new.The iPod classic looks exactly the same as the 5th generation Apple iPod. One physical difference I noticed was that it has a bevel, unlike the 5th generation, the screen is now bulged up like the 4th generation. The music library interface has some improvements but no major change or new features were noted. Again, there is no real benefit in upgrading.

Now the iTouch is something to rave about! It features all the things on an iPhone without the phone. Yes, it does internet, yes it does YouTube and they do it at an affordable price of $299 for the 8GB model. Physically, it looks like an exact replica of the iPhone which is good. Something else that is new is that it has the ability to now wirelessly download music from iTunes, I think this feature will defiantly boost sales from the music store because it will be the only other way as of now to get music without a computer. I was really hoping that they allow it to share music like they have it with the Microsoft Zen and then have an option to also but it via iTunes if one likes. This product will sell because there are no contracts with AT&T involved or other fees.

I’m seriously considering getting one because it’s simply HOT! The only thing that is stopping me right now is that I just got a iPod about 2 months ago. I should have waited.

Never mind the “Rob K” part of the title, it’s an inside joke for a friend of mine!

Did you ever want to know your IP address but didn’t know how to get it? Well there are several ways. One with the ipconfig command if you’re on Windows or the arp command on Linux/Unix and two if you go to whatsmyip.org but there’s something way better for you guys out there! And for Rob.

There is MoanMyIP.com where a voice of a girl moans your IP address to you. Man, things you find on the internet these days… But I’d rather have a girl who’s about to have an orgasm scream out my IP address to me than to type having to type in a few commands to get it! Nothing beats this, not only does she read it out for you, but in a voice to die for.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not responsible if you get fired at your job for simply trying to look for your IP address. If you need to hear your IP at work, you can go to HearMyIP.com. It’s owned by the same people but HearMyIP allows you to hear it in a male robotic voice. It guarantees your job at the end of the day.

TIP: If you go and visit the site multiple times, she says some pretty unique things before she reads your IP address again. Check it out, go back a few times!