22 September 2009

Goodbye Jessy


We had a goodbye party from a friend of mine the other day. It was fun.

SSD Raid

So I bought these SSD drives right, but I had to wait for some time in order to get the raid controler. It's finaly here, now I can test the speed of this beast.
This image below is not mine, my phone screen broke so I didn't take any photos, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. It's a 4 x 256GB raid field. It should kick ass with my new 100mbit fiber-optic internet connection.

16 September 2009

Today's betting picks

Liverpool FC - Debreceni VSC (0:1) (Handicap) 1 1,25
Blackpool FC - Newcastle United (under/over 2.5) (Under/Over) 1 1,65 2.06

Flash ping pong

Here's a cool game I like to play every now and then.









Sorry, you will need the <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer/" target="_blank">Flash Player</a> to play Flash Ping Pong.

14 September 2009

pure-ftpd and tcpd_wrappers


Have you ever had to deal with fuckz0rs from all around the world trying to put shit on your server. Well I know I have to. Some of my customers got infected with some key-loggers and managed to get their ftp passwords stolen. Now I have to deal with that. This happened to me once before and the smartass datacenter admin was so thrilled to say: "you were 0wned, you were h4x0red, you were rooted, etc etc".
And Idiot that I was, I believed him. I started scanning my server for rootkits and that kind of shit instead of looking for the real thing. Just thinking about it makes me angry.

I've downloaded the binary and csv geoip database, managed to crawl through it via php module. I've got all the Slovenian IP ranges.Now I just have to configure pure-ftpd to work with tcpd_wrappers so I can get it to work with hosts.deny. Enough about that for now.

Any-who, I've ordered a new computer for myself today, it's been a long time since I've bought something for myself. For about two years now, I was only selling stuff ;) It's a quad-core with 8GB ram and 2TB hard drive, a kick ass graphics card and a big screen. All I have to do now is wait.



This is my current computer configuration

13 September 2009

Cool, beautiful, pretty, sci-fi nature wallpapers - PART 1

I was digging around my old files and found some HQ sci-fi nature wallpapers. I thought some of you could use them.

























12 September 2009

Machinarium

If you ever played World Of Goo, then you will definitely like this game.

Quote: "A little robot who’s been thrown out to the scrap yard behind the city must return and confront the Black Cap Brotherhood and save his robot-girl friend.
The game will be released in the fall of 2009
.

Soon I shall play you, soon!

REMOVE SPYWARE,MALWARE,VIRUSES FROM YOUR COMPUTER

This is simple tutorial on howto remove most of the crap that slows down your computer. It might also save you some money. We will remove viruses, spyware, malware, rootkits, keyloggers, and then some more.

1. DOWNLOAD FREE AVIRA-ANTIVIR

Avira antivir is out of the best (if not the best) free antivirus solutions. It will clean most of the things that need to be cleaned before we run combofix. Most importantly, it will clean your system files, if they are infected. So download, run it and reboot your computer afterwards.



2. DOWNLOAD COMBOFIX
Combofix is a powerful program that will clean your computer through more than 40 stages. It will clean the path for programs that will clean your computer for some other stuff that clog your hard drive.
IMPORTANT: close your antivirus program and anything else you have running. Combofix looks like one of those MS-DOS accounting programs you have running on your old computer, but it does the job far better than anything else out there.



3. DOWNLOAD SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY

Spybot search & destroy is a powerful program that will search for more than 50.000 malware,spyware,bots,trojans and other bad bad signatures. After combofix, it will clean your computer to a greater extent. You should already feel the speed increase in your computer after you ran combofix. This will improve it. Run it, it will probably take a lot of time, depending on in what state your computer is at the moment. Be patient, go get yourself a coffee or something. This will take a while.



4. DOWNLOAD HIJACK-THIS

Finally, download hijack this. It is a program that will remove some other nasty entries in your browsers and such.

Your computer should be crap free now. Good luck.

Michael Jordan: Highlights from Early in his Career

Multitasking

10 September 2009

Man travels through 37 countries on just £1

A man has cycled over 29,000 miles (45,000 km) through 37 countries after setting out from his home in Japan eight years ago with the equivalent of just £1.



Keiichi Iwasaki: He has been robbed by pirates and arrested in India, almost died when he was attacked by a rabid dog in Tibet and nearly married in Nepal. Photo: SWNS
Keiichi Iwasaki , 36, left on his Raleigh Shopper bicycle in 2001 to go on a tour of Japan.
But he enjoyed himself so much he caught a ferry to South Korea and since then has cycled through 37 countries without returning home.

He has been robbed by pirates and arrested in India, almost died when he was attacked by a rabid dog in Tibet and nearly married in Nepal.
In total Mr Iwasaki has cycled over 45,000km (27,961 miles) on his favourite Raleigh shopper bikes but two have been stolen and two have broken so he now rides his fifth.
His biggest achievement is climbing the world's highest peak Mount Everest, which stands at 8,848 m (29,029 ft), from sea level without using any transportation.
Mr Iwasaki, originally from Maebashi, Japan, says that only his ''strong will'' has kept him going.
He said: ''Most travellers and adventurers need money but instead of giving up an opportunity to travel the world I want to clarify that dream can come true if you have a strong will.
''I have been travelling for eight years and I continue to do so from money I receive from performing tricks. I do not carry a credit card or traveller's cheque.
''My strong will is very important and I hope this trip will prove that. I wanted to travel the world in my early twenties, but I have not been able to do so until I was 28.
''I thought to myself that 'My life will soon be over before I do what I want to do!', so I decided to start this trip.
''I didn't want to use aeroplanes because I wanted to see and feel everything with my own skin. With bicycle, I can always feel the air and atmosphere of the place.''
Mr Iwasaki left home on April 15 2001 with just 160 yen, around £1, in his pocket after he became bored working for his father's air-conditioning company.
He rode around Japan for one year before buying a one-way ticket to South Korea in March 2002.
Since then he has travelled the world on his Raleigh Shopper bicycles and funded his travels by performing magic tricks.
In May 2005, he became the first Japanese man to climb Mount Everest from sea level without using any transportation.
He has also rowed from the source of the Ganges river in India to the sea, a journey of 1,300km which took him 35 days.
Mr Iwasaki is currently in Switzerland waiting to climb Europe's highest peak, Mont Blanc.
Following this he plans to travel to Africa, across to South America and then make his way back to Japan for the first time in over a decade via North America.
He believes this will take him five years before he begins to write a book about his trip.
* Countries Mr Iwasaki has visited: South Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech, Austria, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, England, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Switzerland.

Worlds tallest abandoned structures

I've decided to save some interesting articles that I've stumbled upon while surfing the internet, to my blog. Here is one I found today.






Today, we’re going to do some urban exploring as we’re searching for the tallest abandoned structures around the world. We’re going to visit Russia, North Korea, the US and Poland on our quest for the rustiest. Once found, we’re going to climb the towers and buildings so make sure you leave your vertigo behind…
1. Ostankino Tower, Moscow – 540 m (1772 ft)
The Ostankino Tower was completed in 1967 to mark the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was the first free-standing structure to exceed 500 m (1640 ft) and held that title for nine years until it was surpassed by the CN Tower in Toronto in 1976. The Ostankino Tower is named after the Moscow district in which it is located.
The Ostankino Tower in all its glory…


Image via English Russia
…during the fire in 2000…

Image: Elke Wetzig
It served telecommunication, observation and tourism purposes until it caught fire in August of 2000 when most of the tower’s interior was destroyed. Rebuilding the heavily damaged tower proved a long and costly task, so that both the tower and the idea of renovation have been abandoned ever since.
… and a stomach-churning view down during construction:

Image via English Russia
2. Ryugyong Hotel, North Korea – 105 floors, 330 m (1,100 ft)
The Ryugyong Hotel was named after the historic name for Pyongyang, “capital of willows”, the district it can be found in. Unlike a willow and more like a pyramid that would be every skater’s dream, it towers over the city of Sojang-dong; the whole country in fact. Construction of the ambitious project began in 1987 as a response to Singapore’s Westin Stamford hotel built by a South Korean company the previous year.
Not yet under construction in June 2007:

Image: Timur
Construction went on for five years but ceased due to lack of funds, electricity and building materials. It was abandoned for 16 years, but construction resumed in 2008 and the hotel is now being readied to open its doors in 2012 for the 100th anniversary of Kim II Sung’s birth. With 360,000 sq m (3,900,000 sq ft) of floor space and 105 stories, it would be the world’s tallest hotel. It is currently the world’s 28th tallest building.
Something’s going on – in February 2009:

Image: Myouzke
3. Mystery Tower, somewhere in Russia – around 300 m (1,000 ft)
The next tower is one of Russia’s tallest abandoned structures but that’s pretty much all we know about it. It certainly looks like a TV or radio tower and someone without vertigo has made the climb up those icy steps to snap some dizzying pics.
Where do you even hold on?

Image via English Russia
The tower when it’s not frozen over:

Image via English Russia
4. PacBell Building, San Francisco – 26 floors, 133 m (435 ft)
Though almost 200 m shorter than the previous structure, the PacBell Building in San Francisco’s South of Market district can claim to be the world’s tallest abandoned skyscraper. It was completed in 1925 and housed the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph company, which is why it was called Pacific Telephone Building at first. Part of the Bell System, the company had bell motifs chiseled into its façade.
The PacBell Building rises behind SF’s MoMA:

Image: Christopher Beland
Renamed PacBell Building after the breakup of the two big phone companies, the Neo-Gothic office tower was sold to investor William Meany Sullivan and Stockbridge Capital Partners in 2007 at the recession price of $118 million. Though a request for a building permit was made in December 2008, no redevelopment has started yet.
Faded glory – the auditorium’s waiting room on the 26th floor in sunset glow:

Image: Jonathan Haeber
The PacBell eagles have kept a watch since 1925:

Image: Jonathan Haeber
5. Gliwice Radio Tower, Poland – 118 m (385 ft)
Radio Station Gliwice’s tower might not be the tallest abandoned structure mentioned here, but it has two records to its name: It is the only remaining radio tower constructed of wood in the world and the tallest wooden construction on earth.
The radio tower today:

Image: Tonkow1993
But that’s not all. The tower was completed in 1935 and with the impending Second World War, had a bit of a tumultuous history. It was used by the Nazis for broadcasting as Gliwice was a Prussian province until 1945 and therefore belonged to Germany. The Nazis even staged an attack on it by Polish soldiers as one of various border incidents on the night of August 31st, 1939 – an excuse for their invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 – a move that would start WWII, 70 years ago almost to the day.
Looking up at the wooden construction:

Image: Andrzej Jarczewski
The radio tower, nicknamed Silesian Eiffel Tower for some resemblance in construction to its famous Parisian cousin, was used until the 1980s. Though not in service any more, the tower has served as a museum since 2005. Most other wooden radio towers, popular in the ‘30s, disappeared by the ‘50s.
6. Broderick Tower, Detroit – 35 floors, 113m (369 ft)
The David Broderick Tower in Detroit, Michigan is a Neo-classical and Beaux-Arts limestone skyscraper completed in 1928. It was commissioned by Theodore Eaton, an importer and trader in chemicals and dyes, and was initially known as the Eaton Tower.
The Broderick Tower with a whale mural by local artist Wyland painted in 1997:

Image: Aaron Barth
The building was bought by David Broderick, an insurance broker, in 1945. Since Broderick’s death in 1957, the tower has changed ownership many times and closed completely in the 1980s. Except for bars or restaurants occupying the first floor, the building has been abandoned ever since. However, redevelopment has been underway and the tower is set to reopen in early 2010. Planned is a mall on the first four floors, office space on the two floors above and residential apartments on floors 5 through 34.
A view from the 17th floor down:

Image: Aaron Barth
A view from Broderick’s once exclusive Sky Top Club on the 33rd floor:

Image: Aaron Barth
Who would’ve thought that so many amazing towers and buildings would just get abandoned? If only we could put all that wasted space to use for where it is needed. Some of the buildings portrayed here are already under new contract while the others will have to crumble, er, fend for themselves.