Archive - Tutorials Category

Technology Experimentation Tips

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

1. Read read and read some more. If you’re new to technology this may seem overwhelming. Technology, whether it be programming, computers, gadgets, etc, you need to read up on the subject. Once you get used to using more advanced/technical devices, you will find that keeping up with changes in technology is not that difficult. More advanced reading will require specific forums, for things such as modification or “hacks”.

2. Get help if you need it. Use forums! If you have an issue with something, why not make use of forums? They are free support. Generally there is a forum for every niche in the technology realm.

3. Read books. If you are studying a particular device, and trying to make a technical modification there are probably books available for it. An example would be Xbox modification.

4. Use your imagination. If you want to make a device do something it’s not intended for, find out if it’s possible. Chances are if it’s possible someone has already done it.

5. Stick to it. The old saying applies. “If at first you don’t succeed try, try, and try again.”

Some people may not realize that the Internet is FULL of information that you sometimes have to dig for. I mentioned a few times that FORUMS are probably the most wealthy in free knowledge on advanced, specific subjects. Don’t forget blogs though, they have also been useful for me when I’m dealing with specific issues. This blog was primarily started to *hopefully* provide easier access to some information that I have dugg up from forums.

Replacing a Motherboard

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

Well, if you remember my old GA-P35-DS3L failed. ( http://technologyinsanity.com/insanity/the-ga-p35-ds3l-has-failed/ ) I had to get a new motherboard. So, how hard is it to replace one? Probably about as hard as building from scratch :)

*Note* Always ground yourself by touching the metal case of the computer or using a grounding wrist band.

First of all you have to remove everything connected to the motherboard. That includes the PCI/PCI-Express/AGP cards, the IDE/Sata cables, case cables, and the power cables. Once that’s done, you must unscrew all the mounting screws used to keep the motherboard in place. They are located in many different areas on the board. Once you’re done, you should be able to gently lift the motherboard out of the case.

emptycase

(This is how my case looked after I removed the motherboard. )

The next step is to remove the heat sink and fan from the old motherboard. The removal process should be documented if you have a stock heat sink/fan, or if you have an aftermarket cooler you should be able to look it up. The removal process will vary.

Once that’s done, you’ll have to remove the CPU, or processor from the old motherboard. There’s generally a latch by the cpu socket that you have to push down and then up to release the CPU. Place the CPU into the new motherboard and pull the latch down. Some older processors have pins on them so you should be careful. The next thing you’re going to want to do is remove the ram sticks from the old motherboard by pressing down on the release latches. Move them to the new motherboard as well, press them firmly into the memory socket.

processor

(Processor and Ram moved to new location)

The next thing you want to do is wipe off the old thermal paste and create a mirror finish on the top of the processor. Then reapply artic silver, or some other kind of thermal paste.

as5Next, you will  also want to create a mirror finish on the  heat sink and attach the heat sink to the new motherboard.

heatsinkWith that done, it seems it’s time to move the motherboard over to the case and mount it with the screws taken off the old motherboard. Then, all that needs to be done is to attach all the PCI/PCI-Express/AGP Cards, connect the power, and IDE/Sata cables. Not quite finished yet. There are some little wires hanging off your case you’re probably going to want to connect again to your case, otherwise your power button isn’t going to work :) Look up the pins for the connector in your motherboard manual. Then, hit the power switch :)

Next you’ll probably have to reinstall Windows or whatever OS you choose. You can backup your data by using a Linux LiveCD and copying them to a flash drive or another hard drive. You could also try following this guide: Replace Your Motherboard Without Killing Windows

Hopefully this will prove useful to someone out there :D

IRC XDCC Tutorial

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

So I get asked this question a lot, and I’m tired of explaining it. Leeching various (legal) things from IRC is not difficult. So, let’s get started.

Introduction

IRC, or Internet Relay Chat has been around for ages, and many still use it today. If you don’t use it, you’re missing out. This is not a Yahoo chat, nor an AIM chat. Most channels are controlled by bots. (Programs placed on servers) These bots do various things such as automatically banning spammers, holding the operator position in the channel, or maybe even trivia. There are also other kinds of bots, one is called an XDCC bot. They are in certain channels where you may download various things.

What’s needed

First, you’re going to need an IRC client. This could be mIRC, which is probably the most popular, XChat, Irssi, or anything else that connects to the IRC protocol and has DCC (Direct Client to Client) functions. I am going to use XChat for the example, because it pretty much works well with transfers right out of the box.

Start up XChat, click do not display this message again when the first pop up box shows up. Exit out of that.

Basic commands

/server irc.xxxx.tld – Sets the irc server you wish to connect to. (Example /server irc.technologyinsanity.com)

/join#channel  – Lets you join a channel while connected to a server. (Example /join #technologyinsanity)

/msg USER <message> – private messages a user on the network you’re connected to. (Example /msg s0uThp4rk what’s up?)

Network Services

Some may require you to register with nickserv or get a vhost (a virtual host, which would be s0uThp4rk@the.cow.com instead of s0uThp4rk@myip.resolvedhost.tld)

In such cases, here are some basic commands for that.

/msg nickserv register <password> <email>

Then, generally you will join #vhost and send the message !vhost your.vhost.tld

Requesting Packs

In order to request a pack from an XDCC bot, you must be in the channel that has such bots, and meet the requirements for the bot if there are any. You may use an XDCC search engine such as packetnews.com or xdccing.com. I would not recommend you use these websites without adblock plus enabled. You can then click on the pack or one of the other links and it will try to automatically open XChat and join the channel. An alternative would to idle in a channel and request a pack you want when you see it. You could also install a script to “catch” xdcc packets and request them from a window within the script.

The general command for requesting a pack is:

/msg <botname> xdcc send #<packnumber>

Then you have to accept the send, or wait in queue until an open slot is available. You can also set xchat to automatically accept sends in the preferences.

Conclusion

That should be about it for this introductory. Instead of leeching things from xdcc channels, maybe you would rather chat? Check out my channel at irc.technologyinsanity.com #technologyinsanity :)

xdccpacks

Packs on XDCC. These are not legal, however..


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Switching to permalinks

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

If you haven’t already, you should really switch to permalinks. /?p= is an unfriendly, unSEO link. Go to your settings –> Permalink and set custom like this /%category%/%postname%/

Okay, so at first glance that seems easy enough right? Well yeah.. Not so much. First of all, I had to enable mod_rewrite in apache. (Remember I’m on a VPS) That wasn’t difficult, you just use the command a2enmod on Ubuntu/Debian systems. Now with that done, I could use the .htaccess file generated by WordPress to serve up the new fancy URLs. Wait.. My old /?p= are not being forwarded to the new fancy urls. Well, a simple plugin called Permalink Redirect solves that issue.

Now comes the real fun. Everytime I go to try and access my stats, I get a 404. The stats folder is clearly there, but I cannot access it. So, I remove the .htaccess on that folder. I can now access it, but it’s no longer password protected :D I really wasn’t sure if this was caused by ISPConfig or the .htaccess.

So I searched around for quite some time. The solution is simple, when you go to a password protected area it looks for the 401 and 403 error files first, before giving you a login prompt. With the new rewrite in place, all the errors are now on the WordPress theme. It doesn’t have these errors, so the resulting error is 404 not found.

Anyway, how do you fix this issue? Simple, add the following lines to your .htaccess file in the root directory.

ErrorDocument 401 /[path_to_file]/myerror.html

ErrorDocument 403 /[path_to_file]/myerror.html

That’s it! Problem solved. I can now access my stats directory with the password, and permalinks are working.

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