Doc Blades

Connecting to SPSU wireless in Ubuntu with wicd

I’ve noticed from browsing forums and from my own personal experience, connecting to any WPA encrypted wireless network in Ubuntu is less than stable. In my own experience, my connection stops every 10 or 15 minutes.

To solve this problem, I recently switched to Wicd and now I get a nice stable connection on my home wireless. But here at Southern Poly, I had some trouble connecting to the wireless network. After some googling, I found this script: http://wicd.net/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=200. What I’m follows is a step by step HOWTO for connecting to Southern Polytechnic State University’s wireless network in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala.

1. Add the wicd package
   

   sudo apt-get install wicd

   It’s going to want to remove network-manager, but don’t panic, you won’t miss it. After the install, the gnome panel is going to complain about network manager not working, but this is also normal.

2. Download this template (eap-ttls) to your desktop and move it to your /etc/wicd/encryption/templates folder.
   

   sudo mv ~/Desktop/eap-ttls /etc/wicd/encryption/templates

3. Now add the template to wicd’s active list
   

   sudo echo eap-ttls >> /etc/wicd/encryption/templates/active

4. Start wicd.In the menus, click “Applications”->”Internet”->”Wicd Network Manager”
5. Find “hornet” in the network list.
6. Click Properties.
7. Leave all of the choice boxes unclicked except for Use Encryption.
8. In the drop down box, choose EAP-TTLS
9. Under Identity, type your user name (the part of your school email address that comes before @spsu.edu)
10. Under Password, type your password. The same one you use for your school email.Your property window should look like this, now.
11. Click Ok.
12. Now click Connect and you should be good to go.

Rapidstack – For Searching Rapidshare, Of Course

This is one of those strange finds that happens when I’m thinking about starting a new project. I was downloading something from Rapidshare and I thought to myself “I wonder if I could scour the web for Rapidshare links? See what’s out there, and what not.” Yes, I talk to myself like I’m in a Sherlock Holmes novel.

Anyway… the point is that I searched to see if someone had already made and app to search for Rapidshare links and, in fact, someone had. I found Rapidstack, a nice ajax-driven search engine. It even claims that it weeds out all of the dead links before displaying the results. I’ve had no problems with any of the links I’ve found, so I’d have to say that it does its job.

It has left me wanting something more, though. Because of Google Analytics, I’m now addicted to graphs. Pretty pretty graphs. I can only imagine what the graphs of keywords from Rapidshare links would look like.

[Rapidstack]

Twisten.fm Lets You Listen to What Others Are Twittering About

Yet another music service using Grooveshark (or by Grooveshark… yes definitely by them). This one trolls Twitter updates looking for Tinysong links, and gives you a convenient play button so you can just start listening without navigating away.

It’s a great way to discover new music. That is, it will be until Twitter becomes so mainstream that all those people from Myspace start using it. Then it’s back to looking for needles in haystacks. Or just back to Last.fm.

[Twisten.fm]

TinySong – Easy Way to Share Your Poor Taste in Music

Ever wanted to share what you’re listening to with all of your social networked friends? No? Not a Myspace fan, huh?

Well, this is different.

TinySong lets you create a, well, tiny url for a song. It’s perfect for Twitter, or even a Facebook status because the average url comes in at 24 characters. It uses Grooveshark’s huge database of songs, so you’re almost guaranteed to find the song you want. In fact, when click on a TinySong link, you’ll be taken to the Grooveshark page for that song, so there are no surprises. In other words: no surprise Rick Rolls.

So, give it a ty. http://tinysong.com/1Xa

Facebook’s Gift Remains Wrapped Until Valentines

Two updates in a row! That’s gotta be some sort of record, or something.

This one I really do like. For this Valentines, you can send your sweetie, or friend, or bed-buddy, a nice Valentines gift that will remain wrapped until Valentine’s Day. No peeking, even.

The gift will remain on the giftee’s wall until midnight on the 14th, building suspense about what it could possibly be.

Brilliant!

Thanks, Facebook.

“I Like This” on Facebook: Bringing Laziness to Comments

Facebook is at it again. Within the last year or so, Facebook has added new features that have, in my opinion, changed the way we think of social networks. The ability to on just about every action your friends make is a feature that I use on a daily basis, and honestly can’t imagine living without.

But now, like the original poke, Facebook has added a lazy way to show your friends that you’re paying attention to them. On your feeds, next to the comment link, you will now find a “like” link. Instead of writing an insightful and well thought out message (I know, noone actually does that), you now have the option to simply “like” their status changes, new book choices, or group joins.

I’m honestly opposed to the idea of making people lazier. Really, what’s so hard about typing a few words. Something thoughtful, like “I’m so glad you’ve decided to join the Ricky Martin fan club, but we can no longer hang out.” Or something inspirational, like “Learn the difference between its and it’s, retard.”

Society is crumbling around us.

Edit:

Apparently it was on the Facebook blog at 9pm last night, but the addict I am, I’m sure I would have noticed if it had been implemented anytime before 3pm EDT today.

People like KDE better than Vista

As two Aussie’s discover, people like KDE better than Vista.

Of course, in order to get people to look at it, they told them it was Windows 7.

Draw your own conclusions.

Free Sam & Max or Strongbad (SCG4AP) Episode Until Feb 28

Time to break out the disposable email accounts.

Telltale Games, the makers of the latest incarnation of the Sam & Max games, not to mention the new Strongbad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, are giving away an episode of one or the other if you subscribe to their newsletter.

If you’ve never played either one, now is the time to try it out. They are well-made games, geared toward the casual gamer. You’ll have fun, I promise. Strongbad is basically an extended, more interactive version of Strongbad’s email from Homestarrunner. Sam & Max is an updated version of the old Lucasart games from the early 90’s.

Oh, and in case you don’t have or don’t want to make a disposable email address, I’ll teach you a little trick with your Gmail account.

Sign up with your Gmail email address, but with a slight addition:

Say your email address is “some.guy@gmail.com”.

1. For the registration, type: “some.guy+deleteme@gmail.com”. Gmail will ignore anything after the plus sign and forward it on to your account.
2. Go to Gmail and click “Create a Filter”, which is next to the search box.
3. In the “To:” box, type ” some.guy+deleteme@gmail.com”
4. Click Next
5. Check “Skip the Inbox”, or if you really never want to see it again “Delete it”
6. Check “Also apply filter to n conversations below”
7. Click “Create Filter”

You’re welcome.

[Via Downloadsquad]

Gmail adds Multiple Inboxes

Yesterday, Gmail intruduced a new feature in the labs: Multiple Inboxes.

First thought when I heard about it? “Oh, now I can stop forwarding my student account and other Gmail based accounts to my main account and just access them all from the same space.” You know, 9 accounts were given to the Christian, but in secret another ring was forged…

I was only mildly disappointed.

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