Writing by shinda on Thursday, 17 of August , 2006
Wikipedia is probably the most used site (outside of Google) for research and just generally passing time. With that known I was kind of surprised to find this as being at the home page as there featured article of the day: Sikhism.
Millions of people log onto Wikipedia daily, so that means potentially a million people have read that article.
One small step for man, one giant leap for the Sikh kind …. or is it?
Category: Announcement, Sikhi, Tech
Writing by shinda on Wednesday, 2 of August , 2006
One of the biggest pains in hosting a website comes when you realize that you need to switch servers, or mirror a website. Ideally your initial server should do you just fine, but theres always those times when you find a better deal, the initial server gets hacked and you need to move, or for whatever reason you need to move your site, to another server.
Now if your site hosts a lot of files, this can present itself to be a problem in fact become a quite cumbersome ordeal especially if you have a slow Internet connection or limited bandwidth.
It is in that problem that lies the solution which is this script. I searched around for a bit to find a script that could help me mirror a copy of a website, but there was nothing that was simple.
Luckily PHP can handle FTP protocol seamlessly so creating a script wasn’t all that much of an ordeal.
Usage
1) Fill out the FTP connection information
$ftp_server = "ftp.yourftpaddress.com";
$ftp_user_name = "ftp-username";
$ftp_user_pass = "ftp-password";
$ftp_dir = "/your/folder/here/";
2) Enter the URL where you want to copy all files from ftp to.
$dirLocal = "/your/local/folder/goes/here/";
*** Make sure that the folder is writable (CHMOD 777)..
3) Save and upload to your server.
4) Run ftp.php by visiting the URL or running the cron job.
Notes
The only testing this script got was when I used it to copy over all my sites from the old server over, and it worked, so theres no super bugs to report.
This is version 1, I doubt that I’ll make a version 2, and don’t think that a nice front-end is necessary. After all the fact that you’re responsible for copying over the site dictates that you have some degree of computer/programming knowledge.
If the script seems to hang up then just stop the page and refresh. Script is smart enough to not replace existing files (if they match that is, and if your server supports ftp_size() );.
No idea if file resume works. I tried to code it in, but never came abouts to testing it.
Warning
This script has the potential to mess up your server if used improperly. By reading and using this, you agree that I am not liable in any shape or manner for any damages and or loss of data that may occur. With that said, I don’t expect the script to wreak all that much havoc on a properly configured server, however you have been warned.
Download
PHP Server Copy V .01
Category: Tech
Writing by shinda on Tuesday, 11 of April , 2006
For a while now I’ve been looking to find ways to improve my torrent download speeds, after all the only thing better then being able to download anything, is to be able to download anything fast.
Firstly, if you have no clue what Torrents are, then understand them to be the latest fad in downloading and sharing files. I could go into more depth on it, but if you havn’t needed or used torrents yet, the chances of you needed using torrents is pretty slim.
Firstly let’s deal with the basics:
The Client
The client is the program used to actually download the files. Now I’ve used most of them out there and I can cleary say that BitComet is by far the best.
- Azereus slowed down my computer, making it a pain to download and work normally , but it does come loaded with features.
- BitTornado, didn’t deliver on the speed, and lacked the User Interface,
- BitLord an adware / spyware version of BitCommet.
So my advice is to get BitComet. It works, its fast, doesn’t have problems, what more could you ask for.
Change your DMZ settings
If you’re using a router, chances are your computer doesn’t have direct access to the internet. You can change that by enabling DMZ or port forwarding, that way your computer can get direct access to the internet (indeed making your computer more susceptible to being hacked, and getting a virus, but you may get faster downloads).
Choose your Torrent Files wisely.
Nearly all torrent sites list the number of seeds and peers. A good torrent file is one where the seeds:peer ratio is closest or greater then 1. So a file with a seed-peer ratio of 50:50 is better then one with a ratio of 50:1000.
Disable Windows firewall.
Yes it puts you at the mercy of hackers and virus’s, but it also helps improve download speeds.
To disable windows firewall:
- Go to Control Panel.
- Click Windows Firewall.
- Click on off and go OK.
You could configure your settings and all that, and still have your firewall on, but that would require further explanation and I don’t want type all that up. Also chances are you got other firewalls that came installed with windows, that you may need to configure / turn off, which I’ll leave you to figure out on how to do on your own.
Now that we got the basics out of the way, there are a few other things you could try, such as patching your windows and changing the number of open ports and also capping your upload speeds.For more info on how to do those and some other tips check out this thread on torrentfreak.com.
As always, I can’t guarantee that doing all the above will fix things but if you are having problems, then you can try each step individually and one of these may just work for you.
Category: Tech
Writing by shinda on Monday, 3 of April , 2006
Add the Satnam Singh Banner to your blog or site.
Just add the following code right after the body tag in your site template.
[code lang=”java”]
Wikipedia is probably the most used site (outside of Google) for research and just generally passing time. With that known I was kind of surprised to find this as being at the home page as there featured article of the day: Sikhism. 
