First Project

Will be working on my first programming project this summer… a game! A few of my friends and I plan to make an open-source indie game for all platforms. Will update with info as planning commences.

Code for America

The Peace Corps now have a “geek” division, where students and developers can design web pages and write programs for charity. No degree or certification necessary, just skill!

Learning python

Although my friend insists Ruby is better, I feel Python was a good choice of language to learn over this summer. I do not yet feel comfortable enough with it to write formal tutorials, but I will provide links to the tutorials I have used thus far, to hopefully make it easier.

There are currently 2 versions of Python: version 2.x, and version 3.x. Version 3 is NOT backward compatible. Most of the world has not yet migrated from version 2.x, so I would learn version 2.x, then adjust to 3.x once more developers have formally adopted it.

Best tutorial for first learning:

http://docs.python.org/2.7/

Following this guide, all that remains is getting comfortable and familiar with various modules. This is the phase I am currently in. For GUI, I am looking through this guide as I type:

http://zetcode.com/tutorials/pyqt4/firstprograms/

Qt is a cross-platform GUI library, so I felt it would be a good first choice; however, users on Freenode (#Python) suggested trying various other GUI toolkits, as they “all suck a little bit”.

Will add more as I learn.

Fedora 19 Alpha

Trying Fedora 19 Alpha here in a few minutes…. will write review soon!

Procrastination

Finally stopped procrastinating and started learning python. I am not yet informed enough to produce a tutorial, but I will write about using python as a shell once I am familiar enough with it.

Dragonfly BSD 3.4

Dragonfly BSD 3.4 was just released, and has DPorts, an aptitude-like package manager using FreeBSD’s ports as a base.

I may try it.

Random

Random Tux wallpaper I found. It’s pretty cool/

Setting up secure communication/filesharing with Linux, UNIX, or BSD

Following recent US laws which minimalize the security of social networking sites, I myself am setting up a deepnet server I can use to chat with my friends, and am making a guide on how to set one up. It’s fairly easy and can work with nearly any computer that has a steady internet connection.

1.) Install Linux or BSD

I have a guide on choosing a Linux distro here

you will not need xorg or a desktop manager for this, so unless you plan to use the device for other purposes I would suggest not installing a graphic interface for better security and speed.

2.) Install talk and OpenSSH

for Ubuntu/Debian/Mint: (these should be included, but if not:)

apt-get install openssh

apt-get install talk

for Mandriva/Fedora/OpenSUSE: (these should be included, but if not:)

yum install openssh

yum install talk

for Arch Linux:

pacman -S openssh talk

for others, google how to do it.

3.) Configure ssh

The default settings will work fine, but if you want even more enhanced security read this

Also make sure to log in to your router, and if necessary, your modem, and ensure port 22 is forwarded to the IP of the machine you are configuring this on (this is where 99% of ssh problems come from)

Your modem should forward 22 to your router, then your router should forward 22 to your machine.

4.) Learn to use talk

I unfortunately am not at my server right now and cannot provide screenshots or an in-depth guide on using talk, but it should be simple. For instructions and info on talk, type:

man talk

or

info talk

5.) Configure talk

Again, defaults should be fine, but you can mess with the settings for more security

6.) Connect peers to server with ssh

Make an account for each peer you wish to speak to privately on the machine (useradd on most systems), and have them log in with ssh (ssh -l username@IP)(note this is the IP of your modem, which can be found by typing “IP” into Google)

ssh is a tricky program to figure out for newer users, and I haven’t seen many good guides on it. If you need help, ask on various Linux channels on Freenode (I’ve found #Fedora and #Ubuntu the most helpful)

You can check who is connected with the command “who”

7.) Talk to your peers

the command will be “talk person tty”

on my machine, “who” returns:

[peaceblaster@ArchMobile ~]$ who
peaceblaster :0 2013-04-22 10:55 (:0)
peaceblaster pts/0 2013-04-23 05:10 (:0)
peaceblaster tty2 2013-04-23 05:39

so to message user “peaceblaster”, I would type:

talk peaceblaster tty2

Why this is secure:

Essentially what this does is use very old UNIX components from the 1980s, which were made long before Facebook or Twitter were even possible. Ssh allows secure, encrypted logins from anywhere in the world, which are then used to chat on the server you have set up. By hosting your own server, the only one who has access to any logs is you, so Facebook, Google or any social networking company can’t be forced to give out your information to anyone who pays them enough. Since you use a raw IP instead of a domain, the network is in the “deepnet” or “darknet”, outside of the visible section of the web people call “the internet”.

The other convenient aspect of this setup is that OpenSSH comes with the program “sftp”, which allows equally secure file transfer between machines. The command for sftp is similar to ssh:

sftp username@IP

This will open a shell with which you can send and receive files (there is more on the shell in the man page for sftp)

There you go, secure messaging and filesharing for you and your friends. If you are very paranoid you can look up guides on securing OpenSSH.

P.S.

I noticed most of my readers are not from English-speaking countries, so I have done my best to make this readable. I hope I have done well.

Am I really that nerdy?

Snuggled up with a a blanket and a good book.
…and by that I mean vintage Star Wars bedding and a good Linux guide.

A dying culture

I know we can’t have the ’00s internet forever, but it is sad to watch beloved sites falling one by one:

Myspace lost fame and is now only used for band advertising

Facebook is overrun by ads, and is primarily used for sharing outdated memes

4chan is now where teenagers go to feel empowered by “Anonymous”

Digg is just dead

IRC is where Linux gurus go to show off

Google plus is a dream deferred

R.I.P. Megauploads

Tumblr’s for girls fawning over British actors and Feminists ranting to themselves

cheezburger/memebase is where memes go to die

Should I expect more to keep falling? Will newer sites spring up to replace them?

I’ve been looking for smaller, more intellectual communities interested in coding and/or hacking (by the reclaimed definition) and/or anything computer science related, any ideas?

Reddit seems to have survived, and things like PBS’s ideachannel give me hope