Why GNU/Linux Rocks

[shikitohno]

This is an interesting article, looks like ISP's are finally going to play nice with copywrite holders and start cracking down on "pirates".

ISPs To Begin Punishing BitTorrent Pirates This Summer



As a follow up question, is there any way to make an FTP client log in via SSH and encrypt all download traffic during the session, so if for example you were downloading something from a server, the ISP couldn't see what it was? Hypothetically. Or is this how FTP works anyways?

For ways to transfer things that are more secure than standard FTP, there's SFTP, FTPS, and SCP. SFTP is probably going to be easy for you to set up, though if you've got ssh installed on the hypothetical remote server, scp will already be installed.

[sgreger1]

If it comes to that I will download the torrent remotely with a server and then encrypt it coming to the house via SFTP. Since I have TWC.

This is the one I was referring to here ^^^. If someone were already downloading them remotely on a server in a foreign country with a foreign ISP, you could just easily SFTP if from that server to your local machine and there would be no way for them to say anything right? The way the new enforcement thing works is that copywrite holders tell the ISP "Hey this person is stealing our shit" and then the ISP send out a bunch of warning letters and maybe eventually shuts off your internet after 3 strikes. So they can't really track you downloading something off a server if you were to do that, only if you were actually downloading via utorrent or something from what I understand.

And they aren't going after only uploaders but also those downloading via bitorrent etc. Apparently they have companies that get on trackers and join the swarm and somehow get enough info to identify your IP address if you download.

[devilock76]

This is an interesting article, looks like ISP's are finally going to play nice with copywrite holders and start cracking down on "pirates".

ISPs To Begin Punishing BitTorrent Pirates This Summer



As a follow up question, is there any way to make an FTP client log in via SSH and encrypt all download traffic during the session, so if for example you were downloading something from a server, the ISP couldn't see what it was? Hypothetically. Or is this how FTP works anyways?

Well first of all there is the SFTP protocol, Secure FTP. However they are talking about file sharing, and going after users posting stuff (I am assuming). Not sure what they are going to do about torrent downloads unless they are monitoring your network traffic.

If it comes to that I will download the torrent remotely with a server and then encrypt it coming to the house via SFTP. Since I have TWC.

Ken

[devilock76]

Yah APPLE TV is also similarly priced and does pretty much the same thing too. I guess the difference is that the R Pi is also a full blown computer, and this is just one of many features you get. Kind of like how I could buy an Xbox for gaming at only $199 and it comes pre-configured for just that purpose, but it doesn't really compare to buying a whole computer which can do gaming amongst other things.

I got my R Pi for $35 shipped (they keep changing the price but had to honor the original prices), and already have a bunch of SP cards but the whole thing is just a toy anyways, I already have a roku and an xbox lol.

Apple TV last I checked was $99 actually. And I don't think it can use DLNA, I think it ties to your iTunes account which if that is all you use it is almost a step up from DLNA, and then you don't have to drive your Porsche to Blockbuster...

Ken

[sgreger1]

This is an interesting article, looks like ISP's are finally going to play nice with copywrite holders and start cracking down on "pirates".

ISPs To Begin Punishing BitTorrent Pirates This Summer



As a follow up question, is there any way to make an FTP client log in via SSH and encrypt all download traffic during the session, so if for example you were downloading something from a server, the ISP couldn't see what it was? Hypothetically. Or is this how FTP works anyways?

[sgreger1]

cost SD card + Rasberry Pi + Shipping > the $50 Sony Streamer you can get at Best buy that will support DLNA sources as well as Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Amazon VOD, etc...

Ken

Yah APPLE TV is also similarly priced and does pretty much the same thing too. I guess the difference is that the R Pi is also a full blown computer, and this is just one of many features you get. Kind of like how I could buy an Xbox for gaming at only $199 and it comes pre-configured for just that purpose, but it doesn't really compare to buying a whole computer which can do gaming amongst other things.

I got my R Pi for $35 shipped (they keep changing the price but had to honor the original prices), and already have a bunch of SD cards but the whole thing is just a toy anyways, I already have a roku and an xbox lol. Just thought it was cool that it had a distro just for XMBC that had such a small footprint.

[devilock76]

cost SD card + Rasberry Pi + Shipping > the $50 Sony Streamer you can get at Best buy that will support DLNA sources as well as Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Amazon VOD, etc...

Ken

[sgreger1]

This looks cool, get an SD card with this loaded onto it and plug it into your Raspberry Pi and you have a mobile meia center. It's an OS that is only a few MB and is builty only for running XMBC and is pre-configured to work as a mobile media center so you don't have to configure it. This will be great since I can finally utilize some of those old sd cards I have that are <1Gb.

Then get SAMBA ona server and load it with movies and you can just stream all your torrents or whatever straight to your TV. Pretty nifty.





OpenELEC for Raspberry Pi



The guys at OpenELEC, an embedded OS built specifically to run XBMC, have announced their first ARM port and with it, support for Raspberry Pi.

What is OpenELEC?

OpenELEC is an embedded operating system built specifically to run XBMC, the open source entertainment media hub. The idea behind OpenELEC is to allow people to use their Home Theatre PC (HTPC) like any other device you might have attached to your TV, like a DVD player or Sky box. Instead of having to manage a full operating system, configure it and install the packages required to turn it into a hybrid media center, OpenELEC is designed to be simple to install, manage and use, making it more like running a set-top box than a full-blown computer.

OpenELEC is tiny, at 85-115MB, and for RaspberryPi it comes in at only 70MB, which comprises the whole OS including XBMC, Python, and all services/tools needed to run XBMC. This means that at the moment, it’s the smallest distro for Raspberry Pi that we’ve seen.

[devilock76]

I usually build on a dual boot machine a fat 32 partition called /Store that I keep my major share of data, media, etc. On non dual boot this partition is usually ext3 or ufs (freebsd). My home tends to be about 40 gigs, just in case. In arch for examplu I keep all th aur stuff under home.

Ken

[lxskllr]

I'll have to disagree with lx on space needed though. Not storing all your media and documents in /home will eventually lead to clutter, and runs counter to nearly every program you'll run. Music players will all scan your ~/Music directory by default, for example. Sure, you can click through menus and add stuff, but it doesn't encourage a very organized file/directory layout.

A small /home is suboptimal, but it doesn't have to be big. All my media is on separate physical drives, and it's easy enough to manage. I use the stock media folders in /home to store temporary files until I decide exactly what I want to do with them. For partitioning, I use 10gb /, 1gb swap, and the rest to /home which is currently 30gb. I left the disaster on my drive alone, and when I get motivated, I want to try to recover the lost files with forensic tools.

[shikitohno]

Put your executables in /usr/bin.

sudo mv humble.sh /usr/bin

and you'll be able to just type the name of it anywhere to launch the games from the terminal. Now for a different question, is your /home directory on the same partition as /, or on its own partition? I've recommended having it on a separate partition before because you don't run out of space in there if you install a bunch of programs. I'll have to disagree with lx on space needed though. Not storing all your media and documents in /home will eventually lead to clutter, and runs counter to nearly every program you'll run. Music players will all scan your ~/Music directory by default, for example. Sure, you can click through menus and add stuff, but it doesn't encourage a very organized file/directory layout.

When I do an install, I give myself maybe 20-30GB for my / partition, 2GB for swap, default for /boot, and all the rest goes to a separate /home partition. If you don't need to run programs with huge data files, or tons of dependencies, you can certainly get away with trimming / down some. I can think of no real reason why, on a computer with one user you should not use the remaining space after all the other partitions are done for a separatte /home partition.

Edit: To give a quick breakdown on the executable directory layout (as I understand the justifications myself), it's mostly a remnant of back when UNIX was initially starting up on some PDP-11s. /{usr/}sbin are supposed to be executables that require elevated priviledges (ie, a sudo or su password) at some point when they're run. All other executables which could be run with normal priviledges were placed in /{usr/}bin. /bin and /sbin are a remnant of programming UNIX on some massive 1.5MB floppies or so, back in 1970. The programmers couldn't fit everything in just those two directories and still have it all fit on one floppy. To fix this, only the executables that were necessary to run at initial boot were placed in /bin or /sbin. Everything else (should have) got placed under the corresponding directory under /usr, which could be mounted later on a separate partition.

Just toss any executables you need to into the right file under /usr based on its required priviledges. Fedora is already starting to move everything to /usr, and Arch is likely to be close behind them on this one. Several more distros are poised to follow suit after Arch. Honestly, Fedora (and Arch if they agree to do it) will probably have this filesystem pruning done by the end of the year. So, should all be streamlined for them by this time next year, and should happen for Debian stable in an update sometime around spring 2025.

[lxskllr]

You could put them in /usr/bin. When you install via package manager it puts them in /bin, /sbin. /usr/bin, or /usr/sbin. I haven't paid that close attention, as it just gets handled, and don't have to deal with it. There's been some rumblings about streamlining the file system, but that'll take awhile to happen, if it ever does. Here's a guide on the file structure...

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/linuxdir.html

[sgreger1]

Well the big space suck is my 'Downloads' folder, the humble indie bundle games don't have to be installed, they are just executables so I can run them straight from the downloads folder. So you are saying that I should instead put them over in /? I'm still not too familiar with the directory structure yet, everything ive been doing is in the home folder, but I imagine Yum was smart enough to install everything to / hopefully. How do I go about seeing how much space is allocated to each directory/partition? Is that du-h?

How do I move things to /? In the file directory I see:

bin
boot
dev
etc
home
lib
lost_found
media
mnt
opt
proc
root
run
sbin
srv
sys
tmp
usr
var


Should I be putting things in /usr? I see a games folder in there, is that a good place? I am not sure where / is.

[lxskllr]

Programs should be installed to /. There should be almost nothing in /home; just some configuration files, and data. Here's the entire contents of my /home. It's about 3gb total...

[sgreger1]

NO! Seriously, don't dick with the partitions without backing up. For /home, 20gb should be plenty unless you're storing tons of media. You don't have to do that. You can put media on your Windows partition, an external drive, or a network share.

I don't have any media at all, no pictures, music, videos etc. All I have is the humble indie bundle 3 and 4 but that's it, plus whatever other programs I installed in Yum but there were only a few. Not sure why it's so full. Each game in the humble indie bundle is like 2gb though, which is where the space is coming from.

The problem with backing up is that I don't have a drive big enough to back up my windows partition, it's over 2TB. Can't exactly burn that to a DVD or anything. Oh well, I guess I will just work with what i've got. I should have made the partition way bigger, like 200GB, would have been easier at the beginning.