zarzax the blog

showRSS custom TV torrent feeds

ShowRSS rises in the in the wake of the sad demise of FeedMyTorrents (due in part to legal troubles).  ShowRSS works much the same way as FeedMyTorrents.  Where you are given the ability to create combined television show torrent RSS feeds or use any of the pre-existing feeds.  These feeds are already pruned for duplicates and have the ability to filter Proper, Repacks, and HD torrents.

Overall showRSS works much better than FeedMyTorrents ever did.  Creating a custom feed is simple, and the server response time is much improved!  So load up your torrent client and give it a go.

Additional Resources

• ShowRSS
• TorrentFreak post on the demise of FeedMyTorrents

Here are some photos from my 15 minute weekend project. I figured I better know what I’m doing in preparation for an upcoming session, introduction my younger brother to the world of electronics, solder, and burns.

These photographs are on my flickr stream and are released creative commons.

Additional Resources

• MakersShed MintyBoost 2.0
• Ladyada.net MintyBoost Instructions

Sometimes its the little things that annoy us so much on the Unix command line.  One big question for me was… How to do you differentiate between directories and files when recursively chmod-ing?

The answer is simple.  But of course there are different ways to do the same thing.

Using the find command

find -name '*' -type d -exec chmod 0755 {} \;

NOTE: the -name ‘*’ parameter is used to keep from modifying the present working directory or ‘.’ directory.

find . -type f -exec chmod 0644 {} \;

(continue reading…)

Its time for yet another Minne* event.  MinneDemo is will have 7 quick demos from software and hardware from individuals and small-startups in the Minneapolis – Saint Paul area. The best part about the event is that there are no PowerPoint slides. Only working products demonstrated before an eager and beer-ed up audience.  Best of all, everything is free.  Socialize, network, or just drink beer.

Thursday, May 7^th

Get ready for another MinneDemo!

MinneDemo is the Twin Cities’ premier technology demo and networking event. Come for the demos, stay for the beer and conversation. We will be back at Intermedia Arts, a cool art/performance space in Uptown’s Lyn-Lake neighborhood.

Date:	Thursday, May 7th
Time:	Demos start at 7pm
Location:	Intermedia Arts 2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408 (map)
Attendees:	All are welcome! Please RSVP.

Free Beer & Soda

Since MinneDemo is not at a bar this time, we’re brining in kegs, and it’s all free. Be sure to tip your bartenders. If you need to go all night, there’s tons of bars in the area.

Demos

1. ShortJournal — an open source developer journal with a REST API (Zach Johnson)
2. Skimmer — a lifestreaming app created by Fallon and Sierra Bravo that brings together your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube streams (Chris Wiggins of Fallon and Chris Black of Sierra Bravo)
3. Zeplay — a kick-ass multi-channel HD instant replay video server for live sports events (John Reilly)
4. tinyEscrow — Source code escrow for programmers, not for lawyers. (Corey Thompson)
5. Extendr — one link to rule all links. (Joseph Rueter)
6. SightWare and SmartWatch — SightWare is an RFID inventory system that integrates with the SmartWatch web application to provide real-time inventory management (Harley Feldman)
7. Cloudquad — a web-based student information system designed to streamline the daily workflow of school administrators, faculty, parents, and students while connecting the school community through basic tools for social interaction. (Kevin Whinnery)
8. Pen Manufactory — design your own pen using an online CAD program, then have as many as you want custom manufactured using computer controlled milling equipment. (Joseph Hoover)
9. Adagogo — hyper-local mobile ad platform created by DoApp (Joe Sriver)
10. pitchR — control your presentations using your Android phone. (Vladimir Kelman)

Resources

• MinneDemo.org
• EventBrite RSVP

Production still from "Moon" (2009) via www.cinematical.com

I was able to catch “Moon” as well as a Q&A with the director the very interesting Duncan Jones at this year’s Minneapolis – Saint Paul International Film Fest.

Duncan Jones is an interesting director.  Being the son of David Bowie may be the first thing that comes up in conversation about Duncan (aka Zowie Bowie, aka Joey Bowie), but his work definitely stands alone.  Through the Q&A he was smart, witty, and willing to discuss all.

This film was great, especially considering it was Duncan Jones’ first feature film.  The film’s budget was around $5-million and filming took a period of about a month.  The budget may seem like a lot for a independent film, but considering other independents with a $50-million budget it quickly is dwarfed.  Duncan first took this to Sundance Film Festival in order to get a distributor.  Which he gladly has found in Sony and is going to be released to theaters May 25th, 2009.

The Synopsis

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the end of his contract with Lunar. He’s been a faithful employee for 3 long years. His home has been Selene, a moon base where he has spent his days alone, mining Helium 3. The precious gas holds the key to reversing the Earth’s energy crisis. Isolated, determined and steadfast, Sam has followed the rulebook obediently and his time on the moon has been enlightening, but uneventful. The solitude has given him time to reflect on the mistakes of his past and work on his raging temper. He does his job mechanically, and spends most of his available time dreaming of his imminent return to Earth, to his wife, young daughter and an early retirement. But 2 weeks shy of his departure from Selene, Sam starts seeing things, hearing things and feeling strange. — IMDB

(continue reading…)

I have to thank the geeks over at Geek Troika and their guest Josh Haley (of ffundercats fame) for their mention of myself and my blog.

Check out episode 22: “Boom Tish” via their blog or iTunes.

I have since added an avatar to my friendfeed account.

Geek Troika

The MSP International Film Festival starts today!  Running April 16 – 30th.  Films from around the world including a number of Minnesota made films.

I’ll be seeing a few films this weekend and some scattered throughout the week.

Check out some of the buzz and find the parties on http://www.mspfilmfest.org/MMIX/,  twitter. Google News.

27th Annual Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

UPDATED** Due to legal issues FeedMyTorrents is no longer an active project.  Check out my post on ShowRSS to find a better alternative.

Looking for a place to get RSS Feeds for your Torrenting needs  Check out http://feedmytorrents.com/.  You can create custom feeds or use the existing clean feeds.

Alternatively RSS torrent feeds can be found from most of the trackers.  Including http://www.mininova.org/

photo credit: veganstraightedge

photo credit: irina slutsky

I had some interesting requirements for my Bittorrent needs.  First I wanted to move everything to my linux mediaserver/fileserver.  So I needed a way to work with bittorrent files without traditional access to the machine.  eg. No screen or windowing system.  This led me to TorrentFlux-b4rt, which is a php based web interface to Transmission client meant to be run on apache servers.  Second I wanted to ability to download torrents automatically from RSS sources using scripting.  This is where the original TorrentFlux had failed me and I went searching.

The following is a gathering of scripts I have found and tested.  Most scripts require that you have access to Cron scheduling and the python scripting language.  And, of course, a bittorrent client that scans a directory looking for torrent files.  I am using these scripts in conjunction with rTorrent (a commandline bittorrent client) as well as TorrentFlux-b4rt on various servers.

(continue reading…)

What is Torrentflux-b4rt?

What is Torrentflux-b4rt you say? Torrentflux-b4rt is a sophisticated web-based PHP BitTorrent client based off the original Torrentflux. It allows you to use an old linux server as your happily obedient bittorrent client , while you gallivant around town feeding it torrents. Its greatest feature is freeing you from being constantly connected to the internet while downloading.

Continue reading for the complete guide…

(continue reading…)