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

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.

FlexGet

FlexGet is a program aimed to automate downloading content (torrents, podcasts, etc.) from various sources like RSS-feeds, html-pages, various sites and more.

It’s most often used to download torrent-files from RSS-feeds and works very well in that environment, but there are additional modules for other kind of situations as well.

FlexGet is extremely useful in conjunction with applications and clients which have watch directory support.

- http://flexget.com/

I’ve been using flexget over the last few weeks and it is my top pick for script to use.

rsstorrent

rsstorrent is a very simple RSS torrent downloading script.  It does as advertised and is still being developed.  Though it lacks the nice documentation of FlexGet.

tvrss member script

This is the script that I had been using for about a year to automate the torrent downloading.  It scans the tvrss.net website using an easy to understand configuration file.  It worked like a charm for me but I found a new charm with more sparkle.

TED – Torrent Episode Downloader

This is a different way to download torrent episodes.  This is not a script.  It is a fully functional cross-platform program dedicated RSS Torrents.  It is way to heavy for my use. But interesting none the less.

ted can find episodes of any TV show you like to watch. Just add your favorite shows to ted and he will search for the newest episodes and downloads them for you. ted uses bittorrent and RSS technology to get you the newest episodes as fast as possible!
http://www.ted.nu/

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…

This guide is intended to be followed by a linux user confident with the command line and in full control of a server they wish to employ the use of TorrentFlux with. Good luck.

Base System

I am going to describe how to setup a basic server firewall with this base system as the example:

• Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS (hardy)
• basic apt sources. (hardy main, hardy-updates main, hardy-securrity main)

Installation

Basic Requirements

• LAMP Stack
• Python
• Perl
• A custom transmission-cli bittorrent client interface

LAMP ( Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP )

A cleaver guide has already been written Installing LAMP On Ubuntu For Newbies.

PHPMyAdmin

This gives you a web interface into the MySql server. Greatly simplifies life with MySql.

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

Install extra packaged needed for Torrentflux

sudo apt-get install zip unzip unrar php5-cli php5-gd perl python libxml-dom-perl libxml-simple-perl libthreads-shared-perl libdigest-sha1-perl libhtml-parser-perl transmission-cli

These are what I found missing from my install. You may come up with some missing packages ‘apt-get’ to install packages and google to find the package names.

Install Torrentflux-b4rt

Download the latest package Torrentflux-b4rt package

From your home directory:

cd ~
wget http://prdownload.berlios.de/tf-b4rt/torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2.tar.bz2
tar xjvf torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2.tar.bz2

Create the custom Transmission-cli client

Download the Transmission 1.06 Source

cd ~/torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2/clients
wget http://download.m0k.org/transmission/files/transmission-1.06.tar.bz2
tar jxvf transmission-1.06.tar.bz2
tar jxvf transmission-1.06.tar.bz2
tar jxvf Transmission-1.06_tfCLI-svn3356.tar.bz2
cp Transmission-1.06_tfCLI-svn3356/cli/transmissioncli.c transmission-1.06/cli/transmissioncli.c

This overwrites the original source code for the Transmission-cli a new version extended for the Torrentflux-b4rt interface.

Install from Transmission from source

./configure
make
make install

This should install the transmission-cli binary in /usr/local/bin/transmission-cli

Copy the Torrentflux-b4rt html directory to a web visible location

cp ~/torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2/html/ /var/www/torrentflux -R

Create the Torrentflux database and user using PHPMyAdmin

Log Into PHPMyAdmin

Log into your phpmyadmin interface using your MySQL root user/password by going to:

http://yourserverip/phpmyadmin

Create the User and Database

Steps to follow from the phpmyadmin frontpage:

• Click the ‘Privileges’ link from the home page.
• Then click on the “Add a new User” link.
• Create a new user named ‘torrentflux’, set a strong password, select “Create database with same name and grant all privileges”, click go.

Run the TorrentFlux-b4rt setup.php script

Point your browser to:

http://yourserverip/torrentflux/setup.php

Follow the directions onscreen to finish the setup. Give it your MySQL username, password, and database name. It should solve the rest.

Additional Resources

In case you get stuck or would like to more information check out these pages:

• TorrentFlux-b4rt – Includes support forms and plugins to extend functionality
• TorrentFlux – the original TorrentFlux
• Transmission – Cross Platform BitTorrent Client
• Linux.com – TorrentFlux: A BitTorrent client on a server
• TorrentFreak.com’s article on “Seedboxes“

Nice, Simple, Sensible CSS Framework

BluePrint CSS is a nice, simple, and sensible CSS framework. It greatly reduces CSS development time by providing a solid base on which to extend. Really Cool!

Blueprint is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your CSS development time. It gives you a solid CSS foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, and even a stylesheet for printing.
http://www.blueprintcss.org/

Today I spent around 10 minutes, and used a portion of the BluePrint CSS Framework to fix some typographical problems I was having with my Wordpress theme.

Additional Resources

• BluePrint CSS
• J. Michael Wender’s post on Using BluePrint CSS with Wordpress

Continue reading for the complete guide.

Simple LaTeX Document

This is an extremely basic LaTeX Document.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

just some text

\end{document}	% End

Slightly more advanced sample.tex document

This is a sample document that demonstrates some advanced features such as adding a title, using sections, and using equations.

Download the sample.tex File

Download the sample.pdf File

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

% The following is used in the \maketitle
\title{Sample \LaTeX{} Document}
\author{Mark Young}
\date{March 19, 2009}

\begin{document}
\maketitle	% Insert the title at this location

To make this file type into any text editor.

\section{Some Lorem Ipsum}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

\section{Equations}
This is a section named Equations.  This is an inline equation, $ p \wedge T \equiv p 	$ , which is the one of the identity laws.

The following displayed equation is one of the Distributive Laws.
$$ A \cap ( B \cup C ) = ( A \cap B ) \cup ( A \cap C ) $$

\subsection{Equation subsection}
This is a subsection.

\end{document}	% End

Turning LaTeX file into PDF

From the command line

The ‘pdflatex’ command creates a PDF file from the LaTeX file.

user@srv:# pdflatex sample.tex
user@srv:# ls
sample.tex
sample.pdf  <-- the pdf file you want for printing, made with 'pdflatex' command
sample.log  <-- record of the compilation.
sample.aux  <-- contains extras for LaTeX normally not used

Alternatively

I use the MacTeX LaTeX Distribution with Macromates TextMate on OSX. It includes bundles that makes compiling into pdf as easy as ⌘R.

I started using LaTeX for its ease of writing mathematical equations and expression. Anyone who has tried fooling with Microsoft Word’s equation editor realizes that it is time consuming, looks terrible, and will agree that there must be an easier way. That way is LaTeX.

LaTeX is a typesetting tool that excels with many types of documents such as academic journals, books, and complex mathematical formulas. One thing that it is great with is keeping track of references and bibliographies.

One thing to understand is that LaTeX is not for everyone. It will be confusing and complex to most users. There are tools that make it easier, but at its base you will be writing in a type of markdown language that is part of the barrier to entry.

photo credit: basheertome

What is LaTeX?

LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents. LaTeX is available as free software. – http://www.latex-project.org/

LaTeX Features

• Typesetting journal articles, technical reports, books, and slide presentations.
• Control over large documents containing sectioning, cross-references, tables and figures.
• Typesetting of complex mathematical formulas.
• Advanced typesetting of mathematics with AMS-LaTeX.
• Automatic generation of bibliographies and indexes.
• Multi-lingual typesetting.
• Inclusion of artwork, and process or spot colour.
• Using PostScript or Metafont fonts.

– LaTeX Project

What I Use

I work with LaTeX on both Mac OSX and Linux systems. Most Linux distributions make it simple to install LaTeX either being included or simply from package managers. Mac OSX is a bit different.

To make my life easier I use the MacTeX LaTeX Distribution with Macromates TextMate OSX text editor. By installing the MacTeX distribution you will be given all the command line tools, fonts, and converters you will need. TextMate will give you syntax highlighting and access to other tools that will make you life easier. But all you really need is a text editor and the command line.

Good luck with your journey into the LaTeX world.

LaTeX Resources

Here is a list of resources so both you and I can remember them in the future! Enjoy!

• LaTeX Project
• MacTeX OSX LaTeX Distribution
• A Quick & Dirty Guide to LaTeX
• LaTeX Math Symbols
• LaTeX Reference
• Including Graphics in a LaTeX Document

Over the last few weeks I decided to move from Drupal to Wordpress. I’ve always liked Wordpress and is near impossible to beat as an Open Source blogging platform.

photo credit: seanosh

Some plugins of interest::

MobilePress

MobilePress is a WordPress plugin that will render your WordPress blog on mobile handsets, with the ability to use customized themes. The plugin also allows specific themes for specific devices / mobile browsers, such as iPhone, Opera Mini, Windows CE Mobile and other generic handset browsers. – http://mobilepress.co.za

Google XML Sitemaps

Creating custom xml sitemaps by hand is a pain. This plugin will create them dynamically and create a static xml page as well as a zipped version for lower bandwidth.

Twitter Tools

Twitter Tools integrates with Twitter by giving you the following functionality:

• Archive your Twitter tweets (downloaded every 10 minutes)
• Create a blog post from each of your tweets
• Create a daily or weekly digest post of your tweets
• Create a tweet on Twitter whenever you post in your blog, with a link to the blog post
• Post a tweet from your sidebar
• Post a tweet from the WP Admin screens
• Pass your tweets along to another service (via API hook)

- http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress

More of my favorite plugins::

• Google Analyticator – an easy way to deal with the google analytics javascript code
• Google XML Sitemaps – generate xml sitemaps with minimal effort
• LifeStream – share you life with the internet. Track all you social network activity in one place.
• MobilePress – Beautiful themes automagically applied to mobile browsers.
• Photo Dropper – Finds creative commons flickr photos to use in your posts.
• Twitter Tools – Integrates your wordpress install with twitter
• Wordpress Gravatars
• WP-Syntax – Syntax highlighting for source code snippets