Tag: Linux

Posted on

#define geek – what qualifies a person to be a geek?

I notice the term GEEK is used a lot these days, every man and his dogs flea refers to themselves as a geek. I’m talking computer geek here today, no other kind 🙂

15 years ago  it was a different story completely. In my book and having talked to several other people online, a geek is somebody who is into technology and understands it and is doing stuff beyond the average user.

But to clarify, can you please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments. What is a GEEK and what is not a GEEK?

My thoughts are that you need at least one or two of the following criteria (not all!)

  • You can program in more at least one language, probably 2 or 3 (html/css NOT included)
  • You can use a command line easily without having to google commands in at least one of the following Windows, Linux, or OS X
  • You know the difference between a Domain Registrar, Domain Name Server, and types of DNS records.
  • You know what Linux is, have installed it, and used it regularly (using a friends/boyfriends/family PC not counted, and done without help)
  • You can name all the following parts of a PC, AND what they do. CPU, RAM, HDD, BUS, PSU.
  • You can create a full network, including DHCP, DNS, Gateway/firewall and know what IP ranges are reserved for private networks
  • Do all of the above WITHOUT having to google!

You are NOT a geek if you ONLY do

  • You are on Helpdesk
  • you helped somebody fix their email
  • You use IRC, Twitter, Forums, Other chat forums
  • You Game lots (Some gamers are geek, but most are not)

Note: if you do the “you are not a geek if” and still qualify the above ones you are still a geek.

Posted on

SSH proxy

ssh -D installs a local SOCKS proxy which terminates sockets on the remote ssh endpoint.

e.g. ssh -D 9000 $remote_host

Set your local SOCKS proxy to 127.0.0.1:9000. Any local clients that are SOCKS-capable will have their outbound connections established from $remote_host.

No squid required.

Use http://www.whatismyip.com/ before and after to check you are using the new IP address

Posted on

hacking tweetwall voting with wget and shell scripting

#!/bin/bash
# copious amount of useless comments 3 pages longer than the code should always be at the top of any shell script
# This is so you can run screen and vote for some person lots without looking like some automated voting system
# Feel free to use this, but please keep my name/website etc on it (need the fame ya know)
# I'm not gonna walk you through it, if you dont understand it then dont use it
# Yes im sure you could do better!
# Don't forget to edit it
# Written by Liz Quilty http://velofille.com

RAND=`dd if=/dev/urandom count=1 2> /dev/null | cksum | cut -f1 -d" " |cut -c1-4`
if [ $RAND -lt 1200 ]; then RAND_SLEEP=$(($RAND+200)) ; else RAND_SLEEP=$RAND;fi

while [ 1 ] ; do
# the below line wgets the link the 12345 is the users number and the 45 is country number (view web page for these) - Edit this line to reflect user/url
wget --referer=http://tweeterwall.mallplace.com/tw/new-zealand/top-something-url -U Mozilla http://tweeterwall.mallplace.com/tw/vote/12345/45
sleep $RAND_SLEEP # sleep for random time before voting again
done