If any of you out there are familiar with the bittorrent protocol, you’re probably aware that many ISP’s are now starting to employ tactics to shape and throttle your bandwidth. While this, in my opinion, is completely wrong, it’s being done whether we like it or not. And, when you’re trying to download large files legally, it now becomes an absolute nightmare. But for the time being I can say that I’ve been able to circumvent Comcast’s attempt and throttling my connection. Using the two guides below I am now able to download whatever I want without having my connection being reset. So please read on if you’re having difficulty and I should mention that I use Azureus.
Azureus’ Wiki:
http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Avoid_traffic_shaping
Encrypting Bittorrent traffic:
http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-encrypt-BitTorrent-traffic/
Many people say to switch to a new ISP but in terms of cable in my area, it’s Comcast or nothing. I am looking into DSL but I’ve always heard that the speeds aren’t nearly as good. It comes down to me needing to do a little research. But for the time being, this has worked so I’m going to stick with it.
Yesterday, I was finishing up a post and actually approving a comment when the page just hung. I then opened up a new tab and attempted to load my site only to find that my account had been suspended. Just like that, no warning, no phone call, no email, nothing. I was completely disconnected. Come to find out, the site was eating up too much CPU usage. From what was described, it sounds like a memory leak or just a bad executable but I’ve now been switched over to a semi-dedicated server. I’ve also lost the post and comment that were up when all of this happened but I guess it’s not a big deal because my sweet cooler modification didn’t end up working out. The lesson learned out of all of this - I’m not too sure other than be sure to research your host before hand because it’s tough to contact them when there’s no emergency phone number and you lose email due to them suspending your site.
Many of us end up printing out documents, presentations, or what have you, only to have to reprint them again. This in itself is wasting paper and costing you or your company money. Why not turn those printouts into scrap pads. Take a stack of paper and cut it into quarters. You’ve not got a stack of scrap paper to jot notes on. But be careful. If what you’ve got up has sensitive information on it, this could pose a problem if they just get thrown in the trash. That’s why it’s best to either shred or burn them. Just another quick and easy way to help the planet and your wallet.
There are many commercial products available to clean your vinyl records. If you’re looking to clean hundreds or even thousands of records than a vacuum record cleaning machine is the way to go. But to keep your records clean as you play them is pretty easy.
The materials needed for this product are scrap 2″ x 4″ , scrap 1″ x 2″ and velvet.
The total cost of this project was around $3. I first cut my scrap into into approximately 5″ lengths. Sand down the edges of the 2″ x 4″, eliminating the possibility of damaging the record. Cut the velvet and wrap the 2″ x 4″ with it. Now, I’m no upholstering guru, so I looked at the 2″ x 4″ as if it were a present and wrapped it that way. Using a staple gun, fasten the cloth to the wood. Repeat this process twice as it gives enough cushion not to damage the record.
Then take the 1″ x 2″ and nail it to the to creating a handle. And that’s it, you’re done.
In terms of cleaning solution, I use distilled water which is available at grocery store. It works fantastic and won’t damage your precious vinyl. Make sure that your albums are completely dry before playing them. If played wet, you’ll grind any remaining dirt farther into the grooves permanently damaging the records.
If you’re part of the corporate world, or any bigger business for that matter, you know that you’re told to leave your computer on all of the time. This is to allow your company’s IT department to push updates to your computer as necessary. In reality, how often does a business do this. I’m pretty certain that it’s not terribly often.
If updates are done at regular intervals, having people leave their computers on once a week for example would be more than sufficient and would dramatically reduce the use of energy and in turn, save the company a boatload of money. But, at times, the company must push important fixes to computers and trying to coordinate this with thousands of employees would be a nightmare. So what else is there?
Wake On Lan (WoL). It’s a feature that is built into almost all motherboards built after 2002. In short, it allows your computer to hibernate, and wake up when it receives a Magic Packet telling it to turn back on. So I propose using something like WoL. The IT department can set all computers to turn off after say 45 minutes of non-use and then wake up when updates need to be implemented, thus saving millions for the company. Not only does this save money, but it also saves the use of fossil fuels which are becoming more scarce every day. A little change like this can go a long way in my opinion.
Have your own idea on how to reduce energy? I’d love to hear it.
