I’m kinda upset that that Google is killing reader.

It’s not like they need to spend any money on development, they haven’t done that for years anyway. Leaving it as it is doesn’t cost them a cent.

They say it has a relatively low number of users. Compared to what though.. Gmail? Yes, OK, it probably does.

But compared to other RSS readers out there? No way. It’s easily the most popular.

It’s the number 1 referrer on this website by far and has been for years. And I’m sure that’s the case for other websites too that have a lot of RSS content. But that’s not why I’m upset, hardcore slurper users will just switch to another product. And the ones that don’t just saved me a heap of money on bandwidth.

There are 2 reasons I’m upset. Number one is: I’m a user myself! I use reader every day. I rely on it to keep up to date with content on websites that I just don’t have time to visit individually.

But secondly, Google promised they would “do no evil”. And killing off something that is so clean and functional, so elegant and simple, which costs them virtually nothing to leave running, IS evil.

I don’t believe internet petions actually work, but I signed this one anyway.

Comparison of the 2013 flood (worst flood since records began) to the one in 2010/2011, this one is so much worse:

Hopes and best wishes to all affected by this disaster.

Robert Khoo on why PAX is coming to Australia:

“I’d say it was a collective decision, but I suppose the true answer is that gamers down there decided,” he said. “Even though their numbers may be smaller in population, their passion for gaming is insane. Retail titles cost $100 plus and they still buy them? Crazy! Can we all agree this is crazy?”

Crazy? Nah, not at all.

Games in the US cost about 60 bucks. But a 66% “Because you live in Austalia” Tax is actually pretty good. We won’t buy anything in Australia unless we are getting completely ripped off.

The US and AU dollars are about on parity at the moment so that makes it nice and easy to compare. Well if you want to get technical, the AUD is slightly stronger.

Let’s take a look at commodity consumer electronics, like the new iPhone 5:

• AU IPhone: $799 AUD
• US IPhone: $199 USD

4 times the price. Now that’s more like it.

My hosting provider is doing some work tomorrow (28th August) and have advised a 30-90 minute outage. This will break the site and also your RSS feeds while the site is down.

Unfortunately Australia is way behind the rest of the world when it comes to online services. Digital streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are geo-locked, so if you try and access them from an Australian IP address your get the lame “not available in you country” message.

Thankfully VPN technology easily overcomes this. Here is a quick HOWTO on how to set this up with an Xbox 360, a linux server, and an internet connection.

These instructions should work for RHEL/CentOS 6.

Find yourself a VPN provider. The instructions below are for the PPTP protocol.

Install relevant packages and create your PPTP configuration file:

yum install ppp pptp
cat > /etc/ppp/peers/vpn <<EOF
pty "pptp <vpn_hostname> --nolaunchpppd --debug"
name <vpn_username>
password <vpn_password>
remotename PPTP
require-mppe-128
require-mschap-v2
refuse-eap
refuse-pap
refuse-chap
refuse-mschap
noauth
debug
persist
maxfail 0
defaultroute
usepeerdns
EOF
chkconfig iptables on
service iptables start

Test your VPN:

chmod +x /usr/share/doc/ppp-2.4.5/scripts/pon
/usr/share/doc/ppp-2.4.5/scripts/pon vpn debug nodetach dump

Don’t ask me why the pon script doesn’t come with execute perms by default.

If you remove your default route before creating the VPN (as I do below), your machine will use the VPN as the default gateway for all traffic once the VPN is established. So before you do this, it’s a good idea to make a list of any hosts you wish to connect to via your old default gateway. You’ll need to add static routes for them.

Update your RC/start scripts to create any necessary static routes, start the VPN, enable NAT, etc.

cat >> /etc/rc.local <<EOF
# Create static routes via old gateway
#
for HOST in statichost1.darkgate.net \
            statichost2.darkgate.net; do
    route add -host $HOST gw <old_default_gw>
done
# Add a route for VPN provider
#
route add -host <vpn_hostname> gw <old_default_gw>
route delete default   # vpn will create new default gw at ppp endpoint
# Start VPN
#
/usr/share/doc/ppp-2.4.5/scripts/pon vpn
# Create NAT rules
#
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 1723 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p gre -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i ppp+ -o eth0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o ppp+ -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ppp0 -s <xbox_ip_address> -j MASQUERADE
# Allow IP Forwarding
sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
EOF

A lot of this config you can put elsewhere, like /etc/sysctl.conf and /etc/sysconfig/iptables. I like to put it in /etc/rc.local because when i rebuild my machine I just have one file to copy.

Once your done, run /etc/rc.local and it should start up your VPN and turn your linux server into a VPN gateway for your XBox 360.

Then go into your XBox 360′s network settings and change your default gateway to be your linux server’s IP address.

To install the Netflix app, you’ll need a US silver xbox live account. There are plenty of guides on how to create one. Once you have a US live account, log in on your XBox and install the Netflix app. Then log out and back in with your gold account and you should be able to start using Netflix. Sign up for your free month and enjoy.

Continued from Part 1.

WARNING: Once again this contains spoilers for the Mass Effect story. Do not read this if you have not played the game.

Picture the future in our galaxy. Space-travel is a reality, and we share the galaxy with many alien races. All these races have access to long distance space travel provided by portals created by a ancient alien race. Somewhere in the galaxy exists a large space station where many of the races have embassies so their ambassadors can meet and conclude government. Not to mention business people, tourists and travellers.

Now enter a human protagonist, a man with a strong will who others (human and alien) want to follow. Then a dark alien race begins to emerge that threatens the galaxy. The protagonist vows to fight them, but at one point is killed, and is then miraculously brought back to life.

The dark alien race begins to build up its forces, their true threat to the galaxy is revealed. The protagonist vows to unite all the alien races in the galaxy to fight the dark threat.

The protagonist needs to create peace between the races to build up his forces to fight this overwhelmingly powerful enemy. Then it is discovered, the dark threat is part of a cycle that happens every 10s of thousands of years, to wipe out all life in the galaxy, a cycle of “order” versus “chaos”. Once organic life is wiped out, the dark race once again disappears for millenia and the cycle continues until the younger organic races rebuild their civilizations.

The climax of the story is a huge space battle, where the combined forces of the galaxy led by the protagonist, take on the dark enemy in a battle that will decide the fate of the galaxy.

What I have just described to you is the main story arc from the late-90s TV show Babylon 5.