xfce-do

Since switching to Xubuntu I've found myself using xfce4-appfinder in place of Gnome-Do. Bind this script to <Super>+<Space> in Settings Manager→Keyboard→Application Shortcuts in order to run it as a single instance.

#!/bin/bash
pidfile=/var/run/xfce-do/pid
if [ -e $pidfile ]; then
    pid=`cat $pidfile`
    if kill -0 &>1 > /dev/null $pid; then
        exit 1
    else
        rm $pidfile
    fi
fi
echo $$ > $pidfile
xfce4-appfinder
rm $pidfile

Make sure to create the directory and provide write permissions to users.

sudo mkdir /var/run/xfce-do
chmod a+w /var/run/xfce-do

My First C# Project: hellanzb-remote-dotnet

Frustrated with the lack of quality Usenet binary downloader for Windows (if only Unzbin were open source) I set out to gain some proficiency in a new language and framework. Using C# and .NET I created a simple remote UI for hellanzb. It supports all commands as well as multiple servers.
While version 1.0.0 may exhibit many amateur methods. I have since spent many hours learning from others and improving my coding practices in relation to C#/.NET and plan to revise the code soon.

A HellaNZB remote GUI for Windows

hellanzb-remote-dotnet is a Windows remote client to the RPC interface of hellanzb. Inspired by µRemote and Hellau!

Screenshot

Future

While attempting to port the code to support sabdnzbd I decided to start work on a new long term project. I hope to provide a full NZB Downloader suite including:

• Windows Native Client/Server
• Windows Remote Client
• Linux Remote Client
• Android Remote Client

Future support may include:

• Mac Native Client/Server
• Mac Remote Client
• iPhone Remote Client

I am very excited to see what new desktop applications I can come up with!

Hiatus

Ryon is a hardware programmer?

After more than a year of absence I've returned and I plan to keep my blog more updated...even if I am the only one reading it at this moment. You see, my blogging has been neglected due to the latest addition to my life, my son and future hacker/coder, Dexter!

And wouldn't ya know, he already plays WoW too!

DexKicks

To help mommy keep track of his activity through the pregnancy I gave her a handy PHP script. A simple Android client allowed her to keep track of kicks on the go.

Photography Portfolio

People have been asking which website my desktop wallpapers come from. When told they are some of my own I'm often met with disbelief.

So, I've decided to post some of my favorites to a gallery here for your criticism.

Supposedly the photos I render equipped with a point-and-shoot camera, a limited knowledge of the science behind photography, and Picasa's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button...are that of professional quality.

All photos were taken with a Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-T10 Digital Camera.

Images © 2010 Ryon Sherman. All rights reserved.

I have hundreds of other unedited photos just waiting to be appreciated. More to come soon!

Hey! Is That My Phone Is Ringing?

Sound familiar? You've probably been hanging out with a group of friends and set your phone down absentmindedly. Next thing you know the entire house is yelling, "Who's phone is this?!", as you desperately dash to silence the embarrassing ring tone spotlighting your return.

I thought, if my phone is such a "Smart"phone...why can't it announce to whom it belongs? Why can't it instruct someone to come get me if I'm not around? Well, now it does just that!

Ringtone



Transcript

Hey! Hey everybody! I'm ringing! This is Ryon's phone and I'm ringing right now!

Man, I sure hope he picks me up. It could be someone important, you know? So...if Ryon's not around...you think maybe you could go get him?

Or, maybe it's someone he's trying to avoid! I mean, if I'm still ringing by this point...that has to be the reason, right?

Where is he? Oh well, I tried.

Tip

You can change the length of time your phone rings before forwarding to voice mail by issuing the MMI code:

**61*voicemail*11*seconds#

If nothing else, this gets a good laugh out of strangers!

uTorrent Bridge: A Modular µTorrent™ WebUI Bridge

In my last post I said, "Maybe, with some help, a universal bridge library could come from this?". Well, this is my official call for help. I present to you...

"uTorrent Bridge: allows you to perform native µTorrent WebUI requests on non-native servers. This enables the use of µTorrent remotes such as µRemote and Torrent-fu on non-µTorrent servers."

The name needs work, but I've created a Google Code Page in hopes that this can evolve into something truly useful. Useful to few maybe...but useful none the less!

The reason I've chosen to adapt other servers to uTorrent clients is that uTorrent is primarily the client of choice for Windows users. Because of this, it has a large selection of clients and tools that interact through it's web interface. Since I'd rather not spend the time creating similar clients for lesser used servers, I decided to let the uTorrent client developers do that job and I'd just...bridge the gap!

Basically, my previous ut-rt-bridge and ut-tf-bridge projects are now dead. But uTorrent Bridge is alive and I need your help. You can find all the information you need at the project page.

Demonstration



Download

Requirements:

• PHP >= 5
  

Zip: [244 KB] utorrent_bridge-0.2.0.zip
md5: 2f509e6196edffe6cb3dd0f4ee850d9f

Gzip: [179 KB] utorrent_bridge-0.2.0.tar.gz
md5: 36017159373388d50fd01ba6192579eb

Bzip2: [82.9 KB] utorrent_bridge-0.2.0.tar.bz2
md5: c30a69130301ed218b42a0590b0b0075

Google Code: http://utorrent-bridge.googlecode.com
SVN: svn checkout http://utorrent-bridge.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ utorrent-bridge-read-only

Update!

uTorrent Bridge has gained some publicity thanks to it's supporters. So, I've decided to clean up my original code to cut out some nonsense...as well as some naming confusions caused by using a client as a server.

Torrent-Fu

uTorrent to TorrentFlux Bridge

uTorrent is to Windows users as TorrentFlux is to Linux users. They both have a convenient web interface equipped with transfer controls. TorrentFlux is a bit more extensive, but uTorrent has always had a big advantage in my opinion: Remotes. There's a huge list of community projects built from the collective WebUI API.

Every time I'd see a fancy remote application for my phone like Torrent FU or for my work computer like uRemote I'd spend hours thinking of ways to copy them for TorrentFlux. Finally I realized a more effecient solution: A bridge to translate uTorrent request URIs into TorrentFlux URIs and vice-versa.

---

UPDATE!
This project has been merged into a new project!
Read the announcement of the new project.
UPDATE!

---

ut-tf-bridge receives commands from the uTorrent remote, performs the requested actions on a TorrentFlux server, and returns the transfer data to the uTorrent remote. A more detailed breakdown of the process follows:

1. uTorrent Remote → http://torrentflux-server/gui/?list=1 → ut-tf-bridge
   
2. ut-tf-bridge → http://torrentflux-server/stats.php?f=xml&t=transfers → TorrentFlux Server
   
3. TorrentFlux Server → XML → ut-tf-bridge
   
4. ut-tf-bridge → JSON → uTorrent Remote
   

In order to perform actions such as Start Transfer or Stop Transfer authentication is required. Username and Password values may are passed as a basic HTTP authentication header. Currently the bridge can perform these actions:

• Start
  
• Stop
  
• Pause
  
• Unpause
  
• Force Start
  
• Recheck
  
• Remove
  
• Remove With Data
  
• Set Priority (untested)
  
• Add File by URL
  

Maybe, with some help, a universal bridge library could come from this?