Jonathan’s Universe

Archive for February, 2008

So. For awhile, I’ve been thinking of doing something. I probably really won’t have the time to do it, but I figure i might as well get it on “paper” and perhaps inspire someone to either join forces with me or do it themselves.

PHP Powered IRC Services.

Hmm. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It’s basically a type of server that users can connect to. Then a user can join channels, which are in layman’s terms, a chat-room.

Well, in order to have ownership of nicknames/accounts and channels, you need to have a set of services to enforce it. For example ChanServ would be incharge of channel ownership and stuff like that while NickServ or AuthServ would be the services incharge of nickname or account ownership.  Read more about it on Wikipedia.

Okay, well. 90% of  the IRC Services software packages is written in some variant of C. C is a very good foundation for this kind of software deployment. But what about PHP? PHP, at least for me, is a lot easier to write in, mostly because of I’ve had many more years of experience in it. But think about it.. if you run it in PHP and use a mySQL database (or something similar) you can very, very, very easily integrate it into a website. Also, PHP doesn’t need to be compiled, just save changes and run it.

So, some caveats. Nonterminating PHP scripts tend to make the HTTP daemon apache freak out and consume a lot of CPU. However, you could use something like httplite, I suppose. Secondly, PHP isn’t the most secure environment and allows for a lot of ‘bad style’ of programming to be done without caring too much.

Also, I’d like to address PHP’s socket extension. In order for this whole thing to work, the PHP script would have to connect via a socket connection to the main server hub in the IRC network and it would have to act like another server. This would require the script to talk to the hub in a SERVER-to-SERVER protocol, rather than a USER-TO-SERVER protocol like regular IRC clients do. This is a protocol that I am not used to, so I’d have to read up on it. Also, PHP socket extension is still in the experimental stages of development.

I know every C programmer and IRC services package developer that is reading this is probably freaking out and pulling their hair out at the mere idea of a PHP powered package, cursing at me in languages they didn’t even know they knew. Well, it’s time to do something new.. if everybody did everything the same way, the world would be a boring place.

And it’s also just to see if it can be done. What’s wrong with experimentation?

Hello. Been a few days. But I never said I’d write in it everyday.

On to my opinions, which face it… are totally awesome.

Okay, the view that’d I’d like to cover today is about Wi(reless)Fi(delity). This is the type of signal that is sent to allow computers to connect to the internet without being wired to a modem. It’s common in homes and some office buildings. Simply put, anyone who is within a reasonable distance to your wireless router can connect to that router wirelessly and in essence connect to the internet for free.

But, there are ways around this. By being the administrator of my home router, I have the ability to encrypt that wireless signal. Some routers even allow for a login challenge (Basically, people connecting to the router are stuck at a login page until they complete the login successfully). Here is where the controversy starts.. if I make no reasonable attempt to secure my network with some sort of encryption key or login challenge, do I have the right to get upset when my neighbor uses my internet? My opinion is flat out: No.

Here is my logic. Plain and simple, airwaves are owned by the people. If Joe Shmoe takes a wireless router and broadcasts a WiFi signal along the airwaves with no sort of security (encryption, logon challenge, both) on it, it is considered a free broadcast. If I can freely connect to it, it is a free broadcast. It is the same logic with radio broadcasts. You say that “it is unfair to use someone else is paying for!” Well, radio broadcasters have to pay for licenses for music, material, etc and need to pay for staff and equipment, yet that is a free public broadcast.

Again, I’d like to reiterate the fact that airwaves are owned by the public. Free transmission on these airwaves is considered to be publically owned. Also many coffee shops and fast food places do offer free wifi. So how do we know that Joe Shmoe isn’t offering this internet freely; it’s a stretch but a fairly good argument.

I am in no way endorsing cracking closed networks. Once there is an encryption key in place and effort is required to connect to it (bruteforcing, packet analyzing/sniffing, etc), that is actually considered compromising a closed network, thus illegal. If you’re stupid enough to leave your wireless network open to all within a close distance of your house, you have no right to complain.

Also, as a little disclaimer, if there is a clear-cut law in your community about using foreign wi-fi resources, please abide by it… and don’t give the court my blog and say I gave you permission and said it was alright.

So.

Today I decided to stay home because I was feeling really under the weather, pretty much all weekend. But I eventually went in (like at 4, which is really late, but meh) and got some work in. Then my friend, Michelle, who now works for the district too wanted to work out, so both of us went down to weight room and of course it’s locked. Can’t I just unlock it? No, of course not. I don’t even have a key to my office. And of course, there were no custodians around. I don’t even know if they would’ve let us in. So we’re gonna try again tomorrow, and probably a lot earlier. Like.. I dunno maybe 2 or 3?

So, instead. We went to the pool room and just hung out with two other kids. Then she drove me to Wawa. I had to get cigarettes for my dad. He needs to quit. Don’t you think so? So, I left wawa and she drove me home. Then like.. I was like. here at my like computer. Totally.

Anyway.

I’m the network manager for Universium IRC network. It’s pretty cool. If you have an IRC client, you should probably point it to irc.universium.net and join #Universium because all the cool people are doing it. I’ll hook y’all with a java applet one of these days. Anyway.. I’ve been working on a PHP powered bot that connects to the network. The bot sits in the staff log channel and takes those logs and saves them to a database. Like so:

This is what the database looks like from a PHPMyAdmin viewer. I then take the data and read from it, so I can review staff actions.. This way, I can check for abuse.

So anyway, I can take that data and format so I can make a webpage to display the logs for review.

Then those flags change the status of the respective entry. If I click a red flag, it highlights the respective entry. This way it stands out.. and also, a flagged entry cannot be deleted until it’s unflagged (or.. green flagged).

It makes my life easier.. also for anyone that is hired to review the logs.

Vantage Point

It was a pretty good movie. It sets up with the US president at a summit attempting to boost world morale. But something happens. He’s shot.. twice. And then there’s an explosion. And then another.

The first three quarters of the movie is the same part of the film played 5 times but viewed from a different person’s point of view (hence the title of the movie) . I do have to say, seeing mostly the same thing 5 times did get kind of annoying.. and every time they restarted the scene, someone in the crowd yelled “come on are you kidding me?” That was probably more annoying. But the vantage point method was actually pretty interesting albeit tad annoying. Each change in vantage point, you learned something new about the plot to kill the president. Each time, you learned of someone new involved. The latter part of the film played out like a normal movie and reveals a quite interesting twist, that I didn’t expect. The film gives you pieces and just when you are almost there, you restart the scene. But by the end, you solved the puzzle. I was really impressed.

As far as the actors go.. Dennis Quaid was a great choice for the main protagonist. The entire movie is based on his previous rescue of the president and how others use that to their advantage. Signourney Weaver.. I love her. Why was she only in about 7 minutes of footage? Disappointing.  The rest of the cast was great.

Great movie, go see it in theaters!

Jumper

I saw this movie last week. For some reason, despite the bad (p)reviews, I was excited to see this film. I think i was mostly teased by the trailer. Movie bad-ass Samuel L. Jackson chasing after Star Wars partner Hayden Christensen citing that there are always consequences. They never explained what the consequences were in the trailer, and I wanted to know. Well, I left not knowing WHY were the paladins rivals with the jumpers. I can understand and appreciate the conflict between the two groups, but why?

Special effects were great. And Rachel Blison who played Millie fit the part well, though sadly didn’t play too much role in the film besides a romantic motivation (who blames him, though?  )

Of course, you put SLJ in any role and he will never disappoint. Except again, why is jumping ultimately a problem, besides those abusing it? Nice twist at the end though

I’m going to say you should probably rent this one. Spend the $3.49/$0.00 on the rental rather than the $9.50 at the movies.

Le Fin.

Hi

My name is Jonathan Knippschild. I decided that I wanted to start a blog. Everyone else is doing it. Why can’t I? Yeah yeah, I had a xanga blog and even a blogger blog. But that’s all in the past. I never updated them, and when I did, it was terrible. Plus I shelled out money for the domain for this, so that’ll be motivation to post.

I’m just gonna post whatever comes to my head. Whatever happens in my life. Warning that this might contain some very geeky type stuff… and I like to rant.

Either way, Welcome to my Universe. Grab a chair and make yourself at home.