Apt’s Portal

Today I have created a PHP script to grab the name of the hourly winner at Swagbucks and post it to Twitter. The script is set to run every 15 minutes via crontab. For example, at 9:00, 9:15, 9:30, 9:45, 10:00, and so on… the script will run. The script only updates the status on Twitter if there is a new name posted. Follow the link at the bottom of this post to find the Twitter account being used by my script.

For those of you that may not know what Swagbucks is I’ll give you the low-down. Swagbucks is a website where you use it as a search engine and it will randomly give you “swagbucks” after you search for something. You can then cash in your accumlated swagbucks for prizes. Currently, I have received $20 in Amazon gift cards (they are combinable) by using Swagbucks. See the link below that is designated for Swagbucks to signup for free.

Twitter Account (for Hourly Swagbucks Winners)

Swagbucks

Windows 7 RC1 is a rather impressive product by Microsoft. However, many people (including myself) have found its watermark in the lower right hand corner to be a fine work of art. Therefore, due to my jealousy of Microsoft’s awesomeness, I found a solution to the problem. I found a tool that justifies my jealousy by removing the watermark (see bottom of the post for a link).

Now for an graceful return to the happy places that Microsoft kindly included with Windows 7 RC1. As you might have guessed, I am talking about the wallpapers included with Windows 7 RC1. I have found the location of the crazies, and I have packed them together for you to download. If you have Windows 7 RC1 installed, you can navigate to “C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper” to save yourself some time. For those that do not have it installed, check the last link in this post. For those that want to preview a few of the images, check a previous post.

“Some are the products of acid trips through a nightmare land of anime hell that I would never wish on anybody.”

Watermark Removal Tool and Free of viruses!

Windows 7 RC1 Wallpaper Pack (1920×1200 pixels)

Today Hulu released their application, Hulu Desktop. Hulu desktop makes it so that you do not need to open up your browser to view Hulu videos. The navigation is very simple and easy. It is even able to utilize a remote control. Unfortunately, I have found the program to be rather buggy. It has crashed several times since I installed it. However, this fault may be due to my operating system (Windows 7). I doubt that it is Windows 7’s fault, but you never know. Overall, it is a worthwhile download and I would recommend it to anyone that uses Hulu.

*This application is currently only released for Windows and Mac*

Hulu Desktop’s Official Page on Hulu

A couple of weeks ago I tried to join an Xbox Live Party with a friend and I was unable to. It gave me and my friend the error “Can Not Connect to Xbox Live Party” when we would try to join parties with each other. A quick google search taught me that this is a NAT problem and the problem was on my end. To solve this problem I changed some settings on the computer running my NAT. In the end, I got the ports working and I am now able to do what I please on Xbox Live.

My Guide for Xbox Live NAT with Iptables

As some may have noticed, builds of Windows 7 that were lower than the number “7100″ had one bug that really disturbed me. This bug would be the occurance of the infamous blue screen of death after you unplug your xbox 360 controller. Yes, this bug may sound weird, but it did indeed exist. However, in Windows 7 RC1 (build 7100), this bug ceases to exist.

Another bug that was removed was the unresponsiveness of Windows’s gadgets if you disabled User Account Control (UAC). Gadgets now work normally as when you disable UAC. This bug may have been x64 only, but it doesn’t happen anymore.

To be quite honest, this is indeed Microsoft’s finest operating system. Although it is still under development, it already surpasses Vista in every category. For example, my network drivers are included, the resolution of my screen is limited at the first install, my printers didn’t require any search for drivers, and load times in general are much faster.

Crazy wallpapers were also added to Windows 7 RC1. “Some are the products of acid trips through a nightmare land of anime hell that I would never wish on anybody.”

Here are just a few of the wallpapers… (click for enlargements)

Today Ubuntu released version 9.04 of its simplistic distribution of Linux. The major features that are noticeable up front is the support for the Ext4 file system and an official port for netbooks. Ext4 has proven to be a great upgrade when compared to its predecessor, Ext3. The speed overall is much faster, and the file system check times take less than a second (compare that to 5+ minutes of waiting for a check from Ext3). Ubuntu has included a specific netbook version of its distribution to accompany its desktop and server versions. This is the first distribution to my knowledge to maintain an official netbook version.

Ubuntu was always seen as a bloated and sluggish distribution in the my eyes. However, after testing Alpha 6 of 9.04 a month or so ago, Ubuntu has brought a new image to me. The distribution appears to lack the bloat and slowness that was in it. I am going to try out this official and stable release shortly. However, Gentoo still has the front seat for me.

Overall: I strongly recommend for others to try out this new release of Ubuntu. Make sure you try out Ext4 while you are at it.

Ubuntu’s Download Page
Ubuntu’s Bittorrent Download Page

Portalstorm.net has been relocated to Nearlyfreespeech.net’s servers. The main site and the blog have also had revisions. The main site changed its color scheme and only has two columns now. The blog has been updated and has a different theme. More time worthy posts are bound to come.