ILuvJohn

Time to dump that old Windows OS! Since I am such security buff (not really, but I try), I thought I would show this to you since it has been an issue for me.

I have turned off ALL automatic updates for Windows. The PC continues to use automatic updates even though it is turned off. Today it had a dialog box asking for Windows Restart for the automatic updates it had just installed. I checked it all out and it was in fact windows update / program. I also double checked before restarting that Automatic updates were turned off.

When I restarted, it still said automatic updates were turned off!

So I did some looking around and found this:
http://windowssecrets.com/2007/09/13/01-Microsoft-updates-Windows-without-users-consent

In my personal and professional opinion - Windows XP / Vista is 100% insecure. MicroSUCK has the ability to update your system at anytime with out your consent. This means that they can, at anytime, create an update that sends them a scan of your hard drive (for instnace). Who is to say they are not snooping your Hard Drive? I am looking into virtual machines and Ubuntu Linux (They do have a really nice graphical UI for it too).

Now we just need to catch / record proof of what is happening and start a class action law suit. If I don’t want Microsoft updates, I have the right to not have them. Yet it keeps happening. Not to mention the GIGANTIC security flaw this issue presents.

Who knows….Maybe we should make a stand against it - It’s out LEGAL RIGHT to have privacy. Microsoft intentionally made XP (and Vista apparently) with a “Back door”, if you will, and this “hole in security” is allowing a way for Microsoft to access YOUR PC at THEIR WILL. It IS an invasion of Privacy, weather they are using it for wrong purposes or not. The fact of the matter is that they COULD and there is nothing we can do to stop it except for not using the internet - but that is LAME. We should be able to surf the net securely, and let our PC sit while connected securely, and we should absolutely have the ability to control every single aspect of our computer. Updates, manual updates, programs, etc. Just because Microsoft made it doesn’t mean they have the right to invade it - We “purchased” it right? So why are they forcing this kind of stuff on us? With no regret at all,

IN THE NAME OF LINUX, I CURSE MICROSOFT CORPORATION TO THE DEPTHS OF COMPUTER HELL!

We should all concider sucking up our own thougts and make a stand by NOT using Microsoft. Within a short amount of time, I am going to make the transfer to Linux. I want to find the best Linux available for free that is the easiest transition for Windows Users. With Open Office and the internet, there is nothing we can not do on Linux whereas Windows have too many “rules” to follow.

If your with me, comment. Thanks for visiting.

If you or someone you know needs custom PHP programing, send them my way. I specialize in Content scraping.

Screen shot of the scraper in action!

I heard the news - The Pirate Bay has been purchased for $7.7 Million. So, I decided it would be a cool idea to scrape all the torrent files and archive them. Long story short - I coded a PHP / MySQL scraper that just follows links on TPB and downloads Torrents as it find them. It is pretty simple.

This fantastic package can be yours right now for a small donation *hint hint wink wink*. Not really, but it would be nice

I did have the scrapers live stats up, but my hosting company wont let me. The script also has a nifty search / download page:

Thanks!

UPDATE:
You can download a .rar file from my site here, or you can help spread the work by downloading it via bit-torrent from The Pirate Bay.

Description From TPB:
The Pirate Bay Torrent Scraper

**This is Version 1.1**
* Fixed MySQL connections issue. MySQL now closes connections correctly.

*View Live working demo at http://iluvjohn.com/scripts/tpb/torrent.php

I will be Seeding for a long time….only 2.93 MB!

IMPORTANT NOTE:
In torrent.php there are 2 urls you need to change so that you don’t go to my site.
just strip out “http://iluvjohn.com/scripts/tpb/” and you should be fine.
Sorry about that…..didn’t realize it at first.

This is a script I have been writing for about 2 days now. I figured since TPB got bought, we should ensure ourselves access to the torrents the we the people have taken the time to create.

This script requires PHP, MySQL and Curl.

This script comes with:

*An install.php file that will set up your database.
*index.php will scan and scrape TPB for torrents, following links much like a bot does.
*index.php will save .torrent files that originate from torrents.thepiratebay.org only.
*When index.php finds a torrent it checks to make sure its not already in the DB, Saves the Torrent file in the DB, saves the URL in which the torrent was located, and saves the entire page that the torrent file was found on (preserving the description / info of the torrent file).

*torrents.php file will allow anyone to see the stats of the scraper, as well as search through torrent names and download torrent files.

*If people like this script, I’d consider releasing updates. If you want to add to it / mod it, by all means go for it!! Feel free to send it to me to check out too!!

I feel there is a bit of a press for time regarding TPB, so I wanted to get this out there ASAP, even if it is a little bit crude.

I have tested this on windows and linux servers. If you are planning on running it from home, I suggest dedicating an entire whole computer to this - It will take a bit of HD space, and also processing will start to rise drastically as the database fills up as this app is primarily database driven.

Contact me via: http://iluvjohn.com/contact.php

Or comment for others (if you really like the script) here: http://iluvjohn.com/2009/07/18/the-pirate-bay-scraper-bot/