Breaking Out

It is tough to break free of the iOS 5 constraints. Of course I'm talking about jail breaking the iPhone. I'll chalk up 1 point to the fandroids out there for the lack of freedom for customizing an OS. It can be done though there are some minor drawbacks and one big issue.

I'm talking about the tethered boot. It means that every time I turn this phone off I have to plug it into a computer to turn it back on...talk about suxor.

The other drawbacks have to do more with updating to iOS 5 than with jailbreaking. There are so many comparability issues with some of my favorite apps that it can make them unusable.

Case in point is the handy Blogpress app. I loved it and even praised it in this very blog. Not any more, it crashes every time I use it due to an iOS 5 incompatibility. I'm using the blogger app now and it lacks so many of the finer features. Links are too difficult to use and being as this is a mobile blog, I can't just add them in on my Pc at home.

Oh well, I guess that's why technology is 2 steps back for every 5 steps forward. I was so excited for the post I had ready but it can't be done under these iffy circumstances.

Sorry for the boringness, I'll add some extra humor into my next post when this is all figured out.

Mobile Torrents FTW

Here is something cool. You can now access the Utorrent client running on your Pc from your IPhone. Not just look either, but add torrents and start and stop them. It's pretty flipping sweet and I'll show you how. It's pretty easy and depending on your proficiency with a computer should only take 5-20 minus to set up. After it's set up you can access it quickly and easily from your phone

First though there are some understandable limitations. The Pc will have to be on and running Utorrent but that makes sense. Properly configured that will be your only roadblock. Also, I'm sorry if you're at work or only have your phone on you, but you do have to configure it on your computer before you can access it at all. Don't worry though, I'll explain it all.

So let's get those pimp hands ready to do some work. We're gonna start on the pc. First we need set your computer with a Static IP Address. Let me explain...

Dynamic vs Static IPs: Most routers assign dynamic IP addresses by default. They do this because dynamic ip address networks require no configuration. The end user can simply plug their computer in, and their network will work. When ip addresses are assigned dynamically, the router is the one that assigns them. Every time a computer reboots it asks the router for an ip address. The router then hands it an ip address that has not already been handed out to another computer. This is important to note. When you set your computer to a static ip address, the router does not know that a computer is using that ip address. So the very same ip address may be handed to another computer later, and that will prevent both computers from connecting to the internet. So when you assign a static IP addresses, it's important to assign an IP address that will not be handed out to other computers by the dynamic IP address server. The dynamic IP address server is generally refered to as the dhcp server.

Click here for a step by step guide if you're not sure how to set this up.

Then we actually have to set up Utorrent to have it's ports forwarded. This allows successful communication with it. It's very easy to do. Click here for a list of routers. Click on whichever model your router is. It is important to note here that your router may not be on the list, but the general idea is the same. The next page will probably be an advertisement but you can skip past it by clicking on the link in the top right of the page.

It is important that you are forwarding the port on the ip address you assigned your computer. Go ahead and write down the port you forwarded, we'll need it in a bit.

So now we are ready to work in Utorrent. Open up the client and go into the settings. You should see a webui or web interface section somewhere under settings, usually with it's own tab or under general. Like this:




Go ahead and check "Enable Web Interface". Also check "Alternative Listening Port". Make sure that the field next to alternative listening port has the same port number as the one you forwarded.

I recommend setting up a username and password as well. Make sure they are something which you will be able to type into your phone.

Next I'm gonna need you to click here and write down your IP address.

Phew...we should be done with the Pc, just leave Utorrent running.

Now it gets cool. What a webui does is it creates a custom interface that can be accessed through your web browser. The purpose was to allow remote control of your Utorrent from another pc, but we're gonna access it from our totally sweet iPhones.

Now let's take our phones and work from here. You should have the ip address and port I told you to write down. I'll make up some numbers as an example.

ip: 111.111.1.1
port: 2222

Now I need you to open Safari and we are going to type those into the web browser so it looks like this:

http://111.111.1.1:2222/gui/

Type in whatever user name and password you created and that should be it.

If you are familiar with torrenting you are set from here. If not my next post will be on how to use this webui to download torrents and what websites I recommend using.

Any questions or comments can be left below or on my Facebook if that's how you found this blog.

How?

How in the world can anyone do a blog challenge? Who thinks that many different things? No wonder I am so good at avoiding independent wealth.

I felt creative a few times so I wrote a post here and there, I even got my wife to give a shout out to my blog, and now I've got writers block.



That's a crudely accurate interpretation of how I'm feeling. It could be the stress of it all but I think that's just a cop out.

If there was so much going on there would be plenty to write about. The most exciting thing going on with me is that school started back up. The second would be that I'm switching schedules...again. Literally that's it.

I do have a few hobbies but nothing anybody wants to hear about. Although I wonder I anybody feels like hearing me drone on about nothing, like an unfunny episode of Seinfeld...but with far less quality and standards.

Ok I'll give a little advice. Catch up on Game of Thrones and Fringe, they should both be having great seasons coming up.

I do also have to plug and app called Blogpress. If you have to blog on the go, like I am right now, this app will be immensely helpful. It really does do everything I want it to.

The only thing I haven't tested is embedding videos directly through the app, into this blog. I'll post a random video I uploaded to YouTube. Hopefully it works, if not your gonna see a bunch of nonsense code.

I think I feel bad?

I really love 3rd shift. It probably sounds weird to most, but I enjoy it so much. It fits me like a smedium polo shirt...perfectly.

But wouldn't ya know I got pulled off of it and am now on 1st. I despise 1st shift.

Here's how it works. On 1st shift work starts at 6am. Yeah, that's too early for me. It's also way too hot for any sane person.

3rd shift starts at 10pm. I get to sleep in and I have all day for any appointments or anything important I need to get done. It is so much cooler at night and I don't have to wear a stupid safari hat.

Ok so I love the safari hat but it seems like people think I should feel bad for not being grateful. It's not like this is an opportunity to learn more. I'm not at all grateful, I'm the one guy who didn't want to go on 1st.

Bah, bring me back to 3rd as quickly as possible. The night shift is perfect for me and I can still walk in there like a boss and wear the hell out of that hat, even if it's dark out.

Kick It

So my wife's big thing lately has been blogging. By a big thing I mean she gave herself a 30 day blog challenge wherein she wrote something every day.

By now we all know I'm way too lazy to do anything like that...but it got me thinking. I thought to myself
"Well if I even tried to do that I wouldn't be able to keep doing it in my phone. Unless of course there was a user friendly app that made it easy."
"That's what I'll do, I'll write an app for people like me. And then I can blog about that."
"Huh? There already is one? Well surely it can't be as good as- oh, it works perfectly well I see."
"Ok, guess I can just write about the app I guess." :(

So after that inner dialogue here we are. The app is called Blogpress and it actually works pretty well. You can easily add links, pictures, and even videos.

Is it worth the couple bucks in the app store? I don't know if I would have bought it, but then again the first thing I did with my phone was jailbreak it when I got home.

I'll throw up a pic so everybody can see that it works.





Yes that's a man preparing sushi with a big slice of pizza behind him, so what?

Me Me Me

I enjoy links. Well I guess it's better said that I enjoy the ability to post links in my blog. With my current method this is sadly impossible, or at least requires a minuscule amount of research and effort on my part, let's not get ridiculous.

It's so much easier to just complain about it to the world and share my frustration with people, hopefully not long enough for you to realize reading my blog is probably a waste of time, not even the valuable kind. I mean the kind of time spent looking busy in the office but playing Angry Birds. I'm even wasting that kind of time.

Oh well, such is the way of blogs. They feed the narcissistic nature in all of us, no matter how much we tell ourselves it's important it is to stay in touch with other people and there interests.

That's ok though. It's my completely uneducated and unresearched belief that venting this narcissism online helps us better listen to and appreciate what other people are doing or saying in person.

Maybe some online selfishness helps us be more real life selfless, comment below and make me feel special.

LIES!!!!

So Blogger doesn't work so well on the iPhone. I've come up with a plane though, the wonder of copy and paste.

So I'll be trying this method instead, typing in Notes and copying and pasting into blogger. This could be a huge failure or it could be my greatest accomplishment. Probably failure :(

As the title suggests I was 100% lying about posting frequently. I'm sure it happens to most people but I just lost the motivation. And screw using Windows Dictation, that's a pain in the ass.

So we'll see if this turns out to be easier and therefore keeps my interest longer.

Now to post this and hopefully have it be the first of many.