Step 1:

Step 2:

Voila:

Plugin the USB, then:

Then

mf$ hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o BT5R2-GNOME-64.img BT5R2-GNOME-64.iso
mf$ diskutil list /dev/disk2 #(careful here)
mf$ dd if=./BT5R2-GNOME-64.img.dmg of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m

Note: that bs=1m (without it the speed is going to be less than 1mb/sec, with it it's 10mb/sec)

Note2: we're using rdisk2 instead of disk2, again this way it's faster.

I wanted to change the handler of magnet:// urls and found out a pretty neat tool to do that.

It's called RCDefaultApp and it is a widget (prefPane).

It's pretty easy to use

It's pretty good. I just found it so no feedback of any kind, but it looks good. App is available in the App Store.

How to get internet connectivity on an open wi-fi access point that requires a credit card without actually paying:

Prerequisites

• OpenWRT router
  • public ip, not necessarily static
• account on dns.he.net
• OS X laptop

Iodine on OpenWRT and installation on a OS X

On the OpenWRT:

• opkg install iodined
• update /etc/init.d/iodined to:

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#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common
# Copyright (C) 2006-2011 OpenWrt.org

START=50

start_instance () {
local section="$1"
config_get address  "$section" 'address'
config_get password "$section" 'password'
config_get tunnelip "$section" 'tunnelip'
config_get tld      "$section" 'tld'

service_start /usr/sbin/iodined -l "$address" -c -s -P "$password" $tunnelip "$tld" &
sleep 1
ifconfig dns0 $tunnelip netmask 255.255.255.0
}

start() {
config_load 'iodined'
config_foreach start_instance 'iodined'
}

stop() {
service_stop /usr/sbin/iodined
}

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• so that it starts automatically

/etc/init.d/iodined enable

• edit /etc/config/iodined (because there' s a bug on openwrt)
  • change address to 192.168.14.1

config iodined
 option address ''
 option password ''
 option tunnelip '192.168.14.1'
 option tld ''

• Make sure the openwrt router has a static ip address (he.net provides dyndns updates)
• Make a dns zone: a.server.com ns -> openwrt.server.com
  • openwrt.server.com has a dyndns update
• port forward 53 (tcp and udp) from first router to second router (or just open 53 on the openwrt)

osx client

• http://tuntaposx.sourceforge.net/ (tuntap)
• script:

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#!/bin/bash

# are we root?
if ! [ $UID == 0 ] ; then
  echo "IODINE SETUP: use 'sudo $0'";
  exit 0;
fi;

#$1 says whether we use clearcode or stoynov.com
if [ -z $1 ] ; then
  echo 'IODINE SETUP: first param must be 1(i.clearcode.org) or 2(i.stoynov.com)';
  exit 0;
fi;

if [ $1 == 1 ] ; then
  endpoint_domain='i.clearcode.org'
  endpoint_net='192.168.14.0/24'
  endpoint_gw='192.168.14.1'
fi;

if [ $1 == 2 ] ; then
  endpoint_domain='j.stoynov.com'
  endpoint_net='192.168.15.0/24'
  endpoint_gw='192.168.15.1'
fi;

# get the first dns from resolv.conf and use it.
abused_nameserver=`cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | head -1 | awk '{print $2}'`
abused_nameserver=8.8.4.4
echo ">>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>USING DNS: $abused_nameserver"

# kill iodine if any and remove old routes
killall iodine
route delete 8.8.8.8 > /dev/null
route delete 8.8.4.4 > /dev/null

# get the default gateway for iodine
default_gateway=`netstat -rn | grep default | awk '{print $2}'`

#when I die, restore the default gateway, use trap to get Ctrl+C
function disconnect() {
  # kill the process with id coming as a parameter
  kill -9 $1;
  route add default $default_gateway;
}
#disconnect and exit
function cleanup() {
  disconnect $(pgrep iodine);
  exit 0;
}
trap "cleanup" SIGINT

#dns query types
dns_query_types="TXT CNAME NULL"

function connect() {
  # start iodine (possible dns types are CNAME, TXT, NULL), -F puts a pid file with the processId inside
  iodine_output=$(./iodine -T CNAME -r -P "peshev sucks" -F /var/run/iodine.pid $abused_nameserver $endpoint_domain 2>&1 | tee /dev/tty)

  #remote_net from iodine_output
  remote_net=$(echo $iodine_output | grep -o "Adding route [0-9\.]*/[0-9]\{1,2\} to [0-9\.]*" | awk '{print $3}')  

  #remote_net is something like 192.168.15.2/27 and should be 192.168.15.0/27
  remote_net=$(./ipcalc -nb $remote_net | grep Network | awk '{ print $2}')

  #tunX_ip (tunX_ip) from iodine_output
  tunX_ip=$(echo $iodine_output | grep -o "Adding route [0-9\.]*/[0-9]\{1,2\} to [0-9\.]*" | awk '{print $5}')

  #remote_gateway (gateway on iodine) from iodine_output
  remote_gateway=$(echo $iodine_output | grep -o "Server tunnel IP is [0-9\.]*" | awk '{print $5}')

  # route to nameserver to be abused
  route add -host $abused_nameserver $default_gateway
  # route to remote network via tunX_ip (necessary because my mac sucks)
  route add -net $remote_net $tunX_ip
  # change default gateway from system default to iodine 
  route delete default
  route add default $remote_gateway

  # time to download 100kb file in seconds (1.34). We remove the dot for easy comparison (1.34 -> 134)
  echo TESTING SPEED;
  t=$( { time -p curl -s ftp://speedtest:speedtest@ftp.otenet.gr/test100k.db; } 2>&1 )
  seconds=$(echo $t | awk '{ print $2;}' | tr -d . );
  echo SECONDS: $seconds;
}  
connect;

echo 'READY...READY...READY...READY...READY...'

while true; do sleep 10000; done;

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•  add ipcalc because the script needs it: ipcalc

Conclusion

Some testing found out speeds like 7-15 kb/s, sometimes less on 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. With local DNS servers the speeds are like 100kb/s. More testing is necessary.

Updated tutorial with better torrent client here.

Most large torrent files (8-20 gb) take quite a while to download. Is there software for Mac OS X that allows me to watch them while downloading?

The solution

I tried all (I mean all) torrent clients for OS X that I could find.

There were people before me who wanted the same feature and have asked the most popular clients (uTorrent and Transmission) whether they would support serial downloading. Developers replied that that would defeat the purpose of torrent protocol (it would seem that uTorrent changed their minds and have such a feature for windows).

Finally I found one that could download file parts in order. It's called BitThief. It's a research project and has an awful interface. But it works, and most importantly downloads serially.

->
-> -> ->

After the file is put for downloading, the speed must be good enough for watching. For example, if the movie is 1:30h long, I check the ETA time to be less than that.

To watch the movie I use MplayerX (an OS X GUI for mplayer). It can be downloaded for free from OS X App Store. Mplayer is light, can play EVERYTHING, and navigation is done with the arrow keys. Mplayer automatically regenerates the index (the thing that allows using the progress bar). The OS X gui is awesome and supports the Lion's full-screen view.

There's always a chance that things could go wrong - low speed or high speed in the beginning and then low speed (which is even worse).

Keep in mind that in order to watch a 1:30h long movie that is 20gbytes, you have to download with ~3.7mbytes/sec.

Update: tested with 700mb AVIs, 2gb, 6gb, 8gb, 20gb MKVs (was lazy to check the codec, h264 mostly I guess).

Update 2012.07.02: This solution has been serving me quite good. Still here are the issues: BitThief is not very optimized and while other torrent clients can utilize my whole bandwidth, BitThief fails from time to time, probably because it is downloading sequentially. Also magnet links are not supported and the interface sucks so much.

Update 2012.08.16: A fix for utilizing magnet links: magnet->torrent converter. Utilizing magnet links allows this process to work for thepiratebay.org and other sites utilizing the new magnet url technology.

Update 2013.02.04: The newest version of BitThief now supports Magnet URIs. They're saying that a new look and feel is also coming.