Ricky Ford

If you use the Transmission bittorrent software for Ubuntu, you may have had a little bit of an issue updating your IP address blocklist within the program. I created a shell script that will help you do just that. All you need to do is first create a file called something like, “updateblocklists.sh” and fill it with the following script:

#!/bin/bash

BLOCKLISTDIR=”/var/lib/transmission-daemon/info/blocklists”
BASEURL=”http://www.bluetack.co.uk/config”

echo “”
echo ” BEFORE UPDATING, LET’S DELETE ALL PREVIOUS BLOCKLIST DATA”
echo ” IF YOU RECEIVE AN ERROR, IGNORE IT. IT USUALLY MEANS YOU”
echo ” DON’T HAVE ANY BLOCKLIST INFORMATION DOWNLOADED YET”
echo “”
rm “$BLOCKLISTDIR”/*
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST level1.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/level1.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/level1.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/level1.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/level1 $BLOCKLISTDIR/level1.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST level2.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/level2.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/level2.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/level2.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/level2 $BLOCKLISTDIR/level2.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST level3.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/level3.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/level3.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/level3.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/level3 $BLOCKLISTDIR/level3.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST proxy.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/proxy.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/proxy.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/proxy.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/proxy $BLOCKLISTDIR/proxy.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST Microsoft.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/Microsoft.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/Microsoft.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/Microsoft.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/Microsoft $BLOCKLISTDIR/microsoft.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST edu.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/edu.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/edu.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/edu.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/edu $BLOCKLISTDIR/edu.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST hijacked.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/hijacked.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/hijacked.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/hijacked.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/hijacked $BLOCKLISTDIR/hijacked.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST spider.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/spider.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/spider.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/spider.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/spider $BLOCKLISTDIR/spider.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST spyware.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/spyware.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/spyware.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/spyware.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/spyware $BLOCKLISTDIR/spyware.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” DOWNLOADING AND UNZIPPING BLOCKLIST webexploit.gz”
echo “”

curl -L $BASEURL/webexploit.gz -o $BLOCKLISTDIR/webexploit.gz
gunzip -f $BLOCKLISTDIR/webexploit.gz

echo “”
echo ” RENAMING NEW BLOCKLIST FILE TO .txt”
echo “”
mv $BLOCKLISTDIR/webexploit $BLOCKLISTDIR/webexploit.txt
echo “”
echo ” DONE”
echo “”

echo “”
echo ” RELOAD THE TRANSMISSION SERVICE SO CHANGES TAKE EFFECT”
echo “”
service transmission-daemon restart
echo “”
echo ” YOUR BLOCKLISTS HAVE BEEN UPDATED”
echo “”

Or you can download the above script by clicking here. When you download the file, you need to rename it from updateblocklists.txt to updateblocklists.sh so that you can run it from the command line. You need to make sure that you also run it using the sudo command if you aren’t logged in as root, otherwise the renaming and removing portions of the script won’t work. Also, be sure that in the script, you change the BLOCKLISTDIR variable at the beginning of the script to the correct path that points to your blocklist directory for Transmission. Currently this script downloads and processes the following blocklists from Bluetack Internet Security Solutions:

• level1
• level2
• level3
• proxy
• Microsoft
• edu
• hijacked
• spider
• spyware
• webexploit

This script currently, as of March 12th, 2012, adds 374,007 IP addresses to your Transmission blocklist. If there are any other blocklists you’d like added from Bluetack, don’t  hesitate to let me know in the comments and I can amend the script as needed.

It seems as if things are never truly finished when you’re an independent game developer. There’s always a new issue or a new challenge to overcome, and with such, a lot of time and headaches involved with wrapping your head around programming. I’ve started the early design phase of RockTycoon version 3 where I will hopefully be able to introduce a couple of new features that the community has requested, such as giving bands the opportunity to book their own festivals, along with introducing the ability for bands to collaborate with each other on their albums.

I can already tell that version 3 is going to be a bigger headache than version 2 was, but I’m hoping that with the new changes, the database that hosts RockTycoon will run like a well-oiled machine. I’ve tossed around the idea of implementing rounds with the RockTycoon community, to which I’ve received a lot of feedback from users stating they would absolutely hate the idea. My reasonings for implementing rounds have always been backed by a solid idea of how the game should function.

At the current point, it’s entirely too easy for bands to gain millions of dollars in cash and not have anything to spend their money on. I’ve implemented new vehicles, new instruments and new venues, and still, it seems as if bands are pulling in way more money than what should be in circulation. The last time I did a check on the money in circulation, it was somewhere in the billions. I’d prefer the number to be in the low millions.

So, with the implementation of rounds in the game, it makes much more sense that we would have a fresh slate every two or three months so that bands that just signed up in the game have a fighting chance against bands that have been playing the game since it launched. At the moment, some bands are in the tens of millions of fans, where new players would find it difficult and time consuming to even place on the Top Rock Charts. With the introduction of rounds, there would be an even and fair playing field for everyone who signs up for the game.

Just typing up this post and thinking in my head of everything that needs to be done and everything I want to implement in the game shows me that it’s going to take a lot of work to get RockTycoon where I want it to be.

In perhaps one of the biggest gaming misnomers ever to be used in an MMO, GamersFirst has a land-lock on company names that make absolutely no sense. If you try and break up that name into two separate parts, as it implies, you get Gamers First. This would lead one to believe that they are about pleasing the player and making sure they have a wonderful time using any product they release. I found this to be disappointing to say the least, as their customer service is probably the worst I’ve come across. I’ll try and keep my review base-lined to letting you know how I feel about APB Reloaded, but it’s going to be a difficult task when I’ve been completely slapped in the face by the company that published it.

Game graphics: I found the graphics to be quite enjoyable and well-rounded to the game itself. Although graphical bugs are present in some cases (such as turning a car too sharply and getting it ‘stuck’ in the center median of the road, or when driving the dump truck, you squish another car into a wall and the other car gets stuck in the wall and the dump truck and begins violently convulsing back and forth, up and down uncontrollably), they are more amusing than annoying. The physics of watching your character fly off the top of the highest building after getting smashed with a rocket launcher and landing on his head as he hits the ground can also be quite amusing at times.

Game items: The free-to-play aspect hasn’t hit this game as hard as it’s hit other games. Although you can purchase additional weapons for real cash, GamersFirst has done a fairly decent job at balancing the premium weapons with the in-game weapons, so it honestly doesn’t feel as if it’s a “pay-to-win” kind of game. The only aspect of “pay-to-win” I see making it’s way into the game is the fact that premium players gain, in some instances, twice the amount of money and standing after a mission is over, which would make a non-premium player bulk in disgust. Especially if that other premium player is sitting on a big $300k mound of cash while the non-premium player is barely making ends meet with a poor $5k wallet. If being a non-premium player with no money isn’t bad enough, GamersFirst reminds you of that after EVERY. SINGLE. MISSION. by popping up a box and rubbing it in your face what you’re missing out on by not being a premium player. Annoying much? Absolutely.

Game mechanics: The missions get old quick. And I mean REALLY quick. Run here, burn that, break in to this building, hack this satellite, steal this car, burn this other car, break into this other window, steal this other car, over and over and over and over again. The only satisfaction coming from the missions is that each time you play someone else, you get a better aspect of the killing-spree side of the game. The only reason to complete the mission objectives is to keep the mission going long enough so that (1) you don’t lose and (2) you continue your kill streak. Doing the mission objectives isn’t what makes players want to do the missions, it’s the battle that ensues during the missions that make the game fun. When you finally get down to beating the mission……..wait, what? GM kicked you from the game to inspect your account? Now you’re trying to log back in and it says blocked? What? What is going on?

Yea, that was my experience. While playing through a mission with my other clan members, I was booted from the game with a general message that a GM was inspecting my account. After trying to log back in 20 minutes later, I get an error code stating my account has been blocked. For what, you might ask? I have no idea. I wasn’t using any cheating software (the game is loaded with PunkBuster, so cheating is a waste of time), I wasn’t cursing or shouting or spamming the in-game chat channel, I wasn’t being a nuisance to other players, I was doing absolutely nothing that would warrant a ban on my account. So, what do I do? I send an e-mail to the GamersFirst support team, asking for a reason as to why my account was blocked.

All I get back a general canned response stating my account was observed to be using third-party tools (which of course it wasn’t) and that any and all future tickets regarding my account would be closed without further reading. This is where my belittling of the company name “GamersFirst” comes into play. I was blocked from their game for absolutely no reason that I could think of (unless PunkBuster detected something in my game that it thought was bad, when it truly was giving me no added advantage in the game) and when I tried to get a reason, it was canned general message response. The character that I was playing with had over $270k in the wallet, two level 3 character modifications (worth about $90k each) as well as one level 3 weapon modification (worth about $90k as well). In addition to that, I spent $15 to become a premium player for the month, which was indeed cut short due to their premature blocking of my account.

To say I was pissed off would be an understatement. The blocking of my account spoiled the game enough for me that I uninstalled it immediately following their e-mail reply and didn’t think to look back. All of those hours logged in-character and all of that money saved up was gone without a single reasoning behind it.

I took a few hours last night to jump into the Free 2 Play game War Inc. Battlezone, offered by Steam, to see just how great the game actually is. The only reason I played is due to my falling out with APB: Reloaded (more on this later) and I needed a F2P game to fill that void. This is what I thought of the time I spent in the war zone.

Game graphics: I don’t know how in the hell they programmed and designed this game, but the frame rate is absolutely abysmal. I don’t have an ultra high-end laptop, but with an Intel i7-2860QM ~3.0GHz processor, 8GBs of RAM, 256GB solid-state drive, and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 3GB video card, I should have been able to play this game on, at least, medium-quality settings. Nope. I had to drop down to the lowest possible settings just to keep my frame rate from dropping down to 10 FPS. Truly archaic. The graphics of the game (coming from viewing them in the lowest settings) seemed to be fairly decent, but I sure would have loved to experience them in full definition.

Game items: Switching load-outs and character add-on items seemed to be fairly straight-forward, if it wasn’t for a lot of the items in-game costing real money. One of the things I remembered seeing in the loading videos before the game played was that you didn’t have to pay real money to be able to enjoy the game, and could stay fairly competitive without spending a single penny. Well, that’s not the impression I got when looking through the store screens to purchase new weapons. There were maybe two or three weapons I could purchase without using real money, whereas the rest of the items (five or six) had a cost attached that involved me whipping out my wallet. That’s not what I’m about. If I play a F2P game, I expect to have a decent selection of items in-game that I can purchase by working my way towards them in-game. I don’t expect to have to pay any money to stay competitive, which despite what the game tells you in the beginning, it seems quite difficult.

Game mechanics: I’m assuming it takes a LOT of practice to be able to play this game to it’s full potential. When I wasn’t running into battle with a semi automatic rifle and getting my face melted by other players and their hand-guns, I was doing my best to hide in the bushes and snipe people off, instead being greeted by someone walking up behind me and killing me instantly. The cross-hairs in-game are incredibly difficult to see when walking around, as they are a bright white color, which when you tilt your view slightly upwards, blends them straight into the sky, making it nearly impossible to get a good bead on your target unless you’re aiming at their feet. Scoping your gun and looking down the barrel brings your character to an unnatural crawl, making it so that it’s nearly impossible to move out of enemy fire if they’re more than 20m away from your character; shooting without being scoped makes the game too finicky and it’s hard to actually lock onto your target. It was incredibly difficult finding the perfect balance of when to scope and when to shoot from the hip, a balance I couldn’t find the entire time I played.

All-in-all, I think they have a solid structure of what a F2P war-game should be, but they are far from executing that correctly. Fix the graphics so that the frame rate doesn’t drop to unplayable outside of the low-end settings and by God, advertise the game a little more so that players aren’t having to wait 10 minutes at the end of every round for enough people to join in the game.

I definitely would not have whipped out my wallet to purchase anything in-game, and will not see myself doing so until a lot of the actual mechanics are fixed in the game. I sure wouldn’t do it any time soon; I’ve already uninstalled the game.

Like my other ADW Launcher EX DockPack, this one comes in NFL team logo flavors. For only $0.99, you can show your support for your favorite NFL team by customizing your ADW Launcher dock image.

Use your favorite barcode scanner for Android to scan the following QR code and be taken to the market to download the DockPack:

Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rickylford.adwdockpacknfl