NerdGeekHero

What is an SSH Tunnel?
SSH tunnels provide a means to bypass firewalls that prohibit certain Internet services provided that outgoing connections are allowed.

Why an SSH Tunnel?
An SSH tunnel can be used to bypass filters at work, or stop an ISP from filtering bittorrent traffic. This means you can look at websites that your work previously blocked (like many gaming related sites)

The Guide:

Step 1. Get a free shell account. Its a slightly involved signup process for this free account. Or get a paid shell account.

Step 2 (Windows). Windows users download a program called PuTTY
(Mac users I’ll cover you later) and run it.

You will be greeted by this screen:

*This configuration is from my paid shell account. Just make sure the host matches the server where you have your shell account and “SSH” is checked.

Next, on the navigation pane on the left click Connections -> SSH -> Tunnels and you will see this screen:

*Any port will work, but for this example I am using 7777. Fill in the port number, check the ‘dynamic’ button and click ‘Add’. Then click the ‘Open’ button at the bottom and PutTTY should do its thing.

The next step is configuring your web browser to use your proxy. In Firefox this can be done by going to the Tools->Options menu item.

Then clicking on Advanced -> Network -> Settings and you should see this:

Check the box for “Manually configure proxy” and fill in the SOCKS Host with “127.0.0.1″. The “Port” number should match the port number from PuTTY, in this example 7777.

You should now be ready to go.
Remember to not close PuTTY unless you are down browsing or it won’t load any pages.

For anyone looking to waste time (maybe at work) check out Doom, the Roguelike. Its a console-only game (of the ASCII variety, not Nintendo), so be prepared for oldschool gameplay.

Nothing new to report about Planeshift but it definately qualifies as exciting. For anyone looking for a high-quality free MMO to try out look no further than Planeshift. Here are the top 10 reasons one should play Planeshift according to their site:

1. Planeshift is a great place to find new friends from all over the world!
2. PlaneShift is a virtual world where you’ve always dreamed of living.
3. PlaneShift is the first 3D MMORPG to be fully free for players.
4. Thanks to our open development process the game will be expanded endlessly for years to come.
5. Planeshift is a game made by roleplayers to bring you all the immersion you need from a virtual world.
6. A unique setting, realistic combat rules, great magic system.
7. No budgetary constraints will stop development of the world or prevent the addition of new ideas.
8. You will be able to build your house, your castle, your realm.
9. You have the option to live as an adventurer or as a normal citizen - both paths will be rewarded in the game.
10. You can submit comments, ideas, bugs and the dev team will take those into account in future releases.

If you’re itching to try something new, check it out.

Another game to watch is Infinity: The Quest for Earth. It is a space-sim MMO that features a procedurally generated universe which allows for near infinite sized galaxies.

0 A.D is an up-and-coming historic RTS from Wildfire Games. Its features include 6 unique civilizations, seasons and weather, multiplayer support, realistic combat and best of all its going to be 100% free.

Wesnoth 1.6

Sunday, March 22 2009

More than one year has gone by since we released Wesnoth 1.4. To thank you for more than 3,000,000 downloads via sourceforge.net, we now proudly present Wesnoth 1.6. You can look at the (translated) release notes to get an idea about what has changed since 1.4. For those who just want to play, the new release is available for download. This stable release is compatible with the last two release candidates for 1.6. If you have any comments, we would be happy to hear them in the forum thread dedicated to this release. We hope there are no bugs left, but if you find any, report them.
We are also looking for help in several areas, so that many other releases of similar caliber can follow this one. We are especially looking for translators, graphic artists (sprite, portraits, terrain, story images), music composers (a background in classical composition, and good equipment required), sound artists (for special effects), authors (writing/maintaining campaigns, creating content like unit descriptions, improving the ingame help) and, of course, coders. If you want to participate in developing Wesnoth, just have a look at the forum or visit us in the IRC channel #wesnoth-dev on irc.freenode.net.

Get the new version over at www.wesnoth.org

Ever wonder what it would look like if Doom is transformed to look like Diablo?
Probably not,  but here’s your chance to check it out thanks to IF Software and their title Doom: Fall of Mars.

While trolling the internet for goodness I came across this ad from a 1980 issue of BYTE magazine. Enjoy!

For anyone in the San Francisco area March 23rd-27th interested in indie games be sure to check out the 11th annual IGF.

AbstractAnarchy is an up and coming game design group that I’ve recently become a part of. Please check them out as www.abstractanarchy.com

*PS: If you’re a 3d modeler or a programming familar with C#, 3D, and/or XNA please contact me or post to the forums.