IRC.XYZ – IRCcloud assassin!

Recently I had a pleasure of talking to eskimo (developer of most popular iOS IRC client “Igloo“). Turns out that this developer also has made an Online IRC Bouncer – IRC.XYZ, which is very modern, minimalistic & a direct competitor of IRCcloud.com
I already have a blog post about IRCcloud, how ridiculous it’s pricing is & recommended “The Lounge” for those who is a current user or thinking of paying for IRCcloud.
IRC.XYZ project was on hold, but while having conversation with a developer I couldn’t resist of asking to test out the service myself, so he took his time & enabled the service while also making some fixes.
After registering & logging in, I was very nicely surprised how nice, modern, yet minimalistic & simple the user interface is. Very easy to navigate & would be a breeze for someone who just discovered IRC. I immediately thought of IRCcloud & compared them.
The biggest advantage is that IRC.xyz service is HALF the price of IRCcloud! Like I mentioned in my previous post about the nonsense pricing of IRCcloud ($6/month), here with IRC.XYZ, I agree that the price is more than adequate ($3/month).
You can use the web interface or connect any IRC client to the bouncer. I been connected since speaking with a developer & haven’t had any issues or disconnects.
I’m happy eskimo enabled this service, also mentioned that some new features will be added in the near future.
So if anyone is an IRCcloud customer or needs a solid bouncer with web interface, I would definitely recommend IRC.XYZ.

Other projects / software / services from this developer:
Igloo IRC – most popular iOS IRC client.
arxius.io – online drag & drop file hosting (up to 1GB)
Full list: https://eskimo.software/

Lenovo IdeaPad AMD $179.99

Once in a while I shop at Lenovo, usually it’s to upgrade my ThinkPad. You can’t really buy higher end ThinkPads at the stores, so I go to their website to customize it to my specific needs & always choose ON-SITE warranties.
When you register at Lenovo, they send you points once in a while, so I get small accessories often for like 95% off, I just bought a laptop sleeve which was $25 for around $2 (+ Free shipping)
So I was just randomly browsing their site and notice a pretty sweet deal:
15″ Lenovo IdeaPad 1 (AMD)
AMD Athlon™ Gold 7220U Processor (2.40 GHz up to 3.70 GHz)
4 GB LPDDR5-5500MHz (Soldered)
128 GB SSD M.2 2242 PCIe Gen3 TLC
Integrated AMD Radeon™ 610M
15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080), TN, Anti-Glare, Non-touch, 220 nits, Narrow Bezel
720P HD with Dual Microphone and Privacy Shutter
Wi-Fi 6 2×2 AX & Bluetooth® 5.1 or above
Windows 11 Home
and 1 year warranty.

This is on sale now for only $179.99 !
Even though it doesn’t fit my needs, it’s still a very decent big screen laptop for someone. Great as a Christmas gift or as your own laptop.
Considering Chromebooks sell for similar price, here you get SSD, a decent CPU which came out on second quarter of this year, DDR5 4G RAM, which will be enough for basic needs.
So CLICK HERE to grab it while it’s still on sale!
(I do not have referral links or get anything from this sale)

2024 Summer plans!

I live not too far from the Ocean, aprox an hour drive to NJ beaches. I grew up in Lithuania where we have Baltic sea, also for couple years I lived right on the beach in Puerto Rico, so oceans is not a big deal for me, I actually like lakes better…
However, my friend foxy (f) from Freenode has never seen the ocean & always wanted to visit one. Since I live not too far from it, I thought why don’t I invite her here and we both go to the beach together, I would be happy for her to see the ocean while I’m next to her.
So we made plan to make it happen in the summer of 2024, not only she will see the ocean, but we gonna meet up & enjoy time together with random activities. There is bunch cool/interesting stuff you can do in Philadelphia & New Jersey, so I think it won’t be boring

XEON Security

This is a quick preview example of cameras that are being installed by XEON Security.
However, the main services provided are way more than the powerful cameras.
Some of the examples of some of the features XEON Security benefits:
– When someone steps on your property (property area a set in the software), the camera immediately zooms in, takes & saves a face picture & than follows the person (software able to recognize humans, animals, etc).
– Has a facial recognition, so that you can be alerted when the person on your property is not your family member or neighbor.
– Does human count on selected areas & provide statistics.
– Able to take pictures of license plates from moving vehicles, saves to Data Base. Separate folder for license plates that does belong to neighborhood (been seen many times), the ones that haven’t been seen within past 30,60 days or ever.
– Able to recognize make, model & color of the vehicle.

There is much more that will be listed on the company websites when it will be released after being upgraded. Below is the video of zoom / quality of one of the cameras

A geeky, simple Social Media Site?

– I stopped using Facebook now for quite some time, I haven’t made a post in over 5 years. The only useful thing for me there is a Market Place, since it killed Craigs List. Facebook feels way over bloated, there is too much of everything even the people on the friend list are posting nothing you want to see, either they trying to show off something or promoting something to have a gain. I kinda missed the old Facebook, the simple, light & easy to use, the time we still were able to “poke” people.
Twitter on the other hand got way better after Elon took over, in this year alone I made way more post than thru the whole time I had it, and I created account almost 15 years ago! But I follow & post sstuff that is happening in the world, twitter is not a thing for friends, it’s more of almost real time news gathering of what’s going on, it’s great for businesses to interact with their customers.
– There was this startup, not sure if you remember it, called Orkut, it was a social media created by one of Google employees & I really liked it! It was exactly what I wanted, however it closed, since Facebook was on the rise at the moment & it killed off any Social Media startups out there. Of course if Orkut was still alive, I bet it would of become over bloated as well, specially being created by Google guy.
– So… After years of not having a humble, simple, fast & non-commercial social media platform, I thought why not start one. Where people can interact, have groups for specific topics, discuss things, where anybody with any interests could be using & enjoying it. A very simple, not bloated & not personal information stealing company. So I though let me open one up & invite people I interact with online, in my life or on IRC. IRC is amazing, but it’s it’s more like messaging & you can’t come back & continue the topic.
– So here we are, I opened 2 of them! lol Just to try out different platforms. You can create “Spaces” for you interest, lets say “Dream Meaning” & have people join, have discussions regarding this specific topic. You can join or create support “Spaces” for anything out there, from Tech, to carpeting to school work. Also have general “Space” for chatting, or meeting someone, make friends! Have a built in messaging platform, able to post links, pictures. Have a Poll for users to vote & even have a video call feature (one on one or group) with help of Jitsi! Your information is not being stored & sold for profit, there is no censorship, and your true right to the Freedom Of Speech exist! Also, a very light site, which loads fast & of course to be able to access it via mobile device.
– If that’s something you think you might like, please stop by & take a look at exorg.net – a simple, short domain. (it also can be accessed via EXorg.org, EXnetwork.net) Not sure what it stands for, but I think “EXORGExcommunicado Organization Network” sounds just perfect lol.
– So go ahead, take a look, have a feel, make a post, create a group & let me know what you think, I would really appreciate that A LOT!

Thank You!
Dany Gran.

Almost Crashed

This happened today on 10/26/23. (Camera shows everything to be much further than it really is). The ford got cut off and then rear ended the car in front, who for some reason stopped on yellow almost in the middle of the intersection. Due to my driving skills (lol) I was able to avoid any crash. I was driving forward thinking someone behind me would of smashed into me since we all had to break hard. Even my iPhone automatically called 911 & sent out my location, thinking I was in an accident. (dashcam date & time is wrong)

ChatGPT Desktop App


If you are using ChatGPT pretty often, you should definitely download this Desktop App so it could be ready to use with just one click. It even has a Fast One Click Chat Pop-up from Taskbar, no need to even fully open the app. It’s available on many OS flavors, Windows, Linux & “ShitKintosh”.
It’s an unofficial App by lencx, who did an amazing job! Lightweight, awesome & simple UI. Runs smoothly & no issues accrued as of yet, you can also export your search queries as PDF & PNG.

-> Download for Windows, Mac (x86_64 & aarch64) & Linux /

(Github)

IRC & US Government (yes really…)

File name: US.Army.IRC.MTTP-TacticalChat <- Click to view or download the PDF.
TC – Tactical Chat

So earlier I was going thru my very old backups & found this amazing documentation intended for “ARMY, Marine Corps, NAVY & Air Force” on how to use IRC Chat! Yes, you read that right, IRC Chat… They call it “TC – TACTICAL CHAT”. Also, such software as mIRC is being discussed as well! They really go in depth of IRC / mIRC usage. Even though, IRC old timer would know such info (government & their IRC usage) & this would be nothing new, but If you haven’t seen this, nerds like me will have a blast reading it. They literally list their IRC Rooms & their intended purposes.
Keep in mind, this is from 2009. However IRC was in decline already at that time…

Here is few items from the document to give some idea:

(2) Up to ten additional rooms may be open, but minimized and occasionally
“cycled through,” or have features such as “flash” in mIRC, to assist with
notification when new traffic is posted.

7 JULY 2009 FM 6-02.73 / MCRP 3-40.2B / NTTP 6-02.8 / AFTTP 3-2.77 67
Appendix F
CHAT ROOM MANAGEMENT EXAMPLE
For this training example, the chat system of record (SOR) is mIRC. Applicable
rooms and guard chart for the AOC dynamic effects cell (DEC) are shown below.

AIR DEFENSE VIGNETTE
During an air defense exercise hosted by the Weapons Tactics Instructor Course at
Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, AZ, the Army Patriot and Marine Tactical Air
Operations Center (TAOC) heavily utilized TC (Tactical Chat) during the execution phase of the
mission to pass timely information

F_CAOC_COD_Leader_Coord —This room is a coordination space internal
to the AOC for the chief of combat operations and his operations team leads
. Other
AOC operations; planning; strategy; Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
Division (ISRD); and Air Mobility Division (AMD) users may monitor this room for SA.
The primary participants are the CCO, Senior Air Defense Officer (SADO), Senior
Intelligence Duty Officer (SIDO), Senior Operations Duty Officer (SODO), C2 Duty
Officer (C2DO), AOC Commander, and combined forces air component commander
(CFACC).

F_CAOC_C2_Coord_Command —This room is the mIRC parallel of AC-1
secure voice. The C2 Duty Officer will use this space to coordinate status and health of
the tactical air control squadron (TACS) with mIRC-equipped TACS platforms as well as
transmit AOC-directed commands to air forces in the AO/

My crappy, noobish “Tinylab”

Here is my recent little project called “Tiny Lab” (apart from my Main Home Lab). An idea born from looking at the empty shelf :). Not so long ago i bought 2 Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Gen2 Tiny PC’s & had 6 HP ProDesk 600 G2 Micro PC’s laying around for very long time, so I thought why not just put them to some kind of use instead of just sitting & collecting dust.

One of ThinkCentres is being used as my desktop, since I was never a gamer this works for me really well. Overall I love these little PC’s, they also called 1 liter computers. Lenovo, DELL & HP all make them, called Tiny, Micro, Mini. Considering their size some models are real powerhorses. Mine are average. Here are the specs:

ThinkCentre M70q Gen2 Tiny: i5-10400T, 32GB RAM, 500GB nVME + 1TB SSD, both have exact same configuration.

The HP Minis are old & really low spec, I guess that’s why they been laying around for son long without any purpose.

HP ProDesk 600 G2 Minis: i3-6100T, 12GB RAM, 500GB SSD. All have the same configuration.

I actually do have few of these HP’s attached to few TVs around the house, but had 4 left dusting.

I also dig out my old ass Lenovo Twist Touchscreen (Laptop/Tablet) which haven’t been used in years & came up with some ideas how I can make some use out of it. So now it hides the TinyLab when screen is down & running terminals with hardware monitors 24/7 (vtop – I have install instructions posted here) which are connected to my proxmox & VPS’s,this way I can just glance at it real quick & know the current state of servers (CPU, RAM & largest processes). This shelf is located right next to my desk on the left side, so I can see it clearly. Whenever I need to a access the “TinyLab” physically I just move the screen up.

Lenovo Twist: i7-3517U, 8GB RAM, 250GB SSD. (Touch screen)

I know the setup looks a bit “ghetto” . I had few USB fans laying around so I just added 4 for now to make air circulation better. Right now I’m Planning on having 2 ThinkCentres & 3 HP ProDesks.

ProDesks have Proxmox Cluster setup & running few VMs & Containers. One ThinkCentre like I mentioned is my main PC & second one is dedicated to PLEX, Blue Iris & qBittorrent. Yes I know & I was running all of them on proxmox VMs, but I like to tinker too much & brake something very often, so just letting these few apps have their own dedicated hardware. Blue Iris is a very powerful Security Camera Recording Software, It’s currently recording my Home & Office Cameras.

Also attached to “TinyLab” 2 External HDDs: 4TB (My PC Backups) & 10TB (PLEX Data)

New Menu Section – Links.

I have what I consider a pretty extensive “Bookmarks Toolbar”. The most visited ones I put an Icon only without any text & some folders contains over 50 additional bookmarks. Folder names “N” is for “News”, links to various news in all kinds of fields, so had an idea why not share the ones i visit most here on my blog. Check out Links to see the ones I consider attention worthy ones. I would also appreciate if you send me some of the ones you visit often!

[I used to have two row Bookmarks bar, since even now I can’t fit my main icons, but after Firefox made changes I wasn’t able to bring it back using same way I did before. If you know how to do it I would really appreciate if you can drop a comment with that info!]