How to do stuff
I learned a neat thing you can do with Google. If you are looking for something on a particular website, you can use Google to search just that particular website. Type " site:"
For example, I was looking for information about PeerGuardian in relation to Ubuntu. So I typed "PeerGuardian site:ubuntuforums.org" and bam, I found the exact information I was looking for in the very first result. So it's very useful when you're searching forums. In my experience, the built in search function on most forums is not very helpful. So now I know what to use in the future.
PeerGuardian is a program that I use in my BitTorrent endeavors. Well, it was what I used. Now that I'm only using Ubuntu, it turns out that PeerGuardian doesn't have a Linux version. But in my Google search of ubuntuforums.org, I found a program called MoBlock that does the same thing for Linux. What it does is prevent your computer from connecting to a list of certain IP addresses. The list is full of all the known anti-P2P organizations, record companies, government agencies, etc. While it's not 100% guaranteed to keep you from connecting to one of those undesirable entities (they can get new IPs, etc.), it is a pretty good tool that works well enough for me.
Of course, if you want another effective line of defense between you and the prying eyes of the record industry, you can use a proxy server. A proxy server is a server set up somewhere else to which your computer connects before it goes out and connects with other computers on the internet. When it connects with those other computers, all they see is the IP address of the proxy server, keeping your IP anonymous. However, these can cost anywhere from $5-$20 a month, and I'm a cheap bastard.
For example, I was looking for information about PeerGuardian in relation to Ubuntu. So I typed "PeerGuardian site:ubuntuforums.org" and bam, I found the exact information I was looking for in the very first result. So it's very useful when you're searching forums. In my experience, the built in search function on most forums is not very helpful. So now I know what to use in the future.
PeerGuardian is a program that I use in my BitTorrent endeavors. Well, it was what I used. Now that I'm only using Ubuntu, it turns out that PeerGuardian doesn't have a Linux version. But in my Google search of ubuntuforums.org, I found a program called MoBlock that does the same thing for Linux. What it does is prevent your computer from connecting to a list of certain IP addresses. The list is full of all the known anti-P2P organizations, record companies, government agencies, etc. While it's not 100% guaranteed to keep you from connecting to one of those undesirable entities (they can get new IPs, etc.), it is a pretty good tool that works well enough for me.
Of course, if you want another effective line of defense between you and the prying eyes of the record industry, you can use a proxy server. A proxy server is a server set up somewhere else to which your computer connects before it goes out and connects with other computers on the internet. When it connects with those other computers, all they see is the IP address of the proxy server, keeping your IP anonymous. However, these can cost anywhere from $5-$20 a month, and I'm a cheap bastard.