Since BitTornado is written in Python, an interpreted programming language, no compiling is necessary to modify this program, making it one of the easiest BitTorrent clients to disable uploads on.

1. Visit the BitTornado site, click on Download, and download either the experimental or the stable version of the BitTorrent client installer and install it. Do not start BitTornado.
2. Download the matching .zip Source Package on the same download page and save it to a directory where you will remember.
3. Extract the .zip archive and in Windows Explorer navigate to the BitTornado-CVS\BitTornado directory.
4. In Windows Explorer, right click on ConnChoice.py and select Open with..., and use Notepad to open this file (Uncheck the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" to prevent meta information changes).
5. Modify all of the lines that begin with 'conn', by changing the value next to 'min' to 0 (zero). For example, change the following line:

   'conn':{'min':4, 'max':100,  'def': 4}},
   

   To read:

   'conn':{'min':0, 'max':100,  'def': 4}},

6. In Notepad, click on File -> Save to save your changes and close Notepad.
7. In Windows Explorer, right click on ConnChoice.py and select Cut.
8. In Windows Explorer Navigate to C:\Program Files\BitTornado\library.zip\BitTornado
9. In Windows Explorer, right click in the above directory and select Paste.
10. In Windows Explorer, right click on ConnChoice.pyc and select Delete to delete the .pyc (compiled Python) version of Uploader and leave the .py (uncompiled Python) version behind.
11. In Windows Explorer navigate to the BitTornado-CVS\BitTornado\BT1 directory where you unarchived the .zip file.
12. In Windows Explorer, right click on Uploader.py and select Open with..., and use Notepad to open this file (Uncheck the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" to prevent meta information changes).
13. Modify the following line:

    if not self.choked and self.connection.next_upload is None:

    To read:

    if not self.choked and self.connection.next_upload is None and self.config['max_uploads'] > 0:

14. In Notepad, click on File -> Save to save your changes and close Notepad.
15. In Windows Explorer, right click on Uploader.py and select Cut.
16. In Windows Explorer Navigate to C:\Program Files\BitTornado\library.zip\BitTornado\BT1
17. In Windows Explorer, right click in the above directory and select Paste.
18. In Windows Explorer, right click on Uploader.pyc and select Delete to delete the .pyc (compiled Python) version of Uploader and leave the .py (uncompiled Python) version behind.

You can now start BitTornado and when selecting zero for the "Max uploads", instead of the zero setting meaning unlimited, it will actually be set to zero.

Note: When you disable upload in a BitTorrent client, you're going against the whole philosophy of BitTorrent, and this will negatively affect your download speeds in most situations.

You've probably come here wondering if this file is a security threat or malware. The unagiuninst.exe file is not malware.

If you look in the install log, you'll see that it mentions the installation of Unagi. Unagi is the name of an application that AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) 6 installs. You can verify this by looking at the date of these files and comparing them with the date of your C:\Program Files\AIM6 directory.

Unagi is installed by the unagi3.exe file which is part of the AOL 6 installation. The installer is digitally signed by AOL and should be safe. The unagiuninst.exe object seen in MSIE's objects appears to be an uninstaller.

I'm just blogging this because this information didn't seem to be available when I did a google search and had to do my own investigation. I'm hoping that this blog entry will help others once google indexes this page.

My mom is an indigenous person of the Americas and celebrates her heritage as a member of the now non-existent Apache tribe. Not only am I copper colored, but I also dress rather like a social misfit. I get asked for ID all the time when making credit card purchases, regardless of the dollar amount. Whether I'm getting racially profiled, I can't be sure. Unfortunately, when I stand there at the register to see if everyone else gets asked for ID, the store clerks are already tipped off that I'm watching to see if they're applying their policy to everyone.

GameStop's corporate policy

Yesterday, my best friend and I went to GameStop, a store that specializes in new and used electronic gaming consoles, games, and accessories. My used Nintendo Wii had come with a Mario Kart game which neither one of us enjoyed. Since the game came with a steering wheel accessory, I figured that we could get a decent amount of credit when we traded it in.

The store ended up offering us $22 worth of credit for the game that we were trading in, it's steering wheel accessory, and the empty box. There were several new and used games for $19.99 which we could have bought with the credit, but my friend and I noticed that they were having a "buy two get one free" special on the used games. Therefore, we could get one $19.99 game with my credit, or if I shelled out another $19.99, we could get three games. I decided that this was a good opportunity to increase our three game collection to a six game collection for less than $20.

After spending nearly an hour picking out three games, I went to pay for them. After getting asked for my name, street address, and date of birth while everyone standing around could hear, I then got asked for $19.63, and I offered a signed MasterCard check card as payment. Before the store clerk would even swipe my credit card, he asked for my ID.

I asked, as I usually do, "Oh, is it not signed?" The clerk checked to see if my card was signed, and then said that it was but that he needed to see my ID for "security purposes". I started explaining that it was a violation of Visa and MasterCard regulations to require ID to accept the card as payment, since it was signed. As I'm accustomed to hearing, he spouted that it was store policy and that I shouldn't feel uncomfortable about showing my ID unless it wasn't my card. Unable to convince him that he was wrong, I told him that I'd be reporting his violation and left to get a twenty dollar bill out of the ATM a few blocks away.

The store clerk was actually happy with that, apparently thinking that he'd just avoided some credit card fraud. In his mind, if I'm unwilling to show my ID, it certainly must not be my credit card. I don't blame him, however. I blame his management team. I tried to explain that MasterCard and Visa wanted people to be able leave home on an adventure with just a signed credit card for payment, and that allowing stores to ask for ID allowed for racial or other profiling. What the store clerk is supposed to do is compare signatures, and if he had a security concern, he was to do a "code 10 authorization" by calling up MasterCard directly who would then direct him how to proceed.

I ended up paying with cash, and lost out on the benefits of using a MasterCard for payment, such as extended warranty and purchase protection. I told the store clerk that next month when I came in to trade my Zelda game in that he wouldn't have to ask me for ID. I told him that I'd never reported a store for a merchant violation and came in the next time to find that they were still asking for ID. He said that he'd had complaints from customers for the five years he'd been asking for ID, and that the policy hadn't changed yet. He obviously didn't believe me. It's too bad. I called another GameStop near me, and the clerk I spoke with confirmed that this is GameStop corporate policy. I've reported the violation to American Express, Visa, and MasterCard.

Visa and MasterCard Rules and Regulations

Here's what Visa says about requiring ID:

"Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID, merchants cannont make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID. Visa believes merchants should not ask for ID as part of their regular card acceptance procedures."

From page 31 of their Card Acceptance Guide.

Here's what MasterCard says about requiring ID:

"A Merchant must not refuse to complete a Transaction soley because a Cardholder who has complied with conditions for presentment of a Card at the POI refuses to provide addititional information, exept as specifically permitted or required by the Standards. A Merchant may require additional identification from the Cardholder if the information is required to complete the Transaction, such as for shipping purposes."

From page 87, Section 5.6.3 of the MasterCard Rules.

The Visa and MasterCard rules and regulations would allow for a retail store to ask for ID if having an account with the store is required to make a purchase, and an ID is required to open an account.

The Visa and MasterCard rules and regulations would allow for a retail store to ask for ID if the card is not signed. In fact, an unsigned card can not be accepted, and the clerk should have you sign the card after providing ID. As a result, people who write "See ID" on their signature panels would really only get that benefit the first time they use the card.

Other common merchant violations and reporting them

In addition to not being able to ask for ID, merchants can not add surcharges for credit card payments, and can not have minimum amount requirements for credit card payments. However, merchants can give a discount to cash customers.

If you encounter a merchant violation, you can report them at the following telephone numbers:

VISA: 800-VISA-911
MasterCard: 800-300-3069

It's my experience, that shortly after reporting the violation, the store's bank as well as the store will get a very stern letter threatening the loss of ability to accept credit cards and fines around $2,000 if they don't correct their policies.

What do you think?

My best friend is white and is all for stores asking him for ID to pay with a credit card. He and I often argue about this, and actually while I was at the store, the two other customers that were there at the time of the argument agreed with the clerk. One of them was paying with a credit card, and offered his ID without even being asked, to prove his point. Although the clerk didn't even look at it or the picture.

What I'm unable to convince many people, because they think that they know better than MasterCard and Visa, is that stores are not protecting the card holder by asking for ID. The cardholder is already protected from fraudulent charges.

The stores are erroneously trying to protect themselves by inconveniencing their customers by only asking "suspicious" people for their ID, doing some type of social or racial profiling. If the store clerks simply checked that the card had the proper security devices on it, hadn't been tampered with, was not expired, and that the signatures matched, the store would be guaranteed to be paid. Instead, many stores are relying on their own policies developed by managment teams that are not experts in their obligations or on how to prevent credit card fraud.

Let me know what you think. Do you feel safe when store clerks ask you for your ID, or do you feel singled out? Do these store clerks even bother to check the photo or signature on the ID, the hologram on the front of the credit card, or compare the embossed numbers on the credit card with the ones on the magnetic strip?

At the request of the CEO where I work, the marketing director, the CEO, and I attended a webinar on marketing using social media. I attended the part on getting blog readers, because I write the company blog. The biggest thing that I walked away from the webinar with was the idea of building my network on twitter before even starting to concentrate on writing high quality articles.

Twitter: The basics

If you're not familiar with twitter, it's basically a short, group subscription based text message that you can get on your mobile phone or on your computer. You can chose to receive all of the short (140 character) messages from a member that you want to follow. Whenever a person that you follow decides to send out a short message, called a "tweet", you get the message in a real time information push. Many twitter members submit messages on what they're doing, or on information that they found useful that day and want to share with their followers. If you find a tweet that someone posted to be useful, you may rebroadcast the information to those following you in what's called a "retweet", where it's good manners to attribute the original author.

Networking by following

The webinar that I attended focused on building your network by following people, in the hopes that they will follow you in return. In the twitter world, supposedly it's good manners to follow people that have followed you. If someone follows you, you're supposed to visit their profile and if it's not spam, you politely follow them back.

Therefore, to get more people following you, you're supposed to follow a few strangers every day. Not just a few random strangers though. You probably want to follow members that are in your industry. You can locate these members by seeing who is following influential people in your industry or by doing topic searches.

Here's why that doesn't work, though. I'm only following 24 people and check my twitter account twice a day. Even though I'm not following very many people, it still takes a significant amount of time to read all of their tweets since the last time I had logged in. To actually have that many tweets going to my mobile phone would be unruly, so I don't have them sent to my mobile phone.

If someone is following more than 50 members, I'd wager that they aren't reading what others are saying at all, and are mostly just broadcasting their own spiel. If you have a follower that is following more than 50 users, the only way they'll see what you're contributing is if you send a reply to them or mention their name in a tweet.

The true measure of how influential a person is on twitter is that they're being followed by people who aren't following very many people. Additionally, they're being followed by other influential people. It would be interesting if twitter would calculate this metric and display it on a user's profile. However, I know that many hackers would be able to quickly become the most influential.

The follow and be followed in return tactic can work, though. You just need to target new twitter members that haven't figured out yet that it's not useful to follow people just because someone followed them. To have any hope of members following you back out of politeness, you need to target users that aren't following very many people and that don't have very many followers. However, I'm not going to recommend this approach, as it seems rather spammy.

Networking with content

Another way to get more followers is by getting people that you want to influence to read your tweets and possibly follow you. This was also mentioned in the webinar that I attended.

If you've followed some truly influential people on twitter, you'll notice that they have thousands of followers, yet they only follow a handful of people. These social networking "magnates" are not going to follow you, but they may periodically read tweets that reference them.

If you find that a twitter magnate posts something worthwhile, and you retweet it, giving them proper attribution, they may end up reading your profile. However, even if you get their attention momentarily, these magnates are still unlikely to follow you because they would perceive that as a recommendation.

You can still attract the attention of average people, though. Using industry keywords or current topics in your tweets may get people reading your tweets and visiting your profile. Some people may follow you because they're momentarily interested in what you have to say, but at least as many people will follow you hoping to sell you something related.

One thing that I've definitely learned is not to make too many twitter posts unless you want people to stop following you. I don't care if you're @timoreilley, who was posting some great stuff, but if you post more than five tweets a day I probably won't follow you for long. Twitter only allows 140 character messages because that's what they can broadcast as a text message to mobile devices. However, the brevity that this has inspired has influenced what people expect. They want only the edited down version. It's not only about concise messages, but also about getting rid of the lesser important topics. If you make more than five tweets a day, expect normal people to stop following you.

Twitter as an informational resource

By far the most value that I've received from twitter so far is by following influential people. I follow artists that I like, well connected CEOs of successful companies, and successful bloggers. These people, who are unlikely to ever follow me, are posting useful and insightful information. They're sharing information in a short concise manner that they would have never taken the time to do by maintaining a blog (except for the bloggers).

It may not qualify as networking, because I'm just an ear and not a mouth, but I'm right there in the loop as some of the most amazing social networking unfolds right in front of me. It's like getting a hidden microphone into the black tie party of the elite that I could never get into myself.

The webinar that I attended at the request of the CEO where I work is not named here simply because I don't remember who presented it. I'm not sure if it was a free webinar or not, and I'm too lazy to ask if the others that attended it remember the name of it. Sorry.

I have had myofascial pain in my intercostal muscles for over four years, and recently was diagnosed with "rib restrictions" that are likely causing the pain. I was slightly excited about getting some assistance outside of physical therapy.

When I stepped into the room where the massage therapist had set up her table, she asked me if I was next, and I said that I had some queries for her first.

The massage therapist introduced herself as Kara. Kara is  a well dressed, blond, white woman in her twenties with long hair, and today was dressed in a fashionable black skirt and boots.

I asked Kara if she knew anything about massage therapy for myofascial pain and she replied that she was certified in myofascial release. She said that it's a gentle type of massage where the muscles are slowly stretched. I was excited about trying it, but when it was my turn, she actually wanted to try something different called cranialsacral massage therapy. Before we got started, she referred to it as a very gental touch therapy and she thought that it could help me a lot. Since she was the expert, I thought it was worth a try, and I suggested that maybe we could try the more typical myofascial release therapy the next time she came out so that I could determine which was the most effective for me.

Lying on the table on my stomach, I immediately wasn't very comfortable. Because of my pain, I find it usually comfortable to rest my arms anywhere other than at my sides, but dangling them off of the edges of the table wasn't good as the table was too wide at the chest. I also felt like the face pillow was angled up too much, and it bent my next backwards slightly. I don't know if any of this is normal, as I admint that this is the first time I've ever been in a massage chair. I didn't say anything, although I should have asked since I was unsure.

While lying on my stomach, I heard her rub her hands together very briefly and then immediately rest one hand at the base of my skull and the other as low on my back as she could get without my feeling awkward at the situation. Her hands felt strangely warm.

We started talking about the traffic accident that had been determined by my doctor to likely have caused my pain due to the impact and the seat belt. After that, things drifted and we talked about family, the weather, probably the usual small talk stuff. Kara had explained that she had been studying psychology as a career goal, but had been struggling with frequent migraines. She said that a massage therapist rescued her with cranialsacral massage therapy and now her migraines are much less frequent. It's this positive experience that had her change her major from psychology to massage therapy. Kara definitely had a good way of making conversation and I didn't know if that should be attributed to her psychology training or her massage therapy training.

I don't remember if I prompted the discussion on what the actual cranialsacral therapy was or not, but Kara explained that there is something that runs between the skull and through the spine and that sometimes the flow gets stuck at places. By touching the places, using some technique that I couldn't really identify or feel, she relieved the barriers of the flow. I asked how she could determine when it was unstuck, and she said that through practice she had learned to feel the flow, almost like a pulse.

I commented that Kara's hands felt very warm and she said that it was because she was channeling energy into them. She stated that she would have a hard time explaining what she did to cause it, but the obvious thing that most people could witness was the extreme warmth. I don't know if this is magic, or if she used some type of hand creme, but her hands were quite warm, almost like a heating blanket. I definitely witnessed it. It was very soothing as she slowly worked her hands up my spine, stopping in places for short periods.

When we were nearly done, Kara asked me if I drank very much water. I told her the truth, that I usually get the correct amount at work, but on the weekends, I'm pretty bad at staying  hydrated. She suggested that I drink plenty of water today, so that the toxins that she released wouldn't settle in my body and make me sore. My logical mind explains this as the suggestion provided by a stage psychic. If I felt sore later, I'd attribute it to not drinking enough water. When normally, I'm sore anyway, and that's after all why I went to the therapist. Whether I was sore or not, just drinking water, if I'm normally dehydrated, might make me feel better on its own. She also mentioned that I might feel some minor spine crackling, and that it was normal. This seemed unlikely to me, as she'd barely touched anything, but she claimed that my spine was adjusted very gently.

Kara gave me her business card, and told me her rates, and suggested that I research some of the techniques listed on her card on the Internet as it would be easier for me to understand than for her to try to explain them to me in a short therapy session. I personally don't have the time, or the interest, but if it works it works. At this point, I haven't noticed a difference after the cranialsacral therapy.

One thing I did note was that the vertical business card of the salon where she works has a very nice color scheme and isn't horribly ugly considering the very weak logo and simple layout. Kara also sold herself very well, and she seemed to be doing a good job networking with her clients. Whether she's seeking a practice of her own outside the salon, I was unclear of. I wasn't sure if she was selling me her personal rates or those of the salon if I asked for her.

I'll definitely post on this again after I try the regular myofascial release and also if I feel anything later that I would attribute to this therapy. Is this something that I didn't get benefit from since I didn't believe in it, or is it something more tangible? I don't know, but I'd definitely classify it as holistic. Please let me know what you think about cranialsacral massage therapy, with some comments.

UPDATE: I never did try out the myofascial release, because I had forgotten that Kara even said she was trained in it the next time I got a massage. Apparently she'd forgotten that we'd discussed it also. Instead, I think I was just getting regular massages, which were very firm but oddly felt good afterward, even if they didn't help with my myofascial pain. If anything it almost felt like I'd just worked out, which is a nice thing to experience in the middle of the day without actually having to work out.

Back then, I was keeping my diary online, writing about my personal life and my most private and dark thoughts. It was odd finding that people were reading my diary, and even though I had no way for people to comment or contact me, several people were able to track me down using what I wrote about myself or by looking at my domain name registration information.

I became quick friends with several people who would contact me whenever I took a break from writing, worrying about whether I was still alive. I soon lost interest in this as I became a workaholic, not having the time to write about my day or my thoughts. I wonder today if I'd have allowed comments and kept writing, if my site wouldn't have become popular enough to sell ads on and make a living. At the time, I could have cared less about the business side of blogging.

My college education was geared toward communication, with my major being photographic journalism. I've been using my education to write press releases and keep an IT security blog where I work at during the day as an IT Manager. I often write controversial (to my boss, anyway) material that I believe is important, that soon gets taken down. It's what has my blog at work on a two month hiatus. I've only written since on things that my supervisor at work has asked me to write on.

I was considering starting to write in my old Internet diary again, but decided instead just to start a new blog with my own personal thoughts. Unlike my old blog, I'm drawing a line though. You probably won't hear indepth about any medical problems and family drama. However, you will get the best of Mark Adams.

My IT security blog at work has a lot of traffic, but it's all keyword traffic from search engines. It's actually what I have been targeting and I've been doing a great job at it. I "own" several Internet search engine keywords right now with very useful informational posts on the related topics. However, I have very few if any subscribers. The CEO where I work had me attend a webinar to help improve with that. The webinar said that I had to build my network before blogging. I couldn't expect to just write high quality articles and expect people to find them. Additionally, when people do find them, they see the article as the resource and not the blog itself.

I decided that this advice seemed sound, but if I was going to start networking, I was going to start networking me, and not the company where I've been working during the day. I started a twittter account and a linked in account. I'm following several successful business owners that I highly respect, and have been learning more about networking from my networking than I had expected. My new social network is slowly growing, and I feel that after a year, I should be able to continue writing well researched articles and start being recognized as a solid contributor in my industries.

However, had I provided a forum to my avid readers, and had I not abandoned them years ago, I probably would be much further along. Now that everyone has a blog, and many of them well written and insightful, I may continue being a drop in the bucket. That's okay.