Category: Uncategorized

Block YouTube Ads on TV

I hate advertisements especially on YouTube when they are playing on the TV especially when they are now “unskippable” and I have to watch them for fifteen seconds without being able to skip them. Even skippable ads are also annoying because if you just put down the remote to play that long 10-hour ambiance you have to get up every half an hour to grab the remote and skip them. Recently I found an amazing application for blocking youtube ads and at the same time adding some other pretty cool features.

The application is called Smart Tube Next, Originally I found it after googling a while and found it on one of the many APK sites. But as I later realized there is a Github official version that had the latest updates and not the beta version. According to their Github page they currently support these different devices:

To install all you need is the Downloader AFTNews app for fireTV, once installed use the built-in browser within the download app and type 28544 into the search bar, and hit enter. It will start downloading and prompting to ask for security confirmations, accept all prompts and the app should pop up in your App Library. (for more info on installing the application or for help read the README document on the Github page)

As well as blocking Ads Smart Tube Next has a feature where it auto skips the sponsors/intro outro parts in videos, which is surprisingly useful! Of course, you can always disable it in the settings. One flaw in the app is the lack of voice command support for youtube searches. For example, in my experience, I can’t say “open youtube” when pressing the voice command button on the fire tv remote. all it will do is find the youtube app on the Amazon app store. But I found that in SmartTubeNext if I’m in the search bar I can say “some music video, on youtube” and that seems to work for me most of the time. Overall for me, it’s definitely a great alternative to the regular YouTube app on the fire tv.

December 9, 2021
Learning Minecraft Python Programming!

Recently I stumbled upon a book called “Adventures in Minecraft” written by Martin O’Hanlon, and David Whale. The book teaches you how to code in Minecraft with python, which is split up into chapters called “Adventures,” and basically, each “Adventure” is a short version of a “project” where you make a “mini-game” that runs in your own world. For example, the 2nd chapter teaches you how to make a short game called “rent” using geo-fencing, where the player has a certain amount of time to do tasks. What I love about the book is that you make your own twist to the game. You don’t always need to do only what it says to write, but it encourages you to add more of your own code in addition to what you learned from the previous adventures.

For example: After you’ve finished the second chapter, it encourages you to make another game if you want to be based on the code you have learned.

The book uses a bukkit server for setting up and coding. Since spigot is now better and updated for performance, I would recommend using a spigot server instead for better performance. The recourses offer a Linux version if you want to try, but they say it isn’t updated for every distro. I used the Linux version on my laptop (running Linux Mint) so far. Everything has been running extremely well.

(To note: this version is the updated version. There is an older one made in 2014. And which is no longer supported)

October 25, 2021
Setup Cloudflare DNS Proxy for Server

Recently when setting my WordPress site, one of the requirements I wanted to meet was having a proxy server protect it. Basically, a proxy server is where another person’s server hides the original IP of the base server. For example, this image:

In my case, I wanted my public IP to be not seen by using domain IP lookup tools. And possibly misuse it for malicious intents. (Such as DDoSing)

After a little googling around, I discovered that Cloudflare had the free proxy option when you use their service. So I switched over nameservers to Cloudflare instead of GoDaddy nameservers, and it copied over the current DNS records. I just had to change the A record with the “orange cloud” enabled. The “orange cloud” is the switch on whether or not a DNS record has the proxy enabled or not

above: Orange cloud means proxy is enabled, and grey is direct DNS enabled

This tool can be handy for many hosting cases such as Minecraft Servers and Web hosting.

I definitely recommend using Cloudflare for Proxy and DNS management, as they have many useful tools, including redirects for domains.

September 17, 2021
How to Fix URL Change When Hosting on Raspberry Pi – WordPress
Recently when setting up my WordPress website on my Raspberry Pi, One mistake I made was to change the URL to the website to “192.168.1.24.com” instead of “192.168.1.24”, which means that if I try to connect to the website, it’s just going to redirect to a non-existent URL. Thus I could not connect to it via web address at all. But after about an hour of googling and researching, I was able to fix it, and here are instructions just in case you happened to run into the same issue:

Instructions:

First, ssh into your Pi, then type
```
cd /var/www/wordpress/wp-content/themes/yourtheme
```
(This changes the directory to the themes directory) and replace “yourtheme” with the name of your theme. Then type:
```
sudo nano functions.php
```
once in paste this code right after the “<?PHP” line:
```
update_option( 'siteurl', 'http://example.com' );
update_option( 'home', 'http://example.com' );
```
(this code overwrites the already chosen URL in the admin webpage) and, of course, don’t forget to replace the HTTP//:example.com with your desired URL. After that, press CTRL+X to exit, then hit Y to save the code. Now restart the Apache with:
```
sudo service apache2 restart
```
or if you are using Nginx, do:
```
sudo systemctl restart nginx
```
For additional help, visit these links:

https://wordpress.org/support/article/changing-the-site-url/

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33246

And that’s all if you have any questions or want to contact me an email: [email protected].
August 30, 2021