Create an Access Control List to Block a Country

Paranormalis gets scraped by a lot of Russian bots and it slows it down sometimes. Also, lots of bot/fake accounts, despite all the anti-spam measures in place. I finally decided to go ahead and block the entirety of Russia from accessing the forum. 

This has nothing to do with the "blocking Russia" or "no more business with Russia" thing we've seen everywhere since early 2022. It's 100% about blocking bots. And the number of Russian bots scraping the site has increased a ton this year. That's what made me do it.

We won't miss anything. We don't have any active members (or occasional members at all) from Russia as far as I know. It's only bots. It will hopefully make the site faster and more stable.

I found this tool, which generates IP range lists from countries in the output format of your choice. In my case, I chose to go the HTACCESS way. So I checked "Russian Federation" and "Apache htaccess Deny". I ended up with a list of over 24 000 deny entries that I added to the forum's HTACCESS file.

That did the trick! 
Create an Access Control List to Block Countries or Continents

vBulletin Memories

Nearly 2 decades ago, vBulletin used to be the best forum software around. Until they were bought by Internet Brands in 2007, whose only interest is money. 

In the following 3 to 4 years, Internet Brands drove vBulletin to the ground. They lost their employees, and their new releases were all absolute shit. Even today, vBulletin 5 is one hell of a stinker. Stay away from it. 

Then around 2011, everybody moved their forums to XenForo and never looked back. vBulletin was becoming a thing of the past. 

For some reason, something made me think of vBulletin today, so I decided to take a look at their official forum and their modding community, vB.org. Oh boy, the years haven't been kind to them. These sites are basically dead now. 

Wasting Your Time on the Internet in 2005

Restoring long-lost content on Paranormalis using the Chronovisor technique really brings me back to those days I’d spend, fooling around on the Internet, so many years ago. Basically, wasting my time, you know... 

Here’s one of those threads: https://paranormalis.com/threads/manhattan-island-abduction.19078/

It feels like we’re back in 2005 all over again, right? 

What was I doing on the Internet back in the day? Well, I wasn’t doing much, most of the time. Youtube wasn’t around yet. I don’t think we had high-speed Internet yet. You couldn’t plug yourself on Netflix and spend the whole day watching series after series. 

Writing About Writing

I like writing. I often find myself fooling around in Evernote, Dropbox Paper, or Google Docs, trying to figure out which one of these editors offers the best environment for a writer. That doesn’t make me a writer, though. But apparently, it sort of makes me feel like one day, I could be one.

When attempting to write something, I always get distracted by little details, like the font and font size. Should I use Lato 12? It’s a nice font with good readability. Perhaps Garamond? It’s way more formal and serious but the characters are a little thinner. Isn’t it the font dictionaries are written in? Is my line spacing okay? Would 1.1 be better than 1? Is my Heading 2 big enough? Oh well…

In light of those distractions… Maybe I should use a totally distraction-free environment, like a basic text editor? Sublime Text is by far my favorite text editor ever. I’m great at using it for various tasks at work, like cleaning up messy text files and formatting data. Love the Regex engine, the multi-cursor mode, etc. Why not use that instead, to simply write?

Well, raw text editors are great when you need them. I love Sublime, I use it whenever I have a chance! But it's a little bit too raw for me. I'm surprised to say that, as I work in IT. I'm not afraid of editing stuff in Notepad, or of looking at walls of code. But for some reason, Sublime (and any other text editor, really) doesn’t inspire me. It’s a tool that’s great for a lot of things, but inspiration isn’t one of them.

When I talk about inspiration, it’s the inspiration to write something compelling, that comes from your heart and your soul. (Wow, apparently we’re getting pretty deep here) Sublime inspires me to write bullet-point lists for my next meeting and quick notes that I want to keep close. But that’s it. I don’t think I’m gonna write my memoirs there.

I kind of feel the same about tools like Writer by BigHugeLabs. Great distraction-free writing platform. But too arid for my taste. It does have a typewriter sound effect, which is cool. If you’re into writing tools and platforms, and also into typewriter sound effects, check it out though, it’s a great product.

Right now, I’m feeling pretty good. I’m writing this in Google Docs, Lato 12 in pageless mode. Feels good. Okay, between paragraphs, I switch the font to EB Garamond to see what my post looks like with “the dictionary font”. I’m probably kind of OCD, here, that can’t be good. Fine, let’s switch back to Lato for now. *sigh*

As I (still) fool around instead of writing anything, I’m reminded again and again that the tools you’re using are not relevant. Same for the fonts, font sizes, page format… They all come second to your content. They’re like packaging, to a product you consume. It’s cool that your favorite Doritos come in a nice, colorful bag. But in the end, you’re going to eat the Doritos, not the bag. Eh! I’ve known that for years, yet, here I am!

So in the end, find or create your writing environment. A place where you feel confident, inspired, and motivated to write. And write!

This is getting pretty long, isn’t it? A good sign, I hope.

Until next time!

--Num7

My First Experience at Doom Mapping

Talk about starting the year strong! Mapping for a 1993 game! 

Doom is a game I've been playing on and off for almost 25 years. I used to play the shareware version on an old AMD K6-2 350 mhz as a kid. At some point, a friend gave me a copy of Doom95.exe and I got my hands on Final Doom. What an update! It was now possible to select levels without having to start a new game and resort to cheats!  Nowadays, I have all the official WADs and played them many, many times. 

Doom had something special that no other game had. It still kind of feels that way today, in 2022. Its environments and gameplay are pretty convincing, while still being abstract enough to age well. 

This blog article (part 1 of 3, actually) convinced me to give Doom mapping a try. 

You should make a Doom level, part 1: the basics

I remember reading it last year and the idea stayed with me for a while. 

Keep in mind that the last time I mapped for a game was probably in 2001 or 2002, for Starcraft: Brood War. I made 4 player F4A map I'd play on with friends over a modem connection. It was fun for a while, but according to today's standard, it was crap. 

How to Download a Whole Website from the Wayback Machine

As I was looking for ways to download an entire website snapshot from the Wayback Machine, I found this article: 

How to Download Entire Website from the Wayback Machine

If like me, you're on Windows, you're gonna have to download and install WGET in order to proceed. Here's a link to download it: 

Windows binaries of GNU Wget

It comes as an EXE file, so you're gonna have to copy it to your C:\Windows\ directory. From there, it'll be recognized as a command in CMD. You'll be able to follow the step-by-step guide above, in order to download a full site snapshot from the Wayback Machine. 

Here's a command I've used in order to download an old snapshot of my forum, dating back to 2005: 

wget --recursive --no-clobber --page-requisites --convert-links --domains web.archive.org --no-parent http://web.archive.org/web/20060404024947/http://paranormalnetwork.net

The command itself works perfectly. The result isn't always great though, as it seems most of the time, the Wayback Machine only archived the site's homepage. Therefore, most links don't lead anywhere. I guess it depends on what platform the site is built on. 

You'll obviously have more success if the site you're looking for is static. The less dynamic the site, the more likely you are to retrieve pages other than the homepage. 

Have fun!  

Eternal: Cold Hunt

Eternal Card Game just released a new set last week, Cold Hunt!!

Eternal: Cold Hunt

They also released an Expedition Vault. They basically give out 4x copies of over a hundred cards, that represent a foundation of classic cards from all the previous sets. Many of them very good. That's a HUGE starter pack for new players, it's a new thing. It makes the game the most accessible to new players it has ever been.

Eternal is one of the most free to play game right now. It's easy to earn a decent collection really fast. Last month's a guy on Reddit reached Masters in ranked mode on his 1st month, without spending a dime. Very impressive! 

On Passion Projects | So Many Things, So Little Time

Do you have a passion project?

Paranormalis is one of my passion projects. I often wish I'd spent more time on it. But what time?

I have several dream projects I'll very likely never do. I'd like to develop and release a game of my own. Compose music for something that gets recognition. Write something, a book, or an ebook. Become a streamer, have a YouTube channel, be a YouTube personality and live off of it. Get better at home improvement. Start my own business online and earn passive revenues, no more 8-to-5 jobs. Wow, that list goes on and on.

But... What am I doing? I feel I don't have any time to do anything... what am I supposed to do?

Why do I prefer to sit on my ass, instead of actively working on something? Inertia? When my workday is over and I'm done doing regular day-to-day stuff... I'm tired and it's almost time to go to bed. And I don't even have kids! What's my problem!?

The examples I gave above take so much time and commitment, I'd hardly even know where to begin if I was to tackle one of them.

I thought of starting a podcast once. At some point, I noticed how much work it would be and instantly knew I wouldn't be able to commit to it. Do 1, 2, or 3 episodes? Probably. Keep going on a regular schedule? Certainly not.

Am I the only one to feel this way? What are your passion projects, and where and how do you find time for them?

--Num7

Originally posted on Paranormalis: 

On Passion Projects | So Many Things, So Little Time | Paranormalis

Reading Books | So Many Things, So Little Time

I don't read books that often and I'm ashamed to admit it. I simply don't take the time.

When I think about it, reading a book almost sounds like a chore. Sitting there reading for hours. But... it's the same as playing a video game or watching TV, only less interactive. I've read hundreds of books in my life and I know it's a great activity. But my brain puts it in the "boring-no-time" category. I can't help it. Am I the only one?

Over the past 10 years, I read about... 2 to 4 books per year on average. That's poor. I've read a few more in 2020 than the years before, because I didn't work for a whole month due to surgery. I was able to take my time and read.

In 2019, I only read half a book actually. I spent 2 years reading the first Dune book. It was great, but it was long and I often didn't feel like reading at all. Or I'd fall asleep after reading a few pages, dropping the book on my own face if I was laying on my back. But I loved that book, like all the others. They were great... So why is it so hard to stop and read? Don't get me wrong, I freaking love sci-fi books.

Why am I seeing it as a chore? Is it because in 2021, we're used to instant entertainment, instant rewards, instant everything? And books aren't instantly rewarding! You gotta take your time reading them, they reward you at a slow but steady pace. You gotta earn it. Maybe that's the explanation. I got lazy.

I guess that's something I'm gonna have to work on! 

See ya! 

Originally posted on Paranormalis. 

Reading Books | So Many Things, So Little Time | Paranormalis

Legends of Runeterra

Just registered to get early access to the new upcoming League of Legends CCG, Legends of Runeterra. It looks pretty nice from what I can see, with its hybrid take kind of between Magic The Gathering and Hearthstone.

Riot already gave details regarding the game's economy and it's very F2P friendly. The game's most powerful card won't be your credit card! That's cool too.

They couldn't wish for better timing to announce such a game. Just look at the state of Hearthstone and Blizzard Entertainment right now, in light of the blitzchung PR disaster. What a train wreck.

Will Riot succeed where Valve failed? Will this be the Hearthstone-killer?

To be continued...