novaa's site

Web crawlers

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 20:16:00 -0400

The internet sucks111!!!

biyearly post to show i’m still alive.

While going to begin work on an old project, I found that my git server was completely unresponsive. After tail’ing my http server’s logs, I found that I was being endlessly crawled on my git server, into non existent pages.

Problems with GitEA

I believe that GitEA doesn’t serve a proper 404 when a page is not found, and because of this, web crawlers were just endlessly looping through their list of pages to check.

Building a PC

Sat, 31 May 2025 19:42:49 -0400

Why should I build a PC?

There’s a few reasons:

Why not? It’s cool, you get to learn (on a very basic level) how a computer operates.
It’s cheaper than building prebuilt computers
You have full customization over what goes into your computer.
You can have full control over how your computer looks.
Install any software blah blah blah..
Just do it!!!

How do I start?

Determine a budget.

Having a preset budget lets you keep a realistic goal of what you want to be spending on each part.

Determine what you want out of your computer.

Do you want to be streaming?
- You’re going to need a pretty good graphics card.
Do you want to be gaming a lot?
- You’re going to need a decent graphics card.
Do you want to program?
- You’re going to need a good processor.
- What about AI programming, or any massively parallel programming?
  - You’re going to need a good ass graphics card!!!

Honestly, the biggest thing you want to dedicate your budget to is your graphics card, and your processor.

Setting up Kodi with Real-Debrid

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 19:19:00 -0500

Installing Kodi

This is entirely dependent on your platform:

Refer to the kodi website for sources.

Installing on a Fire Stick

A common, and cheap smart TV stick which converts any TV into a smart TV.

Kodi is not natively available through app store but it is quite easy to install.

Firstly, go into the Fire Stick appstore and download the Downloader app.

Next, go to your Fire Stick settings. Then under My Fire TV, go to the About section, here at the top of this list should be the name of your device. Quickly tap this selection until you receive a notification on the bottom that says “No need, you are already a developer.”

Creating a custom TF2 HUD

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 12:01:31 -0500

Who even plays TF2 in 2025?

I do.

Where do I start?

Firstly, you need to extract the HUD resource files, so that you can edit them to get your custom look.

To do this, there are a few resources to look into:

The Valve Developer Community has a guide on extracting .vpk files.
- I couldn’t get this to work properly, it was extracting the file structure but not the actual files.
A community made tool, that I found to work perfectly is VPKEdit.

Once you have the tools prepared, you need to navigate to your TF2 program files.

Ethical Piracy

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 16:08:52 -0500

Capitalism is a failing system.

So let’s work around it.

Self hosted media

There are plenty of excellent sources available for designing and hosting your own media streaming platforms.

In the past I have used things such as Jellyfin and Plex in the past to host some media. These are both excellent tools that allow you to stream music, podcasts, tv shows, movies, etc. from your own personal collection (be that acquired legally.. or not.

Not letting go

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 13:52:30 -0500

Where have I been?

I’ve been busy. As you may already know from my about section. I am still completing my Bachelor’s in computer science. As well, I’m working nearly full-time.

What a lame excuse

You’re right. I know this is purely for my own enjoyment, and as more of a personal diary, rather than content that people are going to be consuming. Yet, I still want to hold myself to some sort of standard. Thus, the loss of my site for ~6 months is a little disappointing.

Running a server

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 12:00:00 +0000

There’s lots of reasons to run your own server actually. There are many different things you can do with your own server.

But the best part is that you get full control over what happens to it and what goes on it.

Maybe you’re sick of streaming services, and you want to rid yourself of Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, etc.

Well you can do that! With many different options.

Maybe you want to run your own website?

The C Stack

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 12:00:00 +0000

What is a stack?

A stack is a data structure that follows a LIFO (last in, first out) element adding order.

This means that when you remove an element from the stack, the most recently added one will be removed first.
Likewise, the first added element, is the last one to go.

How is a stack used?

There are many different uses for the stack data structure, but the one focused on here is the hardware stack.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

on track to earn my BS in Computer Science (4th year)

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