Sunday, 12 October 2014

How FireFox Phones Are Fast With Basic Specs: HTML5


FireFox Phone Running HTML5 App

I am watching Firefox phones since the very first one was launched. I covered it in my previous company's blog and was pretty excited about it. I was and am equally excited about Ubuntu phones, Jolla and whatever other smartphones are emerging as I despise monopoly.

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Unblock ThePirateBay : 6 Easy Methods!


Recently The Pirate Bay has been blocked in India. Although I am tempted to go after the reason, I will discuss the same in another post.As per my understanding, The Pirate Bay (or simply, TPB) is one of the most visited sites for file sharing. With no explanation or notice given to Indians, I will also assume, this is a technical glitch which the ISPs are working on. :)

However, till they work, you must not suffer. I will explain here few of the options which can help you to access The Pirate Bay easily.

  1. Using a Pirate Bay proxy
This is probably the easiest way to access The Pirate Bay when it is not accessible.  These websites keep a copy of the whole Pirate Bay website, including every torrent, tracker, user, new upload, seed and leech count. You can not feel any difference when using any of these websites.




Please note the only tiny problem with this method. You can not use your Pirate Bay id and password with these sites.But, as TPB is fully functional without logging in, you will not be missing much, except for commenting.
Please do not try to log in using your TPB id on these sites as anyone can create a TPB Proxy and get your id and password.

2. Using Pirate Browser

Do you wish to use the actual Pirate Bay? Hmm, OK then, open any of these proxy sites for once and download a file called Pirate Browser.
Alternatively, you can download from Pirate Browser official site as well.

Once download, follow the steps, they are really easy, next-next-next kind of steps.

  1. Download and run the downloaded .exe file. 
  2. Choose where you want to extract the files and the folders. 
  3. Go to the extracted folder and run(double click) Start PirateBrowser.exe
The modified Firefox browser will open and the homepage is set to ThePirateBay so, you don’t even need to type the URL. Easy, isnt it?
Moreover, lots of other file sharing sites are bookmarked in this browser so it is the ultimate torrenting browser.

Note to Linux users: Probably you already realised, you need to install WINE to run these as it is an .exe file. Install WINE if your distro doesn’t come with it.  

Please note: This browser goes through a lot of different redirections so the initial start might take up to 1 minute. Sing your favourite song till TPB loads. :)

3. Use TOR Browser

Frankly, this is the same browser with PirateBrowser. However, Pirate Browser official website explains the difference,
No, it's not intended to be a TOR Browser, while it uses the Tor network, which is designed for anonymous surfing, this browser is ONLY intended to circumvent censorship.
The Tor network is used to help route around the censoring / blocking of websites your government doesn't want you to know about.

In actuality, if your intention is to unblock The Pirate Bay, there is no way you can tell the difference. Simply download, extract and run the Tor Browser. You will see a window where the connection is being established and then, visit any website you wish.
TOR Browser Homepage

Best thing about TOR is that it supports every operating system, including Windows, Mac, Linux and even iOS and Android. Once again, the start up will be slow. Sing that song I asked you for till you see the above screen.

4, Using Google Translate

This is really your last option when nothing is working. Its a bit tricky and takes a real man. Do you have those balls guts to go ahead?

This is my own invention so if you like this, dont forget to say thanks.

  1. Open Google and type site:thepiratebay.se my-query where your query is the torrent you are looking for. For example, if I want to watch Guardians of the Galaxy so my query becomes site:thepiratebay.se guardians of the galaxy.
    Google Search Result Page
  2. Click on the desired result. The page will not load with a 404 error. No problems, copy the URL of the result. 
  3. Open Google Translate and on the left hand side, select "Detect language" and on the right hand side select anything except English. 
  4. Paste the URL and click translate. The Pirate Bay will open in another language. But if you are a The Pirate Bay user, you will be able to spot the Magnet and Torrent links.
    Pirate Bay opened in Spanish




5. Proxies

Although this is the most popular method, this is not reliable. You can use any of these sites, like

and go to Pirate Bay using those. Very usable if these sites are not already blocked. You can not log in or comment but you can always browse torrents once you have opened Pirate Bay using these.

6. Android 

There are at least two well known apps which will help you to visit The Pirate Bay from your Android devices, like your smartphone or your tablet.

  1. The Pirate Bay Proxy
  2. The Proxy Bay
The features they offer are not bad at all. Both of these proxies offer features like
  • Easily browse, search, refine and re-order torrents with popular torrents and uploader reputations highlighted.

  • View torrent information and use the magnet button to download torrents with your BitTorrent application.

  • Proxy management tools allow you to use, open, add and delete proxies and view connection statistics.

  • Share links with friends on social apps such as Twitter using the share feature.

So, which one worked for you? Do you know any other method? Any method not working? Need further help? Don’t forget to ask in the comments section.

A lot many Indians (and other countries) are not being able to access The Pirate Bay, a site we all love, so if you liked it or found it helpful, don’t forget to share it using the share buttons below.