using command line utilities to perform powerful tasks brings about a special bit of joy that only a geek can truly enjoy. I shall spare you my story (for now) and simply present the research and study that led to these short and slick commands:
to copy created disk image to new client hard drive: client: nc -l -p 12345 | dd of=/dev/sda
server: bzip2 -dc image.bz2 | nc client’s-ip-address 12345
assumptions & prerequisites:
intermediate Linux/unix knowledge (this aint no point ‘n’ click guide)
two networked computers on the same IP subnet; a “server” with ample free disk space and a “client” who’s hard disk you wish to backup/image
client computer must be bootable by USB or CD/DVD - I used a Ubunutu install CD
each computer must have utilities dd, nc, and/or bzip2 or gzip (compression utility)
note: though the compression utility is not required, it is highly recommended as the image you create will be the same size as the hard drive capacity - i.e. 120G drive will create a 120G image file without compression.
you may want to tweak which compression method you use and examine the dd syntax, particularly the bs= portion
it is important to watch the network or process I/O for progress meter as these processes will not terminate automatically due to the nature of nc which maintains a connection until manually broken.
updated 9/24/08: fixed copy created image to new hard drive server steps and added another assumption step. good luck!
tech and booze are the only industries (relatively) unhampered by a depressed economy. being that I work in one and frequently enjoy the other (in moderation!) I feel good about that.
The uptick is significant for a mature industry with roughly $50 billion in annual sales, particularly as consumers reduce spending on other discretionary purchases, such as venti lattes and designer jeans.
source article entitled Beer not feeling economic hangover is full of shameless beer and beverage related puns. (title quote by Beer historian Maureen Ogle, who wrote “Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer”)
I broke the right turn signal after dropping my vstrom for the second time ever (and in two days!) (actually, this pic was taken after a little emergency electrical tape was applied… it was too heartbreaking to capture though!)
fuck, I thought, not the “upgrade” I was planning anytime soon. but fortunately, peoples of the internets came to the rescue and delivered onto me this mod: a well-built yet cheap pair ($24) of buell turn signals fit the vstrom almost perfectly. just a handful of washers, a little due-diligence, and I’d be right as rain for half the price of one OEM suzuki vstrom signal ($43!!)
(took a few trips to the hardware store to get the right parts, even though this helpful howto listed them all…)
success looks a little something like this: (though not my bike, the bonus is that this image makes up for last friday’s lack o’ AGF!)
bullet point transcript:
- mayor of really small town
- < two years at govenor of alaska
- political purposes ticket
- absurd
- 1/3rd chance president palin?
- hockey mom from alaska facing down vladimir putin using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink (haha)
- does she think dinosaurs were here 4k years ago? will she ban or has she banned books?
- nuclear codes!?
this time of the orange variety… I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot of these, and not just because they are eye poppingly orange! (this one belongs to stromtropper E-Nigma)
update 9/3/08 — replaced the dansstorm strom pictures with those taken by e-nigma, (sorry) quality is much better! I am really starting to like the orange… plus, less need to wear high visibility clothing. ;)
for a long time now I’ve run recaptcha which works well and is easy to implement (it’s a wordpress plugin.) but it’s a bit annoying and tends to discourage commentation on smaller blogs such as mine in the long run. so after chatting with mr. justinsomnia and reading his post on how simply he blocks the spam I thought yeah, duh!
the technique is utterly straight-forward: disable spambots by utilizing javascript to check for “humanity.” since spambots are very simple creatures, with small instruction sets, they do not parse or process the browser language of javascript. the procedure is as such: on page load append a teensy hidden input to the comment form and then check for it on submission.
tis the baseball season, so a metaphore about how simple this defense is is fitting: naraku’s wordpress now throws a curveball when spambots always expect a fastball. yeeer out! thanks justin!
this fine specimen of the Suzuki DL650 is the 2007 version outfitted for the man.
I particularly like the luggage bags - utilitarian minimalistism yet stylin’. and while I think the flat black model would look better as a police vehicle, the befitting expression of the boys in blue makes up for it.
Do not permit your system to run down.
ORDER
VIGOR’S HORSE-ACTION SADDLE
…
STRENGTH TO THE SYSTEM,
BRACING THE NERVES,
STIMULATING THE LIVER,
QUICKENING THE CIRCULATION,
BRIGHTENING THE MIND, AND
CURING CORPULENCE AND GOUT.
according to this stromtrooper thread, the new suzuki wee strom’s have hit dealerships in Texas. a couple lucky stromtroopers have already purchased theirs.
here’s a couple shots of stromtrooper energywhiz123’s new ‘09 650 gray beaut’:
msrp pricing for this bad boy is set at $7,199 for non-abs and $7,499 with.
first, understand that it needs to be done at least every 600 miles. second, realize that you just hit 2k miles on your new vstrom, and as far as you know, it has yet to be done… third, do it, now.
- to clean, use kerosene. I used a clean (rag) towel soaked it and scrubbed the exposed chain. since I do not possess a center stand, I had to roll the bike forward to expose more chain. rinse repeat until the entire chain had been soaked. a soft brush would be effective for those who require OCD-type clean - I did not have one thus did not reached such unsullied nirvana. there is a lot of evidence surrounding the adverse effects of using WD-40 in cleaning a chain - it is a penetrant and can wreak havok on the o-rings of chains. the suzuki owners says use kerosene, so that’s what I did.
- to check chain tension: simply push or pull on the lower part of the chain. suzuki recommends between a 0.8 and 1.2 inch give. mine was on the high side; I plan on tightening it next chain lube session. this involves moving the rear wheel back.
- to lube: use chain lube. due to availability, I chose Napa autoparts Chain and Cable spraycan lube. suzuki of course recommends their own brand, but I could not get it now. I performed the same rolling the bike forward stunt as before spraying lube on each link until satisfied.
- done? I went for a short ride around the neighborhood to ensure all felt well. it did. when I returned to the stable, I discovered a fair amount of oil fling around the rear tire and other nearby to the chain parts. a quick yet thorough wipe down ensued.
- for future: get (or make) a center stand or swing arm rear stand. this job would be much quicker may even enjoyable with the back tire free from ground contraints… continually standing then rolling the bike is a monotonous and rather time consuming task. and, probably get a better (less flingy) can of chain lube.
- good references in my quest: webbikeworld’s Motorcycle Chain Lube part one and part two, two contains a significant amount of insightful reader/editor discussion. calsci’s how to clean your drive chain article - however it contrarily suggests ye’ol’ WD-40 to clean which I would not do.
a little nostalgia with this one, as gold medalist michael goes super saiyajin with excitement.
and after the jump: phelps goes leo from sparta, and then some weird creature who fires blue plasma from his gaping jaw, and finally an info snippet about phelps’ ~12k calories consumed a day.
