you kneed to know your hard drives… (experienced linux users skip to next title!)

On modern linux distributions /dev/sda (..yes they abandoned /dev/hda and such…)

is normally your primary disk, the source you want to use…

do a

$> sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

to assure that… -l means list that device (you should see a list of your partitions…) … (and sudo is only a way to achieve root rights  in ubuntu!)


$> sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

Platte /dev/sda: 80.0 GByte, 80026361856 Byte
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spur, 9729 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 16065 × 512 = 8225280 Bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xcccdcccd

Gerät boot. Anfang Ende Blöcke Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1311 10530576 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1312 9729 67617585 5 Erweiterte
/dev/sda5 1312 9380 64814211 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 9381 9729 2803311 82 Linux Swap / Solaris

for me  sda is a 80GB harddrive and has the following partitions:

• sda1 with crappy windows on it.
• sda5 with my main linux partition
• sda6 is linux swap…
• (sd2 is a secondary partition and basically just acts as a wrapper around partition sda5 and sda6 – partition sda1 has a * which means primary partition… windows tends to need that )

a second drive (internally or attached as usb) should show up as /dev/sdb

(once again assure that with $>fdisk -l /dev/sdb )


$> sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
...
Platte /dev/sdb: 640.1 GByte, 640135028736 Byte
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spur, 77825 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 16065 × 512 = 8225280 Bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
...


I shortened that – because the Disk size (here 640GB opposite to the old 80GB) is probably all you need to be sure about source and destination drive. (and yes, my terminal is in german…)

Clone in one line!

Now if you want to clone disk a to disk b just:

$> sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=32256

Be sure to dd if=source of=destination !!!

The blinking hd light is your only indicator now…

after termiantion it shows some info:

2425911+1 Datensätze ein
2425911+1 Datensätze aus
78250192896 Bytes (78 GB) kopiert, 5880.85 s, 13.3 MB/s

to clone 100GB to usb it takes about 1 hour
the bs= parameter adjusts the block size for faster speed… on a “near to death” source you probably want to ommit that and use the default block size of 512 which is even more fail proof.

Finish

you just cloned your whole disk onto a new one…

Operating Systems, Programs, Customizations, Boot-loader … all included …

in one single fucking line…

After your first boot from the cloned disk you probably want to use gparted to resize your partitions to fit the new harddrive (if it’s bigger than the old one…)

you can even use a frigging live cd (it’s even free to download!) and clone your MacOS/Solaris/Windows etc… onto a bigger disk that way… (in my example i cloned a Ubuntu/WinXP/ThinkpadRecoveryPartition Dualboot setup)

it will work… it’s simple… it’s linux!

oh… i almost forgot… dd is no kids tool… so check your syntax twice!

Very inspiring Talk, also accusing oil to polute the whole ocean (trough cleaning of tankers – speech from before the spill)

history

As a [musician/painter/cartoonist/writer] you had to got to that special someone, that knows the right people in the right positions.

A painter needs a running a Gallery. The band needs a Record Contract. The writer needs a publisher. i could go on…
If they didn’t like you

- no chance, doors closed forever.

today that’s over

You no longer need the Company/Manager/Politician…

In the cloud Age (Internet Time) you can reach a huge Audience in no time! Build a presence and show off your work to the world!

As a writer you could start blogging. If you do good you will attract a certain amount of people. All enjoy reading your stuff. That’s because they return to your blog right? Probably you have written a book yourself? Advertise for it on your Blog – and sell directly!

That’s the big point here. You can hop over all the hands involved in traditional distribution models. You directly reach your audience!

The math

So instead to sell 1′000 Books an get 2.40€ share per sell … ummm… 2′400 €
… you sell 80  Books directly at 35€ each … whoooppaa… 2′800 €

see

And as an artist/creative your website doesn’t has the looks of beeing Marketing – which makes the perfect advertisement.

I want to add, that you will only be successful if you stay pure and honest.

• Bands provide free streams to listen in… share the fun.
• Artists feature some inspiring Galleries.
• Cartoonist shows his weekly cartoon.
• Job coach blogs about his experiences and thoughts about his work…

All free for anyone to enjoy…

Some visitors lure into the attached shops and buy prints/poster/songs/mugs/consulting/books/carpets/goats

But selling is only a side effect the main purpose is to transport passion!

…like… oh look, there is a shop too.

take action!

Sell direct, sell local or global… get direct feedback or possibly even fans!
So you Creative/Artists/Whatnot start showing off your work! and do it because you like it – not because you want to earn a lot.

Inspired by

“Why Artists and Creatives Have an Unfair Advantage at Internet Marketing”

, by Mark McGuinness

Apple's interpretation of Web Standards

Yea, download Safari to view…
So if you read “Web-Standards” in some Apple Texts, they actually intended to write: “works with safari”. Common typo.

I’m waiting for the first “best viewed with safari” buttons to appear… Mocking guaranteed.

look what you could buy for the same price or less…

A kick ass Home NAS Server like the brand new QNAP TS 459 for 757.- €uros. Serve your Sound Files everywhere around the house, make backups (even time machine ones), use as a web-server, sync your calendar and adresses (even sync to mobiles via addon)…

now thats a device to have fun with for years to come! And it is actually a very useful device.

Or buy one of the Asus Touch Tablet PC’s 439.- €uros, USB, 320Gig Harddrive, Keyboard and so on

or if you need more power, a bigger screen, 4Gigs of Memory and an Intel Duo-Core – and yet still pay less than for an iPad, (namingly 576.- €). Then get the marvellous Acer Aspire 1825PTZ-414G32n (Which has a serious naming problem…)

Uh, and if you search a nice music and video-player to chill in your living room and impress your friends… Get a Squeezebox Touch from Logitech. (Only 285€) The Interface is just beautiful – And it works perfectly together with the QNAP Music Server…

It is surely the next gadget i’m gonna buy!

With the appropriate controller of course 285€ (which ist remote control and a portable player at once)
(even if you buy both logitech products you spend less than for an iBad)

What will you get instead of an iPad?

from http://www.guyandrodd.com/

www.ifitwasmyhome.com visualizes the scale pretty well. Thanks to @kevinmoilar for pointing it out to me.

“It appears that the only thing working right now is the live camera feed from the ground…”

SF Tagesschau Fotage

Normally swiss tv is very neutral… I’m very thankfull for that commetary…

…update:

hmmm.. now even the live feed seems broken:

bp.com/liveassets/

Just their WebInterface is broken it works if you access this link via vlc and such…

Gnome Shell Desktop

Let me introduce you to the new Desktop Interface gnome-shell from GNOME 3.

To start it’s totally (spoiler alert)    impressive.

A total break with the olde tradition of placeable Panels and fix Desktops.
At the first view it looks no different… (except for the little lousy styled but handy drawer on the left side)

Nice Integration of IM-Chat in top right, activity icons like wlan … time in the middle
left we have the running program and the “Activity” Tab…

By clicking on Activity in top-left it zooms to a totally new, and in my eyes AWESOME view.

Gnome Shell Activity

A search Field is focused where one can start programms, search for his files or porn. Very handy.

Running Programs (blue dots) and Favorites at the left…

followed by Locations (Documents, Images-Folder, Favs usw…)

…and recently used Documents

a view of all open windows on the right. like Mac’s Expose. Only Quicker.

multiple Desktops

and with multiple Desktops of Course!

No one is forced to use a mouse to use the Activity Tab. The Super-Key will do it (a.k.a apple-key, a.k.a. evil-key, a.k.a. windows-key).

So at the press of ONE Key -
all your recent documents, running programs, open windows are at your view
and the searchbox ready for launch a program or find that sourcefile…

Install gnome-shell and run

$> gnome-shell --replace

in a Terminal to try it out… killing that Terminal restores you back to gnome.

Interestingly i’ve found some javascript  popping up during the loading process… looks like they run the “Activity” Tab. Interesting to see javascript on a traditional Desktop… and what a surprise after realizing how responsive the interface is. So javascript isn’t as lameass slow as Java? (Run – Duck&Cover)

I think the Interface is slick and super-fast… i do miss a faster way of launching new apps… but apart from that it is a freaking good experience.
4 Stars out of 5. one star lost due to lack of dual-head support in Beta Stage

Hehe, i made the start…

detail description of features and additional screenies

How do You like the new Interface? What works?

My last post was last year. It wasn’t procrastination only. I’ve started my own Business back in October. Expect more on that in later posts. It’s home on the net is monkee.ch (All in German for now..).

Over trying to get enough Projects to pay my bills and figuring out the next “one million $ web-service” … i’ve somehow lost track of my all beloved Blog. I apologize.

In Future i want to write a least one Post a week. I also Plan to reinforce Categories Which will be like:

• OpenSource
• Web-Development
• Gadgets
• Programming
• Eidos (Thoughts about the world of which i think are worth spreading)
• Linux
• and of course nerdy jokes and other off topic crap like “The Big Bang Theory” TV Series (Which you have to watch instantly if you don’t know em already).

I love to help out … so if you have questions – ask them… i’ll respond.

Stay tuned! I’m back

mp*

*the monkee at your service

[ad#small]

my whole Reseller Account + 3 Client Accounts are gone… not a big deal for dynamic-net as they do not even feel like responding to my ticket/mail/phone.

even for a crappy little site you need a failover server
(preferably on another continent )

side note:
365 Day Support they say,
but reacting inside 24 hours effectly turns this into a 192.5 Day Support)

If anyone knows a good webhoster with reseller accounts (PHP, MySQL SSH Access), please leave me a comment…