dicianno.org/blog

So, pretend you have:

• a new Mac laptop with a fast hard drive, but one that is smaller than all the data you need to backup
• A backup hard drive you’ve used on Windows and Linux, but is formatted NTFS, and is much larger than your new laptop’s HD
• You have files named on your system that needs to be backed up that aren’t kosher for NTFS

So, being a Linux geek, you realize “Ha! I’ll just tar my files up, copy it to the backup drive, over to the new system, and untar.”

Yes - you do just that, but then you need to use your laptop for work; so instead of waiting to untar the file, you copy the very large backup tar files from the external HD to your new laptop.

Now, here’s the problem: you can’t untar the entire tar flle w/o running out of space. What do you do? Un-tar a bit at a time; delete; continue.

Untar a bit of the archive you want, delete it from the tar, and continue until you have more space on your HD than the rest of the tar file.

# tar xf MYBACKUP.tar This/directory/I/want
# tar --delete --file=MYBACKUP.tar This/directory/I/want


This method works surprisingly well, considering the tar file crossed all three major operating systems.

If you are unsure of what is inside the archive, you can use:

# tar --list --file=MYBACKUP.tar


UPDATE: everyone at my workplace knows that I love to iPhone-hate, but I would just like to compare the annoying but simple PAN tethering steps for OSX to Dash with the steps described here. Suffice to say, you need to hack the iPhone’s OS — a terrible only-option, in my opinion, but a well documented one. I used to hack on homebrew software for my PSP, so I can appreciate these efforts, but I also don’t take having to use homebrew seriously, especially for high-end phones. Laughable.

I recently upgraded my aging Treo 650. I really do like the Palm OS — I’ve been using it for years and years — but the phone was starting to drop calls frequently after one too many drops straight on it’s antenna. *whoops*

So, I got a T-Mobile Dash. As a phone, I like it. As a OSX user that likes having internet connectivity, as well as a business person that likes syncing my calender, tasks, etceteras, I knew I was going to be in for some fun.

Say what you will about how awesome the iPhone is, but for feature-set and “bang for buck,” the Dash is a clear winner. Considering I work for a media-centric company, not being able to record videos on the iPhone made it a non-option almost immediately.

I installed the Windows Mobile 6 upgrade (link). You’re going to have to do this from a Windows box, or from within Parallels or VMware. I didn’t use WM5 for long, but WM6 is stable, and honestly, a lot more pretty.

I’m using Mark/Space Missing Sync for Windows Mobile 4.0 (link). The pre-lease worked pretty well, but I’ve been having some issues with the current release. I have a good feeling from the Mark/Space people, however, so I think that it will be resolved soon.

There is some really good news, as well. Since 10.4.9, OSX supports PAN bluetooth profile, so I can use my Dash as a modem! On the Dash, you can turn this feature on by going to Start->Accessories->Internet Sharing, then make sure “PC Connection” is “Bluetooth PAN”, “Network Connection” is “T-Mobile Data”, and click “Connect”. On the OSX side, if the Bluetooth menu is in your menubar, just click on it, and select “Join Network on XXXX,” where XXXX is your device name.

Somehow, my MBP’s install is messed up, and the built-in iSight camera cannot be read from in video mode — but yet, still pictures work. I discovered this, as I could not get QuickTime Broadcaster’s preview view to show any video (or for it to broadcast). Then, I discovered that iChat cannot initiate any video chats with anyone.

I have no clue how this problem started. Part of me wants to blame Darwin Streaming Server. I have it turned off, so I no it’s not a conflict with it running, but part of me wonders if just installing it messed something up.

I really don’t want to reinstall OSX. *sigh*

So you probably discovered that your MacBook Pro runs about as hot as the corona of the Sun.

If you’re at my blog here, you probably run some GNU / Linux distro. Just a guess.

If you’re running a GNU / Linux distro, there’s a good chance you installed the binary ATI drivers and associated tools, even though it makes your soul bleed.

So, if you have ati-config you can do the following:

Once you get the number to use, likely same as above with ‘1′, you can do

You can also use –effective=startup to have this saved in your X config file. Personally, I like to be able to change it on the fly.