Purpose: while iMovie ’09 allows you to store your events and projects on physically attached hard drives (external or internal) it doesn’t offer an out-of-the-box way to store them on a network attached storage (NAS) device. I have a file serve and I want to use it.
Script: clean_bzip – a command line program for clean directory compression
A simple command-line python utility that compresses a directory (or directories) and excludes certain unwanted files.
django-hitcount: simple app to count hits/views for an object
django-hitcount: a simply django application that allows you to count hits/views on a per object basis. This app came about as an answer to my own question at stackoverflow.com. Am hoping that others will find it useful.
Replacing the Capacitors on my Netgear GS108
I got back from vacation recently and found that my Netgear GS108 gigabit switch had died — or rather, it was flashing green lights at me left and right and — even worse — very inconsistenly, at that. Sometimes off, sometimes on … didn’t seem to matter what machines were plugged in.
New Server: AMD 4850e with RAID 5
Well: the time finally came for me to bite the bullet and buy a new home server. This new machine is replacing my circa 1999 Dell Pentium III 550mhz box that has been running, faithfully I might add, in my basement for the last couple of years as a NAS. It will also replace the laptop with the broken screen in the basement, which has been serving as my web server. Since: my file transfer speeds were so appalling (~10MB/s), I am running out of hard drive space, and the box sounds like it is ready to take off at any moment (I don’t think there are any ball bearings left) I thought it prudent to bit the bullet and get a new server.
How To: Test Connection Speed Between Two Machines
Purpose: as a quick diagnostic tool, sometimes it’s nice to know exactly how fast two machines can (theoretically) be connected. I was having some slow downs on my NAS and using these command line tools, was able to determine that it was my NIC (and not my hard drives) that was causing the slow down. I learned this from a thread at slashdot.
How To: Automated Encrypted Incremental Backups on Amazon S3 with Duplicity (OS X or Ubuntu)
Purpose: setup an automatic encrypted off-site backup system that utilizes Amazon S3 with incremental backups by duplicity on the Mac (Leopard) or Ubuntu. Currently, I do have my own on-site backup system in place (nightly backups via rsync to external hard drive), but I am wary that some day my house may explode and I’ll have nothing left. Enter my new friend: the encrypted off-site backup.
Bash Script: Incremental Encrypted Backups with Duplicity (Amazon S3)
This bash script was designed to automate and simplify the remote backup process of duplicity on Amazon S3. After your script is configured, you can easily backup, restore, verify and clean (either via cron or manually) your data without having to remember lots of different command options and passphrases.
Most importantly, you can easily backup the script and your gpg key in a convenient passphrase-encrypted file. This comes in in handy if/when your machine ever does go belly up.
How to: Retreive Custom Field Data in a WordPress Post
Purpose: use WordPress’s “Custom Field” key/data pairs to store and retrieve specific post information and display it in your own custom templates.
How To: Install MacPorts on OS X Leopard (10.5)
Purpose: install MacPorts on OS X Leopard (10.5) to gain access to a host of open source applications and tools that make working on the Mac as cool as can be. Using MacPorts makes it easy to install applications you would otherwise have to build from source — which can be difficult for folks like me, who don’t understand what the hell they are doing in the first place.