equery list | cut -d’ ‘ -f3 | while read f; do quickpkg “=${f}”; done

It’s a giant hack, but it gets the job done.

1. Download Vista SP1/2008 x64 ISO from MSDN, orgrab your CD
2. Create 3 folders c:\efi-iso c:\efi-exe c:\efi-dvd
3. Download oscdimg into c:\efi-exe
4. Extract iso using 7Zip or WinRAR (Or copy the contents of the DVD) into c:\efi-dvd
5. Start up a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd)
6. Type: cd c:\efi-exe
7. Type: oscdimg -n -m -bc:\efi-dvd\boot\etfsboot.com c:\efi-dvd c:\efi-iso\server2008dvd.iso

There is a fan in another room exhausting air. Cold air comes straight into the living room!

http://www.dribin.org/dave/blog/archives/2007/11/28/ssh_agent_leopard/

Download my script to automate rdiff-backup installation on OS X.

Longer version with background

I use rdiff-backup to keep all my systems backed up. Rdiff-backup keeps incremental changes and permission information, and only transmits changes over the network. It’s great for automated remote backups. All my Linux systems backup at least once a night, some several times daily to offsite locations via consumer-class internet connections. The first backup is painful if you have a lot of data, but after that only differences have to go so things are pretty smooth.

I decided I want to run remote backups from my MacBook Pro even during those rare times when I’m running OS X. Time Machine doesn’t support remote destinations natively (and requires much more space because it’s not incremental). Getting rdiff-backup on OS X is a little tricky. According to rdiff-backup’s website both DarwinPorts and Fink have packages for rdiff-backup, which is fine and dandy but I have neither installed. I’d rather not add that much bulk to my system just to get rdiff-backup. I also like to match the version I’m running on my Linux systems, and DarwinPorts/Fink seem to lag behind the latest releases.

Foreseeing the need to deploy rdiff-backup on the Macs at work as well, I created the script below to automate installation of rdiff-backup from source and allow specification of a particular version. I’m releasing it as is, tested only by myself. If you find it useful or have suggestions, please let me know. (Comment below). You can download the script via the link above.

#!/bin/bash
# Rdiff-backup installation script for OS X 10.5.1
#
# Version 0.1
#
# Changelog:
# 2008/05/14 - Initial version - Aaron <aaron@xxxxxxxx>
#

# Define which versions of the software packages we want.
# Note that librsync version 0.9.7 requires a patch for 4GB+ file sizes.
RDIFF_VERSION="1.1.12"
XATTR_VERSION="0.4"
LIBRSYNC_VERSION="0.9.7"

# Define installation prefix for librsync. Python packages are installed with prefix=/
PREFIX="/usr/local"

# Exit on errors
set -o errexit
# Exit if using unset variable
set -o nounset

# Download URIs
RDIFF_URI="http://savannah.nongnu.org/download/rdiff-backup/rdiff-backup-${RDIFF_VERSION}.tar.gz"
XATTR_URI="http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/x/xattr/xattr-0.4.tar.gz"
LIBRSYNC_URI="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/librsync/librsync-${LIBRSYNC_VERSION}.tar.gz"
LIBRSYNC_PATCH_URI="https://sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php?group_id=56125&atid=479441&file_id=169866&aid=1439412"

# Download the necessary sources
curl -L -O "${RDIFF_URI}"
curl -L -O "${XATTR_URI}"
curl -L -O "${LIBRSYNC_URI}"
[[ "$LIBRSYNC_VERSION" == "0.9.7" ]] && curl --insecure -L -o librsync-4gbpatch.patch "${LIBRSYNC_PATCH_URI}"

# librsync
tar -zxvf librsync-${LIBRSYNC_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd librsync-${LIBRSYNC_VERSION}
[[ "$LIBRSYNC_VERSION" == "0.9.7" ]] && patch -i ../librsync-4gbpatch.patch
./configure --prefix="${PREFIX}"
make
sudo make install
cd ..

# xattr
tar -zxvf xattr-${XATTR_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd xattr-${XATTR_VERSION}
python setup.py build
sudo python setup.py install
cd ..

# Rdiff-backup
tar -zxvf rdiff-backup-${RDIFF_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd rdiff-backup-${RDIFF_VERSION}
python setup.py build
sudo python setup.py install
cd ..

echo -e "\n\nInstallation complete!"
echo "I've left all the temporary files in this directory in case you want to uninstsall the software later."
echo "Happy rdiff-backuping!"

1. Default Permit
2. Enumerating Badness
3. Penetrate and Patch
4. Hacking is Cool
5. Educating Users
6. Action is Better Than Inaction

http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/dumb/

I’ve included the relevant portions of the article below for the curious. For the impatient, running the following commands in Terminal will change sleep mode to RAM-only, and remove the memory image file:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage

Check the current setup

After you launch Terminal, the first step is to determine which sleep mode your Mac is currently using (in case you wish to go back to it). You can both view and change the sleep mode using the Unix program pmset. To see your current settings, type pmset -g | grep hibernatemode. You should see something like this:

	$ pmset -g | grep hibernatemode

hibernatemode  3

Great, so your machine is using mode 3, whatever that might be. Well, thanks to the documentation for the handy Deep Sleep Dashboard widget, which puts your machine immediately into hibernation mode (so you don’t have to yank all the power sources to invoke it), we can tell exactly which mode is which:

0 – Old style sleep mode, with RAM powered on while sleeping, safe sleep disabled, and super-fast wake.

1 – Hibernation mode, with RAM contents written to disk, system totally shut down while “sleeping,” and slower wake up, due to reading the contents of RAM off the hard drive.

3 – The default mode on machines introduced since about fall 2005. RAM is powered on while sleeping, but RAM contents are also written to disk before sleeping. In the event of total power loss, the system enters hibernation mode automatically.

5 – This is the same as mode 1, but it’s for those using secure virtual memory (in System Preferences -> Security).

7 – This is the same as mode 3, but it’s for those using secure virtual memory.

Once you see which mode you’re presently using, make a note of it. You could do this in one step, actually, with a command like this:

sudo pmset -g | grep hibernatemode > ~/Desktop/current_mode.txt

That will take the output of the pmset command, strip out everything other than the hibernatemode value, and then dump the result into a file on your desktop named current_mode.txt. Save this file for future use.

Note: I’m being overly cautious here on purpose. The reality is that, unless you’ve messed with this setting before, your Mac will either be in mode 0 (in which case, this tip doesn’t matter, as your Mac is using old-style sleep), or mode 3 or 7 (the default for machines shipped since last fall). Saving a text file to remember a 3 or a 7 is really overdoing things, but at least you won’t be able to say you don’t remember which mode your machine was in.

Change the sleep mode setting

To change your sleep mode, you use pmset again, providing the variable and value you wish to assign. So to return to the old style sleep mode (which is mode 0 from the above list), enter this command:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

Press Return, and you’ll be asked for your password. Provide it, and your sleep mode has been changed. If you ever wish to go back to your previous setting, just repeat the above command, but replace 0 with the value from your current_mode.txt file.

And yes, this means you can also set your machine to always go directly into hibernation mode by running the above command with 1 at the end. I find it much simpler, though, to use the Deep Sleep widget linked above—and the widget also returns the hibernatemode setting to its prior value, which means that you can use the widget for hibernation, and still enter normal sleep mode when you simply close the lid.

Note that restarting is not required for these changes to take effect.

Recover some drive space

If your machine was previously set to mode 3 (or 7 ) and you’ve reverted to the old style sleep mode, you’ve got one more step to take: recover the drive space used up by the copy of your system’s RAM, which was created the last time you slept the machine prior to making the switch. In Terminal, enter these two commands, pressing Return after each and providing your password when asked:

	cd /var/vm

sudo rm sleepimage

If you ever return to the new style sleep mode, the sleepimage file will be automatically recreated when you execute the sudo pmset command—yes, it creates the file as soon as you execute the command, not the first time you put the machine to sleep.

• PC gaming is NOT dead and us gamers need to let the industry know this!
• Arguing about whether console or PC gaming is better is completely pointless.

Maybe you’ll enjoy it too.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2286801,00.asp

A good friend, Ashley, recommended I check out BFG’s ES-800 PSU. It looks pretty nifty, using some new switching technology which changes frequency dynamically with load. Unfortunately I needed a PSU quickly, and the ES-800 is really hard to find right now. As of today it’s still sold out on their website.

Failing to get the ES-800, I decided to shop around for a new PSU the conventional way. Off to NewEgg, ZipZoomFly, etc. I discovered SeaSonic has a 700 Watt model which looked very nice. When Ashley’s site was more active we had quite a few power supply reviews, and I heard personally from the reviewers about how stable and reliable the SeaSonic supplies are. I took the plunge and paid easily a $40 premium to get the SeaSonic. It arrived yesterday and is now powering my system as I write this.

The SeaSonic M12-700 has the typical features of modern supplies – thermally controlled fans for quiet operation, modular connectors to reduce clutter, 3 year warranty, case sticker, quad 12V rails, etc. What impressed me most was the variety of auxilliary power connectors supplied. Three SATA power cables were provided, one with four connectors and two with two connectors. This is great for me, I only need to run a single cable down to my hard disks, and a single cable up to my optical drives. Previously I’ve had to run at least two cables down to the hard disks and that just creates extra clutter.

That being said, the lack of variety in auxiliary power cables disappointed me as well. After being impressed by the SATA connector cables I expected to see the same for all of them. Unfortunately the PCIe 12V connectors came in two styles – one cable with one connector, and two cables with two connectors. The PSU has two connectors for the PCIe 12V cables. For anyone running a single GPU requiring a single PCIe power connector, or two GPUs requiring two connectors each, this configuration would be fine. But for people like me who need two PCIe connectors for a single card there is a cable missing. Two cables with one connector each should have been supplied to facilitate connecting two 12V rails to the single card without leaving two extra PCIe connectors dangling.

I can’t fault SeaSonic too much – I’ll just leave two PCIe connectors dangling. As soon as nVidia decides SLI on Intel motherboards is a valid market segment I’ll have a use for them, but who knows how long that will take.

Overall I’m happy with the SeaSonic M12. It runs cool compared to the Antec and Enermax PSUs I had previously and is definitely quiet. It’s been two weeks now running my system and so far no issues have arisen. I think it’s safe to say I would recommend this PSU if you’re shopping for a few more amps to drive those power-hungry GPUs.