Archive for the 'Computers' Category

SVN UP, Recursive CHMOD and CHOWN for user passed via STDIN

Jan 26 2009 Published by JMorris under Computers

If you want to be able to run a script to quickly perform a svn up, chmod and chown of your site files, the following command will accept the username from stdin (standard input [command parameter]).

#!/bin/bash
svn up /home/$1/public_html/
find /home/$1/public_html/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \; && find /home/$1/public_html/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
chown -Rv $1:$1 /home/$1/public_html/*
echo “The public_html/ direcotry for $1 has been updated.”

If you want a more portable version that will only effect the current directory recursively, use the following.

#!/bin/bash
svn up ./
find ./ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \; && find ./ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
chown -Rv $1:$1 ./*
echo “The current direcotry for $1 has been updated.”

CHMOD the script file to 700 to allow execution. Then call the script like so…

[user@host ~]# /path/to/script/scriptname username

Enjoy! :)

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

2 responses so far

Windows XP Life Cycle and You

Mar 25 2008 Published by JMorris under Computers, Software

I ran across the following article on Computerworld.com this morning via Slashdot. I’ve read several articles on the life cycle of XP and the basic stance of Microsoft is the same, business as usual. However, the following article leads to some great tips on how you can extend the life span of your Windows XP machine long beyond June 2008 when M$ will be pulling it off the shelf.

I’m placing this link here partially for the benefit of visitors who may not be aware of what M$ has in store, but mostly, I’m placing it here because this article leads to some very useful resources on M$ software and life cycling. Enjoy the read!

March 21, 2008 (Computerworld) The approaching death of Windows XP may upset you, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Microsoft Corp.’s product life-cycle guidelines have foretold the fate of XP since 2001. In fact, Microsoft has been killing off one version of a product as it is replaced with another for years now. But this time around, the approaching demise of XP is getting more attention than, say, the final passing of Windows 2000.

Why? For a couple of reasons: XP is the most widely used operating system on the planet, and its long-delayed successor, Windows Vista, is not proving to be universally popular. The companies that make up the enterprise market for Windows are dragging their feet about upgrading, and on the consumer side there are signs of a rebellion against Vista.

Continue Here » Windows XP: Going, going … gone?

12 responses so far

[Quick Review] Compaq Presario F755US Laptop + XP Driver Package Download!

Mar 12 2008 Published by JMorris under Computers

Please see the following update regarding when the latest driver package will be available and what precautions you should take PRIOR to installing this package.

Presario F755US I bought this laptop essentially on a whim. My primary PC died in a BIOS upgrade and I needed something to do my work on. (Don’t ask. My MoBo is in route to Newegg for a replacement.) I got the F755us on special at $599 from CircuitCity which isn’t bad considering the specs. The lack of PCMCIA was a little disappointing, but not much considering all the other built-in functionality.

After waiting nearly an hour for HP’s proprietary installer to finish ‘customizing’ Vista, I finally got on and started digging around. I could only stomach about an hour with Vista on this machine. It ran slower than XP does on a PIII with 256MB of RAM. Painful! I promptly inserted my XP Pro install disk and wiped Vista Home Premium off the HDD, to never be seen or suffered through again!

Fair warning!!! You will have a very hard time finding drivers for XP for this laptop. Google is your friend and don’t expect any love from HP. (However, I’m feeling nice… see below ;-) ) They make it quite clear that they only support Vista on this machine. I have successfully found XP replacements for all drivers, but the audio driver doesn’t work 100%. The sound and volume work OK, but when you plug in headphones, the on-board speakers remain on, essentially nullifying the whole point of a headphone jack. A downer to be certain, but a small setback that can be tolerated for the superior performance and support of XP Pro. (UPDATE: If you mute the audio in XP and plug your headphones in after adjusting your audio properties, the headphones will work without the on-board speakers playing. Odd yes, but it works, good enough for me.)

If you’re not comfortable administering an XP Pro system, don’t try this at home. HP does not send you reinstall CDs with the computer, so if you wipe off Vista and put XP on this box, make sure you have the drivers beforehand unless you have a second computer with Internet Access nearby.

With all the work needed to get XP Pro to run on this laptop, it was all worth it. It’s rather gratifying when a student walks up with a new mega-powerful laptop with eye-candy Vista Ultimate installed and cannot even access the campus WiFi and then I pull up my nicely customized XP Pro that immediately connects and runs circles around their more powerful system.

Summary… If you intend to run XP on this machine, then it is a fantastic deal. If you intend to run the preinstalled Vista Home Premium, then don’t expect much. It’s not the computer’s fault. It runs great with a good OS.

BONUS:

After showing off this laptop to the A+ class I teach at the college, I promised my class that I would bundle up the drivers needed to set this laptop up with XP Pro SP2. As promised, here is an installer with all the basic drivers to get this system to run on XP. If you have any problems with these drivers, leave a comment and I’ll help where I can.

Download: Compaq Presario F755US XP Pro SP2 32-Bit Hardware Drivers

You have read my two cents. Now have your say!
Compaq or Comcrap?
Upgrade from Vista to XP or Bust?

149 responses so far

Rebirth of eMonster – Reusing components to build a Powerhouse PC

Nov 11 2007 Published by JMorris under Computers

Recent, I wrote about a hardware failure where my overclocked motherboard died. Unfortunately, the motherboard I installed to replace my old unit wasn’t a very good model and ended up having a bad chipset. Given that my computer is my paycheck, I couldn’t take the chance on another catastrophic hardware failure. I bit the bullet and bought a new motherboard, processor and memory.

The result of this upgrade is a rebirth of the computer I affectionately call eMonster. eMonster actually started out as Compi, a Compaq Presario, back in 2002. 2 years later, I was given a eMachine, which I promptly merged with my Compaq, overclocked, tweaked and renamed eMonster. The latest rebirth brings the integration of a new Biostar motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU, and 2GB of Kingston DDR2 RAM.

The basic run-down on the hardware

  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
  • BIOSTAR K8M800 Micro AM2 AM2 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
  • Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
  • HIS Radeon 7000 64MB DDR AGP 4x Dual VGA TV Out Low Profile Video Card
  • Western Digital WDC WD2000JB 200GB IDE ATA
  • Maxtor 4D040H2 40GB IDE ATA HDD
  • LITE-ON DVDRW LDW-411S (Dual Format)
  • 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive
  • Belkin 5-port USB 2.0 Card
  • Antec Case with 300W Power Supply
  • 80mm Antec Case Fan
  • 17" Compaq Flat CRT
  • 15" MPC LCD
  • Microsoft Natural Keyboard
  • Logitec Optical Mouse
  • Logitec X230 2.1 Speaker System

Some Pics (click the thumbnail for a larger picture)

Command Central
Front View
Front View Open
Back View
Side View Open
MoBo Close-up
New Parts

What’s significant about this computer is not so much the specs of the components. It’s that nearly 50% of this computer is built from components from other computers. The rest I just added over the last 5+ years. Since the only remains from the original computer is the CRT monitor, I don’t factor in the cost of that system ($650 retail). The total I paid for all the components in this system is just $440, over 5+ years. Counting the parts I did not have to pay for, the total value would be $740.

I haven’t benchmarked this system, yet, but when I do, I’m sure that my speculations on its performance will be confirmed. I’ve yet to use a system at 2x the price of this one that was as fast. The 2 areas that need improvement are I/O read/write speeds (a limitation of Ultra ATA drives) and the graphics performance (not an area I’m concerned about as I don’t game.

Sure, my eMonster is a bit of a Frankenstein, but it is a perfect match to my needs and it is built with all high-quality equipment that will last for years. When it’s time to further upgrade, I’ll shelve the parts I remove and use them to build another PC, like I just did for my nephew. Not many 5yr olds can say they have a custom built PC with a AMD 64-bit 2GHz CPU and 1.5GB of RAM, but he can. Probably a bit overkill for Noggin.com and SesameWorkshop.org, but I’m sure he won’t complain. ;-)

The moral of the story, don’t throw away those old computer parts! With a little time and some careful shopping, you can build a very powerful system for a fraction of the cost of a new system.

You’ve read my two cents. Now have your say!
Do you buy new and get rid of your old hardware?
Do you have your own “eMonster” that you would like to show off? Pics are welcome!

One response so far