Backing Up Drive Images Over The Network

I tried out some useful network kung fu today with dd, buffer and netcat (thanks for the tip, Jeff!). You can backup an entire drive by creating an image of it on another machine. It's really easy to do, and it comes in real handy.

On the remote computer, you should have enough hard disk space to fit the image of the source computer's hard disk. Run the following on the remote computer:

$ nc -l -p 1234 > file.img

You can replace 1234 with a port number of your choosing (1024 and above if you're not root), and you can also replace file.img with any filename.

On the source computer, let's say we want to back up hard disk sda to the remote host with the IP address of 10.0.0.4. We would run:

$ dd if=/dev/sda bs=64k | buffer -S 10M | nc 10.0.0.4 1234

The first command, dd will read /dev/sda 64k blocks at a time and pipe it into the program buffer, which in turn feeds it into netcat (nc). The destination is 10.0.0.4 and the port number is 1234, since that is the number we used on the remote machine. The use of the buffer program is optional, it's meant to improve network performance.

Once it's done a neat little file called file.img will sit on the remote computer containing the disk image for the source computer's sda drive.

You can actually use the image file in programs such as Qemu, and boot the operating system on it (if it has one) in a virtual machine. Hard disk images are also useful for cloning the setup of an OS on multiple computers.

Note that if your hard disk contains an OS or software that have unfriendly proprietary licenses such as Microsoft Windows, it is probably a violation of some stick-in-the-mud license agreement to do this procedure. However if you're using a free OS such as Linux, you're in the clear.

Stork-Billed Kingfisher

I've been searching for the stork-billed kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis) for weeks and weeks. Today, not only does he make an appearance, he made sure I took his picture from all angles. I think word got out about the bird pictures here amongst the kingfisher community, and they want to make sure they get their colourful mugs on the internet too (they don't want to lose out to the herons).

Elusive Little Birds

Some birds are small, twitchy and quick to flee. It's quite hard to get a good closeup of the smaller ones with a point-and-shoot, but I try anyway. Here are a few of them.

This is an olive-backed sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis). The little guys usually like to flit about near my window. Here is one of them resting on a wire.

This little pied fantail (Rhipidura javanica) just can't stay still. It's tough photographing him, even with faster shutter speeds. This is the best I've got so far, but I'll get a nice portrait of him yet.

This looks like a sandpiper, or a close relative. He ran along on the bank of the stream, evading my lens.

The little heron used to be an elusive bird to photograph, but nowadays they're practically posing for me. I think word got around in the heron community that they're becoming internet attractions, and now every heron wants to be in pictures. Go figure. What they don't know is that only twelve people read this blog, and thus their hopes and dreams of becoming famous via the interwebs aren't going to be realised.

White-Throated Kingfisher

I finally got close-up shots of the white-throated kingfisher! It's a beautiful little bird.

After a meal, the white-throated kingfisher is in dire need of a napkin.

Another bird looks curiously at me as I take its photo.

The same bird later flies up and sits in a tree, watching for something edible in the stream below.

Catmobile

To a cat, a car is for either sleeping on or for climbing hijinks. After they're done walking around on the cars, we have to clean off the pawprints. Sigh.

Herons

I got some very nice closeup shots of herons today. Herons are flocking to the lakes and streams on campus these days.

A black-crowned night heron sits perched in the distance.

This a smaller black-crowned night heron near the shore of the lake. I could get really close to it and it did not fly off.

Here's a closeup of the heron.

This is a little heron walking along behind the School of Pharmacy.

For the past few weeks I've only seen glimpses of herons, but in these past few days I've been able to get nice clear shots of them.

Bumblebee On Earth

I've tried to shoot this little guy in places where the scale of the model is not entirely obvious. I want him to look life-sized, and it's quite tricky to make the illusion look real.

I don't think Camaros can be driven into the jungle like this.

Bumblebee the Camaro parked near a scenic view of the Penang bridge.

Bumblebee transforms into his towering robot mode and poses in front of the bridge to have his photo taken.

It's hard to shoot a tiny model on the grass, because usually the blades of grass are really tall compared to the model and that breaks the illusion that this toy is actually a giant robot. However, this grass is nice and short. It's not entirely convincing so you need to pretend it's really tall (and fat) grass he's stepping on.

Bumblebee standing around amongst rocks and plants.

Sitting In A Tree

You'll have to look closely for some of the birdies in the following photos, as they're perched in the branches and not too visible.

The white-throated kingfisher is one of my favourites. There is a whole bunch of them behind my office, but they're rather hard to take pictures of as they flee whenever I try to go near enough to them for a closer shot. Here is one who decided to fly to a treetop for safety from the annoying lenses of bird fans.

This appears to be a male Asian koel, which makes a rather distinctive call.

A black-crowned night heron stalks its prey while hiding out in a mangrove.

Another of these birds, sitting perfectly still. The heron photos have been edited to make the blue stand out, to make them more visible. They are more greyish than blueish in the original photos.

Bumblebee On Cybertron

Cybertron is a metal world inhabited by giant robots and torn apart by civil war. It was never fully explained why the Cybertronian conflict occurred in the animated series or the movies, other than the fact that Decepticons were power-hungry and wanted to rule over all and the Autobots wanted to stop them.

Bumblebee is a little Autobot fighting for his life, as he's cornered in the above picture. I don't know why he has bits of Camaro sticking out of his robot form even when on Cybertron. While we're on the subject of Cybertronian mysteries, just where does Optimus Prime's trailer go when he becomes a robot? How does Megatron shrink into a tiny gun? Which one is Rumble and which one is Frenzy?

Sadly, these questions may never be answered.