Tim Matheson Blog - Productive Tips and More

Ok so you have a file and want to move it to another server on another network. What to do what to do. Well you could just FTP it to your local machine then FTP it up to the new server, but this file is 300mb and that would take a long time. Being the lazy programmer you are you may seek another more ‘geek friendly’ way of doing this. There is a tool called rsync that does just that. It will login to one server, shake hands and then begin transferring your data to the specified new directory. I tested this on BlueHost and no dice. Authentication failed however I am sure if you have time to try and configure the two machines to talk you could do it. This would be great if you had root access to both machines. In my case I only have root to the destination server and not the source server. BlueHost technical support said that the port rsync uses is blocked. Im not sure what that port is but if you found out you could configure rsync as a daemon service and bind it to that port. I will be looking into this in the future and posting more about it in a follow up post.

Happy tunneling.

rsync -av -e ssh username@oldserverhost:/home/old_home/ /home/new_home/

This command was gracefully copied from [Tony Spencer's Website] it’s a great website I highly recomend it if you like my site (even has the same ndesign Word Press theme as my blog).

I am in love with my new Ubuntu system thanks to Beryl and a few other great open source applications. In this quick HowTo guide I am going to show you how to get Beryl up and running on Ubuntu Linux without disturbing your Windows installation. A portion of this guide is borrowed from install.exe/Prototype article How to install Ubuntu without disturbing Windows. The article is already out there so no need in rewriting it. If you have already installed Ubuntu using this method you can skip over step one. I have not tested this on Kbuntu, and for the record I am running Linux ubuntu 2.6.20-12-generic with Feisty. Now onto the good stuff goto wiki.ubuntu.com and follow there manual, bookmark this page so you can quickly come back to it once you have your Ubuntu installation up and running. You probably won’t need the installtion guide at all because the installation is very intuitive but if you feel the need you can still give it a read.

Step 1.) Install Ubuntu using the Prototype installer.

Step 2.)Launch your Ubuntu installation and run a terminal window Application > Accessories > Terminal (The applications menu is located in the upper right hand corner of your Ubuntu desktop) now the terminal opens up and you now have a bash prompt in front of you. First we need to install Beryl-Core so we do the following commands.

sudo apt-get install beryl-core


Step 3.) Now you have the Beryl Core installed onto the next step. In the same terminal window or a new one (optional) type the following command.

sudo apt-get install beryl-manager


Step 4.) You now have Beryl-Manager installed on your machine and are ready to start using the cool effects. You can access Beryl-Manager from a terminal by typing the following command.

beryl-manager


You can additionally goto Applications > System Tools > Beryl Manager and select Beryl Settings Manager. This is the configuration of your super cool new desktop system Beryl. The rest of the process is a matter of personal preference. You can setup Beryl Effects anyway you please. You can speed up your system by turning off some effects such as blur, wobbly windows, and even 3D cube. There is really no major hardware required to do this. I didn’t have any trouble installing Beryl and am running a mere p4 HT 3ghz with 1.2 GB Ram and an onboard Intel GMA 900 video card. Not too shabby considering Windows Vista won’t even do the Aero Glass Theme without atleast a 3D accelerated card. Another reason why Linux is awesome.