architecture++

Mount RAW .img files

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:19:21 +0000

I recently made a backup of an external hard drive using dd. Turns out that these can be a bit of a bugger to mount, especially when cloning the partition table. This is a quick note on how to mount the drive, the following procedure completed successfully on Ubuntu 11.10.

First off (as root), find out what the partition table of the .img file is like, replace arguments with valid filename:

sudo sfdisk -l -uS ./recovery.img

Find the partition you want and note down the number under “Start”.

Multiply that number by 512, use Google if your calculator cannot handle it. In this example my number is 63 * 512 = 32256.

Now (again as root) mount the drive using the following commands, edit as needed. Make sure offset=(Start * 512):

sudo mkdir /media/recoveryimage

sudo mount -o loop,offset=32256 /home/user/recovery.img /media/recoveryimage

Then when you are finished with the image…

sudo umount /media/recoveryimage

sudo rm -r /media/recoveryimage

Unifying Logitech Devices on Ubuntu

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:50:00 +0000

Logitech do not have a tool to Unify devices on Linux. Today I am quoting Tycho with a few modifications for getting the community written tool to run nicely in Ubuntu. This may also run in Debian, I do not know.

Build Essential

First off, most new Linux users will not have this installed. This procedure sadly requires a bit of C++ compiling. Don’t worry though, it is easy and bug free.

To make this process easy, install the Ubuntu bundle known as “build-essential” to do this type:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

If you are using Fedora or ArchLinux you are going to have to look up the alternatives. Fedora does have a package like this.

Turn off the unpaired device

For this to work, the device that you want to pair should be turned off. This is because the Unifying process works by picking up the first, newly connected device in range.

Compile the code

Using your favourite editor (nano, gedit, vim, emacs), copy this code (mirror) into the file pairing_tool.c and run the following command:

gcc -o pairing_tool pairing_tool.c

This should be quick and error free.

Find the Unifying Device

The unifying tool is looking for a hidraw device corresponding to the Logitech Unifying receiver. Like on Tycho.ws my device was hidraw2. I found this by looking through the output of:

cat /sys/class/hidraw/hidraw*/device/uevent

The output I was looking for was in hidraw2:

DRIVER=generic-usb HID_ID=0003:0000046D:0000C52B HID_NAME=Logitech USB Receiver HID_PHYS=usb-0000:00:04.0-1/input2 HID_UNIQ= MODALIAS=hid:b0003v0000046Dp0000C52B

To verify this I unplugged then plugged in the Unifying receiver and ran the command:

dmesg | tail

The last line showed the device reconnecting…

[ 1183.806315] generic-usb 0003:046D:C52B.000A: hiddev0,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Device [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:04.0-1/input2

Unifying

You need to do this as root user so best to use sudo. To do this you run the pairing_tool executable that we have just compiled. Remember to replace hidrawX with your device number:

sudo ./pairing_tool /dev/hidrawX

All being successful you can now turn on your device and voilla!

"What isn’t there cannot go wrong"

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:32:37 +0000

“What isn’t there cannot go wrong”

"#SOPAblackout"

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:10:13 +0000

“#SOPAblackout”

Video

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:18:17 +0000

Video

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:54:55 +0000

Drive

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:01:44 +0000

Drive

"If clothing is an extension of our private skins to store and channel our own heat and energy,..."

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:24:33 +0000

“If clothing is an extension of our private skins to store and channel our own heat and energy, housing is a collective means of achieving the same end for the family or the group. Housing as shelter is an extension of our bodily heat-control mechanisms — a collective skin or garment.”

- Marshall McLuhan (1964). Housing: New Look and New Outlook.

"[I am not], as architectural phenomenologists would have it, an autonomous, self-sufficient,..."

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:22:08 +0000

“[I am not], as architectural phenomenologists would have it, an autonomous, self-sufficient, biologically embodied subject encountering, objectifying and responding to my immediate environment. I construct, and I am constructed in a mutually recursive process that continuously engages my fluid, permeable boundaries and my endlessly ramifying networks. I am a spatially extended cyborg.”

- William J. Mitchell (2003). Me++; the cyborg self and the networked city.

"Visible and mobile, my body is a thing among things; it’s caught in the fabric of the world,..."

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:19:02 +0000

“Visible and mobile, my body is a thing among things; it’s caught in the fabric of the world, and its cohesion is that of a thing. But, because it moves itself and sees, it holds things in a circle around itself. Things are an annex or prolongation of itself; they are incrusted in its flesh, they are part of its full definition; the world is made of the very stuff of the body.”

- Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1964) Eye and Mind.

HAIRY CHRIS MOOSE!

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:00:05 +0000

HAIRY CHRIS MOOSE!

Sitting, knee deep in dissertation. I happened to be sitting...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:08:40 +0000

Comfortably fits between my fingers

Coincidentally moulded to my contours

Sitting, knee deep in dissertation. I happened to be sitting with this piece of chalk in my hand. It is daft that I am going to express the joy I get from it. This piece of chalk comes from a beach in Margate, UK. The odd shape is perfectly formed to comfortably fit in my hand between my thumb and middle finger with my index resting along the edge. This is a coincidence, these indentations were created by the sea and sand wearing away at the rock yet it somehow is perfect. A small, happy accident.

I suppose it is cold in here.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:24:47 +0000

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

I suppose it is cold in here.

Video

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:28:37 +0000

"The ongoing shift of functions from urban and architectural to bodily real estate inverts some..."

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:00:24 +0000

“The ongoing shift of functions from urban and architectural to bodily real estate inverts some familiar customs and rituals. You once slipped into a telephone booth to make a call […], but you now slip a cellphone out of your pocket. Playing music through a stereo system at a party is a social gesture, but playing it through [an iPod] is a way to withdraw. In a movie theatre you look for a good seat and orient your eyes to the screen; with a portable display, you sit down anywhere and arrange the screen in front of your eyes.”

- William J. Mitchell (2003) Me++; the cyborg self and the networked city.

Car light show 2. This time the car turns into the junction.

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:22:48 +0000

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Car light show 2.

This time the car turns into the junction.

Car light show. Car pulls up to the junction, indicates then...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:21:11 +0000

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Car light show.

Car pulls up to the junction, indicates then drives off. Another car goes past the junction, applies the brakes.

Video

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:43:47 +0000

William J. Mitchell on the transformation of cities

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:33:33 +0000

William J. Mitchell on the transformation of cities

Sunset

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:04:29 +0000

Sunset