Am I too lazy?

posted: 2008-10-04 08:10:26

My Slicehost machine ran out disk space yesterday, so I was looking for logs to rotate, files to delete, etc and I ran across a few large groups of files that I wanted to keep. I tried gzip -9 like always, but then found myself wondering if I could get these files any smaller. A quick google turned me on to rzip. But as it turns out, rzip is extremely memory intensive and was completely consuming everything I had on this poor slice.

I could go though all of the files trying to decide which ones I really wanted, but that seemed like it would take too long. In the end, I fired up an ec2 instance on Amazon's Web Services, moved the files over, rzipped them there, moved the results back and reclaimed about a gig of disk space. It only took a few minutes, and cost me $0.14 from amazon.

That's just crazy. I wonder how long we have before that just becomes common practice.

Am I full of shit? Tell me why. [ 153 remarks ]

A note from the author

HackerMojo.com is using a fluid layout based upon work by Dave Reeder. I'm trying to take CSS a little more seriously; but I'm having a hard time because of all of the bad syntax, browser compatibility hacks, and non-fluid layouts. If any of the other technology I used were like CSS, I'd have to set myself on fire and jump off of a cliff.

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KnoxVile, the worst of Knoxville's commentors *

Perpetual Motion

posted: 2008-09-05 08:19:34

THe funny thing about this video is that intends to sell the viewer on the concept of gasoline engine as a virtual perpetual motion machine, but then ends with the admission that it can't be. Only now we realize that it's not just the law of thermodynamics, it's the laws of supply and demand too.

Local Sites

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IMG00008.jpg

posted: 2008-08-01 20:45:28

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Solving Rubik's Cube with Legos

posted: 2008-07-27 22:30:48

Man, it's crazy what the kids are doing these days with legos:

Visualizing magnetic fields

posted: 2008-07-12 13:28:13

This is a really great artists visualization of invisible magnetic fields. The combination of voice-overs, random lab footage and animation creates an effect that is creepy and wonderful at the same.

Economy versus Broadband -- Fight!

posted: 2008-07-07 23:04:35

I wonder how much of a correlation there is between the health of the economy and broadband penetration. Does anyone downgrade from broadband to dialup? What if I had to choose? I'd probably give up magazines and video rentals. That'd save gas on trips to the bookstore and expenditures on ...

Reversed publishing with Django

posted: 2008-06-25 15:41:21

>>> from django.core.template import * >>> c = Context( { 'ctnt': 'this is a test' } ) >>> t = Template( """ {{ ctnt|slice:"::-1" }} """ ) >>> t.render( c ) ' tset a si siht ' >>> badum-dum-chh.

Designer Clouds

posted: 2008-06-01 23:34:54

Designer Clouds -- This paves the way for all sorts of interesting guerrilla art installations. I wonder if they've tried adding dyes to the foam, or combining smaller 'clouds' into larger works.

Books from my childhood

posted: 2008-05-03 05:26:28

Books that I remember from my childhood: The Perpetual Learning Machine - a gift from my grandmother. The Great Brain series - borrowed from Brian Rudolph as a kid. The Mad Scientists Club - bought through a grade school book club. The Funk & Wagnel Encyclopedias of animals and insects ...