I’ve kept a USB flash drive or two handy for a while now, using them as glorified floppy drives. I’ve kept small files on them, not really exploiting their flexibility. Today I taught my flash drive to sit up and do tricks. I’ve now got it booting!

Before when I’d format the drive and attempt to boot it, nothing would happen. Now it works fine. The trick is to partition it to look like a ZIP drive, which most BIOSs understand. ZIP drives use drive geometry of 64 heads and 32 sectors, and vary the cylinder count based on their size. The tools in the SYSLINUX package clearly spell out the process in the README.usbdrive file.

Now I’ve got a flash drive which boots to SYSLINUX, provides me with a menu for booting a System Imager diskette, a Red Hat kickstart, or a Norton Ghost diskette, all on one drive. I’ll soon be adding some rescue CD-type tools to this list, too.

This will give me the ability to load and install software on systems with no CD or floppy, and to do it on a drive that easily fits in my pocket. If I wanted, I could even boot a full operating system from it, like Windows 95 or Knoppix (well, okay. Maybe Damn Small Linux instead).

Even though not all PCs will boot USB flash drives, I’m having lots of geek fun with this new tool.

In the article Making Tracks, Fast Company profiled Richard Carpenter, a railroad enthusiast who has hand-drawn a railroad atlas in awe-inspiring detail. A Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946 shows such features as long-since-demolished steam locomotive and manual signal tower installations, towns that functioned solely as places where crews changed over, track pans, coaling stations, and other rail-specific sites.

For a guy like me with an intense interest in where those old tracks went, the book would be just the ticket. Volume one covers the Mid-Atlantic states. I can’t wait for the Carolinas edition.

Avast, ye scalawags! Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ye landlubbers heed me warnin’ that today is sure to see some pirate talkin’. ARRRRRRR!

Don’t miss the chance to generate a own pirate phrase (warning: sound). And there’s the always humerous pirate keyboard.

Every morning, I wake up suspecting that one of the kids has sabotaged my clock radio – that the time has been set back two hours. As the sleep clears my head, I acknowledge that the days are just getting shorter.

Attention, weather geeks! Learn about the fascinating history of hurricanes in North Carolina during a special presentation Saturday afternoon by Jeff Orrock of the National Weather Service. Jeff will be discussing the great storms that have hit our state, as well as explain why they seem to keep coming. Should be a great chance to learn more about those big storms from an expert.

Jeff’s presentation will be Saturday at 2PM at the Raleigh City Museum, located on Fayetteville Street Mall.

I stumbled upon a geek project which scratches three of my itches: Linux, Asterisk, and amateur radio! The Asterisk app-rpt project makes use of Linux and Asterisk to control ham radio repeater stations. On a geeky scale from one to ten, this is pretty darn close to a ten.

MT.Net appreciates geeky excellence.

Apologies to Simon and Garfunkel.

Ophelia
(sung to the tune of Cecilia)

Ophelia
You’re breaking my heart
You’re shaking my buildings like crazy
Oh Ophelia
I’m down on my knees
Please pack up your breeze and go home
Go on home
Continue reading →

I have to finally give Bush a little credit, tough as it is for me to do. He finally stepped up and took responsibity for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Yes, the federal response was abysmal. No, it wasn’t all the fed’s fault. Yes, Bush should have publicly accepted reponsibility a week ago. But at least he’s finally doing what a leader should: admit when things aren’t going well.

I’m hard-pressed to think of a previous instance where Bush has done this. Could he be turning a corner?

I’ve been burning the candle at both ends the past few days. The forecast isn’t so good, either.

Take a look at this in the meantime.