The Linux software Raid-1 documentations did include a warning, but I didn’t take the threat seriously: if both of the hard drives are IDE, one crashing can cause data loss on the second. It’s even worse if both drives are on the same channel — and, as it happens (against all logic), both SATA ports on my motherboard are linked to a single channel. More or less. Well, the BIOS configuration options are a mess, but the only way to make the whole thing works seems to be to have them both on the same channel.

Anyway, Linux’s software Raid management is great (replace the drive, boot the computer, and your data starts replicating automatically), but IDE is crap and I lost two folders. This time, those were data I already had on the former Ripley’s hard drive, so I could get them back, but I don’t know what I’ll lose next time — and there will necessarily be a next time, considering my replacement drive is still a Maxtor.

I didn’t bother configuring a Raid-1 array on Linux to have to buy a DAT backup system on top of it, damnit!

Call to the Unix gurus out there: still looking for a solution to my IM problems, I’d like to try a new option. Wouldn’t there be a way to run a text-mode ICQ client on my Linux server, and telnet (or ssh) to it from all the other machines (simultaneously)? There has to be to hook up to an existing tty, hasn’t there? At least there ought to be.

“Vocal Lab helps you train to sing on key. It listens while you sing and displays the pitch of your voice on a graph, in real time.” Damn all those Mac programs you have to pay for. Shouldn’t all Mac community members help one another, rather than try and take advantage of each other?

Sticky Windows

Mappr

Engadget - Google radio

A security lecture to Firefox, on… blogs.msdn.com. Mwahahahaha. Ha.

Where you find out that Google Desktop Search updates itself automatically, and I’m not a fan of the concept, but on the other hand it is indeed convenient, and with luck it’ll finally remove deleted files from its index now.

Styling unread tabs in Firefox [via].

Replacing any keywith any other in Windows XP:: SharpKeys (now Caps Lock becomes Shift, and Scroll Lock is disabled).

Changing the behavior of special keys in OS X: DoubleCommand (now Caps Lock is disabled, and Enter becomes Ctrl).

Both freeware, of course.

Random music (a bit of a cheat, as Party Shuffle favors the better-rated songs, but that’ll do).

USB FlashCard : and about time, too.

Engadget - Hacking the iPod firmware

MacBidouille.com - Pas de pénurie d'iMac 20" chez Colette

Je saurai quoi répondre la prochaine fois qu’un client me réclamera SPIP-Agora.

As I discovered OS X, I found really weird the idea of the dock and Alt-Tab (uh, Cmd-Tab) working app by app, instead of window by window.

After twenty-four hours it was already one of the things I missed every time I came back to the PC.

iCal hates me. Cmd-N to create a new event; 30% chance that the title will be highlighted but inactive, so I’ll have to use the mouse before I type; 10% chance it is created as “all-day” and, after I unchecked the box, the end time is eight hours later, i.e. the next day, and it gets unbelievably complicated to get it back; and now it’s been beachballing for five minutes because I mistyped “45” in the year field, and the thing feels it necessary to update the whole display every time I change anything. Maybe I shouldn’t buy a Mac. (But then, the Windows equivalent, Mozilla Sunbird, isn’t much better.)

RSScache: I’m not a big fan of sending one’s readers to an external site, but it can be useful to bloggers paying their bandwidth, or whose feeds are generated by PHP scripts instead of being static XML.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog - iPod hoodies