I recently discovered the website Tips4Linux.com.  If you are a Linux user, or are considering using Linux, it is worth bookmarking.

One of the recent tips is how to create an image of any directory, which can be used to help in backing up your files.

"If you want to make a quick backup of a certain directory, ready to be burned on a CD or DVD, you can use

mkisofs -V LABEL -r directory | gzip > cdrom.iso.gz"

In this case replace "LABEL" with whatever you want the CD label to be (what shows up when you insert the disk or mount the image).  Also, replace "directory" with the location of the data you want to make the image from.  So if you wanted to make an image of the /home/user/documents folder and give it the label "Documents," the command is

mkisofs -V Documents -r /home/user/documents | gzip > cdrom.iso.gz

This will create the gzipped file cdrom.iso.gz in the /home/user directory.  Alternatively, you can create the .iso file without being gzipped by removing the section after the |, and adding "-o filename."  So to make an image of the folder /home/user/stuff named image.iso with the label "Stuff," the command is

mkisofs -V Stuff -r -o image.iso /home/user/stuff

You can read more about this command here.

Michael Ogawa has created some interesting videos visualizing the development of some open-source software.  He developed a program called code_swarm using processing.  Check out this and the other videos online.

So there has been a lot of stuff going on in the world of technology the past week or two.  Here are some of the more interesting things.

Ken Gypen, author of several Linux-related articles on bit-tech, posted a new article about how to build your own router.  It is very interesting and can be useful if you have tons of unused computers around, like I do.  Be sure to check out Ken's other articles (build your own server and Linux has game), if you haven't already.

AMD released their new generation of video cards, the Radeon HD 4000 series.  TechReport has some thorough articles on the 4850 and 4870.  This new series seems like it might break NVIDIA's hold on the GPU market, and so far it has definitely made an impact on the Green Giant's stock.

In case you haven't heard already, Western Digital released a new version of their Raptor series of hard drives, the VelociRaptor.  Easily the fastest single hard drive around, and now with 300 GBs of space.

Also, I'm now using a Phenom X4 9850 BE CPU, 4GB Corsair Dominator 1066 MHz RAM, Biostar's TForce TA780G M2+ HP motherboard, and Seagate's Barracuda 7200.10 750 GB hard drive.  I just installed the new hardware yesterday, so I haven't had a chance to see the improvements yet, but I'll do some tests next week.  I'm definitely liking the 9850 BE/780G combo for sure.

Blender is a free, open source 3D modeling and animation program.  It is available in officially supported versions for Windows, Linux, Mac OS, FreeBSD, and Solaris, and will work in several other operating systems.  Blender is extremely powerful, as you can see from the extensive feature list.  Be sure to check out the gallery to see what skilled Blender users can make.

The Blender community has been growing rapidly, especially in the past few years.  More features are being added, bugs are being fixed, documentation is becoming more in depth, and big projects are being worked on to demonstrate Blender's prowess.

This short film was made using Blender by a small team over a period of several months.  Be sure to watch it in high resolution if possible.  You can download copies of the movie here.

All the files from Big Buck Bunny are available to download for free (at the bottom of the page, under Production Repository), because it is an open movie.  There is also an open game in the works using content from Big Buck Bunny.

I'll post a lot more about Blender at some point in the future.  The learning curve is very steep, but I plan on conquering it slowly and surely.  I'll be documenting my experiences with Blender here, so stay tuned.

Mozilla's Firefox is an extensible, secure, stable web browser that is free to download and use for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.  It is much more secure than Internet Explorer and has many more features.  The interface is easy to use and fully customizable.  One of the more interesting features is the ability to handle extensions.  Free extensions are available for nearly everything you can think of.  Chat bars, weather forecasts, download status bars, code monitors, media players, and pop-up ad blockers are only a few of the extensions available.  If you are still using IE or something similar, download Firefox and start using it today.

If you are a web developer, site administrator, or just a geek, you need to check out OpenSourceCMS.com.  In case you're wondering what CMS is, it stands for Content Management System.  Some examples of a CMS are Drupal (what this site is using), WordPress, phpBB, Gallery, MediaWiki, SugarCRM, and Zen Cart, just to name a few.  CMSs are basically programs used to, well, manage content, normally on websites.  Many of the best CMSs are open source, which is awesome.  One of the best features of OpenSourceCMS.com is that there are demo installations so you can test out each CMS before deciding which one to use.  The installations are reinstalled every two hours, so you don't have to worry about breaking the demo installations.  Another good feature is that users can make comments on each of the CMSs, which is what lead me to try Drupal.  So if you operate a website, design websites, want to start your own website, or you're just a geek, see what's available for free before paying for a CMS.