Verbatim 32 GB Tuff n Tiny USB Stick and Linux Mint 15

⌚ July 31, 2013
Do you need or want a small USB device for sneakernet data transfers? How about something tiny enough to forget that you are carrying it around? Does it need to withstand dirt and abuse? No moving parts?

The Verbatim Tuff ‘n’ Tiny 32G USB stickmeets these needs! Smaller than a stick of chewing gum, the red 32 GB version from the Verbatim Tuff ‘n’ Tiny line of products is light enough to forget about, and it is compatible with Linux too.

There are other capacities available: 2GB (orange), 4GB (green), 8GB (purple), and 16GB (black), but this review covers my experience with the red 32 GB device in Linux Mint 15.

Using the Mad Catz M.M.O.7 with Linux Mint and Ubuntu

⌚ July 29, 2013
You would think that the joy of using the Cyborg/Mad Catz R.A.T.7 with Ubuntu and Linux Mint would be enough to bring smiles and prolonged happiness, but no! A great mouse was made even better in the form of the glowing, programmable Mad Catz M.M.O.7 Mouse

With more buttons than any regular user could possibly need, the M.M.O.7 is without doubt the best mouse I have ever used. But the question is, “Will the M.M.O.7 work with Ubuntu, or better yet, Linux Mint 15?”

The answer is yes, it works great, but there are some issues to be resolved. This informal review shares my experience using this slick mouse with Linux Mint 15.

Even though I am using Linux Mint 15, I have tested this mouse in Ubuntu, and the issues were identical, so what applies to Linux Mint also applies to Ubuntu.

Update: Added instructions about how to resolve the CTRL+F keyboard shortcut that occurs after xbindkeys is installed.

Quickly Create a 1 GB File of Random Data Using dd

📅 July 29, 2013
Have you ever needed to create a file of a specified size containing random data? One simple way is to use the dd command. The following command creates a 1 GB file of junk, random data.

time dd if=/dev/urandom of=data.bin ***=1073741824 count=1

The file size is exactly 1,073,741,824 bytes, which is 2^30. Even though the file properties might read 1.1 GB, the size in bytes will be exactly one gigabyte.

How Does It Work?

• dd is the command.
• if specifies the source of data.
• /dev/urandom is the built-in random number generator from which dd gets its bytes.
• of specifies the output file, which is named data.bin in this example.
• *** is the block size. This works with count to get the final size of the file.
• count tells how many blocks to create.
• time records how long it takes to create the 1 GB file. This part is not necessary and has nothing to do with the dd command. Using a solid-state drive (SSD), it takes about 1 minute 20 seconds to create a 1 GB file.

The block size ( ***) and count (count) options are multiplied together to get the final size. This example uses a block size of 1073741824 bytes and writes one block of that. The result will be a 1 GB file.

We did not have to do it this way. We could also specify a block size of 1048576 bytes and a count of 1024 to produce a 1 GB file. (1,048,576 x 1,204 = 1,073,741,824)

time dd if=/dev/urandom of=data.bin ***=1048576 count=1024

There are plenty of options available and many ways to use dd (such as grabbing the master boot record (MBR) from a hard drive), so consult man dd for more ideas.

The convenient part about dd is that it is included with Linux by default (at least in every distribution I have tried), so there is no need to install any additional software.

Simply open a terminal and have fun!