Bring Netflix streaming to Linux!

Considering there are a host of devices (PS3, Roxee, TiVo, LG Blu-Ray players) that run Linux internally and support Netflix Streaming, it should be an easy technical transition to bring this to Linux.  Sign the petition to bring Netflix streaming to Linux. I am promoting it so I can use Netflix Streaming on my MythTV server and enhance the MythTV experience with Netflix streaming.

http://www.petitiononline.com/Linflix/petition.html

Create huge files fast with dd

Here is a quick way to create very large empty files without writing every byte using dd.

# dd if=/dev/zero of=largeemptyfile.img bs=1M count=1 seek=16999
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
1048576 bytes (1.0 MB) copied, 0.001772 seconds, 592 MB/s
# ls -lh
total 1.1M
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17G Jul 16 09:07 largeemptyfile.img
# du -h
1.1M    .

Notice that the actual file is only 1.1 MB, but the file shows as 17GB.  This is because dd basically wrote the first and last parts of the file, and left the middle alone.  You can now use this file for anything, such as a Xen disk image.  Once it is in use, it will report as the full 17GB with du.

Killing zombie processes

Kill those persistent and annoying zombie processes.


ps -e -o ppid,stat | grep Z | cut -d" " -f2 | xargs kill -9

Tested on Fedora for accuracy.  

New t-shirt shop

I have partnered with CafePress.com to create some suave t-shirts about tech.  See my shop at:

http://www.cafepress.com/Peachfuzztech

Enjoy!