Merging 2 HFS Partitions using DiskUtil

As a Mac user, you’re probably aware of Mac OS X’s “Disk Utility” program for mounting volumes, repairing permissions, creating disk images, etc. However, the command line version of the tool, “diskutil” is also very handy and has functions that aren’t available in the GUI application.

Let’s say you have 2 HFS+ partitions; 1 called “Music” on disk0s1 and the other called “Photos” on disk0s2. Then, at some point decide that you don’t want those 2 partitions separated anymore and want to combine them into one partition called “Music_and_Photos.” It’s easy with the “diskutil” tool.

Open a command line and type :

“diskutil mergePartitions hfs+ Music_and_Photos disk0s1 disk0s2″

The partition disk0s1 (Music) and the partition disk0s2 (Photos) would at this point now be merged as disk0s1 (Music_and_Photos)

Keep in mind that only HFS partitions can be merged without data loss, and that the partitions being merged must be “next to each other” in the partition map. (Meaning that if you tried to merge disk0s1 and disk0s3 that s2 which is in the middle would also be merged.) If you don’t know where each partition’s place is in the partition map, simply type “diskutil list” on the command line to find out.

More info on DiskUtil can be found HERE.

Snow Leopard – Re-Enable Font Smoothing for LCD Monitors

From MacOSXHints.com…

“You can force OS X to use LCD font smoothing on all displays with this Terminal command:

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2

The number 2 here corresponds to Medium – Best for Flat Panel. You may also use 1 for light smoothing, and 3 for strong smoothing, as per the original OS X font smoothing options.”

Les Paul, Modern Music Innovator Dies at 94

I’m a little late in posting this, but I wanted to just the same.

On August 13, 2009 Les Paul died of complications from pneumonia at the age of 94.

Les Paul was was instrumental (no pun intended) in the development of the modern solid body guitar, inventing overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects, and multitrack recording.

He was also a great guitar player, and a dedicated one at that. In 1948 he was in a terrible car accident that shattered his right elbow. The doctors told him that the elbow would never regain any free range of motion, so Les told them to set the arm in an “L” shape so that he could still play guitar.

More info about Les HERE.

Thanks for all you did for modern music Les. You’ll be remembered.

Republican Lobbyists Orchestrate Townhall Meeting “Protestors”

Rachael Maddow reported on August 3rd about the organized “protests” occuring at Townhall Meetings across the country regarding Health Care Reform. Essentially their purpose is to disrupt the meetings, and not allow any valuable discussion on the topic.

Similar reporting appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as well. Ah, Fox News. We’re so lucky you’re so fair and balanced…