Is there an ISO version of the Apprentice CDs available?
I'm asking, because I've tried several web spiders to
download the tutorial files, without much success
(since the .hip files are not linked to any html page).
So a downloadable ISO version would be very much
appreciated.

Hi,

The following instructions should help.

Cheers!
steven

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: On-Line Houdini Apprentice Mirror
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 14:20:38 +1000 (EST)
From: Ben Simons <ben@vislab.usyd.edu.au>
Reply-To: sidefx-houdini-list@sidefx.com
To: sidefx-houdini-list@sidefx.com

Hi,

I'm pleased to announce that Sydney VisLab has mirrored the Houdini
Apprentice CDROM set (with permission from SideFx) onto the VisLab
webserver, so that more people might obtain the non-commercial
version via the net.

I think you'll find we have a very fast server, and that this service
might be more convenient than, say, digging out that CDROM, or trying
to tell friends how to get the CDROM's.

Feel free to tell people about this mirror:

http://www.vislab.usyd.edu.au/sidefx/ [vislab.usyd.edu.au]


I've made the server show “directory listings” of the contents, so
you should be able to simply download the bits you want. If you click
on an “index.html” file you will see that HTML displayed as usual,
but it will not automatically display them, which means you can use
this mirror just as if you had the CD yourself.

Nb. I could have made two .iso's of the CD's, but then everyone would
be trying to download two GIANT files. I think listing the contents
and letting people pick & choose parts is a better way.

Check it out. I hope it's useful.


—–8<—————————————————————-

To download whole directories:

GNU “wget” is a convenient way to copy a directory and all it's contents
over the net (ie. a recursive copy). There's even a version for Windows!
See:

http://www.wget.org/ [wget.org]
http://wget.sunsite.dk/ [wget.sunsite.dk]

But take care with wget - you don't want to download the entire internet!
It might not fit on your hard drive, and could be fairly expensive. ;-)

For example, if you wanted to download the Solaris Image of Houdini
Apprentice, you might use this wget command.

% cd /var/tmp
% wget -N -nv -r -L http://www.vislab.usyd.edu.au/sidefx/cd1/Solaris [vislab.usyd.edu.au]

and you would have the Solaris directory tree copied to /var/tmp.
Be careful you have spare disk space before you start a big download.
The command above would create
/var/tmp/www.vislab.usyd.edu.au/sidefx/cd1/Solaris

The nice thing about wget is if it's interrupted, you can restart the
download from where it was. If you have to go through a firewall or
web proxy, then you should create a $HOME/.wgetrc file with the line:

http_proxy = proxy.example.yourdomain.com:8080

or whatever is your web proxy, then wget will work! It's Good Stuff! :-)
I think you _can_ specify the proxy on the command line, with something
like -e “http_proxy=proxy.thing.com:8080”, but if you must go through
a proxy everytime, then it's probably best to set this in a .wgetrc file
once and for all. Set and forget.


Thanks to Side Effects Software for creating Houdini Apprentice,
and allowing us to mirror it. I hope it becomes really popular.

cheers,
ben.
__________________________________________________________
Ben Simons Physics Building, A28,
VisLab Systems Manager The University of Sydney.
Phone +61-2-9351-5900 NSW. AUSTRALIA. 2006.
Fax +61-2-9351-1880 http://www.vislab.usyd.edu.au/ [vislab.usyd.edu.au]

Waiting is a funny activity: you can't wait twice as fast.
– Ed Dijkstra, 28Feb84.

You can't beat GNU.
Thank you.