1) You want logical locations, not physical locations. I promise.

2) On Unix-like systems, you can open the device node, and seek directly to the locations of your choice.

        int const fd = open("/dev/sda", O_RDWR);

3) If you have a predetermined image you want to slam onto the disk, use dd. Depending on what else you want to do, other command line programs may also be useful. For example:

~$ uname
Darwin
~$ sudo hexdump -n 600 /dev/disk0
0000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
00001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 38 2d 00 00 00 00 00 fe
00001c0 ff ff ee fe ff ff 01 00 00 00 2f 60 38 3a 00 00
00001d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
00001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa
0000200 45 46 49 20 50 41 52 54 00 00 01 00 5c 00 00 00
0000210 ab 81 40 18 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000220 2f 60 38 3a 00 00 00 00 22 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000230 0e 60 38 3a 00 00 00 00 48 75 00 00 de 3e 00 00
0000240 fa 0c 00 00 7d 31 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000250 80 00 00 00 80 00 00 00
0000258
~$

Good luck.

irony: n. An obvious spelling error in the most salient part of a complaint about poor readability.

I'm not sure why this got modded "funny." A lot of my Linux interaction is command-line only, and elinks is a life-saver. On occasion, e.g. when the only documentation for a package is in HTML, the console-mode browser is almost indispensable.

Java applets are indispensable for some things. Web-based VNC cilents are a good example.

It would be nice to have a truly portable, general-purpose programming environment for web-based applications. Unless the browser providers get their collective act together (especially MS), I don't think AJAX is the answer. What bug me the most are the gratuitous differences in DOMs and CSS interpretation.

1. Use revision control, e.g. Subversion.

2. Use a formal bug-tracking system. At the very least, numbered text files full of issue descriptions.

3. Start spending some time in the relevant Usenet groups for the languages and technologies you'll be using. This will expose you to the gamut of good and bad practices, let you hear multiple sides to every argument, and put you in a position to make up your own mind about what conventions you care to follow.