Better and similar size:

    $ du -h $(which pv)
    116K     /usr/bin/pv

pv has a progress bar and nicer syntax. Next time you need to write an image, try:

    sudo pv -Yo /dev/blah /path/to/your/image.img

The -Y makes it sync after each write so that the progress bar represents actual progress instead of just how fast you can copy to kernel write buffers.

My life improved measurably after I contributed that '-o' flag to pv and it then made its way into all my systems through regular OS updates :)