*nix Shell Scripting Tutorial
I had to come up with a way to run a bunch of rsync commands, and the only shell scripts I’ve ever really made have been extremely simple (just for running wine commands mostly). Since I needed to make what amounted to a small program for OpenBSD, I headed to Google and found a great shell scripting site:
 http://www.freeos.com/guides/lsst/index.html
It looks like some other sites have this information as well, but this site was closest to the top without being bombarded with ads.
Review: Dell Latitude D820
Portability is becoming big business when it comes to laptops these days and manufacturers are starting to cram as much hardware inside these little machines as they can. Intel has really come to the plate with the introduction of the Core 2 line of processors that provide desktop power with very little heat and increased battery life over earlier laptops. My work was nice enough to purchase for me a Dell Latitude D820 to work on, and after a few weeks of using it I’m pleasently suprised by how well it replaces a desktop.
Music While You Work
One thing that really helps me code is music. Not that crap that they play on the radio at work or on 90% of the radio stations out there that I can’t pick up in the office because I don’t have an actual radio, but good music, like what’s on my iPod. What do I do when I’m at work and I want to listen to some music?
MediaWiki as a Computer Logbook
At work, we suffer from the inevitable communications problem of “Did X get done last night?” or “When did Bob do such-and-such?” This isn’t something that is any single person’s fault, especially when the group of people you work with is small. I’ve done it, my coworkers have done it. With 40 PCs and around 10 servers, it can easily become a nightmare trying to keep track of what you have done. Paper logbooks become a bear as you have to physically keep track of them at all times.I don’t remember where I read the idea, but at some point I read about using a wiki as a way to keep a computer logbook. It’s easily accessible from any PC on the network, has partial-WYSIWYG editing, and keeps a record of who edited what page and when. I brought the idea up to my supervisor and he gave it a go.
Browsing Safely On The Road
I recently went on two trips, a wedding and then a business trip, and both involved getting internet access at the hotel. The hotel we stayed at at the wedding had free wireless internet, which was completely unencrypted and definately visable from the other hotels grouped around it. The second hotel had strictly wired internet which required me to sign up. Neither of them really gave me a huge amount of confidence in them keeping my information safe. What does one do? If you have broadband and a dynamic DNS account (I suggest DynDNS.org, I’ve used them for years without a problem), you have some options!