Wed, 28 Jun 2006
Short File Copy Command Line
Making a backup copy of a file is a pretty common thing to do (although you
should be using RCS for a lot of these...). If you're using a machine with a
GUI then copy and pasting the file name twice, with an extension on the
end, is pretty simple. If you're either a keyboard jockey or without a
mouse you can make your life easier with these two short cuts:
# make a copy of file. add the .old extension
cp filename{,-old}
# overwrite the old version with the new version
cp filename{-old,}
# make a backup of a file deep in a directory tree. The copy
# is in the remote directory, not the working one.
cp /var/www/www.unixdaemon.net/htdocs/index.html{,-old}
It's not a huge saving until you find yourself with long filenames, working on a machine without a GUI but it is a useful trick to know.
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Posted: 2006/06/28 17:47 | /tools/commandline | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
My userscripts.org Greasemonkey Scripts
If you've tried to use any of my Greasemonkey scripts over at Dean Wilsons Userscripts.org
Profile then you've been out of luck until recently. During a linky
session I managed to hit the "delete script link" on each and every script
I'd uploaded. The delete link (which I didn't notice) didn't require any
confirmation so it managed to get everything. I spent a little time last
night re-adding the scripts (I have copies on my own site) so they're
now available again.
This does mean I've lost all the comments, ratings and viewing history, which is annoying as heck. On the upside the delete link now prompts you, which will stop me doing this again but it's a little late for me.
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Posted: 2006/06/28 17:35 | /tools/online/greasemonkey | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
X-Men 3 - A Respectable Finale
When I was a teen I read a fair amount of X-Men comics (and I've
started again now Joss Whedon is writing Astonishing X-Men) so they are
close to my heart, while the first film felt like a prologue, the second
film did them justice and the third gives them a decent send off.
I'm not going to spoil any of the plot but Storm gets a decent showing this time, Halle Berry - who has six toes on her left foot, made some (deserved) noise about Storm being down played in previous films. That's been fixed in this one.
Three things that jumped out at me, they've done pretty well at making Hugh Jackman look short while playing Wolverine but it didn't work as well in this film. There were a lot less in-jokes and little fan bits this time and lastly the Juggernaught isn't a mutant (in 616 continuity anyway). So he couldn't have been stopped that way. But that's me nitpicking.
Beast looked well in the fight scenes and it's going to be interesting to see how much of what they've learned from him can be applied to Spider-man 3, their fighting styles have a lot in common.
It's also worth staying until the credits have finished, there is a nice little scene that not many people have stayed to see...
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Posted: 2006/06/28 17:26 | /movies | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
Big Maps and Background Removals
I've added a couple of new scripts to my Greasemonkey
Script collection. Remove
Background Image does exactly what you'd expect. Add an @include like
for your site of choice and refresh the page to make it go away.
The second one's based on a Streetmap trick Wookie Bob showed me. StreetMap 5x5 grid changes the map you're looking at to a 5x5 grid view you can only usually get by hacking the URL. At the moment it changes every size to that one, this suits me because I live in London. However this can be changed in the source if you're unfortunate enough to live elsewhere.
Update - Dave Cantrell has pointed out that the Streetmap 5x5 grid is available by clicking the "Big Map" link. Which I seem to have never noticed. The script is still useful for setting a sensible default view size.
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Posted: 2006/06/28 17:16 | /tools/online/greasemonkey | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
File::Find::Rule::VCS and RCS Directories
The File::Find::Rule::VCS
module excludes certain directories, artifacts from version control
systems, from your File::Find::Rule queries. While it's aware of the big
two (subversion and CVS) today I needed a version that was aware - and can
ignore - RCS directories. So I hacked the module and tada, we now have a
File::Find::Rule::VCS RCS support patch.
I've sent a copy to the module author but I'm putting it here as well in case it gets rejected.
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Posted: 2006/06/28 17:04 | /perl | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
Mon, 26 Jun 2006
Dealing With RSS Backlogs
The work is done, the script is written and from this Sunday night my
RSS aggregator will kill any post that's from before noon on Saturday.
This is all part of my (proably pointless) attempt to prevent backlogs
and pile ups of unread things. I'm not going to release any of the (very
hacky) scripts as they all assume lots about their running environment
but I thought I'd mention it in case I can inspire anyone (Lee) to
clear out their queues every now and again. (Lee)
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Posted: 2006/06/26 17:37 | /meta | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
They can't be THAT evil, can they?
Amazon sent me one of the more amusing recommendations I've ever had:
Greetings from Amazon.co.uk, We've noticed that customers who have purchased books by Rael Dornfest have also ordered "Adolf Hitler: A Portrait" by Michael Fitzgerald.
I know O'Reilly are not the most popular of companies since the web 2.0 incident but I didn't think they'd fallen that far... :)
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Posted: 2006/06/26 17:18 | /misctech | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
AIDE Agony
When it comes to host-based intrusion detection I'm most familiar with
the Tripwire
OpenSource Edition, while shopping around for a HIDS to deploy on a
play box I decided to try AIDE. And got stopped at one of the first
hurdles.
Tripwire has an interactive update mechanism, it runs a scan (based on your config file) and then prompts you to except, reject or mark changes as pending - within one operation. Unless I'm missing something, AIDE takes a generate signatures, user checks the output, generate signatures approach, which leaves a huge race condition open. Any files created / edited between the check and second generate steps will slip through the net.
Am I missing something or is this really how it works?
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Posted: 2006/06/26 17:15 | /security | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
Stepping Down - UKUUG Council
Due to some other, recently appearing, demands on my spare (and not so
spare) time I've had to drastically cut back on the amount of time I spend
working with different Free and Open groups. One of the biggest casualties
of this has been the UKUUG.
I no longer have the time available to make any meaningful contributions so I've stepped down from the UKUUG council. As a group they're doing a lot of interesting work, and some great conferences, so it's worth looking at their site every now and again.
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Posted: 2006/06/26 17:10 | /misctech | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
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