Apparently I do

Please note : Some participants names have been obscured to protect the innocent :|

tuxnus:

Just spent about a week making a new template for my companys newsletter. Guess what? CSS is hardly supported by email clients, both on and offline. Notably gmail, which has nearly no support at all.
So I have to redesign the whole thing in tables. AAAAAAARRRGHHH!!!
So there are times when tables still have to be used.

'Die Tables Die' indeed!
Ed

yabba_hh: unlucky
yabba_hh: I suppose this isn't the time to tell Ed that all my emails are "plain text" only, so shit like "my comments are in blue" tiotally fail?
tuxnus: which is why i italicized them
tuxnus: (for the color-impared)
yabba_hh: and you managed to do that in plain text by ....... ?
tuxnus: well, yer a moron
yabba_hh: lmfao
tuxnus: read (a most unusual character)
tuxnus: unique
yabba_hh: uhuh
tuxnus: odd
tuxnus: eccentric
tuxnus: weird
tuxnus: obtuse
tuxnus: cryptic
tuxnus: one of a kind
yabba_hh: as opposed to "of course italics will work if plain text format is all his client accepts and he can't see my colour"
tuxnus: I thought they would
yabba_hh: fuckin' muppet

Auto-complete your tags

I decided to have another play with tags as I tend to use them quite a bit on my posts and I'm always forgetting which ones I've used before and which ones I haven't. So I threw together a plugin that will auto-suggest tags based on ones that you've used in the past. It'll also show you a list of all other similar tags in case you have more than one tag with the same starting letter(s) although they're not clickable at the moment because I haven't got that far.

Installation is pretty simple, just download the zip ( AM AutoTags ), upload it, install it, then meander into the plugin settings and set the tag separator for whatever your version uses. That's it. Now when you enter tags you it should try and auto complete them for you and show you a list of other tags.

NOTE : I've only tested this in FireFox as my IE is having a crisis of confidence when it comes to running javascript, so if you use IE and it doesn't work then tough shit. Also, this is a pre-release version so it's bound to have a few quirks, if you find any then just let me know and I'll see what I can do to eradicate them.

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*edit* 24^th April
I think I've finally managed to convince IE that it can actually understand javascript so this should now work in IE as well, zip file updated

Never disclose your IP to a hacker

<bitchchecker> tell me your network number man then you're dead

I advise you don't piss off this hacker ...... unless you're bored ... or sadisitic ... source : Shut Up I Hack You :roll:

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Not all shells are on a beach

I decided to have a play with Bash this weekend as I'd been asked if I could come up with a backup process that was simple enough for the average joe blogs to configure to suit their needs. The script needed to be able to do daily/weekly/monthly backups of selected databases and files/folders and store them on a different server, as a nice touch it also emails the user to let them know that the backup had been done and which databases/files/folders had been included. As well as doing the backups it also keeps the latest 3 in a grandfather/father/son rotation which gives the user 9 potential backups which they can recover from.

As I haven't had a shedload of experience in using bash I spent a fair amount of time hunting round the web looking for clues as to how to do some bits and bats so I thought I'd share some snippets as some of them took a fair amount of searching for/solving and you never know, it may just help someone else in the future ..... probably me :p

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Read a named file into a variable
#

# read "file_you_want" into $variable_name
contents=$(<foo.txt)

echo "${contents}"

#
# Read a variable file into a variable
#

# set $variable_name = "file_you_want"
my_file='/path/foo.txt'

# read file $variable_name into $variable_name
contents=$(<"${my_file}")

echo "${contents}"

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Convert windows line endings to linux line endings
#

# set $variable_name = "file_you_want_to_convert"
filename='/path/foo.txt'

# remove all \r and save the output to $variable_name.linux
tr -d '\r' < ${filename} > ${filename}.linux

# remove original file
rm ${filename} -f

# rename $variable_name.linux to $variable_name
mv ${filename}.linux ${filename}

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# check if a process is already running
#

# name of the process to check for
# add [] around the first letter to stop the "grep process" from showing
check_process='[f]oo'

if ps aux | grep -q "${check_process}"
	then
		echo 'running'
	else
		echo 'not running'
fi

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# switch between 2 directories
#

# switch to directory 1
cd /path/foo/

# show current directory
pwd

# switch to directory 2 and "remember" previous directory
pushd /path/bar/

# show current directory
pwd

# switch back to directory 1
popd

# show current directory
pwd

# alternative method

# switch to directory 1
cd /path/foo/

# show current directory
pwd

# switch to directory 2 and "remember" previous directory
pushd /path/bar/

# show current directory
pwd

# switch back to directory 1
pushd

# show current directory
pwd

# switch back to directory 2
pushd

# show current directory
pwd

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# send an email using echo
#

echo 'your email content' | mail -s 'your email subject' email_1@domain.com email_2@domain.com

#
# send an email using a file as content
#

mail -s 'your email subject' email_1@domain.com email_2@domain.com < email_content.txt

#
# send an email using a variable file for content
#

# set $variable_name = "file_you_want_to_use_as_content"
email_body='/path/foo.txt'

mail -s 'your email subject' email_1@domain.com email_2@domain.com < ${email_body}

#
# send an email using a file and replace "%placeholders%" with variables
#

# set $variable_name = "file_you_want_to_use_as_content"
email_body='/path/foo.txt'

# set $variable_name = "replacement_value"
foo='bar'

# replace the placeholders and email the results
# replaces %placeholder% with $foo
sed -e "s!%placeholder%!${foo}!;" ${email_body}" | mail -s 'your email subject' email_1@domain.com email_2@domain.com

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# find the directory your script lives in
#

foo= `dirname $0`
echo $foo

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My wall and forehead are getting married

Considering the number of times I've had to re-install ubuntu recently I should be a bloody expert! .... I've learnt not to play with X .... he gets pissed off real easily :| ..... Saying that, and with shedloads of help from Afwas, I've managed to get it installed with the majority of the software that I need to be able to play on the web, although I was devastated when I couldn't install IE6,7,8beta.....urm, well any IE version really...... the good news is, it would appear that my pc really CAN move files around without having the unsafest pile of crap since ......urm ........ sliced bread? .... is sliced bread unsafe? ..... I suppose you could always cut yourself with the knife while slicing it?

Anyway, I've mostly managed to install all the shit I need on a day to day basis ...... but I might need to reinstall, so this is just to remind me of stuff ;)

1. xampp : just so I can run a localhost. This forum thread is invaluable ( HOWTO: Setup easy web development environment (XAMPP) ), but grab the latest version ( 1.6.6 or summat, at the time of writing ), and my desktop file was in a different place, ohh and I had to change the symlink a tad .... but if you're looking for xamppp then you probably know how to cure all that crap huh? ;)
2. cvs client : so I can break the core next time FG pisses off gallivanting around USA and pretending it's work :| .... gcvs from synaptic update thing handles that
3. kopette : so I can get harassed by all the arses I have in my yahoo list ( hi guys ... and gals :D ) ..... weirdly that's another that's available via the synaptic thing ;)
4. x-chat : so I can get harassed in irc as well :| .... spookily it's another one available through synaptic ,,,, damn ... it's taking me ages to find a piece of software I can't afford :D
5. scite : editor thing for code ..... but I really need to find summat that fits my needs better ... mind you, it's probably just me not knowing what to tell it? "scite : I need an editor that can work on remote servers" ( any suggestions that don't involve a fish will be greatly appreciated )
6. VirtualBox OSE : so I can run windows in a subservient manner ;) .... not actually done this yet, but looks promising ... ohhh, and it's also available from that synaptic geezer that seems to have an endless supply of software that fits my wallet ;)

Sounds great huh?

So, now that all y'all think I'm a bloody genius .... which I am of course :| ...... I should point out that even my dad can run linux, and he's like "really old" and shit. I've still got a fair few things that I'm missing ... like my second screen working, and a decent ssh client that can hold multiple sessions in tabs .... and I must setup all my email accounts, although the lack of spam whilst they're not setup is damn attractive ... ohhh and I must change the desktop background, the swirly modern art brown thing really isn't to my tastes.

...but, has my production improved by using linux?

Stupid bloody question really, of course it hasn't improved, I've spent the best part of a couple of days just trying to avoid another re-install ..... it's all X's fault .... so I've done bugger all work! ...... mind you, it IS the weekend so maybe I shouldn't feel ...... urm ..... you know, that feeling you get when yer meant to be doing stuff but instead you just piss off an play? ... anyway, I'm not feeling that.

/me wanders off to find a yen sign that I can copy+paste cos I haven't worked out a way to type "?" from the keyboard yet :S

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