Archive for August, 2009

• All your aliases are belong to you

  I like setting up shortcuts to frequently used commands whether I used Windows or Linux. I use the terminal often and create shortcuts to frequently used commands using “alias” feature of BASH. This has saved me considerable time in the past. However, I recently felt that if I could have a helper [...]

  August 28th, 2009

• Query Wikipedia from your terminal

  I refer Wikipedia frequently. I use this BASH function to help me do that from the terminal. For explanation of how this works head over here.
  BASH function

  # wiki

  # eg: wiki India
  # wiki Apple_Inc
  # wiki Anglo_Saxon
  wiki()
  {
  dig +short txt $1.wp.dg.cx
  }

  Example usage

  prashanth@prashanth-desktop:~$ [...]

  August 23rd, 2009

• Command-line language translation

  Here is a simple utility created using Python for translating text from various languages into English. It uses the Google AJAX API to do this.
  Usage

  prashanth@prashanth-desktop:~$ translate bonjour
  hello
  prashanth@prashanth-desktop:~$ translate guten morgen
  Good morning

  August 18th, 2009

• On setting up USB RAID

  I bought two Dane-Elec 8GB USB drives recently. Flash memory (as opposed to Hard disk storage) has faster “seek” capability. This is inherent in the design as flash memory is solid state whereas hard disks are electro-mechanical with a “head” that needs to be moved around using a “drive” mechanism. Since seek times are better [...]

  August 7th, 2009

• Gotta make Rice!

  I ate some c#@& outside and got “food poisoning”. I am at home and since I have nothing else to do… I am making rice
  Here is my recipe (sourced from my wife)

  Decide how much rice you want and what kind.

  for one person, 1/2 cup measure (cup from Vasu’s kitchen (how much [...]

  August 5th, 2009