The theft of contact information for job seekers in the database of Monster Worldwide Inc was greater than the 1.3 million individuals the company reported last week, Chief Executive Sal Iannuzzi said on Wednesday.
While investigating the recent theft, the company learned that its Web site had previously been hacked.
“We’re assuming it is a large number. It could easily be in the millions,” Iannuzzi said in an interview with Reuters.
The hackers didn’t get the kind of information it takes to pull money out of a bank account, according to Monster.com, but the contact data is valuable to criminals who use social engineering techniques to conduct scams.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Windows Server 2008 release delayed
Windows Server 2008 is apparently going to live up to its name, with Microsoft acknowledging Wednesday that it won’t be able to finish work on the product this year, as scheduled.
“Windows Server 2008, which we have been saying would Release to Manufacturing (RTM) by the end of the calendar year, is now slated to RTM in the first quarter of calendar year 2008,” Microsoft said on its Windows Server blog.
As for the reasoning, the company said “while we’re very happy with the feedback we’re getting and the overall quality of the latest product builds, we would rather spend a little more time to meet the high quality bar that our customers and partners deserve and expect.”
“Windows Server 2008, which we have been saying would Release to Manufacturing (RTM) by the end of the calendar year, is now slated to RTM in the first quarter of calendar year 2008,” Microsoft said on its Windows Server blog.
As for the reasoning, the company said “while we’re very happy with the feedback we’re getting and the overall quality of the latest product builds, we would rather spend a little more time to meet the high quality bar that our customers and partners deserve and expect.”
Tip for the day: SOLARIS CHANGING SEASONS
During a session, sometimes we have a need to change the system time for our session
only. We have used it to simulate time based testing.
export TZ=ESThhEDT
The EST set your time to Eastern
Standard Time and EDT is Eastern
Daylight Time.
hh is the number of hours you wish to change.
Example: Currently the system
date is Tue Jun 19 13:38:03 EDT 2001
and you wish to set it to yesterday at the same time. You would substitute a positive
29 for hh.
export TZ=EST29EDT
Now the shell time is:
Mon Jun 18 13:38:50 EDT 2001
WHY 29 and not 24? The main UNIX clock is set from GMT not EST therefore you have to add 5 hours to your backward calculations to get the same exact time since EST is
GMT - 5 hours.
Use negitive numbers to set the clock into the future.
Also if you need to set the minutes and seconds it is hh:mm:ss. These are all the
number of hours, minutes and seconds from GMT that you wish to set.
This is for Solaris 2.6, your mileage may vary.
only. We have used it to simulate time based testing.
export TZ=ESThhEDT
The EST set your time to Eastern
Standard Time and EDT is Eastern
Daylight Time.
hh is the number of hours you wish to change.
Example: Currently the system
date is Tue Jun 19 13:38:03 EDT 2001
and you wish to set it to yesterday at the same time. You would substitute a positive
29 for hh.
export TZ=EST29EDT
Now the shell time is:
Mon Jun 18 13:38:50 EDT 2001
WHY 29 and not 24? The main UNIX clock is set from GMT not EST therefore you have to add 5 hours to your backward calculations to get the same exact time since EST is
GMT - 5 hours.
Use negitive numbers to set the clock into the future.
Also if you need to set the minutes and seconds it is hh:mm:ss. These are all the
number of hours, minutes and seconds from GMT that you wish to set.
This is for Solaris 2.6, your mileage may vary.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Japan to research Internet replacement
Japan plans to start research on new networking technology that could one day replace the Internet amid its growing quality and security problems, according to the nation’s communications ministry.
U.S. and European researchers already have started similar efforts to rebuild the underlying architecture of the Internet.
Yoshihiro Onishi, assistant director at the Japanese communications ministry, said Japan must follow suit to stay competitive. Post-Internet network technology is expected to become imperative by 2020, he said.
“The Internet is reaching its limit,” he said. “We feel this research for the technology is definitely needed.”
When researchers largely knew one another, the Internet’s early architects kept the shared network open and flexible - qualities that proved key to its rapid growth. But that later allowed spammers and hackers to roam freely.
The network’s designers also assumed that computers would be in fixed locations and always connected, creating headaches as laptops and other mobile devices proliferated.
Many scientists are starting to believe a totally new network is needed. It could run parallel with the Internet or eventually replace it, or parts of the research could go into a major overhaul of the existing architecture.
U.S. and European researchers already have started similar efforts to rebuild the underlying architecture of the Internet.
Yoshihiro Onishi, assistant director at the Japanese communications ministry, said Japan must follow suit to stay competitive. Post-Internet network technology is expected to become imperative by 2020, he said.
“The Internet is reaching its limit,” he said. “We feel this research for the technology is definitely needed.”
When researchers largely knew one another, the Internet’s early architects kept the shared network open and flexible - qualities that proved key to its rapid growth. But that later allowed spammers and hackers to roam freely.
The network’s designers also assumed that computers would be in fixed locations and always connected, creating headaches as laptops and other mobile devices proliferated.
Many scientists are starting to believe a totally new network is needed. It could run parallel with the Internet or eventually replace it, or parts of the research could go into a major overhaul of the existing architecture.
Tip for the day: TAR ONLY THE FILES
To tar only files (not subdirectories) in the current directory use this command:
$ tar cvf files.tar ./`ls -l | grep -v '^d' | awk '{ print $9 }'`
$ tar cvf files.tar ./`ls -l | grep -v '^d' | awk '{ print $9 }'`
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Teen trades hacked iPhone for new car
The teenage hacker who managed to unlock the iPhone so that it can be used with cellular networks other than AT&T will be trading his reworked gadget for a new car.
George Hotz, of Glen Rock, N.J., said he had reached the deal with CertiCell, a Louisville, Ky.-based mobile phone repair company.
Hotz posted on his blog that he traded his modified iPhone for “a sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones.”
“This has been a great end to a great summer,” Hotz wrote.
The 17-year-old Hotz said he will be sending the three new iPhones to the three online collaborators who helped him divorce Apple Inc’s popular product from AT&T’s network. The job took 500 hours, or about 8 hours a day since the iPhone’s June 29 launch.
Hotz made the deal with Terry Daidone, co-founder of CertiCell, who also promised the teen a paid consulting job.
George Hotz, of Glen Rock, N.J., said he had reached the deal with CertiCell, a Louisville, Ky.-based mobile phone repair company.
Hotz posted on his blog that he traded his modified iPhone for “a sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones.”
“This has been a great end to a great summer,” Hotz wrote.
The 17-year-old Hotz said he will be sending the three new iPhones to the three online collaborators who helped him divorce Apple Inc’s popular product from AT&T’s network. The job took 500 hours, or about 8 hours a day since the iPhone’s June 29 launch.
Hotz made the deal with Terry Daidone, co-founder of CertiCell, who also promised the teen a paid consulting job.
Tip for the day: SHELL OUTPUT INTO VI
In VI editor you can get the output of any shell command command inserted into the file you are editing by using:
:r!
For example:
:r!who -r
inserts the ouput of the command "who -r" to the file currently being edited.
This can be effectively used to copy the contents of a file to the file currently
being edited
ie,
:r!cat /etc/passwd
inserts all the contents of the the /etc/passwd to the file currently being edited.
:r!
For example:
:r!who -r
inserts the ouput of the command "who -r" to the file currently being edited.
This can be effectively used to copy the contents of a file to the file currently
being edited
ie,
:r!cat /etc/passwd
inserts all the contents of the the /etc/passwd to the file currently being edited.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Tip for the day: AVOID PERMISION DENIED
To avoid 'Permission Denied' messages when using the 'find' command:
in ksh :-
find -name '' -print 2 > /dev/null
in csh :-
(find -name '' -print >/dev/tty) >& /dev/null
in ksh :-
find
in csh :-
(find
Magic the Gathering: Lorwyn Spoiler 32/301
White (2/)
Ajani Goldmane - ?W
Planeswalker - Ajani (Rare)
Galepowder Mage - 3W
Creature - Kithkin Wizard (Rare)
Flying
Whenever Galepowder Mage attacks, remove another target creature from the game. Return that card to play under its owner's control at end of turn.
3/3
Illus. Jeremy Jarvis
#15/301
Blue (2/)
Fallowsage - 3U
Creature - Merfolk Wizard (Uncommon)
Whenever Fallowsage becomes tapped, you may draw a card.
Memories of ages past are said to swim the minds of lounging fallowsages.
2/2
Illus. Parente
#63/301
Jace Beleren - ?U
Planeswalker - Jace (Rare)
Black (3/)
Fodder Launch - 3B
Tribal Sorcery - Goblin (Uncommon)
As an additional cost to play Fodder Launch, sacrifice a Goblin.
Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn. Fodder Launch deals 5 damage to that creature's controller.
Leave it to a boggart to come up with a projectile as disgusting and as deadly.
Illus. Nils Haam
#114/301
Liliana Vess - 3BB
Planeswalker - Liliana (Rare)
+1 (Loyalty?): Target player discards a card.
-2 (Loyalty?): Search your library for a card, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.
-8 (Loyalty?): Put all creature cards in all graveyards into play under your control.
5
Illus. Aleksi Briclot
#121/301
Shriekmaw - 4B
Creature - Elemental (Uncommon)
Fear
When Shriekmaw comes into play, destroy target nonartifact, nonblack creature.
Evoke {1}{B} (You may play this spell for its evoke cost. If you do, it's sacrificed when it comes into play.)
It's a bird!
3/2
Illus. Steve Prescott
#139/301
Red (1/)
Chandra ?? - ?R
Planeswalker - Chandra (Rare)
Green (4/)
Battlewand Oak - 2G
Creature - Treefolk Warrior (Common)
Whenever a Forest comes into play under your control, Battlewand Oak gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
Whenever you play a Treefolk spell, Battlewand Oak gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
1/3
#197/301
Epic Proportions - 4GG
Enchantment - Aura (Rare)
Flash
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +5/+5 and has trample.
From mite to mighty.
Illus. Jesper Ejsing
#209/301
Garruk Wildspeaker - ?G
Planeswalker - Garruk (Rare)
Wren's Run Packmaster - 3G
Creature - Elf Warrior (Rare)
Champion an Elf (When this comes into play, sacrifice it unless you remove another Elf you control from the game. When this leaves play, that card returns to play.)
{2}{G}: Put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token into play.
Each Wolf you control has deathtouch (When it deals damage to a creature, destroy that creature.)
5/5
Illus. Steve Prescott*
Basic Land (20/)
Forest
Basic land - Forest (Basic Land)
Forest
Basic land - Forest (Basic Land)
Forest
Basic land - Forest (Basic Land)
Forest
Basic land - Forest (Basic Land)
Island
Basic land - Island (Basic Land)
Island
Basic land - Island (Basic Land)
Island
Basic land - Island (Basic Land)
Island
Basic land - Island (Basic Land)
Mountain
Basic land - Mountain (Basic Land)
Mountain
Basic land - Mountain (Basic Land)
Mountain
Basic land - Mountain (Basic Land)
Mountain
Basic land - Mountain (Basic Land)
Plains
Basic land - Plains (Basic Land)
Plains
Basic land - Plains (Basic Land)
Plains
Basic land - Plains (Basic Land)
Plains
Basic land - Plains (Basic Land)
Swamp
Basic land - Swamp (Basic Land)
Swamp
Basic land - Swamp (Basic Land)
Swamp
Basic land - Swamp (Basic Land)
Basic land - Swamp (Basic Land)
Via (MTG Salvation.)
Monday, August 27, 2007
Tip for the day: PROGRESS STATUS IN XTERM TITLEBAR
Sometimes it is handy to be able to show some information in the xterms title bar, for example if you download a set of large files (thereby producing lots of meaningless information on the terminal) and you want to know which file is actually beeing downloaded.
For this purpose, I hacked a few lines of shell code that would put any information into the xterms title bar. I called the script ttshow.
#!/bin/sh
if [ -z $DISPLAY ]; then
echo "ESC]0; $* ^G"
fi
In this little script, the string ESC has to be replaced by one real escape character (ascii 0x1b), the string "^G" has to be replaced by a bel character (ascii 0x07).
Now I can make my scripts like
this:
for file in in `cat filenames`; do
ttshow "downloading $file"
wget $file
done
..and it will tell me on the
first glance what it's doing.
For more information about this, unpack the X distribution and search for the file
ctlseqs.ms - this file belongs to the xterm distribution and contains all the escape sequences xterm knows about.
For this purpose, I hacked a few lines of shell code that would put any information into the xterms title bar. I called the script ttshow.
#!/bin/sh
if [ -z $DISPLAY ]; then
echo "ESC]0; $* ^G"
fi
In this little script, the string ESC has to be replaced by one real escape character (ascii 0x1b), the string "^G" has to be replaced by a bel character (ascii 0x07).
Now I can make my scripts like
this:
for file in in `cat filenames`; do
ttshow "downloading $file"
wget $file
done
..and it will tell me on the
first glance what it's doing.
For more information about this, unpack the X distribution and search for the file
ctlseqs.ms - this file belongs to the xterm distribution and contains all the escape sequences xterm knows about.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Tip for the day: FILE SYSTEM CAPACITY ALERT
#!/bin/sh
# This script can be used to
# warn the users that
# the file system is getting full
#
# Script needs adjusted for your
# needs. Below is set to monitor
# all the file systems mounted and report to
# RECEIVER
#
# Usage: as a cron entry for best use.
RECEIVER=blogyourface@gmail.com
for fs in `df -k|awk '{print $1}'|sed -n "3,14 p"`
do
x=`df -kl | grep $fs | awk '{ print $5 }'`
y=50%
if [ $x -gt $y ]
then
message="File System `df -k |grep $fs |awk '{print $6\",
\"$5}'` Full!!!"
echo $subject
echo $message | mailx -s "`hostname` - File System Full
Warning !!!" $RECEIVER
fi
done
# This script can be used to
# warn the users that
# the file system is getting full
#
# Script needs adjusted for your
# needs. Below is set to monitor
# all the file systems mounted and report to
# RECEIVER
#
# Usage: as a cron entry for best use.
RECEIVER=blogyourface@gmail.com
for fs in `df -k|awk '{print $1}'|sed -n "3,14 p"`
do
x=`df -kl | grep $fs | awk '{ print $5 }'`
y=50%
if [ $x -gt $y ]
then
message="File System `df -k |grep $fs |awk '{print $6\",
\"$5}'` Full!!!"
echo $subject
echo $message | mailx -s "`hostname` - File System Full
Warning !!!" $RECEIVER
fi
done
Saturday, August 25, 2007
AMD versus Intel Redux
It's no secret that Intel has been trying to put a world of hurt on rival Advanced Micro Devices. Is AMD marketing and sales czar the latest casualty?
News that the outspoken Henri Richard is "departing of his own accord," according to an AMD statement, does little to quell speculation that the smaller chipmaker may have seen its best days gone by. Richard, known for his great one-liners and promises of utter annihilation of the competition, was the man in charge of actually translating AMD's chip advancements into real-world profits.
That hasn't been as easy as making noise. Despite the company's best efforts, with the addition of Dell and other top pc makers to its lineup, it's been having a tough go making headway against Intel. The company's second quarter earnings staged a bit of a comeback following weakness in earlier quarters, but part of that may be attributed to surprising sales strength in the low-end desktop pc market, where profits can be fleeting.
AMD CEO Hector Ruiz at a dinner recently predicted the chipmaker's new server and notebook chip platforms will put the company back in the race, so it seems an odd time for Richard's departure.
AMD says the sales and marketing organization will now report directly to the CEO. Will the closer ties be enough?
Via (TechBeat.)
News that the outspoken Henri Richard is "departing of his own accord," according to an AMD statement, does little to quell speculation that the smaller chipmaker may have seen its best days gone by. Richard, known for his great one-liners and promises of utter annihilation of the competition, was the man in charge of actually translating AMD's chip advancements into real-world profits.
That hasn't been as easy as making noise. Despite the company's best efforts, with the addition of Dell and other top pc makers to its lineup, it's been having a tough go making headway against Intel. The company's second quarter earnings staged a bit of a comeback following weakness in earlier quarters, but part of that may be attributed to surprising sales strength in the low-end desktop pc market, where profits can be fleeting.
AMD CEO Hector Ruiz at a dinner recently predicted the chipmaker's new server and notebook chip platforms will put the company back in the race, so it seems an odd time for Richard's departure.
AMD says the sales and marketing organization will now report directly to the CEO. Will the closer ties be enough?
Via (TechBeat.)
Friday, August 24, 2007
Tip for the day: Tru64 STTY DEC
On Tru64 Unix (at least on 4.0F), some non-root-user drop an error message on the root's Mail
account when cronjobs used
su - foo -c /usr/bin/bar
Even some Compaq technicians could not tell that this results from terminal settings in the .profile, which are invalid on non-interactive terminals. The error messages (2 in fact) looks like this:
stty: tcgetattr: not a typewriter
Not a terminal.
The solution is to wrap commands like "stty dec" and "tset -I -Q" with a check on terminal capabilities:
if tty -s
then
stty dec
tset -I -Q
fi
account when cronjobs used
su - foo -c /usr/bin/bar
Even some Compaq technicians could not tell that this results from terminal settings in the .profile, which are invalid on non-interactive terminals. The error messages (2 in fact) looks like this:
stty: tcgetattr: not a typewriter
Not a terminal.
The solution is to wrap commands like "stty dec" and "tset -I -Q" with a check on terminal capabilities:
if tty -s
then
stty dec
tset -I -Q
fi
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Linus Torvalds speaks on the future of Linux
Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, has, along with others like Richard Stallman, literally changed the world of software forever.
Linux-based distributions seem to pop up every day, while more and more devices now run Linux at their core, from mobile phones to inflight entertainment systems, to the world's mission critical server infrastructures.
The development of the kernel has changed, and Linux is just getting better and better. However, with a community as large and fractured as the Linux community, it can sometimes be hard to get a big picture overview of where Linux is going: what's happening with kernel version 2.6? Will there be a version 3.0? What has Linus been up to lately? What does he get up to in his spare time?
APC Interviewer James Buchanan who is an Australian programmer, writer and cartoonist chats with Linus Torvalds and quizes him about what the future holds for the Linux kernel and in what direction it is being steered.
Via (apcmag.)
Via (apcmag.)
Top 10 Most Commonly Used Passwords
When my not-so-computer-savvy ex-girlfriend setup her new email address, it took me just a couple tries to figure it out. My first guess was my first name. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. My second guess was her first name. Bingo, I had access and I still do :)
The upcoming May 8 PC magazine will be featuring the top ten commonly used passwords. Here’s the list:
1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. blink182
10. (your first name)
I have seen people use some of these passwords and they are no surprise inclusions in this list. I am not sure if Blink 182 is popular enough to pull it off as a popular password. I would have probably placed my bet on eminem.
Via (Chicago Tribune.)
Tip for the day: ELIMINATING MULTIPLE SPACES
Here is a simple script which helps in eliminating multiple spaces when one wants to extract a particular column in a set of records from a file.
Here is an example to prove the same:
ps -u $LOGNAME | tr -s " " : | cut -d: -f
The above script line can be used to extract a column from the output of a ps command for a particular user ($LOGNAME).
Here is an example to prove the same:
ps -u $LOGNAME | tr -s " " : | cut -d: -f
The above script line can be used to extract a column from the output of a ps command for a particular user ($LOGNAME).
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
10 Must-Have Linux Tools
Work smarter, not harder. Even the most divine Linux gods rely on a handful of tools and utilities to make troubleshooting, management and deployment easier and faster.
Having the right tools and utilities makes any job easier. Whether it's diagnosing a troublesome system, deploying a new device or managing a complicated environment, what's in a solution provider's Linux toolbox can make the difference for tasks that would otherwise be labor-intensive and mind-numbing.
In this TechBuilder Recipe, the Test Center uncovers 10 tools that every Linux solution provider or administrator should be familiar with. While some of these are readily available for download, many of the command-line utilities generally are bundled with the distribution.
1. -pie hits the spot: Linux administrators can spend the bulk of their time creating and modifying scripts and other files on the system. The scripts can be fairly straightforward with system configurations or complex with database parameters. The most annoying thing about working with these kinds of files is realizing that a particular string of text needs to be replaced with another in a large file. And that the string occurs 1,382 times in the file. Even worse, it appears in 49 different files.
Instead of struggling to edit each file manually, give this command a shot:
perl -p -i -e 's/regexp/REGEXP/g' filename
The command requires PERL to be installed on the system, but most distributions come with it installed by default. And if PERL isn't already installed, installing it is quicker than going through 49 different files. The -pie command is just one of the many examples of PERL's versatility.
The command takes the regexp that's enclosed within quotes to search (s) and replace for all (g) instances in the file. Instead of just one file, the command can take a wildcard such as *.html, or even a list of file names.
2. Wireless, wireless, everywhere: With new wireless networks sprouting up every few days, piggybacking on a network for quick access has never been easier. When solution providers are at a client site troubleshooting a system, finding and accessing an available network can make it easier to diagnose and resolve a job. The software tool of choice for discovering wireless networks is Kismet, available as a .tar.gz file from www.kismetwireless.net. Kismet also has a friendly GUI, Kismet-Qt, which provides all the information needed to sniff and connect to the wireless networks in the immediate vicinity.
Standard named networks, networks with hidden SSIDs and non-beaconing networks are all fair game for Kismet. Kismet locates available wireless networks by passively capturing packet data. This way, it can also discover and report the IP range used for a particular wireless network, identify the network's signal and noise levels and detect network intrusions. It can also capture management data packets for available networks and optimize signal strength for access points.
Kismet is an 802.11 Layer 2 wireless network detector that can sniff 802.11a/b/g traffic. It's important to note, however, that Kismet only works with wireless cards that support raw monitoring mode, such as the ones based on the PRISM 2, 2.5, 3 and GT chipsets. Some of the more popular supported wireless adapters include the ORiNOCO Gold, the original Apple Airport (not Extreme) card, and Intel Centrino.
3. Now where was it again? Perhaps a script is failing during the start up routine. Perhaps the logs are showing some odd sequence of characters. The perl -pie command helps globally search and replace, but what if you just want to find where that particular string is occurring?
The grep command comes to the rescue. It comes with a plethora of flags and options, but the most common usage is: grep string filename. The output would list every line in the file that contains that string. This is particularly handy if the logs indicate a script is referencing a non-existent file or directory. The grep command would show every line where that file or directory is called. The filename argument can also use wildcards or have a list of filenames.
Seeing just a single line can be confusing and uninformative. As such, the command has a context flag, -C, that allows the administrator to see a number of lines before and after the relevant line: grep -C # string filename.
4. Head to the dump: When managing a network, solution providers may need to debug the network setup to ensure all routing is occurring properly. Solution providers may also need to intercept and display TCP/IP and other packets being transmitted over the network. The unencrypted information can be viewed using tcpdump, a network debugging tool that runs under the command line. Built upon the libpcap packet capture library, the utility prints out the headers of packets that match a Boolean expression. Flags and options, such as -w and -a, improve the information captured by tcpdump. In this case, the -w flag is used to save the packet data for later analysis and the -a flag is used to convert network and broadcast addresses to names. On networks with a high volume of traffic, tcpdump output can be hard to read. Using tcpdump with Berkeley Packet Filter formats the output in a more usable fashion.
5. Chain gang: Sometimes a single command is just not enough. Solution providers often write short scripts to accomplish some tasks, such as finding a certain set of files and performing an aggregate action on the resulting list. The scripts often consist of two or three commands, and output from each command is piped into temporary files for processing. A short script could create a list of files that fit a certain criteria, pipe it to a temporary file, and then process the generated list to perform, for example, a search or a word count.
The xargs command makes short scripts unnecessary. Like the way "and" connects two clauses together in grammar, xargs connects the find command with another command. The usage, find . -name 'filename' | xargs second-command, allows xargs to apply the second command to the found list. No piped list, no temporary files. For example, find . -name 'index.html' | xargs grep -l 'styles.css' looks for all index.html files in the current directory and all subdirectories beneath, and then searches for the string "styles.css" in those files. The final output will show only the paths of those index.html files that is using that particular stylesheet. The find ... xargs construct can be used with other commands as well.
6. Use the windows: Solution providers who perform remote management are well-familiar with the following scenario: After logging into a remote server via an SSH connection, the characters suddenly stop appearing on the screen and a "Connection Closed" message appears. A half-completed task now has to be started over because the session was lost for whatever reason.
Chances are that the screen utility is already installed on the system, usually in /usr/bin/screen. Otherwise, it can easily be downloaded as a package for a given distribution. Screen is started from the command line, and it creates a window that functions just like a normal shell, except for a few special characters. Using CTRL-A sends commands to screen instead of the normal shell, and CTRL-A ? displays the help page with all the commands for screen.
This utility is a keeper -- it makes disconnects less disastrous, and it also allows multiple windows within one SSH session. Without screen, running four or five SSH sessions with several tasks in each shell would require 15 SSH sessions, logins and windows. For example, a solution provider can be running TOP to see what is happening on the system and can then open a new window with "CTRL-A c" to run ps -ef. The beauty of screen is that TOP will stay running.
Screen also keeps the session open and the job running regardless of whether or not the user is logged in. If the solution provider starts a job or a download in screen at a client site, the process will continue even after logging out. The solution provider can login, re-attach to the screen and get back to work. Logging is also a snap in screen, since "CRL-A H" creates a running log of the session. Screen will append data to the file through multiple sessions, giving solution providers a log of changes made to remote servers.
7. A look back in time: Speaking of logging, solution providers look at several different logs to figure out what is happening on the system. Is a system not detecting a particular piece of hardware? Is an application not returning expected results? Is the Web server showing strange errors? Logs help solution providers collect information about what's happening and try to find out what is going on.
However, log files also can get long, and it's tedious to have to reopen the file after each change to see what new log message is generated. The tail -f command helps with troubleshooting by allowing solution providers to look at the end of the file in real-time. The file is not opened in an editor such as vi or emacs so no edits can be made. It shows what the last thing in the file is, and keeps the buffer open so when new messages are written to the file, it appears on the screen instantly. Users can test different configurations and commands in one window and instantly see log messages without having to reopen the file and navigate to the end of the file each time.
8. Open sesame: Knowing what files and network ports and sockets are open and what applications are using them is a crucial piece of information that makes management and debugging easier. And in Linux just about everything, including a network socket, is a file.
Enter lsof, a utility that provides verbose output on current network connections and the files associated with them. Securing the network is easier once the solution provider learns what program is operating on an open port, which daemons have established connections, and what ports are open on that server. Ports that are open and accepting connections show up in lsof with the word LISTEN. The word ESTABLISHED indicates that a connection on the given port has been made.
Like screen, lsof is usually installed by default. The command lsof -v will indicate whether it exists on the system. If it's not there, lsof is available as a package for most distributions.
Running lsof by itself will output all open files corresponding to every active process on the box. This can be quite lengthy, so adding the -h flag will give a rundown in a more manageable size. In the output, lsof returns the process ID (PID), user running the command, the file descriptor, type of connection, device number, the Internet protocol and the name of the file or Internet address. The information does more than list network connections. For example, in an lsof output, there may be multiple processes associated with the sshd daemon. Looking at the user field indicates who is actually logged into the box.
The -i flag lists all open files associated with Internet connections. This option is useful in identifying unnecessary security risks and shutting them down. The search can also specify a particular port, service or host name using techniques such as lsof -i :22, lsof -i :smtp or lsof -i @techbuilder.org.
9. Who you gonna call? Sometimes, something is wrong because nothing is happening. There's no error message printed on the screen. Perhaps the program is hung trying to read a particular file or spinning on disk access way more than it should. For those situations, by tracing calls the program makes to each process and the subsequent calls made by those processes, solution providers can look at the path the program is taking and where it's getting stuck.
Linux has strace, which lets the solution provider see what system calls a process is making. In many cases, a program may fail because it is unable to open a file or because of insufficient memory, and that will be evident while sifting through strace-generated data. Applications causing a segfault should be run with strace to see if there are memory issues.
The strace command is useful to determine if something hangs during a DNS lookup. Every now and then, a system will hang just for a minute while running a program (say, Telnet). Performing strace on the program shows that the problem was the program trying to do a reverse DNS lookup on an IP address. The solution provider can now take appropriate action.
10. Know thy server: Perhaps a new name server has been deployed on the network. Or perhaps there are some problems with the DNS servers. Solution providers can try ping and other tests to check if the servers are up and running. However, dig would be more useful to diagnose DNS problems, such as discovering if all the servers are responding. Since dig returns output that looks just like an actual bind zone file, solution providers can make sure the name servers all have the same configuration.
There are several record types dig can query on, including IN for Internet, NS for name server, MX for mail server and SOA (Start of Authority). Looking at dig-generated output, solution providers can see information such as the primary name server and mail server priority. For solution providers wondering about mail server priority, dig will show which of the mail servers have higher priority in delivering mail. If the one with the higher priority fails or can't connect, the second highest mail server will then deliver the mail.
Using the txt option with dig would also indicate whether the mail server has an SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record. Servers without SPF records may have trouble delivering mail to Hotmail and other mail systems that perform spam filtering using complete SPF records.
Host is similar to dig, but not as comprehensive. However, the command host -a [domain] shows the complete resolve of everything -- name servers, mx servers, etc. -- associated with the domain. With both dig and host, solution providers can query simple to very complex and detailed DNS servers.
Via (ChannelWeb.)
Quickly change your Windows password (even if you've lost your old one)
Reader Mark writes in with this tip for quickly changing your Windows password from the command line:
Go to the command prompt and enter:
net userE.g.
> net user Mark p@55w0rdIf there are people near you and you don't want them to see the password you type, enter:
net user* E.g. > net user Mark *
> Type a password for the user:
> Confirm the password:
You need to have admin access to perform this change from the command line. This is an especially handy trick if you want to change a password on an account but you've forgotten the original (going through the Control Panel can require confirmation of the old password). If you're totally locked out of Windows, you'll want to try this method for resetting your Windows password.
Via (Lifehacker.)
Tip for the day: FINDING PCI DEVICES
FINDING PCI DEVICES
Want to get information on PCI devices on your Linux or FreeBSD machine?
On Linux use:
/sbin/lspci (-v is verbose)
On FreeBSD use:
pciconf -l
Want to get information on PCI devices on your Linux or FreeBSD machine?
On Linux use:
/sbin/lspci (-v is verbose)
On FreeBSD use:
pciconf -l
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Install 3rd party Application on your iPhone without hacks
Despite having no “real” SDK, that isn’t stopping the community of iPhone owners from finding their own ways to customize their iPhone as much as they can. Gizmodo has recently posted a very helpful guide that will allow you to use an application straight from the iPhone to install programs on it without resorting to any other hacks.
Apple has made it a tradition to listen to what their customers want. They announced the popular Boot Camp shortly after users “cracked” their Intel Apple computers and managed to install Windows on it. So let us hope that they will do the same for the iPhone, now that people have already cracked it.
Via (Forevergeek.)
Samsung presents an extra-terrestrial cellphone
No, they did not stumble upon some technology from another planet. They’re just naming their latest slider handset UFO. From what I understand, this product is more of a revision to the current lineup rather than an innovative device.
It supports HDSPA, which means it can reach speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, and has a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, Micro SD slot and TV out. Fortunately, this device won’t be a Korean exclusive, and should be making it’s way to the European shores within a few months.
I’ve always enjoyed Samsung’s design, but something must be wrong with this model, because I’m looking more at the Asian lady rather than the device itself. But seriously now, I wonder if Samsung thinks this will be enough to keep Europeans from purchasing the upcoming iPhone.
Via (Forevergeek.)
Review: Rush Hour 3
The best part about Rush Hour 3 is its honesty. The film does not try to be anything beyond a lighthearted action ride. It knows its limitations and sticks to what works: politically incorrect racial humor, Jackie Chan’s earnest and awesome kung fu moves and Chris Tucker’s motor-mouth spewing one-liners without pause.
After an assassination attempt on the Chinese ambassador by the superbly dressed Chinese mafia, our ever-so-zany odd couple of crime fighters chase the culprits through the L.A. streets during...wait for it...rush hour! Eventually, the case leads them to France. And once our heroes hit the City of Light, the tired East vs. West culture-clash humor shifts to a French vs. American rivalry. This is done with all the jingoism and subtlety you would expect from a Brett Ratner movie. Nevertheless, the gimmick works. The duo has to contend with a snooty police chief (Polanski), an ever-present brooding cab driver who initially condemns Americans as insatiable killers but eventually begs to join the team (proving his worthiness by wearing a Lakers cap) and, of course, the ancient Chinese crime ring who enjoy throwing knives at people while dressing like they’re on Miami Vice.
After 10 years on the scene, it appears that director Brett Ratner likes to play God. With one hand he smites and destroys the beloved X-Men franchise and with the other he resurrects and elevates the dying Rush Hour. Sure, the jokes are crude and the plot is goofy, but Chan and Tucker have such a delightful rapport that they come close to perfecting the buddy-cop genre. Their genial banter and obvious affection for each other radiates so brightly that the film’s missteps and absurdities are obscured.
Via (Eonline.)
Vote On the Most Shameful Wikipedia Spin Jobs
Griffith's work is a neat example of what can be uncovered just by reorganizing public information. Wired News writer John Borland has the full story here.
THREAT LEVEL predicts a lot of sad, embarrassing secrets will emerge from this project once netizens dive into it -- and we'd like to be a part of that. So visit the Wikipedia Scanner and do some sleuthing. Post what you find here on our wall of shame, where you can join other Wired News readers in voting submissions up or down. We've seeded the list with a few finds of our own. Happy hunting!
Via (Wired.)
Monday, August 20, 2007
Gallery Comparing New iMac Keyboard to Esoteric Apple Keyboards
Apple’s new iMac has one of the coolest, thinnest keyboards ever released. How does it stack up to where the company came from? Blake Patterson set to find out, shooting a fascinating set of other keyboards next to it for comparison, including the Newton, the Lisa (seen above) and the NeXT keyboards.
Very nice.
Via (Daring Fireball.)
Email Bombs
This article series is intended to help you understand some of the terms and technologies employed by hackers. With this knowledge, you will be better able to ensure that your computer system (or network if you are a system administrator) is adequately protected and safe from prying eyes and unknown fingers.
Imagine, if you would for a moment, a normal, everyday email server. The server might be for a large corporation, let's call it "Xyz", and let's say it handles 20,000 email accounts. This server is both a post office (it stores email messages for people to pick up at their convenience) and a forwarder (this server accepts messages from users and forwards them along to their destination). In technical terms, this means the server handles both POP3 and SMTP.
Okay, this email server receives perhaps 100,000 messages per day from the internet and within the company. Most of these messages get routed to a local mailbox where users can receive them later. It also sends a large number of messages both internally and to the internet.
Now close your eyes and think what would happen if every person in a foreign country, say China with it's huge population, mails ONE email message to that email server. Just one message in a one day period.
The email server would choke and probably crash. It would not help to take the server offline, as SMTP is designed to handle outages - in other words, the email would pile up and as soon as the system came back online it would choke again.
In a nutshell, that is a crude type of email bomb. If you want to get a highly technical description of a real email bomb attack, see "The Langley Cyber Attack". This is a fascinating story of how this sort of thing actually works.
An email bomb is basically an attempt to overwhelm an email server or, more specifically, a single inbox, with so many messages that it becomes unusable. Due to the way current messaging systems work, even shutting off the server or disconnecting it from the network would not help the situation, as the messages would simply wait for the system to come back on line.
Most messages wait for at least several hours, and sometimes they wait for days. After all, the internet was designed to handle the vast outages that occur during nuclear warfare - and a system being offline for a short amount of time is definitely within design parameters.
Many of us have experienced situations similar to email bombs. For example, at my own company we had one system that got infected with "Iloveyou" a few years ago. Before we could identify and shut down that workstation, our email server was overwhelmed with over 50,000 messages!
Since most ISPs restrict the size of email accounts to just a few megabytes, it does not take much to effectively "bomb" an inbox and make it unusable. Your average ISP allows one to five megabytes of messages, which translates to just a few hundreds emails and bang, you inbox is useless. In some cases the ISP will cancel the receiving account, even though the receiver is probably innocent of any crime.
Believe it or not, there are several hacker tools available to automate the process of email bombing someone. These tools sends the email bomb from many different email servers, which makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for the average person to protect himself.
One common and easy way to email bomb someone is to subscribe their email address to many hundreds of mailing lists. Their inbox will become so full as to make it unusable. If you are the victim of this technique, you will find a number of "subscribe" messages in your inbox, and you will be forced to unsubscribe from every one of the mailing lists.
So how do you protect yourself from email bombs? One way is to simply change the name of your email address when you determine that you have been bombed. This, of course, is very inconvenient as now you have to notify all of the people who send you mail of the change. Sometimes, however, it is the best that you can do.
You can read "How to protect yourself from email bombs!", which is a technical, but nonetheless excellent, article describing some techniques for defending yourself.
One of the problems with trying to stop the attacks is that the attacker has more than likely spoofed (hidden or modified) his return address and other identifying information. This may make it impossible to find out the identity of the attacker.
If you feel that you are the victim of an email bomb, do not hesitate to talk to the technical support department of your ISP. They have to handle these kinds of things occasionally, and they may be able to block the messages before they reach your inbox. Of course, there is always the possibility that they will cancel your account - but if your ISP is that hostile perhaps it is time to find a new one anyway.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Tribute to Dead AppleWorks
Surprising few who were paying attention, Apple officially killed of its former office suite, AppleWorks, with the introduction of Numbers, a spreadsheet program that completes the new iWork trifecta. The writing’s been on the wall for a long time. iWork was introduced in 2005, and I don’t think AppleWorks has been updated at all since mid-2002. Essentially, they got to Carbon OS X compliance and went no further.
Though it never served as a solid suite for OS X, I do have some affection for AppleWorks, which I first came to know as Clarisworks in about 1993 on my dad’s PowerBook 140. I’m not sure I can count the number of short stories and novels I started and abandoned in that little program, not to mention the dreadful book covers I mocked up in those days.
ClarisWorks was great in the mid-1990s, because it didn’t try to do too much. It was a solid little program that would let you do what you wanted to without trying to make you do things you didn’t. Claris never developed a talking paper clip assistant, for example. The spreadsheet program couldn’t make web pages, and the presentation mode was modest in the extreme.
There’s a lesson there, I’m quite sure. Software has never been more bloated, and Apple itself is as guilty as anyone. Aesthetics are lovely, sure, but when are we going to go about creating programs that strictly make us more functional again? We’ve been at about the same place for years. What’s the next level?
R.I.P. AppleWorks. You served well, and you went as far as you could go and no further. Godspeed.
Via (Cult of Mac.)
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Development release galore, openSUSE updates, Daniel Robbins on Gentoo's Portage, DragonFly BSD interview
For those of you who enjoy testing development releases and filing bug reports, last week provided one of the biggest feasts on record. The first betas of openSUSE 10.3 and Mandriva Linux 2008, the first test build of Fedora 8 and the fourth alpha of Ubuntu 7.10, all these in a matter of just a couple of days - it rarely gets any better than this! On top of it, the developers of MEPIS Linux announced a new test release of their live DVD, complete with the first beta of KDE 4, while the upcoming initial beta of GNOME 2.20, scheduled for release this Wednesday and likely to be incorporated into this week's development release of Foresight Linux, will ensure that a steady string of test releases continues in the foreseeable future. Although it's still August, a month traditionally reserved for holidays in many parts of the world, it looks like the development of Linux and open source software continues at a neck-breaking speed.
Despite all this excitement, there is one worrying trend that I've been observing in recent years. With each passing year, it seems that fewer and fewer Linux users are interested in downloading and testing any development releases of distributions. Looking back at the late nineties and the early years of this century, each beta release of a major distro was accompanied by tremendous anticipation and followed by endless discussions on user forums and mailing lists. Nowadays, however, that sort of healthy exchange of ideas and suggestions is largely limited to just a few loyal users. The rest of us seem to be quite content to wait for the final release before downloading and installing the new product.
So here is a topic for this week's discussion: did you download and install any of the above-mentioned development releases during the past week? If so, did you do it merely out of curiosity or did you put it through rigorous testing in order to file bug reports? Have you ever opened a Bugzilla account at your favourite project? If not, why not? Is this a case of "too many releases, too little time"? Please discuss below.
Of all the main distributions, openSUSE seems to be the busiest at the moment. Following the first beta release of openSUSE 10.3, the project's developers have announced the availability of an improved software search and installation interface, as well as a one-click installation YaST module: "The interface provides a very easy installation featuring the 1-Click Installation YaST module of Benjamin Weber. This means the installation of any package can be started by a single click. YaST will show which repositories are used and which packages will be installed; the dependency solving is also all done automatically by YaST. There is no need to do these steps manually anymore." Also announced late last week: a set of openSUSE 10.3 live CDs, with either GNOME or KDE. Although still in early testing and lacking the ability to be installed on a hard disk (correction: a new "LiveInstaller" module is available in the "Miscellaneous" section of YaST; type "linux" for root password), the new live media are a welcome addition to the growing list of openSUSE products for a variety of purposes.
Another week and another link to an article at Funtoo, a blog maintained by the founder and former chief architect of Gentoo Linux, Daniel Robbins. This time it's all about Portage (the venerable Gentoo package manager) and its increasingly sluggish performance: "One challenge that Portage is facing is that it is essentially trying to achieve several divergent goals - be a ports system for a meta-distribution and also provide a good and safe user experience for Gentoo users. In some cases, Portage can't really do a good job in both areas at the same time. Here's why. As a meta-distribution, Gentoo can have very complex dependency chains. However, as a user-focused distribution, you kind of want the dependency chains in Gentoo to be as straightforward and elegant as possible, without any weird conflicts - in other words, have developers do a lot of the heavy lifting to make dependencies less-fine grained and eliminate strange corner cases and blockers. Yet this hard work impacts the ability of Gentoo developers to keep the Portage tree up-to-date." The story was prompted by the author's tests revealing that an older version of Portage performed better than a more recent one and that the Beagle search engine was partly responsible for the application's sluggishness on the latest release of Sabayon Linux. Read more in this report.
KernelTrap has published an interview with Matthew Dillon, the founder of DragonFly BSD: "Matthew Dillon created DragonFly BSD in June of 2003 as a fork of the FreeBSD 4.8 code base. In this interview, Matthew discusses his incentive for starting a new BSD project and briefly compares DragonFly to FreeBSD and the other BSD projects. He goes on to discuss the new features in today's DragonFly 1.10 release. He also offers an in-depth explanation of the project's cluster goals, including a thorough description of his ambitious new clustering file system. Finally, he reflects back on some of his earlier experiences with FreeBSD and Linux, and explains the importance of the BSD license." A recommended read to anybody interested in the BSD family of operating systems or to those who wonder about the differences between the BSD license and the General Public Licence (GPL).
Via (Distrowatch.)
Despite all this excitement, there is one worrying trend that I've been observing in recent years. With each passing year, it seems that fewer and fewer Linux users are interested in downloading and testing any development releases of distributions. Looking back at the late nineties and the early years of this century, each beta release of a major distro was accompanied by tremendous anticipation and followed by endless discussions on user forums and mailing lists. Nowadays, however, that sort of healthy exchange of ideas and suggestions is largely limited to just a few loyal users. The rest of us seem to be quite content to wait for the final release before downloading and installing the new product.
So here is a topic for this week's discussion: did you download and install any of the above-mentioned development releases during the past week? If so, did you do it merely out of curiosity or did you put it through rigorous testing in order to file bug reports? Have you ever opened a Bugzilla account at your favourite project? If not, why not? Is this a case of "too many releases, too little time"? Please discuss below.
* * * * *
Of all the main distributions, openSUSE seems to be the busiest at the moment. Following the first beta release of openSUSE 10.3, the project's developers have announced the availability of an improved software search and installation interface, as well as a one-click installation YaST module: "The interface provides a very easy installation featuring the 1-Click Installation YaST module of Benjamin Weber. This means the installation of any package can be started by a single click. YaST will show which repositories are used and which packages will be installed; the dependency solving is also all done automatically by YaST. There is no need to do these steps manually anymore." Also announced late last week: a set of openSUSE 10.3 live CDs, with either GNOME or KDE. Although still in early testing and lacking the ability to be installed on a hard disk (correction: a new "LiveInstaller" module is available in the "Miscellaneous" section of YaST; type "linux" for root password), the new live media are a welcome addition to the growing list of openSUSE products for a variety of purposes.* * * * *
Another week and another link to an article at Funtoo, a blog maintained by the founder and former chief architect of Gentoo Linux, Daniel Robbins. This time it's all about Portage (the venerable Gentoo package manager) and its increasingly sluggish performance: "One challenge that Portage is facing is that it is essentially trying to achieve several divergent goals - be a ports system for a meta-distribution and also provide a good and safe user experience for Gentoo users. In some cases, Portage can't really do a good job in both areas at the same time. Here's why. As a meta-distribution, Gentoo can have very complex dependency chains. However, as a user-focused distribution, you kind of want the dependency chains in Gentoo to be as straightforward and elegant as possible, without any weird conflicts - in other words, have developers do a lot of the heavy lifting to make dependencies less-fine grained and eliminate strange corner cases and blockers. Yet this hard work impacts the ability of Gentoo developers to keep the Portage tree up-to-date." The story was prompted by the author's tests revealing that an older version of Portage performed better than a more recent one and that the Beagle search engine was partly responsible for the application's sluggishness on the latest release of Sabayon Linux. Read more in this report.* * * * *
KernelTrap has published an interview with Matthew Dillon, the founder of DragonFly BSD: "Matthew Dillon created DragonFly BSD in June of 2003 as a fork of the FreeBSD 4.8 code base. In this interview, Matthew discusses his incentive for starting a new BSD project and briefly compares DragonFly to FreeBSD and the other BSD projects. He goes on to discuss the new features in today's DragonFly 1.10 release. He also offers an in-depth explanation of the project's cluster goals, including a thorough description of his ambitious new clustering file system. Finally, he reflects back on some of his earlier experiences with FreeBSD and Linux, and explains the importance of the BSD license." A recommended read to anybody interested in the BSD family of operating systems or to those who wonder about the differences between the BSD license and the General Public Licence (GPL).Via (Distrowatch.)
It's Official: Appleworks Is Dead
AppleWorks' last breath was masked by last week's iMac, iLife and iWork announcements - Apple has discontinued the product.
Apple told resellers of the demise of AppleWorks last week, announcing that the software had reached "End of Life" status. It will no longer be sold. The AppleWorks website now directs users to the iWork section of Apple's website.
The original AppleWorks was written by Robert Lissner and released in 1984 by Apple for the Apple II family of computers, and at one point was the biggest-selling software package in the industry.The modern incarnation of AppleWorks started life as ClarisWorks, written by Bob Hearn and Scott Holdaway.
At one time, AppleWorks was bundled with all consumer level Macs sold by Apple. It reached version 6.0, where it languished since the late nineties.
Joybubbles, Phone Phreaker Who Inspired Woz, Passes Away
With Apple on top of the market, it can be easy to forget that Steves Jobs and Wozniak first collaborated on an illegal project, making blue boxes to place illegal long-distance phone calls — phone phreaking. One of their biggest inspirations, according to Woz’s autobiography, “iWoz,” was Joe Engressia, who legally changed his name to Joybubbles.
A student at the University of South Florida in the late 1960s, he was given the nickname “Whistler” due to his ability to place free long-distance phone calls with his whistle. He was disciplined by the University early on, but after graduating his studies in philosophy and moving to Tennessee, law enforcement raided his house; he was charged with malicious mischief and given a suspended sentence and quickly abandoned phreaking, although was able to whistle 2600 hertz throughout his life.
Joybubbles lived a tragic life, as you can read in his Wikipedia entry. Still he had a profound impact on the early days of Apple. This Esquire story, featuring Captain Crunch and Joybubbles, changed consumer electronics history by inspiring the Steves. Rest in peace.
Via (Boingboing)
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Linux Command-Line Cheat Sheet
Moving Around the Filesystem
Commands for moving around the filesystem include the following.
You can manipulate files and folders by using the following commands.
System information commands include the following.
Search and edit text files by using the following commands.
Three other commands are useful for dealing with text.
You can use the following commands to administer users and groups.
This section provides you with some tips for getting help on the command line. The commands --help and man are the two most important tools at the command line.
Virtually all commands understand the -h (or --help) option, which produces a short usage description of the command and its options, then exits back to the command prompt. Try man -h or man --help to see this in action.
Every command and nearly every application in Linux has a man (manual) file, so finding such a file is as simple as typing man command to bring up a longer manual entry for the specified command. For example, man mv brings up the mv (move) manual.
Some helpful tips for using the man command include the following.
There are also info pages, which are generally more in-depth than man pages. Try info info for the introduction to info pages.
Searching for Man Files
If you aren't sure which command or application you need to use, you can try searching the man files.
Using Wildcards
Sometimes you need to look at or use multiple files at the same time. For instance, you might want to delete all .rar files or move all .odt files to another directory. Thankfully, you can use a series of wildcards to accomplish such tasks.
Executing Multiple Commands
Often you may want to execute several commands together, either by running one after another or by passing output from one to another.
Running Sequentially
If you need to execute multiple commands in sequence but don't need to pass output between them, there are two options based on whether or not you want the subsequent commands to run only if the previous commands succeed or not. If you want the commands to run one after the other regardless of whether or not preceding commands succeed, place a ; between the commands. For example, if you want to get information about your hardware, you could run lspci ; lsusb, which would output information on your PCI buses and USB devices in sequence.
However, if you need to conditionally run the commands based on whether the previous command has succeeded, insert && between commands. An example of this is building a program from source, which is traditionally done with ./configure, make, and make install. The commands make and make install require that the previous commands have completed successfully, so you would use ./configure && make && make install.
Passing Output
If you need to pass the output of one command so that it goes to the input of the next, after the character used between the commands, you need something called a pipe, which looks like a vertical bar or pipe (|).
To use the pipe, insert the | between each command. For example, using the | in the command ls | less allows you to view the contents of the ls more easily.
Moving to More Advanced Uses of the Command Line
There are a great number of good books out there for working the command line. In addition, because most of the command line has not changed in many years, a large body of information is available on the Internet. If you need help with something, often simply searching for the command will turn up what you need.
To get you started, here are some recommendations.
Commands for moving around the filesystem include the following.
- pwd: The pwd command allows you to know the directory in which you're located (pwd stands for "print working directory"). For example, pwd in the desktop directory will show ~/Desktop. Note that the GNOME terminal also displays this information in the title bar of its window.
- cd: The cd command allows you to change directories. When you open a terminal, you will be in your home directory. To move around the filesystem, use cd.
• To navigate to your desktop directory, use cd ~/Desktop
• To navigate into the root directory, use cd /
• To navigate to your home directory, use cd
• To navigate up one directory level, use cd ..
• To navigate to the previous directory (or back), use cd -
• To navigate through multiple levels of directories at once, use cd /var/www, for example, which will take you directly to the /www subdirectory of /var.
You can manipulate files and folders by using the following commands.
- cp: The cp command makes a copy of a file for you. For example, cp file foo makes an exact copy of the file whose name you entered and names the copy foo, but the first file will still exist with its original name. After you use mv, the original file no longer exists, but after you use cp, that file stays and a new copy is made.
- mv: The mv command moves a file to a different location or renames a file. Examples are as follows: mv file foo renames the original file to foo. mv foo ~/Desktop moves the file foo to your desktop directory but does not rename it. You must specify a new filename to rename a file.
- To save on typing, you can substitute ~ in place of the home directory.
Note: If you are using mv with sudo, you will not be able to use the ~ shortcut. Instead, you will have to use the full pathnames to your files. - rm: Use this command to remove or delete a file in your directory. It does not work on directories that contain files.
- ls: The ls command shows you the files in your current directory. Used with certain options, it lets you see file sizes, when files where created, and file permissions. For example, ls ~ shows you the files that are in your home directory.
- mkdir: The mkdir command allows you to create directories. For example, mkdir music creates a music directory.
- chmod: The chmod command changes the permissions on the files listed.
Permissions are based on a fairly simple model. You can set permissions for user, group, and world, and you can set whether each can read, write, and/or execute the file. For example, if a file had permission to allow everybody to read but only the user could write, the permissions would read rwxr--r--. To add or remove a permission, you append a + or a - in front of the specific permission. For example, to add the capability for the group to edit in the previous example, you could type chmod g+x file. - chown: The chown command allows the user to change the user and group ownerships of a file. For example, chown jim file changes the ownership of the file to Jim.
System information commands include the following.
- df: The df command displays filesystem disk space usage for all partitions. The command df-h is probably the most useful. It uses megabytes (M) and gigabytes (G) instead of blocks to report. (-h means "human-readable.")
- free: The free command displays the amount of free and used memory in the system. For example, free -m gives the information using megabytes, which is probably most useful for current computers.
- top: The top command displays information on your Linux system, running processes, and system resources, including the CPU, RAM, swap usage, and total number of tasks being run. To exit top, press Q.
- uname -a: The uname command with the -a option prints all system information, including machine name, kernel name, version, and a few other details. This command is most useful for checking which kernel you're using.
- lsb_release -a: The lsb_release command with the -a option prints version information for the Linux release you're running. For example:
user@computer:~$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version: n/a
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu (The Breezy Badger Release)
Release:
Codename: breezy - ifconfig: This reports on your system's network interfaces.
- iwconfig: The iwconfig command shows you any wireless network adapters and the wireless-specific information from them, such as speed and network connected.
- ps: The ps command allows you to view all the processes running on the machine.
- lspci: The lspci command lists all PCI buses and devices connected to them. This commonly includes network cards and sound cards.
- lsusb: The lsusb command lists all USB buses and any connected USB devices, such as printers and thumb drives.
- lshal: The lshal command lists all devices the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) knows about, which should be most hardware on your system.
- lshw: The lshw command lists hardware on your system, including maker, type, and where it is connected.
Search and edit text files by using the following commands.
- grep: The grep command allows you to search inside a number of files for a particular search pattern and then print matching lines. For example, grep blah file will search for the text "blah" in the file and then print any matching lines.
- sed: The sed (or Stream EDitor) command allows search and replace of a particular string in a file. For example, if you want to find the string "cat" and replace it with "dog" in a file named pets, type
sed s/cat/dog/g pets.
Three other commands are useful for dealing with text.
- cat: The cat command, short for concatenate, is useful for viewing and adding to text files. The simple command cat FILENAME displays the contents of the file. Using cat FILENAME file adds the contents of the first file to the second.
- nano: Nano is a simple text editor for the command line. To open a file, use nano filename. Commands listed at the bottom of the screen are accessed via pressing Ctrl followed by the letter.
- less: The less command is used for viewing text files as well as standard output. A common usage is to pipe another command through less to be able to see all the output, such as ls | less.
You can use the following commands to administer users and groups.
- adduser: The adduser command creates a new user. To create a new user, simply type sudo adduser $loginname. This creates the user's home directory and default group. It prompts for a user password and then further details about the user.
- passwd: The passwd command changes the user's password. If run by a regular user, it will change his or her password. If run using sudo, it can change any user's password. For example, sudo passwd joe changes Joe's password.
- who: The who command tells you who is currently logged into the machine.
- addgroup: The addgroup command adds a new group. To create a new group, type sudo addgroup $groupname.
- deluser: The deluser command removes a user from the system. To remove the user's files and home directory, you need to add the
-remove-home option. - delgroup: The delgroup command removes a group from the system. You cannot remove a group that is the primary group of any users.
This section provides you with some tips for getting help on the command line. The commands --help and man are the two most important tools at the command line.
Virtually all commands understand the -h (or --help) option, which produces a short usage description of the command and its options, then exits back to the command prompt. Try man -h or man --help to see this in action.
Every command and nearly every application in Linux has a man (manual) file, so finding such a file is as simple as typing man command to bring up a longer manual entry for the specified command. For example, man mv brings up the mv (move) manual.
Some helpful tips for using the man command include the following.
- Arrow keys: Move up and down the man file by using the arrow keys.
- q: Quit back to the command prompt by typing q.
- man man: man man brings up the manual entry for the man command, which is a good place to start!
- man intro: man intro is especially useful. It displays the Introduction to User Commands, which is a well-written, fairly brief introduction to the Linux command line.
There are also info pages, which are generally more in-depth than man pages. Try info info for the introduction to info pages.
Searching for Man Files
If you aren't sure which command or application you need to use, you can try searching the man files.
- man -k foo: This searches the man files for "foo". Try man -k nautilus to see how this works.
Note: man -k foo is the same as the apropos command. - man -f foo: This searches only the titles of your system's man files. Try man -f gnome, for example.
Note: man -f foo is the same as the whatis command.
Using Wildcards
Sometimes you need to look at or use multiple files at the same time. For instance, you might want to delete all .rar files or move all .odt files to another directory. Thankfully, you can use a series of wildcards to accomplish such tasks.
- * matches any number of characters. For example, *.rar matches any file with the ending .rar.
- ? matches any single character. For example, ?.rar matches a.rar but not ab.rar.
- [characters] matches any of the characters within the brackets. For example, [ab].rar matches a.rar and b.rar but not c.rar.
- [!characters] matches any characters that are not listed. For example, [!ab].rar matches c.rar but not a.rar or b.rar.
Executing Multiple Commands
Often you may want to execute several commands together, either by running one after another or by passing output from one to another.
Running Sequentially
If you need to execute multiple commands in sequence but don't need to pass output between them, there are two options based on whether or not you want the subsequent commands to run only if the previous commands succeed or not. If you want the commands to run one after the other regardless of whether or not preceding commands succeed, place a ; between the commands. For example, if you want to get information about your hardware, you could run lspci ; lsusb, which would output information on your PCI buses and USB devices in sequence.
However, if you need to conditionally run the commands based on whether the previous command has succeeded, insert && between commands. An example of this is building a program from source, which is traditionally done with ./configure, make, and make install. The commands make and make install require that the previous commands have completed successfully, so you would use ./configure && make && make install.
Passing Output
If you need to pass the output of one command so that it goes to the input of the next, after the character used between the commands, you need something called a pipe, which looks like a vertical bar or pipe (|).
To use the pipe, insert the | between each command. For example, using the | in the command ls | less allows you to view the contents of the ls more easily.
Moving to More Advanced Uses of the Command Line
There are a great number of good books out there for working the command line. In addition, because most of the command line has not changed in many years, a large body of information is available on the Internet. If you need help with something, often simply searching for the command will turn up what you need.
To get you started, here are some recommendations.
- A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors and Shell Programming by Mark G. Sobell (Prentice Hall, 2005) is a good book for any user of the shell in Linux to have on his or her bookshelf.
- LinuxCommand.org is an excellent Web site designed to help people new to using the command line.
- The Linux Documentation Project is an excellent and free resource for many things Linux.
The 10 Commandments for New Linux Users
- Thou shalt not log in as root.
Use “sudo” or “su -” for administrative tasks. - Thou shalt use the package manager when possible.
Sometimes installing from source code can’t be avoided, but when you use your distro’s package manager to install software, you can also use it to update and remove it. This is one of the main strengths of Linux. - Thou shalt be a part of the community.
Freely give what you have received for free. Offer help and advice whenever you can. - Thou shalt read documentation and man pages.
Always read the documentation. The people who wrote the software tried to anticipate your questions, and provided answers before you asked. - Thou shalt use the available support system.
Switching to Linux can be tough. It can be frustrating, but there are a lot of people out there who want to help you. Let them. - Thou shalt search.
In most cases, your question or problem has already been addressed. Try to find the answers that are already out there before asking someone to provide a new one. - Thou shalt explore.
Linux opens a whole new world of options and possibilities. Try everything you can. - Thou shalt use the command line.
Especially when it comes to configuration, use the GUI tools to get your system working, but get to know the command line versions as well. In many cases, the command line is the only way to use some of the more advanced features. - Thou shalt not try to recreate Windows.
Linux is not meant to be a clone of Windows. It’s different. Embrace and appreciate the differences. - Thou shalt not give up.
I tried several distributions before I found one I liked. I still try other distros from time to time. I also tried several different programs to serve one purpose before settling on what I use now (amarok, xmms, beep, exaile for music - azureus, ktorrent, deluge for bittorrents). If you don’t like the defaults, remember that you can change almost everything to suit you.
First Native iPhone Game “Lights Off” Released
It’s a standard puzzle-game — tap the buttons to turn out all the lights in the 5×5 grid — but the presentation is very slick, and the iPhone interface alone makes it more compelling than it would be on OS X for Mac.
As with all unsupported iPhone software, it takes some warranty-voiding mojo to make “Lights Off” install, but the app’s creators, Lucas Newman and Adam Betts, helpfully include full instructions:
Installing third-party applications on your iPhone is not for the faint of heart. For more in depth instructions on iPhone modifications, look at the iPhone Dev Wiki.
1. Download iActivator and use it to “perform jailbreak” on your iPhone to allow access to the entire filesystem, which is necessary to upload applications.
2. Use iPHUC to upload Lights Off.app to the Applications folder on your iPhone.
3. Install SSH (or the alternate version) on your iPhone, and run the command: chmod +x “/Applications/Lights Off.app/LightsOff”
Not for the faint of heart, as you can see. But still: Blinking lights! Blinking lights and the satisfaction of walking on forbidden ground!
Via (Daring Fireball)
Intel Sticker Question Story Finally Runs
Following the brief Apple Event last week where Steve Jobs rolled out new iMacs, iLife and iWork, the entire executive committee took a rare press conference. Though the attendant press peppered Steve and co. with good questions, one stood out for its ineptitude. Bob Keefe of Cox Newspapers, asked Apple why Macs don’t carry the “Intel Inside” stickers. No, really.
Steve, of course, replied that Apple likes its own stickers better, which is the best possible answer, given the circumstances. MacWorld has the full audio of the question and the half-laughed response to Keefe. It’s definitely worth it just for the reception of Steve’s answer.
And now we’ve seen where Keefe was going with his line of questioning. He wrote a trend story, published yesterday, that tried to link Apple’s disinterest in Intel Inside to an overall decline in the program. Which, to be frank, is really reaching. Especially since one of his pieces of evidence is that AMD chips are popular now and that Dell and HP have ad campaigns that aren’t solely focused on the use of Intel chips. Not to mention that Dell and HP are both moving in a strategic design direction that emphasizes their brands, not those of their suppliers.
Still, it does say something about how far outside the realm of typical business reporters Apple’s strategies are that people still might not understand the whole notion of a nice, clean design after all this time. And really, the question is barely different from asking, “Why isn’t the battery on the iPhone user-replaceable?” or “Why can’t I get third-party MagSafe power adapters?” Quite simply, Apple thinks it’s better this way. More attractive, maybe easier, and certainly more controlled. Apple loves it’s partners. But let’s face it — this is all about Apple and always has been.
No outside stickers need apply.
Via (MacUser)
Leopard successfully run on non-Apple hardware
Ever since Apple's transition to Intel processors, a small contingent of users has been calling for the ability to run OS X on non-Apple Intel and AMD hardware. Apple hasn't bowed to such a request just yet, and probably never will. Of course, Apple's refusal hasn't stopped some enterprising hackers from getting OS X running on non-Apple hardware, despite the fact that such use is illegal according to the EULA. Recently, hackers have taken things even further, and have been able to get Leopard running on non-Apple hardware alongside Windows Vista. It's a neat trick, but the complicated process and illegality will probably confine this hack to the most die-hard OS X-on-x86 fanatics.
Before I say any more, keep in mind that if running Tiger on non-Apple hardware is illegal, doing the same with Leopard is doubly so since Leopard hasn't been released yet. The authors of the above tutorial go to great lengths to point this out, and don't link to or even really discuss the files needed to get the hack working. And even if you were feeling frisky enough to try this at home, the process is daunting. There are 46 steps in all, comprising some illegal downloads, lots of command line work, burning, patching, and even some finger-crossing. I'm pretty comfortable with all things Terminal, but these instructions look a bit daunting even to me, so I really wouldn't recommend trying this at home.
So what good is it having instructions for running Leopard on non-Apple hardware if it's illegal? For one thing, it's an interesting proof of concept, since you can actually do it if you've got a healthy disregard for license agreements. Hacks like this are also keeping at least a modicum of pressure on Apple to consider opening up OS X, since the tools for this type of hack will get better and better. In my mind, Apple products are about more than just OS X, so it's possible Jobs could have a change of heart in the future. And then flying pigs will bring you a copy of OS X that can run on any x86 hardware you please.Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Adium 1.1
The last release of Adium was about a month ago, so you might think that Adium 1.1 has been in development just that long. You might also think that ice cream is better without caramel. You'd be wrong on both counts. Adium 1.1 development started over a year ago, and the ducky fruits of that labor are now yours to enjoy :D
Adium 1.1, now available, includes one of the student projects from the Google Summer of Code 2006. That project — new, tastier tabs, using PSMTabBarControl — provides a number of benefits:
- You can arrange your tabs on any side of the message view, not just the bottom. Tabs are arranged vertically when you put them on the left or right edge of the window and horizontally when you put them on the top or bottom.
- Tabs handle overflow better by presenting a chevron (») menu, just like toolbars do.
- Tabs are now spring-loaded, so that if you drag something to a tab that isn't active, it will activate, so that you can position the thing you're dragging precisely within the inputline.
- You can have each tab display the number of unread messages, if any.
- More! Play around and find out.
Adium 1.1 brings other fresh yum besides the new tabs:
- Prettier
- Faster
- Changes in the contact list, such as people coming online and going offline, animate smoothly.
- The contact list's ability to hide like the Dock at the edge of the screen has been improved.
- A new type of AdiumXtra, the menu bar icon xtra, has been created to let you customize the appearance of Adiumy in your menu bar; you can download AdiumMenuBarIcons packs from AdiumXtras.com.
- Buzz on Yahoo! and nudge on MSN are now fully supported.
- AIM DirectConnect should be more reliable and less memory intensive; it is now automatically initiated as needed.
- You can now import accounts and chat transcripts from iChat.
- Adium now warns you if you run Adium from the disk image. This will especially benefit new Mac users who aren't accustomed to working with disk images.
- Right-to-left text is handled property on MSN.
You can read the full, extensive, exhaustive, and complete list of changes on our version history page.
Be sure to see Contributing to Adium for how you can submit patches and code, help hunt down bugs, and otherwise contribute to development. If you don't code and want to support the project, please consider donating!
Thanks as always for the continued support of our excellent site and code host NetworkRedux and our download host CacheFly!
Labels: release
iRed Lite Takes Apple Remote Further
Front Row is a fun, interesting technology. The Apple Remote is elegant and simple. But together, they only manage to cover digital media. There's nothing to say that the remote should be so constrained. That's the fundamental insight that lies behind iRed Lite, a currently free piece of software that briings the Apple Remote to other pieces of Mac software, including PowerPoint, QuickTime, Preview, iTunes and Keynote. Check it out. It's addictive.
iRed Lite - Apple Remote at its best
(Via Digg.)
Monday, August 13, 2007
Test drive .Mac’s new Web Gallery
For those of you who had doubts about Apple’s interest in supporting the .Mac service, it appears that they have surprised us yet again with one of the nicest Web Galleries I’ve ever seen. Heck, it’s nicer than looking at photos on my own computer.
I wonder if other photo sharing services will also upgrade their services in order to match this. In any case, I can’t way for “free” versions of this code to emerge, if they haven’t already.
(Via Apple Gazette)
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Steve Jobs Commencement Speech: "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish"
Transcript of Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech:
Thank you. I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.
This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example.
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.
If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well- worn path, and that will make all the difference.
My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.
In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.
My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.
Thank you all, very much.
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