Display File System Space Usage with dfc

May 07, 2012 GMT

dfc is a nifty little tool that provides a more human-friendly overview of file system space usage using graphs and a dash of color. This utility can be used as a drop-in replacement for the df tool. Although dfc is available only as a source code distribution, compiling the software requires only a single make command. Install then the compiled binary and the accompanying help and man files using the make install command as root, and you are good to go. Run the dfc command in the terminal, and behold space usage displayed as pretty graphs. dfc supports a handful of parameters. The -t parameter, for example, lets you filter file system by...

Two Simple .bashrc Tweaks

Apr 24, 2012 GMT

The ~/.bashrc configuration file contains dozens of options you can modify to customize the Bash shell to your liking. Here are two super-simple tweaks that can make your work with the shell more pleasant and efficient.Open the ~/.bashrc file in a text editor, locate the #force_color_prompt=yes line and uncomment it. This will add a dash of color to the Bash shell.To avoid typing long commands, you can define aliases. For example, to quickly establish an SSH connection to a server on my local network, I added the b3 alias to the .bashrc file: alias b3='ssh dmpop@192.168.1.7'This way, I only need to type b3 and press Enter to connect to the server. Neither of these tweaks are new, but...

Create Instant Presentations with HTML Slideshow

Apr 16, 2012 GMT

Slidifier is a neat webapp for creating browser-based presentations, but it's not the only fish in the sea. Take HTML Slideshow, for example. This small tool can come in handy for creating no-frills presentations using HTML and CSS. Creating slides with HTML Slideshow is as easy as it gets. Each slide sits inside the <section> element: <section> <hgroup> <h1>Lorem Ipsum</h1> <h2>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</h2> </hgroup> <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.</p> </section>You can add as many slides as you want, and you can spice them up with lists and images. If you know your way around...

Pane Bonanza: 4Pane File Manager

Apr 09, 2012 GMT

There are three things that set 4Pane apart from other file browsers: speed, lack of bloat, and a four pane interface. Indeed, 4Pane is lightning fast, and this quality alone makes it a worthy alternative to whatever file manager you currently use. A complete lack of fancy trimmings means that 4Panes lets you focus on what's important (i.e., managing files), while the four-pane interface gives you a lot of room for juggling files and directories. At first sight, 4Pane looks like a rather bare-bones file manager, but beneath its unassuming appearance hides a wide array of genuinely useful features. For starters, the file manager supports...

Brief Look at CloudFTP

Mar 29, 2012 GMT

I backed the CloudFTP project on Kickstarter with the pledge that secured me a CloudFTP unit which duly arrived shortly after the funding had been successfully completed. CloudFTP is a bit of a misnomer, as it hasn't much to do with cloud computing per se. In fact, this miniature Linux-powered device is designed to make any USB mass storage device accessible via a wireless connection. Plug a USB storage device (an external hard disk, USB stick, card reader, etc.), boot CloudFTP, and you can access the files and documents stored on any machine or mobile device via a custom HTML5-based web...

Easy Sharing with ShareNice

Mar 29, 2012 GMT

Social sharing buttons are de rigueur accessories these days, and there is a myriad of services that let you add sharing widgets to web pages free of charge.  But using these often allow third-parties to collect information about your visitors. If you don't find that thought all that appealing, consider using shareNice. This open source project offers "an ethical social sharing widget" for use on your website. Embedding the shareNice widget is as easy as pie. First, add the following JavaScript code to the web page: <script src="http://sharenice.org/code.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Insert then the <div...

Build Instant Websites with Poole

Mar 28, 2012 GMT

What do instant coffee and Poole have in common? Both can be used to get a result in seconds. Put a teaspoon or two of instant coffee in a cup, add hot water, stir, and enjoy. Generating a website with Pool is almost as fast and easy. But before you put Poole to some practical use, make sure that Python 2.5 or higher and the python-markdown package are installed on your machine. Pull Pool from the project's Mercurial repository: hg clone http://bitbucket.org/obensonne/poole/ ~/pooleOpen the ~/.bashrc file in a text editor and add the following line to it: export PATH=$PATH:~/pooleCreate a directory for your website and switch to it: mkdir ~/poolsite cd ~/poolsiteUse the commands...