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... more »
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... more »
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>
... more »
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... more »
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... more »
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... more »
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/ ~/poole
Open the... more »
