Monday, June 29, 2009

Humorous Linux Posters - Part One

A cheerful, bright and sun-shiney Monday to you,

In our ongoing tradition of scouring the web for funny stuff (to make up for actually having to work, which takes away from blog-writing time ;), here's another collection of humor pieces. Posters, actually. The sentence before last was an attempt to sound highbrow while writing about low art. Not that posters are bad, in principal, but... Well, you be the judge :)

BTW, if the Linux Command Reference poster seems out of place, you can rest assured that it is. There's no joke to find in there. The reason we chose it was because of how very little it seems to actually cover. Pity the sysadmin who tries to get by on that amount of advice. It's got some good stuff in there, but it's not a safety-net by any means. Think of it as equivalent to MS Word's "Grammar Checker" to a non-English-speaking American, writing his new resumé. He can get rid of all those red and green underlines, but, in the end, his job application will be completely unreadable and insane. At best, he'll have a shot at landing a job in a special-needs environment ;)

Enjoy the posters, all pictures are copywrite of their respective creators and, as always, Cheers,



RedHat
Look, A Linux Poster!
Go Get 'Em
Gentoo
Fedora
Birds In Black



, Mike


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Sunday, June 28, 2009

GloboChem: Hilarious Video From Mr. Show

Happy Sunday :)

SPECIAL NOTE FOR PARENTS: The video embedded in today's post contains effusive amounts of swearing in certain parts. Please don't watch with children present unless you've previewed and approved!

Today's post is way off-topic, but, as some of you may know, I'm a huge fan of Mr. Show and suffered from terrible depression for the entire period following its sudden cancellation and the release of the DVD box set of all 4 seasons. It wasn't all that long between the two, I'll admit, but it was really really hard on my fragile psyche ;) Check out this link for our post featuring another Mr. Show sketch called "The pre-taped call-in show." It's just as funny, if not funnier, and much more family-friendly :)

I hope you enjoy this video. I can't watch it without, at least, laughing on the inside. It runs a bit long, but, if you stay with it, you won't be disappointed.

Pit-Pat loves you ;)

Cheers,







, Mike


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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Cool Computer Tricks - Interesting Optical Illusions!

Hey There,

Here's a little something that should be fun for a Saturday: Computer generated optical illusions! Probably everyone who reads this page has had a run in with some sort of optical illusion in their life (on purpose, of course ;) I'm just crossing the middle years of my own existence and I still love these things. And, despite what most everyone has told me to date, even staring at the LCD screen, optical illusions haven't diminished my eyesight. Of course, I'd be hard pressed to stare too long at my old Apple IIc. In fact, just turning that thing on begins to melt my flesh. It's probably a highly dangerous piece of equipment ;) I'll be giving it away soon (to a fellow old-computer aficionado) and (for some masochistic reason) I'll probably really miss it...

I found all of the illusions (and one "neat picture") posted here today over at coolopticalillusions.com. It's a great place to visit and has a huge variety of different illusions and other art and graphics that are just cool (as their site title suggests ;).

Below, I've posted pictures of the standard "spinning circles" illusion (although that's probably not the technical name for it), the Obama Illusion (which is eerily similar to the "Jesus" illusion - and the site has an animated version of it available), the disappearing confetti illusion" (which you should visit their site to check out, since they have three different versions of it which all work slightly differently) and a simple "cool picture" of a snowy grill that looks as though it's a human skull... who can explain why I choose the things I choose? ;)

Hope you enjoy these, and check out coolopticalillusions.com for some serious fun and equally serious eye-strain :)

Cheers,



What happened to Romper Room?

Obama Cures Cancer

Bye Bye

Grillin' Up Skull



, Mike


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Friday, June 26, 2009

Warm computer accessories: The perfect gift for Dad!

Hey There,

Hopefully, regular readers will pardon this week's insanity as I've spent most of my free time in a fruitless struggle with Mail2Blogger. I'm going to give up on that until I have lots of time on my hands (and no pent-up aggression left... I should be something like an empty vessel by the time I take it on again ;)

Also, as part of this rambling preamble, I'd like to apologize to the many people who's emails I have yet to reply to (or even get around to reading). As my children grow up, and work continues to come my way, I'm finding less and less time to write decent posts, read emails, maintain my sanity, etc ;) I'm thinking that, soon, I'll probably cut my posting down to 3 or 4 days (pre-set) of the week. Believe it or not, writing fluff to fill those days when I don't have time to crank out any good stuff actually takes more out of me in the long run and then, when it comes time to put up something decent, the end-product is much worse than I'd prefer. Hopefully, some of the stuff I've put up in the meantime has been helpful and/or given you a good laugh (both works, too ;)

With that said, here's another fluff-piece ;) I found all of the pictures (except for the first one) at WarmMouse.info. The site is actually pretty interesting and has lots of useful information on combatting carpal tunnel syndrome. I must admit that it sounds like it's a very painful and annoying condition yet, strangely enough, I've never met anyone who suffers from it and (I've been typing since I was a kid) have yet to be cursed with it. I can't explain why I don't have it, since everything I use to get my work done is ergonomically-challenged (I'm typing this while bent over sideways from the side of the couch on my laptop that I can just barely reach on the ottoman a foot away ;) Perhaps it has to do with the way I always have my work-space set up. The picture below is a pretty accurate representation. It's just missing the keyboard :)

Yes, This is the Maxell commercial from way back when!



In any event, for those of you who don't already have sweaty clammy palms, check out the site above (pictures from it below). They have a computer accessory to warm virtually every computing appendage on your body (that you might reasonably be expected to use. If you end up with carpal tunnel from overindulgence in under-the-table behaviour, they can't help you there. Your best bet in that situation is to see your doctor and tell him you have Tennis Elbow ;)

With warm regards,

Click any of the pictures below and get ready for an edge-of-your-seat thrill-ride that will take you to places you never... okay, they'll just get slightly larger ;)







, Mike


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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Can Code And/Or Pictures Be Posted Via Mail2Blogger - Test Number 2

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Revisiting The Command Line Init Script Generator For Linux Or Unix


So far, this experiment in mobile blogging has been a disappointment.  Not much works when you try to work with HTML and the font seems to get screwed up.  I've continued to try and make this a seemless "post via email," but much work is always left at the other end.  I'm leaving this post alone - as sent, with all it's imperfections.  I think, basically, sending a decent post via email using Mail2Blogger will require at least 2 things:

1.  Explicitly encoding text blocks so they're parsed as html and not as plaintext.  This same trap also makes character entity conversion not work since they are, themselves, converted to even more bizarre character entities.
2.  Scripting out actually rewriting the entire Blogger post area in such a fashion, including the uuencoded attachment of any binary files, like video or pictures.

Below are a few smatterings of things I hope make it into this post, including some shell script and a picture.

For reasons that are probably obvious, I'm not really going out there and tooting my own horn about these posts ;)

Enjoy, hopefully :)

b

Cheers,

Creative Commons License
rcscript.sh by Mike Golvach is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at linuxshellaccount.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://linuxshellaccount.blogspot.com.

#!/bin/sh # # Generic Init Script Creator # 2009 - Mike Golvach - eggi@comcast.net # #Creative Commons License rcscript.sh by Mike Golvach is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at linuxshellaccount.blogspot.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://linuxshellaccount.blogspot.com. # trap 'rm -f ${init_dir}/${script_name} ${rc3_dir}/${script_name} ${rc0_dir}/${script_name} ${script_name}' 1 2 3 9 15 # Tips for a few command line arguments - setting an argument to zero will not be considered equivalent to not defining it # a. set init_dir to 0 if you don't want any scripts and links setup - set rc3_dir, rc2_dir and/or init_dir to "0" to not create that link/script. # b. If any of the init_dir, rc2_dir and/or rc3_dir variables are not set, they will default to the examples below. # c. options that include 0 in the example do not need to be set and are entirely optional # # init_dir= /etc/init.d or 0 # rc3_dir= /etc/rc3.d or 0 # rc0_dir= /etc/rc0.d or 0 # script_name= myStartScript.sh # program_name= testProgram # fully_qualified_program_name= /usr/local/sbin/testProgram # start_options= "start" or 0 # stop_options= "stop" or 0 # sure_kill= "space delimited list of extra programs to kill" or 0 # common_bin_directory= "place where common binaries are on your system" or defaults to /usr/bin # function usage() { echo echo "Usage: $0 [-h for this help screen]" echo echo "Required switches:" echo "[-n init script name] [-p name of program to control]" echo "[-f controlled program's fully qualified name]" echo echo "Optional switches:" echo "[-i init directory] [-3 rc3.d directory] [-0 rc0.d directory" echo "[-s start options for your program]" echo "[-S stop options for your program]" echo "[-k additional programs to kill on stop - space separated]" echo "[-b common binary directory - defaults to /usr/bin]" echo echo "Be sure to \"double quote\" any switch arguments with spaces!" echo exit 1 } while getopts 0:3:b:f:hi:k:n:p:s:S: option do case $option in 'i') if [[ "$OPT_ARG" == "0" ]] then init_dir=0 else init_dir="$OPTARG" fi ;; '3') if [[ "$OPT_ARG" == "0" ]] then rc3_dir=0 else rc3_dir="$OPTARG" fi ;; '0') if [[ "$OPT_ARG" == "0" ]] then rc0_dir=0 else rc0_dir="$OPTARG" fi ;; 'n') script_name="$OPTARG" ;; 'p') program_name="$OPTARG" ;; 'f') fully_qualified_program_name="$OPTARG" ;; 's') if [[ "$OPT_ARG" == "0" ]] then start_options="" else start_options="$OPTARG" fi ;; 'S') if [[ "$OPT_ARG" == "0" ]] then stop_options="" else stop_options="$OPTARG" fi ;; 'k') if [[ "$OPT_ARG" == "0" ]] then additional_kills="" else additional_kills="$OPTARG" fi ;; 'b') if [[ "$OPT_ARG" == "0" || -z "$OPT_ARG" ]] then common_bin_directory="/usr/bin" else common_bin_directory="$OPTARG" fi ;; 'h') usage ;; *) usage ;; esac done if [[ -z $script_name || -z $program_name || -z $fully_qualified_program_name ]] then echo echo "Options -n -p and -f are required!" usage fi if [[ -z $common_bin_directory ]] then common_bin_directory="/usr/bin" fi if [[ -e $script_name ]] then rm $script_name fi cat << EOM >>$script_name #!/bin/sh # # ${program_name} init script # Usage: $script_name [start|stop|restart] # case \$1 in 'start') echo echo Starting ${program_name}.... echo ${fully_qualified_program_name} ${start_options} >/dev/null 2>&1 & ${program_name}_running=\`${common_bin_directory}/ps -ef|${common_bin_directory}/grep "${fully_qualified_program_name}"|${common_bin_directory}/grep -v grep|${common_bin_directory}/awk '{print \$2}'\` if [ "\$${program_name}_running" == "" ] then echo "${program_name} start cannot be confirmed. Please check" echo "system output and application logs for further detail" else echo "${program_name} started successfully" fi ;; 'stop') echo echo Stopping ${program_name}.... echo if [ "$stop_options" != " " ] then ${fully_qualified_program_name} ${stop_options} >/dev/null 2>&1 & fi ${program_name}_walking=\`${common_bin_directory}/ps -ef|${common_bin_directory}/grep "${fully_qualified_program_name}"|${common_bin_directory}/grep -v grep|${common_bin_directory}/awk '{print \$2}'\` if [ "\$${program_name}_walking" == "" ] then echo "${program_name} does not appear to be running." echo "Process not found. Not shut down." else counter=5 dead="alive" echo "Shutting ${program_name} down." echo "${fully_qualified_program_name} - pid ${program_name}_walking - stopping." while [ \$counter -gt 0 ] do ${program_name}_still_walking=\`${common_bin_directory}/ps -ef|${common_bin_directory}/grep "${fully_qualified_program_name}"|${common_bin_directory}/grep -v grep|${common_bin_directory}/awk '{print \$2}'\` if [ "\$${program_name}_still_walking" != "" ] then echo "killing pid \$${program_name}_still_walking " ${common_bin_directory}/kill \$${program_name}_still_walking counter=\`expr \$counter - 1\` sleep 1 else dead="dead" echo "dead" counter=0 fi done if [ \$dead = "alive" ] then echo "Could not kill process after 5 attempts." echo "Process ${program_name}_walking still active." ${common_bin_directory}/ps -ef|${common_bin_directory}/grep "${fully_qualified_program_name}"|${common_bin_directory}/grep -v grep fi fi EOM if [[ $additional_kills && ! -z $additional_kills ]] then cat << EOM >>$script_name for aks in `echo $additional_kills` do echo echo Stopping \$aks.... echo aks_walking=\`${common_bin_directory}/ps -ef|${common_bin_directory}/grep "\$aks"|${common_bin_directory}/grep -v grep|${common_bin_directory}/awk '{print \$2}'\` if [ "\$aks_walking" == "" ] then echo "\$aks does not appear to be running." echo "Process not found. Not shut down." else counter=5 dead="alive" echo "Shutting \$aks down." echo "\$aks - pid \$aks_walking - stopping." while [ \$counter -gt 0 ] do aks_still_walking=\`${common_bin_directory}/ps -ef|${common_bin_directory}/grep "\$aks"|${common_bin_directory}/grep -v grep|${common_bin_directory}/awk '{print \$2}'\` if [ "\$aks_still_walking" != "" ] then echo "killing pid \$aks_still_walking " ${common_bin_directory}/kill \$aks_still_walking counter=\`expr \$counter - 1\` sleep 1 else dead="dead" echo "dead" counter=0 fi done if [ \$dead = "alive" ] then echo "Could not kill process after 5 attempts." echo "Process \$aks_walking still active." ${common_bin_directory}/ps -ef|${common_bin_directory}/grep "\$aks"|${common_bin_directory}/grep -v grep fi fi done EOM fi cat << EOM >>$script_name ;; 'restart') echo echo ReStarting ${program_name}.... echo \$0 stop \$0 start ;; *) echo "Usage: \$0 [start|stop|restart]" ;; esac EOM ${common_bin_directory}/chmod 750 ${script_name}; ${common_bin_directory}/cp ${script_name} ${init_dir}/${script_name} ${common_bin_directory}/ln -s ${init_dir}/${script_name} ${rc3_dir}/${script_name} ${common_bin_directory}/ln -s ${init_dir}/${script_name} ${rc0_dir}/${script_name} Labels: backup, bpdbjobs, linux, netbackup, perl, report, reporter, reports, script, symantec, unix, veritas




Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Mail2Blogger Test Post 1

Hey there,

Today is a concept post that will be followed up on, based on the functionality of Mail2blogger and some incredible, seeming, deficiencies in its application.  Here is a link to a page about how to
report on NetBackup backup activity which should work, I think.

But last, a few notes:

NOTE: The labels function is probably the biggest binger of this whole wangle-dangle (I'm trying really hard not to swear since I'm this close to putting a gun in my mouth ;)

 

I wonder if the labels functionality can be made to work?  Probably not today, but I think getting the hyperlinks right is good for today.

 

If things go as swimmingly as they have today, I should have the date-mangling finished by tomorrow (For my automated posts over my vacation, I had the posts already written and scheduled to post 3 times each… more on that when I get this figured out.

 

Hopefully, this post will be the start of something that will be of benefit to anyone who searches Google for these answers with the same search strings I do.   BTW, it is widely held that adding tags to your post using Mail2Blogger is impossible.  It's probably true, but I'm too stupid to not try to get it to work ;)

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

 


NOTE: THE LABELS BELOW HAVE BEEN FAKED AND ARE NOT LEGITIMATE LABELS, ALTHOUGH THE FUNCTIONALITY IS EXACTLY THE SAME

backup, bpdbjobs, linux, netbackup, perl, report, reporter, reports, script, symantec, unix, veritas

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Eclectic And Funny Linux Pictures - Last Day Of Vacation

Hey there,

The last day of vacation is here. Tomorrow (assuming everything has gone to plan) I'll be back in town to either be pleasantly surprised or utterly horrified. And, of course, I'm talking about the blog... Nothing to do with my home life or job ;)

Hope you enjoy the pictures and I can't wait to get back and write something soon. Hopefully, I'll remember how to after going through my backlogged emails (work and play)

Cheers,

NOTE: All pictures are copywrite of their original creators.



Too

many

pictures

not

enough

cutsie

comments




, Mike


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Monday, June 22, 2009

Out To Lunch - More Funny Linux Pictures

Hola,

This blog's owner is still on vacation, but hopes to return shortly (and very soon ;)

Hopefully this post is actually making it online. The guy who writes this blog hasn't checked on me in a little while, and, being a simple chunk of text, I have no idea if I'm posting correctly or not... Here's hoping ;)

Enjoy the pictures and, dear author, please come back and take care of me soon!

Cheers,



a

b

c

d

e.  nice comments, huh?

f.  And you thought I'd give this one some effort...



, Mike


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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Off-Topic Humor - Chuck Norris On Chuck Norris Facts

Here's hoping you're having a happy and healthy Sunday :)

Today's topic (embedded at the end of the post) is, yet again, Chuck Norris. The video below is from "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," and linked to on the incredibly funny ChrisLawson.net.

Enjoy the video and follow the link trail above. Not much Linux and Unix related stuff (except for one post entitled Linux Programmer or Saddam Hussein! , which may offend some readers other than myself), but packed with tons of hilarity. Check it out. Something on ChrisLawson.net has to make you laugh :)

Cheers,







, Mike


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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Another Google Maps Goof. Italian Or Mexican?

Hey there and happy Saturday to you if this gets posted on time,

As some of you may know, I'm on vacation right now and taking a gamble with BlogSpot's post scheduling service. Actually, the scheduling service works just fine, but I like to post before the preceding day and have it show the next day so that I can keep my posts labeled daily and, at the same time, go to sleep before midnight the day before and not have to wake up until the last possible second the day of ;) If this works and anyone has a hard time doing it, let me know and I'll post the method. Of course, I won't know if this experiment has been a success or a failure until the future, which makes it hard for me to get too excited right now (or, am I in the past? ;)

Below is a little something I found over on another blog titled WigBlog. It's got lots of entertaining posts to offer, but I'm just showcasing this one for today. I'd hate to have my experiment not work (as in "not post at all") and waste an in-depth write up.

I've included the picture below, from the post linked to here and above.

Apparently, Google Maps thinks Pizzeria Uno serves Mexican food. I can't wait to check out the new menu ;)

Cheers, and apologies for the "Alternate Text" I put in the picture below. It will probably offend someone, but it struck me as amusing at the time :)



That's A Spicy Meat Burrito



, Mike


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Friday, June 19, 2009

More Fun With Google On YouTube!

Happy Friday,

Before I blow town to avoid a pending arrest warrant (or am I just going on a regular family vacation? ;) I put together a few fluff posts so I don't have to worry too much about any mistakes I may have made.

Today, check out a few secret images of Google Earth, How to do the Google Chuck Norris hack and some new hidden Google tricks - also embedded below (except the Google Earth video, which has embedding disabled by request).

My favorite, of course is the Chuck Norris one (as show in our previous post linked to in this looong sentence :)

Cheers,










, Mike


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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Some Interesting Google Tricks

Hey there,

I got a little involved in making Visio diagrams today and lost track of time (In just under 8 hours I managed to produce a crude depiction of a full rack in a datacenter). And thank goodness I had the software to help me out. I never would have been able to legitimately waste that much time in a row on my own ;)

So today, I found this video on a site called FunnyHack. The video below is from there and doesn't contain anything below-board that I noticed... It's funny how the opposite of above-board just doesn't sound quite right. The same with the opposite of upper-handed ;)

Enjoy the video and check the site out. A lot of it is Windows-related, but there are quite a few entries over there that appeal to the general public (like how to hack an elevator :)

Cheers,




Google Tips And Tricks - These bloopers are hilarious



, Mike


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