Mobilize PGP - IOS vs. Android

I have recently considered GPG quite a bit.   I can imagine quite a few uses for which is it not generally used that could greatly increase the authenticity of the internet, while at the same time generating a real world "web of trust" which if were as common in the vernacular as "Facebook" then many of our issues today on the net could be resolved.

I've demonstrated with a Tin Foil Hat listener how easy it is to set up gpg and use it with one of several desktop email clients.  I would have to say that I think desktop email support for gpg is a fairly common feature.  But I then thought that for my work and personal emails, I tend to process quite a bit of that on my mobile devices.  Mostly these messages are for consumption and processing and don't have a high security requirement.  But with both my ipod touch and my andoid mobile phone I thought I'd run the two head to head to discover what might be available and at what price.

Please also understand that this comparison does not enter into commercial phylosophy, political alignments or any kind of sponsorship agenda.  I just wanted to know which of the two device platforms would allow me to use pgp on a mobile device in the easiest manner.

On my IOS 4.3 iPod Touch 2nd Gen, I did find some application offerings for PGP (commercial version of gpg) which either cost ~$50 or ~$4 for decrypt only.  I found no applications which used gpg, but that might be due to the gpl limitations in the iTunes App Store.

On my Android phone I had already installed the APG app which is free in price.  This is the pgp portion of the solution since the native google mail app is great for the interface, it doesn't support pgp at all.  Then I discovered the K9 mail applicaiton which is also free and works direclty with APG for encryption support and it really does work.  I was impressed as well, K9 is very similar to the google mail app while maybe being even a bit more responsive.

So, in conclusion if gpg encrypted or signed email is critical to you or your work I would strongly recommending an Android phone with APG + K9 mail.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

CLI - Vim and Awk

Vim and awk.  It is great to make a list, then modify that list and save it out.  These types of tools are why using any text editor on Linux is way more powerful than on the competition's operating system.  Just like with most solutions in Linux is that the tools are probably too many and do too much so the first steps are overwhelming with choices.

While a use case that doesn't happen every day here is the quick geek-mode of explaining a recent use I had.   Situation: home server runs dnsmasq (dns and dhcp server) for the home network.  I needed to ping assigned IP's for a monitoring script.  This is the geek-mode of explaining what I did.  With the resulting screenshot.

$vim fake-hosts   

This makes the new empty file.

:r !cat /etc/hosts

Fills the file with the current hosts file contents.  I've cleaned up comments and lines that won't change by using "dd" to delete the self referring IP's and lines that start with "#" since they aren't really IP addresses

%!awk '{print "ping "$1}'

This takes the IP column and prints it as the second column while creating a new first column with only the word 'ping' and notice that there is the space included inside the double quotes.

Remember, if you make a mistake with one of these that while in the CMD mode of vim the keyboard command "u" does undo just as you might expect it should. 

This process works differently than a search and replace where you need to change the subnet, it would make since to just do a search and replace of "168.0." -> "168.2." which would replace only that value.

This process works if you need to do transitive work on a text file that isn't a csv format.  Note that with this tool it is easy to take a list of results and make a csv with something like  %!awk '{print $1 ", " $2 ", " $3}'  and the 3 column file turns into a csv.  But wait, the original is correct, but in the wrong order, make your corrected csv with the following -> %!awk '{print $2 ", " $3 ", " $1}' with awesome results.

Play with it, have fun.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

App Review (Update) : tty-clock - working on Ubuntu

Previously I mentioned an app called tty-clock.  I really do like it, but on Ubuntu it didn't quite compile nice so I thought I would give the quick "howto" get it working.

1.) Grab source code and unpack
2.) install the dependencies with "sudo apt-get install ncurses-dev ncurses-runtime ncurses-term"
3**.) Optional--Open the Makefile in the source code folder and change the $INSTALLPATH=/usr/bin/
4.) Terminal in the source code directory and do "make" (should have no errors) and then "sudo make install".

After that the tty-clock should be accessible.   For your information I use the flags to display seconds, center the time and set the color to blue.   Looks like "tty-clock -s -c -C 6" and I hope that might help you get it working on your Ubuntu system.   I've added a screen grab of my clock so you can see what the command does output.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tip: Googlemail -> Gmail

If you were one of the folks who signed up at Gmail when the domain assignment was "@googlemail.com" visit your settings page right away.  I found a link there that converted mine to a genuine "@gmail.com".   You can find that link under Settings->Accounts and Import->Send mail as..->hyperlink to the right that asks "switch to @gmail.com"

While most of us knew that if you wrote to the @gmail.com domain with your @googlemail.com user it would forward and work, but your official login was always with the complete domain name.  All of that get's fixed with this click and all the software and apps out there that aren't ready to read in the @googlemail.com domain will work for you.

Check your account and get your free upgrade to the @gmail.com domain today!

-- CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

sc - command line spreadsheet

No surprise to folks who read my blog, I really dig on command line apps.  Well, after another visit to my favorite web based list for cli apps (thanks Jared Lee) and started to play with sc (available even in Lucid 10.04 repos).  This app is for command line spreadsheets.

Command line spreadsheets, well, yes.  I actually have a few use cases where a sqlite database would be way over the top but there is some math I would prefer not to do by hand.  That's what spreadsheets are good for.  sc comes to the rescue.

While I'll confess there is no easy import/export via csv or some other stuff, it is very versatile and does offer a text export which calculates the formulas and shows the layout as if you were using the app.  Let me show you a few quick shots.

First, using the app:

Second,  the format of the file while being used by sc, bear in mind this is also clear text:

Lastly, this is what the text export of the same document looks like:

I hope this might give you some ideas on how to use this quick, simple and easy to use program in your personal workflow.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Gmail: mutt vs. web interface

I am a very serious gmail user.  I think it's a good service.  I have already written on this blog that I am a serious fan of the mutt email client.  Please understand that I don't feel that any other gui mail client competes for the speed with which I can process my email.  So I don't want this to be a email client vs. email client war, I've already said my peace on that and if you don't like that please find another blog.

I do think it's important to check and see what the critical differences are in the two methods I use to access the service.  Clear declaration, that I use imap with mutt so I am not caching or storing the email local (i.e. POP3) which might make a difference in this argument.

After using the web interface with the google labs on for keyboard shortcuts, and giving myself a solid two week time frame during which to become proficient with using the keyboard with the web interface.  I have to say that is can be quite efficient on it's own and very usefull, so the below comparison has everything to do with web+keyboard vs. mutt and the efficiency with processing/managing emails.

Gmail web Pros:
Search speed: very fast and process all headers and body.
Open Access: any OS, any PC commands and interface available

Gmail web Cons:
No gpg support: not for key verification, not for encryption.
Conversation presentation: does invite confusion about where messages are

Mutt pros:
More refined searches: the limit statements are crazy specific
GPG support: completely, inline.
Closed Access: w/ssh access offers only encrypted channel

Mutt cons:
Software requirement: somewhere there must be software installed
Complete searches: if you do a search of body content takes a long time

I have to confess, that with multiple accounts, I have a serious need for some features on some accounts and needs for other features with others.  I actually have one account that I use both interfaces with often.

Find you comfort level, be realistic about access and real needs, if you would like to have high security and choose mutt, it might be very uncomfortable to use a mobile phone for access with a crampped keyboard.

Be practical, pragmatic and safe.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Mutt - the cool kid's RC file

 I've gotten quite a few recent requests in regards to my muttrc file.  I blame notKlaatu for that.  For those who don't know, it's the file that sets all the preferences in the most awesome text based email reader, mutt.

So I'll keep the post short since the file speaks for itself.  It has comments in it.  As a disclaimer this one is being used with mutt 1.5.20 (2009-06-14) patched with the sidebar patch (see previous posts).

Get a zip of my Gmail prepared muttrc file here.

Enjoy everyone.  Tell your friends to come by and have a peek.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Backup! Backup! Restore!

I'm sure many of my fans probably think that I only use the command line.  While true that I do use command line considerably.  I also use gui tools.  As I just set up yet another virtual machine in Virtual Box, I thougth I might explain how I add the world of text to gui.

So, I've written about my gpg encrypted password file.  I leave it in my dropbox account as well as a the gnupg.vim plugin.  Of course, dropbox is primarily a gui application, which has a command line element that can be used after the gui has been launched.  So the first thing I do is set that up my password file.  Then also from dropbox I have bashrc and bash_aliases.  I soft link those to the home directory as well as the bin/ folder where I dabble in scripting.

After my last install, I started making my list of apps that I install on my Ubuntu systems knowing they are in the repos.  Basically I just cat that file and paste and wait. 

While that's going, I get the firefox up and running where I add my xmarks extension and run it.   This brings by browser up to speed more or less.  Once my chromium is installed, I just have it import the settings from firefox (google chrome the same).  Again, that's a matter of a gui application that I do rely on and use on many different systems, even cross platform.

This puts me in very familiar teritory and within a short time after a fresh install, I have my bash shell restored with my comfort zone of aliases, my browser set up with bookmarks and the odds and ends that I keep in my Dropbox.   The single behaviour modification that I keep on is making sure that anything I "might need later" I put in my dropbox or my Ubuntu One (gui).  Included in that would be the most recent .deb for skype, google chrome beta, and anything else where just having it arrive in the dropbox/Ubuntu One sync keeps me from having to hunt it down online.

This kind of file syncing actually has made system restore or first set up quite easy.  I have done this a few times and now it feels quite "normal" and I have no worries at all if any one (or truth all) of my systems were to die, I could still recover in short order.  Working directly out of my backup system/service keeps me always on the spot should anything go wrong.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Inx 1.1 review

After listening to TiT Radio Episode #15, I found the link that was suggested by Azimuth.  This is really, really cool if you want to get some serious command line goodness.

The distro is called inx 1.1  and it is based on ubuntu 8.04 LTS.  It is also only a live distro, currently there are no simple install methods.  There is a Virtualbox image that you can download and just run without any burning/rebooting/hacking involved.  I am going to request that any and all geeks who would like to see this project continue to send feedback to the project.  I think it's fantastic and think it would be a great idea for a meta-package to make sure all the cli/ncurses apps that are used in his menu scripts are there, and then have this as an option from gdm to boot into (saving even more resources).

I am VERY taken with this.  There are just enough tools to do 98% of what people do with their computers and brings it down to the lowest common denominator.  I'm going to be trying to send as much feedback as possible to try and help those guys prepare for a new release using 10.4 when it comes out since there have been some dramatic improvements in the package selection since 8.04 (like screen-profiles a.k.a byobu).  Here is an example of some of the cli goodness you get with this tiny and non-resouce intensive distro:

I will be following this distro closely as it will help me also to have multiple VM machines which actually have some applications in them and do more than reply to ping when testing network apps on my host and home network.  If you look close at that screenshot the RAM footprint was almost 50mb!  Again, that is loaded with apps that are useful if you only take some time to make yourself familiar with them.

Enjoy CLI Geeks, and even if you don't use the whole distro, dig in there and check you the apps that come with the distro to see what you can add your command line arsenal.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Mac Vs. Linux, My opinion : Part II

I felt that it was time for me to follow up on my previous article  "Mac Vs. Linux, My opinion".  I do still, day-to-day use a mac next to two linux systems.  I feel in this regard, I have justification for my opinion.

Again to preface, I have used linux for much longer than mac (everyday).  As a result I learned over the years to use my linux in a windows heavy environment without much disruption or laments from my co-workers in regards to interoperablity.

For work purposes, both efficiency of activity and for productivity within the applicaitons I still find that linux is my prefered environment.  I should say that the gap that is software, which once was very wide, is no where near that wide anymore.  Much of that may have to do with my office's adoption of open source software.

I have to say that I prefer linux more now still for the double ease of use of the clipboard and having two available.  One accessible via highlight and mouse-wheel click and the other using the classic ctrl+c and ctrl+v. 

The second point that keeps me on a linux desktop is the ease of use and speed of virtual desktops in linux.  Mac does now have spaces (same function) but there is no customization available and it is sluggish in comparison to my linux system.

The third aspect of linux that I still prefer to mac is that it is much easier to migrate information to the lowest common denominator: TEXT.  Mac works fine with text and is useful in the terminal app, but on linux the transition from terminal to a gui application requires very little effort on the part of the user.

Lastly, of no consequence to efficiency, would be theme customization.  With the new Ubuntu (9.10) and following the additional themes I installed using the instructions at this long post on "The Silent Number" (new fav is 'Night Impressions') I have found the view of my linux system is something that I can change to easily based on tasks or system and with something like NBR (netbook remix) I can completely alter the function of my desktop any time I care too.  This is not an impossible task on the mac, but for sure isn't as easy.

The ace in the hole that mac still has is that the performance of VMware Fusion is great on the mac.  Like that I can still have access to any other operating system that I need/prefer since I am very much about using the correct tool for the correct work.  I won't use this as a "freedom" platform, this is just a direct 1-to-1 comparison while I have both systems side-by-side in my life.

Both will continue to be in my workspace and work-flow.  I hope in the future to have relevant follow-ups to this series of articles.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Dropbox on a Headless Server

I know there are a few guides for Dropbox on a headless server.  I noticed that my experience wasn't 100% as advertised, so I wanted to post here on what my process was (repeated on 3 servers for accuracy)

First the requisites for this activity.  You must have a ssh account and my advice is to make sure you have the same disk space free on the server that you are using in your Dropbox account.  For the free version, that means 2Gb of disk space.

Next I need to install the application, this is done on the server account.  I had in all 3 cases to launch the "nautilus" application one time.  So I connect with the "ssh -X" for allowing X11 export over the connection.  Once connected the next thing was to get the dbcli.py script from the Dropbox Wiki.  On the server I used:
   wget http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/43645/dbcli.py
   chmod 755 dbcli.py
This gives the application in the home dir with executable permissions.  Now run the script with:
   python dbcli.py install     <--- mine was x86 the other is x86_64
This step will download the tarball and start to set things up.  Mine hung after it downloaded everything and put it in the right place.  I then escaped with ctrl+c.  I then launched nautilus with:
   nautilus
This brought up the view of the home folder and then the splash screen for setting up the Dropbox account.  I entered my account details and let the folder sync the first time.  Once done, I closed nautilus and disconnected from the server to forcefully break the 2nd Dropbox icon it put in my computer's systray.  I then reconnected WITHOUT x11 forwarding and launched the daemon in the background with:
  ./.dropbox-dist/dropboxd &
This should fire up the daemon to run in the background.   After that you can check the status of the daemon with the dbcli.py script with:
  python dbcli.py status
That should report "up to date" as long as it is running and healty.

You might need to restart the daemon if the server machine reboots.  But for my headless servers that doesn't happen very often.  I have seen this work perfectly with the syncing that Dropbox does and works just as expected and seen with any other desktop machine.  I really enjoy this idea since there is a disk space use limit built into the account.  Also, this provides a truely off-site backup storage to ensure against any disaster recovery issues.  So with my last post about using gpg to encrypt files and edit them, it means that even if the server security is compromised, they won't get any data from my files unless they have a supercomputer and 20 years :)

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

vim + gpg + dropbox = secure passwords

Finally accomplished a multi-system synchronized encrypted password file.  Let me tell the short and then the long version.

The short version is
1.) gpg encrypt a text file
2.) store it in a shared dropbox folder
3.) add vim gnugpg plugin.

The long version of the story is that Dropbox has added a functionality to share a folder with other Dropbox users.  I have a Dropbox account for each operating system that I use (3).  So I can modify on one machine and it will get pushed to all the other machines.  I also found the dbcli.py script which lets me run dropbox on a headless machine.

I already have 2048 bit pgp keys created.  I used that key to encrypt a text file to myself.  The file I had was a text file that I was using to record my passwords.  With the command "gpg --encrypt filename"  will produce an encrypted copy with the *.gpg extension.  This new file I placed in the shared dropbox folder and created a symbolic link to it in my home directory.

Then after creating the folder ~/.vim/plugin and moving the gnupg.vim into that folder I was able to open and edit the gpg encrypted file after typing my passphase for the key.  This extension turns off the auto-backup feature of vim to prevent a clear text copy from being anywhere but ram.  Once writes to the file are made, it will re-synchronize with the other computers automatically.

With this new process I am able to view, search and edit my password file even on a mac (with vim and gpg installed).  Of note, I also have a Truecrypt volume in this same shared folder and once a month I do a plain text export into the hidden volume of a Trucrypt drive.  This allows me additional access even if I do not have the permissions to install all the needed components.

Now I can use strong secure and unique passwords for every online service I have.  I even took the opportunity to generate a few passwords and keep them in the password file directly in the case I needed to update a login without command line access to pwgen.

--
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Karmic testing - Easier PPA additional and install

So I read on the Ubuntu Geek blog, that in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic there is a new command for adding a ppa repo that will update the sources.list and import the gpg key.  So, clever me, thought of a way to make a few nice aliases and run this all together.  Let me demonstrate

1.) add the repo.  
sudo add-apt-repository
2.) update the repos
sudo apt-get -qq update
3.) install the application
sudo apt-get install

So I made aliases for those three.
alias repo='sudo apt-get-repository'
alias update='sudo apt-get -qq update'
alias ins='sudo apt-get install'

And using a different example from Ubuntu Geek, the command I give looks like:
"repo ppa:jonabeck && update && ins ifuse"

This single, short command will update the sources.list, update the repos and install the ifuse package with only the normal prompts if they apply.  Please see the manpage for each of these commands as well as alias in the case that you want to learn more about each.

 --
CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

One Mutt to rule them all.

This will be the explanation of how I (known mutt fan) have set up just a few small tools in order to have access to multiple email accounts at the same time using mutt. I am still sure that I process a great deal more email more efficiently than my peers because I am reducing my Internet world to the lowest common denominator -- text.

With just the rendering time enhancement of html/rtf formatted emails to text I have a 25% better visualization time of email. With the use of powerful text editors (in my case vim) my reply time is also quicker. I have yet to see an email interface that is as speedy. I have to say that the web interface on gmail is pretty snappy and offers threaded views inline thus speeding up the reading of conversations. I still find it falls short of the raw speed offered by mutt.

With this in mind, I even apply this to my personal email. One of the challenges that my counterparts complain to me about is that since their work day is consumed with email that they neither have time during working hours to look after their personal email accounts nor do they have the enthusiasm to check their personal during their private time. I find that with my ease of use, that I can apply all the attention needed to both either in the office or out.

First, I made a folder that will hold all of my mutt configuration files. Everything from my alias file (address book) to my mutt color file. All of the "dot" files and the individual muttrc files will go into one folder. This is not so terribly important for the function, but is important later as I integrate a backup/restore plan.

Second, multiple muttrc files should be prepared, one for each account. I will confess that in an effort to make my email OS ambiguous and accessible I am using IMAP with accounts that also offer a web interface. This is key to my explanation since it doesn't require the work of setting up fetchmail, or hassle with odd protocols (i.e. Exchange). I won't be going into the details of the options of the muttrc, if you have looked at them, there are a great many. But for sure a single file for a single account is important. In this manner, we can avoid mis-configuration of the profiles options and we don't end up with a config file that is 1 mb in size.

Lastly the commands. The command, being launched from the same folder as the config file should read "mutt -F muttrc-file-for-this-email". My little hack that makes this quite manageable is that I have set multiple alias's in my .bashrc file that make simple ways to remember the accounts. Let me give you examples. I have set in my .bashrc the following:

alias email-cafeninja="cd ~/mutt-conf && mutt -F muttrc-gmail-cafeninja"

This single line changes directory to the folder where all of my muttrc files are, and then executes mutt using the correctly named file. While the alias is auto completed using tab from the command line.

The last hack I did for this is a simple backup and restore script that makes a tarball of the entire folder and places that into my dropbox folder. The restore script copies the tarball to the home directory and extracts it overwriting the previous files. These two shell scripts I have placed in my ~/bin folder which is also in my path so that these scripts are also auto completed from the command line. With absolute path referenced, it does not matter where in the filesystem I am when I execute the email alias or the backup/restore process. Just to be sure it would be available, I placed a copy of the backup and restore script into the mutt-conf folder to be included in the mutt tarball that would sync on a new system. Of course, it would then need to be placed in the ~/bin folder on those systems as well for future use.

Here is my backup script:

#!/bin/bash

## Go home

cd ~

## make tar of ~/mutt-conf

tar pzcf ~/Dropbox/mutt-conf.tar.gz mutt-conf

Here is my restore script:

#!/bin/bash

## Go home

cd ~

## get tar and move to home dir

cp ~/Dropbox/mutt-conf.tar.gz .

## unzip tar

tar zxf mutt-conf.tar.gz

## remove copied tar once done

rm mutt-conf.tar.gz

I hope this might help anyone who is working with multiple email accounts on multiple systems who thought it might be difficult to get it all working. I'm sure there are more complex solutions available, I built mine with the idea that each email account was siloed and would not corrupt other email account setting should anything happen to a single file.

--

CafeNinja

Mac Vs. Linux, My opinion

First this blog does reflect my opinion, and my opinion only. I am not trying to start any flame wars. This is an opinion formed from using all 3 major operating systems on my desk for the last year. I originally started the experiment to find, for the purposes of my workspace which OS could do which things best and to capitalize on the advantages of each and then measure which would bring the best user experience and the most proficient tools for completion of work.

I have previous experience in a tech support environment and felt that I was the unique person in the company to asses these points. With no IT Department that assesses new and interesting ways to do things and only worried about the broken stuff we already have, I decided to sacrifice my work flow and productivity to try and test the operating systems and tools available.

You will notice from the list in the subject of the blog that windows was not even in the contention. My reason for that is we are a 24x7 shop, but we do not receive 24x7 internal support and have no extra hardware around so reliability is paramount. With any user doing even innocent activity on the machine being able to be infected, rendered useless and then possibility impacting the network attached to the rest of the office provided already an intolerable situation which I preferred to avoid. The only reason I still used it on my desk was for compatibility of other departments in the company, but I have started a campaign that we need to do our work and not look pretty, so windows would not be considered.

This leaves us with a mac vs. linux situation. I'm partial to both for certain things, but I'm not such a fanboy of either to feel it would compromise my objectivity for the testing I was doing. I have to say that that with almost all of our tools being completely web-based, comaptiblity has become less and less an issue for my team. For example, where firefox is supported, it is instantly supported on all operating systems.

Conclusion:
========

So I think that my conclusion would be a mac dual booting with linux or with enough ram to virtualize without performance degredation. I think the native linux OS behaviour brings some improvements to efficiency (i.e. copy and paste) while the mac brings graphics and a user interface that even the most novice can manage. With the dual boot or virtualized linux inside the back you could have the best of both. And who's to say, if you were already virtualizing linux then you could virtualize M$ if you needed to for any last hold outs to proprietary software formats.

I have really condensed a year's worth of experience here. I have also taken the "average" user far more into account considering the nature of the employees who will use the systems. But I feel that it would actually cover the complete spectrum and could easily be the one-size-fits-all solution which although is far more expensive would be a prodductive system for anyone you sat in front of it.


--
CafeNinja

Command Line Fu - The Website

This has to be my newest favorite site. I get excited like a kid in a candy store when I talk about the Command Line Fu website. So, here we go.

If you have read any of my previous blog posts you know that I favor the command line and text CLI environment for productivity. Likewise, it returns the processing and computing power of the computer back to the user. Yes, you must be a bit more practiced and read in order to make this a practical "lifestyle" change. I would argue with the users who prefer the GUI interfaces who say that it is too difficult or only for hackers.

My argument up to this point has been that the GUI allows for visual processing of instructions for expected actions and behavior of applications. Which means that you have to actually read, comprehend and use the help files (known as manpages) that will give you nothing short of full access to the power of every command line application.

I do not exclude myself from this observation, that even now, with my daily use of the command line that I have only but begun to scratch the surface of the commands and applications at my disposal. Most of the references that I have in my previous command line posts have to do with end user applications rather than "true" command line super powers.

The underlying issue of ease of reference, seeing practical working examples and then applying the use of the commands is constant. As I just said, even for myself. Well all of that is changing. The Command Line Fu website is filling the gap of general command line super powers and ease of reference.

I highly recommend this site. I personally access the site and it's material in 3 different ways. First, I navigate to the site and use the search function in order to try and find a previously submitted example of how to use a command. Second, I subscribe the RSS feed which then goes into my reader each day. Usefull commands I flag for later closer examination. And lastly, I have used the site to submit some of the commands that I actually use in my production/work environment.

This site is a very good example of community that you normally see in the open source community. I know this is going to sound like hippy-tree-hugging-free-love stuff, but it's true. Command Line Fu makes it easy to contribute, and even better, contribution doesn't take much effort. It asks only for the command line and a brief description of what the command is expected to do.

Wonderfully simple in design, efficient in use. While at the same time not being just ugly (like some really geeky sites can be). I have this site bookmarked in my Delecious and recommend it to anyone who might be eager to learn. If you follow my twitter, you might just find some references to the site, when I see command line goodness, I will be the first to spread the word.

Two thumbs up.

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CafeNinja

My Firefox Extensions

Everyone has their own selections of Firefox extensions that makes their work-flow or surfing experience great. What I don't see a lot of is people posting the list that combined is their favorite or ideal web browsing tool.

I decided to put my list together, as we are "on the eve" of the release of a new version of Firefox, since in a few short months some of these may not work (until updated by the developers). This list is valid when using the Firefox 3.0.1 browser.

Here is my list:
Tabs Open Relative - this lets a "open in new tab" action produce a tab just right of it's parent instead of at the end of the lists of tabs. This is really helpful when doing google research and find multiple links you would like to follow from a single source page.

Snap Links Plus - This allows you to design a unique mouse selection/movement to draw a box around a list of links on a page. Upon selection, this extension opens the included hyperlinks in new tabs. In conjunction with the Tabs Open Relative extension, these just fold out just right of the active, or parent, tab.

Auto Clear Search Box - This extension automatically clears the searchbox in the navigation bar of the browser once used. I use this in a 3 step process. 1.) Use ctrl+k to activate the searchbox itself. 2.) Set "browser.search.openintab = true" in about:config, which opens a new tab independantly upon pressing enter from the searchbox. 3.) this extension then clears the seachbox and I am then able to repeat the process with minimum mouse/keystrokes.
***Note: you will have to register to install this one, no panic..it's free.

CustomizeGoogle - Well, this is for anyone who uses google's services. There are a great many customizations which can make that experience better and more secure.

Delicious Bookmarks - Well, online bookmarking is something you use or you don't. I do, to share links with others, remember research points or to collect information when troubleshooting an issue. This is a pretty good extension if you are signed up for the Delicious service.

Foxmarks Bookmarks Syncronizer - This is a smashing syncronizing tool. Makes all of your firefox installs on all your different computers. This tool syncronyses bookmarks and saved passwords. This is the tool that I moved to after google's Browser Sync was dropped from development. There is encryption for protection and there is need for an account from Foxmarks to let it work.

Gmail Notifier - does what it says, sits at the bottom of the browser offering a small unintrusive display of new messages. Supports multiple Gmail accounts and display prefernces.

ASNumber - Like it implies this tool displays the Autonomous System Number of the host where the website is. It also does a whois lookup to provide you with the information of the owner of the network where the website lives. Just remember that who owns the website and who owns the network may be different.

I find that this collection of extensions provide me with a great experience and enhances my surfing expererience. I hope this list might help someone put together thier favorite list of extensions too. Please add your favorite to the comments.

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CafeNinja

Information Overload

I know we've all experienced this, come back from a week vacation unplugged and all of your inboxes are full and RSS feeds are jammed full. The consensus that I've read from all of the GTD sites basically tell you to start eating less information, congregate them all in one place and if you get over your head in things you don't need but rather want that you should just mark as read all of your personal feeds and just pay attention to the work stuff until you are caught up.

I've developed a personal technique that lets me process important things for work timely during the times that I'm caught up and then mixes "info" notifications from work and personal feeds. This allows me to catch up on everything and/or keep up with priorites built in. Let me oversimplify what I mean and see if you get it.

I have a single (yes, single) email rule. I developed this system after Gmail gave me a different way to think about how to process my email. I use an archive folder and the inbox..only. The rule specifies that any email with my email address in To: or CC: get left in the inbox. All other pieces of mail go to the Archive folder. This means that for work, where I receive automated email notifications from almost every system that we have get lumped into one folder. My email applications only give me a visual or audio notification of new email in the Inbox only. That way as the tons of emails spew in during the day they don't distract me from the important things.

I have to confess that even 3 years ago I was sorting email into 40 folders based on who it was from, while this is nice in the moment, it usually prevents most email applications from being able to show a thread or discussion in one continuous flow. I then move Inbox emails to the Archive folder once the final response to the confersation has been sent. This means my inbox is actionable and the stuff in Archive is in fact done.

That way I can interact with people in my workspace, address the important email messages from customers and co-workers in real-time. I then set asside two or three times a day to check both the bulk emails and my RSS fieds. That way my time is utilized for what I need to do when I need to do it. And, the time I set aside for the lower priority bulk is usually not interupted.

I have to say that my way is grossly oversimplified for the purpose of processing hundreds of emails a day. Your case may be different, it may even be paper, but the priority built into the way it arrives at your desk is the important for you to manage your flow. The hardest part of this is when the information comes to you via channels that are beyond your control and that can produce a lot of frustration. Even for folks who receive their information in the same way as I do have a hard time taking the first step to change the way they have been processing that information for ages.

Change is good, it has really helped me in my workflow and the few co-workers I have to have seen what I do are usually impressed and benefit from seeing my method even if they only apply some of these ideas in a very high level method.

Feel free to put your real-world methods in the comments and share how you managed to make digesting all of your information in a more sane way.

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CafeNinja