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Make vim open in tabs by default (save to .profile)
I always add this to my .profile rc so I can do things like: "vim *.c" and the files are opened in tabs.

find packages installed from e.g. sid which are newer than those available from e.g. testing when sid is no longer present as a source repo
This is useful if you add sid, install some packages, then remove sid and want to work out which packages you installed from sid that should be removed (e.g. before an upgrade to the new stable). Alternatively you can think of this as "find installed packages that can no longer be installed."

list block devices
Shows all block devices in a tree with descruptions of what they are.

Monitor connection statistics with netstat and watch

Remote mysql dump all databases with ssh

Create a script of the last executed command
Sometimes commands are long, but useful, so it's helpful to be able to make them permanent without having to retype them. An alternative could use the history command, and a cut/sed line that works on your platform. $history -1 | cut -c 7- > foo.sh

Measures download speed on eth0

Change a specific value in a path
Awk replaces the value of a specific field while retaining the field separator "/" .

Copy/move a bunch of files to dot files and back

list files recursively by size


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