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Another Matrix Style Implementation

Advanced python tracing
Trace python statement execution and syscalls invoked during that simultaneously

Google text-to-speech in mp3 format
EDIT: command updated to support accented characters! Works in any of 58 google supported languages (some sound like crap, english is the best IMO). You get a mp3 file containing your query in spoken language. There is a limit of 100 characters for the "q" parameter, so be careful. The "tl" parameter contains target language.

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

alias to close terminal with :q
Put this in your ~/.bashrc file (or the equivalent) If you use vim a lot, this alias will be immediately obvious. Your brain will thank you.

Dump dvd from a different machine onto this one.
You can use this to directly dump from machine A (with dvd drive) to machine B (without dvd drive) . I used this to copy dvd using my friend's machine to my netbook. Above command is to be issued on machine B. Advantages : 1) No wasting time dumping first to machine A and then copying to Machine B. 2) You dont need to use space on Machine A. In fact, this will work even when Machine A doesnt have enough hdd space to dump the DVD. Use -C ssh option on slow networks (enables compression). you can replace "dd if=/dev/dvd" with any ripping command as long as it spews the iso to stdout.

Get decimal ascii code from character
the shortest command for character 'a' i know

Download an entire ftp directory using wget
If the username includes an @ you can use this one: wget -r --user=username_here --password=pass_here ftp://ftp.example.com

Watch how many tcp connections there are per state every two seconds.
slighty shorter

Testing hard disk writing speed


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