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open two files on top of each other in vim (one window, two panes)

Display information sent by browser
Have netcat listen on port 8000, point browser to http://localhost:8000/ and you see the information sent. netcat terminates as soon as your browser disconnects. I tested this command on my Fedora box but linuxrawkstar pointed out that he needs to use $ nc -l -p 8000 instead. This depends on the netcat version you use. The additional '-p' is required by GNU netcat that for example is used by Debian but not by the OpenBSD netcat port used by my Fedora system.

vi - Change only whole words exactly matching 'http' to 'git'; ask for confirmation.
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Search_and_replace github anda limando feo ....: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/symfony2/YL1mo_cz4Ms

Reboot machine when everything is hanging
If the machine is hanging and the only help would be the power button, this key-combination will help to reboot your machine (more or less) gracefully. R - gives back control of the keyboard S - issues a sync E - sends all processes but init the term singal I - sends all processes but init the kill signal U - mounts all filesystem ro to prevent a fsck at reboot B - reboots the system Save your file before trying this out, this will reboot your machine without warning! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

shows history of logins on the server
outputs a history of logins on the server (top 10, when piped to 'head'); optional flags: '-a' put the hostname at the end of the line (good for long hostnames), '-i' post the IP instead of the hostname, '-F' put the full login and logout times, rather than short times.

Fill the screen with randomly colored lines
This one-liner fills the screen with randomly colored lines.

Converts uppercase chars in a string to lowercase
Another alternative is to define a function: lower() { echo ${@,,} } lower StrinG

Generate an XKCD #936 style 4 word password
4 random words are better than one obfuscated word http://xkcd.com/936/

Colorize matching string without skipping others
this is useful to highlight only some code without losing other lines (eg. software, logs, scripts)

show framebuffer console modes to use in grub vga option
look at /boot/grub/menu.lst for somethig like: ## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the ## alternatives ## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5 ## defoptions=vga=795 # defoptions=vga=873 ## altoption boot targets option ## multiple altoptions lines are allowed ## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options ## altoptions=(recovery) single # altoptions=(verbose mode) vga=775 debug # altoptions=(console mode) vga=ask # altoptions=(graphic mode) quiet splash # altoptions=(recovery mode) single vga=(decimal value) is framebuffer mode


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