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Update program providing a functionality on Debian
On Debian systems, choose which command provides java. Works for all alternatives listed in /etc/alternatives.

Find the fastest server to disable comcast's DNS hijacking
Comcast is an ISP in the United States that has started hijacking DNS requests as a "service" for its customers. For example, in Firefox, one used to be able to do a quick "I'm Feeling Lucky" Google search by typing a single word into the URL field, assuming the word is not an existing domain when surrounded by www.*.com. Comcast customers never receive the correct NX (non-existent domain) error from DNS. Instead, they are shown a page full of advertising. There is a way to "opt out" from their service, but that requires having the account password and the MAC address of your modem handy. For me, it was easier just to set static DNS servers. But the problem is, which ones to choose? That's what this command answers. It'll show you the three _non-hijacked_ Comcast DNS servers that are the shortest distance away. Perhaps you don't have Comcast (lucky you!), but hopefully this command can serve as an example of using netselect to find the fastest server from a list. Note that, although this example doesn't show it, netselect will actually perform the uniq and DNS resolution for you. Requires: netselect, curl, sort, uniq, grep

Re-read partition table on specified device without rebooting system (here /dev/sda).

Exclude multiple columns using AWK
Print all columns except the 1st and 3rd.

Help shell find freshly installed applications (re: PATH)
Immediately after installing things into your PATH (e.g. under /usr/bin), currently open shells cannot find them ("zsh: command not found"). Use rehash to get the shell to rescan available executables.

Define a quick calculator function
POSIX compliant arithmetic evaluation. = 10*2+3

List your largest installed packages (on Debian/Ubuntu)

download and unpack tarball without leaving it sitting on your hard drive

Cd Deluxe - improved cd command for *nix and windows
Hello, Take a look at this free cd replacement - "cd deluxe" a.k.a. "cdd". It is a free open source (GPLv3) application that I have created. As a long time command line enthusiast I have always been frustrated with the limited capabilities of the humble "cd" command. Especially since that is the most commonly used command line utility! See http://www.plan10.com/cdd for the full details and download information. Thanks, -Mike

check the status of 'dd' in progress


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