Define a function vert () { echo $1 | grep -o '.'; } Use it to print some column headers paste <(vert several) <(vert parallel) <(vert vertical) <(vert "lines of") <(vert "text can") <(vert "be used") <(vert "for labels") <(vert "for columns") <(vert "of numbers") Show Sample Output

When need to pack the ZODB...

This is an on-line algorithm for calculating the mean value for numbers in a column. Also known as "running average" or "moving average".

This converts any media ffmpeg handles to flash. It would actually convert anything to anything, it's based on the file extension. It doesn't do ANY quality control, sizing, etc, it just does what it thinks is best. I needed an flv for testing, and this spits one out easily.

I have a remote php file that I want to run once an hour. I set up cron to run this wget. I don't really care about what's in the file though, I don't want to save the results, so I run the -O and send it to /dev/null

EDIT: Trolling crap removed ;) takes approx 6 secs on a Core 2 Duo @ 2GHz, and 15 secs on atom based netbooks! uses monoid (a,b).(x,y)=(ax+bx+ay,ax+by) with identity (0,1), and recursion relations: F(2n-1)=Fn*Fn+F(n-1)*F(n-1) F(2n)=(Fn+2*F(n-1))*Fn then apply fast exponentiation to (1,0)^n = (Fn,F(n-1)) . Note that: (1,0)^-1=(1,-1) so (a,b).(1,0) = (a+b,a) and (a,b)/(1,0)=(a,b).(1,0)^-1=(b,a-b) So we can also use a NAF representation to do the exponentiation,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-adjacent_form , it's also very fast (about the same, depends on n): time echo 'n=1000000;m=(n+1)/2;a=0;b=1;i=0;while(m>0){z=0;if(m%2)z=2-(m%4);m=(m-z)/2;e[i++]=z};while(i--){c=a*a;a=c+2*a*b;b=c+b*b;if(e[i]>0){t=a;a+=b;b=t};if(e[i]<0){t=a;a=b;b=t-b}};if(n%2)a*a+b*b;if(!n%2)a*(a+2*b)' | bc Show Sample Output

Calculates nth Fibonacci number for all n>=0, (much faster than matrix power algorithm from http://everything2.com/title/Compute+Fibonacci+numbers+FAST%2521 ) n=70332 is the biggest value at http://bigprimes.net/archive/fibonacci/ (corresponds to n=70331 there), this calculates it in less than a second, even on a netbook. UPDATE: Now even faster! Uses recurrence relation for F(2n), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number#Matrix_form n is now adjusted to match Fn at wikipedia, so bigprimes.net table is offset by 1. UPDATE2: Probably fastest possible now ;), uses a simple monoid operation: uses monoid (a,b).(x,y)=(ax+bx+ay,ax+by) with identity (0,1), and recursion relations: F(2n-1)=Fn*Fn+F(n-1)*F(n-1) F(2n)=Fn*(2*F(n-1)+Fn) then apply fast exponentiation to (1,0)^n = (Fn,F(n-1)) . Note that: (1,0)^-1=(1,-1) so (a,b).(1,0) = (a+b,a) and (a,b)/(1,0)=(a,b).(1,0)^-1=(b,a-b) So we can also use a NAF representation to do the exponentiation,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-adjacent_form , it's also very fast (about the same, depends on n): time echo 'n=70332;m=(n+1)/2;a=0;b=1;i=0;while(m>0){z=0;if(m%2)z=2-(m%4);m=(m-z)/2;e[i++]=z};while(i--){c=a*a;a=c+2*a*b;b=c+b*b;if(e[i]>0){t=a;a+=b;b=t};if(e[i]<0){t=a;a=b;b=t-b}};if(n%2)a*a+b*b;if(!n%2)a*(a+2*b)' | bc Show Sample Output

This command displays a simple menu of file names in the current directory. After the user made a choice, the command invokes the default editor to edit that file. * Without the break statement, the select command will loop forever * Setting the PS3 prompt is optional * If the user types an invalid choice (such as the letter q), then the variable $f will become an empty string. * For more information, look up the bash's select command Show Sample Output

This command displays a list of lines that are longer than 72 characters. I use this command to identify those lines in my scripts and cut them short the way I like it.

It's hard to beat C. This is just slightly faster than the bc version on my machine. real 0m26.856s user 0m25.030s sys 0m0.024s Requirements: libgmp headers, gcc. Show Sample Output

Using avidemux to convert multiple files that are in the folder where the command was executed.

Display man page in plain text

for bash commands don't use man use help

Overwrites the boot sector. Since this doesn't overwrite any data, you can usually recover by re-creating the partition table exactly the same as before you zeroed it. This can also help sometimes if you install a new drive in a Windows machine which can't read it.

notice what happens when there is more than one unread message in a thread... also people please dont hardcode the password when you use curl. Leave it out and curl will ask you when it runs. Please...?

This command allow you to ignore certain directories on SVN commands, like SVN STATUS. It is sad see a lot of temporary files from templates_c for each "svn status", no? ;-) This works only on directories under revision control.

This helped me find a botnet that had made into my system. Of course, this is not a foolproof or guarantied way to find all of them or even most of them. But it helped me find it.

D/l ack from http://betterthangrep.com/