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Create AUTH PLAIN string to test SMTP AUTH session
I use this as an alias: alias authplain "printf '\!:1\0\!:1\0\!:2' | mmencode | tr -d '\n' | sed 's/^/AUTH PLAIN /'" then.. # authplain someuser@somedomain.com secretpassword AUTH PLAIN c29tZXVzZXJAc29tZWRvbWFpbi5jb20Ac29tZXVzZXJAc29tZWRvbWFpbi5jb20Ac2VjcmV0cGFzc3dvcmQ= #

Show all available cows
There are lots of different cow options to use, this script will show them all

Send your svn diff to meld
If you like to view what has been changed between revision 100 and the BASE on FILE. Meld will give you a nice overview.

Print trending topics on Twitter

Format partition with ext4 but without a journal
For slow flash memory (cheap thumb drive), ext4 is the fastest stable file system for all use cases with no relevant exception: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/7208/1 Since we can usually dispense with the benefits of a journal for this type of storage, this is a way to achieve the least awful I/O-speed. Disabling the journal for an existing ext4 partition can be achieved using $ tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sdXN Note that it is often recommended to format removable flash media with ext2, due to the lack of a journal. ext4 has many advantages over ext2 even without the journal, with much better speed as one of the consequences. So the only usecase for ext2 would be compatibility with very old software.

Set laptop display brightness
Run as root. Path may vary depending on laptop model and video card (this was tested on an Acer laptop with ATI HD3200 video). $ cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness to discover the possible values for your display.

Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS
Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

converting vertical line to horizontal line

Check your unread Gmail from the command line
Just an alternative with more advanced formating for readability purpose. It now uses colors (too much for me but it's a kind of proof-of-concept), and adjust columns.

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.


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