I look at xkcd in my news reader, but it displays the image's title attribute only for a few seconds which makes reading the longer ones more challenging. So I use this to display it in my console.

Here's an alternative if you don't have seq.

This version uses a bash function and does not print the path to the module. Show Sample Output

If you don't have seq or shuf, bash can be used.

If you don't have seq, you can use perl.

Here's a perl version that only considers printable characters. Change the regex /[[:print:]]/ to look for different sets of delimiter characters.

xxd can convert a hexdump back to binary using the -r option which can be useful for patching or editing binary files.

Here's a bash version.

If you do not have shuf or an -R option in sort, you can fall back on awk. This provides maximum portability IMO. The command first collects words from the dictionary that match the criteria - in this case: lower case words with no punctuation that are 4 to 8 characters long. It then prints 4 random entries. I decided to print each word on a separate line to improve readability.

If your wc does not have the -L option, you can use awk.

This version uses read instead of eval.

Here's a bash version using an array.

This version compresses the data for transport.

A bash version.

This version does not rely on a 3rd party service. Just put this in a bash cgi on your own server.

Another option is openssl.

This will first remove any leading white space. If the line then starts with a comment character, it is cleared. If the result is an empty line, it's deleted. This allows for comment lines with leading white space.

Fun idea! This one adds seconds and keeps running on the same line. Perl's probably cheating though. :)

Today I needed a way to print various character classes to use as input for a program I was writing. Also a nice way to visualize character classes. Show Sample Output