No Country for Old Men
The older I get and the more I see, the more this iconic scene with Tommy Lee Jones makes sense.
Download Speeds on Linux
System Speed Testing For general speed tests of your connection from the command line, install the “speedtest-cli” python package via “pip”: pip install speedtest-cli Then simply run “speedtest-cli” from the command line. Current Download Speeds Because download speeds are a function of several factors, including the quality of your internet uplink, the speed of your Read More …
GoToMyPC Goes Nuts
I’ve been using GoToMyPC from many years, and it has proven to be a reliable and cost-effective way to remotely connect to my work and home computers. But a few years ago the company was purchased by LogMeIn, and that was soon accompanied by crazy, rapid price increases. At one time I was paying <$100 Read More …
The Truth about “Recyclables”
In their article “Moment of Reckoning“, the Guardian reports what really happens to “recyclables” like plastic, paper, and even electronics. As China has gradually cut off the import of scrap materials from all over the world, that has left waste management officials with a dilemma: what to do with all of those materials? The answer? Read More …
Solving a Multilib Problem
In a misguided attempt to provide a user with a newer version of zlib on a CentOS 6 server, I installed a zlib-1.2.5-codice rpm. This then impacted every single application updated or installed that relied on the libz libraries. Later, I discovered that the codice install was causing issues with compiling some software due to Read More …
Disable Fastest Mirror in CentOS
Ironically, the yum test to find the “fastest mirror” can often times bog down, resulting in slower package install times. I’ve mostly disabled this feature to improve performance. To disable “fastest mirror”: vi /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/fastestmirror.conf Then change the line: enabled=1 To: enabled=0
An Interesting (and revealing) Experiment in Social Media “Standards”
Twitter (aka Twatter) demonstrating their double standards policy with one simple experiment, presented in one simple screenshot:
Thoughts on Science and God
Can a belief in God be reconciled with scientific thought? Richard Feynman (the great explainer) thought so – by acknowledging the power of uncertainty. Uncertainty and skepticism are cornerstones of good scientific practice, regardless of your metaphysical leanings. When one abandons skepticism and doubt, one devolves into a “tyranny of ideas”, and that’s not good Read More …
Diff on Linux Directory Tree
To recursively compare files quickly between 2 directories: diff –brief -r dir1/ dir2/ The “–brief” flag only shows files that differ – not the details of those differences – and the “-r” flag makes the diff recursive.
HowTo: Killing Screen Outside Screen
I had a command inside a screen session lock up on me. Here’s how to kill it from a detached shell: screen -X -S 33474 quit Where: -X denotes that we want to execute a screen command -S denotes the socket or screen number (here 33474) “quit” is the command to send to the screen