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command-line posts

Filed under: Linux, Web services, Social Software, Unix, Education

Command-line Fu is a good reference for *nix terminal newbies


Regardless of what operating system you happen to be running, it's always a good idea to be conversant with the command line. For new (or should that be Gnu?) Linux and Unix users, Command-line Fu is a site that deserves a spot in your bookmarks.

It's designed to be a social resource for terminal commands. Submit a command, describe it, and the community votes it up or down. Sign up for an account or log in with your OpenID to add commands to your favorites. Most submissions are tagged which allows you to easily find, for example, all the grep or ssh entries.

Command-line Fu also provides two handy ways to stay on top of new additions. All entries are tweeted to @commandlinefu and there's an RSS feed available as well.

I do have one very small gripe with the site: I wish it worked better in Lynx.

Filed under: Internet, Google, Search

Goosh: Unix shell style interface for Google

Goosh
Search engines don't get much easier to use than Google. You type what you're looking for into a text box, and the web site will spit results back at you. But if you're looking for a slightly geekier experience, you owe it to yourself to check out goosh.

Goosh has the look and feel of a Unix or Linux shell, but the site is powered by Google. If you want to conduct a web search, just enter a search term, like "download" and hit enter. If you want to search Google News you can type "news download" (without the quotes) or just "n download." You can even search Google Maps by typing "place" before your query. For a complete list of commands, type "help."

The site gives you access to a bunch of Google services from a single web page, which is kind of useful. But the site's true appeal lies in the fact that it's incredibly geeky.

[via Google Blogoscoped]

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Unix

Post to Twitter using the command line

cURL + Twitter
File this one squarely in the "because we can," category, but the Digital Streets blog has a tip for command line junkies who want to update Twitter without opening a web browser or a 3rd party application. All you need to do is install cURL, a command line utility for Linux, Windows or OS X and then send a message to Twitter with your status updates.

In Ubuntu, here's how to install cURL:
  1. Open a terminal
  2. Type "sudo apt-get install curl" (without the quotes)
  3. Enter your root password when prompted
Once cURL is installed, you just need to type the following to send a tweet (this time you should include the quotation marks around your message): curl -u yourusername:yourpassword -d status="Your Message Here" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

It's up to you to figure out why you would actually want to do this, but now you can.

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