Tag: productivity

How to download a youtube video under linux command line

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Here is a great python script very useful to download an HD video from Youtube using the command line in Linux.

http://rg3.github.com/youtube-dl

It’s very simple, download and run. The result is an mp4 file that you can watch offline with VLC or Media Player Classsic under Windows or any other mp4 player under Linux.

Export putty settings

Reading Time: < 1 minute It looks like your putty sessions are stored in the registry.

 
Start up the registry editor: regedit.exe (on Windows 7, hit the windows key and type regedit.exe)
 
Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham
 
Right click on "Sessions", choose export. Give a name. Email the file.
 
On the other computer, get the file, save it, right click on it, click on merge. Done

How to get rid of conduit as a default search engine in Firefox

Reading Time: 2 minutes So it looks like this conduit thing is stuck in your browser.

First, why would any company want to do that.
A bit of datamining, a lot of google adverts money.

I don’t know for sure but maybe this company which is by the way providing some nice software most of the time, is keeping records of the searches you are entering in google. They probably don’t really build any profile on you but at least they get a good idea of what the people they are connected to are looking for on the web.

How to delete empty line with vi

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How to delete empty lines with vi?

Just type this in:

 
<esc>:g/^$/d

NOTE:  This means that all the lines that just have a carriage return on them (NO Spaces), will be removed. 

If you want to remove lines with empty spaces as well:

 
<esc>:g/^ *$/d

rename and shorten many files with bash

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Bash supports a surprising number of string manipulation functions.

For example if you want to get rid of the beginning of the name of a file or a folder on many files at a time you could do the following:

 
bash> ls
mylongfile1
mylongfile2
mylongfile3
mylongfile4
mylongfile5
mylongfile6
mylongfile7
 
bash> for i in *
> do
> mv $i ${i:6}
> done
bash> ls
file1
file2
file3
file4
file5
file6
file7
So to extract the end of a variable after a NUMBER of characters you just need to specify ${variable:NUMBER}
 

How to remove a Compeed from a sock

Reading Time: < 1 minute Compeeds have saved my life numerous times already. Some people can’t stand them, I am a strong believer and I cannot go running, play rugby, or go for a long hike without having one in my pocket.

 
They are so good that you can actually recover almost instantly from a blister. If there is blister forming under your foot, that’s where Compeed is the best, when the blister is not there yet but you know that if you go on for another 10 minutes it will turn into a blister.
 

Productivity mistake

Reading Time: < 1 minute  You think that pinning a tab would increase your productivity?

Well in some cases it can. But in most cases and if you are using the "Pin as app tab" feature of firefox like me, or simply "Pin tab" in Chrome, it can be a mistake.
 
 
It makes your email easier to access, or facebook easier to access… but wait a minute. When was the last time Facebook made me save some time?…