Copy and Paste in a Linux Terminal Using Control Characters
This is something I often forget, so I'm posting it for my own sake. There are plenty of websites and forum posts out there that will tell you about how to do copy and paste text in the terminal in Xorg, but there is a lesser known way to do this without running a GUI. It's also pretty cool when you don't feel like moving your hands off the keyboard. This can be especially usefull if you type out a command then realize you need to run another command first, but you don't want to lose everything you typed. This trick works on Linux, but I haven't tried it on other systems like BSD, Solaris, etc.
The following commands are Control Characters, they are commonly shown like this in books/tutorials: ^C. The caret (^) means hold the Ctrl key, and the C is the key to press while holding Ctrl. So ^C is Ctrl+C and ^A is Ctrl+A. The letters are normally shown as capitals, but you enter them as lower case. That means don't hold the Shift key as well. It's just common to see them as capital letters.
The first thing to do is you have to move the cursor to the beginning of the line. You can do this with the Home key, the arrow keys, or ^A.
To cut use ^K.
To paste use ^Y.
Unfortunately this doesn't work across terminal sessions. So you can't be at VT2 and cut and paste to VT3. Similarly, you can't cut, start a GNU Screen session and paste into that. Same deal with SSH sessions. Regardless of these limitations it's a neat little trick that can save you time when working with a Linux system outside of a GUI.
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Preview
Since Google released the SDK for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich I decided to mess around with it using the Android Emulator included in the Android SDK. Since I only used the emulator, I can't say how the performance was, and I can't use the Android Market, so this is not a full review.
The first thing you see is the Lock Screen.
Once unlocked, this is the default home screen.
The new Notification Overlay.
Removing the clock from the home screen.
Tutorial Overlay when you first open the app drawer.
The new Dialpad.
About This Phone.
The new Mobile Data Settings.
You can encrypt your phone from the Security Settings.
New Developer Settings.
Browser while loading a page.
Browser when finished loading.
Whplash Contact Sync for Android
Since the Facebook app for Android does a horrible job of syncing Facebook friends with your address book I decided I could do better. Hence, Whiplash was born. It is currently available on the Android Market (Free!). It currently only syncs profile pictures, but later on I plan on adding phone numbers and email addresses.
Steam Daily Deals App on Android
Starting today Steam is now offering a day only deal every day for the foreseeable future, and I since I'm lazy about checking Steam I made an app for Android that will help me keep track of deals.
It's nothing fancy, it only shows a bit of text and it currently force closes if you're not connected to the Internet. But given some more time I can improve on it.
Below is the Qr code to install the app. Or you can find it on the Market by searching for my username, jcnix.
Osama bin Laden is dead! But who cares?
As many of you may already know, Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan earlier this week. I've noticed that a lot of people are celebrating this fact, and there has been much praise for the United States military. Additionally, there are people who want to see photos of bin Laden's dead body because they don't believe that he is really dead.
With regard to the people who are unconvinced of his death, I think they're being idiotic. In my opinion, it doesn't even matter if he is alive or dead. He hasn't done anything in the last 10 years, and he was unlikely to do anything again. I think the people asking for photos of mutilated corpses just have a sick fetish for that kind of thing, and combined with the most hated man in the US they just can't contain themselves. I get what they're saying about not trusting the government, but really? This isn't that important. If you don't believe it, then whatever; it doesn't matter.
I'm far outside the mainstream on this issue because I'm not celebrating his death. I believe that is disgusting how people are celebrating the death of another person, and then they have the gall to call it "justice". It wouldn't be so bad if people would call it "revenge" because that's what it is. Mass murderer or not, he is still a human and he deserved a fair trial just like everyone else. Now, I don't think we should mourn for him, but we should at least be apathetic. Partying in the streets is just sickening.
Again, I don't know why people are celebrating in the first place. We already lost. We're willing to take off our shoes and be groped at airports, so what makes anyone think that we won? The PATRIOT Act is still in effect thanks to President Bush and President Obama. I don't know about you, but I'd say the the terrorists succeeded in bankrupting our nation with 10 years of war and convincing us to destroy our own Constitution to protect ourselves from an irrelevant threat. You're probably more likely to drown in your own bathtub than get killed by a terrorist act. Therefore we should have a TSA agent watch you bathe right? Now that bin Laden is dead, one might think that the PATRIOT Act and the TSA will go away, but that's not going to happen. Even now, the US is tightening up security because they think the terrorists will retaliate. One boogeyman down, and 100 take it's place.
Lastly, I'm unimpressed with the work of the military. It took nearly 10 years to track down one person who wasn't even trying that hard to hide. Good job I guess? We're definitely putting that 600 billion dollar defense budget to good use. At least now I know that if the government is ever after me, they'll probably never come close to finding where I am.
So yep, I don't know what all the fuss is about over bin Laden's death. The whole celebration thing is disturbing, and you all should probably stop that. People are putting too much emphasis into this and not the real issues in America which I will cover in future blog posts.