Running programs in the background

A problem faced by people especially those new to Linux is that they launch programs from the terminal and then open up another terminal to start a new program. Before they know it, the entire desktop gets cluttered with terminal windows. An alternative to the above problem is the use of the '&' symbol passed as a command line argument. See the examples given below,

Method 1 : Run a command -

mozilla

Method 2 : Run a command in the background -

mozilla & 

Both the above commands will run the Mozilla Web Browser but the second command will free up your terminal or command window once Mozilla launches successfully. But if you want to debug your program or view the output it throws, use Method 1

Recover a lost MMC password for your Symbian phone

So you locked your MMC with a password and now you'e forgotten the password. Well, here's what you can do -

1. Download FExplorer from http://www.gosymbian.com

2. Goto c:\system with FExplorer. Find this file mmcstore

3. Choose Options>File>Text/Hex viewer

You will find your password in the end part of the sets of zeroes. If ur password for example is "synapse" then it will show in a format something like "000000synapse" 

An alternate method is to download a program called MMCPwd. Google for it. 

Flash SMS and Guardian

I happened to come across this site on google when I was searching for some new Symbian applications. Both these applications are written by the same developer - Marco Bellino and I must say they are *amazing*

What is more amazing is the fact that the developer offers these apps completely free of charge. If you want you can make a donation and enable some more features or simply use their free versions available for download from the developers site.

FlashSMS is the first Symbian Series 60 software able to send flash-sms without needing of any additional service. Nothing to
configure, just write your sms and select the recipient.

Guardian is the new antitheft system for Symbian Series 60 devices. Every time you switch on your mobile telephone, Guardian proceeds with
authentication of the inserted sim card; if authentication fails,
Guardian send a notification sms message to a previously set telephone
number. In addition, the system features remote control functions,
i.e. deleting your photographs/phone book/text messages/video/audio
data in case of loss or theft of your mobile phone (see Plugins section).

Click here to go to the site and download these great tools.

Enable a procedural language in Postgres

If you wish to add any language support to your PostgresSQL database use the createlang command from your terminal. For eg: To add PLPGSQL support -

su

su postgres

createlang plpgsql -d template1

where -d signifies name of the database. The other command line arguments that the createlang command takes are -

Installing Nvidia drivers on Debian in 3 steps!

You will find hundreds of articles on the net about installing Nvidia drivers on your Debian box. Here’s a 3 step method that worked for me -

spooky:~> apt-get install module-assistant
spooky:~> m-a prepare
spooky:~> m-a auto-install nvidia

Huge list of freeware/open source software

For those of you who hate paying for their software, here is a huge list of freeware / open source software. P.S - I have not compiled this list. I just got it through an email received from a friend. The list includes Windows as well as Linux software.

3D Graphics:
3Delight Free - http://www.3delight.com/index.htm
Anim8or - http://www.anim8or.com/
Aqsis - http://www.aqsis.com/
Blender - http://www.blender3d.org/
Houdini (Free Edition) - http://www.sidefx.com/apprentice/index.html
Now3D - http://digilander.libero.it/giulios/Eng/homepage.htm
OpenFX - http://www.openfx.org
POV-Ray - http://www.povray.org/
SOFTIMAGE|XSI EXP - http://www.softimage.com/products/exp/v3/
Terragen - http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
Toxic - http://www.toxicengine.org/
Wings 3D - http://www.wings3d.com/

Using a USB pen drive in Linux

USB pen drives / flash disks have become pretty popular and cheap. The newer distros automount these drives however in the older Linux distros one had to manually mount the USB drive in order to access its contents. Here’s how you can do it -

sudo mkdir /mnt/usbdisk

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdisk

After this you can easily access the contents of your USB disk using cd /mnt/usbdisk The filesystem can also be specified by using the -t argument to the mount command. Do a man mount for more details on the mount command.

Easy reminder from the command line

Why use complicated programs when you can easily set up a reminder for yourself from the command line. Here’s how -

( sleep 10 && echo -e “Wake up lazy bum!\a” ) &

Here 10 is the number of seconds before the alarm triggers off. -e is to echo a message. The \a is the escape sequence used yo make your  pc beep. You can modify the above command by adding some cutomization like running a program after a specified period etc. That’s all!

Tweak Firefox beyond expectations!

Firefox is a great browser and I just can’t write enough about this amazing piece of software. Here’s another reason why I love Firefox (coz I can tweak the crap out of it!) -

1. Start Firefox

2. Type about:config in the address bar and press enter

3. Access advanced options and hidden configuration not available from Edit > Preferences

Click here to read the official documentation about this feature.

Windows XP shortcuts and hidden features

This isn’t compiled by me got them from an email forward sent by a friend. Nonetheless, they are pretty useful -

Useful Shortcuts:
Start + M: Minimizes all open windows
Start + Shift + M: Maximizes All Windows
Start + E: Runs Windows Explorer
Start + R: Open the RUN Dialog Box
Start + F: Open the Search Results Dialog box
Start + CTRL + F: Opens the Search Results-Computer dialog Box (if the
computer is connected to a network)
Start + Pause (Break): Opens the System Properties Dialog Box