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Using Regular Expressions in PostgreSQL Publish Date: Feb. 2, 2006
Curious are the ways of Unix and open source, where the knowledge you learn in one area often applies to others. Consider regular expressions. Perl and shell programmers love them for processing text effectively. Now Robert Bernier shows how to use regular expressions effectively in SQL statements with PostgreSQL.
Distributing Content with BitTorrent Publish Date: Aug. 25, 2005
You have good software, or audio or video, and you want to make it available to the public. If you get really popular, though, you'll spend all of your money and bandwidth being popular--and then what? Consider P2P distribution with BitTorrent, which allows your users to share pieces of your file with each other, giving them faster transfers and you fewer headaches. Robert Bernier explains.
How to Schmooze at OSCON Publish Date: Jul. 28, 2005
OSCON is next week and you have people to meet, questions to ask, and assistance to offer. Where should you spend your time, and how should you start your valuable hallway, BOF, and party conversations? Robert Bernier offers a schmoozer's guide to effective conference attendance.
Datamining Apache Logs with PostgreSQL Publish Date: Mar. 3, 2005
System log files encapsulate a wealth of information for administrators and developers. Teasing that data out of the logs into a format that reveals patterns may be a challenge, though. Robert Bernier shows how to parse, store, and query Apache httpd log data from PostgreSQL to find useful information.
Use Your Digital Camera with Linux Publish Date: Jan. 6, 2005
With the holidays over, it's time to pause, reflect, and clean up a bit. Why not download the photos from your digital camera? Don't worry, it's easy under Linux. Robert Bernier demonstrates the killer combination of gphoto2, ImageMagick, and digiKam.
Allowing Registration-Required Binary Downloads Publish Date: Oct. 21, 2004
You have a great PDF, MP3, or binary file to distribute, but you want to know who's downloading it. How hard could it be to write a little PHP program to require registration before letting your goodies loose? Robert Bernier demonstrates that it's actually pretty easy.
Create Self-Booting Movie CDs Publish Date: Aug. 26, 2004
Self-booting Linux distributions are really, really cool. They can also be really, really useful, and not just for system administrators or gamers. Robert Bernier demonstrates how he turns his precious DVDs into self-booting Linux CDs that his son can take with him.
Creating Custom Email Queries Publish Date: Jul. 22, 2004
Searching your corpus of email should be easy, but with a mishmash of text and binary attachments, it can be difficult. If you're clever, though, you can build a system to translate Microsoft Word documents into searchable, indexable text. Robert Bernier demonstrates building custom email queries with DBMail, PostgreSQL, IMAP, and a little Unix magic.
Network Your Shell Scripts with Netpipes Publish Date: May. 27, 2004
Shell scripting and automation are an administrator's most powerful tools. Unfortunately, many processes require transferring data back and forth between machines. Instead of tunnelling yet another app over HTTP or writing yet another ad-hoc protocol, why not use netpipes ? Robert Bernier explains this set of utilities that provide network-aware pipes to shell programmers.
Data Mining Email Publish Date: Apr. 8, 2004
Thousands of useful facts lie inaccessible on your hard drive, hidden within email messages and attachments. How much more productive would you be if you could extract, index, and search that information? Robert Bernier demonstrates how to store data from emails into a database, where you can use data-mining techniques to analyze it.
Making Screen-Capture Movies Publish Date: Mar. 4, 2004
A picture is worth a thousand words, especially if they're documentation. Why not make screenshots -- or, better yet, movies -- to accompany free software documentation? It's not hard. Robert Bernier demonstrates how to put all of the tools together.
Using and Customizing Knoppix Publish Date: Nov. 20, 2003
Several Linux distributions boot directly from CD-ROMs. How many are usable in that state? How many are customizable in that state? Klaus Knopper's Knoppix is perhaps the best known of these distributions. Robert Bernier explains how to use Knoppix and how to customize your own self-booting distribution CD.
Encrypted Email Cookbook Publish Date: Sep. 4, 2003
A feature of the current email protocol is that anyone can claim to be anyone else. Another feature is that email tends to be sent as plain text. Clearly, there's room for more security, including authentication (you are who you claim to be) and encryption (only the intended receiver can read a message). Robert Bernier presents several recipes for implementing authentication and encryption in your email.
Command-Line Email Publish Date: May. 22, 2003
Unix and the Internet have both come a long way in the past thirty-some years; many of the tools and protocols grew out of those early years. Email is no exception. Robert Bernier takes a look at the basic design and history of SMTP and POP3, the email protocols, and suggests some useful tricks that still work.
Secure Chat with YTalk and SSH Publish Date: Feb. 13, 2003
Instant messaging may be a "killer application" among the glitz and glamour crowd, but it's been around as long as multi-user systems. Robert Bernier re-introduces the venerable and powerful YTalk and demonstrates how it can be used securely with SSH.
