Unix as a Second Language

Sandra Henry-Stocker has been administering Unix systems for more than 25 years. She describes herself as "USL" (Unix as a second language) but remembers enough English to write books and buy groceries. She currently works for TeleCommunication Systems -- a company that builds innovative technologies to make critical connections happen -- where no one else necessarily shares any of her opinions. This blog offers advice for everyday Unix systems administration and some clever ways to approach more challenging problems. Send comments and suggestions to mailto:bugfarm@gmail.com.

by Sandra Henry-Stocker

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Sandra Henry-Stocker has been administering Unix systems for more than 25 years. She describes herself as "USL" (Unix as a second language) but remembers enough English to write books and buy groceries. She currently works for TeleCommunication Systems -- a company that builds innovative technologies to make critical connections happen -- where no one else necessarily shares any of her opinions. Send comments and suggestions to bugfarm@gmail.com.

Unix tip: 7-Zip to the rescue

Posted Dec 30, 2008 - 04:55 pm

Need to build or extract files from archives in a wide range of formats? Ever heard of 7-Zip? Now that I've used it, it goes into my standard tool set!
Personal Tech, 7-Zip, extract package
Unix tip: Monitoring networks with Nagios

Posted Dec 23, 2008 - 09:04 pm

Nagios is a free, open source too for monitoring small to large, complex networks. It can be very easy or very complex to configure, but it provides for sophisticated, proactive monitoring and there's a great book to help you get it working just the way you want.
IT Management, Nagios 3.0, networking monitoring
Unix tip: Useful Unix aliases

Posted Dec 17, 2008 - 02:46 pm

Unix aliases provide an easy way to customize your working environment. Let's look at some especially useful aliases that you might like.
Operating Systems, aliases, favorite
Bristle.com - High on content, low on frills

Posted Dec 08, 2008 - 08:27 pm

Need to learn Unix or Ajax, do a price comparison or figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar acronym? Let Fred Bristle give you suggestions on where to begin your search.
Tech & society, Fred Bristle, Sandra Henry-Stocker
Unix tip: Monitor disk arrays with sccli commands

Posted Dec 04, 2008 - 11:13 am

Disk arrays take a lot of worry about disk failure off your shoulders, but that's no reason not to notice when one goes bad. The sccli command can tell you a lot about what's happening with your StorEdge arrays. Let it warn you about disks gone bad.
Hardware, array, failure
Linux command: Side by side diff

Posted Nov 26, 2008 - 01:46 pm

Tired of looking at strings of "28,30d27" characters separating the differences between files you're comparing? Try a side by side diff listing that works the way your brain does.
Open Source, diff, diffutils
Unix commands: The best tool for the job

Posted Nov 19, 2008 - 01:50 pm

With Unix, there are always many ways to do a single thing, but sometimes one approach is just a lot better! Let's look at a couple examples of commands that are right for the job.
Operating Systems, awk, grep -c
Greening the Data Center

Posted Nov 12, 2008 - 04:20 pm

Think you're the only one having problems keeping your data center cool and powered up? Think again. At least the Green Grid (an international non-profit organization with a mandate to increase energy efficiency in the IT sector) is coming up with answers and I got to go to a trade show!
Green IT, consolidation, cooling
Discovering PHP

Posted Nov 05, 2008 - 03:04 pm

It's no wonder that many content management systems are written in PHP. With enough practice, you could probably write one yourself. Check out this tutorial and cookbook for a head start on learning this extremely versatile language.
Internet, CGI, PHP cookbook
Squeezing out the white space

Posted Oct 29, 2008 - 11:22 am

Ever need to clean up some sloppy text? You can squeeze out extra white space with some very simple Perl commands. Let's take a look at how this works.
Operating Systems, Perl, Sandra Henry-Stocker

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