Whether you're setting up accounts for existing users on a new server or providing accounts for a crop of new staff members on your primary server, it's nice to be able to do the job quickly and accurately. The newusers command in Linux is designed to make this process as smooth as possible, but it may not do everything you expect -- especially if your data file is, uh, sloppy. Let's take a look at what it does and where it might fall short of expectations.

Bash has quietly made scripting on Unix systems a lot easier with its own regular expressions. If you're still leaning on grep and sed commands to get your scripts to do what you need from them, maybe it's time to look into what bash can do on its own.

Cron is not in charge; you are. All you need to do is tell it what you want done and when you want it done.

Former MIT CIO Marilyn Smith recently said in an interview that to enhance your IT career, you should 'exit and then return to IT.' Her reasoning: 'Your time working outside of IT will enhance your perspective on how to best serve your internal clients and also position you to be a business partner, rather than a service provider to other business areas.

How often have you as a mobile web developer struggled to diagnose a style or layout issue on a particular device through trial and error? Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could just inspect the DOM on the mobile device as you would on the desktop through Chrome or Firebug? It turns out there is a tool for that.

While pipes are one of the things that make Unix such a powerful and versatile operating system, they don't always make sense. Many people still fall into the "useless use of a pipe" habit while still others use pipes in situations in which pipes simply don't function at all. Knowing when to pipe and when not to pipe remains a sign of Unix mastery. If you want to look Unix savvy, use pipes only when they provide a critical service and never when they're superfluous or downright wrong.

You were warned that it was coming and it has come. Blackouts of the Twitter API v1 have begun and sites are starting to be affected. This transition is comparable to airport security pre and post 9/11. Welcome to the new normal.

If you’ve got a data heavy web application, chances are you’re doing a lot of form posting. Here is a quick solution to automatically convert all of your full form posts into quick and user friendly AJAX posts.