potatOKorner

Install Twitter Search Widget

2009-10-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

When I started blogging again last September, I was delighted to get a template with built-in message polling to twitter. I played with it a bit and settled with the look you see at the right. I am not a prolific 'twitterer', but I love the whole concept of micropublishing.

Sometimes when I feel lazy but I want something new in potatokorner; I'd post a tweet, from quotes to funny videos, just to see the widget change(LOL). Great as it is - it's not perfect. What the widget lacks is interactivity. One day, I started planning (with frameworks like Jquery and Mootools in mind), to make a custom widget that can access twitter API with features like searching for a user's tweets or scrolling through a Trending Topic . Also thought adding some nice animation and CSS styles. Luckily, I don't have to; the nice peeps from Twitter beat me to the punch and released a widget - packing almost all the things I wanted. I experimented with this along with some feed scripts from Google a days back (Updates on Pepeng).

What is a Twitter Search Widget!?

The widget's concept is to supply the it with a search term (or phrase), like 'potatokorner' and it will periodically check twitter.com for tweets with the word potatokorner - but not just tweets by yours truly - every single tweet which it appears. Unlike a regular search the widget periodically pulls messages from the site(twitter) and displays it in a marquee. Twitter.com describes it,

"Displays search results in real time! Ideal for live events, broadcastings, conferences, TV Shows, or even just keeping up with the news."

Get the widget

Making your widget is easy. Log in to twitter.com. Open the Settings page, then click "You can add twitter to your site here".

You are asked where you want to place your widget, click "My Website".

Then, you are presented three widgets, choose the "Search Widget".

Now what you have before you is the heart of the "search widget" configuration.

You'll learn when you've finally playing with your new widget that it's a parsing nightmare when people add tags even if their topics are not related, especially when it's a "trending topic". Fortunately, Twitter.com provided quite a collection of filters to narrow down your search. You can limit tweets to a certain vicinity( near:{location}) or screen out certain words ( -{word}), you can even limit them to happy ones ( :) ). See Advance operators to build your strings. I won't touch this much, but I'll explain what I'm going to use.

For our example, I want to add a twitter search widget to find tweets with the word "party", but I only want positive or happy tweets! , thus the smiley, " :) ". The smiley is a generic one, but twitter is smart enough to find all the variations (e.g. ":D","=)" etc. ). Now lets test it.

Great! It's working. As you can see, there are only a few tweets shown. It gives it an air of history unfolding. If you like it to show all the tweets in history at once, we'll move to that later. Now that our search string is tested and working. You have the option of changing the "Title" and "Caption". Lets leave the title alone and match our search string to the Caption.

So far so good, let's see how we can configure tweets. Choose preferences. This tab controls how your tweets will look and behave.

Enable "Poll New Results?", if you want the widget to continue checking the public timeline of relevant tweets to your search. (Default: Checked)

Enable "Enable Scrollbars", if you need to be able to review the rest of the resulting tweets without waiting for it to loop. (Default: Checked)

Behavior has two values, its either "timed interval" or "load all tweets." Default behavior is timed interval - tweets are shown one at a time, kind of like a news marquee. When set as timed interval, you have an option to set how much time it takes before showing more results(Interval). You can also set if you want it to repeat the results when all the tweets have been shown(Loop Results).

"Load all tweets" on the other hand, set's the widget to show all the tweets related to your search - all in one go. No fancy animation. Kind of boring to me, but someone out there might have a use for it.

For our example, let's leave it as is.

For really large results, you can increase or decrease the number of tweets to show.

Finally, you also have control over how your tweets will look like. If you only need the messages without people's faces polluting the content area, unset "Show Avatar".

If the time the message was sent doesn't interest you, you can remove it by unchecking "Show Timestamps".

Finally, if seeing hashtags so many times is starting to strain your eyes, hide it by unchecking "Show hashtags". I find helpful when my search word is a hashtag.

Now for aesthetics, lets change colors to match my site.

I'll leave the dimensions as is. Unfortunately, you can not test the numbers you have set for the widget. You just have to see how it looks in your page - and decide if you need to adjust. Note you can let the widget grow into the container you want to place it, or if you're just not sure how to adjust it to fit your site - you can try setting "auto-width".

I'm happy with the results, click "Finish and Grab Code" button to get the code. See our results below.

Simply insert the code into your page's html and you're done. see results here

There you have it, shown you how to get the widget. Now go play with your new toy! If you have a problem installing, just leave a comment or email me at http://scr.im/chrisbautista.

Some closing tips

1) If you're using a fluid-width layout, you might find auto-width useful.
2) Use the minus operator(-) plus word (you want to leave out) in the search parameter to narrow your search.
3) If you'll remove the scrollbar, enable "Loop results" so you'll be able to see all the results.
4) I found the optimum interval for showing tweets is 5 secs, but of course it depends on what you intend to use it for.
5) Sometimes, you can clean your results by showing hashtags and filtering unwanted tags out with minus(-).
6) Enable scrollbars if you chose to load all results.

bit.ly, a simple url shortener

2009-10-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

It started with TinyURL, URL aliasing/shortening has become big business with similar sites growing out of the woodwork(See URL Shortening - History). With other unrelated services following the trend, like scr.im(email aliasing) and twt.fm(promotes music), adding value to support our slowly growing twittering society. Bit.ly is one such revolutionary child; but this child has grown big enough to even rival TinyURL.

What so great about bit.ly?

It accomplishes it task, but with flair. I love that bit.ly provides a means for me to track how many clicked the URLs i sent. Might be the reason for it's sudden increase in popularity for such a short period. It doesn't hurt either that it's officially endorsed by twitter.com.

The member's site has a number of features but I'll concentrate on URL shortening and tracking.

Above screenshot you see the URL entry tool in RED dashed borders. This is where you jam your uber long URL. Usually, URL shortening is more conveniently done via an API call via a tool in your client software. But if you're just want your un-memorize-able URL to be easier to carry around or share then the web tool should suffice.

bit.ly, a simple url shortener

All You Need Is A Browser

2009-10-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

The web has become more than just a glorified paperless library, now it has become a place where everyone works, plays and meet up. This has become more true with the surge of desktop applications to their web equivalents (email, desktop publishing, spreadsheet etc.) and the advancement in web technologies(AJAX, HTML5 etc). More and more I find myself using online versions of my computer's desktop. Having been hosted on a remote server I enjoy; savings in storage space, automatic backups, safety from physical hardware damage(like for some of my friends affected by Typhoon Ondoy) and ready support(depends on the service provider). Though you do need to constantly have a decent internet connection, for me it works just fine. If you're interested, read on!.

What you need?

You need to install Google's Chrome browser. No specific channel. Though I recommend using "Dev", for plugin support and cutting edge stuff. Secondly a list of online services that emulates software you normally would install like Gmail/YahooMail(Email), Grooveshark(Music Player) etc. Also, depending on the web application, you might need to register for accounts to use their services.

How?

The secret of this system is Chrome's create application shortcuts. It's a menu item inside the page menu, shown below.

Why use this you say, when you can simply bookmark the sites URL. Firstly, making webapps as application shortcuts makes them readily accessible; without the extra steps of opening a browser and finding the bookmark. Also, to get the illusion of a desktop app, we need the chrome(extra browser sections like the menu bar, status bar etc) to disappear(See below) leaving only the application in its intended glory.

What is more awesome is whatever favicon image the site has, is saved with the shortcut as an icon.

Note: This system can work for other browsers. I just used Chrome since most of what I need are Google Apps. So if you know how to do this in Firefox or IE then go ahead.
Let's get started. Say we need an email client. You have either a choice between a webmail client, like Gmail and Yahoo Mail, or a POP/IMAP client like Squirrel or Horde installation. Let's go with Gmail. You log in to Gmail - find a comfortable page like the inbox or the login page. Normally for security purposes I'd go with the login page, but since I'm the only one using this workstation lets make it easy for me and pick the Inbox as our starting page.

Now a popup should appear asking where you want to place your shortcut. It can be on the Desktop, the start menu, or a shortcut on the Quicklaunch bar. This is just a matter of preference. I prefer the Quicklaunch bar to maintain the minimalist feel of this system.

Voila! you now have an email client on steroids. Well, almost. You can configure Gmail some more to personalize it. I'll cover this part in a future post. Repeat this for other applications, each time finding the "comfortable" starting page when you create the shortcuts. Fortunately for you I've listed a number of them below to get you started.

Update 2010/08/21: If you don't like Chrome. Mozilla's Prism accomplishes the same thing.

Download from here.

Applications

Office Alternative(Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.)

Email

Calendar and Tasks

Music Player/Online Radio

Picture Organizer

Instant Messaging

Meebo

If you know other similar applications or more web alternatives to desktop applications, please don't hesitate to mention in it in your comments.

Read some more

http://www.google.com/support/chrome/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-great-alternatives-to-google-docs-you-should-consider/
http://alternativeto.net
http://brontesaurus.com/blog/2008/12/3-webmail-alternatives/

What Browser?

2009-10-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

WhatBrowser.org?

Ever wondered what a browser truly is? Or know someone you've been trying to educate for a long time to use one? Ever met someone who keeps confusing a browser with a webpage? Are you still at hairs end trying to pick the best one? Don't fret, Google comes to the rescue again.

Built by "some folks from Google", WhatBrowser.org is a site dedicated to what we all would agree to be the most used application in any computer, "the Browser". Any Operating System has it in some form or another(Anyone said Lynx(?). Companies battle it out for supremacy, sometimes even forcing their religion; I mean browser, down our throats. Whatever a browser is or where it came from, it paved the way for the information superhighway AKA The Internet. That is cause for celebration and dedicatory site, won't you agree?

WhatBrowser.org is kind of timely if you think Oct 13 will be birthday no. 15 of the commercial browser. Imagine software, a teener! No wonder some people still gets confused (LOL).

Visit the site

When you visit the site, you are presented a video. The video is a cute presentation of what a browser Is and what it is Not. It continues with what you can do with it(browser). Watch the video. It may amuse you and educate you a bit at the same time. Also opposite the video is the name of the browser you used to access the site, the user-agent. You can see that I use Chrome. I will admit that lacking plugins for Chrome was kind of a turn off at first, but with the release of the dev channel and it's plugin support, I found myself doing more and more work with it, but thats a topic for another day.

Your user-agent may not be what you expect it to be,since some browsers enable you to change user agents. The site also has 3 more sections below the video, linking to other features/services. I especially like the "Under the hood" page. There you can subject your browser to some benchmarking tests. I'll post a comprehensive post related to this tests later.

WhatBrowser.Org

The site is a awesome idea. Maybe in the near future, the site will grow and provide even more tools to help us understand and make the most out of our "browsers".

What Browser? - Home

Read some more

Funny Video: Animator vs Animated

2009-10-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

Shared for your viewing pleasure.

Programmers beware the evil of AI! LOL!

Updates on Pepeng

2009-10-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

Though Typhoon Pepeng(Pharma) spared Metro Manila, it's still wreaking havoc to thousands of our countrymen up North. Let's pray for them and if we can, help in getting the information to government units (Like the NDCC, PNC etc.). Using the latest twitter search widget and Google Ajax Feeds, I'm setting up this page as an outpost to get updates on Typhoon Pepeng. Use it as you see fit.

Reminder: If the feeds don't show, you might need to enable Javascript.
Bookmark this page for the latest news on Bagyong Pepeng.

Together let's be vigilant!

Loading ...

OCR API on Google Docs(not yet)

2009-09-30T00:41:00.000-07:00

Google API blog announced today, new features for their Documents List - Data APIs (DLDA) - one of which is Optical Character Recognition(OCR). To put it simpy, sending an image(with readable text) to a DLDA application, when OCR is enabled into the request, will equip the API to read the image and generate a properly editable document.

Applied Fiction

Agent 007 photographed a top secret document he needs to deliver to M in CSV format (LOL). Q is not around to give him a nifty watch-slash-camera with OCR features. Good thing he also talks geek and plays with GoogleAPIs. He uploads the digital image into Google Docs and after a length of a blink, he gets a text version of the document. M receives the document, sends Bond a beautiful accountant to "help" him, found the location of the villain, saves the world - the end.

summary: 007:The Gold Potato that Never Dies Tomorrow

Oh, I forgot he gets to trash another Aston Martin while saving the girl(not the accountant).

OCR is not integrated into Google Docs Home interface yet, but this API improvement is a step closer. Heres, a mockup of how I believe this feature would integrate into Google Docs's upload function.

The feature is still in its early stages, shown by errors and misses in documents generated by the live demo. The developers did say to use high quality images.

OCR will only work well on high-resolution images. The quality of the extracted text isn't perfect yet, but we're busy improving it!

Miss or not, this is all very exciting, especially for Google Doc users like myself.

source: http://googledataapis.blogspot.com/2009/09/import-scans-or-go-multilingual.html

Updated list of Verified Relief Centers

2009-09-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

src: http://news.xinhuanet.com

Here's another repost.A list of verified in-kind drop off points for Ondoy victims relief operations. Includes what they need and who to contact.

For updates keep checking gmanewstv.com

Update: List of verified relief centers for 'Ondoy' victims

QUEZON CITY

UP College of Arts and Letters

Go to: College of Arts and Letters (CAL)
University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
Hotline: 09296454102 (Prof. Roselle Pineda)
Look for: Guard on Duty (in UP CAL)
Operations: 24 hours until Wednesday tentatively
You can:

Donate medicines, clothes, blankets, food to be distributed by Citizens’ Disaster Response Center.

Erica Paredes

Go to: Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City
(Call or text contact number for complete address) Contact #: 09174741930
Look for: Erica Paredes
Operations: Throughout the week tentatively, from 10 am to 6 pm
You can:

Donate ready-to-eat foods like hard-boiled egg, bread, packed juice, sandwich filling

Volunteer to prepare sandwiches and distribute goods

NoyMar Relief Operations – QC

Go to: Balay Expo Center, Farmers Market, Cubao or in White Space, Pasong Tamo Ext., Near BMW, Makati
Look for: Clare Amador or Jana Vicente
Hotlines: 09285205508, 09285205499, 0908-6579998, 0939-3633436, 9137122
Operations: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the week until further notice.
Website: www.marroxas.com
You can:

Donate drinking water, old medicines, clothing, blankets, canned goods, noodles

Volunteer to man stations and repack food.

Miriam Quiambao and World Vision Development Foundation

Go to: One Orchard Road Building in Eastwood or at the World Vision office at 389 Quezon Avenue, corner West 6th St., Quezon City
Hotline: 0917-8623209
Look for: The guard in the lobby (on One Orchard Road)
Website: http://www.twitter.com/miriamq, www.worldvision.org.ph
Operations: Until Sept. 28, 2009 (Monday), 24-hour operation
You can:

Donate goods like clothes, blankets, canned goods, crackers, mattress, hygiene kits, noodles, bottled water, oatmeal, instant coffee, sugar (for relief pack to be distributed by World Vision)

Volunteer to help repack relief goods for World Vision starting today at 7pm

Deposit cash donations to World Vision Development Foundation, BPI savings account number 4251002415 and BDO savings account number 270043411

Philippine Army

Go to: Philippine Army Gym inside Fort Bonifacio, Makati or General Head Quarter’s Gym in Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, EDSA, Quezon City
Hotline: 892-3417 (direct line), 845-9555 (trunkline) local. 6464 and 6466
Look for: Any personnel on duty
Operations: Ongoing everyday for 24 hours until further notice
You can:

Donate relief goods (no cash)

Call hotline for rescue, evacuation or relief assistance.

Call to report missing persons

Papemelroti Gifts and Decorative Accessories

Go to: 91 Roces Ave., Corner Scout Tobias, Quezon City or mall branches in Ali Mall Cubao, SM City North EDSA, SM Fairview, SM Megamall, Glorietta 3 in Makati, SM Centerpoint, SM Southmall
Hotline: refer to website for individual branch numbers
Website: www.papemelroti.com
Operations: Mall hours (10am-9pm), ongoing everyday until further notice
You can:

Donate goods like canned goods, clothings, blanket, cooking utensils and other relief goods EXCEPT cash.

Ateneo de Manila University Disaster Response Group

Go to: Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights , Quezon City, Manuel V. Pangilinan Building Center for Student Leadership Lobby, University Dorm Cervini Hall
Hotlines: 09089977166, 09178952792, 4266001 local 5050
Look for: Gio Tiongson, President, Sanggunian ng mga Mag-aaral
Website: www.ateneosanggu.com
Operations: 24-hour operations for the entire week
You can:

Donate goods like bottled water, sardines, canned goods, candles, cup noodles.

Volunteer to help repack relief goods, administer basic first aid.

Report missing persons.

Seek evacuation/temporary shelter at University Dorm Cervini Hall.

Citizens Disaster Response Center (CDRC)

Go To: 72-A Times St., West Triangle Homes, Quezon City.
Hotlines: 9299820, 9299822
Operations: 8 a.m. onwards.
You can:

Donate money, old clothes, blanket, bigas, munggo.

Volunteer to help distribute goods.

Radio Veritas

Go To: Veritas Tower , West Ave. corner EDSA
Look For: Karla Turingan
Hotlines: 9257931 to 39, 0918VERITAS
Operations: 24-hours, tentatively until Tuesday.
You can:

Donate old clothes, food, assorted goods, bottled water, cash.

Our Lady of Pentecost Parish

Go to: 12 F. dela Rosa cor. C. Salvador Streets, Loyola Heights , Quezon City
Hotlines: 632 4342397, 63 2 9290665
Operations: 7 a.m. till 10 p.m. Sunday, until further notice.
You Can:

Donate packed meals, bottled water.

MAKATI/TAGUIG/MUNTINLUPA

Victory Fellowship – Fort Bonifacio

Go to: Victory Fellowship, Every Nation Building , across Market-Market, Fort Bonifacio
Look for: Pastor Bernard Marquez
Hotlines: 813-FORT, 8171212
Operations: Tentatively until 5pm, may may extend hours. Entire week until Friday.
Website: www.twitter.com/VictoryFort
You can:

Donate canned goods, milk, bottled water, clothes, cash.

Volunteer to help pack relief goods

Sacred Heart of Jesus Chaplaincy

Go to: Hillsborough Village, Cupang, Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila
Hotline: 8428148, 8079847
Look for: Genelyn Sembrano, Meanne Cuneta
Website: www.sacredheartofjesus-alabang.org
Operations: Tuesday-Sunday (Sept. 29-Oct 4). 8 am to 12 noon, 2 to 6 pm
You can:

Donate water, blankets, shoes, clothes and other goods

Donate in cash

PASIG CITY

LUZON RELIEF: Volunteer / Donate / Pray

Go to: Renaissance Fitness Center, 2nd Floor, Bramante Building, Renaissance Towers, Ortigas, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City
Hotline: 0929-8713488
Look for: Warren Habaluyas, co-founder
E-mail: luzonrelief@gmail.com
Operations: Monday to Saturday (Sept. 28-Oct. 3), 9am-7pm
You can:

Donate non-perishable food items, beddings, pillows, blankets, clothes

You can donate cash but it is not encouraged

- Compiled by Annalyn Ardoña and Patricia Faustino, GMA NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Update: some more info from google-ondoy page

Google Ondoy Help Page

2009-09-28T03:39:00.000-07:00

Updates: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/helping-victims-of-tropical-storm.html

Google joins the Filipino nation in helping those affected by Typhoon Ondoy!

I am reposting the info here if you have time please check the actual google page.

http://www.google.com/landing/typhoon-ondoy.html

Help for Typhoon Ondoy Victims in the Philippines

On September 26, 2009, Typhoon Ondoy brought a month's worth of rainfall to Metro Manila and nearby areas in just a few hours, causing severe flooding which resulted in the loss of many lives and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. This site compiles relevant information about the disaster, including a volunteer-maintained map of persons needing rescue and a list of relief organizations accepting donations, so that more help can be provided where it is needed. You can also keep track of the latest news on Google News and YouTube.

Know someone who needs help?

A group of volunteer map makers have been maintaining the map below, which documents flood updates and persons needing rescue. If you know someone who needs help urgently or if you would like to report the status of the flood in your area, pleasecomplete this form. The information will be sent to the group's main database for posting on the map.

View Ondoy situation map for Metro Manila in a larger map

Disclaimer: This map was initiated by a group of volunteers not directly connected with Google. We cannot guarantee 100% accuracy of all placemarks. If you are familiar with Google Maps and would like to help the group's volunteer efforts, please emailtyphoonondoy@googlegroups.com.

Useful Links

News and Updates

Disaster Emergency

Rescue Operations
- National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) (+632-9125668, +632-9111406, +632-9115061, +632-9122665) Help hotlines: (+65 734-2118, 734-2120)
- Philippine Coast Guard (+632-5276136)
- Air Force (+63908-1126976, +632-8535023)
- Metro Manila Development Authority (136)
- Marikina City Rescue (+632-6462436, +632-6462423, +632920-9072902)
- Pasig Rescue Emergency Number (+632-6310099)
- Quezon City Rescue (161)
- San Juan City Hall Command Post (+632-4681697)
- Bureau of Fire Protection Region III (Central Luzon) Hotline: (+63245-9634376)
- Senator Dick Gordon (+639178997898, +63938-444BOYS, +632-9342118, +632-4338528)
- Senator Manny Villar (+639174226800. +639172414864, +639276751981)
Civil Society/ Media
- Philippine National Red Cross (143, +632-5270000)
- Philippine National Red Cross Rizal Chapter operations center hotline: (+632-6350922, +632-6347824)
- Go to GMA Facebook page & post complete addresses and names of people in need of immediate help.
- ABS-CBN Typhoon Ondoy Hotline: (+632-4163641)
- Jam 88.3: (+632- 6318803) or SMS at JAM (space) 883 (space) your message to 2968
Rubber Boat Requests, 4×4 Trucks
- NCRPO (+632-8383203, +632-8383354)
- Private citizens who would like to lend their motor boats for rescue
  please call emergency nos: +632-9125668, +632-9111406, +632-9122665, +632-9115061)
- You can also text (+632917-4226800 or +632927-6751981) for rescue dump trucks.
- For those who are able to lend 4×4 trucks for rescue: Please send truck to Greenhills Shoppng Center Unimart Grocery to await deployment, Tel No. (+632920-9072902).

Online and In-Kind Donations

Below you'll find a list of groups in the Phillippines that are accepting cash and in-kind donations to help with disaster relief efforts:

Monetary Donations

1. Bank Donations Actual table here

2. Credit Card/PayPal Donations

3. SMS Donations

	Procedure	Smart Money	Globe GCash
PNRC	Type RED Ex. RED 100	4493	2899
TXT POWER		5577-5144-1866-7103	0917-9751092.

In-Kind Donation

Victory Fort is opening its doors to those affected by the typhoon. Call 813-FORT.
NoyMar relief Operations: Clare Amador (+639285205508) or Jana Vicente at +639285205499). Drop off for relief donations is at Balay Expo Center across Farmers Market Cubao.
Miriam Quiambao drop off points: One Orchard Road Building in Eastwood, or message http://www.twitter.com/miriamqfor more details.
Philippine Army Gym inside Fort Bonifacio or GHQ Gym in Camp Aguinaldo are now distributing donations for Ondoy Victims.
Team Manila stores in Trinoma, Mall of Asia, Jupiter Bel-Air and Rockwell shall be accepting relief goods (Canned Goods, Ready-to-drink Milk,Bottled Water and Clothes) for distribution by Veritas.
Caritas Manila Office at Jesus St., Pandacan Manila near Nagtahan Bridge (+632-5639298, +632-5639308)
Radio Veritas at Veritas Tower West Ave. Cor EDSA (+632-9257931-40)
Aranaz Stores in Rockwell & Greenbelt is accepting donations of any kind for Payatas communities affected by Ondoy
Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan Task Force Noah, a disaster response arm of the Jesuits, is accepting donations. Please drop it off sa Ateneo Cervini Dorm.
Philippine National Red Cross‘ different ways to Donate.
Red Cross Load Donations: Right now the easiest way to make donations from the seat of your chair is via mobile phone load. The Red Cross Rescue and Relief Operations. Text: REDAMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4483 (Smart)
Ateneo de Manila University is now accepting donations for the victims of Ondoy. Donations can be dropped at MVP Lobby. For those stranded/those who need help: To all students who need help or know of people who need help. Please text the name, location, and contact number to (+6329088877166). ATENEO, which is now an open shelter, accepts refugees. Call (+632917-8952792)
Papemelroti stores in 91 Roces Ave. / Ali Mall Cubao / SM City North EDSA / SM Fairview / SM Megamall / Glorietta 3 in Makati / SM Centerpoint / SM Southmall are accepting relief goods (canned goods / milk / bottled water / clothes – NO CASH pls.)
TXTPower now accepts donations via SmartMoney 5577514418667103, GCash 09179751092 and Paypalhttp://is.gd/3GvuN
Our Lady of Pentecost Parish (+632-4342397, +632-9290665) per Gabe Mercado, donations are very much welcome. The Parish is located at 12 F. Dela Rosa corner C. Salvador Sts., Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
Hillsborough Village Chapel – Water, blankets, shoes, and clothes may be sent to Hillsborough Village Chapel in Muntinlupa City. These will go to families whose houses were washed out in the nearby sitios.
Greenhills/Mandaluyong/San Juan Area, if you want to help out with the rescue and relief operations, you can drop off your donations (clothes, food, etc..) at La Salle Greenhills Gate 2 tomorrow or volunteer from 9am to receive, sort, repack the donations.
Petron: You may bring your relief goods to all Petron branches.
LUCA stores (Rockwell, Shang-rila, Eastwood, or GA towers): Send your old clothes & donations (no cash pls).
“LUZON RELIEF: Volunteer / Donate / Pray”: Donations can be brought to RENAISSANCE FITNESS CENTER, 2nd Floor, Bramante Building, Renaissance Towers Ortigas, MeralcoAvenue, Pasig City starting MONDAY (Sept.28) / 9am – 7pm Contact Person: Warren Habaluyas (+632929-8713488) or email at luzonrelief@gmail.com
MOONSHINE boutique in Rockwell also accepting relief good to help Ondoy victims in Marikina and Cainta.
Katipunan Avenue. Contact Erica Paredes at (+632917-4741930) — they need bread, packed juice, sandwich filling (tuna, chicken, anything) You can help her make them, deliver the sandwiches to her house, or help her distribute! Call for more details.
Manor Superclub, Eastwood City will accept goods and other emergency items starting Sunday at 10 am.
Citizens Disaster Response Center (CDRC): Relief goods for typhoon victims being accepted at 72-A Times St., West Triangle, QC. Tel (+632-9299820/22)
MINISTOP IBARRA (Espana cor. Blumentritt, Sampaloc Manila) is also accepting relief goods, Food (non-perishable goods only) Clothing, Medicines, Beds, Pillows, Blankets, Emergency Supplies to help Typhoon Ondoy victims.

Updates on Ondoy: Places to donate - Efforts by bloggers

2009-09-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

A call for help. If you are able, please donate whatever you can spare to the victims of Ondoy(Ketsana).

I collected some details of donation centers and numbers but it pales in comparison to what other bloggers were able to post. Please check the list of posts below:

Here are government and NGO sites with some info as well.

I know a hundred more bloggers and sites out there I don't know about- doing the same thing. God bless them. Even if you can't donate material items or you dont have specialized skills like doctors and nurses - you can help by spreading the word - checking the sites listed above and others. If you have anything to add to the list, please post a comment.

Thanks and Lets pray for the safety of those affected.

Added Oct 6, 2009

Here's a site dedicated to the cause! Thanks goes to @Joel for sharing.
http://www.ketsanarelief.com/

These are times that I'm proud to be Filipino!

Project 10^100: The Voting Begins

2009-09-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

Project 10^100

Project 10^100 is a Google Project that transcends the information superhighway. It's aim, simply, is to help - to help people so they can help others. How ? They promised to give 10 million dollars to fund any project that can improve peoples lives. But as funding is finite, they need to find the best ideas. Projects they believe, can do the most good.

The past year (2008), Google received more than 150,000 ideas. It took another year(2009) and 3000 Google employees to sort them through. The ideas need to cover one of the ff: categories

Categories:

Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don't fit into any category at all.

Out of the huge collection of ideas, they have narrowed them down to 16. Each of which is inspired by different submissions. So no one submission can claim the idea, just part of the whole. Its a wonder how some minds are alike. :) Even greater wonder that they choose to do good with those creative brains.

What now?!

Now they are asking for people to vote. To pick the ideas they believe can make the difference. Out of 16 they need 5 ideas to turn into funded projects. The call to vote started September 24, 2009 and will end October 8, 2009. Watch this video:

So I invite you guys to go on Project 10^100's voting page. Read all the ideas, and look into yourself what you think will help this hurting world of ours. Then pick the best one. After that invite others( friends,family, co-workers etc.) to do the same.

Conclusion

It's great that large companies like Google still have that sense of civic responsibility to better this world. I hope this generation can nurture what Google started and the projects that will win this opportunity. God bless us all!

Use Export Command To Help Linux Find Your Scripts

2009-09-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Level: Beginner, Intermediate

Yeah your a rockstar!

You compiled and installed a linux binary or made a nifty script but you don't want to mess the server bin tree. So you placed it in an isolated folder like so:

/usr/local/myscripts/really/great/work/bin/myutility

You go on with business as usual. But soon you got tired of typing the whole path or changing folders every time you need the app. You could simplify your life by making a symbolic link(shortcut) or a wrapper script and place it on a more convenient path like /bin or /usr/bin. But you realize that would be defeating your original intent. what do you do?

Simple. Do what experts do. Use "export" to modify the PATH environment variable.

> help export

export: export [-nf] [name[=value] ...] or export -p
NAMEs are marked for automatic export to the environment of subsequently executed commands. If the -f option is given, the NAMEs refer to functions. If no NAMEs are given, or if `-p' is given, a list of all names that are exported in this shell is printed. An argument of `-n' says to remove the export property from subsequent NAMEs. An argument of `--' disables further option processing.

To get an idea, try this command on the console:

> echo $PATH

/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin

The above value is a typical "root" PATH for a fresh text-only CentOS installation - so don't fret if you got something different. This will grow in time the more you install applications. Anyway, back to business, now you want to add your "incredible" scripts. Run the ff:

> export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/myscripts/really/great/work/bin

Done, now see if Linux can find your script or binary.

> which myutility

/usr/local/myscripts/really/great/work/bin/myutility

Success! Now test your script.

> myutility

If your script throws an error, you may need to work on it. It may be using hard coded relative paths. Sometimes using absolute paths can do the trick.

Yahoo! It works! Now lets take it a bit further, lets configure your system so you don't need to keep typing the export-PATH command. Open the ~/.bash_profile file in your favorite text editor.

> vi ~/.bash_profile

# .bash_profile

# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

# User specific environment and startup programs

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin

export PATH
unset USERNAME

Note the tilde(~) symbol, this is just shorthand for your home folder. Lets say your username is iamgenius, that should translate to /home/iamgenius/.bash_profile

Same as what you did earlier, append your script folder to the PATH construct, as shown below

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/usr/local/myscripts/really/great/work/bin

Now your done, the next time you login, the new "PATH" should kick in.

Congratulations! Now go play with your scripts!

Download a PDF copy

About Me

2009-09-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm Chris Bautista. I'm a veteran programmer, addicted gamer, clueless photographer and novice writer.

This blog is mostly about family , friends, programming, internet culture and everything in between. This is my way of learning and sharing as well. Please feel free to use the Tag Cloud at the left and/or the Updates bar above to pick out articles that interests you. I do love challenges so if you have a topic I can help with post it as a comment or email me at christopher.bautista at gmail.com.

What I do

Applications Development Manager, GlobalsoftPH Co.
Web designer
Video Gamer (Console mostly and some coin-ops)
Cook (Trying to be a Chef)
Voracious Eater
Clickpotato

Picasa 3.5 comes with Face Recognition

2009-09-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

http://picasa-readme.blogspot.com/

.. With name tags, you can organize your photos based on what matters most: the people in them

I love Picasa. I organize , upload, retouch pictures with it and recently, with its moviemaker functions, made a nice music video(?) for my Girl.

Google released Picasa 3.5 yesterday, with some cool features. In keeping with Picasa Web Albums enhancements, Developers have added face recognition and geo tags to their photo-organizer-slash-jack-of-all-trades software.

As soon as the announcement came, I installed Picasa 3.5 - eager to try the new features. As it seems, face recognition is activated from start , no warning whatsoever, but you do need to login to your picasa account to get your name tags.

Processing seems a bit longer than usual, as with the old version, you can still use the application even while it's still sorting through all your stuff - so no worries. Picasa 3.5 got almost 100% from my tests. I already tagged faces on Web Albums so I didn't had the chance to tag new faces. But I'm amazed how good this works even if the person is facing front or showing their profile. Nevertheless, your results may vary depending on how distinct people in your photos are. If it's anything like Picasa Web Albums, the engine should improve in time the more you use it.

Its a great addition to Picasa. It eases the pain of digging all your albums to find people. I know I'll be abusing this one for a long time. :)

Download Picasa 3.5
Image from http://parenting.leehansen.com

NES on Javascript

2009-09-21T01:19:00.000-07:00

http://benfirshman.com/projects/jsnes/

Here's something amazing for Javascript, your good-ole NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) games are now available and playable via Ben Firshman's JSNES page. JSNES, is an NES emulator built on javascript's canvas objects.

Mr. Firshman recommends to use Google's Chrome browser to maximize your gaming pleasure. I tried it on IE8, it doesnt work as well. So take his word for it.

Aside from SMB(Super Mario Bros.), he also ported some old favorites like the Zelda, the banana maniac-Donkey Kong and the blaster wielding Megaman.

Ben Firshman shows us that with a little programming acrobatics and some improvements to browser canvas objects, anything is possible.

Enjoy peeps!

Question: When can we start seeing 3D games running on browsers? Hehehe

XOXO Creativity

2009-09-20T05:16:00.000-07:00

Almost done.

Here's a good way to promote creativity and have fun at the same time. The rule is to draw as many things as your imagination can conjure up from X's and O's.
This is what Panamericana School of Art and Design did in a advertising campaign.I tried googling for their site but can't seem to find it. Anyway I'll update this page when I get more info.

There's something naughty in this shot.

I made my own versions to work with. You can download them below. Try them out with your kids and friends. You might just be surprised what plays in their minds. :) Everybody say Rorschach test! :D.

Credit to Panamericana for the idea.
Images from www.toxel.com

O's Creativity Test DOWNLOAD
X's Creativity Test DOWNLOAD

Resume on Youtube!

2009-09-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

Streaming Video giant, Youtube, recently announced a Resume feature along with other improvements for their groundbreaking service. (Cheers! claps! Bring in the beer! LOL). Gone will be the days where you had to restart a video just to continue where you left of. Now you dont need to restart a whole video or pause till the video fully loads then skip every so and so, just to pick up where you last watched.

Note the feature will only work for resumes past the 3 minute mark - meaning any resumes less than mentioned duration are ignored - so you need to run the video from the start again. A perfectly logical limitation.

This addition is a big step forward for online media players - hopefully other video sites will follow suit. :) For more info go here

Google got reCAPTCHA

2009-09-19T01:55:00.000-07:00

Google announced recently in its official blog, that it has acquired reCAPTCHA. CAPTCHA is a web technology made out of necessity. It primarily is used to prevent BOTS (or automated apps designed to do malicious tasks) by adding an extra step to site pages that require human interaction. Yes, they're the annoying barely readable text images when you register/login for a site.

Anyway, this move by Google is more than just for improving it's CAPTCHA capabilities. As they explain, reCAPTCHA technology will improve Google projects that require reading text in images. The best to benefit from this are Google's Books project and the recent Fast Flip zine search. For more info see the official announcement.

M I STUPID?

2009-09-19T00:41:00.000-07:00

http://mistupid.com/contents.htm

Do you know how to send an SOS in morse code? Do you know your birthstone? Or the winners of the Oscars since 1927 ? MIStupid.com has an assortment of trivia and topics not known by the most of us. As a bonus they have categories with games and puzzles you can play with when you catch a bit of an information overload.

No matter how trivial or uninteresting the fact is MIStupid.com will surely have it, otherwise go back to Google (hehehe). Well okay it’s not Encarta but its free and GREEN :)

Enjoy!

potato

How to Write a Backup Shell Script using Tar and Gnu Zip

2009-01-02T15:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

As promised I made a rudimentary Linux shell script utilizing the tar and gzip commands to archive or make backups. If you're new to shell scripting you might like to read this articles.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rc/classes/ksh/print_pages.shtml
http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

If you're lazy like I am. Don't worry I'll explain parts of the code.

Our goal is to make a shell script to create backups (in tar-gzip versions) of the folders we want unto a safe location on a disk. We want to be able to list all the folders and have the script loop through them. Now that's settled, we can proceed to the code.

First, don't forget to tell linux what scripting interpreter to use. I usually use sh but there are others like bash and ksh. But many experts suggest to use sh for portability to older systems.



#!/bin/sh

Next, we configure the script. The lines below enumerates the folders I want archived ,then stores them in a SHELL VARIABLE named FOLDERS. (duhh!..)

# --- LIST OF FILES/FOLDERS TO BACKUP
FOLDERS="/var/www/html /opt/sandbox"

This line saves the folder path I want the archives to be stored in.

# --- BACKUP HERE
BACKUPFOLDER="/opt/backup"

*REMINDER*
Make sure that the backup folder exist. If it doesn't run the lines below on the console.

> mkdir /opt/backup
> chown root:root /opt/backup
> chmod 755 /opt/backup

Here I configure the command string I want to use. Regarding the details of the command I used - see this [link].

# --- ARCHIVE COMMAND
COMPRESSCMD="tar czfv "

Here we use the for command to loop through all the items we listed in $FOLDERS and store it in another variable, $itm.

## loop thru folders
for itm in $FOLDERS; do
# commands here
....
done

These lines configures the commands we're going to use inside the loop. The first line generates a formatted file path for my archive, $FARCHIVE.

FARCHIVE=$BACKUPFOLDER/`basename $itm`_`uname -n`_`date +%F`.tgz
$COMPRESSCMD $FARCHIVE $itm

If you've noticed I used the tilde symbol(`). Yes they are not single quotation marks. In linux console, any commands enclosed within tildes are ran first and the result is returned as a string. So for example $itm is equal to /var/www/html. The resulting FARCHIVE value will be:

> echo $FARCHIVE
/opt/backup/html_potato_2009-01-02.tgz

The second line uses $FARCHIVE as well as the command we configured earlier and runs it.

For a breakdown of the enclosed commands we used.

echo the last(base) name in a path string.

> basename /var/www/html
html

echo the system's computer name.

> uname -n
potato

echo the current date in this format (YYYY-MM-DD)

> date +%F
2009-01-02

Here is the full script.

#!/bin/sh
#set -x
#--------------------------------------------
# ID: cabBackup.sh - BACKUP items to folder
# USAGE: ./cabBackup.sh
#--------------------------------------------
# AUTHOR: Christopher Acido Bautista 2008-2009
# VERSION: 0.01

# TODO: arguments
# TODO: config file
# TODO: functions
# TODO: filtering

# Sources
# http://www.hsrl.rutgers.edu/ug/shell_help.html

# PATH
PATH=/opt/bin:/usr/bin:/bin; export PATH

# CONFIG

# --- LIST OF FILES/FOLDERS TO BACKUP if not specified via console

FOLDERS="/var/www/html /opt/sandbox"
#FOLDERS=""

# --- BACKUP HERE
BACKUPFOLDER="/opt/backup"

# --- ARCHIVE COMMAND
COMPRESSCMD="tar czfv "

# --- DO NOT EDIT BEYOND THIS LINE (unless if you knw what ur doing ;] ) ---

# Check if the folder exists if not make it
[ ! -d $BACKUPFOLDER ] && mkdir -p $BACKUPFOLDER || :

chown root:root $BACKUPFOLDER
chmod 755 $BACKUPFOLDER

# clean the screen
clear

echo lets start

## loop thru folders
for itm in $FOLDERS; do

FARCHIVE=$BACKUPFOLDER/`basename $itm`_`uname -n`_`date +%F`.tgz
$COMPRESSCMD $FARCHIVE $itm

done

echo .. done

Now name and save the file. I named mine cabBackup.sh.

You need to make the script executable.

> chmod 755 ./cabBackup.sh

There you have it just run it from the console.

> ./cabBackup.sh

There are still some things we need to do to make it a fully fledged automation script like configuration files, some pre-process commands and error trapping. But what we have now serves our purpose very well. I'll post revisions of this script so watch for that.

Links
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rc/classes/ksh/print_pages.shtml
http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/
Linux: Snippet - Backup using Tar and gzip

Linux: Snippet - Backup using Tar and gzip

2008-12-07T00:51:00.001-08:00

As a programmer i have to make multiple revisions of a project on a remote site. Getting things wrong and messing up the files tend to happen more often than I am comfortable with. Fortunately, making quick backups in linux is a breeze. You can either make a folder and just copy your existing files via recursive cp command or; archive it using tar and gzip. Personally, I prefer archives since they tend to be smaller and easy to manage.

Install tar and gzip

You can be hardcore and download the source for tar and gzip and recompile them.

http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/

http://www.gzip.org/

Or you can use apt-get or yum(Yellow dog Updater, Modified ? -- weird name ) to do it for you.

yum install tar

yum install gzip

Sample commands

Archive a folder ( -c means create )

tar cvf -  folder | gzip > archive.tar.gz

Archive a file

tar cvf -  filename | gzip > archive.tar.gz

Archive files

tar cvf -  filename1 filename2 | gzip > archive.tar.gz

Alternative format (-z means use gzip to compress)

tar cvzf /path/to/dir/archive.tar.gz filename1

tar cvzf /path/to/dir/archive.tar.gz filename1 filename2

Extracting (-x means extract )

tar xvzf /path/to/dir/archive.tar.gz

There are other ways and tools to make your archives. But we'll continue with that some other time. For the really lazy, I'll make a bash script that uses tar and gzip in a later post so watch for that.

I hope my article helped some newbies out there. Mabuhay!

PHP - Editors

2008-01-18T23:29:00.000-08:00

PHP - Editors
===============================================

What are file editors?

In programming, editors are specialized applications used to create,open and modify files. Wikipedia can explain this further(click here).

Today, editors are as important for a programmer as the language he uses. Yes you can pretty much do a "Hello World" application with just a simple text editor. Hobbyists do that, but true professionals know that a project will pretty much go to the dogs, especially for multi-module ones, without a proper editor. Some editors sport syntax highlighting this helps immensely in structuring your code.

Some editors even have IDE or Integrated Development Environments, many popular languages comes bundled with them. They provide text editing, syntax higlighting, hierarchial organizers/outliners and even debug modes.

Programming in PHP is easy and fun. Choosing the ideal editor for creating/modifying PHP scripts, will help you make the most out of it.

Commercial or Free

Below are some text editors I use. I added some brief description of each as well as the availability/software license.

Notepad

Notepad is a simple text editor included with Microsoft Windows since version 1.0 in 1985.

Notepad makes use of a built-in window class named "EDIT".

It is one of the most common text-only editors. The resulting files—typically saved with the .txt extension—have no format tags or styles, making the program suitable for editing system files that are to be used in a DOS environment

Free
Windows OS

NoteTab

"NoteTab is a leading-edge text and HTML editor. Winner of software industry awards since 1998, this application does it all: it easily handles a stack of huge files; lets you format text to your heart's content; does system-wide searches, and multi-line global replacements. It even corrects your spelling mistakes."

Notetab Lite - Free
Notetab Pro - Commercial
Windows
http://www.fookes.com/notetab/index.php

my notes : I use this to organize my notes. THe outline feature is priceless. I highly recommend this product.

Homesite

HomeSite 5.5 provides a lean, code-only editor for web development. Advanced coding features enable you to instantly create and modify HTML, CFML, JSP, and XHTML tags, while enhanced productivity tools allow you to validate, reuse, navigate, and format code more easily. Configure Macromedia HomeSite to fit your needs by extending its functionality and customizing the interface.

Commercial - 30 day trial
Windows
http://www.macromedia.com/software/homesite/

my notes: I have been using Homesite since my first job. I tried a couple similar to this but I keep coming back. Integration with dreamweaver is another plus. It comes with a version of TOpstyle, not sure with the version, a Cascading Style SHeet editor fully integrated to Homesite. Helps speeding up designing an HTML page. For a bit of trivia, the original developer for homesite is Allaire.

Pico/Nano

Pico is a text editor for Unix computer systems, and is integrated with the Pine email client, designed by the Office of Computing and Communications at the University of Washington.

Free (bundled with PINE email editor)
Linux

Nano is a curses-based text editor for Unix and Unix-like systems, licensed under the GNU General Public License. It is a free software clone of Pico, the editor of the Pine email client. Nano aims to emulate the functionality and easy-to-use interface of Pico, but does not have the tight mailer integration of the Pine/Pico package.

GPL(Free)
Linux
www.nano.com

my notes: I love this. If you're like me who started linux late in the game, you'll find this very useful. Its similar to most contemporary text editors. unlike vi or emacs, there's no learning curve you have to endure just to use it efficiently.

Vi
Vi is a modal editor and assigns different meanings to buttons or keystrokes depending on the active editing mode. In insert mode, text typed is inserted into the document. Pressing the escape key while in insert mode will switch the editor to command mode, where letters correspond to cursor movements or editing functions. For example: "j" to move the cursor down a line, "k" to move up a line, "x" to delete the character at the current cursor position, and "i" to return to insert mode. Keys pressed while in command mode are not inserted into the text, which is a common cause for confusion among new users.

Freeware
Linux
http://www.vim.org/ - a version of Vi

tutorial : http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/Tutor/vi.html

Bash Command of the Day - alias

2006-05-29T01:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.ss64.com/bash/alias.html

*alias


> help alias
alias: alias [-p] [name[=value] ... ]
    `alias' with no arguments or with the 
    -p option prints the list of aliases in 
    the form alias NAME=VALUE on standard 
    output.
    Otherwise, an alias is defined for each 
    NAME whose VALUE is given. A trailing space 
    in VALUE causes the next word to be checked for
    alias substitution when the alias is expanded.  
    Alias returns true unless a NAME is given for 
    which no alias has been defined.

In non - technical terms, alias command can create a nickname to a line of words indicated by value. The nickname can either be a shorthand or a descriptive name to a series of literals, for example a common command and some parameters. in some platforms aliased commands are called macros.

how I use alias

> alias ldir='ls -la'
- typing ldir will list all files (including hidden ones) in a long listing format.

> alias gthome='cd ~; ldir'
- An example of squeezing multiple commands. Use semi-colon (;) to separate commands.
- Running gthome will change the working directory to the current users home directory then lists all the files in long format(ldir).

> alias tail_log_php='tail -f /var/log/php/full'
- If php logging is enabled and log file is specified as /var/log/php/full, then running tail_log_php will run tail t0 show the last lines from the file then follow (-f) it. [* more on tail on later posts]

> alias beginmysql='service mysqld start'
- if mysql is installed and binary exists, running beginmyql will start the mysql service

There are so much more ways you can benefit with this shorthand definition command. Btw, all definitions are temporary, when you boot the system again the aliases you thougthfully constructed will go kapoot! ;) Luckily you can make it permanent, by defining them in .bash_aliases from your home directory. Next time you boot, the 'macros' will be within your reach again. :D

Linux Commands #1

2006-05-28T04:29:00.000-07:00

www.oracle .com articles

According to the linux Howto, below is the basic format for linux commands.

command [option] [source file(s)] [target file]

To get some inline help while on console mode. try any of the ff:

1) man "command"


> man echo 
ECHO(1)           User Commands                  ECHO(1)

NAME
       echo - display a line of text

SYNOPSIS
       echo [OPTION]... [STRING]...

DESCRIPTION
       NOTE:  your shell may have its own version 
       of echo which will supercede the version 
       described here. Please refer to your shells
       documentation for details about the options 
       it supports.

       Echo the STRING(s) to standard output.

       -n     do not output the trailing newline

       -e     enable interpretation of the backslash-
              escaped characters listed below

       -E     disable interpretation of those sequences 
              in STRINGs

       --help display this help and exit
...

2) whatis "command"


>whatis echo

echo                 (1)  - display a line of text
echo                 (1p) - write arguments to 
                             standard output
echo [builtins]      (1)  - bash built-in commands, 
                             see bash(1)
echo [curs_inopts]   (3x) - curses input options

3) help "command"


>help echo

echo: echo [-neE] [arg ...]
    Output the ARGs.  If -n is specified, the 
    trailing newline is suppressed.  If the -e 
    option is given, interpretation of the following 
    backslash-escaped characters is turned on:
        \a      alert (bell)
        \b      backspace
        \c      suppress trailing newline
        \E      escape character
        \f      form feed
        \n      new line
        \r      carriage return
        \t      horizontal tab
        \v      vertical tab
        \\      backslash
        \num    the character whose ASCII code is 
                NUM (octal).

    You can explicitly turn off the interpretation 
    of the above characters with the -E option.

Each command displays different degrees of information regarding the command providing flexibility in mastering the console shell. In the next posts of this series, a "help" sheet of the command of the day will be provided. I'll also try to provide usage samples.

Linux: Series Introduction

2006-05-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

'Guin early morning

Hi! I have been managing linux servers since 2002, back then I was assigned to develop web applications in Redhat Linux Servers. I was hesitant at first (fearful to say the least), I can still remember my heart racing whenever something broke. My knowledge of the OS is non-existent. A friend of mine taught me some commands like [ls] and [tail], that got me a week or two. But soon tasks had grown complex overtime. I needed to learn so I started a blog (my first one), so I can phase my study of the [Penguin], it helped me a lot. Unfortunately, after sometime my blog host went bankrupt. I lost interest so I discontinued, and life went on as they say.

Blogging gave me the motivation to study further than I would. So finally, after 3 years, I'm starting this once again as a refresher, an online linux course for me and those who would happen to need it. :) Cheers!

Image from http://travelhouseuk.wordpress.com/