Update 8/27/12 - Ubuntu 12.04 installs postfix by default. If you want to use postfix instead of exim4, follow these instructions. I’m running 12.04 now and using postfix.

Frustration combined with information found here inspired this post.

I run an Ubuntu server at home and I have several monitoring tools running to keep an eye on services and hardware. For example: smartd emails me when there are hard drive errors, mdadm emails me when there are raid array problems and monit emails me when services die and get restarted.

UPDATE: This post has been superseded by my post about NoMachine Free Edition. I’m leaving this post here to avoid duplicating the information about OS X and the reasons to recompile from source.

NoMachine NX is a fantastic suite of server and client tools that allow you to use a remote computer as if the keyboard, mouse and monitor in front of you are plugged directly into the remote machine machine you are connected to. The killer feature is that the session works just like the command line screen program where you can detach and reattach to a full X session.

The greatest workflow change I’ve made to improve productivity is to save every single command I enter into my terminal.

Just add this snippet into your ~/.bashrc file and you will get a ~/.bash_eternal_history file that will contain every command you run. No more worrying about the max size of your bash history file or getting frustrated that the command you wanted to recall was 102 commands ago in a history file with 100 commands.

Sometimes is sucks to own nice things… especially when bad things happen to those nice things. But at the end of the day, they are just things and they can be fixed or replaced.

For example… today I found a large scratch on my car after I got it washed. It could have happened at the car wash or it could have happened days ago since it was on the passenger side. The only thing I know for sure is that it happened after the last time I filled up with gas.

Emacs or Vi/Vim… that’s another conversation. But if you are like me and you use Vi/Vim, here is a tip that I just learned today.

You can hit Ctrl-c to exit insert mode instead of hitting Esc.

I don’t know why it took me 5 years of exclusive Vi/Vim use to figure this out, but now that I know… I hope I can help someone else.

A while back I figured out that you can hit Ctrl-[ to exit insert mode. Ctrl-[ is definitely better for your hand than Esc, but its not natural so it never stuck. I hit Ctrl-c all time to exit things… again… no idea why it took so long to figure this out.

The Take 2 update from Apple wipes our customizations that were previously done. After going through the hassle of hacking Take 2, I decided to make a list of the steps needed to hack a fresh AppleTV with the Take 2 update without opening the case. What you’ll have when you are done:

1. SSH server on the AppleTV
2. AFP server to transfer files to the AppleTV
3. NFS and SMB clients so your AppleTV can play from network shares
4. The ATVFiles plugin so you can play the files through the onscreen menu

Great guide that will take you through the entire process:

Here it is… my latest homepage redesign. Basically, I’m just using blogger as the page with some static links down the right hand side. Weeee… almost three years between blog posts.

Tree found in Arches National Park.

Epic stop along the road trip of valor and glory.