/etc/motd and /etc/motd.tail

These two files are the basic part of the MOTD. On every boot up, the /etc/motd file is erased and regenerated from the contents of /etc/motd.tail. If you want to display a message that is only seen until the next time your system restarts, then put it in /etc/motd. Unless you have multiple users logging into your server and want to give them a message on the prompt, you generally will not need to edit /etc/motd. I have an ASCII art of the server’s name ASCII Generator in /etc/motd.tail and generally don’t modify /etc/motd.

System Information with landscape-sysinfo

I won’t go into detail about what Canoncial’s Landscape is besides the fact there is a tool  have a tool that can generate a nice MOTD with system information like the one here:

System load:    0.01                  Swap usage:  0%           Users logged in: 1
Usage of /home: 15.5% of 4.62GB    Temperature: 40 C
Memory usage:   41%                  Processes:   149

This addition to the MOTD is easy to add and only requires the installation of the landscape-common package. This can be done by running:

sudo apt-get install landscape-common

Now, log out, log in again, and then you should now see the same information above on your MOTD.

Custom Scripts with update-motd

If you installed landscape-common on the previous step, update-motd was also installed on your system. This package allows you to make your own scripts to display information on the MOTD.

First, you must install update-motd by running (note, if you installed landscape-common, it is already installed):

sudo apt-get install update-motd

After the install finishes, go to the directory /etc/update-motd.d/. This directory contains the scripts that are ran when the MOTD is generated. They are ran and displayed in the MOTD in lexical sort order. The safest way to control the order they appear is to prefix the files with numbers. As an example, I made a file called 10-server-info and put the following in it:

#!/bin/sh
echo "Disk Usage:"
df -h
echo "System Uptime:"
uptime

This script will add the hard drive usage and the system uptime to my MOTD and it will run and display in the MOTD. Don’t forget to make it executeable before continuing:

sudo chmod +x 10-server-info

So let’s say I wanted to also display the time before the disk usage and uptime. I could do this by making a file called 09-time and put the following in it:

#!/bin/sh
echo "Current Time:"
date

To have it display the time after the first script (10-server-info), I could just name it something with a number greater than 10, like 11-time.
After you are happy with all of the scripts, finally run the following to turn on update-motd and have it start generating updated MOTD:

sudo update-motd --enable

Log out, log back in, and you should see the updated MOTD. In the future, if you add or remove scripts, you can have the MOTD updated by running:

sudo update-motd

update-motd is powerful because you can run pretty much any shell script you can come up with and display the results on the MOTD. If you aren’t too familiar with shell scripts, check out the Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide.

To get it working again after you transfer your FeedBurner account over to your Google account, deactivating and reactivating MyBrand seems to get it going again. Here are the steps on how to do that:

1. Login to the new FeedBurner control panel (http://feedburner.google.com/)
2. Click on “My Account” at the top
3. Click on “MyBrand” on the left
4. Take note of your feed specific domains and then click “Deactivate” at the bottom
5. Reactivate the service
6. Retype in all of your feed specific domains and click Save
7. Update your CNAME records to the new Google ones (shown on the MyBrand page on step 2)

Seems like the transition is still somewhat in beta, but at least now subscribers should still be able to get the feed!

What exactly is a keystroke launcher? It is tool that lets you hit a couple keys (like Alt + Space) and it pulls up a little box that you start typing the name of the program you want to run. Quite simply, think of it as search on steroids. Most of the time, they are intelligent as well and start to put common programs towards the top of your search. If you have used Windows Vista, it is similar to the search box at the bottom of the start menu.

Let’s go through the three that I use across the various OS flavors.

Launchy – Windows

Launchy Screenshot

Launchy is the simplest to get up and running with out of the three. Just install it and the rest of the setup is pretty much automatic. It indexes the shortcuts to applications on your computer and then makes them just a few key presses away. Alt + Space pulls up launchy and presents you with a box similar to the above. Launchy also has support for different skins and plugins that let it do more than just launch programs, but I am happy with the base install. Launchy also says it works on Linux, but I have not had much luck in getting it up and running.

Launchy

Quicksilver – Mac

Screenshot of Quicksilver

Quicksilver does more than just launch applications, but still is great for not having to mess with the dock or browse through the applications folder. Quicksilver has the capabilities to let you do all sorts of stuff on your computer like send e-mails with attachments, control iTunes, and even upload files all without having to do much more than type a few commands. Quicksilver has a plethora of add-ons, but has a bit of a learning curve to it I found. You can almost think of it as a graphical command prompt, but if you are looking for a keystroke launcher for Mac, it is king.

Quicksilver by Blacktree

GNOME + Do – Ubuntu/Linux

Gnome + Do Screenshot

Last but not least, GNOME + Do is my favorite on Ubuntu. It is pretty much a linux port of Quicksilver, but it is much more intuitive. The base install only launches applications, but it too has a large collection of add-ons that let it do much more than just applciation launching. Despite its name, it works on ther window managers besides GNOME; however, I have only used it on GNOME in Ubuntu 8.10. Between Launchy and Quicksilver, I have to say that this one is my favorite.

GNOME + Do is also in the Ubuntu 8.10 repository under Add/Remove Applications if you have “All Open Source Applications” selected.

GNOME + Do Home

The above video only took me around 5 minutes to upload the pictures, pick out the music, and then it took ANIMOTO about another 5 to render the photos and music into a flash video.  ANIMOTO has a library of music that users can choose from or upload their own music (it must be “legit” though, not copyrighted)

ANIMOTO allows users to create a 30 second video with photos and custom music at no charge.  To create a longer video, users are required to buy “credits” (currently $3 each) or all-you-can make for $30/year.

The service is a snappy flash interface that uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to render the videos.  The service is easy to figure out how to use and definitely seems like something that I can see becoming popular with teens to embed on MySpace, Facebook, etc.  As a matter of fact, the service already has the ability to help you put the videos on YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and Blogger just to name a few.

I could see problems with copyrighted music being uploaded and that becoming an obstacle for ANIMOTO in the near future. Hopefully users will stay honest and not upload music they don’t have the copyright to.

Give them a shot today!

ANIMOTO

Most of us are used to using the classic bookmarks menu integrated into our web browser to get to our favorite web sites. The problem with the classic bookmark managers in web browsers is that they poorly organize your bookmarks. You are forced to pick one folder to put a bookmark in and then remember exactly where that bookmark is or else you can never get back to it. This system seems to work fine for awhile, but what happens when you start to get hundreds or even thousands of bookmarks? This is where del.icio.us shines.

Del.icio.us is a web site that allows you to basically save bookmarks and be able to get back to them easily as well as share them with others. Here are a few different ways on how to get the most from del.icio.us and make it work well for you.

Tagging

Rather than put bookmarks in a single folder, you can apply tags (like keywords) to a bookmark that make it much easier to find a bookmark later. For example, you may give Google a few tags like search, web, or Google. So, on your del.icio.us account, you could look at any of the three previously listed tags and Google would appear there!

Remember, finding your bookmarks later is only as good as the tagging you do when you first find the bookmark. If you put too few or poor tags on a bookmark it may be difficult to find it later. I generally find it better to put too many tags rather than too few because you can always remove some later.

You can also take the tagging aspect a step further and look at some other bookmarks that others on the del.icio.us community have tagged. In this way, del.icio.us could almost be used as sort of a search engine to find bookmarks related to keywords of something you may be looking for.

Browser Integration

This is the reason that I started to use del.icio.us in the first place. Del.icio.us has a plugin that allows it to work alongside the bookmark system on Internet Explorer or Firefox. The IE version of the plugin is still experimental, but the Firefox version is mature and I have had no troubles with it. The browser plugin has the option to have a toolbar that is like the bookmarks toolbar folder on steroids. It allows you to display recently bookmarked items, most visited bookmarks, or a list of favorite tags. I personally like the most visited option because it allows me to easily get to the web sites that I visit often.

The integrated tool also allows you to bookmark new items as well as browse all of the bookmarks that you have on del.icio.us right in your browser. The browser plugin also lets you find while you type for bookmarks or tags. This makes it where I am generally a matter of seconds away from a bookmark rather than having to browse through several folders like the bookmark tools built into web browsers.

Sync and Sharing

Last, but not least, the innate use of the browser tool or even just the del.icio.us web site automatically backs up your bookmarks because they are stored on Yahoo’s servers (del.icio.us is owned by Yahoo!). This makes it where any computer you use the browser tool on will always have the most up-to-date bookmarks and the del.icio.us web site will have your bookmarks as well.

If you choose to make your bookmarks public, you can also share them all with your friends. In a way, del.icio.us can be a micro blog where friends could see web sites you have discovered recently. Also, you can share bookmarks with other del.icio.us users that you are a mutual friend with.

Conclusion

Del.icio.us seems like the future of bookmarks and I love being able to get to my bookmarks anytime, anywhere. Also, having the ability to let anyone see my bookmarks makes it where friends can easily find a web site that I might of mentioned if I don’t happen to remember the URL. Check out del.icio.us today!

Del.icio.us Home

Force HTTPS

Better Gmail 2 can force Gmail to always connect through an https connection. This is by far the largest reason that I use better Gmail 2. Whenever I am on a public Wi-Fi network (like at school or a coffee shop), the wireless connection is not encrypted. If you are not viewing a web site through https, everything that you are doing on that web site is sent in clear text which means anyone can view what you are doing, or in this case your email, with the right tools on their computer.

Folders4Gmail

Trying to keep your Gmail organized can be difficult when you start to get lots of labels. I have around 40 labels and they can take up almost half the screen if I didn’t have Folders4Gmail. Folders4Gmail makes it where if you add a forward slash in a label, it will make it appear with a plus next to it like it is in a folder. For example, the label I have below is actually “Orders/Amazon”, but Folders4Gmail puts the plus next to Orders and lists Amazon under it.

Attachment Icons

Better Gmail 2 also can put little icons that let you see what type of file is attached rather than the generic paper clip from Gmail. The icons support several different formats including pictures, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and text files just to name a few.

Conclusion

Better Gmail 2 also supports a few other features like macros, highlighting, and adding a little icon you an click next to an e-mail to quickly search for all conversations from that sender. All of these features can be turned on or off in the options of the add-on so you can customize Better Gmail 2 to do whatever you want.

Lifehacker does a pretty good job with keeping the extension up to date. Better Gmail 2 is a great tool to improve the already revolutionary interface of Gmail.

Better Gmail 2 on Lifehacker

Those not familiar with redbox, it is an automated movie rental kiosk that is popping up around the nation. They require you to use your credit card to rent movies and it costs $1 per night that you have the movie. It works great for people (like me) who generally rent movies for one night anyways and don’t watch it again after seeing it that one time.

redbox is also convenient if you have multiple of them around you because you can return them to any redbox, nation wide. I have once rented one from Kansas City and returned it the next day in Oklahoma without any snags.

Sign up here to get the free rental codes by joining the SMS alert network. You can even see what movies are available at the redbox locations and if it is on stock on their web site as well.

redbox SMS Alerts Signup (lower part of page)
redbox Home

With this addition, I think that this should get a few people interested in using Facebook chat.  With such a large user base on Facebook, I think that it is a welcomed feature by the users, but Digsby supporting it makes just one less application or web site I have to have open to communicate with friends.

Check out my previous write up of how I liked Digsby here.  I highly recommend Digsby as your ultimate desktop chat app and you will enjoy it after you give it a shot!

Digsby Home

To get a drop setup, you just specify a URL that will be at drop.io/something where something is the name you can specify for your drop. Then you just start uploading files to the drop, password protect it (if you so choose), set how long the drop will be there (1 day up to 1 year), and set permissions on the drop. Permissions are customizable and allow you to make it read only or make it where users can add or delete files as well. After that is all setup, you can share the URL (drop.io/something) and people can start getting files from the drop in the smooth interface.

The largest use I have for drop.io is when I want to send something to more than one person or send something that is too large to send via e-mail. It is also handy if you want to share something that you don’t need to keep hosted forever. Right now, drop.io has a limit of 100 MB of space, but you can upgrade the size of a drop to 1GB for $10.

drop.io Home

File Synchronization

Keeping files up-to-date across multiple devices seems to be one of the main aspects of Mesh. Mesh allows you to setup folders that you want to be synced across multiple computers and it does it pretty much behind the scenes without requiring much intervention from the user (besides putting them in the right folders).

The file sync seems to work like other products already out on the market. You don’t have to look too far for a similar product: Microsoft Live FolderShare. I will be curious to see if Microsoft plans on merging FolderShare into part of Mesh or continue to run them as separate products.

There are a couple of differences between Mesh and FolderShare though that I find are improvements over FolderShare. First, you can edit who has access to the libraries on files on your computer rather than having to go through a web interface. Second, there is now a “history” of the files called “News” that lets you see whenever something has changed in the meshed folder. This is handy when sharing files with multiple people and you want to see recent changes. It pops up next to the view of a folder whenever you are viewing the contents.

Remote Desktop

Another part to mesh is remote desktop that seems to work through routers, firewalls, and the such. It has a feel that is similar to LogMeIn. The remote desktop seems fairly functional and allows you to run any application on your computer assuming it doesn’t use DirectX (and probably OpenGL). So don’t plan on playing your games over the remote desktop, but you can run some oddball applications that you may not have installed on a remote computer or have access to your computer like you are sitting in front of it. Mesh does seem to have some lag associated to it though if you are using a slower connection.

I am sure it has to do with the fact that what you are doing is literally occurring on the remote computer. Just like LogMeIn (and unlike Windows Remote Desktop) whatever you are doing on your local screen is actually visible on the remote screen so make sure to click on “Hide Desktop on Remote Computer” if you are doing top secret work.

Browser Access

Now here is the best part about mesh. Both of the above mentioned can be done through your web browser. You can get to the files in your synchronized directories or remote desktop to your computer from your web browser. When you go to the Mesh web site and log in, you will be greeted with the little hula hoop with all your devices floating on it. Unfortunately, the Remote Desktop does require you to have an ActiveX control to run which means that you must use Internet Explorer, but the remote file access does not.

Going to the “Live Desktop” in your mesh devices allows you to get to files that you choose to synchronize to your “Live Desktop”. What files that are placed on the Live Desktop are selected using the desktop client when a new folder is added to Mesh.

Future of Mesh

Mesh looks like a product that may hold the future of what Microsoft is wanting to do. The Mesh framework right now doesn’t look much beyond a remote desktop and file sync tool, but that looks like it could just be the beginning. The things that Microsoft hints at on the Live Dev blog article is that they have plans to expand Mesh to do more than just file work and perhaps run applications one day. Fully functional Office online one day, maybe?

Their site also hints at expanding to supporting Macs and mobile devices. I also hope that they can expand their software to be fully functional in other web browsers like Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Also, I will be anxious to see if they do follow up with a Mac version and mobile device support for Mesh.

Right now, Mesh has a brief wait in order to join it (details on their site). I do have a few invites left if you want to give Mesh a shot. Just leave a comment that you want an invite and make sure to use your real e-mail address if you are interested in one!

Mesh Home
Windows Live Dev: Introducing Live Mesh