Linux tip: Coloring terminal output

Coloring output by using escape sequences is a technique I’ve known before I started using Linux. That’s about two decades now.

But, as I learned today, the tput command provides a much more versatile approach:

bold=$(tput bold)
normal=$(tput sgr0)
echo This is ${bold}bold${normal} and this is not.

tput uses information about the actual terminal to generate the right escape sequences, so it’s much better to use tput than to hardcode those.

Well, I understand that it’s a big deal…

The music industry finally lost their last stronghold. The iTunes
Store has become the music distribution channel of
the digital age.

But Steve, when this thing so important to you that you even give it
the apple.com homepage, then why let an intern do the
photoshopping?

Having a smooth day

This morning, I woke up. And I mean, for the first time since I went to bed! Which is unusual because over the last weeks, Amalia either woke me up by walking up to my bedside in her sleeping bag in the middle of the night or simply because she has a bit of a cold and occasionally coughs really heavily. At other times, I woke up by myself with thoughts running around my head, not being able to get back to sleep again.

So, this was a really good night for a change. We had to hurry to get her to daycare in time, but if that’s the price of sleeping through, that’s okay.

On the way to the S-office, as always I tapped the button on my headset. Instead of the podcast playlist I expected to hear, the iPhone started a Smooth Jazz channel in TuneIn Radio. What a relaxing way to get the brain running! That’s what I call a smartphone.

I decided to make this whole day a smooth one. Relaxed, swinging, smiling.

What about you? Leave a comment!

I’m officially an expert on chaos

I just got an invitation to the 4th Chaotic Modeling and Simulation
International Conference in Greece.

Since I’m not an active member of the international physics community,
I can only assume Google Street View now also publishes workplace
photos.

DevOps – Zehn Tipps für Entwickler

http://evan.bottch.com/2010/09/16/devops-ten-tips-for-developers/

1. Verstehe die Beweggründe

2. Beziehe Ops frühzeitig ein

3. Ein Team

4. Ziehe die persönliche Kommunikation vor

5. Ops ist ein Endanwender (und ein Teammitglied)

6. Teile Verantwortung

7. Gib nicht nur Bestellungen auf

8. Halte Versprechen ein

9. Missbrauche die Freundschaft nicht

10. Bilde dich weiter

Und zuletzt noch ein Nachtrag in puncto Höflichkeit: Es schadet nicht, “bitte” und “danke” zu sagen — und “sorry”, falls du was verbockt hast.

Amazon bietet eigenes Linux-AMI für EC2

“Many of our customers have asked us for a simple starting point for launching their Linux applications inside of Amazon EC2 that is easy to use, regularly maintained, and optimized for the Amazon EC2 environment. Starting today, customers can use Amazon Linux AMI to meet these needs.  This just adds to the great selection of AMI options in Amazon EC2 that range from free to paid, giving you access to the operating systems and environments you need.”

The Candy Black Studio

via candyblackblog.com

A dream of an office! (via @jkleske)

Google Streetview: Die Stunde der Hypokriten

Illuminate your thoughts!

via funktionalley.com

“Snakkes”, a speech bubble lamp that can be written on with whiteboard markers.

A clever idea to keep customers up to date

Wufoo greets customers who haven’t logged in for some time with a list of interesting new developments.