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Today GNU/Linux has come a long way and you don’t need to touch the command-line for performing everyday tasks, but if GUI is a little too n00b for you, here are a few tricks to make you a command-line ninja.
Watch videos:
If static ASCII art is too boring for you try and watch a video in command line. Not only is it possible, it is very simple too. Install mplayer on a debianbased system. To do this, type sudo apt-get install mplayer
Then to watch the video, fire up a terminal and type mplayer -vo caca filename.avi.
If the above is not retro enough for you, you can watch it in black and white too mplayer -vo aa filaname.avi. Works best for simple 2D animated content such as SouthPark.
Change your MAC address:
So your university insists on infringing your privacy by tracking you via your MAC address, you can always be a step ahead by changing it to whatever you fancy. All you have to do is bring the interface down then use the hw ether switch to change it and then pull up the interface back again.
$ ifconfig eth0 down
$ ifconfig eth0 hw ether
ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
$ ifconfig eth0 up
Remember the MAC address will always be in HEX format.
Easy filesharing:
Ever wanted to share a directory and its content quickly over the network? If yes, simply type cd in the directory you want to share and issue the following command:
$ python -c “import SimpleHTTPServer;SimpleHTTPServer.test()”
and everything under this directory will be served at the port 8000 via a new web server. So your friends can point at http://YourIP:8000/ to access the content. When done, simply close the terminal window or press [Ctrl] + [C] to terminate the process.
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| The screenshot doesn’t do justice to the geeky glory of watching video in text |