Fedora Core 10 introduces several new features, and as with all new releases, several new frustrations. In this how-to, I cover the steps needed to get vncserver up and running, so you can connect to your GNOME-based desktop.

Using netstat, you can monitor programs that are making connections to remote hosts: $ netstat -tpe The -t flag limits the output to show only TCP connections. The -p flag displays the PID and name of the program making the connection. The -e flag displays extra information, such as the user name under which each program is running.

Generally when we think of shell scripts we think of editable text, but it's possible to add binary data to your shell script as well. In this case we're going to talk about adding a binary payload to the end of your shell script.

When databases became available for the personal computer in the mid-1980s, they quickly gained a mystique as the ultimate productivity applications. Despite their widespread use, in some ways they have never lost that mystique -- so much so that many desktop users will stretch the use of spreadsheets to cumbersome lengths rather than consider setting up a database.

When we were in college, my wife (then, girlfriend) had the best answering machine greeting message, ever. When people called her, the answering machine would answer, “Hello?” and wait. Invariably, the caller would start talking as though they had actually reached a live person. They'd be talking about last weeks assignments, or a party next week. Then the other shoe would drop.

As noted elsewhere Linux Journal turned 15 this month. Hopefully, you enjoyed viewing all our old covers. In the pursuit of the best way to display those covers my first prototype was rejected. Take a look at what didn't make the cut and read on to find out how it was created.

In my last few posts about pyuno (SSConverter, OORunner) we used pyuno to convert spreadsheets to CSV files by running OpenOffice from Python using pyuno as the bridge between the two processes. In this post we're going to get inside OpenOffice and use pyuno as the bridge between OpenOffice and an embedded Python interpreter (embedded inside OpenOffice).

Question: This is my first venture into Linux. I have most of what I need lined up except for some simple banking software. My credit union will send data in CSV and I need something that will update electronically like that. Suggestions? -- Marilee J. Layman

Ever feel like you're Rodney Dangerfield? You live someplace and Linux shows you no respect, time-zone-wise that is. What I mean is that you live somewhere that's not one of the time-zones that comes predefined with Linux. If that sounds like you, then read on and get Linux to show you a little respect.

Unless you're a sysadmin you don't generally have to worry that much about getting email delivered, you just hookup your GUI email client to your external email account and you're done. But what if your system tries to deliver mail, for example from cron? Normally, this just goes to root or perhaps some designated user on your syst

Question: I'm to the point in our organization that load balancing across multiple servers is really becoming necessary. Making the transition from standalone servers to server clusters is a daunting task to say the least. What's the best way to make such a change? Is it possible to start small and increase the "cluster" as we go?

Using the SSConverter class that we developed last week, which used the OORunner class from the week before that, this week we'll create a Python function that allows us to use spreadsheets as if they were CSV files by converting them on

Using the OORunner class that we developed last week we'll now create a Python class for converting spreadsheets into CSV files. The converter supports any type of input spreadsheet that is supported by OpenOffice.

In my last article for Linux Journal, (http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/best-wishes-new-year) I shared some of my New Year's Resolutions. One of those resolutions was to communicate more regularly with my friends and family. In this article, I'm going to describe one of the first steps I took toward making this happen.

KWordQuiz, KVocTrain, and other KDE-based programs use the KVTML file format for their data files. The format is just a fairly simple XML format but, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything available to convert a text file to this format. So, once again, AWK to the rescue.

If you run a lot of terminal tabs or scripts that all need to make OpenSSH connections to the same server, you can speed them all up with multiplexing: making the first one act as the master and letting the others share its TCP connection to the server.

Using pyuno you can script OpenOffice with Python. Pyuno allows you to create macros inside OpenOffice and it also allows you to create external Python scripts that talk to a running copy of OpenOffice. If you want to get started with pyuno be prepared for an often frustrating experience: the documentation is sketchy and

Occasionally, you need to process a number of files—some of which have been compressed and some which have not (think log files). Rather than running two variations, one compressed and one not, wrap it in a bash function:

As a buddy of mine always says "the nice thing about standards is that there's so many to choose from". Take CSV files for example. CSV, of course, stands for "Comma Separated Values", more often than not though, it seems that CSV files use tabs to separate values rather than commas.