If you use sudo you can automatically re-start scripts that need to be run as root by adding a check at the beginning of the script and executing sudo if the script is not running as root:

If you need to make sure a script is run as root, add the following to the start of the script:

If you need to remove a path from the PATH variable before your script runs add this to the beginning of the script:

A useful thing that some distros have started doing is setting the color of your shell prompt differently if you're logged in as root. This gives you an additional visual cue that helps avoid doing things as root when you don't want to. If your distro doesn't do this for you, you can accomplish it by changing your .bashrc files. To set the color of your shell prompt you set the shell variable PS1.

Keeping the files on multiple machines synchronized seems to be a recurring problem for many computer users. Until I discovered Unison (http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/) I never really had a completely satisfactory solution.

Extensions for OpenOffice.org Impress Extensions have long been written for OpenOffice.org Writer. However, the fact that attention is finally being paid to other applications seems a sign that OpenOffice.org is finally starting to develop an active extension-writing community.

Setting up a file server doesn't need to be complicated.

We all know the right way to sort photos is to do them right after you take them. We also know that doing a disk backup before your drive fails is the right way to do backups. But, we don't always do things the right way. Enter my situation. I have close to 10,000 photos takes with my digital camera over the last seven years. Yes, same camera—this could probably be an ad

One of the things we plan to do different in the Geek Ranch (see What's New Down Here?) is build a lot of domes instead of conventional buildings. The reasoning behind this is that they are quicker to build, cost less and use mostly local materials and that which is not local (in particular, steel) is used in lower quantities than

In my article about the web site for the Geek Ranch I suggested three tools that made sense for doing the site: Drupal, Joomla and Karrigell. Well, as usual, all I have to do is say "I will pick between X, Y and Z" and good old option W shows up. This time, it is named webgen.

SoX is a power-packed command-line tool for various types of audio processing. It's very useful as an audio format converter, and it can be used for resampling audio files, converting between endianness, audio encoding and modifying other attributes of common audio file formats.

Most people are content to let their word processor determine hyphenation and text breaks for them. And, most of the time, the result is acceptable if they do. However, just as the default justification can be improved if you want to take the time, so can the text flow.

Well, that's easy to answer but, more important what is he doing? And why? Well, here is a not so quick update.