(Part 2) Top products from r/LinuxActionShow

>Like the concept of piping info between applications is just starting to make sense (even though I have no clue how it works).

Coming from a programming background it might be easier for you to think of each of the little unix core programs as a function. They all have options and generally do one thing really well. "grep" searches for things. "sed" does regex matching/replacment. "cut"... well it cuts out parts of files. The easiest way to figure out what something does is probably through the man page. (run "man grep" at the terminal). That being said some programs have -really- goddamn big man pages and are much harder to navigate. Bash, for instance, has an enormous man page.

The concept of piping makes more sense in the context of functions. In python you might write something like this:

"hello".upper()

Which would give you:

"HELLO"

In bash you could write that as:

echo "hello" | tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]'

That first command just prints out the string, but instead of printing it out at your terminal the pipe will send all of it's output to the "tr" command. ("man tr" will help you understand what it's doing there). Because tr does not have it's output being redirected it just gets printed back to the terminal.

>Question 1, should I stick with zsh or learn the basics of bash first?

I don't think you would have much of a problem learning either just so long as you understand that there will be minor differences between different shell languages. Those differences tend to be syntax rather than functionality, and when it is a difference in functionality it tends to be much less commonly used features. If you have to choose one I would recommend bash for scripting solely because it is somewhat more portable. "sh" is even more portable than bash, though it can be more painful to use since it doesn't have some of the nice features in modern shells. Remember that you don't have to use the same language for your shell and for your scripts. You just have to define a different shebang on the first line of the script.

>2. what are some things I can use scripting for (what do you use it for)?

I don't find myself scripting much at home. At work though I spend a TON of time writing various scripts. What I -do- use bash for a ton is one-liners. Once you get used to the syntax you can write some very useful code in just a couple lines. One example that I use frequently is "Run this command every 10 seconds forever" which can be written as

while sleep 10; do
{command}
done

The "watch" program does more-or-less the same thing, but I find it unwieldy once the commands inside get more complex.

An example of a somewhat longer, and arguably poorly written script for backups using tarsnap is here.

>Any explination for common commands would be awesome.

As I mentioned earlier "man" is your friend. The other option is "command --help". You can generally google for some examples, which can be really useful for some of the less easily grok'd programs (awk, for example).

>And I do know a bit of python and have heard of iPython. Could that be a replacement for bash or zsh or is that something completely different and I'm in over my head (very likely). Much thanks.

ipython is not going to be a good replacment for your standard shell. It's cool, and I use it frequently when coding in python, but it simply lacks the powerful integration with the system that bash/zsh has. What it is extremely useful for though is exploratory programming. What really opened my eyes on the subject was the book Python for Data Analysis.

Edit: Syntax

Also, for any shell junkies please don't complain about the non-necessary "echo" up there. I know you could use a here string, but I think it would defeat the purpose of an easily digested example.

Too bad I didn't start my github project out in python, most of it is in bash. For some reason github tells me on the code scale I have 80% in python O.o. Maybe I do some things in similar fashion with .shinc modules for the main script. If you're interested in retro gaming, you could always help me and JC with RetroRig. Most folks like to make games with python to start out, and once I find time myself, I play on going through the book Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner. I've leafed through it, and heard reviews from folks I know, and they love the book. It's a great way to sharpen up the skills. As far as projects, there are probably some sites that could help parse OSS/FOSS projects based on yoru interests.

GitHub only seems to sort/search by trending projects. The suggestions for OpenHatch is nice, and seems promising. They reason I started my project, was not because I like programming or anything (I am not a programmer by any stretch, but very technically minded), but because I loved the idea of making what I am doing. I started out small, and loved every little accomplishment I achieved. I now have a contributor, who also visits this subreddit, /u/beaumanvienna, and it's the most fun thing in the world to bounce ideas of people. Just think of programs you use, and how you can make them cool. The best work you could do and work on, is work you love and are interested in. Then you will be extremely proud of your accomplishments at the very minimum.

Edit: spelling.

I'd go with something like this, it's a bit more out of the way plus it's able to lay flat so it would work better for shows like techsnap where it looks like your standing all the time. It's smaller than the one you linked but for the purposes of running the show it'll work if a touch screen really is waranted

http://www.amazon.com/Touch-Screen-15-Inch-TouchScreen-Monitor/dp/B007948V24/ref=sr_1_15?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1416209026&sr=1-15

if not I'd go with a standard moniter with a keyboard/mouse combo like this one which is fairly small and compact
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Multi-Touch-Touchpad/dp/B005DKZTMG/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1416209311&sr=1-3&keywords=keyboard

What speed connection are you getting?

The model you linked is definitely not a beefy router. If you want to go for something like a consumer router i use a WDR3600 as a secondary (basically configured as an access point) running OpenWrt (my setup is detailed in this blog post).

If you want to step up to an x86-based router PC Engines have a couple of new boards (2GiB RAM model, 4GiB RAM model) on which you can run you operating system of choice (including firewall-specific ones like pfSense, IPFire, or VyOS).

What's that Ubuntu user doing with a PC? Didn't he receive the memo about the line where two surfaces meet ?

EDIT: Yes, yes, downvote me, we'll talk in a year

Have a look at some cheap print servers like this. They will allow you to share your USB printers on the local network with minimum effort.

Sadly, what you can run into often is the FAT32 size limitation if your .iso size is greater than 4GB, much like the openSUSE main installation ISO. This is where the Zalman ZM-VE300 is better when using NTFS. Additionally, the drive is emulating an actual CD/DVD drive when using the .iso files, which means the BIOS does not have to be capable of booting from a USB Flash drive.

Sorry about the huge ugly title text! I've used Ardour to mix things in the past, and I've been using Linux pretty heavily since around 2010. But this is my first completely 100% F(L)OSS album.

Here's a link to more details on the album's lyrical content.

http://rpmchallenge.com/index.php?option=com_lyftenbloggie&view=entry&year=2016&month=03&day=02&id=8884:the-deed-is-done

And a summary of some more technical details (that I had posted elsewhere):

> I used one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Art-USB-Dual-Pre-PS/dp/B002KEAT78
plus a Rode NT1A, AKG C3000B, AKG C1000S, Fender Telecaster '74 thinline reissue guitar, Seagull acoustic 6-string, Old solid state Kay amp with a Peavey bass cabinet, Mexican Squier Fender Jazz Bass, Yamaha MO6 keyboard, drummer's drums, Hydrogen drum machine (for Lippity Lippity and temporary drums during recording)... and probably some other things.

oh yeah, and I used Ubuntu 12.04.5 on a Lenovo L412.

$250 and I can't upgrade beyone 4GB RAM? I bought two NUC for $124 each a couple of weeks ago with a Celeron 3050. I threw a cheap SSD and 8GB RAM into each of them, total cost around $225 each and perfectly compatible with Linux.

Not sure how this is a good deal unless you are really into bamboo.

• 1.- $ 5.75 cheap USB to SD adaptors http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Information-Card-Reader-TS-RDF5K/dp/B009D79VH4?ie=UTF8&keywords=usb%20sd%20card%20reader&qid=1459348098&ref_=sr_1_1&s=pc&sr=1-1
  
  
• 2.- It has Chrome OS pre installed, but you can also install any GNU/Linux, FreeBSD or MS WOS
  
  
• 2 bis - I wish this same model (and many other chrome books) where shipped with pre installed GNU/Linux too, or at least as an OS option downloading some installer from their web.

I have this one. It also supports external antennas and packet injection. You know, for... Reasons. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035GWTKK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jGpLybNY4VB0T

why not an actual tablet like: http://www.amazon.com/Ampad-Evidence-Recycled-Sheets-25-774/dp/B000X6MWF2

made from recycled paper and less distracting than some snappy icon for facebook.

I bought it for my daughter off amazon. I can't remember how much it cost then, but it was MUCH cheaper than the $45 the site is asking now. amazon.com/BarbieLink

I just got done building a new Kodi box and I have to tell you its the only thing I've ever built that's normie approved. And by that I mean my wife, kids, and a hoard of cousins.

I used a RPi 3 + LibreELEC and hats off to the LibreELEC team because the thing reboots in 17 seconds and I haven't had a single skip or buffer problem on 1080p video.

Part | Price | Link
-----|-------|-----
Raspberry Pi 3 | $41 | https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi-RASP-PI-3-Model-Motherboard/dp/B01CD5VC92
Power Adapter | $10 | https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Supply-Adapter-Charger/dp/B00MARDJZ4
SD Card | $10 | https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Memory-SDSDU-032G-U46-Change-Version/dp/B00812K4V4
Case | $20 | https://flirc.tv/more/raspberry-pi-case-ke
Rii i8+ 2.4GHz Mini Wireless Keyboard | $22 | https://www.amazon.com/Rii-Wireless-Keyboard-Touchpad-Rechargable/dp/B00Z81U3YY
HDMI Cable | $06 | https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-Cable-Standard/dp/B014I8SIJY
Ethernet Cable | $05 | https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-RJ45-Cat-6-Ethernet-Patch-Cable-10-Feet-3-Meters/dp/B00N2VISLW
OS | $00 | https://libreelec.tv
Total | $114 |

I think one of these should be on every TV.

Here is the mobile version of your link

Any difference between the pogoplug linked in the OP, and the Pogoplug "series 4"? http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Series-4-Backup-Device/dp/B006I5MKZY

Another alternative:

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Corp-BOXSTCK1A8LFC-Compute-STCK1A8LFC/dp/B00W7KAABK

Or if you live in London, UK is now £40 ($66.91)!!

you me&n this http://youtu.be/hl_g_NOfVlM or this http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Gigabit-Ethernet-Chromebook-Specific/dp/B003VSTDFG