Monday, 18 June 2018

Linux from the command line -- Renaming multiple files at once

Linux from the command line -- Renaming multiple files at once

OK Grasshopper, time to learn a little basic command line kung-fu. By combining some simple commands along with some regular expression magic, you can perform some pretty complex operations quickly and easily.
https://www.ostechnix.com/how-to-rename-multiple-files-at-once-in-linux/

Sunday, 17 June 2018

Display Calibration in Linux


Display Calibration in Linux

So yesterday I scored a new in box ColorVision Spyder2 at a garage sale for TWO BUCKS!!
I don't do any kind of for profit photo editing or anything, but I've always wanted a colorimeter to calibrate my displays and $2 is hard to pass up.
Basically a colorimeter is a device to measure the colour response of your display device. In concert with the appropriate software, you can then create a colour profile for the display. This allows your computer's colour management software to adjust what it outputs based on that colour curve in order to compensate for any deficiencies in your display and force it's output to be as accurate as possible. Why? Well, at a minimum so that what you see on the screen most closely matches the original image, but also so that when combined with a properly calibrated printer, what you print looks the same as what you see on the screen.

This device, being a little bit older model, doesn't work well with Windows 10. At least with the official, included software, but I don't care about that for several reasons. Not the least of which being I don't use Windows 10 at home. A bigger reason is that I found third party software that works on Windows, Linux, and Mac and so I used that instead.

The DisplayCal software creates calibration profiles in concert with, and for use by, the ArgyllCMS colour managament system.
You'll need to install both on your computer first.
I tested this all on my ThinkPad running OpenSUSE Linux LEAP 42.3.
This software isn't beginner level and a good RTFM is probably in order. However I managed to get it started on a profile run in a few minutes. The profile creation itself took a couple of hours and the results are impressive. ThinkPads are not content creation devices so they don't come with colour calibrated screens or high colour range screens. Despite that, once calibrated, the photo image quality is amazing. At least compared to stock.
I plan to run it on all my devices soon.

Meanwhile, if you get an opportunity to grab a good deal on a DisplayCal supported colorimeter, go for it.

https://displaycal.net/

Friday, 15 June 2018

Wednesday, 13 June 2018

Linux for sysadmins -- Getting started building a firewall with iptables

Linux for sysadmins -- Getting started building a firewall with iptables

Linux has firewall capabilities built in and the iptables tools are what you use to configure them.
https://www.rosehosting.com/blog/common-firewall-rules-and-commands-in-iptables/

Linux for sysadmins | Linux from the command line -- What version of Linux am I running?

Linux for sysadmins | Linux from the command line -- What version of Linux am I running?

This may sound like a ridiculous task, finding out what version and distro of Linux you're using, I mean you're sitting in front of it and you installed it!
Yes, it may be silly for home users, but for sysadmins and IT consultants, it's a common question. When you remote into a customer's system you may get no signs as to what type and version of system it is and you'll need to know that before you can diagnose and repair it effectively.
https://opensource.com/article/18/6/linux-version

Linux for sysadmins | Linux from the command line -- basic storage partitioning with parted

Linux for sysadmins | Linux from the command line -- basic storage partitioning with parted

These days parted is the defacto basic command line tool for examining, creating, and editing partitions on storage media. It's well worth learning.
Keep in mind though that these days most Linux distros have their own partitioning tool, at least for use during the installation process, if not from the administration interface.
https://opensource.com/article/18/6/how-partition-disk-linux