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Enabling syntax color highlighting will add colors to the editor when editing in vim, but that’s not all as there are actually many color schemes to choose from.

The scheme can be changed by issuing :colorscheme <color> while in vim’s command mode. <color> can be rotated and autocompleted by pressing the tab key.

To permanently enable blue colorscheme for example, add the following line to /etc/vim/vimrc or ~/.vimrc

colorscheme blue

The tool to be used for creating the ISO image is dd, a low level raw data copying and conversion tool for Unix based systems. Obviously as in the command below, two options are needed for this purpose; if for the input file, and of for the output file.

sudo dd if=/dev/cdrom of=mycdrom.iso

To verify and probably to use the image at later times, simply mount the image with loop option.

sudo mount -o loop -t iso9660 mycdrom.iso /mnt

Though dd can also be used to burn ISO images (guess how easy could it be), the proper way to do it is to use cdrecord. The command below will verbosely show the burning process to the cdrom device with burnfree option enabled;

sudo cdrecord -v  dev=/dev/cdrom driveropts=burnfree -data mycdrom.iso

The steps above are actually helpful to backup OS / driver CDs and DVDs as there’s no need to worry of scratched discs, and to have everything organized in one place. Hard drive space shouldn’t be an issue nowadays, but if it is, try to apply some compressions to ease the problem.

I currently have the following books that I would like to just give away;

Anyone interested can contact me.

I’ve just installed the latest Kubuntu (Hardy Beta), and among other things that I notice is that bash-completion doesn’t work. The cause of the problem is simply because bash-completion is not installed by default!

And so I just install it;

sudo apt-get install bash-completion

and it restores order of my shell user experience..

I was to handover my laptop to someone else, and so I deleted my Linux partitions, leaving just Vista. I however forgotten to fix the MBR, leaving the system unbootable as it stuck during GRUB loading.

I then boot the system with Vista’s installer DVD, hoping to use the old trick by going to the command prompt (available under the "Repair your computer"  menu after booting up with the DVD) and run the command

fdisk /mbr

but it complain that fdisk is not a recognized command (another way of saying the program is not installed, or not in the path). With that I try another program,

bootrec /FixMbr

reboot, and the problem is no longer there.

Thank you Microsoft

"I’m not sure". That was the answer my wife gave me when we were on our way to the medical center just now. And if she asked me, I would have answered the same. Maybe we have both mastered the art of being in control, and calm

We are now in the labor room, as my wife is actually to deliver our first baby, expected to be a boy.. I’ve been getting calls from my closest relatives reminding me what to do, and to be calm, while in my head I have it that I’m more prepared than what I thought I would be, and people are actually much more worried than we are ourselves.

I now hope (pray) that my mother-to-be wife will safely deliver our baby, for her to go through this process pain-less-ly (did I hear epidural?), and for them to be both healthy later on..

When I thought that the XPS M1330 is good enough for my work, I suddenly I got this at the office;

It’s a brand new 24" Apple iMac and I’m (forcefully) now a convert to Mac. It’s good to know and master more OS (though I’m not sure why didn’t I get excited with Vista eventhough the XPS came bundled with it), and so expect me to post more of Mac stuff later on.

I now have more reason not to screw up at work..

I’ve been posting quite a number of Linux howto / tips in this blog, and I felt like they are better served at a more proper place. With that I’m migrating my Linux related posting to LinuxRecipe.net, which is actually my other pet blog.

Among other reason for the migration is that I prefer to have a dedicated place discussing / serving dedicated topic, rather than having an "anything goes" blog. I’ve also been trying write in a more definitive and discrete manner there, by which that I’m actually trying to improve my writing skill.

See you guys there!!

If previously I’ve been posting about changing file’s name based on it’s metainfo, this time I’m gonna talk about the opposite, specifically in changing MP3’s ID3 tag using Kid3.

The package is installable in Ubuntu / Debian;

shakir@gutsy ~ $ sudo apt-get install kid3

After launching the program, add files that we want to change their ID3’s, and click on From Filename

and that’s just it

At one time we might need to bypass the firewall, and at another time we might need to secure / encrypt our connection, and for that we normally set up reverse tunnel in SSH. Setting up reverse tunnel itself is fairly easy, yet there are programs  to make it even easier.

I’ve previously been introduced to gSTM (Gnome SSH Tunnel Manager) and I must say it’s a very helpful program. Here’s a one liner to install it Ubuntu / Debian;

shakir@gutsy ~ $ sudo apt-get install gstm

Just for an example, I’ll show how to tunnel port 80 (HTTP) of one of my other Linux box (under VMWare of course);

Let’s first create a tunnel

and login..

Edit how to redirect the remote box’s HTTP port

and test it out..

It works!