Note to Self

MS Office Notes
Excel: To enter line breaks within a cell

option + ctrl + return

Excel: To edit a cell inline without leaving the keyboard

ctrl + u

Excel: To combine text from two different cells in one

=cell1& " " &cell2 produces cell1 cell2. The key is in using the & sign at the end of the reference to first cell and the beginning of the reference to the second cell.

 

Mac OSX Notes
How to screen capture on your Mac

whole screen (makes 2 pictures for dual screen)
command + shift + 3
free hand
command + shift + 4
active window
command + shift + 4 + space bar

In OSX.3 (Panther), all screen capture files are saved as .tiff files.
In OSX.4 (Tiger), all screen capture files are saved as .png files.

How to zoom in & out of Mac OSX screen (really cool!)

command + option + 8 (”Apple, Option, Eight” )
toggles Zoom on/off
command + option + = (”Apple, Option, Equal Sign” )
zooms in, centering on the cursor position when Zoom is on
command + option + - (”Apple, Option, Minus Sign” )
zooms out

Negative Effect (also cool)

command + option + ctl + 8 (”Apple, Option, Ctl, Eight” )
toggles the effect on/off

Hide HardwareGrowler from Dock

1. Right click on application -> Show Package Contents
2. Edit Info.plist in a text editor
3. Add
<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>
4. In command line, type:
touch ~/path/to/HardwareGrowler.app
5. Relaunch application

 

Free BSD Notes
Post-install configuration interface:

/usr/sbin/sysinstall

updatedb in FreeBSD is:

/usr/libexec/locate.updatedb

Doh! It’s the same command in Mac OSX! (Duh… )

command to upgrade FreeBSD packages:

portupgrade package_name

Package management:

pkg_add (_check, _create, _delete, _info, _version) package_name

The command adds package from FreeBSD ports (kind of like apt-get for Debian or emerge for Gentoo)

To change the default startx to gnome:

1. Locate (or create) ~/.xinitrc
2. Add exec genome-session to the file
3.Save & exit
4. Logout and Login again

 

Debian Notes
ProFTPD: Local users without shell accounts cannot login

Issue /bin/false in /etc/shells file

ProFTPD: After the above is issued, local users cannot list directories

If iptables is being used:
As root, issue insmod ip_conntrack_ftp

To change apache log permissions while rotating logs:

/etc/logrotate.d/apache (or whatever the log rotation script is called)
Modify the create 640 root adm line accordingly

 

Geeky Quotes:

To err is human… to really foul up requires the root password.

Unix is user-friendly. It’s just very selective about who its friends are.