Unix Tip: Terminating unattended processes

By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld

An easy way to terminate processes left running after users log off a system. ...continue reading 'Terminating unattended processes'

Unix Tip: More on bc

By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld

In a previous column, we looked at bc, the surprisingly high precision and big value capable Unix tool that you will find on most versions of Unix today. The bc utility is not just a command line tool, however. You can also write numerically intensive scripts in bc. The tool incorporates enough syntax to assign values to variables, write and call functions, collect responses from users and print annotated results. ...continue reading 'Unix Tip: More on bc'

Customizing Vista's Instant Search

Mitch Tulloch, ITworld.com

I'll admit it, I'm a Wikipedia addict. Here's how you can add a "Search Wikipedia" option to the Instant Search box on your Start menu. ...continue reading 'Customizing Vista's Instant Search'

Windows Tip: Sizing your event logs

By Mitch Tulloch, MVP

The Windows Event Logs are a good thing -- they're a primary source you can mine when troubleshooting server problems or monitoring server security. Because of this, it's a good idea to collect as much information as possible in these logs in order to provide you with a historical baseline of your server's operations to help you troubleshoot difficult issues, and also to create an audit trail for security purposes. But can you have too much of a good thing? ...continue reading 'Windows Tip: Sizing your event logs'

Using bc for big calculations

By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld

For sysadmins who want to perform simple calculations on the command line, there's a considerably more useful tool than expr. Try bc.

Unix Tip: Burning bootable DVDs

By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com

One of the messages that you don't want to see when getting ready to upgrade a system to Solaris 10 is "can't open boot device". The problems this kind of error suggests, such as bad CD/DVD reader or improper device alias, can be troublesome. So, when I ran into this problem on a Friday afternoon, I was not amused. I had tried various boot commands, but got the same basic response each time... continue reading 'Unix Tip: Burning bootable DVDs'

Windows Tip: Getting RunAs Back in Vista

By Mitch Tulloch, MVP

I've been on the Service Pack 1 beta for Windows Vista for awhile and in my opinion SP1 has fixed most of the issues that the original RTM release had, especially relating to performance. Therefore, I'm confident that enterprises will begin accelerating their deployment plans for Vista now that SP1 is about to be released. One thing that is still missing from Vista however it the capability you had in XP to right-click on a program or shortcut on your desktop or in Windows Explorer, select RunAs, and run the program with any credentials you want to specify ... continue reading 'Windows Tip: Getting RunAs Back in Vista'

Unix Tip: Terminating Options Processing with --

Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com

Before we get beyond the topic of working around files and directories with oddball names, there's one more trick that's useful to know about -- how to terminate options processing with "--" (excuse the grammatical pun!). Typing -- within a Unix command essentially tells the shell to stop processing the text in the command line as if it contained command line options. ...continue reading 'Unix Tip: Terminating Options Processing with --'