GeekScribes

There are many Vim cheatsheets out there. Some are very elaborate, listing almost every single thing you can do in Vim. I’d go as far as calling those reference cards instead of cheat-sheets. However much I searched, I couldn’t find one which I like, which is simple enough to give me the info I want at a glance. They usually have too many things, so that I have to search for what I want, or they are not organized as I’d like.

So I created my own. And I’ll share it with you. Enjoy, and please drop me a comment if you find it useful, or got some suggestions.

This cheat-sheet should interest you after reading my Vim Beginner’s Tutorial. You can see the cheat-sheet below:

[ PNG Version ]

Who’d have thought I’d ever write a title like that? I, who kept telling friends and other acquaintances for some time now: “Scrap the damn Internet Explorer (IE), and get a good browser! Download Chrome or Firefox!”. That’s a line most tech people yell at others, whenever the others say: “that page looks broken”, or if their machines is being overrun by viruses or other kinds of malware. So much that, when asked what was Internet Explorer’s use, some people even replied “to download Firefox”.

The first reflex nowadays has been to fire Internet Explorer, go to Mozilla or Google and download Firefox or Chrome. Or Opera. Or Safari. Whatever. As long as it was a “better browser” than IE, which up to IE8, was awfully slow, with an ugly interface and was a total nightmare for web designers when it came to standards and CSS.

After hearing too many complaints, someone at Microsoft must have raised their arms and said “F* it! Let’s make a good browser this time!”. And they succeeded. From the minds of the folks at Microsoft came Internet Explorer 9, whose Beta version is out, and available for download here.

There has been lots of hype around the new IE, promising HTML5 support and a huge boost when it comes to respecting standards. Guess what? For once, the hype turned out to be true. I’d go as far as calling IE9, the best ever browser made by Microsoft. This is not surprising, considering that IE9 looks almost like the excellent Google Chrome, both in terms of interface and features. You can’t fail hard when you copy from the best. I guess that statements has been proven true. For once, I’ll be using Firefox to download Internet Explorer. Feels kind of strange…

So let’s see what IE9 is made of.

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Vi is a text editor that is usually found under Unix, Linux and other open-source OS environments. “Vi is one of the greatest text editors ever created by the human hand“. Just for fun, go scream the quoted line to a crowd of Emacs fans and watch as all hell breaks loose! I do not vouch for your safety!

But just like Emacs, Vi too is a great text editor. Each has its advantages, and disadvantages (Vi – High learning curve, Emacs – Pinky Syndrome). But once you have mastered them, they are really powerful editors. Choose one of them great editors (whichever you like), and master it.

To help you get started with Vi, I have written this small tutorial, because most beginners are usually stopped in their tracks by their first encounter with Vi. Now, this article will deal with Vim, which is actually Vi Improved. In my opinion, it is a bit friendlier than the traditional Vi, while including all the greatness of Vi.

So let’s start, shall we?

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Hello!

I’ve prepared a small Chmod tutorial for people who have difficulty understanding the command.

I hope you find it useful. If you find any mistakes, please let me know through the comments below.

Chmod Tutorial - Jpg

[ PNG version ]

Has it ever happened to you that someone requests some help with a problem regarding their computer? You will then usually try to provide assistance over the phone. However hard you try to explain, some problems are just not resolvable on phone. At that time, you wish you had just gone and meet the person. But if the person is in another country, you have a problem. Or maybe you are abroad or at a friend’s place, and want to check how your downloads are going, or do something on your machine?

In those situations, you want to “remote control” your computer.

There are a number of software that allow to do this, starting with Windows’ Remote Desktop Connection. It works well when using windows machines over local networking. However, when you take it through the Internet, it’s slow. There is also the problem of cross-platform compatibility. What if you want to help someone running Windows while you’re on Linux? For those situations, you may want a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) software. Basically, a VNC software comes in the form of two software pieces: the server and the client. You install the server on the PC you want to control, and you connect the client (viewer) to it. The problem with VNC is that it is not beginner-friendly since it requires some configuration, and the server-client concept may not be appealing to all. Also, without some tweaking, VNC can be really slow.

If you want a really simple, cross-platform and free solution, you will want TeamViewer.

TeamViewer comes as a single package, which acts as both server and client. It is also portable, in that it can run without installation (tested on Windows only).

So how do you use it? Just download the setup file (or package), choose to install or run it directly, and you’re basically done.

Now, you’ll be presented with this screen:

Two important things are shown in that screen: An ID and a password, which are unique for your machine. Password is sessional: it changes.

To connect to a person, ask them their ID and password. Put it in the box on the right, and choose what type of connection you want. As you see, you can provide “Remote Support” which will allow you to take control of their machine, “Presentation” which is like a “view-only” mode for presentations, with minimal display elements, “File Transfer”, which allows direct transfer of files between two computers, without having to upload the file first, and “VPN”, which is as if your two computers are connected to the same local network. This mode is great for LAN gaming over Internet. However, if you want only that feature, there are better software out there, like Hamachi or Tunngle.

When you click “Connect to partner”, you’ll have to put their password. And that’s it. If you chose Remote Support, you’ll have their desktop in front of you. You can now execute commands etc, as if you were working on your own machine.

TeamViewer works across Firewalls, NAT etc, so you don’t have to configure anything if your partner or yourself have those in place.

In my opinion, that is the simplest remote controlling a computer can be, so if you want to do that, give TeamViewer a try.