sshfs – Mount a filesystem over SSH

I’ve decided to do a few posts about some of the cool tools and tricks I use most in my day to day usage of Linux, and I’ll start with sshfs, the SSH filesystem.

As the name might suggest, sshfs allows you to mount all or part of a remote system’s filesystem with nothing more than an SSH connection. Here’s some examples of how to use it.
Continue reading sshfs – Mount a filesystem over SSH

Blazing car driven into Glasgow airport

It seems that two men, described by eyewitnesses as Asian, have driven a burning vehicle into Glasgow airport, or at least crashed it into the front doors – it didn’t get into the terminal itself.

Apparently the Jeep Cherokee was on fire before crashing into the building. Police restrained and arrested the two men, with help from members of the public.

A Whitehall spokesman said:

the incident was not being treated as a national security threat however the prime minister is being kept informed of developments and is expected to chair a meeting of Cobra – the emergency committee later.

This comes just a day after a car containing explosives was found in Picadilly in London (and BBC’s news report states two cars, so there must have been another somewhere).

It seems odd that there’s a sudden spate of failed attacks. They don’t sound organised enough to have been carried out by real terrorists, in my opinion – they seem too shoddily-done.

Alternatively, for a nice dose of cynical conspiracy theory: perhaps the government had fake attacks performed to justify continued “war on terrorism” in Iraq, Afghanistan etc. :)
(No, I don’t really believe that to be the case).

Facebook – an effective social network

I’d thought about joining Facebook a few times when friends mentioned it, but never bothered signing up.  To be honest, I think I expected it to be much like MySpace – full of ugly, garish, horribly-“designed” pages filled with immature drivel :)

I gave in the other day when a couple of friends from work recommended it, and I have to say I’m *very* impressed.  It’s full of features to help everyone stay in contact.  I’m particularly impressed with the photo upload tool and the ability to “tag” people in photos – very slick.  It’s a clean, simple design, and there’s plenty of slick AJAXy magic in use, to make the site even nicer to use.

Here’s my profile on Facebook – if you use Facebook, add me as a friend!

A groaner

An Englishman, Scotsman & Irishman are in hospital recovering from serious surgery.

For conversation’s sake the Englishman says:

“What do you think is the best thing ever invented?” ” I think it’s the Pacemaker, because if it wasn’t for the Pacemaker it’d be curtains for me”.

Scotsman says: “Aye, The Pacemaker, ‘cos I had heart disease and if it wasn’t for the Pacemaker, it’d be curtains for me , too”.

The Irishman says: “Venetian blinds”.

Puzzled consternation from the Englishman & Scotsman. “Why???”

“Because if it wasn’t for them it’d be curtains for everyone”.

Pay peanuts and get monkeys…

Okay, they say if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys – well, why not hire Primate Programmers?

Primate Programming Inc. is dedicated to the advancement and gainful employment of non-human great apes within the United States information technology sector.
[….]
A skilled primate from our firm can handle code maintenance and report writing for as little as 45 cents per hour. The entire staff receives ongoing .NET training and JSP training in addition to training in XML, Java and related technologies.

Fancy a cheap Faberge egg?

Fancy a nice bargain on a Faberge egg?

Save $2.5m on a Faberge egg

Not a bad little saving there, think I’ll buy ten :)

Live link (at least until they pull it down)

Even better is the customer review for it:

Looks fantastic, but not so tasty, May 31, 2007
By Benjamin Hallert (Springfield, OR)
While the wrapper is artfully done, I was disappointed with the filling. I don’t know if the one I got was a factory defect or not, but once I had removed the elaborate wrapper, I found it was empty, without even the smell of chocolate. After this, I’ll stick with Cadbury eggs, but my experience may not be representative of the normal presentation. I’ve given the product 4 stars because of the wrapper, though, while difficult to tear off, it was certainly stunning.

(Found via a post on The Daily WTF)

David Precious – professional Perl developer, motorcyclist and beer drinker