Tapping RSS with Shell Scripts by Dave Taylor -- Here's how to write a shell script that watches the news from Slashdot.org. After applying the code in this article by Dave Taylor, coauthor of Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther, all you'll have to do is launch the Terminal to see the latest Slash headlines.

via hbwt - GNU Screen: an introduction and beginner's tutorial || kuro5hin.org

"Most modern Unix-based operating systems (e.g. Linux, MacOS X, and BSD) come with a little console-mode utility called GNU Screen. It's a powerful tool in the hands of the console warrior, a veritable Swiss Army knife of text-mode human-computer interaction.

This utility, despite its considerable usefulness, goes unused by a great many people. Why is this? Few people even know it's there, and those that do rarely understand the problem it solves. In this article, I will explain what screen does for you, and provide a simple set of instructions for accomplishing basic tasks using screen. My audience is those that are skilled with the command line but who have little or no experience with screen itself."...

I'm one of the target audience ;-)

I've just caught the second half of the first of the BBC's If drama-documentaries:

If...the lights go out

Is Britain at risk of the same sort of catastrophic power cut recently seen in the United States and, if so, why?

Scary stuff.

Earlier today - in my capacity as Admissions Selector - I hosted my department's contribution to the Science at the University of Strathclyde - Information Session event. Two of the pupils from the school that has been been piloting ISAW and who had been contact with me [see this post] came along and introduced themselves to me. It was good to be able to put faces to names but even nicer to actually chat to a couple of prospective students that have a genuine interest in the subject.