Hacks

This is a collection of various Perl scripts I've written for work and personal use. All Unix/Linux/Gnome-centric. I call them all "hacks", but many probably don't even rise to that level. They were fun to write and tweak, and I've decided to share them with the Whole Wide World. Enjoy. Or not. Your call.

Each link below points to a man-page-like description of the script, which contains a link to the Perl source. The sources were HTMLized by perltidy, a most excellent tool written by Steve Hancock.

None of what you'll see here are even close to what are generally called "software packages." Many (but not all) would require small-to-massive modifications to work in another environment. Nevertheless, if you'd like to download and use any script, feel free. No copyrights, licenses, or patents here, and (of course) no warranties are expressed or implied. Don't sue me. If you'd like to drop me a note (a) pointing out bugs; (b) containing suggestions for improvements; (c) showing how something could be done much easier in Python (not holding my breath here); or (d) just to shoot the breeze, my address is below.

Somewhat Personal

sudoku

A sudoku puzzle solver.

bookpicker

Picks a book from the top of one or more reading lists "at random".

hidewords

Hides one or more words in an array of noise characters, on a printed credit card size rectangle.

bcd_clock

Emulation of the blinking LEDs of a binary-coded decimal clock.

Work Stuff

gen_random_grammatical_passphrases

Generates grammatically-correct random passphrases, based on the algorithm described here.

gnome_bg_rotate

Rotates Gnome background to the least-recently-seen JPEG file in a specified directory.

sysmon

A low-tech text-based system monitor.

sxt

Opens a Gnome terminal to a remote host.

sxta

Opens a bunch of tabbed Gnome terminals.

Web Page Generation

make_dweeblist

Generates an HTML index of webserver users' home pages.

remind.cgi

CGI to display monthly calendar/reminders.

Red Hat Linux RPM Management

The following packages are closely related, each relying on a common directory layout accessible via a webserver. (Ordering is in more-or-less logical order.)

merge_rpms

Incorporates Red Hat update RPMs into an installation tree.

gen_rpmlists

Generate lists of the "latest" RPMs available for current and recent Red Hat distributions (used by programs described below).

Linux Installation

hoki

A hands-off script to start up a Red Hat/Fedora kickstart installation

Last modified: September 4 2011 12:21 EDT