Linux CLI tricks

One of the reasons I enjoy Linux so much, I think, is because I've always been a fan of the command line, even after the GUI came into its own. So here are a couple of articles that I've recently bookmarked showing a couple of cool Linux CLI tricks.

The first is how to look up the geographic location of an IP address from the command line, which could come in especially handy during an ARG ;)

Second is how to use Google Translate from the terminal.

Finally, here's 20 great terminal replacements for GUI applications.

Just wanted to share :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Just wanted to wish a Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone :)

Errors in LGPedia

ahcapella pointed out some errors in LGPedia, or at least my version of it, the other day, and I noticed that the entries for the CiW Clues is missing information, so my question is: how long do I give Miles before I open up my version for editing? Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

Time Travel

It would seem I traveled back in time before filling my tank last night ;)

phpBB Scraper

Just as an FYI, I have a phpBB scraper ready to go, and have tested it with cassieiswatching.myfreeforum.org, which I now have an XML dump of, should something ever happen to it ;) I'll work on making that XML dump usable (and searchable) in an effort to gather as much CiW-related information in one place. Once usable, I'll make a download available as well. If someone wants the raw files in the meantime, just ask :)

Come and get it!

Come and get it! Or, go and get it! The content I used to get LGPedia back online is an XML dump at archive.org. Download it so you have a copy. I guarantee I don't plan on letting it ever go offline again, but plans sometimes change. The only way to make sure LGPedia survives forever is to make sure as many people as possible have a copy.

That said, I plan an scraping any remaining CiW-related content I can find online, and have even considered writing a custom web crawler that simply searches the web for Cassie-related content and indexes it for us. The scraper I plan on unleashing will grab content from phpBB forums (I'll add more forum types later) and create either static pages or XML files of the results. I'm thinking XML files, as I can more easily style the results as well as make them searchable.

If you run any type of CiW-related website, especially if it's database-driven in any way, please consider sending a copy of the content my way. If your site is still active, I can do as I've done with LGPedia, at Miles Becket's request, and make it read-only. Or, as I plan on doing with LGPedia once the official is back up, make it inaccessible and just redirect the traffic to the original site.

At any rate, if you want a copy of LGPedia, come and get it! I can help you get a local copy of it accessible, should you so desire, or, just grab it in case something happens to my copy and/or the archive.org copy.

See you in Second Life

Late night Saturday, early Sunday, I met up with modelmotion and Ahcapella in Second Life for a little while. I'm led to believe that this has been a regular Saturday ritual for some time, but this was the first time I made it on. Had a great time, even though we didn't get much discussed before 6am rolled around, but it sets the stage for me being on more often. So, see you in Second Life ;) Another thing that come of it is that I realize how much my CassieIsWatching theories seem to focus on who the PM was. That was not my intent, and, quite honestly, that's not important. What is important is solving that last anagram, figuring out what Helter Skelter has to do with anything, and what other clues we missed. The only real bearing who the PM was has on any of this is it might give insight into their thinking. At the same time, knowing it was a specific person may cause us to think one way and ignore clues that point another. Overall, I don't think their identity matters and having them unknown to us helps keep the mystery alive.

On a related side note, I find it very interesting that Cassie managed to be very careful not to reveal her identity, but was careless enough to leave the default PIN on her voice mail set to 1234#. A possible explanation is that the PM was well aware of the sleuthing that went into revealing the Creators' identities, so put energy into keeping that secret at the expense of a bit of carelessness elsewhere.

Regardless, I hope to see everyone in Second Life. Join us there for some CiW sleuthing.