How to Find Out What Version of Linux You Are Running
---------- On Red Hat Linux ----------
$ cat /etc/redhat-release
---------- On CentOS Linux ----------
$ cat /etc/centos-release
---------- On Fedora Linux ----------
$ cat /etc/fedora-release
---------- On Debian Linux ----------
$ cat /etc/debian_version
---------- On Ubuntu and Linux Mint ----------
$ cat /etc/lsb-release
---------- On Gentoo Linux ----------
$ cat /etc/gentoo-release
---------- On SuSE Linux ----------
$ cat /etc/SuSE-release
AS you can see this various depending on on which form of the original Linux Operating System so I usually end up searching for this as it is not something that I use day to day in my professional or work life. I hope it makes somees’s day that much easier. 🙂
Neofetch is really neat open source tool for displaying your system information on your command line oof choice. There are a lot of instructions on the Internet explaining how to do this on most Linux based system. There is a lot less information for Unix like systems such as macOS. Currently, I am running macOS Montery and as this version of the operating system now uses ZSH over the traditional Bash shell for the Terminal app . Eventually, I figured out that this difference in default shells is why I could not get this to work. If you want to do this for yourself you will need to first install the application.
Now, unlike installing most applications on macOS there is no graphical installer so instead we have to use the fantastic macOS package manager Homebrew. in order to do this open up Terminal and run this command:
Once neoffetch has been installed running it is super easy, just do:
neofetch
Great, now that we have neofetch installed, if you want to run this. every time a Terminal window opens we need to create a .zshrc file in your home directory which will run the neofetch command every time you open a new Terminal window.
sudo nano .zshrc
then you just add the command into this new blank file
Don’t forget to do ctrl+x to save the file. 🙂
If all went well you should see something similar to this once you quit and open Terminal.
If you have any issues or questions feel free to DM me on Twitter or use the contact form on this site.
This month my home experienced a rare power outage. It did not last very long but somehow during the outage my trusty ASUS router was powering up but it was not passing any traffic. I tried various troubleshooting methods but nothing resurrected it. So, now I am forced to use the WiFi function of my DSL Gateway. This system is really great for range but terrible for speed and reliability, My household suffers through this for a few days before we decided that now we are in the market for a new router so after doing some research at The Wirecutter to see what they recommend as they have a really good testing methodologies.
The clear winner was of course the Eero Mesh WiFi System. So my Wife and I made a trip to our local Best Buy to pick up the system that works best for the layout of our ranch style home. Before installing the new system I ran a few speed tests from my office on a desktop and in carious places through the house on my smart phone. The results are as follows.
Speed tests from DSL Gateway.
Mobil test from the kitchen.
Mobile test from the living room.
Mobile test from the bedroom.
Mobile test from the office.
As you can see the signal strength is good but the speeds are terrible. We were fin unless someone wanted to stream a video and we were buffering very often.
The setup process.
Setting up the Eero Gateway was very easy. Unbox the gatewayy, install the eero application from your mobile app store of choice, and follow the prompts.
For my home I have the following setup.
1x Eero Gateway in the Living Room
1x Belkin undamaged switch
1x Eero Beacon in the Kitchen
1x Eero Beacon in the Master Bedroom
Once everything synced up and the app advised me everything was connected it did a quick firmware update and restarted all 3 devices. Once they were all showing back online I ran the same speed tests again.
Speed tests from the Eero Gateway
Mobile test from the Kitchen.
Mobile test from the Living Room.
Mobile test from the Bedroom.
Mobile test from the Office.
I find the results pretty compelling and my household is much happier now. This is not the cheapest router out there but it is a huge improvement over anything I have used in a long time. Additionally, this router will never need me to manually upload to
So at long last I am finally getting around to (stop procrastinating) getting this site going again. It has taken a lot longer than I planned but between my work and my home life it seems like there is never enough time and/or energy to get things done. More to come as I get to it!
Some of these are pretty basic and some are a bit more advanced and/or obscure in my opinion. I hope they are also useful to others out there. Please not that files names and file paths are just made up examples and might not fit what you are attempting to accomplish.
cd – change directory
Carl + c – cancels the currently running foreground operation
pod – s/how your current fill file path
cp /path/to/file.txt /path/to/your/new/file.txt – copy a file from one location to another location
move (rename) a file from one location to another location – mv file1.txt file1.back.txt
show the tail end of a file with any new additions that are written to the file – tail -f /var/log/messages.log
determine if a node is online – ping duck.com
determine the network route to a given node – trace route duck.com
perform a DNS lookup on a given address – nslookup duck.com
 show xx number of lines at the tail end of a file – Show the tail end of a file with any additions – tail -f /var/log/messages
run a shell script – bash shellscript.sh OR sh shellscript.sh
check drive mappings for the currently mounted file system – do -h
change to another system user – su username
easy way to change to the root user if you have sudo level access – sudo -i
For awhile now I have been seeing a reoccurring charge for $5.99 listed as AMZN Digital*MI or something similar. I looked all over my account pages and could never find any subscriptions that were active. I was finally able to determine that the charge was for ComiXology which was squired by Amazon some time ago. I am assuming at some point the charge stopped being listed under ComiXology and was switched to Amazon Digital but I am not certain about this. There was no help for this online so I thought I would put a not here and hope that future searchers find this post.
My family dines at this restaurant semi regularly and sometime during the COVID “end times” the chain discontinued two of our favorite breakfast items, the Uncle Herschel’s Favorite and the Sunrise Sampler. The staff of course does not know why menu items are changed as this is a decision made at the corporate level so there is no point in complaining to them about the missing items. I did find a thread on the Cracker Barrel Subreddit (yes that is a thing) where I was able to recreate my personal favorite, the Uncle Herschel’s Favorite and my Brother found a random review on Trip Advisor that provided his favorite, the Sunrise Sampler. In the off chance that someone else is wanting to dine on these two lost menu items I thought that providing the workaround we discovered might be helpful to others out there.
The Uncle Herschel’s Favorate (modified)
Two Eggs (scrambled with cheese)
Grits
Farm-Raised Catfish
Fried eggs
Biscuits & Gravy
In order to recreate this item on today’s menu you will need to choose the Build Your Own Homestyle Breakfast option from the menu. Fortunately, this comes with Biscuits & Gravy and two eggs already! For myself I would ask to have them scrambled with cheese but you choose your eggs however you wish. Now we will need to make the following selections:
Choose catfish as the meat (grilled).
Choose fried apples as the side.
Add gets as an additional side.
If you are not a catfish fan you can choose whatever other meat option that you wish.
The Sunrise Sampler
Two eggs (scrambled with cheese)
Grits
Fried Apples
Hashbrown Casserole
Meat sampler (Bacon, Sausage, and Country Ham)
Biscuits & Gravy
Much like the prior item you will need to choose the Build Your Own Homestyle Breakfast option from the menu. Fortunately, this will come with Biscuits & Gravy and two eggs already! My Brother would also ask to have them scrambled with cheese but you choose your eggs however you wish. Now we will need to make the following selections:
Choose meat sampler as the meat.
Choose fried apples as the side.
Add hash brown casserole as an additional side.
Add grits as an additional side.
This is as close to the original items as we have been able to determine. Unfortunately, these now cost more than the original items but it replicates everything else that you want from Breakfast! Feel free to contact me on Mastodon if you know of a cheaper way to do this or lament other list menu items from this Midwestern stable!
