Pseudo Work (fwork)

joel gillman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:16:30 +0000

This script takes a text file (any text file should) and displays it one line at a time with short delays in between. In other words, you can run this script to make it look like your computer is actually doing something worthwhile.

I had searched around the internet a few times but never really found anything like this, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look. Maybe I’m just a bad internet searcher. Script after the jump.

#!/bin/bash

#####################################################
# Pseudo Work (fwork) Script - by Joel Gillman 2009
# lab.joelgillman.com/archives/159_pseudo-work
#
# Please feel free to edit and change this as you
# like! If you do make any edits I would be curious
# to see what you've done so drop me a line!
#
# DISCLAIMER
# I am in no way a bash scripting expert. Most of what
# I write is copy and paste and trial and error.
# While this script shouldn't hurt anything in your
# system don't hold me responsible if it does! Use
# at your own risk.
#####################################################

## test if file (default or otherwise)
if [ "$1" = '' ]; then
filename="$HOME/garbage.txt"
if [ -e $filename ]; then
sleep 0
else
echo "No file specified and default file '~/garbage.txt' not found."
exit
fi
elif [ -e $1 ]; then
filename=$1
else
echo "No file found at $1"
exit
fi

## execute fakeness
while read p; do
if [ "$(($RANDOM % 10))" -eq 1 ]; then
let "R1 = ($RANDOM % 2)"
elif [ "$(($RANDOM % 50))" -eq 1 ]; then
let "R1 = ($RANDOM % 20)"
else
let "R1 = 0"
fi

let "R2 = ($RANDOM % 10)"
echo $p
sleep $R1.$R2
done < $filename

Download a zip’d version of the script.
You can download the (2.5MB) text file I’ve been using.

Let me know what you think! Any improvements or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

iSightCapture, now with more SSH!

joel gillman — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:28:50 +0000

I think this kind of thing is pretty awesome. Take a picture from your iSight. Take a screencapture. Upload them both to a remote server. WHY DOESN’T EVERYONE WANT TO DO THIS?! Maybe you do, now you can (hopefully).

Firstly, props to Dylan O’Donnell, who wrote the original script. I was personally unsatisfied with FTP because it’s insecure and I always run into technical troubles with it. Probably because I never took the time to learn what I was doing with FTP via command line… But I favor SCP for my file transferring needs.

I also added a screen cap functionality because there’s all kinds of cool things you can do with that down the line. Time-lapse animation, security, you name it!

If you want the iSight captures to work you must download and install isightcapture! I’ve installed it to /usr/sbin/ and hardcoded the script to look there. If you don’t know what you’re doing, I suggest you do the same.

“Installing” isightcapture (assuming it’s unzipped and on your desktop):

user$ sudo cp ~/Desktop/isightcapture /usr/sbin/

Quick rundown of what’s happening here:
- Grab the date and time info and prepare the filenames (YearMonthDayHourMinuteSecond)
- Take a picture with the iSight, save it to a folder (~/Documents/pics/)
- Take a screencap, save it to the same folder (~/Documents/pics/)
- Resize all of the jpgs in the pics folder so they’re no more than 800px in any dimention
- Check to see if the computer has a network connection, if it does upload the files to a remote server (via scp) and delete the local images. If there’s no connection, do nothing (images will try to upload next time the script is run)

In order for this to work you must have SSH Keys setup with the server you are connecting to. If you don’t it will not work. If you google “ssh keys” there are a million ways to do it but this is the site that actually got it working on my modern mac: http://www.webficient.com/2007/11/16/mac-and-ssh-keys

Here’s a quick and dirty run down of how to do that, but I’m just copying from Phil’s post so don’t blame me if it doesn’t work for you :)

Generate the ssh key (obviously replace the CAPS stuff with your info). When asked for a passphrase just hit enter, this will make an empty passphrase which, I admit, is very insecure but it’s better than nothing and the script won’t work with a passphrase :( :

user$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa

If you’ve never used SSH to make an outgoing connect on the machine you are connecting to you will also need to create the ssh folder on that machine and make it so only your user can read it:

user$ ssh USER@YOUR.SERVER.COM 'mkdir ~/.ssh;chmod 700 ~/.ssh'

Now copy your public key (id_rsa.pub) to the server you’re connecting to (I always name the copy on the server “temp_pub_key” so I know exactly what file I need):

user$ scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub USER@YOUR.SERVER.COM:~/.ssh/temp_pub_key

Now connect to the remote server and navigate to ~/.ssh/

remote-user$ cd ~/.ssh/

On the server, check to see if the file “authorized_keys” exists, if it doesn’t rename your “temp_pub_key” to “authorized_keys:

remote-user$ mv temp_pub_key authorized_keys

If “authorized_keys” already exists then you want to add your public key to the end of the file:

remote-user$ cat temp_pub_key >> authorized_keys

If “authorized_keys” didn’t already exists, you’ll also have to set the permissions of the authorized_keys file:

ssh USER@YOUR.SERVER.COM 'chmod 644 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2'

Here is the automation script originally written by Dylan O’Donnell with my tweaks and editing for SSH and screencaps.

#!/bin/bash
#
# Original iSight Auto Upload Script - by Dylan O'Donnell 2006
# Edited for ssh and made more awesome by Joel Gillman 2009
#####################################################
# Edit CAPITALS with appropriate details
# Notes : You must have ssh-keys setup with the server you are
# : uploading to before hand. Otherwise this will not work.
# :
# : Try here for tutorial on ssh-keys (worked for me)
# : http://www.webficient.com/2007/11/16/mac-and-ssh-keys
#
#####################################################

# Generate filename based on date stamp
picture=$(date +%y%m%d%H%M%S)_pic.jpg;
screen=$(date +%y%m%d%H%M%S)_scr.jpg;

# Take iSight Photo and store with datestamp filename
/usr/sbin/isightcapture -w 640 -h 480 -t jpg /Users/USERNAME/Documents/pics/$picture;

# Take screen capture
/usr/sbin/screencapture -C -m -t jpg -x /Users/USERNAME/Documents/pics/$screen;

#resize the pictures so they're not too big
/usr/bin/sips --resampleHeightWidthMax 800 /Users/USERNAME/Documents/pics/*.jpg

# Generate semaphore for connectivity by pinging NASA
isconnected=$(ping -c 1 www.nasa.gov | grep 64 | wc | awk '{print $1}');

# Wait a few seconds to see if it's connected.
sleep 3;

# If connected...
if [ "$isconnected" -eq "1" ]; then

/usr/bin/scp /Users/USERNAME/Documents/pics/* USERNAME@YOUR.SERVER.COM:"REMOTE/PATH";

# Wait a few seconds, just to make sure everything is clear and complete
sleep 4;

# delete local images
rm -f /Users/USERNAME/Documents/pics/*.jpg;

else
# If not connected.. leave captures there until next time.
echo "No Connection, Image not transferred or deleted.";
fi

lab.joelGillman.com » bash

Pseudo Work (fwork)

iSightCapture, now with more SSH!