Fast File Sharing from Ubuntu

Command line Python 2.6 tool to set up an instant FTP server:

Open a terminal

cd /path/to/directory-I-want-to-share
python -m SimpleHTTPServer # Python 2.x only  starts the server on port 8000 
python3 -m http.server     # Python 3.x only  starts the server on port 8000

• Minimize the terminal window so you don't accidentally close it.
• Sharing is one-way; no uploading. No security. The entire contents of the directory are shared; no blocking. No logging (that I know of). Just pure download server. Cool.
• Other computers access the server by web: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8000
• Your computer accesses the internal server by web: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8000 or http://localhost:8000.
• Kill the process CTRL+C to stop the server

Opening a terminal window using cron

Fast experiment to use cron to open a terminal window and execute a command. Success!

The crontab item is:

* * * * * DISPLAY=:0.0 /usr/bin/xfce4-terminal -x top
     # * * * * *               - the crontab time codes. Substitute your own.
     # DISPLAY=:0.0            - sends the subsequent commands to the screen
     # /usr/bin/xfce4-terminal - the application (opens a terminal window)
     # -x top                  - execute the top command in the application

Once a minute, a new terminal window spawns running 'top', just as intended.

AbiWord Spell Checker on Xubuntu 8.04

AbiWord doesn't come with a spell checker installed...but it doesn't tell you that.

Here are the packages to install the spell checker: (source)

• aspell
• aspell-en
• libenchant1c2a

Use Synaptic or the command line to install. Restart AbiWord, and Presto...now it works.