Tips

Install Salt Stack on Ubuntu LTS

 

As a system administrator I’m always on the lookout for new systems and tools to make my life easier. As the saying goes, “a good admin is a lazy admin.” Any day I can find a new tool to improve the efficiency in which I’m able to manage my machines is a good day. To date, my favorite tool for this is Salt Stack. Remote execution. Configuration management. Easy syntax. Salt Stack is a great tool for managing any number of machines. In this post I wanted to outline how to install Salt Stack on Ubuntu LTS.

Installation

The latest Salt Stack packages are available in a PPA. The steps below demonstrate how to add the PPA and install the Salt Stack packages.

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:saltstack/salt

Once the repository has been configured you’ll need to refresh your package cache.

sudo apt-get update

Now you should be ready to install the Salt Stack packages. Salt Stack is broken up into three different packages: salt-master, salt-minion and salt-syndic.

Salt Master

sudo apt-get install salt-master

Salt Minion

sudo apt-get install salt-minion

Salt Syndic

sudo apt-get install salt-syndic

It’s likely that you’ll want one Salt Master and a number of Salt Minions. Salt Syndics are for slightly more advanced configurations.

For more information on using Salt Stack, you might be interested in following the Into The Salt Mine blog

 

Use Hushed To Create Disposable Phone Numbers In 40 Countries [Android/iOS]

 

There are many situations in life where you need someone to be able to contact you reliably, but do not want them to permanently have your phone number. Consider these situations: dating or selling goods online. Both of these circumstances are great examples of why a throw-away phone number might be a good idea.

However, it can often be difficult to obtain a reliable disposable phone number outside of the US. But things are changing with the use of smartphones. Hushed is an application that will allow you to set up a throw-away phone number and delete it whenever you like. You can also manage multiple disposable numbers at once using the Hushed app.

Why Use A Disposable Phone Number?

As well as the obvious safety reasons with giving a disposable phone number to people you are dating and online contacts for buying or selling goods, there are a number of other good reasons to use a disposable number. Namely, a disposable number can be used as a redirect, giving cheaper calls to the person calling. If you are an expat or traveling around the world, you can easily set up a phone number for folks back home or for the locals you meet while traveling. When they call the number it will be a local call for them, but will be received by your phone. You could also use a number such as this to stay in contact with people who live in the same country, but far enough away to incur long-distance phone charges. Why not keep the costs down for everyone?

Disposable phone numbers may also be useful for children and teenagers as you can terminate the number if need be. Great for your peace of mind as a parent!

Using a disposable number via an application also opens up the possibility of using your Android tablet as a phone. This could be very useful for you or a family member – especially kids.

Get The Hushed App

The Hushed application for managing disposable numbers is available for free from the Google Play store (or the iOS App Store). However, it will cost you to obtain a number and to make calls using that number.

 

Hushed Phone Number Features

All Hushed numbers come with a voicemail box, so you can separate your voicemail from your regular calls. This is a fantastic tool if you have sold an item online, yet continue to get calls about it. Simply change your listing to say the item is sold and that you won’t be replying to messages any more. Then delete the number or just ignore the voicemail messages.

 

When you are finished with a phone number, you can delete it whenever you like. So, you can set up a number just for dating purposes and keep it working until the day you wish you’d never given out the number to a certain person. Then you can simply delete it and create a new phone number.

Hushed phone numbers work in 40 countries worldwide, so it’s very handy for traveling. This also opens up the possibility of disposable numbers to people in countries who may have previously found it difficult to obtain one.

                     

 

 Using Hushed Phone Numbers

To get a Hushed phone number, you need to pay a minimum of US $1.99 to set it up. You choose your number, a price and an expiry date, with a choice of 7, 30 or 90 days maximum. As mentioned previously, you can delete your number at any time you like in advance of your expiry date. You can also choose to automatically extend a number when it reaches its expiry date.

 

Hushed phone numbers can also be used to make outbound phone calls and to send/receive text messages. To facilitate this, Hushed works similarly to a prepaid phone card. You can add money to Hushed and keep track of your call costs as you make them. This keeps your costs as transparent as possible.

Alternatives to Hushed

Obviously, the best alternative to an application like Hushed is to use Google Voice (if you are in the US), a VoIP provider or any voice/video chat service such as Skype or Google Hangouts. If you are an iOS user, there is also a similar application called Burner. The chat services may not have quite the same level of anonymity, but you can block people and remove them from your friends list when you are finished requiring contact with the person. They also work extremely well for cutting your long-distance call costs.

What service do you use to create disposable phone numbers? Why?

How To Define Command Line Aliases On Any Operating System

We’ve talked about, and recommended getting to grips with your computer’s command line terminal numerous times in the past. Tina wrote a good primer for Windows users with A Beginner’s Guide To The Windows Command Line. Abraham provided a similar service for Linux users, with An Introduction to the Linux Command Line. In a vast array of articles, MakeUseOf has explored other uses of the command line, showing that the above primers only begin to scratch the surface.
In any case, the general consensus appears to be that, although seemingly complicated, the command line allows you to perform some simple, everyday tasks much faster than you would be able to using graphical user interfaces (once you get the appropriate syntax down). Better yet, some tasks are not as easily performed using regular graphical user interface applications – powerful operating system features hiding in plain sight, as evidenced by Ryan’s show of surprising uses of the Windows command line.
Alas, a lot (if not most) of the command line’s superior speed goes to waste if the proper command flags happen to slip your mind, or if the commands themselves get so thoroughly complicated you fail to see head from tail. Suddenly, your advanced workflow devolves into a combination of Googling and trial and error.

Command Line Aliases

Some people keep a list handy of their most visited commands, but that’s still far off from a lasting solution. Instead, we turn to an inherent feature of command line shells – aliases. Command line aliases are an essential part of working with the command line interface, and once you start using them, you’ll wonder how you ever coped without it.
As the name implies, the command line allows you to define aliases, or alternative syntax in the scope of your operating system’s command line shell. Once defined, any occurrence of the alias will be swapped out for the appropriate commands. This allows you to bind a command line call, perhaps with some of the flags already set, to an easily remembered alias. Henceforth, instead of jumbling flags or trying to remember a discombobulated series of commands, you’ll simply use the appropriate alias.

This begs the following questions: should you use command line aliases? And if so, when is it called for? If you’re not a complete stranger to the command line, the answer to the first question is a definite yes. As for the second question, any commands you find yourself using repeatedly are good candidates. After all, it takes but a little time to set up and will save you a lot of time in the long run.
The exact process of defining a command line alias depends on your operating system, although there are definite similarities. We’ll review them case by case.

Mac OS X

Defining a temporary alias is very simple. Just use the following command:

alias name=’command‘

Where name is the alias keyword your want to specify and command is the command you’re trying to bind to it. For example, say I wanted a simpler way to browse to the Downloads folder on my Mac, I could define the following alias:

alias down=’cd ~/Downloads’

Now, running ‘down’ makes my Downloads folder the current directory. The main problem with this approach is that it’s only temporary; the aliases are voided when you close the Terminal. However, there is an easy way to define aliases in a more permanent way. We just have to add the alias commands as described above to one of the initialisation files of the Terminal. This way, the aliases are acquired every time you fire up the Terminal.
Create and/or edit a .bash_profile file in your home directory with the following command:

nano ~/.bash_profile

Now you’ll be able to enter or revise the aliases that you want on your system permanently. When you’re done, hit CTRL+X to exit. You’ll have to restart the Terminal or create a new window before you’ll be able to use those aliases.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu’s command line shell is very similar to that of Mac OS X. It shouldn’t be surprising that the alias command is handled similarly. As described above, you can define a temporary alias by running the following command:

alias name=’command‘

Where name is the alias keyword and command is the associated command. If you want to make the alias persistent across sessions, you’ll have to add the alias commands as specified above to one of the various initialisation files. I recommend adding it to .bash_aliases. You can create (if it doesn’t exist yet) or edit the file in nano using the following command:

nano ~/.bash_aliases

After which you’ll enter your desired command line aliases. When you’re done, hit CTRL+X to close the file. You’ll have to restart the Terminal or create a new window for your changes to take effect.

Windows

The Windows shell is a very different animal than the Mac OS X or Ubuntu shell, and creating aliases is even more dissimilar. Actually, Windows doesn’t even support the alias command, but we can emulate it by using the DOSKEY command.

DOSKEY name=’command‘

The above command creates a temporary alias, meaning it will last you until you close the session by closing the command line window. Defining a permanent alias is slightly more complicated than it is using a UNIX shell.
Create a new batch file (.cmd) with your DOSKEY commands in the Application Data folder, which is a hidden folder in your home folder. Run the ‘regedit’ command to fire up the registry editor and add the following data:

• Key: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor
• Value: AutoRun
• Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ
• Data: “%AppData%\aliases.cmd”

Credit goes to grawity at SuperUser for providing these details. Please note that the Windows registry is a highly sensitive area, which you shouldn’t muck around in. Only perform edits on the registry if you know what you’re doing.
Now that you know how to define a command alias, how will you be using it? Let us know in the comments section below the article!