Well, rest assured: you can chat with your fellow ADIers without ever leaving the browser. Just open freenode’s web IRC interface in a new tab, and we’ll be off.

Middle-click this to get a new tab with the webchat interface.

Connecting

Now, you should see something similar to this:

First, you’ll have to choose a nickname. Choose anything! You’re not tied to a certain nickname, so if you eventually find you don’t like the one you’ve chosen, you can switch easily.

Second, you’ll have to choose which channels to chat in. I’ll assume you want to chat on #adicu, which is ADI’s channel.

Third, we can leave “Auth to services” blank: we don’t need to sign into anything to use IRC.

Lastly, you’ll want want to solve the CAPTCHA. If you don’t know what a CAPTCHA is, then just try and decipher the distorted words and type them into the box below (the example spells out “arthco anecdote”). If you’re having a hard time, clicking the audio captcha box and typing out what the undistorted voice says might be more your speed.

The form should now look something like this:

Chatting

Now, the screen should spit out a bunch of text, and eventually (within 10 seconds) get to this screen:

Now you can start chatting: just click the bar at the bottom and type away!

There’s a bunch more stuff to learn about IRC. If you don’t feel like asking any of the guys on the channel (or there’s no one there, or everyone seems AFK (away from keyboard) then you can peruse Freenode’s IRC FAQ, which is quite extensive. Perhaps a bit intimidating, but also useful.

Start by logging into your first Gmail account. Locate your email address or name in the top-right corner of the window. Click on it to find a menu with a link to “Account Settings”, and follow that link.

In this page, find the “Multiple sign-in” option in the middle, under “Personal Settings”. It’s probably set to “Off” currently–click “Edit” to enable multiple sign-ins.

Google recognizes that there’s a lot of responsibility involved in having an alter ego. Therefore, you have to acknowledge the severity of what you’re about to do and sign in triplicate before you go any further. Change the radio button to “On” and check all of the check boxes (you should read them, too), then hit “Save”.

There you go! Multiple sign-in has been turned on. Go back to your Gmail (you might have to log out and log back in) and click your email address as before. You’ll notice something new: a “Switch account” link. Click it–you know you want to.

You’ll see a list of all the accounts into which you are currently signed. Right now this should be exactly 1.

Fix that! Click “Sign into another account…”. Having logged into your account probably twice so far, you should know what to do here.

Now, go back to your Gmail (you might have to refresh) and click your email address one final time. You should see both of your email accounts listed, and you will be able to switch between them freely. Repeat the process for every identity you have, and enjoy!

Once caveat: Google really only maintains this for Gmail, so switching between accounts in all of your lovely other Google products–Calendar, Docs, etc.–won’t necessarily work. But email is the most important to be able to switch around in anyways, so that hopefully isn’t too much of an issue.

Downloading

Get the script from https://raw.github.com/adicu/ninja-unix/master/addprinters.sh.

Adding Printers

Running the script like so,

sudo ./addprinters.sh

without any arguments will add all the printers in the NINJA system to your computer. This will take a long time, so you may only want to add a subset. You can supply an argument to the script to restrict the printers installed. For instance.

./addprinters.sh butler

will add all printers in Butler library.

./addprinters.sh butler301a

adds a specific printer.

Deleting printers

To delete a specific printer, run the command

lpadmin -x printername

where printername is the name of the printer. Alternatively, you can use the CUPS web interface by navigating to http://localhost:631 in your webbrowser and removing the printer from there.

If you need to delete many printers at once. You can use the delprinters.sh script, available at https://raw.github.com/adicu/ninja-unix/master/addprinters.sh. The usage is the same as the addprinters.sh script.

Printing from the Command Line

You may be thinking: “I’m a Linux user dammit, how do I print from the command line?”
This is easy enough, just do

lpr -d printername filename

Where printername is the name of the NiNJA printer and filename is the name of a PostScript, PDF, or Image File.

Possible problems

If you see the error message “Could not find the lpadmin program”, you do not have the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) installed. In most distributions, CUPS can be found in a package called, well “cups”.

If you see the message “Could not find foomatic-ppdfile”, you do not have the foomatic database installed. Foomatic is a database containing the driver information for many different printer types. In most distributions, foomatic is generally composed of two packages “foomatic-db” and “foomatic-db-engine”.

If you see “lpadmin: could not read ppd file”, something may have gone wrong during installation, delete the printer and try again.

• Access up to 2 GB of your documents through a web portal on any computer. This means no more trips back to your room because you forgot to email yourself something or left your flash drive.
• Have a secure backup if your something happens to your computer and you were not able to access your data.
• Keep folders on one or more computers synced.
• Host documents that you want to publicly share with others without having to upload them to another website.

Now to get started:

1. Go to the registration page.
   Be sure to register using your @columbia.edu email address because you get extra space as a student.
   The registration process is quite simple—just follow the steps and confirm your email address.
2. Download the software and follow the instructions for installation. This is very easy. You can do it.
3. Move the files you want to have synced into your Dropbox folder. You won’t have enough space for videos, music, or photos with a free account, but you can definitely put important documents that you want to access easily and safeguard.
4. Configure your Dropbox folder to be the default save folder. In Word or an Office program, go to the “Word” section of the top menu and open “Preferences.” Go to the bottom row of icons and select files, click modify and set your default document save location to your Dropbox folder.
   
   
   
   
   

This is fairly inefficient, a problem just begging for automation. So the folks over at Ninite.com went out and actually made a service to make downloading/installing a bundle of programs really easy, and are offering it for free (they do have a paid service, but the free service is, as of March 2011, not crippled in any way). Specifically, the Ninite installer refuses to install the toolbars while installing the latest version of whatever programs you want (from a list) in a one-click install.

So how do you use it? If you haven’t already, head over to Ninite.com and you should see a screen like this:

Simply go through and check all the software that you would like to download.

After you are finished selecting, scroll to the bottom of the page and click giant green button labeled “Get Installer.” Can’t miss it.

Depending on what browser you have (Google Chrome is pictured below), you will be asked whether or not you would like to save this file. Save and run the installer.

Once you run the installer (by clicking on it once you have saved it, or running it directly after downloading it), a window will appear showing you the installation progress.

As soon as progress is complete, Ninite has completed its installation. Easy as pie, eh? Now, before you throw away that installer, you should know that running that same installer again will automatically update all the programs installed by Ninite, so instead of having to slowly click ‘yes, I want to update this program’ as you run each one, you can just update everything in one fell swoop.

Alright, we hope this was helpful, and thanks for reading!

If only there were a virtual space for Columbia techs to hang out in!

Have no fear, for the ADI now has their very own IRC channel.

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat; it is, and has been one of the most popular chat options in the virtual world. It’s dead simple: anyone can set up their own IRC server*, and the protocol is very mature. Sure, it can’t do video conferencing or cook you an omlet, but by golly does it do chat.

To start chatting, you need an IRC client. Pidgin is my preferred client, although you can go out and simply google ‘irc client’ to find a whole host of choices.

Pidgin is pretty darn cool: not only can it talk to IRC servers, it can speak essentially any other chat language, including AIM, MSN, Google Talk, Facebook chat**, and many more. It doesn’t do video conferencing or omlet-cooking either, but for our intents and purposes it’ll do swell.

Okay, go get pidgin here.

Installation

Windows

It’s a pretty standard installation process. Open up the installer, hit next until it finishes.

OS X

You probably want to install Adium instead. It uses the same chat engine as pidgin, but has a more mac-y feel.

Linux

Use your favorite package manager to install pidgin.

Examples:

Ubuntu – apt-get install pidgin

Fedora – yum install pidgin

Getting on IRC

Fire up pidgin if it’s not already running. When you run it for the first time, it should ask you if you want to add an account, and you should go right on ahead and add whatever chat accounts you want.

Since you’re reading this, I’m guessing you want to join our IRC channel, so you should add an account that uses the IRC protocol. Choose some username for now, set the server to irc.freenode.com (it might be the default), and finish making the account.

When you finish adding the account, it should log into the freenode server (this might take a minute) and you might get some messages from someone named ‘nickserv’ or ‘frigg’. This is just the way IRC lets you know that the connection is finished, so there’s no need to get scared or anything: go ahead and close those windows. Do note that it’ll happen every time you log in***.

Once you’ve logged onto the IRC server, there are different chatrooms/channels you can join. Usually, the channel name starts with a pound symbol, like #blender (general talk channel for the 3D software Blender) or a double hash like ##church-of-loudbot (ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME).

To get into the #adicu channel, go to your buddy list (if your buddy list disappeared, it usually minimizes to wherever your “system tray” is) and go into the Buddies->Add Chat menu. Select your IRC account in the drop down menu, and put in the channel name into channel. Don’t forget the # at the beginning: so if you want to link into the ADI channel, put #adicu into the channel field. Tick off autojoin when account connects, and finish adding it.

Great! A chat window for #adicu should pop open, and you can start chatting.

If you’re new to chatrooms, then it’s a good idea to read this uber-short intro to netiquette, and this guide on how to ask questions (we won’t be rude, but it’s good to read anyways). If you want to, the freenode guidelines are also fun reading.

Do keep in mind that pidgin usually doesn’t alert users whenever someone posts a new message to a channel, so responses may be slow.

Note that the username you chose earlier when logging into the account isn’t saved anywhere: other people can use your username (nick, in IRC parlance) and no one will be the wiser as to who you actually are. If you want some measure of protection for your IRC nick, so that other people can’t steal your username so easily, type the following into the #adicu chat window:

/msg nickserv register <your-password> <your-email>

Make sure you type in a /, not a \****, and change the password you login with (Buddy List->Accounts->Manage Accounts). The original instructions for registering are here, with more info about registering in general.

Happy IRC-ing!

* No one sets up their own servers, true, but the fact your chat is not tied to a company is pretty cool

** There is not an obvious Facebook chat option, but googling ‘facebook chat pidgin’ will get you there. Ignore the pidgin-facebookchat plugin, it’s somewhat obsolete now.

*** http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#freenodeconnect has more information about why this happens

If you want to use CUNIX to store files or webpages, you could use command-line utilities like PUTTY or the Linux SSH utility, but it is more convenient to use graphical utilities that allow you to drag and drop files onto CUNIX as if it was a location on your own computer. CUNIX allows you to do this through a protocol called SFTP, which is based on SSH and FTP.

Windows

To SFTP on Windows, the easiest way is to use WinSCP, which you can download from winscp.net. Run the installation program. Choose custom upgrade. When it asks you to select the components you want to install, do not select any of the language extensions (unless you want any of them). When it asks if you want to install a plugin for Firefox, say no. When it asks you what type of interface you want, choose the “Explorer-like interface” option. This one is a bit easier to use.

If you navigate to your webpage and there isn’t anything there, or it gives you 404 error, do not be alarmed! This probably means that either you don’t have anything in your public_html directory, or that you have not set the permissions correctly.

If you are already familiar with CUNIX and how to navigate to the public_html directory, you can skip this section.

If you are on a UNIX or UNIX-like machine, such as a Linux machine or Mac OS X, use terminal to log into CUNIX.

If you are on a Windows machine, you’ll need to install PuTTY and use it to log into CUNIX, then come back to this. For a tutorial, click here.

Some useful CUNIX commands:

cd is change directory. Directories are sometimes also known as folders, and you can move from one folder to another using the cd command. After typing cd, type the directory you wish to move to.

ls is list, and it lists all of the elements that are currently in the directory.

ls -l lists all of the elements that are currently in the directory, as well as all of the permissions.

pwd is print working directory, and it lists the address of the directory you are in.

chmod is change mode, and is used to change permissions on files. chmod is followed up 3 numbers from 0-7, and then the name of the directory. The numbers specify admin, user, and global respectively. 1 specifies executable, 2 specifies writable, and 4 specifies readable. Any combination of permissions that you want to give admin, user, or global can hence be uniquely specified by summing each permission that you want to give. If you want to give all three all access, use chmod 777 filename. To give just admin access, use chmod 700 filename, to give just owner access, use chmod 070 filename, to give just the world access, use chmod 007.

Type in ls, and hit enter or return. You should see something like this:

Now you’re going secure shell tunnel or “ssh” into your CUNIX account.  This will let you mess around in CUNIX as if it were your own computer.  There’s lots of fun things you can do in CUNIX (which is a kind of UNIX, like your operating system), but for now we’re going to ignore most of them.

To ssh in, type ssh uni1234@cunix.cc.columbia.edu (again, substituting your uni for uni1234) and hit enter or return.

If this is your first time logging in, there will be a warning that says, ‘The authenticity of host . . .’

Type in yes, and his enter.

After that, type in your password associated with your uni. Again, this is case sensitive. You might notice that no letters appear where you’re typing—this is a security measure, in case people are looking over your shoulder, and also to protect against Van Eck Phreaking.

This is what it should look like after you have finished entering your password:

Now hit return. If you typed your password in correctly, you are now logged into CUNIX!

Basic terminal commands:

cd is change directory. Directories are sometimes also known as folders, and you can move from one folder to another using the cd command. After typing cd, type the directory you wish to move to.

ls is list, and it lists all of the elements that are currently in the directory.

ls -l lists all of the elements that are currently in the directory, as well as all of the permissions.

pwd is print working directory, and it lists the address of the directory you are in.

chmod is change mode, and is used to change permissions on files. chmod is followed up 3 numbers from 0-7, and then the name of the directory. The numbers specify admin, user, and global respectively. 1 specifies executable, 2 specifies writable, and 4 specifies readable. Any combination of permissions that you want to give admin, user, or global can hence be uniquely specified by summing each permission that you want to give. If you want to give all three all access, use chmod 777 filename. To give just admin access, use chmod 700 filename, to give just owner access, use chmod 070 filename, to give just the world access, use chmod 007.

Type in ls, and hit enter or return. You should see something like this:

You just listed the items in the directory that you’re currently in! You might only have public_html and a few other items, but that’s okay—public_html is the only one we’ll use.

Type in cd public_html. This will change the directory that you’re in to public_html, which is where your webspace is.

Now type in emacs index.html and hit return. Emacs is a text editor, and index.html is the default page that going to your webspace will redirect the user to. Because ssh is text only, you cannot click other places on the page, and you must navigate using your arrow keys. There are also emacs commands to navigate the page, but we’ll save those for another tutorial. If your first page looks like this:

hit ctrl+l to actually go to text editing.

The text that you want to paste into emacs is:

<html>
<head>
<title>Greetings</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello World</p>
</body>
</html>

However, you will probably not be able to just copy and paste it into emacs—again, because this emacs is text-only, you can’t right-click and paste, and emacs’ version of paste, yank, only works internally to emacs, so you should manually type this in. It should look like this:

To save, type x while holding ctrl, followed by s while holding ctrl. They will ask you at the bottom of the screen if you want to save—type y, and it will save. To save and quit, type x while holding ctrl, followed by c while holding ctrl—the save prompt works in the same way.

After you have quit, type in chmod 664 index.html and hit enter. This will give read and write permission to admin and owner, and read-only permission to the world, which will let everyone in the world see your webpage.

Now use your browser of choice (firefox, chrome, safari, opera, internet explorer) to navigate to your webpage (http://columbia.edu/~uni1234). Congratulations, you have your own page on the world wide web!

If you’d like to create something a little more “professional,” check out tutorials on HTML and CSS. Lots of useful tech tutorials can be found on Lynda.

Columbia provides a link to PuTTY (you may be asked to enter your uni/password combo to download the file). You can also download PuTTY from the website of its creator. If you are unsure of which version to download, just choose PuTTY for Windows Intel x86.

CUIT download page for PuTTY

Once the download is complete, install the program. The default settings are fine – just keep on clicking next until the setup is complete.

Hopefully this is a familiar sight. If not, just click next.

Eventually, you will arrive at the screen below. Click finish and start  PuTTY.

Click "Finish". Now take a break after all that hard work, you deserve it!

The boxes marked with a red dot are fields that have been changed. Click the save button to save this session permanently. In the future, you can select “cunix” and load to load these settings.

These settings are important. Copy them as shown.

A window will pop up, asking you to authenticate the server’s host key. Click yes.

See, Windows IS secure.

Enter your user name when prompted.

It's like the Matrix, but without the white rabbit and red pills. You'll have to supply those yourself.

If you successfully followed each of these steps, you’re now connected to Columbia’s CUNIX server. What’s CUNIX you ask? Well, that’s a topic for another tutorial. To see how to use CUNIX to set up a personal website, click here.

Part I, The Beast

1. Navigate to http://uni.columbia.edu/filters with your browser of choice, where you’ll find this nondescript and rather ambiguous login form:
   
   
   
2. Enter your uni and password, and click “Log in”. Once complete, you’ll be greeted with this lovely interface:
   
   
3. Click the “Forward” icon in the middle of the row of icons at the top of the page. You should then see this form:
   
   
4. Enter the alternative email address that you wish to receive email at (use a Gmail address if you wish to follow the rest of this tutorial using Gmail), and click “Save”. Congratulations! You’re now done with CubMail, forever! It was nice while it lasted.

Part II, The Beauty

Setting up Gmail to send emails with your Columbia email address is the perfect way to christen your new relationship with Google’s Ajax-erific mail client.

1. Once logged in to your Gmail account, in the upper right hand corner of the google page, click Settings.
   
   
2. From Settings, select the “Accounts and Import” tab.
   
   
3. Click the “Send mail from another address” button.
   
   
4. Enter your Columbia email address, and click “Next Step”. Select “Send through columbia.edu SMTP servers.”
   
   
   
   
5. Enter your uni and password, and click “Add Account”. Once complete, Gmail will send an email to your Columbia email address.
   
6. If you followed the first part of this tutorial and enabled email forwarding, you should be able to reload your inbox and find the email waiting for you in your Gmail account. If you’re feeling nostalgic you can go back to Cubmail to find the email. Click the confirmation link in the email to complete the process.
   
   
7. You can now send emails from your Gmail account with your Columbia email address as the sender. When you go to send an email, there will now be a drop-down box by the “From:” field, which you can use to switch between your linked addresses.
   
   

Here’s to wishing you a long and healthy relationship with your new email client!