Blogs

I have often wondered what is missing from the modern world of BBS systems, and it struck me the other day - a way to easily install BBS doors. BBS doors are written by anyone who has the time, patience, creativity and desire to make them, and they are all so different, and for different systems and situations. It would be neat if there was a simple way to install BBS doors without needing to go find the file to download, and figure out what needs to be done to get it to work on your system. ...

Over the past day or so, I’ve found myself caught in a deeply emotional and challenging conversation with several friends—fellow believers—about Jesus, violence, and what it means to faithfully follow Christ in a broken world. It’s the kind of discussion that forces you to pause, reflect, and grapple with the deep tension between human instincts for self-preservation and the radical ethic of love Jesus proclaimed. I shared something simple, heartfelt, and deeply grounded in the Gospels: that Jesus said things like “love your enemies,” “bless those who curse you,” and “turn the other cheek.” Not because harm is okay, but because He showed a radical, nonviolent way to resist evil—through self-sacrificial love rather than returning violence for violence. ...

This week in Bash Scripting Sunday, we’re diving into a small topic with a big impact: handling temporary files safely and securely. Temporary files are common in scripting — for holding intermediate data, logs, or scratch work. But if you’re using something like: tmpfile="/tmp/myscript.tmp" …you might be exposing yourself to race conditions, file collisions, or even security issues. Let’s fix that. 🛠️ 🧪 The Problem with Hardcoded Temp Files Hardcoding paths like /tmp/foo.txt can lead to problems: ...

In this week’s Bash Scripting Sunday, we’re diving into creating simple interactive menus in Bash. If you’ve ever wanted to give your scripts a bit of user interactivity—like choosing from a list of options—you’ll love this one. 🧭 Why Use Menus? Menus are great when: You want to prompt the user for input from a list You’re writing utility scripts with multiple actions You want something more user-friendly than raw read input 🔧 The Basics: select and PS3 Bash comes with a built-in construct called select that makes menus easy. ...

When dealing with large lists of files or data in Bash, it’s tempting to throw everything into a loop or use while read pipelines. But there’s a better tool that often gets overlooked: xargs. In this week’s Bash Scripting Sunday, let’s dive into how to use xargs more effectively – and why it’s so much more than just a glorified pipe. 🧠 What is xargs? xargs takes input from stdin and converts it into arguments for a command. ...

Bash Scripting Sunday #2: Writing a Safe and Robust Bash Script In today’s post, I’d like to give some insight into writing safer scripts using Bash’s built-in options. Why Script Safety Matters A poorly written script can cause unintended data loss, infinite loops, or security vulnerabilities. Writing robust scripts ensures they behave predictably and handle errors gracefully. 1. Enabling Safe Bash Options Bash provides built-in options to catch errors early and prevent common pitfalls. ...

Bash Scripting Sunday #1: Bash Parameter Expansion - Save Time and Avoid Subshells In this entry, I’d like to show you how to use Bash Parameter Expansion to make your life a little easier, your scripts a little quicker, and use less resources. Here’s an example script that isn’t using Bash Parameter Expansion: #!/usr/bin/env bash filename="/path/to/file.txt" echo "Basename: $(basename $filename)" # file.txt echo "Dirname: $(dirname $filename)" # /path/to This script will output: ...

Hotline/KDX Many years ago, long before the internet became, lived an era where some people would run or access bulletin board systems (BBS) and most would use their modem and dial up to a BBS in order to obtain new software, send/receive messages with other people, and generally exist in “online” communities. The BBS was entirely text mode, you would dial up someone’s computer, spend some time looking for, downloading, and sometimes uploading files. ...