If you open a text file in VI and see one big line with lots of '^M' where the line endings are supposed to be, use this command to fix it.
(Enter the the ^M by hitting ctrl-v and then the return key.)

:1,$s/^M/\r/g

Simple but useful to know...

To get a ls (file list) or df (disk free) to show in K,M or G instead of *huge* numbers of bytes without commas, use the -h flag.

ls -lh
df -h

It's a PITA to recursively get all files in a directory using ftp. Instead use wget.

wget -r ftp://account_name:password@example.com/directoryname

Simply a pop-up form element of all 50 US States. Save you creating your own.

            <select name="state">
              <option value="" selected="selected">Select a state...</option>
              <option value="AL">Alabama</option>
              <option value="AK">Alaska</option>
              <option value="AZ">Arizona</option>
              <option value="AR">Arkansas</option>
              <option value="CA">California</option>
              <option value="CO">Colorado</option>
              <option value="CT">Connecticut</option>
              <option value="DC">District of Columbia</option>
              <option value="DE">Delaware</option>
              <option value="FL">Florida</option>
              <option value="GA">Georgia</option>
              <option value="HI">Hawaii</option>
              <option value="ID">Idaho</option>
              <option value="IL">Illinois</option>
              <option value="IN">Indiana</option>
              <option value="IA">Iowa</option>
              <option value="KS">Kansas</option>
              <option value="KY">Kentucky</option>
              <option value="LA">Louisiana</option>
              <option value="ME">Maine</option>
              <option value="MD">Maryland</option>
              <option value="MA">Massachusetts</option>
              <option value="MI">Michigan</option>
              <option value="MN">Minnesota</option>
              <option value="MS">Mississippi</option>
              <option value="MO">Missouri</option>
              <option value="MT">Montana</option>
              <option value="NE">Nebraska</option>
              <option value="NV">Nevada</option>
              <option value="NH">New Hampshire</option>
              <option value="NJ">New Jersey</option>
              <option value="NM">New Mexico</option>
              <option value="NY">New York</option>
              <option value="NC">North Carolina</option>
              <option value="ND">North Dakota</option>
              <option value="OH">Ohio</option>
              <option value="OK">Oklahoma</option>
              <option value="OR">Oregon</option>
              <option value="PA">Pennsylvania</option>
              <option value="RI">Rhode Island</option>
              <option value="SC">South Carolina</option>
              <option value="SD">South Dakota</option>
              <option value="TN">Tennessee</option>
              <option value="TX">Texas</option>
              <option value="UT">Utah</option>
              <option value="VT">Vermont</option>
              <option value="VA">Virginia</option>
              <option value="WA">Washington</option>
              <option value="WV">West Virginia</option>
              <option value="WI">Wisconsin</option>
              <option value="WY">Wyoming</option>
            </select>

This function returns the full URL of the .swf file. Simple enough.

myUrl = getProperty("", _url );

Simple one-trick-pony PHP function to take a state name (case insensitive) and return the 2 letter abbreviation.

        function state_to_twoletter( $state_name ) {
                
                $state = array();
                $state['ALABAMA']='AL';
                $state['ALASKA']='AK';
                $state['AMERICAN SAMOA']='AS';
                $state['ARIZONA']='AZ';
                $state['ARKANSAS']='AR';
                $state['CALIFORNIA']='CA';
                $state['COLORADO']='CO';
                $state['CONNECTICUT']='CT';
                $state['DELAWARE']='DE';
                $state['DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA']='DC';
                $state['FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA']='FM';
                $state['FLORIDA']='FL';
                $state['GEORGIA']='GA';
                $state['GUAM']='GU';
                $state['HAWAII']='HI';
                $state['IDAHO']='ID';
                $state['ILLINOIS']='IL';
                $state['INDIANA']='IN';
                $state['IOWA']='IA';
                $state['KANSAS']='KS';
                $state['KENTUCKY']='KY';
                $state['LOUISIANA']='LA';
                $state['MAINE']='ME';
                $state['MARSHALL ISLANDS']='MH';
                $state['MARYLAND']='MD';
                $state['MASSACHUSETTS']='MA';
                $state['MICHIGAN']='MI';
                $state['MINNESOTA']='MN';
                $state['MISSISSIPPI']='MS';
                $state['MISSOURI']='MO';
                $state['MONTANA']='MT';
                $state['NEBRASKA']='NE';
                $state['NEVADA']='NV';
                $state['NEW HAMPSHIRE']='NH';
                $state['NEW JERSEY']='NJ';
                $state['NEW MEXICO']='NM';
                $state['NEW YORK']='NY';
                $state['NORTH CAROLINA']='NC';
                $state['NORTH DAKOTA']='ND';
                $state['NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS']='MP';
                $state['OHIO']='OH';
                $state['OKLAHOMA']='OK';
                $state['OREGON']='OR';
                $state['PALAU']='PW';
                $state['PENNSYLVANIA']='PA';
                $state['PUERTO RICO']='PR';
                $state['RHODE ISLAND']='RI';
                $state['SOUTH CAROLINA']='SC';
                $state['SOUTH DAKOTA']='SD';
                $state['TENNESSEE']='TN';
                $state['TEXAS']='TX';
                $state['UTAH']='UT';
                $state['VERMONT']='VT';
                $state['VIRGIN ISLANDS']='VI';
                $state['VIRGINIA']='VA';
                $state['WASHINGTON']='WA';
                $state['WEST VIRGINIA']='WV';
                $state['WISCONSIN']='WI';
                $state['WYOMING']='WY';

                // Canadian Provinces
                // edited 12-5-07
                $state['ALBERTA']='AB';
                $state['BRITISH COLUMBIA']='BC';
                $state['MANITOBA']='MB';
                $state['NEW BRUNSWICK']='NB';
                $state['LABRADOR']='NL';
                $state['NEWFOUNDLAND]='NL';
                $state['NORTHWEST TERRITORIES']='NT';
                $state['NOVA SCOTIA']='NS';
                $state['NUNAVUT']='NU';
                $state['ONTARIO']='ON';
                $state['PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND']='PE';
                $state['QUEBEC']='QC';
                $state['SASKATCHEWAN']='SK';
                $state['YUKON']='YT';

                return $state[strtoupper( $state_name )]; 
                
        }

Here's how to center anything vertically and horizontally in a web page using CSS. Works with most all browsers that support CSS.

I adapted this from Jak psåt web, thanks! <http://www.jakpsatweb.cz/css/css-vertical-center-solution.html>

<html>
        <head>
                <title>Center w/ CSS</title>
                <style type="text/css" media="screen">
                        body, html { height:  100%; }
                        #outer { height: 100%; width: 100%; overflow:  visible; position: relative; }
                        #outer[id] { display: table; position: static; }
                        #middle { position: absolute; top: 50%; }
                        #middle[id] { display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle; position: static; }
                        #inner { position:  relative; top: -50%; text-align: center; }
                        #inner[id] { position: static; text-align: center; }
                </style>
        </head>
        <body>
                <div id="outer">
                        <div id="middle">
                                <div id="inner">
                                        your stuff here in center of page
                                </div>
                        </div>
                </div>
        </body>
</html>

A simple version of the explode() function in PHP. It takes a string and splits it up into an array by splitting it at whatever character (or characters) you specify. For example, reading in a tab delimited text file. Will split it into lines by splitting on returns ("\r"). Then split up the lines by splitting on tabs ("\t").

Attribution: I didn't write this myself, I found it in a comment on one of the Actionscript on-line documentation pages.

function explode(separator:String, string:String) {

        var list = new Array();

        if (separator == null) return false;
        if (string == null) return false;

        var currentStringPosition = 0;
        while (currentStringPosition<string.length) {
                var nextIndex = string.indexOf(separator, currentStringPosition);
                if (nextIndex == -1) break;
                var word = string.slice(currentStringPosition, nextIndex);
                list.push(word);
                currentStringPosition = nextIndex+1;
        }
        if (list.length<1) {
                list.push(string);
        } else {
                list.push(string.slice(currentStringPosition, string.length));
        }
        return list;
}

Here's a cheap little function to mimic the print_r() function from PHP in Actionscript. It's designed to work on most any array and will handle nested arrays through recursion.

//
// recursive function to print out the contents of an array similar to the PHP print_r() funciton
//
function print_a( obj, indent ) {
        if (indent == null) indent = "";
        var out = "";
        for ( item in obj ) {
                if (typeof( obj[item] ) == "object" )
                        out += indent+"[" + item + "] => Object\n";
                else
                        out += indent+"[" + item + "] => " + obj[item]+"\n";
                out += print_a( obj[item], indent+"   " );
        }
        return out;
}
// example call
trace( print_a( example_array ) );

This function will strip out all tabs and return characters. It will also collapse all runs of multiple spaces down to one. It will also remove a leading and trailing spaces. It is similar to the php_strip_whiespace() function in PHP.

function collapseWhiteSpace( theString ) {
        theString =  theString.split("\r").join("");
        theString =  theString.split("\t").join("");
        while ( theString.indexOf("  " ) != -1 ) {
                theString= theString.split("  ").join(" ");
        }
        if (theString.substr(0,1) == " ") {
                theString = theString.substr( 1 );
        }
        if (theString.substr( theString.length-1, 1 ) == " ") {
                theString = theString.substr( 0, theString.length - 1 );
        }
        return( theString );
}

Parse out the body content of an html file. If no tags found, assume whole file is the content to be used.

        $body_content = join( "", file( $file_to_be_read ) );
        if (eregi( "<body.*>(.*)</body>", $t, $regs ) ) {
                $body_content = $regs[0];
        }

Quick and easy way to look up a domain name given an IP address.

dig -x 17.254.3.183

Use the LocalConnection object to get the domain name of the server where the Flash movie is located.

var localDomainLC:LocalConneciton = new LocalConnection();
myDomainName = localDomainLC.domain();
trace( "My domain is " + myDomainName );

This will print out something like this:

My domain is example.com

lsof | grep "Office Server"

Lists out all open files on a given volume ("Office Server" in this case.) Good to find those peskey open files that won't let you eject a mounted network volume.