Linux Tip - ^

Ubuntu Server Tip: If you need to perform a command a second time on a different file, you can use command replacement with the ^ symbol. e.g. "cp foo.txt /to/some/directory" then "^foo^bar", expanding to: "cp bar.txt /to/some/directory".

Simple Countdown Clock - Python and xdaliclock

Here is a simple countdown clock script which you can use. It is simply
sending -countdown argument properly to the xdaliclock binary.

I find having this script in my /usr/local/bin pretty useful.

#!/usr/bin/python
# A Simple Countdown Clock using xdaliclock
# usage: countdown [time]
#        time defaults to 1 hour.

import time
import sys
import subprocess

try:
    hours = float(sys.argv[1])
except IndexError:
    hours = 1
hours = int(time.time()) + int(hours * 3600)
command = 'xdaliclock -countdown %d' % hours
subprocess.Popen(command.split())