Firefox only: Mozilla Labs unveils the first iteration of a natural language web service connector called Ubiquity, a Firefox extension that adds a command panel to any web page. Ubiquity will look familiar to Quicksilver, Launchy or Enso users: you invoke Ubiquity using its key combination on any page and begin to enter your command in the suggest-as-you-type text field. Ubiquity's command set consists of "user-centric mashups" that let you perform tasks using various web services in one place using natural language. For example, you can look up a topic on Wikipedia in-page without switching tabs; you can insert a Google map into a new Gmail message (invoke Ubiquity and type "map [business name]"); you can send a web page to your friend John (hit the Ubiquity key combo and type "email to john"); you can select a paragraph of text in a foreign language and translate it in-page, or map a list of addresses from Craiglist by just selecting them. See these examples and more in practice in the introductory video.

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You've seen how the built-in scheduler for Linux/Unix systems, Cron, can help you automate tasks to make things like auto-switching wallpaper easy and simple. Incron, a scheduling tool available in most Linux repositories, works on the same principles, but from a different starting point—it watches files and folders for changes, then launches actions when they do. Linux.com's guide shows how you could have a sound play every time a file is created in a certain directory, or have files be auto-deleted when other files are created, or do pretty much anything your imagination can dream up. The scheduling app is limited to command line functions, but it's only a matter of time until someone hacks up a helpful GUI front-end to it. Hit the link for a guide to getting started with Incron.

If you're constantly logging into a remote server using SSH and you're sick of typing your password every time, tech site Webmonkey details how to save time without sacrificing security. Using SSH-Agent, a utility that acts as a broker between your local machine and remote machine, you can log in without typing your password every time (but also securing your private key from attackers). Hit up Webmonkey to get the rundown on using SSH-Agent on Linux, Mac, and Windows. This one could have done well on yesterday's list of top 10 command line tools.

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When you need something done quickly, efficiently, and without any software overhead, the command line is where it's at. It was the first way humans told computers what to do, but as graphics became increasingly important, the command line, or terminal, became an insiders' secret weapon. But with the right commands and a little bit of know-how, anyone can get things done from a text-only interface. Let's take a look at 10 commands and tricks that make the terminal more accessible, and more powerful, on any system. Photo by blakepost.

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We've shown you graphical alternatives to the Unix-based Cron automation tool before (for Windows, Mac, and Linux), but IBM has put together a clear and straight-forward guide that makes the terminal-controlled version seem not so intimidating. The guide runs through setting up one-time or repeat jobs, such as having your system mail somebody at certain times, and listing and altering jobs already put in. Cron (and anacron) are built into Linux and OS X systems; Windows users are better off mastering Windows Task Scheduler.

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When you run across good-looking open source software which isn't available as an executable, installable file, it's time to get down and dirty with the source code at the command line. Tech tutorial site Webmonkey describes how to compile software from source. The process involves three main steps—the basic commands in order are configure, make, and make install. You can get tripped up if your system doesn't have a compiler, or the software has dependencies that aren't available, but those issues are easily resolved—and there's no better feeling when you're starting to get comfortable at the command line than the first time you successfully compile software from source. This howto's a great place to start.

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Now that you've mastered find, programmer Eric Wendelin describes several ways in which grep (Global Regular Expression Print) can make you more productive at the command line.

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Programmer Eric Wendelin says you can get a lot more done with sets of files at the command line once you've mastered the basics of find, an old school search tool. Find in and of itself gives you the same functionality as Google Desktop or Spotlight, but because it's at the command line, you can pipe results into other tools like grep or sed and really get things done in a flash—like do a global search and replace. If all this is making you go "huh?" but you've dabbled at the command line before, hit up Eric's post, which is a nice intro to what you can do with find. Here's another helpful introduction to the command line.

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TechRepublic's 10 Things blog posts 10 shortcut ideas for Linux users (and Terminal-friendly OS X hackers) to make the terminal a friendlier, faster place to work. To use them, open up the .bashrc file found in your home directory and add lines in the following manner:

Alias NICKNAME='full command here'

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The default prompt in Windows' Command Prompt isn't the easiest to read, but Microsoft has a font, Consolas, that works much better in a terminal, as attested to by our commenters. The Digital Inspiration blog runs down how to set Consolas as the default font in your command prompt. Vista users can perform a registry hack to enable their pre-installed Consolas, but XP users without Office 2007 can download the PowerPoint viewer to grab all the Vista fonts. Hit the link for installation and registry-tweaking instructions.

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