Terminal Tricks

(Published: 2018/04/04)

Have you ever wanted to do something really cool on your computer? Whether the answer is yes, or no, I am sure you will love being able impress your friends with these tricks. Oh, and sorry Windows users, not all of these tricks work for you!

1. The immortal dinosaur…

Do you have google chrome? If not, get it. When the internet goes down you will have the dinosaur game. But of course, there is a way to play it when you do have internet. And a way to get the dinosaur to become immortal. So, start by two finger clicking on your google chrome home page. A dropdown menu will come up. Click inspect. Then go to the toolbar and click on the icon that looks like an iPhone and an iPad. Then go to the three vertical dots on the toolbar and click “more tools” from the drop down menu. Click network conditions and down the bottom of the screen where it says “no throttling”, change it to “offline”. Then type in a random webpage in the search bar and press enter. You have now got the dinosaur game with internet! Next it needs to become immortal. To do this, you need to click console and copy and paste this code, without the brackets (Runner.prototype.gameOver = function() {console.log(“Thinkeration”}) into it. Press enter. It will now be immortal. To change the speed type, again without the brackets (Runner.instance_.setSpeed(50)). Press enter again. And where it says 50, you can change the speed to any speed you like. If you want to clear your code, click the circle with the diagonal line through it just below the toolbar (top left hand corner). And there’s a really cool hack. Below is my high score. Heads up, it doesn’t allow a score higher than 100,000!

2. Change your screen saver to your background…

I thought this was so cool when I found out about it. I mean, screen saver as your background! Who wouldn’t want that? But beware if you are on low power, it does drain your battery. So, to do this, type into your search bar (you know, in the top hand corner of your screen) terminal. It should come up as a little black rectangle with a weird arrow and an underscore. Open it, and a small window should come up. After your mac’s name, copy and paste, without the brackets (/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background). Whatever screen saver you have will automatically become your background! You must keep your terminal window open for it to work though.

3. Stop your Mac from sleeping…

How annoying does it get when you are doing some sort of presentation and your Mac just falls asleep? If you type in (caffeinate) after your mac’s name in terminal, it should stop you Mac from sleeping as long as that window is open. Cool, right?!

4. Graphic restart…

Sometimes the graphics on your computer just go haywire. Your screen could start blinking or your toolbar icons could just disappear (happened to me). Sometimes, you just don’t want to restart your computer. Here’s how to restart just your graphics. Type in after your mac’s name (killall SystemUIServer). It won’t damage your laptop and will hopefully fix your problems. But if your system’s blinking, I suggest you take it to IT!

5. Star Wars…

Yes, there is Star Wars preloaded on your computer. Just type this (telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl) into terminal and press enter. Star Wars will play before your eyes.

6. Arcade games…

Games blocked on your school computer or internet? There still is a way to play games on your computer. Type in (emacs) on terminal and press enter. Then press the escape and X buttons and search up games. Some are, Tetris, Pong, Animate, and many more. For more check out this link.

7. Virtual psychologist…

This is just all too much fun. Within the emacs game section there is a virtual psychologist. Just search (doctor)!

8. Webpage creation dates…

Sometimes, when you are citing information from a website there is no date as to when it was published. But there is an easy fix for this. Go to google and paste your URL into the google search bar. Press enter. Then go to the safari/chrome search bar at the top of your screen and copy and paste this (&as_qdr=y15) after your URL. Then press enter again. It will now come up with the date the website was created beneath the name of the website. Happy (or tedious) citing!

• Charlie B.