Dealing with filenames that have spaces in them

If you're like me and every now and then are forced to do something on the command line, you may come across a situation where you need to do something to a file that has a space in it.  This is problematic on the command line as spaces indicate separation between different commands.

I came across this tonight when trying to transcode an mp4 file to an avi file so I could watch it on my hopeless Panasonic LCD which apparently only understands one video format.  Use single quotes around the filename and extension.

mencoder 'Jubbly Bits.mp4' -oac pcm -ovc copy -o 'Jubbly Bits.avi'

Cutting and pasting into the terminal

Have you tried to Ctrl-C some text from a webpage and Ctrl-V into a terminal window only to find it didn't work?  That's because it's Ctrl-Shift-V, you numpty.

Also, middle click (mouse wheel), at least in Linux Mint.

Converting ogg files to mp3 from the command line

Problem - I've downloaded a podcast in .ogg format and want to listen to it on my Nokia phone, which doesn't support .ogg.

So the procedure will be to convert the .ogg file back to .wav, then encode it into .mp3

Change from Home directory to Desktop:
cd /Desktop

install Lame and Vorbis tools:
sudo apt-get install lame
sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools

Decode .ogg file:
oggdec tuxradar_s04e09.ogg

Encode to .mp3, using low-quality setting:
lame -f tuxradar_s04e09.wav tuxradar_s04e09.mp3

I'm sure if I did this sort of thing every day this would all seem logical and fall off the fingertips as quickly as my typed whinging, but it took me twenty minutes to Google and do.  Ah, Linux, how do I love thee? (Don't make me answer that question)

Inverted colours in Flash video using Chrome

Recently upgraded my video card to a Gigabyte Gt-520.  After selecting Nvidia driver in Kubuntu 12.04, YouTube videos had inverted colours.

The standard fix for this is to right click in the video, choose Settings, then untick the box that says "use hardware acceleration", close tab, and you're set.  This has worked for me before, but this time it wouldn't let me untick the box - clicking on it had no effect.

Out of desperation more than anything, I opened Firefox (also having the same issue) and oddly, it allowed me to untick the box, fixing the issue in both Firefox AND Chrome.  How 'bout that?

Intro

Gday.  This blog isn't really a blog, it's a collection of things I've learned the hard way and wish to share through the magic of being the result of a Google search.  It is not designed to be followed, just found as needed.

I use Lubuntu on my Toshiba NB550D, and just recently gave up on Kubuntu after 5 years and have installed Mint 15 Cinnamon on my circa 2007 Dell Inspiron 530.