[conspire] pv is a little bit magnificent

[Nick Moffitt]

Rick Moen:
> > This general method can be improved using a nifty utility called
> > pipeviewer (pv):
> > http://www.anthonyldechiaro.com/blog/2009/05/14/efficient-file-copying-with-pipeviewer-and-netcat/
> 
> Lest the point be lost, I just wanted to say a few words for the
> brilliance that is pipeviewer (pv).  

I used to whine that the sleep(1) utility has no option to display a
countdown timer or any of the usual stopwatch information to stderr.
I typically use the shell as a timer, and do things like "sleep 5m &&
totem ~/Music/loud_song.ogg".  I used to get upset that I couldn't tell
how far in I was.  Now I do "sleep 5m | pv && totem
~/Music/loud_song.ogg" and all is well!

-- 
"As I soared high into the tag cloud Xeni Jardin
carefully put up for me, I couldn't help but wonder how
high we were above the blogosphere." -- Carlos Laviola