This week’s techmail is Clear some desk space with cross-platform keyboard and mouse sharing app. The tip is about Synergy+ which is awesome cool. With it, I can share the same keyboard and mouse across as many computers as I want (it’s cross-platform, so I use it with my OS X workstation and my Fedora workstation) — all without requiring a KVM switch. Works absolutely fantastic. One of my new “essential” applications.
Tag Archives: techmail
Mind mapping with MindNode for the Mac
Last week’s mac techmail was Mind mapping with MindNode for the Mac. MindNode is a neat program that lets you do mind mapping, or drawing pictures to represent thoughts or plans or ideas. Mind mapping is quite popular, and with good reason as it gives you a visual representation of what you’re planning or thinking. MindNode comes in two flavours, the free and Pro versions. The Pro version has some good features, but the free version has been good enough for me.
Head off problems by monitoring servers with munin
Last week’s techmail was Head off problems by monitoring servers with munin which takes a look at the Munin program. Munin is pretty slick in that you can use it to monitor resource usage on the local machine and networked clients as well. Goes nicely with Nagios when you have to babysit and keep an eye on multiple machines.
GUI scripting in bash
This week’s techmail is GUI scripting in bash which takes a look at a few options for GUIfying your bash scripts: Zenity (for GNOME) and kdialog for KDE. My favourite is Zenity since I use GNOME, and it doesn’t require all this whacky DBUS stuff (although I suppose maybe using DBUS makes kdialog more powerful, but I’ve never noticed a real lack in Zenity). It’s a nice way to turn a shell script that needs to run in an organization into something a little more user-friendly and with a bit more polish.
Handy screen locking tips for Mac
Last week’s mac tip was Handy screen locking tips for Mac. Unlike Windows or Linux, which have keyboard shortcuts to quickly lock the screen when you get up to grab a coffee or go to the bathroom, the Mac doesn’t. It has the same functionality, but you need to mouse over in order to do it (which, for people like myself, is a waste of a good keyboard). This tip tells you how to emulate the same (basic!) functionality in OS X.
My favorite Firefox extensions for Linux
Last week’s techmail was My favorite Firefox extensions for Linux which talks about a few of my favourite extensions for Firefox. Read the comments on the tip… I’ve already found another couple that I didn’t know about before that I’m going to have to try out. The one thing that keeps me using Firefox are the extensions for it. I might feel a little slow and clunky sometimes, but some of those extensions sure make up for it.
