Reach Out and Support Someone – CrossLoop
The holiday season starts here in the US tomorrow with Thanksgiving. A time of the year when distant relatives make contact. Old friends get in touch. Family’s reach out and touch someone.
And, if you’re a geek, well… most ‘em want some free computer support.
“Happy Holidays! Oh man, we miss you guys so much. Why did you move so far away? Say, since you’re on the line, I have this weird message popping up on my computer…”
Ok, these days (for me) it isn’t that bad, but I’ve been there and I bet a few other readers have been there too. It can be frustrating, can’t it? You want to help ‘em, but trying to talk a non-geek through things like popping into the windows registry or assorted control panel applets makes for a very long phone call. Your fingers ache to just be able to take over and control their machine.
Thursday stuff
So useful:
Since I changed my server to LAMP, I’ve had to make a few adjustments to my tool set. Some programs that I find insanely useful (credit to Peter for some nudging on a most of these):
- puTTY – telnet / ssh client. All my day to day management happens via a puTTY terminal from a windows box.
- WinSCP – by far, the simplest/easiest way to move files to the linux server from a windows host. Yeah, there are tons of other options, but this is fast, light and just plain works for me.
- vnc – sometimes, I like a bit of the gui… I’ve linked to my favorite windows client. On the linux side, my ~.vnc/xstartup file does relatively normal stuff, but ends with gnome-session. I like gnome and this works nicely for me. Sure, there are lighter-weight options, but I have the capacity for “pretty.”
- Bluefish editor – there are times when I find myself on the linux box and want a nicer editor than vi (or vile). This one works great and offers pretty much the same things the other editors I mention below do.
Editing:
On the home machine, I’m primarily using two editors these days, depending on mood and whim.
- Notepad2 – free notepad replacement that has an insane amount of options, including syntax hiliting and line-numbering. Yet it remains very lightweight. I use this frequently in conjunction with WinSCP’s remote “edit” ability. I’ve even gone so far as to replace notepad.exe with it.
- SpiderWriter – started using it at work for classic ASP development and have learned to appreciate the many useful features. Tabbed file editing is a big plus, as is the VSS integration. Of course it offers pretty much all that you’d expect from a code editor. Not free though.
Like the new social bookmarks?
Added the Notable plugin this morning after spending a few hours harrassing the poor developer to get it to validate! (that thread). I’m glad to say the author was a great sport and quite patient as we worked through some minor nits. And I’ll agree in principle with his soapbox rant too.
Oh, if you’re still wondering, this is what shows the little icons with links to a handful of popular social bookmarking sites at the bottom of each post.
Pageflakes
Still thinking this is a pretty slick little app. And we have confirmation that BlinkList support is coming soon! Why yes, I am one of those “anon” guys asking for it. Thought I was logged in… but hey, it worked!
Referrals and Ads
Flair and Sparklies
