A geeky post for once. For those of you who use a flavour of Unix and need to do so remotely, you’ve probably come across screen (if you haven’t, go read).
I use screen lots – for example, my IM client is a command-line curses-based client (centerim) running in a screen. This means that when I go home, I can log into it by attaching to the screen instance from there, but it allows me to keep it running in the office. It’s ideal for doing major work when you’re on the road, as 3G is still flaky in most parts of the country and screen allows you to just reattach and get on with it.
It’s got quite a few options for using – well worth reading the man page to find out some of the more unusual ones, but one of the places I’ve used it a lot is for training – showing people remotely how to do something. You get them to log in and run a command that connects to your screen and you can then demonstrate while they watch. Thing is, I’m forever forgetting the multiuser options of screen, so when I found this page today (thanks Google), I figured I’d better remember it.
Have fun!