taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

If you routinely log into one or more remote systems using SSH, and have a flaky internet connection or an incompetent ISP, you probably already know about screen’s ability to detach and reattach sessions.

However, you still have to manually type screen -r to resume a detached session, each time — and sometimes you’ll forget, start working in an SSH session, get logged out, and lose your state.

Here’s the next step — automatic screen-sessions for any remote logins: RemoteLoginAutoScreen.

Tags: howto, remote-login, screen, scripting, ssh, unix

Patents: in a recent discussion about games and patents, it emerged that these common elements are patented:

• streamed loading
• minigames during a loading screen
• ghost cars in racing games

Looks like software patenting is coming to computer games in a big way. I’m not sure how any game on a modern platform can avoid the ’streamed loading’ patent.

Naturally, I can remember playing games on the Commodore 64 in the 1980s that included these…

Tags: computer, discussion, game, ghost, loading, looks, patents, platform, screen, software, way

Patents: New Scientist reports that IBM have applied for a patent on “an electronic password ‘wallet’ that securely stores all your passwords, with overall access via a single password. The wallet pops up on screen whenever you are asked for a password. You enter the master password and the wallet then answers the online request by pasting in the appropriate password for that site.”

This should be familiar to anyone who’s used Mozilla’s Form Manager feature, which fits the patent claims perfectly. That page notes that the Mozilla feature was created in 1999, just under 3 years before the patent application. Let’s hope the USPTO remember to do a Google search this time!

Tags: access, feature, ibm, mozilla, new, password, patent, patents, scientist, screen, wallet

I’ve just turned on sub-pixel rendered anti-aliasing on my desktop, using gdkxft and KDE 2.2.1. It’s amazing the difference it makes. Previously, anti-aliasing was pretty similar to just taking my glasses off; but with a TFT laptop screen, you can enable the ClearType-style sub-pixel rendering, and it becomes very smooth.

Dunno if rxvt has it yet, though, so I’m still using blocky ol’ text in my terminal windows.

Tags: cleartype-style, desktop, difference, dunno, gdkxft, kde, laptop, rendering, screen, tft

Har de har! The perils of being used for demos. (or something).

Date: Sun, 06 May 2001 18:07:55 -0700
From: “Adam L. Beberg” (spam-protected)
To: (spam-protected)
Subject: How to make lots of new friends..

Just have your AIM screenname on screen when a friend is interviewed for CNET, some instant messaging story or something, which is then played on CNBC and CNN… and…

*sigh*

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!

• Adam L. “Duncan” Beberg

  • http://www.iit.edu/~beberg/ (spam-protected)

Tags: aim, date, friend, har, may, screen, screenname, something, subject, sun