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synergy

2008-04-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

synergy: [noun] a mutually advantageous conjunction of distinct elements

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all. Learn more about how it works.

Last release was version 1.3.1 on April 2, 2006

Mostly stable, although it seems like it has a few bugs... It could definitely do with daemon scripts.

EDIT: Chris Schoeneman (creator/dev) contacted me after mailing him and says he's working on 2.0 but a pre-release isn't ready yet.

Someone should hire this guy to do this full time, there is no other project remotely like it to my knowledge. Unless you say thing like xinerama or a kvm are like it (I don't think those solve the same problem).

pdftk

2008-04-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

If PDF is electronic paper, then pdftk
is an electronic staple-remover, hole-punch, binder, secret-decoder-ring, and X-Ray-glasses. Pdftk is a simple tool for doing everyday things with PDF documents. Keep one in the top drawer of your desktop and use it to:

* Merge PDF Documents
* Split PDF Pages into a New Document
* Rotate PDF Pages or Documents
* Decrypt Input as Necessary (Password Required)
* Encrypt Output as Desired
* Fill PDF Forms with FDF Data or XFDF Data and/or Flatten Forms
* Apply a Background Watermark or a Foreground Stamp
* Report on PDF Metrics such as Metadata, Bookmarks, and Page Labels
* Update PDF Metadata
* Attach Files to PDF Pages or the PDF Document
* Unpack PDF Attachments
* Burst a PDF Document into Single Pages
* Uncompress and Re-Compress Page Streams
* Repair Corrupted PDF (Where Possible)

Pdftk allows you to manipulate PDF easily and freely. It does not require Acrobat, and it runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Solaris.

Last release was version 1.4.1 on November 28, 2006.

Stable, working. Could use a more 'posix' interface and should probably be updated to use poppler.

EDIT: Unable to attempt contact. After jumping through 3-4 contact links I got a SQL error.

EDIT: Author contacted. He seems satisfied with the state of his application. I think it's getting buggier as time goes on... or as adobe changes pdf (it certainly isn't great at fixing pdf problems).

tcptraceroute

2008-04-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

tcptraceroute is a traceroute implementation using TCP packets.

The more traditional traceroute(8) sends out either UDP or ICMP ECHO packets with a TTL of one, and increments the TTL until the destination has been reached. By printing the gateways that generate ICMP time exceeded messages along the way, it is able to determine the path packets are taking to reach the destination.

The problem is that with the widespread use of firewalls on the modern Internet, many of the packets that traceroute(8) sends out end up being filtered, making it impossible to completely trace the path to the destination. However, in many cases, these firewalls will permit inbound TCP packets to specific ports that hosts sitting behind the firewall are listening for connections on. By sending out TCP SYN packets instead of UDP or ICMP ECHO packets, tcptraceroute is able to bypass the most common firewall filters.

Last release was version 1.5-beta7 on March 28, 2006.

Seems to be stable, and probably not needing much. I would like to see an mtr like interface added to it (alternative mode not primary).