etc :: Recommendations

Here is a list of programs that I did not write, but that I find very useful:

• Quicksilver (Mac OS X only): Using the mouse is a bad habit that I'm trying to break myself of. The keyboard is almost always more efficient. And Quicksilver is a launcher (actually much more than just a launcher) that makes it much easier to go mouse-free.
• GeekTool (Mac OS X only): A program for tricking out your desktop with plain-text displays: system logs, the output of shell commands, etc. Mine displays the output of remind (see below), the weather forecast, and a note bar displaying short reminders to myself.
• remind (command line): A command-line calendar tool, which fits my preference for streamlined, minimalist programs that do one thing well. Read the lifehacker.com review of it for details.
• goose (command line): Perform Google searches from the command line. You will need a key for the (now defunct) Google SOAP Search API. You may also need to download various dependencies (for example, get SOAP Lite with "$ sudo perl -MCPAN -e 'install SOAP::Lite'"). To run on Mac OS X, edit the script and change both instances of "/etc/urlview/url_handler.sh" to "open".