Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I need more RAM. Lots more RAM. And more screen space -- probably another monitor or two.

And a network clipboard so I can copy/paste between my Win95 box, my WinNT box, and X applications running under Linux or BSD that are being displayed on the NT machine's screen. (The Mac, ifwhen I get it working again, is in another room, so I'm not tryng to do the mouse-in-each-hand trick to use it at the same time as something else.) Using the Exceed X server, I can right click on its thingie in the task bar and go to the edit menu and select "copy X selection to clipboard" or "copy clipboard to X selection". Moving between the two Windows boxen, I can paste into a telnet window on one ("cat > /tmp/foo", paste from the edit menu, control-D) then cat the file in a telnet window on the other machine and copy from it (I've always got a Linux prompt close at hand on either of the monitors on my desk). I want to be able to do it in fewer steps. I want to not have to think about how to copy text; I just want THIS to wind up over THERE without the act of getting it there feeling like a distinct task and interrupting my flow of thought.

(I'm big on having my tools Not Get In My Way)

Oh, why have I got Windows boxen on my desk? 'Cause they're a lot easier to use if I'm sitting right in front of them, but for the Linux and UNIX machines it doesn't matter where the machine is. I tried using VNC, and it works, but I found it just laggy enough to be annoying in the house (though it's great to be able to access my Windows desktops from another state or another country, despite there being even more lag when there's a dialup connection involved). Maybe it's not so bad on much faster machines (my fastest is 200MHz), or maybe it's just not as good as Being There. Anyhow, between lots of telnet windows and having an X server on my desk, I've got all the access I need to the machines downstairs unless I'm doing sysadmin stuff where I need to touch the console during boot or deal with CD-ROMs or floppies.

But the thing is, I'm using multiple operating systems at the same time, every day, and I really want a network clipboard that's as easy to use as (maybe even a replacement for) the Windows system clipboard.

And more system RAM and more video RAM and more screen real estate so I can see more of the things I'm doing at the same time. (And so NT won't choke when I try to open too many windows under X while I've got Opera and Word running... I think that's a RAM issue.)

Hmm. Time to hit Alta Vista and find out whether a network clipboard for heterogeneous environments already exists. I wonder whether that's what it'll be called if it does exist.