Sonnet MMIX-II

When in my youth I conversations held
I spoke to those I saw and met, save none.
But in this age when with the world we meld
My thoughts and visions far and wide might run.
How long I felt aloof, my dreams my own
For never could I share them with my kind.
But when the ether made for us a home
My comrades gathered joyful I could find.
A thousand thoughts I wished that I could mold
I whispered to myself instead. Like me,
How many others left their thoughts untold
Thus lost like treasures cast into the sea?
A thousand thoughts and not one could we save;
Now from their ripples we might spawn a wave.

(Written at the behest of the Google Wave team.)

PuTTY

It's been my experience that ssh is the best way to meet your remote terminal needs, and I've found that the only Windows ssh client one needs is PuTTY. I wrote these notes on installing and configuring PuTTY for the benefit of my colleagues and I figured I'd share them here:

• From http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html get the "Windows installer for everything except PuTTYtel".
• Run PuTTYgen. Click Generate. Enter and confirm a passphrase; make sure it's strong and never ever ever reveal it to anyone. Save public key. Save private key. Save private key two more times to places whose simultaneous loss and/or destruction is unimaginable in any event less catastrophic than a thermonuclear war. Do not close PuTTYgen yet.
• Run PuTTY. Enter host name (or IP address). Enter a suitable name under "Saved Sessions" and click Save. Click open. Authenticate.
• For Linux: mkdir .ssh; chmod 700 .ssh; cd ssh; vi authorized_keys. From your still-open PuTTYgen window copy the "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file". Put vi in insert mode by pressing i and then press shift-insert. Your key will be pasted. Escape. ZZ. chmod 400 authorized_keys. Log out of your Linux session.
• Optional but convenient if somewhat less flexible and secure: Run PuTTY again. Click on the name of your Saved Session and Load it. From the tree menu, click "Data" (under "Connection"). Enter your username under "Auto-login username".
• Copy the shortcut to Pageant into your Startup folder. Edit the shortcut and append the path to your private key file to the target line (so the target line will now be, e.g.,
  "C:\Program Files\PuTTY\pagaent.exe" "c:\foo\my private key.ppk"). Run Pageant from that shortcut. It is probably minimized to your tray, but should pop up a window prompting you for your passphrase. Enter it.
• From now on, to open an ssh session, right-click on the Pageant tray icon and choose the desired session from Saved Sessions.