Example of 'brilliant' apps?

[Bill Hacker]

Erik Wikström wrote:

"Jonathon McKitrick" <jcm at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:20050319164928.GA87271 at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hey all,

We finally have a day that looks like spring here on the east coast.  I
plan

to enjoy it.

I've decided that as much as I love DFly, I am not much of an OS
programmer.

But are there any apps out there lately that you would call brilliant, or
outstanding?  Or that could otherwise possibly give me some inspiration?
I'm still working on my data acquisition project, but a new pet project
might be fun.
Jonathon McKitrick
--
My other computer is your Windows box.


There's probably one of those already, I've just haven't found it yet but
anyway. I have a nice ThinkPad which I use both at home and in school, for
windows there's this neat little application from IBM that is used for
automatically connecting you to the network.
It functions something like this:

    - If a cable is connected it gets the MAC-address in the other end and
uses that to determine what network you are connected to.
    - If no cable is connected it scans for any wifi-networks and determines
which network it is connecting to based on ESSID.
I suppose that there's some kind of ranking if more than one known network
is found and that there's some default if no known network is found. I
haven't used it myself since I'm not running windows on that computer but I
think that's a really 'brilliant' application, with support for running some
shell-scrip so that one can mount disks automatically that would be perfect.


Should such an application already exist, please do tell me.

It been standard on 17" PowerBooks 10.2.
Dunno if it is in the 'OpenDarwin' (adaptable to *BSD) part or not.
Really handy as you go from your office on CAT-5, fixed IP to various
client offices, DHCP during the day and it finds Momma over CAT-5 or WiFi -
just by opening the lid and grabbing a nearby RJ-45 (or not)
. ... often when the WinAdmins think it is 'secure', otherwise with just 
a PWD   ;-)

Downside is that if you don't teach it not to talk to stangers, you'll 
walk into
Starbucks for a coffee, pop open the lid, auto-connect to T-Mobile
and find some unsuspecting customer across the room has a Bluetooth
phone or PDA that's trying to sneak out for a little fun - and has noticed
your PowerBook advertising free love and internet connectivity - drive
sharing and chat, too if you haven't spanked it soundly.

They really oughta teach these bot's more cautious ways before they
give 'em batteries.  Just 'coz you don't do x86 doesn't mean you can't get
. ..taken advantage of ;-D
Bill