Specifications

Geoff Goodell has a PhD in Computer Science from Harvard
and is currently researching Internet surveillance and network
neutrality. Recently, I found myself sitting next to Geoff, who
was typing casually at a furious speed on his ThinkPad, while
looking at a black screen divided into four quadrants, each
apparently operating in command-line mode with colored
type far too small for my old eyes to read, but obviously
quite legible to Geoff. Because it was too hard for me to
eaveswatch, even at close range, I asked him if he was an
Emacs or a vi guy. He smiled and replied, “vi”.
So, I asked him to let us know the rest of what he used,
and here’s his reply:
I use a constellation of machines running Debian
Linux. I store most of my working files (such as
research, code, papers and personal Web pages) in
AFS, which allows me to share data across machines
seamlessly. For authentication, I use a combination of
MIT Kerberos and OpenSSH public keys. I exchange
multimedia files using rsync, and I use MPlayer for
audio, video and streaming.
For hardware, I use mainboards by Gigabyte, monitors
by NEC and Samsung, IBM M13 keyboards and
multihead video cards by NVIDIA. My laptop is an
IBM ThinkPad T41, which also runs Debian Linux.
For software, I try to keep a low profile. My window
manager is ion2, which allows me to tile the screen
with xterms and mostly avoid using the mouse. My
favorite font is 6x10, and my color scheme is some-
thing that evolved over the years. For text editing, I
use Vim. For e-mail, I use Mutt and GnuPG. For IRC,
I use Irssi. For browsing, I use Firefox plus NoScript
plus AdBlock Plus. For privacy, I also use Tor. I run
Linuxnet IRC servers, Apache Web servers and an
exim4 mail server. I coordinate non-IRC instant
messaging through a set of gateways, so that my
IRC client handles all the interaction. I use LaTeX
to write papers, personal letters and presentations
(occasionally I use OpenOffice.org for slides).
My ISP is Speakeasy. My domain registrar is GANDI
(in France).
When not near a workstation or laptop, I have a Treo
750p (which runs a lovely SSH client called pssh) and a
Motorola H12 noise-canceling Bluetooth headset.
—DOC SEARLS
What They’re Using
Geoffrey Goodell
1259 Reamwood Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
www.kingstarusa.com
Email: [e-mail]
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