Geek stuff
If you have to keep track of many usernames and passwords for various websites, you could do worse than to install Oubliette. It'll keep track of them for you, in an encrypted file. Before, I was using a text file to do this, encrypted using GPG. It worked, but it was so tedious to encrypt and decrypt that I tended to not update the file, or to leave it lying around in cleartext. With Oubliette, it's easy to be conscientious about protecting that sensitive information. The user interface is simple and clean.
I also got tired of not having easy access to our address book. Some time ago, I set up a MySQL database for storing addresses and phone numbers and so forth, primarily because it gave me a reason to learn SQL. Having achieved that (I'm no SQL master, but I get by), and not having the inclination to write a user-friendly front-end for it, I decided to set up a wiki instead, and installed MediaWiki. senssuzy and I can use it to keep track of contact info, and anything else of interest to us, such as to-do lists. Given our modest database requirements, I like having something that's easy to read, search, and modify. And wikis are cool.
Debian, though, made this tricky. I run the stable release, because I want the system to be stable, especially since Suzy has some work-related material on it. MediaWiki required a higher version of PHP than Debian's stable release provides. Installing the unstable release would require upgrading a number of other, seemingly-unrelated packages to unstable releases also (such as the C libraries), due to package interdependencies. The solution: Install a chroot system. You create a directory and run "debootstrap" to populate it with another, bare-bones Debian stable release. Running within that directory in a chroot'd process, you can upgrade to the unstable release, install anything you want, without fear that it'll affect the libraries on the main system. This would be why I adore Linux, and Unix-style OSes generally: They put the power in your hands, and give you clever and elegant solutions to problems.
I also got tired of not having easy access to our address book. Some time ago, I set up a MySQL database for storing addresses and phone numbers and so forth, primarily because it gave me a reason to learn SQL. Having achieved that (I'm no SQL master, but I get by), and not having the inclination to write a user-friendly front-end for it, I decided to set up a wiki instead, and installed MediaWiki. senssuzy and I can use it to keep track of contact info, and anything else of interest to us, such as to-do lists. Given our modest database requirements, I like having something that's easy to read, search, and modify. And wikis are cool.
Debian, though, made this tricky. I run the stable release, because I want the system to be stable, especially since Suzy has some work-related material on it. MediaWiki required a higher version of PHP than Debian's stable release provides. Installing the unstable release would require upgrading a number of other, seemingly-unrelated packages to unstable releases also (such as the C libraries), due to package interdependencies. The solution: Install a chroot system. You create a directory and run "debootstrap" to populate it with another, bare-bones Debian stable release. Running within that directory in a chroot'd process, you can upgrade to the unstable release, install anything you want, without fear that it'll affect the libraries on the main system. This would be why I adore Linux, and Unix-style OSes generally: They put the power in your hands, and give you clever and elegant solutions to problems.