The internet is one thing but you know you've arrived when you see your face on the cover of a tabloid. Although we can't quite offer you that experience, we are bringing back tech-tips in the magazine.

This chapter excerpt is from Citizen Engineer: A Handbook for Socially Responsible Engineering by David Douglas and Greg Papadopoulos, with John Boutelle, published by Prentice Hall Professional, ISBN 0137143923, Copyright 2010 David Douglas and Greg Papadopoulos. For more info, please visit the publisher page: www.informit.com/title/0137143923

I've been taking a Java programming course this semester at the local technical college, which has been a wonderful learning experience. The programming course uses the Eclipse 3.5.1 IDE along with the Java Development Toolkit for programming in Java. In addition to using Eclipse, I use Dropbox to save the source code and preferences from my home install of Eclipse, eliminating the need to carry a USB key or email/transfer the files through any other method. This Dropbox storage method also ensures that every machine I use has the latest version of source code files with minimal interaction and fuss on my part.

I'm always on the lookout for original projects, and this particular application really took me by surprise. According to its Web site, “Flinks is a text-mode flashing word Web browser. It is intended for speed reading and/or skimming Web pages and text.”

When grep and sed aren't enough, gawk may provide the extra horsepower that you need. The following tip contains a sampling of some of the things one might do with gawk.

Even with all of the high quality software available, sometimes you just have to break down and write a custom application, and usually you don't have a lot of time to devote to it. This is the situation I found myself in when my wife started a new business and needed a simple means of tracking sales leads.