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Ask Slashdot: Scripting-Friendly Smartphones?
An anonymous reader writes "I am choosing a smartphone for work, moving up from a long history of just-a-phone phones. This coincides with moving into an environment where I will have a desktop machine in my office, rather using my laptop — so I'll VPN in from home, and am looking forward to not trucking my laptop around everywhere. BUT ... this means I now won't have my laptop all the time. I have gotten used to scripting various little things that make my life easier, and would like to carry that over to the phone. For example, periodically check that a certain machine is online and backing things up the way it is supposed to; if the lab monitoring system sends me an email that the -80 freezer is up to -50, play a sound and run the vibrate system in a specific, arbitrarily chosen pattern; when I press this button, record an MP3, when I release it prep an email with it attached, that sort of thing. Does such a beast exist? Has anyone used one and if so what do you think? Bonus points if you know if I can use it with Rogers (Canadian wireless provider used by my workplace)." I've heard good things about (but never used) the payware Android app called Tasker; what other recommendations do you have for running the world from a smartphone?
Sometimes.
I'd argue this is part of the geek/hacker mindset, and while it's a valuable asset, we have to remember that this places us outside of the mass market in some fairly significant ways. As a direct result of this, we're no longer the "target market" for consumer electronics.
The Nokia's N900 (not the newer 900) is a full linux distro that happens to also function as a phone. It is the best computer I have ever purchased.
n900. it's open source and has a full slide out keyboard for when you have to write a script on it an emergency. normally i prefer to write such things on my desktop then use ssh to get them over to the phone, but it can be done on the phone itself too.
The N9 is a wonderful phone, can certainly be scripted (I ssh into mine all the time to do things), but lacks a physical keyboard. The onscreen one is great, but because it takes half the screen it makes the shell-window smaller. (really, you might want an N950, but those "don't exist" and getting one is difficult, plus the antenna issues make it less useful as a real phone).
The N900, now hard to locate, has a great screen, a great keyboard and is the predecessor to the N9. But they have a known issue with the USB port breaking over time, so if you do actually succeed in finding one to buy don't expect it to last forever and ever. But this is 2000+ where things aren't expected to last longer than a few years.
sigh
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No.
The vast majority of the people is used to under thinking about everything.
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
A professional sysadmin on call should have multiple devices ready to roll, and not just depend on one dinky one.
There's a reason samurai had two swords, or cowboys carried a boot knife...
Why would you want to run the script on your phone?
Of course there are apps for that.... but then why? Here is what I do. I use VPN (Cisco VPN is the one supported in most corporate environments, and is available on linux), and then just ssh to any machine I want.
There is talk of even remote desktop kind of client coming to android.
Alternatively, you could just ssh to the machine you want to access, and then do as you please.
I use a Galaxy note, and since the screen is 5", its very usable. However, on smaller phones(like my older optimus one from LG), such stuff was a pain.
So all your scripts will run on the server, in your lab, and email will be sent to you. Its far more easy to set up these scripts on the computer in your lab. Heck, you could write the scripts locally, and then ssh to your server and put them there.
But if you still want to do stuff like access email, parse through it, and then do something(ssh to server blah blah), you may as well write your own app. On the market, most such apps will do only a part of what you want.
Somebody has suggest N900(linux), and if you want everything on your phone, a linux phone is what you are looking for.
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Seems better to have a separate dedicated machine that runs the scripts and monitors everything and send email alerts that you can receive on your phone.
There's no place like ~/
I have no clue why everyone is rushing to have you put scripts on a smartphone, which can be lost, stolen, run out of battery...
You do your scripting on a PC at work, and only receive reports on, or do *emergency* remoting from, your phone. At most you tweak your phone so that if it receives an email/text with keyword "ALERT" from sender my.scripts.at.work, it does something noisy.
Any phone can do that, it's a matter of finding the right size/features balance. I'd go for a big screen, and maybe a hardware keyboard if you think you'll be doing a lot of remote editing, though the best phone keyboard is a lot worse than any laptop's, so don't plan on using it too much.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I think you're a little confused as to what "on-call" actually means.
No, it is you who is confused. What you've posted as on-call requirements would violate labor laws in most, if not all, States.
In any event a professional system administrator would have a jumpbox with all their tools setup, and all the smartphone would do is provide some type of connection to that system. Possibly ssh, possibly web-based, just depending on how fancy you wanted to get and what kind of tools you may need.
Oh yes. We at slashdot are so much smarter than the common pleb.
Give me a break. The only thing greater is the undeserved ego.
Nah. If you don't get too cocky about it, I think it's fine to be slightly proud to be a professional IT dude. ;)
Name me one professional rally racing team that doesn't install their own shocks on their brand new car.
If your needs are specific enough, no standard solution will suffice.
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