Mac.sis making macs and S60 handsets talk

SSH (Secure SHell) is familiar to anyone who has worked with networked UNIX systems in the recent years. SSH allows you to securely open a shell (command prompt) in another machine, provided that it has the SSH service running.

OS X has a UNIX soul, and supports SSH connectivity. You need to enable it from the Sharing preference pane – look for Remote Login and switch it on. In order to use SSH from your S60 device to your Mac, you need an SSH client. The multiplatform client Putty is also available for the Symbian OS, and it provides a well-functioning way of remotely opening a command prompt and running terminal programs, such as Emacs:

I've tried Putty on mobiles before, and with my old 9210 Communicator, I even used it to read email remotely using Mutt. While the real-life use cases of connecting to a Mac are limited, I have found SSH handy e.g. for cleanly rebooting a machine where the GUI or windowing system has frozen. In one case, I remotely troubleshot my wife's iMac over the internet using SSH.

So, if you're feeling geeky, give it a go. Gave me a warm feeling all over.