>   the background: i'm teaching a 2-day course later this week on unix/linux
> power tools, and i've already got the manual, but it looks like there's maybe
> 1.5 days worth of content there, so i have the freedom to fill up another 1/2
> day with whatever cool utilities i want.  i'll be teaching the course off of SL
> 6.0 so i have the flexibility to add in whatever's normally available from the
> SL repos.
> 
>   i'm going to add in some package management using yum, plus a quick
> tutorial on ssh.  any other topics people here use on a really regular basis
> that they find indispensable?  not necessarily admin level, just really, really
> handy programs.  i realize it's kind of an open-ended question, i'm just
> curious.

screen 
ssh with flags (port forwarding, X forwarding, etc) 
perl 
awk 
curl 
find + xargs  
skill 
mpg123 (hey gotta have some tunes while you power admin stuff) 
a terminal that can do horizontal/vertical splits

Josh