Two useful little console apps.
Two useful little console applications that I don’t really think about but use a fair amount are dict and cal.
dict
dict is a client for the Dictionary Server Protocol (DICT), a TCP transaction based query/response protocol that provides access to dictionary definitions from a set of natural language dictionary databases.
What that means is you type “dict something” and it will pull results from several sites on the internet. It will also try and suggest what word you might be looking for if you have a spelling mistake.
cal
The cal utility displays a simple calendar in traditional format and ncal offers an alternative layout, more options and the date of easter. The new format is a little cramped but it makes a year fit on a 25×80 terminal. If arguments are not specified, the current month is displayed.
Most of the time I just want to see the last month, this month, and next month. This can be done with “cal -3″. If you want to see a month that is future or past dated beyond this you can “cal 12 2008″ which will show December 2008.
In most cases people just click on the time in the panel of gnome to get a mini pop-up calender, or use google to look up a word, etc. Next time your sitting in a terminal/console remember you don’t have to touch that mouse to get the info you want. 
Debian Install notes:
From the command line type “apt-get install cal dict” as root.