View source for Tip 1: Screen

GNU screen is a terminal multiplexer. It lets you have multiple shells  
in the same window. It is kind of like "tabs" but without the tabs.  
The other advantage is that you can detach and reattach to a screen  
session at a later time. This is very useful when you are running a  
bunch of things or have buffers open for editing and want to save your  
terminal state (like working directories, bash history, etc.)

1) To start a screen, just type "screen". It will invoke a new empty  
shell. All screen commands are prefixed with "Ctrl-a". This is a bit  
awkward at first, but you get used to it.  Type "ls" just to add some  
output to the window.

2) To create a second window, type "Ctrl-a c" for create new.  This  
will make window 1 and switch to it.

3) To switch back to window 0, type "Ctrl-a 0". To go back to window  
1, "Ctrl-a 1". You can also cycle to the next and previous windows  
with "Ctrl-a n" and "Ctrl-a p", respectively.

4) To detach from the screen, type "Ctrl-a d". This will go back to  
your original terminal where you ran "screen" but everything else is  
STILL RUNNING.

5) To get a list of your screen sessions, type "screen -ls".  You will  
get a list of the attached, detached, or broken screens (this happens  
if you have a screen running and the machine is rebooted).

6) Note that you can actually attach to a single screen simultaneously  
from multiple places! Executing "screen -D -R" will Reattach and force  
Detach from all other terminals.

The one disadvantage of screen is that it is a terminal only so you  
cannot run X applications.

For more information:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/3/9/16838/14935

or

man screen