Standard
test to see if some
xterm running on a
remote host is
wedged. Just bash some characters at it, and see if they get
echoed. Since almost all
UN*X programs don't
muck with your
stty settings, you normally
expect to see your typed text appear immediately, even if the program is of doing something else.
And it so happens that asdfasdf (or a close variant) is the easiest string to bash out.
This nodeshell was not created by the E2WDC, but we still filled it with Internet JunkTM.