Why doesn't Gnumeric run?
Gnumeric is provided in recent distributions of the SGI Freeware (http://freeware.sgi.com).  However, depending on your configuration, gnumeric may throw and exception similar to Gdk-ERROR **: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes) along with some specific serials and traces.  Most of this is greek to the average SGI user, but what it's saying is that it can't set an appropriate bit-depth for it's window.  For some reason, a race situation occurs and Gnumeric crashes out.  Fix it by adding -depth 24 -class TrueColor to the file /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers and reboot your machine.  This forces the SGI Xserver to run a root window of 24 bits, and solves Gnumeric's problem.

This was apparently fixed in later revisions of Gnumeric (0.71 or 0.72), but I've never been able to compile any version of Gnumeric under Irix.  Something is always missing, incomplete, or the wrong version.  Such is life - life with Gnome.
 

How do I compile minicom?
Ensure you have all the uucp packages installed from the Irix CDROMs (eoe.sw.uucp on Irix 6.5 Base Disk 1).  You might find that you get confilcts.  Stick in the overlay CDs and resolve the confilts (I'm assuming you know what you're doing here).
Ensure that GCC works (see next question below)
Ensure gettext is installed (install the package from http://freeware.sgi.com)
Ensure ncurses libs are in /usr/freeware/include you might have to install fromt he SGI freeware site
Change to the minicom source dir and do:

./configure --enable-dfl-port=/hw/ttys/ttyd2
gmake ranlib:
gmake install

When I "./configure" it complains that my compiler can't make executables!  WTF!?
So, you installed GCC, but can't build squat?  You need to install the package dev.sw.lib from the Irix Development foundation.  Depending on your install of Irix, you may need to install other software to resolve conflicts - there's so much that could be wrong here, so you're kind of on your own to resolve the conflicts.  Follow the errors and you'll figure it out - it's not all that difficult to trace.
 

I am *so* sick of the SGI backgrounds.  Why can't I put a picture of my kids in there?
Actually, you can.  Go to the SGI Freeware site and download and install the xli image viewer.  Next, do this:

cp /usr/lib/X11/system.backgrounds ~/.backgrounds

Open up the new file '.backgrounds' in your favorite editor and add the following:
background "[background name goes here]"
  command "-execute /usr/freeware/bin/xli -onroot -fork /[path to image directory]/[image name]"
  default "-execute /usr/freeware/bin/xli -onroot -fork /[path to image directory]/[image name]"
  exeok "/usr/freeware/bin/xli"
  readok "/[path to image directory]/[image name]"

For example:
background "JordyandKenzie"
  command "-execute /usr/freeware/bin/xli -onroot -fork /usr/people/khuhn/jordyandkenzie.jpg"
  default "-execute /usr/freeware/bin/xli -onroot -fork /usr/people/khuhn/jordyandkenzie.jpg"
  exeok "/usr/freeware/bin/xli"
  readok "/usr/people/khuhn/jordyandkenzie.jpg"

Run the Background applet and viola, your picture is in there.  Note that the procedure above does not affect the desktop icons, nor does it require a restart of Indigo Magic.  It also will automatically tile the image - so some resizing of your image (or the addition of some canvas space) may be in order.  If you don't like xli, what can I say - that's what I tested this with, and it seems to work fine for me on Irix 6.5.3.  You're welcome to try other image viewers, but I settled on xli because it feels very lightweight, ehich is necessary when adding something that's going to run all the time on your desktop.
 

My Octane is great, but why doesn't the light bar on the font light up? Can I fix this?>
Yep, I've built a seperate page that details The Fix