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Optimised for coding speed: Global Keyboard Shortcuts

Posted by Josh on June 12th, 2009

I’ve never been a fan of wasting time, and definitely with any kind of work – I’ll always aim to be able to get it done in the least amount of time possible (as I’m sure most other people would). Recently I have been delving into the “world” of keyboard shortcuts (far past the ever-so-useful ‘alt-tab’, ‘ctrl-c’, ‘alt-f4′ group of shortcuts). Using my Ubuntu linux system I have been able to configure all the applications I use with keyboard shortcuts – I barely even have to reach for the mouse. Granted “never having to move my hand to my mouse” sounds excessively lazy, but laziness isn’t always a bad thing. As it turns out moving my hand to use my mouse and back repetitively wastes a lot of time – and if I could create a keyboard shortcut to do the same thing in much less time then why not?

Global Shortcuts

I use the “compizconfig-settings-manager” to set up my keyboard shortcuts for my entire desktop, along with a program called “wmctrl” for some extra command-line based control. These can both be installed with “sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager wmctrl”. There is also an amazingly useful Firefox plugin called “MozRepl”. MozRepl allows you to send JavaScript commands to your browser from the command line which I also use.

Heres a list of the shortcuts I use. The <Super> key is the key with the Windows logo on most keyboards, while <Menu> is available on the right of some keyboards such as mine (between Alt and Ctrl)

<Super>-T: Starts up a gnome-terminal (I use it so often it got its own keyboard shortcut). Set in the “Commands” section of CompizConfig. the command is just: gnome-terminal

<Super>-R: Similar to the above command but for my music player – Rythmbox. This shortcut also uses wmctrl to bring rythmbox into focus if its already running. Set in the “Commands” section of CompizConfig. the command is just: rhythmbox && wmctrl -xa “Rhythmbox”

<Menu>: I have set this key to launch my keyboard-shortcut based editor ‘gvim’ (gnome version of Vi IMproved).  gvim has enough keyboard shortcuts (and many many more) to deserve its own post and probably more. This shortcut opens my TODO file automatically and also brings gvim into focus if it is already running. CompizConfig command: wmctrl -xa “GVIM” || gvim ~/TODO (more…)

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New in AHS: Images in email branding

Posted by Josh on June 6th, 2009

Today we’ve released another improvement to our email branding system for the AHS branded website hosting reseller system / online billing and invoicing system. Now anything from client support emails, invoices, statements can include your logo (and any other images you wish). We’re working on some major improvements to the branding systems which will make it easier for anyone to use features such as this without using the rather complicated Smarty-based template editor.

If you want to try out the invoice branding now, simply include any images in the template source code. As long as you have uploaded your branded image files (through the Upload screen in the Branding section). The images are included inline in the emails sent to your clients, and in the online version of the invoices too.

Tags: billing, Branding, email, invoice
Posted in Branding, Lusion AHS, Reseller | No Comments »