Twice in the last week I've come across experienced users unaware of some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts. They're ones I thought everyone used. Apparently not. (And don't worry Doug and Mike, I won't mention any names! Whoops ... )

There are tons more of course -- just google "shortcut application name" -- but below are some of the most common ones. Call it a quick shortcut to shortcuts.

Universal : These work in most applications on most operating systems (Mac users should substitute Command for Ctrl)
Shortcut Keys	Function	Notes
Ctrl+C	Copy
Ctrl+X	Cut
Ctrl+V	Paste
Ctrl+Shift+V	Paste without formatting	Great for pasting text from websites
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+N	Open a new document
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+P	Print
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+Z	Undo last operation
Ctrl+Y	Redo last undo
Alt+Tab	Switch between open programs	Hold Alt down and tap Tab. Release Alt to select.
F1	Help!
F2	Rename
F3	Find / Find next
F5	Refresh	Particularly useful in browsers.
Ctrl+B	Bold font	Works on selected or subsequent text. Repeat to toggle.
Ctrl+I	Italic font	Ditto
Ctrl+U	Underline font	Ditto
Windows specials
Win	Open the menu
Win+E	Open Explorer
Win+R	Open the Run dialog
Win+M	Minimise all applications
Win+Shift+M	Undo minimise all applications
Win+D	Minimise all windows and show desktop
Linux specials
Ctrl+Fn	Switch to desktop n.	But only if you have multiple desktops set up!
Ctrl+Alt+Fn	Switch to virtual terminal n. (Range F1-F6)	Ctrl+Alt+F7 takes you back to your GUI.
Ctrl+Esc	Show system activity	KDE only?
Tab	Auto-complete commands	Only works in terminal sessions.

So what other useful favourites have I missed ...?

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 6 )

tasksel is a useful command for Debian and Ubuntu users because it installs predefined collections of software. Say you're looking at adding video editing tools or a LAMP server (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP). You could install the various components separately by issuing a series of sudo apt-get install commands, or you could just type

sudo tasksel

and select from the list ...




A large number of collections are available ...

Basic Ubuntu server Cloud computing cluster Cloud computing node DNS server Edubuntu server LAMP server Mail server OpenSSH server PostgreSQL database Print server Samba file server Tomcat Java server Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (instance) Virtual Machine host 2D/3D creation and editing suite Audio creation and editing suite Edubuntu KDE desktop Edubuntu desktop Kubuntu desktop Kubuntu netbook LADSPA and DSSI audio plugins Large selection of font packages Mythbuntu additional roles Mythbuntu frontend Mythbuntu master backend Mythbuntu slave backend Ubuntu MID edition Ubuntu Netbook Remix Ubuntu desktop Video creation and editing suite Xubuntu desktop Edubuntu live DVD Kubuntu Netbook Edition live CD Kubuntu live CD Kubuntu live DVD Mythbuntu live CD Ubuntu MID live environment Ubuntu Netbook Remix live environment Ubuntu live CD Ubuntu live DVD Xubuntu live CD

Select with the mouse or spacebar and click OK to install!

CAUTION! Ubuntu users should not use tasksel to uninstall groups. There's a long-standing bug with it that will uninstall your operating system as well -- a bug I only discovered while trying it out! (Fortunately Linux is a doddle to reinstall, but it still wastes a good half hour.)

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 4 )

Windows XP users upgrading their hard drives next year could be in for a bit of a slow-down -- by as much as 10%. That's because from January 2011, hard drive manufacturers will move to "Advanced Format" drives, the first significant specification change in almost 30 years.

Since the dawn of HDDs, drives have been formatted into 512-byte sectors, just like the floppies that preceded them. That's OK for modest file sizes and megabyte drives, but terabyte drives and monster files are the norm now. 512-byte sectors waste a lot of space. Not only is a gap is left between each sector, but each one also uses 40 bytes for Error Correction Codes (ECC). That means a tradtional drive has an 87% storage efficiency. By moving to a 4,096-byte sector with a 100-byte ECC field, format efficiency goes up to 96%. That means a 500GB will yield an extra 10% of useable space.



The problem with XP is that it's built on an expectation of 512-byte sectors. While Advanced Format drives will be able to emulate the older format, doing will slow them by as much as 10%.

Later versions of Windows handle 4K sectors, along with all Linux kernels since September 2009 and OS X Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard.

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 )

Print Preview has long been one of my favourite browser buttons. I don't actually print much, but it is a way of blocking all the winkin' and blinkin' content that some websites indulge in to excess. I don't object to advertising per se, but I do object to moving ads that constantly vie for my attention. It's like TV sets in bars. OK, the sound's off and it's only a soap opera, but you can't help being distracted by the constant movement.

On my personal machines I use AdBlock Plus, a Firefox add-on that does just what it claims. Flashblock is good too, replacing Flash animations with a Play button so you have the option of whether to run them or not. But I recently discovered Readability, a handy bookmarklet from Arc90 that strips the garbage at the press of a button and presents you with a nicely formatted page.





... into this.


Installation's a doddle. Select your preferred style, size and margin settings on the Readability homepage then drag and drop the Readability button to your toolbar. Whenever you want to make a page more readable, just click the button.

According to the site "Readability works with most major modern browsers and has been tested on many news sites and blogs. It isn’t 100% effective but works surprisingly well."

It does too. Readers' rule!

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )