This has been a problematic thing for many. I did a lot of research, trial & error, but I still don’t have a solution. I can catch all key events, using some JavaScript, I can also prevent Ctrl+W and Ctrl+S. But not Ctrl+N. Do you have something?

References:

• Buzzword guys had a lot of problems in keyboard / clipboard handling - http://www.colettas.org/?p=69
• Global keyboard event handling - http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/communitye … postId=304
• Keyboard handling with Flex app - arrow keys should not scroll browser - http://www.nabble.com/Flex-application- … 37485.html
• Moving a sprite with keyboard in Flex - http://codes.widged.com/?q=node/772

Situations / Test Cases:

• Should work: Ctrl + N (New), Ctrl + O (Open), Ctrl + W (Close), Ctrl + Q (Quit)
• Ctrl + C (Copy), Ctrl + V (Paste), Ctrl + X (Cut) - this works with current Flex app. New code must not break it
• Should work on Windows, Mac, Linux
• Should work on Firefox, IE, Safari, Chrome
• What if focus is not in Flex app?
• What if user goes to another window, comes to our app and presses a keyboard shortcut? (this will lose focus)
• Will cut / copy / paste from Browser’s Edit menu work?

JavaScript does it:

• OpenJS - http://www.openjs.com/scripts/events/ke … shortcuts/ - did not work with Command+N
• QooXDoo - http://news.qooxdoo.org/key-event-nightmare-resolved - Full JS library for AJAX, has keyboard handling
• Rajan S - http://santrajan.blogspot.com/2007/03/c … ndler.html - small JS code to capture keys

Flex documentation says:
When handling a key or key combination that the underlying operating system or browser recognizes, the operating system or browser generally processes the event first. For example, in Microsoft Internet Explorer, pressing Control+w closes the browser window. If you trap that combination in your Flex application, Internet Explorer users never know it, because the browser closes before the ActiveX Flash Player has a chance to react to the event.

Notes:

• KeyboardEvent is non cancelable in Flex.
• stopImmediatePropagation(), preventDefault(), stopPropagation() - don’t stop the propagation
• I can detect the keys very well, problem is suppressing the default browser action
• Don’t want to have a full HTML/JavaScript/ExternalInterface handling like Buzzword. Ideally, want to let Flex handle it’s own events, HTML handle browser events and suppress them.

Any ideas?

TIA!

These characters break PHP's XML handling. (or at least they broke it for me - using simplexml_load_string!).

How do you clean them?

There is an old post that suggests using ereg_replace on a set of characters - essentially converts them to html entities.

Unfortunately, that did not work with me. Since the text is UTF8, the replace logic replaced alphabets too.

I tried a lot to get a solution, but could not find something that would work. Finally, just stripped out all non printing characters except line breaks and tabs.

This too breaks with non English characters. Any suggestions?

Thunderbird shows All Folders by default. But there are two arrows next to "All Folders" that allow you to navigate between All, Recent, Favorite and Unread folders. Keeping my view to show only Recent folders reduces a lot of eyeball movement and helps me stay focused! Here's the "before and after" view of my folders!

BTW, another tip! Use Vertical View Layout for message display. The three pane view with folders on left, message list in center and message content on right. This works super especially in wide screens.

My library case is already filled up and I needed a way to organize the books I have. I had tried with a spreadsheet earlier, but I wanted something better this time. I did not even want to type in all titles and details myself. That would be too much of work! I would rather read a book in that time!

Enter Books! A MacOS X application that can read barcodes using the inbuilt camera on my MacBook and fill up book details! Just what I needed! (It's Open Source too)

Books - Add a new book screen

I used it and I can describe the experience in one word - Delightful! I was so happy with the ease, I have already shown the app to my family. That's unique - does not happen for a lot of apps!

• It correctly detected ISBN for most of my books.
• I did not have much luck with 13 digit ISBN - though detection worked, I was not able to find book information from Amazon/others.
• Especially so with Indian publishers. For many, I had to enter the title and pull info manually.
• I wish Gujarati books had ISBN too! Would have made it so easy! (I inherit a huge collection of Gujarati books from my dad
• In just two hours, I could add about 90 books to the system! That was cool!

Books - Main Screen

What next?

What do you think?

Find out which country is spending on what!

NYTimes had a great piece recently on what do people spend on. Their data visualization method is superb, and you quickly learn that Americans spend a lot (if you did not already know that)! India is way behind!

How people spend their discretionary income – the cash that goes to clothing, electronics, recreation, household goods, alcohol – depends a lot on where they live. People in Greece spend almost 13 times more money on clothing as they do on electronics. People living in Japan spend more on recreation than they do on clothing, electronics and household goods combined. Americans spend a lot of money on everything.

Check out the visualization here, full article here.

The 27 apps are:

1. Web Snapshot
2. WebKut
3. Pixus
4. PixelPerfect
5. Icon Generator
6. Flickr Flipper
7. RichFLV - FLV Editor
8. Shrink O’Matic
9. Em based layouts - Vertical rhythm calculator
10. Font Picker
11. COLOURlovers Desktop Color Finder
12. Kuler Desktop
13. Color Browser
14. Color Picker
15. RegExr Desktop
16. Snippely
17. SearchCoders Dashboard
18. Vertabase Timer
19. MiniTask
20. Klok
21. Doomi
22. Timeloc
23. Ora Time & Expense
24. FEAT (Freelancer’s Estimation Assistance Tool)
25. Google Analytics Reporting Suite
26. Snippage
27. ConceptShare Desktop Uploader

Read the original post to know more about these apps, and also check out comments for some more interesting apps!

Firefox in your country - Survey

The survey will take just two minutes to complete. But will go a long way in improving Firefox! It revolves around your use of Firefox and how we can get more people use Firefox.

The survey is coming to an end this Friday!! And we need more participation from India.  Mozilla Foundation will be using this information to make better decisions in the future about how to grow Firefox and Mozilla in India.

I request you to go ahead and fill it up! Make the world a better place by people getting a better browser!

The story features:

• Suveer Bajaj, 20. Runs a brand building firm - Foxy Moron
• Samyak Chakrabarty, 19. Runs three communications firms.
• Radhika Mehta, 22. Runs a cafe and event management firm.
• Shawn Lewis, 21. Runs a theme wall-painting firm.
• Arun Kale, 22. Runs an online radio and magazine.
• Vidit Chitroda, 21. Runs a production house.
• Aditya Malkani, 18. Runs a youth magazine.

Congratulations to all these young entreprenuers. I am the guy who's featured as "Been There - Doing That" in the story, and I know the hardwork needed to venture on your own!

Here's my interview from this cover story.

Been There, Doing That
Nirav Mehta [28]
Chairman of Magnet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

On winning a national competition as an SYJC student, Nirav Mehta got to visit Bill Gates and peek into the Microsoft headquarters. "I was always a computer geek. But that experience was a turning point," he feels. And as a 19-year-old SYBCom student, in early 1998, he launched India's first electronic magazine, or e-zine: Magnet ('Mag' for magazine and 'net' for internet), a feat marked in the Limca Book of Records. The online magazine included everything from reviews of good websites to celebrity interviews and a humour section.
Its success soon found an investor. And about a year later, Magnet Technologies Pvt Ltd was born. At that time, this global tech company, providing web solutions, was one of the few to use software like Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP in the Indian market. Despite professional demands, Mehta went on to complete a postgraduate diploma in software technology. And a decade after the launch, he now heads a 100-strong team, with offices in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

"I remember rushing to office after college, and the daily struggle to balance both - I couldn't wait to graduate!" he recalls. "I was in a hurry to establish myself. And I know it's the same feeling that echoes within student-entrepreneurs today. It's the drive to do it before someone else does; especially when you have unconventional idea. Besides, when you start early, you can afford to risk everything - maybe even fail a couple of times - before you get it right."

Mehta feels Mumbai's intense competitive spirit is a shaping force. "Many youngsters around you are also up to something. It's an accepted scenario. It eggs you on to get productive. The media coverage of success stories is another instigating factor, urging the question, why not me?" The city's educational institutions and corporate houses also support such moves. "Our professors at business and technical schools have always encouraged students to venture into the market, even helping them fine-tune their products. Mainstream colleges may not be as focused but, yes, even my college teachers at Narsee Monjee were very encouraging when I started out," he says.

And with corporate clients, the city's famed professionalism sees competence override any prejudice over age. "Many corporate firms here let your work speak for you, especially as this is such a technology hub," he believes. "In fact, I may actually trust somebody younger for new ideas in technology, rather than older people with set notions."

Thank you Ornella for capturing my ideas in beautiful words!

The book has a website, and it mentions this for the book:

Upgrade Your Life
The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster Better

a book by Gina Trapani which compiles the best material from Lifehacker.com,
an award-winning daily weblog on software and personal productivity.

I am still to read the book, but it looks really interesting. Even the book website lists many tips from the book.

• Chapter 1: Control Your Email
• Chapter 2: Organize Your Data
• Chapter 3: Trick Yourself into Getting Done
• Chapter 4: Clear Your Mind
• Chapter 5: Firewall Your Attention
• Chapter 6: Streamline Common Jobs
• Chapter 7: Automate Repetitive Tasks
• Chapter 8: Get Your Data To Go
• Chapter 9: Master the Web
• Chapter 10: Hone Your Computer Survival Skills
• Chapter 11: Manage Multiple Computers

This is a must read! High on my list!