Clariti: November 2006
2006/11/13
Caps lock = Back space
What's the last time you really used your Caps lock key? And how many times since that time did you hit it by accident, giving you more letters in capitals than you ever wanted? For me the answers were "probably never" and "too many to count". This was a reason to take action.
I spend a lot of time using a computer. Some time ago it occurred to me I should do everything possible to make the way I use computers as pleasant as possible. One thing I did was switch to the Dvorak keyboard layout. Another is typing on a Microsoft Natural Keyboard -- it saves my hands from taking on really awkward positions while typing. The new 4000 model removed the two real flaws the previous models had: 1. the front side is elevated so your wrists bend down slightly instead of up (which is supposed to be BAD, BAD, BAD!) (hey, that's a phrase I could have used my caps lock with!). And 2. the Insert/Home/Delete/End/PgUp/PgDn keys are where they should be.
So when the thought about the Caps lock key popped up, I wouldn't rest until I had improved the situation. One option would be to disable the key altogether. Not very nice for a key in such a prominent place. Another (commonly used, as I found out) option is to let it function as a Control key. Since my keyboard already has two of those, also not very useful. A better use for the Caps lock key is to let it be a Backspace. The Backspace key is one I use a lot... I want to type fast, and usually I make a lot of typos so I'm constantly hitting Backspace. And the Backspace key is not in a good place to use frequently, my right hand either has to move a whole lot to the right (not good), or bend to the right (even worse) to hit it.
This is how you go about to make your Caps lock key into a Backspace. In Windows, save the following bit to a file named "capsbackspace.reg", double-click it as an Administrator user and reboot. The change is system-wide, so anyone else using your computer might be surprised when they WANT TO WRITE AN EMAIL IN ALL CAPS.
These days I use Ubuntu Linux on my primary system. In a desktop Linux version running X, the following two lines will do the trick. Add them to a small shell script and have this started everytime you log on.
Under Linux in text mode it's a bit more complex. This worked for me in Debian:
Where it says Caps_Lock, replace it with Control_H or BackSpace. Save the file.
The keymap is now loaded, test whether it works. If it does, reboot to verify whether the mapping is indeed applied on every boot.
Apparently I'm not alone in this. Join the crusade and free yourself of Caps lock! :)
I spend a lot of time using a computer. Some time ago it occurred to me I should do everything possible to make the way I use computers as pleasant as possible. One thing I did was switch to the Dvorak keyboard layout. Another is typing on a Microsoft Natural Keyboard -- it saves my hands from taking on really awkward positions while typing. The new 4000 model removed the two real flaws the previous models had: 1. the front side is elevated so your wrists bend down slightly instead of up (which is supposed to be BAD, BAD, BAD!) (hey, that's a phrase I could have used my caps lock with!). And 2. the Insert/Home/Delete/End/PgUp/PgDn keys are where they should be.
So when the thought about the Caps lock key popped up, I wouldn't rest until I had improved the situation. One option would be to disable the key altogether. Not very nice for a key in such a prominent place. Another (commonly used, as I found out) option is to let it function as a Control key. Since my keyboard already has two of those, also not very useful. A better use for the Caps lock key is to let it be a Backspace. The Backspace key is one I use a lot... I want to type fast, and usually I make a lot of typos so I'm constantly hitting Backspace. And the Backspace key is not in a good place to use frequently, my right hand either has to move a whole lot to the right (not good), or bend to the right (even worse) to hit it.
This is how you go about to make your Caps lock key into a Backspace. In Windows, save the following bit to a file named "capsbackspace.reg", double-click it as an Administrator user and reboot. The change is system-wide, so anyone else using your computer might be surprised when they WANT TO WRITE AN EMAIL IN ALL CAPS.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,0e,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00
These days I use Ubuntu Linux on my primary system. In a desktop Linux version running X, the following two lines will do the trick. Add them to a small shell script and have this started everytime you log on.
# Remove bindings for Caps lock function
xmodmap -e "clear Lock"
# Add binding from Caps lock key to Backspace function
xmodmap -e "keysym Caps_Lock = BackSpace"
Under Linux in text mode it's a bit more complex. This worked for me in Debian:
cd /etc/console/
gunzip boottime.kmap.gz
joe boottime.kmap
Where it says Caps_Lock, replace it with Control_H or BackSpace. Save the file.
gzip boottime.kmap
loadkeys boottime.kmap.gz
The keymap is now loaded, test whether it works. If it does, reboot to verify whether the mapping is indeed applied on every boot.
Apparently I'm not alone in this. Join the crusade and free yourself of Caps lock! :)
Let your mobile lead the way
Lately I've been looking for nice software for my SonyEricsson K700i. It's not a high-end phone, but it runs Java apps and it has a nice color screen. So I figured there must be cool stuff out there. And there is! A good site to start is GetJar. I found Wayfinder Earth there, downloaded it and sent it to the phone via Bluetooth. Unfortunately it didn't work -- the application would start, but end up in an endless "Loading..." screen. Then I found out it wasn't supposed to work on the K700i. Bummer.
So you can imagine how happy I was to find out that Google Maps has a mobile version, which does work on the K700i. And very well so. I will never be lost again, given GPRS reach is near :). Typing the address of the place you're in and waiting maybe 30 seconds for the map to load entirely is enough to let your phone lead the way. Browsing the map is fast enough with GPRS (faster than you can walk, and probably faster than driving a car). It has an easy and simple function to get directions from A to B. So my advice is this: get a nice data bundle with your mobile subscription, browse to http://www.google.com/gmm/ with your phone and download it.
The only thing that worries me is that not only does Google know every keyword I search for, every site I visit and the passwords I use on them, it now knows all places I visit as well. Maybe I should install a camera in my home and broadcast it 24/7 on Google Video, to take away all doubt that there is anything left Google doesn't know about me.
So you can imagine how happy I was to find out that Google Maps has a mobile version, which does work on the K700i. And very well so. I will never be lost again, given GPRS reach is near :). Typing the address of the place you're in and waiting maybe 30 seconds for the map to load entirely is enough to let your phone lead the way. Browsing the map is fast enough with GPRS (faster than you can walk, and probably faster than driving a car). It has an easy and simple function to get directions from A to B. So my advice is this: get a nice data bundle with your mobile subscription, browse to http://www.google.com/gmm/ with your phone and download it.
The only thing that worries me is that not only does Google know every keyword I search for, every site I visit and the passwords I use on them, it now knows all places I visit as well. Maybe I should install a camera in my home and broadcast it 24/7 on Google Video, to take away all doubt that there is anything left Google doesn't know about me.
Synchronizing bookmarks revisited
It's been over two years since I blogged about synchronizing your bookmarks in Firefox. Boy, does time fly!
Since then, the bookmarks synchronizer extension wasn't particularly well maintained. About a gazillion different versions popped up, because every new Firefox version disabled the previous one and a new person would be clever and release an updated bookmarks synchronizer. Which was okay, but required some searching everytime a new Firefox version appeared. Another thing I began to dislike about the bookmarks synchronizer was the fact that it took 15-20 seconds to download my bookmarks and update them everytime when I started Firefox. At some point that gets annoying.
As the attentive reader might have noticed the previous paragraph is written in the past tense. Because when I heard about Google Browser Sync I tried it immediately. And it works so well I installed it at all my systems two minutes later. It's a blessing. Not only does it synchronize your bookmarks transparently and without errors, it also synchronizes saved passwords, cookies, browsing history and open tabs. And if you're afraid uncle Google will read your passwords, don't be, because they're all stored encrypted. And I hope they don't have an uber-unlock-key ;).
Another less well known cool tool for synchronizing bookmarks is BookmarkBridge. This tool can synchronize bookmarks between various browsers, including Mozilla browsers, Internet Explorer and Konqueror. It's not a browser extension so synchronizing is a manual action, and BookmarkBridge doesn't keep them up to date. But still it's pretty useful to have those frequently visited URLs at your fingertips in those non-primary browsers. It's open source and platform independent, with installers for Windows and Linux. It's in the debian packages as well so all it required was 'sudo aptitude install bookmarkbridge'.
Since then, the bookmarks synchronizer extension wasn't particularly well maintained. About a gazillion different versions popped up, because every new Firefox version disabled the previous one and a new person would be clever and release an updated bookmarks synchronizer. Which was okay, but required some searching everytime a new Firefox version appeared. Another thing I began to dislike about the bookmarks synchronizer was the fact that it took 15-20 seconds to download my bookmarks and update them everytime when I started Firefox. At some point that gets annoying.
As the attentive reader might have noticed the previous paragraph is written in the past tense. Because when I heard about Google Browser Sync I tried it immediately. And it works so well I installed it at all my systems two minutes later. It's a blessing. Not only does it synchronize your bookmarks transparently and without errors, it also synchronizes saved passwords, cookies, browsing history and open tabs. And if you're afraid uncle Google will read your passwords, don't be, because they're all stored encrypted. And I hope they don't have an uber-unlock-key ;).
Another less well known cool tool for synchronizing bookmarks is BookmarkBridge. This tool can synchronize bookmarks between various browsers, including Mozilla browsers, Internet Explorer and Konqueror. It's not a browser extension so synchronizing is a manual action, and BookmarkBridge doesn't keep them up to date. But still it's pretty useful to have those frequently visited URLs at your fingertips in those non-primary browsers. It's open source and platform independent, with installers for Windows and Linux. It's in the debian packages as well so all it required was 'sudo aptitude install bookmarkbridge'.
