52: Telling GNOMEs What To Do
2009-04-05
Download MP3 For Geekons Episode 52
Pop-Up: GNOME Do
- Like launchy (reviewed on Episode 25), GNOME Do is a simple way to launch apps and perform functions with your keyboard.
- Simply press the keyboard shortcut you've assigned to it, and a helpful box of awesomeness opens up ready to do your bidding!
- If it isn't obvious from the name, this app runs in the GNOME desktop environment in Linux or Unix.
- I have mine set up to do the basics, like launching applications, but I also have it configured with my default twitter account.
- I can send tweets from my twitter.com/oneseventeen account by simply pressing the shortcut key, typing tweet, pressing tab, then typing in whatever I'd like to twitter about.
- I've also noticed that if I start typing quite a bit of text, it automatically thinks I want to tweet. So posting to twitter is even faster than ever.
- Enabling new plugins is even easier than launchy, although I still love launchy for all of my windows boxes.
- This is one of the few apps I now install on all of my Linux boxes that isn't included by default.
- 5 out of 5 stars, lightweight, useful, and open source. What more could you ask for?
Geek-Tweak: Quick Tips #1: Basic Web Design
- Tons of people have tons of opinions about basic web design... but not all of them are right.
- I'm always right, and I have opinions about basic web design, therefore my opinions on basic web design are right, so I'll share them and you should carry them out!
- Here's some bad ideas, if you care about quality:
- Use a Template
- Use a program that "does the graphics for you"
- Design navigation elements in flash
- Tell yourself you don't need to understand HTML
- Confuse print, video, and web media.
- Use Tables instead of CSS, since some browsers from the 70's don't understand CSS.
- Use non-semantic ID's in your CSS, like "center", "left", "right", etc.
- Here's some good ideas:
- Draw out the rough sections on a piece of paper (header, footer, menu, body, etc.)
- Use web authoring software, like Dreamweaver, in split view, so you can see the code and the preview at the same time.
- Learn and understand HTML
- Research Web Accessibility
- Write the code in the order you would like it read if it were printed out with no graphics or cool layouts. (you know, like a blind person is going to be forced to read it with their screen-reading software)
- Don't use Tables for layouts, use them for tabular data.
- Use semantic ID's, like "navbar", "main", "content", "footer", "header", etc.
- Clean up your code, you should be able to look at the HTML of a page you created and understand what's going on "under the hood".
- Focus on the content... if your website has more HTML than content, you may want to try a different approach.
View-Source: CHRISTIAN Do
- Joshua has just been given the authority to manage the Israelite website. (He was helping Moses out in the past with simple stuff, but now he's the webmaster.)
- Because this website is important, God wants to make sure it is done properly, so he reminds Joshua of the W3C standards, plus general web accessibility guidelines.
- God tells Joshua , "While you are coding, do not let these standards depart from your fingers, but think about them all the time so you will be careful to code properly."
- God reminds him that adhering to the standards will ensure the website is successful, and therefore he is successful.
- He then asks Josh some retorical questions to get him focused on the new tasks at hand.
- "Haven't I told you to be strong and courageous? Don't be scared or discouraged, because the LORD your God will be with you everywhere you go."
- This is more than a pep talk, this is God's logic, command, and encouragement condensed into three simple sentences.
- The logic is, if we meditate on God's word day and night we will be equipped to put it into practice as soon as we get the chance.
- The command was to both meditate on God's word, but also to be strong and courageous. I think that has a lot to do with our faith in God after reading and meditating on His word. Do we trust Him to do what He says He will? Or are we scared because we think maybe God isn't going to deliver us?
- The encouragement is that God will be with us wherever we go. I
- imagine it is probably some pretty good advice to be obedient to Him since He will be around all the time, plus it is pretty cool knowing that whatever situation we are in we have the ultimate comforter and supporter with us.
- I used to stop meditating on God's word because I didn't have the time... then I cut out TV and was amazed at how many hours were suddenly available to studying God's word.
- If we want to be successful, we need to set God's law as our top priority and start being confidently obedient.
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