emacs cheatsheet

A few days ago I created an emacs cheatsheet to help me get to know the monster of this editor better and try and familiarize myself more with the environment. Here's the link to that.

A google search reveals a few others which are much better than mine. I personally liked the one created by Peteris Krumins which is avialable for download as a pdf as its more comprehensive than mine.

Currently reading Pro Web 2.0 Mashups Remixing Data and Webservices

Its a great buy and a recommended read for anyone who wants to get a handle over web 2.0 and how it all operates especially mashups.

The reviews on the amazon page tells it all. There is so much information that is inside, it shows easily the author has done a tremedous job of researching well for writing this book.

iMacros extension for Firefox

Like all Firefox faithfuls, occasionally I go to the firefox addons page and check out new extensions . There's one called iMacros which I thought of trying though having installed it quite some time back( lazy that I am ) . While playing with it I ran a few demos that come alongwith it and then thought of creating one of my own - why not one which will log me into gmail and send an mail for me .....how lazy can someone get but hey thats one of things macros exist for, dont they

So fast forward and then ater a few trials and errors , this is the macro I came up with ..its rough round the edges but atleast does the job

If you want to give it a shot, please install iMacro in your firefox or IE ( I tried this in FF 3.1b2) )

-------------------------- Copy the macro from here below -----
VERSION BUILD=6111228 RECORDER=FX
TAB T=1
URL

GOTO=https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=mail&passive=true&rm=false&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fmail.googl

e.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3Dhtml%26zy%3Dl&bsv=zpwhtygjntrz&scc=1&ltmpl=default&ltmplcache=2
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=ACTION:https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLoginAuth?service=mail ATTR=ID:Email

CONTENT=your_mail_id_goes_here
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:SUBMIT FORM=ID:gaia_loginform ATTR=NAME:signIn&&VALUE:Signin
FRAME F=4
TAG POS=1 TYPE=SPAN FORM=NAME:NoFormName ATTR=ID::r3
TAG POS=1 TYPE=TEXTAREA FORM=NAME:NoFormName ATTR=NAME:to CONTENT=recipient_mail_id@gmail.com
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=NAME:NoFormName ATTR=NAME:subject

CONTENT=stickinyoursubject
TAG POS=1 TYPE=SPAN ATTR=class:eoel
TAG POS=1 TYPE=TEXTAREA FORM=NAME:NoFormName ATTR=NAME:body

CONTENT=Thiswilllbeyourmailbody
TAG POS=2 TYPE=B ATTR=TXT:Send
TAG POS=1 TYPE=A

ATTR=CLASS:ea7ou&&TXT:Signout&&ID::pr&&HREF:https://mail.google.com/mail/?logout&hl=en

-----Till above this line ---------

Once you have copied, name it whatever you like but give it a .iim extension or else its not an iMacro file . Place it in the C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\iMacros\Macros or the equivalent in linux where all the other iim files exist . Then edit this file to fill in your and the recipient email ids and you are done. Please let me know if this works for you .

For further help, you can go to the forums or to get started with iMacros, head over here :

How true is this

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing; with improper knowledge of a function or a method or a class or even a whole language(yeah,its true for javascript also by which I mean,the experience can be more or less similar as in any other language even though the learning curve is fairly less steep unlike say lisp), you cannot truly harness the full power of it ..trying to use that limited knowledge in writing codes would be a frustrating experience ..

this is not to imply that you keep on learning and procrastinate writing code until you have almost achieved a super solid understanding.. Understandably, you need to write codes, test out stuff , put things into being whats in your head all the while that you are learning . Just remember, whatever simple you wish to do with a particular knowledge that you have, have a solid grounding of that so that the experience is rewarding and not frustration ..

I don't need to say this but I will .. if its rewarding,you will feel a sense of pride and achievement, you will feel the hunger to do even more great things, so learn more and and do more taking you to higher plane ..That's the virtuous cycle .. if its not rewarding , you might even end up abandoning your whole learning exercise and give up on that.

I just realised how this wisdom from yore is so relevant to us coders .