While Netflix is not available in Singapore, I do, from time to time, log on to Toggle.sg to watch some local shows. On Android there is no problem. Toggle.sg has an official Android app and I can watch anything they have to offer on their website from it. However, on the desktop they are using Silverlight to stream videos. This can be quite a hassle for someone like me who normally does not use Windows. Thankfully, there is Pipelight!

Pipelight is not a replacement of Silverlight. What it is is best described from Pipelight’s own pages found here, and I quote,

Pipelight is a wrapper for using Windows plugins in Linux browsers and therefore giving you the possibility to access services which are otherwise not available for Linux users. Typical examples of such services are Netflix and Amazon Instant, which both use the proprietary browser plugin Silverlight. These services cannot normally be used on Linux since this plugin is only available for Windows, and the only open source alternative (Moonlight) is lacking support for DRM.

Pipelight helps you access these services by using the original Silverlight plugin directly in your browser, all while giving you a better hardware acceleration and performance than a virtual machine. Besides Silverlight, you can also use a variety of other plugins that are supported by Pipelight. Take a look at the installation page for a complete list.

Pipelight uses a patched wine version to provide a windows environment to the plugins, but you do not need to worry about this as Pipelight will take care of installing, configuring and updating all supported plugins. From the perspective of the browser these plugins will behave just like any other normal Linux plugin after you have enabled them.

To get Pipelight running on Linux you can follow the instructions from their Linux installation page. If you are an Ubuntu user, you can go to this page instead. If you just want to get your hands dirty right away without reading all that stuff, follow the 5 steps below (From a terminal. You know how this works, right?):

1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pipelight/stable
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install --install-recommends pipelight-multi
4. sudo pipelight-plugin --update
5. sudo pipelight-plugin --enable silverlight

The steps above will install and enable all the dependencies for the Pipelight plugin on your Linux desktop. This does not, however, let you start watching Silverlight-enabled video streams on Firefox. Like me, if you were scratching your head after you have completed all the steps above, but you still cannot see the streams on your Firefox browser then run the command below.

• sudo pipelight-plugin --create-mozilla-plugins

The last and final step above is what many sites forget to mention, or you may end up wasting time trying to search for a “fix” when there is none needed at all.

Do not forget to restart your Firefox. By the way, you do not need an extension like User Agent Switcher/Overrider to falsely set your browser’s user agent as Windows for Pipelight to work.

Enjoy streaming!

Officially launched last 11th of February 2015 by the Spanish mobile phone manufacturer BQ.

The Price. €169.90 (around SGD $260)

The good. Well Ubuntu Phone is finally out after what seemed like ages of waiting, and rampant rumors of it not ever coming out after several months of delay.

The bad. It cannot be bought normally at the BQ online store or anywhere else in the world. It is only sold via a series of what they dub as “flash sales”. These flash sales are for limited quantities only and at a limited time (say a few hours and until supply lasts).

Technical Specifications

Screen

Dimensions: 4.5”
Technology: IPS multi-touch screen, 5 capacitive points. Protective Dragontrail display
Layer Resolution: qHD 540 x 960 – 240 ppi (HDPI)
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Viewing angle: 178º

Dimensions and weight

Dimensions: 137 x 67 x 9 mm
Weight: 123 g

Processor

CPU: Quad Core Cortex A7 up to 1.3 GHz MediaTek
GPU: Mali 400 up to 500 MHz

Memory

Ram: 1 GB

Internal memory: 8 GB(Memory available for end use: 5.5 GB*)

*The space available for the user may vary according to the firmware version installed. The remaining memory is allocated to the operating system, cache memory and other system elements.

Battery

LiPo 2150 mAh

Connections

dual micro-SIM
micro-USB OTG slot
3.5 mm TRRS headphone jack (CTIA)
MicroSD slot, up to 32 GB

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth® 4.0
2G GSM (850/900/1800/1900)
3G HSPA+ (900/2100)
GPS and A-GPS

Webcam

Rear: 8 Mpx – 13 Mpx interpolated (Dual-flash and autofocus)
Video resolution: Full HD (1080p)
Frontal: 5 Mpx – 8 Mpx interpolated

Sensors

Brightness sensor, proximity sensor, accelerometer, eCompass, gyroscope

Other system functions

LED notification, microfone, noise canceller

Interface

Operating System: Ubuntu
Languages: Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, German and Italian and many others

Images

* Images and specifcations from Ubuntu.com and BQ.com

rssh is a restricted shell for use with OpenSSH, allowing only scp and/or sftp. It now also includes support for rdist, rsync, and cvs. For example, if you have a server which you only want to allow users to copy files off of via scp, without providing shell access, you can use rssh to do that.

So how I stumbled on rssh was one born out of desperation. One of the servers I am maintaining was having FTP issues. The 3rd party vendor’s script responsible for uploading some data to our client’s DB application (hosted on said server) suddenly started failing to write to the FTP folder for unknown reasons even though the FTP service configuration has been left untouched for over 2 years, and no recent updates were made to it.

I needed a quick solution because the client was getting angry on the failed uploads. I suggested they use SFTP for the meantime, while I found out what was causing the FTP issue. Of course this meant that I would have to allow SSH connections for their user account. I did not want them to be able to log on to a regular shell since they do not really need that.  But how?

Google to the rescue!

As always, when one Googles, one gets answers. Lots! … Not. OK, I am sure there are more solutions but the 2 things that immediately caught my attention were rssh and scponly. I have tried scponly, but it seemed kinda clunky in its implementation. rssh looked better so I opted for this one.

How to use it?

• Install rssh from whatever package manager you have on your Linux. Or perhaps you can compile it from source.
• Open the rssh.conf  file with your favorite text editor. Usually it is at /etc/rssh.conf. Yours may be different.
• By default, rssh is configured to block all users out completely. So depending on your requirements, uncomment the protocols like so:
• Again, open /etc/passwd with your favorite text editor. Find the user you want to use rssh with and instead of giving it bash as the shell put rssh. Below is an example. Replace USER with the actual username:

USER:x:1009:1009:,,,:/home/USER:/usr/bin/rssh

Oh, there are a few caveats about rssh.

1. By the looks of it, the author has not maintained this project for the last 2+ years. Last update was back in 27th November 2012 for v2.3.4. And it appears that was the last.
2. Some versions of WinSCP may have some issues with rssh. Although in my tests I was able to connect fine on SFTP using said client. I’ll have to check this again just to be sure.
3. Lastly, use this at your own risk. This is just a temporary solution for mine. Better to lock down your server such as chroot-ing users, white-listing IPs that can connect to your SSH port, etc. Better to be paranoid and redundant than to be sorry.

P.S. As it turned out, there was nothing wrong with our FTP server after all. The 3rd party server/network from where they were sending the data to us must have blocked off some ports on their side by accident. FTPS was configured to randomly use ports between 5000 to 5100. Their incoming port only allowed 5000.

You open a file using `vim` (or `vi`), let us say /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, and start editing furiously. A couple of minutes later you try to save it only to be greeted with an error saying – “E45: ‘readonly’ option is set (add ! to override)”. What a bummer! You have already modified a lot of things at different lines only to remember that you are not logged on as root, nor did you use the sudo command before you opened the file.

On Ubuntu, this is probably very common. I somehow always get myself into this kind of situation and it is quite annoying.

What to do when this happens?

Well you can do the following:

(1) Save it into a temporary file somewhere that your user can write to, or what word processing app jargon calls “Save As” *.

You can do this easily on vim/vi with the command, `:w /path/to/file_name`

Of course, this means that you would have to replace /etc/apache2/apache2.conf with the one in /path/to/file_name. This works, of course. It only takes a few seconds, or literally a few keystrokes, to accomplish. It also gives you the option to backup the original in case you forgot to do that (which you should always do when editing system configuration files just in case the changes you made catastrophically makes your apache server unusable after the restart).

Or you can do this instead.

(2) To save the file, use this command, `:w !sudo tee %`

The effect of this command on vim are,

• :w – write to file (but of course we already know this, right?)
• !sudo call the shell sudo command
• tee output of the write command on vim redirected to shell tee command
• % just tells tee to use the current file name

In short, you are issuing a `tee` command as root and telling it to write the output of vim to the file currently being edited.

After you press enter. Vim will prompt you with a warning message like the one below.

Either option will save the modifications. But if you plan to continue to edit the file you would want to see reload the one in vim’s buffer, so choose ‘L’ to reload.

Oh, one more thing. Make sure your user is in the sudoers list or this will fail.

And there we have it folks!

Edit:
* “Save As” for vim is actually with the command :sav as opposed to :w, the difference being the former will replace the current buffer with the new file, whereas the latter will keep the original file open.

So finally I succumbed to installing Elementary OS (eOS). A lot of people were saying good things about it too, so hey why not join the proverbial bandwagon? And now I have been using it for close to 3 weeks.

Currently I am using Freya, which is still in beta. It is based off of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Boot time is not too slow and not too fast. Perhaps a bit faster than my Ubuntu 14.04 laptop. Desktop loading time is definitely faster over the course of a few updates. Initially the desktop loading time was a teeny bit long for a distro that claims to be lightweight. It appears to have been fixed. There were a few other glitches and bugs that I noticed. One was when I logged out of a session and go back in, I would be greeted by a black screen. Ctrl + Alt + Fn did not work so I had to do a force Ctrl + Alt + PrtSc + REISUB for a reboot. Locking the session also had the same buggy effect. All of these have been fixed now. Screen brightness control did not work too. Maybe it is not really this OS’s fault but a quick Google fixed that.

Freya is clean and simple. It is fast. It is stable. There are a few quirks but slowly I am getting the hang of it. Say for example the (1) Application Menu. I am not too fond of it but I guess I can’t really hate this distro for that alone.  (2) There is no minimize button on app windows. You have to click the app from the dock to minimize it. But years of using Ubuntu Unity desktop, which does the opposite, has made me prepared. (3) The file explorer default behavior is single-click to open/run folders/files which I really hate. But a quick dconf edit eliminated that. Finally, and this is just a wish, it would be neat if they followed the Ubuntu Lightdm way of changing the background of the logon screen depending on the selected user.

Perhaps the best thing about this distro for me, and I say this with utmost importance, is that I do not see any console text gibbberish on logout/restart/shutdown. The transition from desktop to plymouth/splash is not the smoothest but I jumped for joy when I finally did not see that abomination which has, and still is, plaguing desktop Linux for years. At least I can say the developers of Elementary OS really have an eye for detail.

Would I recommend it for Linux users who are coming from Windows? My answer would be a definite YES. In fact, I think they should be installing eOS instead of Linux Mint. But that’s only after Ubuntu, of course.

Well it is a new Lunar Year and what better way to start it out by re-activating this website on a new host, a new server. I have been busy lately (as always) and have not really been maintaining this site. I forgot to pay for the $10 web hosting service fee for what seems like 2 months, so they decided to suspend my account. Luckily, there are lots of free web hosting services out there. So why pay when I can have it for free?  I get full server root access too!

Happy Lunar New Year to all!  Gong Xi Fa Cai.

.. . so i was sitting for like an hour and a half by the window. nothing out there but clouds and more clouds. again, i was quickly getting bored with the reruns of Just For Laughs Gags and some Tom and Jerry cartoons. the 40-something couple beside me didn’t help much with my boredom. not that I tried to engage them in a conversation. for one, they were talking in some chinese dialect most of the time; and secondly, the lady was hardly interesting (to look at). i always wonder why i am never seated next to a pretty chick.  always I am next to a snoring old, white dude or an auntie. tough luck, eh?! perhaps the only consolation i got during that flight were the bevy of beauties that acted as the cabin crew. most of them looked like chinks (no offense intended). pale-white skin. tiny eyes. curled lashes. slim. young. i think their outfits were purposely made to emphasize their behind. the guys, that included me, were quick to appreciate the way they walked down the aisle, or reached for the overhead compartment to put a bag or two in.

while queueing up for the lavatory, i noticed that one guy was busy rummaging through the oodles of photos in his laptop. hey, i thought electronic gadgets were not to be turned on during the flight?! so after relieving myself i approached  one of the flight attendants. she looked of mixed blood. maybe of Peranakan and Malaysian/Indonesian decent. her skin looked soft with a radiant lightly-tanned glow. her nose was a bit pinched, not pointed, and the nostrils were narrower than your  normal Asian nose. it made her look cute. and to top it all, she had the prettiest big brown eyes. gorgeous! and one that i found the best-looking of them all because she simply stood out. she smelled very good too!

“hi, is it ok if i turn on my laptop? i am bored,” i asked that flight attendant, whose name i cannot quite remember.

she leaned really close towards me, her right ear slightly slanting towards me but still not breaking eye contact, and that smile.. . her smile was captivating.. . “excuse me sir?”, she said. luckily i stood a couple of inch or so taller than her.

“is it ok if i turn on my laptop?” this time speaking slower and making sure i did not eat my words.

“oh, you want to switch on your laptop? is it? yes, it is ok. as long as it is not during take-off or landing,” she matter-of-factly told me, this time with an all-knowing smile.

ok, well it is still a long way to go.. . i glanced at my watch, which told me that it was still half past 5 o’clock, “thank you,” and i just stood there in front of her looking dumb for a few moments, while she nodded and continued to smile at me. LOLz!

so, bored me went back to my cramped seat and excitedly turned on my Compaq Presario laptop. and along the way, i stepped on a guy’s foot. he was cursing but I didn’t understand him because he was speaking in some chinese dialect. hehehe.. . i didn’t do it on purpose. promise!

now what do i do with a laptop with no Internet connection, no movies, no audio files.. . but with just one game called Warcraft III? play DotA (Defense of the Ancients), of course! and that’s what i just did. at over 37,000 feet above the ground and cruising at speeds of more than 600 km/h, bored me was playing DotA. with the retractable food tray as a make-shift desk, Cedega was crunching on DLLs and kicking out on EXE files that made playing DotA on Kubuntu Linux very possible.

Zeus, the Lord of Olympia was already owning by the time the plane began its decent to that tiny island near the southern end of the South China Sea and off the Straits of Johore. at this time, although the Sand King was not playing, nor was the Tidehunter, the game screen was strongly shaking as if in an earthquake. my  hero’s run seemed to be making dips and rolls on the screen. i was so immersed in the game that i didn’t realize that it was the turbulence after all. and so i hurriedly shelved my laptop underneath the seat, as the small plane danced downwards toward the tiny island republic that is famously called the Lion City.

Note: This piece was written over 7 years ago. It is a re-post from the original with a little bit of changes to suit the times. I was on my way to Singapore for a vacation. My first trip to this awesome island republic. Currently living in this tiny island as an expat.

• this is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG).  it is the number one and the biggest in the planet in terms of subscriber base.  yes it is quite addicting to play!
• this is not a Free to Play (F2P) game.  it is paid for, also known as Pay to Play (P2P).  about $15 a month.  relatively cheap if you are earning a steady income.  yet Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind World of Warcraft, has been very succesful on this MMORPG and has raked in tons and tons of gold.. .err dollars (US$).. . off of it.
• being that one of the most successful game company is behind this MMORPG, and might i add, a company known for creating one of the best lores and storylines with their games, World of Warcraft follows the same tradition that Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft did.  be that as it may, it’s never really followed in-game.  it’s just for promotional purposes in my opinion.
• World of Warcraft has been around for over 4 years and it continues to be strong.  while it is losing customers left and right, it is gaining more everyday too.  so while it is at its peak, the game makers are making sure they get the most out of it (read: earn more money!).  hence they are adding in more features to keep the newer (noobs) players interested and happy, while the interest of those who have been playing it for some time dwindles day by day.  but this is a smart scheme.  you can’t expect people to play this forever. sooner or later someone has to stop. they can’t do anything about this, so always keep the noobs happy. they are your major cash earners anyway.
• FOTM or Flavor of the Month is one of the basic ways they keep people interested or continue to play.  say for this month they buff up one class so much to a point that players call these classes OP.  that’s short for Over-Powered.  meaning the class is too strong it would be hard to beat them.  but what really happens is that it’s just a hype.  they only let you think that way when in fact it’s not.  the truth is, casters have been very much OP ever since.  tales and youtubes of warriors dominating are exceptions, not the rule.  any mage or warlock can decimate you with two to three spells.
• while casters being OP is not entirely true, yes, coz pure damage dealing classes are basically favored over hybrids.  so rogues and hunters are as mean-ass as mages or warlocks.  lately the rogues have been buffed up greatly.  hunters have been toned down coz hundreds of thousands of hunter victims have QQed (cried and whined) in the official WOW forums to nerf them.  but that smile on your face won’t last long.  hunters are slowly being re-buffed again to what they once were –  the kings of battlegrounds and the kings of PVE damage.
• perhaps the only one hybrid class that’s continuously being favored while the rest gets the nerf bat are paladins.  yes!  they have it all.  they are the true hero class.  not death knights (DK).   DKs are just FOTM.  it’s clearly a publicity stint to bring back interest to people and bring in new blood (read: more income!).  paladins excel in all areas may it be in PVE (player vs. environment) tanking, healing or damage dealing or in PVP (player vs. player). while paladin healers may not be AOE healers, they are very good with keeping your tanks alive just like any other healing class, no questions about that.  plus who doesn’t love pally power – blessings of might, kings, wisdom, etc.?
• this is World of Warcraft, don’t be surprised if your hybrid class gets nerfed every now and then. that’s perfectly normal.  it’s been happening since the first WOW patch started.  it’s never gonna end.  that is the truth.  accept it or quit.  it’s a WOW cycle.  QQ as much as you want. they will still nerf you next patch or on a “silent fix.” the game developers clearly stated that no hybrid dps should ever be above a pure damage class’s dps.
• don’t whine if game developers don’t like your class.  warriors have been nerfed time and again without any logical discretion.  and to state nerf when the fledgling warrior class is as weak as it was, is really an overstatement. this is World of Warcraft, favoritism is always there.
• World of Warcraft is full of elitism.  only the top ranked guilds and the top ranked arena players get a chance at influencing the game for changes, fixes and balances.  i said chance.  developers might or might not listen to their inputs.  developers of WOW are known to be stubborn and vague to everything they say. not to mention that elitism is already being branded on the pure DPS classes.  eat that hybrids!
• Ghost Crawler (GC) the lead game developer can be equated to a traditional politician.  he says things to appease the customers.  but  he says it in such a way, that nothing is really definite.  he’ll have you assuming things and later on will tell you that he never really said it.  instead you will end up being wrong coz you assumed things.  quite tricky.  but that’s how the game is played, just like in real-world politics.  he will also say things definitely from time to time, and then later on, will just eat his own words.  he’s been known to do that a lot.  and this is not just limited to WOW’s beloved GC, the same thing goes for any of their game developers, and their “blue posters.”
• this is World of Warcraft and magic pawns might anytime.  don’t be surprised if your rogue or DK gets 2-shot by a warlock or mage.  that happens.  you also can’t kill a resto shammy.   but he/she will kill you with a totem while just healing his/her shit out of your damage. rofl!
• Arthas was a paladin.  when he went over to the dark-side, he became The Death Knight.  perhaps when he was a paladin he was a protector of life, truth and justice, so it it normal that paladins should be able to tank and heal and DPS.  but as a death knight, Arthas was only meant to sow chaos across Azeroth. as the Lich King, he is the pure meaning of death, corruption and destruction (read: damage dealer).  death knights were never meant to tank.  Blizzard just wanted another tank to satisfy the bored warriors. plate means nothing against magic. we know that. druids can tank too, so it doesn’t mean plate wearers immediately become tanks.  fix your shit Blizzard or i dare you to make shamans and rogues tank.  rogues can have a riduculous dodge rate and give them an armor buff like droods.  shamans have shields.  if you pigeon-hole plate-wearers and shield-bringers as tanks immediately, why not include shamans as well?
• this is World of Warcraft where everything is about nerfs and more nerfs, your definition of epic will never be the same again.  that is why people love and hate the game at the same time.  be ready for the ride of your gaming life!

Note: World of Warcraft has evolved a lot since I last played the game. My views of the game as what I have written above is purely limited to when I was playing during that time. Back then I was a serious dungeon raider. Started as a Warrior tank in BC. Shifted to full-time DPSer on my Death Knight in WotLK. I stopped because the game burned me out and it was  no longer healthy. I resumed playing a few months after when “PandaLand” came out but only as a casual player doing quests, dailies and BGs. Oh, did I mention gardening/farming too? Eventually had to freeze my WOW subscription yet again. The game is really getting old and boring. It is an endless grind and I no longer have the patience nor the time for that.

**********

chances. these come and go. the very same way that night comes after day. but unlike the regular setting of the sun or the waning of the moon, the two events tightly woven into our lives, chance has to be realized and grabbed.. . or you miss it.. . or you just let it pass you by.

**********

the woman beside me is of blood. visiting her homeland every few years. the land of seven thousand and a hundred islands. the land where so many have died for its so-called freedom. her constant chatter always amuses me. it is amazing how she could still be wide awake and talk a lot, despite her lack of sleep and jet lag.

**********

she was bubbly (that was Joey’s very word). happy. friendly.

it is funny how you try to describe someone else, only to end up describing yourself. is it because that’s exactly how you make others feel.. . just like you?

and how we came to be just an aisle apart on the plane was too good to be coincidence. I would say it was destiny. but only it is not. chances. you have to grab them.

**********

dried mangoes? the bubbly girl wanted to take some back to her family. somehow, word of this tasty and sweet delicacy most locals ignore, has travelled as far as the shores of her native land. it’s that island known for its symbol of a half-lion, half-mermaid creature. in a matter of hours on that same fateful day, she would be going home. she was on her return trip.. . in the same way that i was.. . from vacation.

**********

beads of water trickled down from the air-conditioning vents at the center of the cabin’s ceiling, downwards to the overhead luggage bins, and down the sides of the plane’s interior. from time to time, the water droplets would just fall randomly from the ceiling to anyone or anything beneath it. i got hit twice. my seatmmate, Glen, who had his videocam rolling to record this funny “characteristic” of the plane, got his hand watered with a barrage of free-falling droplets. on defrost.. . like a refrigerator with its thermostat turned to zero. that is the best way to describe that moment. the caucasian guy to my right was ecstatic about this, while i was only slightly amused, and at the same time, terrified at the thought that this thing i was on might just fall apart in mid-air. but an hour or so later, it touched down safe and sound. i always hate flying.

**********

Joey was wearing a skimpy black dress with spaghetti straps. the dress was simply daring and eye-catching. definitely very sexy on her. seated, her dress would hike all the way up her legs. past her knees. from time to time she would, unconcsiously, pull down her dress a little. like doing that would somehow cover the entire length of her legs. embarrased over what she was wearing? funny how she should feel that way (yet still make it look natural) when @ the beach she was clad in the skimpiest 2-piece bikinis most of the time (?).
**********

on the plane coming back from the island-beach-paradise to the international airport was something i will remember for a long time. the plane on the return trip looked better inside. water was not dripping everywhere. there were only a few people on that flight. and the one who was travelling alone.. .

Yet despite that level of customisability, it puzzles me why it does not give an option to bind the Super key (known as the Windows key for most) to the main application launcher as shortcut. If you try to configure just the Super key to trigger the shortcut, it will not work since Super is considered a modifier key. That means you will need  another key(s) to create a shortcut, i.e. Super + F1.  For many Linux DEs, the default application launcher shortcut would be ALT + F1. Ubuntu on the other hand, after they introduced the Unity DE back in 2011, defaulted to make the shortcut with only a Super key press.

Just hitting Super to trigger the application launcher has been a welcome thing for me when I started using Ubuntu’s Unity. While I have gotten used to ALT + F1, if not the mouse, over the years, still the convenience of pressing only 1 key is such a relief.

So to get the Super key to trigger the application launcher on your KDE you will need the ksuperkey application. Thanks to AskUbuntu for this piece of information.

I am not sure if there is a .deb package for this tool, but the steps below should be quite easy even for a newbie to Linux. Before doing the steps below, make sure your application launcher is bound to ALT + F1 keys. If not, then go to KDE System Settings, or you can right click on the KDE application launcher button where an option is available to configure the keyboard shortcut. ksuperkey will always use the ALT + F1 as reference to trigger the action.

Now we begin:

(1) Open a Terminal (Konsole on KDE)

(2) Install the necessary packages that are needed to compile from source:

sudo apt-get install git gcc make libx11-dev libxtst-dev pkg-config

(3) Download the source for ksuperkey.

git clone https://github.com/hanschen/ksuperkey.git

(4) After that, just enter each of the commands below one by one

cd ksuperkey
make
./ksuperkey

Test if  it is working by hitting the Super key. Your application launcher should now magically appear!

Note: If you want ksuperkey to run after you login to the desktop, you will need to add it to Autostart. You can do this under KDE System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Autostart. Just point to the ksuperkey executable in the folder where you downloaded/compiled the application.

For more information about ksuperkey, visit its Github site @ https://github.com/hanschen/ksuperkey

You can find the post where I found this solution @ http://askubuntu.com/questions/107879/bind-keys-to-actions-in-kde-4