If you use Gnome and want to do custom keyboard shortcuts, i.e. write your own script and have it executed when you hit a magic key combination, it is not as easy as going to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" preferences. Apparently you gotta mess around with gconf (The linux registry?!), anyway after a short bit of google hunting I found this mailing list posting: Custom Keyboard Shortcuts in Gnome (Solved). Thanks, Philip Chapman.