Direct Access seems like a nice little utility I could use in my day to day work:

from LarkWare:

"Here's how it works. You define "actions" within the direct access interface. An action can be opening a Web site, launching an application, composing a new e-mail message, or typing out a chunk of text. Each action gets assigned a set of keystrokes as a command - for example, I've got se aliased to the SlickEdit text editor that I use. Now, any time I type se in any application a little tooltip pops up showing the SlickEdit icon and the Direct Access confirmation key (F1 by default, though you can change this). If I hit the confirmation key, Direct Access erases the command keystrokes and launches SlickEdit. If I type anything else - say, "se" turns into "serious" - the tooltip just vanishes without being more than a momentary flash on screen."