Comments for Technical Ramblings

Comment on JOSM on EeePC by crschmidt

crschmidt — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:59:43 +0000

Simon:

It seems like you either intentinoally or unintentionally didn’t read my point about “Why I don’t want a seperate mouse”:

“Part of the reason for getting a laptop is so that i can use it anywhere. Getting a mouse is fine when I’m sitting at a desk, or sitting at a table — but what do I do when I’m curled up in a chair mapping? What do I do when I’m laying in bed in the early morning for hours, too lazy to sit up? With a trackpad (and right click) I can map: I’m not yet aware of any separate mouse that will work well on a down comforter.”

Mac laptops are still one button, for no good reason that I can see. However, that means that ‘Macs have one button mice.’ is true for Mac laptops — and since this is a post about the EeePC (a laptop) comparing to other laptops (Macbooks), I don’t see how your comment is relevant.

Comment on JOSM on EeePC by Simon

Simon — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:54:45 +0000

This is a trivial point, but I cannot understand why so many people think that Macs have one button mice. You can’t even buy a one button mouse from Apple these days!

A visit to the Apple shop today will show that *every* current desktop Mac includes a “Mighty Mouse.” These mice *look* like they have no buttons at all - just a little grey bump on top - but in fact they have:
1) a left-click button (activated by clicking on the top-left);
2) a right-click button (activated by clicking on the top-right);
3) a third button (activated by squeezing the sides)
4) a fourth button (activated by pressing the “grey bump” on the mouse’s top), AND
5) a scroll wheel that can scroll horizontally and vertically (the “grey bump” rotates & clicks!).

Older Macs did come with a one button mouse, but those can be upgraded to a wired Mighty Mouse for US$50 (US$70 for the wireless Bluetooth version). If this is too expensive for you, there’s a Kensington mouse, with two buttons and a scroll wheel, for US$15.

If times are hard and US$15 - US$70 is out of your price range, or you just like Apple’s old one button mice, use the keyboard commands described in the previous posts.

Please! No more posts about Apple’s one-button mice!

Comment on Bluetooth Not Available — Fixed by Decator

Decator — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:46:21 +0000

Here is another possible solution that solved it for me: http://www.windley.com/archives/2007/10/fixing_macbook_pro_sleep_problems.shtml

Comment on OpenLayers Routing, with a little help from my friends by Vishal Agarwal

Vishal Agarwal — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:11:00 +0000

Hey Chris,

Nice stuff here.

I would love to get my hands on this. Is there a document or something that can be used to do this integration you have shown with open layers?

Love to have some feedback on this.

Thanks,
Vishal

Comment on Technocentric Thinking by Bill McGonigle

Bill McGonigle — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:03:16 +0000

Perhaps both are right, and it’s symptomatic of a bulloxed installation landscape. This whole “everybody writing an installer” think is just a waste of time and creates opportunities for disagreement. apt-get/yum/emerge/ports have the right idea; typical users can use the GUI, advanced users can do anything.

Comment on DjangoGraphviz: Visualizing Django Models by brentp

brentp — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:06:09 +0000

good find! i’ve just used this to non-programmers how things will be structured–they liked it better then reading models.py.

Comment on Technocentric Thinking by Morten

Morten — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:54:39 +0000

It’s not like downloading and running GoogleEarthSetup.exe is much different than downloading and running GoogleUpdaterSetup.exe, so I fail to see why they think this is so much smarter or easier on the user? Furthermore allowing the user to select where to install it has been solved by everyone else (enter a default value and let the user hit next) and people are used to that - even the novices.

Comment on Printing Maps; Twin Mountain DRG by JRF

JRF — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:50:23 +0000

Adobe Illustrator will tile large images on what ever paper size you desire.

Comment on Printing Maps; Twin Mountain DRG by Guido (from Boston)

Guido (from Boston) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:18:51 +0000

I hope you check out the AMC online map http://www.outdoors.org/publications/books/wmg/wmgonline.cfm

Comment on Technocentric Thinking by Chad

Chad — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:11:15 +0000

I find it hard to believe that 30+ years of having an “Advanced” button on an install had brought down mankind.. But then, maybe you back up my claim that Google is the new AOL..

Sorry, I still go with the “It was a bad idea”.. and I uninstalled GE from that computer because I don’t want apps on my 10GB OS partition.