Callum Macdonald » Fedora-7

Circular Scrolling

Callum — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 12:35:13 +0000

While playing with my xorg.conf file I accidentally turned off the scrolling area of my trackpad. Normally, if you put your finger at the right hand side of the trackpad, you can scroll up and down. If you put your finger at the bottom of the pad, you can scroll left or right.

In figuring out how to resolve the issue I discovered something deeply awesome. Circular scrolling. Now, starting from any side of the pad, I can move my finger clockwise round the trackpad to scroll down, anti-clockwise to scroll up. Just like the iPod. It’s outstanding on long documents where even a scroll wheel becomes tiring.

Gotta love linux baby!

For the techies, here’s the relevant section of my xorg.conf (see man synaptics for more info):

Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad" Driver "synaptics" Option "SendCoreEvents" "true" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "CircularScrolling" "1" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true" Option "SHMConfig" "true" EndSection

I also discovered another great application synclient which allows you to change the touchpad settings on the fly. It also allows you to monitor touchpad input with the -m flag. It’s great to test your settings and figure out what works before committing the changes to xorg.conf.

Update at 4 May 2010: On Ubuntu 9.04 and later this is no longer relevant. Instead enable SHMConfig through hal, see this for more info, and then install gsynaptic.

Treo 680

Callum — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:49:36 +0000

I’m delighted to announce that my brand new Treo 680 arrived today. Much sooner than anticipated. After much eBay research and repeated furious bidding, I finally managed to steal a bargain on a brand new Treo 680 at £130.17 on Friday night.

I debated at some length whether to pay an extra £2 for express delivery. I opted to chose patience instead. Then I watched DHL’s track and trace system with delight as I followed the path of my new gadget from Dublin to Edinburgh in only two days. Wonderful!

It’s working like a charm. One or two sync issues with Fedora 7, but more on that to follow…

Fedora 7 and Skype 1.4

Callum — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 06:22:52 +0000

I upgraded my laptop to Fedora 7 yesterday. As usual, upgrading my OS involves a bunch of new programs, copying some data, restoring my settings, etc, etc. This has been the easiest update yet though, I’m getting the hang of it. Fedora release a new version every 6 months, so I get regular practice!

The most exciting development is Skype 1.4 Alpha. It’s still in Alpha, which means it’s very early stage code, but it’s a HUGE improvement over Skype 1.3 on Linux. I found these instructions whch made the install a cinch. Check out the new interface (I’ve cut out the contact list).