Multi-touch for Everyone!

Ever sit there are wish your Linux box was a mac? Neither have I, but I do think multi-touch is cool. The following code allows you to do two finger scrolling as well as 2 finger, and 3 finger taps to middle click and right click.

Create this file:

gksudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi

(I prefer nano.)

Use the following code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
<merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" type="string">90</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">3</merge> <!--two finger tap -> middle clickundefined3) -->
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">2</merge> <!--three finger tap -> right clickundefined2) -->
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

Restart hal (Hardware Abstraction Layer -NOT- Home Automated Living):

sudo /etc/init.d/hal restart

[VIA]

BIOS Malware

Uh-oh. Similar to the "Blue Pill" virus, this one modifies your hardware. Once installed to your BIOS, this "virus" is nearly impossible to remove.

The researchers — Alfredo Ortega and Anibal Sacco from Core Security Technologies — used the stage at last week’s CanSecWest conference to demonstrate methods (see slides .pdf) for infecting the BIOS with persistent code that will survive reboots and reflashing attempts.

This is just one more reason why you should never execute a file from an untrusted source. You may find yourself buying a brand new computer.

[VIA]

New iPod Shuffle Talks to You

There has been all sorts of news surrounding the new iPod shuffle. I personally like the concept of a talking iPod but do not like the itsy bitsy teeny weeny controls that are on the head phone cable. Now that there are no buttons on the iPod itself, the device is much cheaper to manufacture. Good for Apple. Not only do they cut costs there, they require special head phones. Now you'll find yourself at the Apple store when your ear buds break instead of the pawn shop down the road. All in all, an $80 talking iPod that holds 1,000 songs is bound to sell.

New Facebook Homepage (It's Here!)

Well, it's here. Just as I announced earlier. It may take some getting used to, but it's definitely more functional. Adding highlights, and simplifying sorting are among the top but nothing beats the ability to hide friends from streams. Don't just take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

Welcome to the new home page
You're looking at the real-time stream of posts from your friends and connections. Control the stream using the filters on the left. To hide posts from friends in this stream, click the "x" in the upper-right corner of a post. Learn more.

24 Solid State Drives in Raid

Wow, this setup is awesome.


Click here to watch the video.

New Facebook Homepage (Coming Soon!)

A few minutes ago a notice appeared on the Facebook homepage...

Changes to the Home page are coming soon
Learn about the new features ahead of time. This is happening soon; check out the home page tour now.

Here's the scoop before anyone else!

Offline Google Calendar

As it turns out, the rumours about Offline Google Calendar were true.

To enable it, you should click on "Offline (beta)" in Google Calendar's header, install Gears if you don't already have it, allow Google Gears to store information on your computer and then wait until the data is downloaded.

It's that simple.

Distributed Computing in JavaScript

I dreamt this up a long time ago, and it's finally become feasible. A couple years back I wrote a script to compute md5 hashes using ActiveX. I would have liked to make it distributed but quite frankly, I did not want to invest large amounts of time. Now, using Google's Map-Reduce this concept is quite simple to implement.



A distributed JavaScript solution to my md5 concept can be found here. As well, you can review the theory and some sample code here.

[VIA]