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Saturday, 08 September 2007

Finished mapping the keys on my UK Apple keyboard in X.org. It's a lovely keyboard, I'm very happy with it. Unfortunately, the mapping is slightly out-of-date on Ubuntu Feisty (and in Freedesktop's CVS).

I've created #12369, so hopefully the updates will get into upstream soon. However, in the meantime, here're instructions:

  1. As root, type:
     cd /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols
    wget -O - http://www.bleb.org/software/xkeyboard-config-apple_pro.patch \
    | sudo patch
  2. Go to System > Prferences > Keyboard > Layout.
  3. Choose Apple for the Keyboard model.
  4. Add United Kingdom > Macintosh to the Selected layouts and move it to the top.
  5. Untick Separate group for each window.
  6. Go to Layout options and check if you're impacted by #7430.

Wednesday, 05 September 2007

A senior appeals' court judge thinks the current situation with the National DNA database is indefensible (correct) and therefore the only conclusion is to put everyone on it (incorrect). Let's, for the sake of argument, assume he's not going to the logical extreme to make the counter-point.

Many people were emailing Today genuinely asking what the fuss was about. Apart from it being a national ID DB by the back door, DNA fingerprints are unique to one in a million. Which means for every crime committed in the country, there are 60 people who'll match the DNA found. And, of course, it can be faked (apparently) by injecting yourself with different blood, yet in both these cases it will be viewed as infallible.

Apple have announced a revamp of their entire iPod range. The new iPod Touch, effectively an iPhone without the phone bit looks interesting. It'd be especially interesting if it had Bluetooth (headphones, sync and Internet-access) and runs the same UNIX-like OS as the iPhone. I think the latter's a no-brainer, but there's been no mention of the former. If it did, it'd be the consumer's ideal implementation of the Nokia N800. Remember, the "N" prefix means "multimedia" which is the justification for not having PIM or other business-focused applications on it, as that'd make it the "E800".

And, on the same day, Palm cancel their Psion netBook-like Linux-running Foleo. More thoughts on my Maemopeople blog.


Saturday, 01 September 2007

Put stalkmybrother.com live after a few hours of more fighting with CSS in IE6. Suggestions welcome; I recommend you buy a T-shirt (or, if you prefer, a thong).

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