Monthly Archives: May 2010

Why Does One Blog?

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Perhaps she blogs because she wishes to communicate ideas. Perhaps he blogs because he wishes to express himself. Perhaps all of us blog because blogging offers us a means of propagating thoughtful feelings, which can be shared, archived, laughed at, or even scrutinised with a retrospectoscope.

I am beginning to get a better sense of why I blog. Ideally, I would like to side-step essentialist sentiments by operationalising my concept of blogging, but am unable to do so because of its subjectivity and personal meaning.

Why, then, do I blog? I blog because I want to look back at myself years from now and witness growth; because I enjoy sharing thoughts that may not always be present at the dinner table; because I actively define who I am and what I believe in.

Why do you blog?

ThinkPad Middle Mouse Button Scroll – Ubuntu Linux

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This solution applies to Ubuntu LInux Natty Narwhal 11.04, Maverick Meerkat 10.10, and Lucid Lynx 10.04.

Update (Oct. 17, 2010): Thanks to the comments below for an updated solution for Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat 10.10. If you are upgrading from 10.04, insert the following into Terminal:

sudo mv /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf

If this sounds like news to you, then follow the detailed instructions below, except change step one as follows:

Step 1. Create a new file

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf

***

It’s that special time of year again! I have just finished upgrading my trusty ThinkPad T61 to the latest version of Ubuntu Linux — 10.04 Lucid Lynx. This edition of the operating system no longer employs the udev method of emulating scrolling. With the following instructions, one will be able to scroll with the middle button both vertically and horizontally:

Step 1. Create a new file

sudo nano /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf

Step 2. Insert the following

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
MatchProduct "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Step 3. Save file, restart computer, and enjoy!

Please comment and let me know whether this solution worked for you, or if you have alternative methods.

By the way, I’m not able to get the fingerprint reader working. Has anyone had any luck with it? Any tips to share? *Update: Fingerprint GUI seems quite effective.