XO, XO, it’s blogging now I go

I got my XO from the One Laptop Per Child project yesterday. It is incredibly cute, but the keyboard is going to drive me crazy fairly soon. It’s too small to touch-type on for me, so I am using two fingers, a technique I thought I’d abandoned years ago.

I’m really impressed with its WiFi – it sees (and connects to) networks that my other computers don’t show at all. I need to upgrade the OS so it will automatically connect to my home network – I’ve been using an open network with a cryptic name, probably not the smartest idea for the long run.

The only real problem I’ve had with it is using Twitter; when i type into the posting box, the display lags many seconds behind. I guess it’s due to the keystroke-deriven Javascript, but that’s just a guess. I’m certainly not seeing any delay typing this posting into WordPress’s browser interface.

I can see how a box like this can make a difference in a child’s life. I’m glad I signed up; I’m not quite sure what I’m gonna do with this one in the long run, though.

Waiting for XO

I ordered an XO laptop through the Give One Get One offer (still open through the end of 2007, for those of you looking for that perfect last-minute deduction). Mine hasn’t arrived yet, but Ed Yourdon’s has, and he’s posted a “first reaction” on his blog.

I’m not at all sure what I’m going to do with the machine once I’ve played with it a bit — I knew it was, by design, slow and memory-limited, so I didn’t plan to displace any of my normal computers, but I did have some hopes that it would be a good machine to give to an older relative who “doesn’t want a computer”. But the description of the keyboard in Ed’s review makes that seem unlikely, though I’m reserving judgment until I can touch it myself.

Extending Jon Udall’s LibraryLookup bookmarklet

I routinely use three different public library systems (Los Gatos, San Jose, and Santa Clara County). Needless to say, searching all of them for a book is a real pain.

But today at lunch, a friend reminded me of Jon Udall’s “LibraryLookup” bookmarklet, which worked wonderfully, but still required three searches to check all three libraries. So I decided to extend the bookmarklet to do the work for me, and here’s the result:

javascript:var%20re=/([\/-]|is[bs]n=)(\d{7,9}[\dX])/i;if(re.test(location.href)==true){var%20isbn=RegExp.$2;void(win=window.open('http://146.74.92.11'+'/ipac20/ipac.jsp?index=ISBNEX&term='+isbn,'Santa Clara','scrollbars=1,resizable=1,location=1,width=575,height=500'));void(win=window.open('http://64.204.128.44'+'/ipac20/ipac.jsp?index=ISBNEX&term='+isbn,'Los Gatos','scrollbars=1,resizable=1,location=1,width=575,height=500'));void(win=window.open('http://mill1.sjlibrary.org/search/?searchtype=i&searchscope=1&searcharg='+isbn,'San Jose','scrollbars=1,resizable=1,location=1,width=575,height=500'));}

I’m sure there’s some easy optimization to get rid of all of the repetition in the JavaScript, but I’m lazy.

What I do wish I could do is have the bookmarklet open the results in tabs instead of popup windows, but I don’t think that’s possible without turning this into a Greasemonkey script or a real XUL plugin, and I’m lazy.

But if someone else has done it….

WorldCat would, of course, be a better solution, but it doesn’t seem to include the Los Gatos library (yet, anyway).

Gutsy Ghastliness

I brought home my old Thinkpad T41p from work for a few days; I had wiped out its disk in preparation for giving it to someone else, and so I had to install a new OS. My first plan was just to install Windows XP, but I didn’t have an OEM disk nearby, so I couldn’t use the license key which came with the machine.

So I decided to go the Ubuntu route. I had a 7.04 CD on hand, which installed with no problems, and then I upgraded to 7.10. That was all in the office, connected to a wired Ethernet.

But I wanted to be able to use the machine on my wireless LAN at home (and elsewhere). Using Network Manager and typing in my preshared WPA key didn’t work. And I tried it many, many times.

Eventually, I found wieman01’s OWTO: Wireless Security – WPA1, WPA2, LEAP, etc., which worked wonderfully well — I am up and running on my wireless right now.

I don’t know how easy it’ll be to set things up to connect to an old WEP network, which was my real goal in bringing this beast home for a few days, but I’m sure it can be done.

I do wish I knew why Network Manager didn’t do the job, though. Suggestions welcome.

Leopard for me

I visited the Apple Store on Saturday, thinking I might come away with a new iMac. But I couldn’t quite convince myself that I needed it.

So yesterday, I went back and bought Leopard, thereby using up almost all of my iPhone rebate (for some reason, the sales guy only applied $99.99 of the $100 to the transaction, and my receipt says clearly that I have one cent left). I took it home and installed it on the two-year-old mini.

There were no fireworks.

I did run into a couple of small glitches, though:

Quicksilver now shows up in the dock; there is rumored to be an update which solves that, but the official site is down, and I’m not willing to load an unofficial copy yet.
My userid fell out of sudoers, so I had to log in to my admin account and put it back.
I had to change my path to pick up the new system versions of Ruby and Python instead of the ones I’d installed into /usr/local/bin in the pre-Leopard days. I should uninstall those versions, too, but I haven’t had a chance to see exactly what’s been superceded.

I also found it necessary to put the Dock back to 2D view; the reflective shelf effect is cute for a few minutes. And I really don’t like Stacks.

But otherwise, it was pretty painless. And I haven’t noticed any loss of performance.

I still might want that new iMac, but the Leopard upgrade isn’t the excuse that I need to justify it.