Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Adding a Windows Style Ctrl-Scroll Zoom In/Out Features

Freaking XO doesn't respond to the Grab keys. Anyone know how I can get it to zoom in and out of when viewing docs if I do something like grab key and rub up/down on the touchpad? Please.

HOWTO Connect a Regular USB Keyboard to the XO

"Connecting" physically is simple. How do you get the XO to respond to it?

Opening an Arbitrarily Located File on the XO

Let's say I put the file in ~/docs. How do I look at it? Please inform.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Viewing a PDF File on a USB Disk with the XO Laptop

Plug the flash drive in.

From the welcome screen, click the Journal icon to the bottom of the XO icon in the middle.

Now, in the new screen, at the botom left, you see the journal icon again, and to the right of that, you see a flash drive icon. Hover on that.

You will see a menu pop up. The lone option is "Unmount" and the name of the menu is the name of the media. In my case, it happens to be "USB DISK".

Click the icon.

This brings up a new view where all the files are listed. The look is really slick and simple.

You can click the icon corresponding to your file. Of course, extensions are not available - so the type of the file is hidden - which actually is the way things really should be.

This brings up a preview screen. Then, at teh top right, you will see the solid-rect-in-circle button that you can hover on to generate a menu opton to read the file.

Simple - in about 20 steps, you can admire your PDF file:)

Be warned, the OS seems pretty bug ridden, so even after you take out your flesh drive, if you didn't "unmount" it, Journal still thinks it exists and lets you try and open the files it's seen before - so those new Apps that start up will remain in the "Starting..." mode and can't even be shut down. Yuck.

XO Laptop Wireless Networking

Anyone have a clue which 802.11 protocol the laptop is capable of? Is it b or g or n? I've heard 's' mentioned. But what else? The information they've put on the website is so crappy I can't find a darn thing.

HOWTO Install Java on the XO

Some know I prefer to call it the OX laptop since it's pretty stubborn. Anyhow, try this:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/RestrictedFormats#Sun_Java

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Add a USB Port to Your Car

Then, you should be able to stick a stick in, and the computer (which is a stripped down laptop - to which you connect a monitor when you want to debug) that runs off the battery scans it and looks for the newest file called directions*.txt and prompts you with the first direction. You've set up some arrow keys somewhere within reach - either on the steering wheel or the dashboard and when you click the right arrow, you hear the next direction and if you press the left arrow, it takes you back to the previous one.