So I’ve had some fixes to Multiclutch that I never really made a post about, and I figured I might as well post some instructions on exactly how to get this all working so people have less issues.
First of all, the latest download link:
here
Instructions on how to use this:
1) Install the original Multiclutch plugin using the original beta installer here
2) Install the latest version of SIMBL which includes 64 bit support from here
3) Install my fork of the plugin by copying the bundle file from my zip file above into ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins or /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins
4) *Important / new step* – remove the original multiclutch input manager from /Library/InputManagers. The latest build supports both 32 bit and 64 bit applications, it is a universal binary.
If you don’t do 4, it is likely that your Firefox / other applications will crash on some gestures.
If you do all of the above, and are still getting crashes, let me know here.
Update: I have made another post with better instructions and a new build.
Another little update to the changes I made to multiclutch.
I realised I could make the input manager load for all applications by using a * target application identifier for the SIMBL properties (so that is being used now).
I have also built the input manager as a universal application, so that it will now work for 32 bit and 64 bit applications, so the old input manager for MultiClutch in /Library/InputManagers should not be necessary anymore.
I have put up the build here:
Multiclutch Universal Build
Let me know how it goes!
I am a huge fan of Multiclutch, and I have been running Safari in 32 bit mode exclusively just so that I could keep using my multitouch gestures. It makes Safari so much more productive for me.
Anyway, I really wanted to get it working under 64 bit, and the source was open! And, it seems that SIMBL now works in 64 bit! So I decided to port over the Multiclutch code which was available on GitHub to work in SIMBL. This was a very rough port as I don’t code in OSX at all, and I just wanted to get it working!
What I modified:
- Added MulticlutchPlugin.[hm] to replace the NSApplication_GESTURES, that implements the SIMBL required load
- Modified Info.Plist to allow SIMBL to load it
Again, it’s very rough, and the developer should clean it up before releasing it. At the moment, it only loads on Safari.
A binary (Intel x64 only) for those who want to test it:
Multiclutch SIMBL Bundle
The bundle has to be copied to ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins as per any other SIMBL plugin.
Tags: multiclutch, osx, safari, x64
I’ve been playing with PS3 Media Server since I got my PS3. It makes the PS3 much better as a media library client, but it still can’t compare to XBMC. Anyway, I was looking around the code for PMS and noticed that there was iTunes support for OSX, but now Windows, so I extended it to work on Windows today.
I created a patch which applies to r358:
iTunes Windows Support Patch
For those who want to test it ASAP:
Download this file:
pms.zip
This zip file contains a “pms.jar” file. To use this, go to your PMS folder, usually C:\Program Files\PS3 Media Server, and rename the existing pms.jar (to pmg.backup.jar) so you have a backup, and then copy the new pms.jar file in.
Now when you restart PS3 Media Server, under General Configuration, you should have a checkbox for “Show iTunes Library”. You can check this, save, and restart PS3 Media Server for it to start loading the iTunes library. Note that it takes a while to load, it took about 10 minutes on my library!
Tags: java, pms, ps3, ps3 media server
Ubuntu 8.10 does not support the Vaio FS series by default, and needs a little bit of hacking to get working. The old fsfn program does not work anymore unfortunately. Some poking around found me this error in my dmesg output everytime I pressed a FN key:
atkbd.c: Use ‘setkeycodes e075 <keycode>’ to make it known.
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xf5 on isa0060/serio0).
This was repeated multiple times. I also found that a file located at /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/fnkey had the right value after a FN key press.
I realised I could combine these to come up with a hack solution that would work. I decided to write a perl script that would be called everytime a fn key was pressed, that would figure out which key was pressed (using the fnkey file) and then do the right thing.
To get the key recognised to start our perl script, we use xbindkeys and we use the setkeycodes command. I made a script that maps all FN keys to keycode 235. I then use this .xbindkeysrc (it must be named .xbindkeysrc in your home directory and you need to install xbindkeys) to start my perl script.
The perl script itself just invokes some scripts that come with ubuntu. At the moment it only supports the volume controls and brightness (as these are what I wanted). The script is located here.
Turns out the ubuntu scripts need root access to run, so I ran the following commands to ensure all executions of the program run as root (I wasn’t too worried about security in this case..)
sudo chmod a+s /etc/acpi/sonybright.sh
sudo chmod a+s /usr/bin/acpi_fakekey
My files use hardcoded paths of /home/prashant so you will have to change those to make it work.
All the files needed can be found here:
http://blog.prashantv.com/files/vaio_fs/
I took a look at the driver (/drivers/misc/sony-laptop.c) and realised that fn keys do not generate any event in the sony-laptop code currently, and seem to only generate normal keyboard events. Unfortunately I don’t have any experience with the linux kernel to figure out how to fix it at the kernel level.
Tags: fn, fs, fsfn, ubuntu, vaio
So I got sick of Outlook eating all my RAM. I have it open all the time during the day, so that I can see when I have new email. However, it also ate are about 140mb of my ram to do this simple task.
I wanted a light replacement. I tried some programs on the net but they used a fair bit of RAM. So decided I would write my own simple client in .NET that did exactly what I wanted.
While I was looking for .NET libraries to access my IMAP mail server, I found
It looked pretty useful, and I realised perl would be a lot easier.. But I wanted a system tray icon when I had new mail.. Some more googling found me..
http://perl-win32-gui.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/docs.cgi?doc=notifyicon
So I decided to play with it. And by the end of it, I got myself a nice simple imap mail checker using perl.
The way it works is not like most mail checkers. It does not run all the time. It only runs, checks if there is new mail, and if not, closes. So the way I use it:
- Task Scheduler starts my script every 3 minutes
- Script runs, and if there is no mail, closes. If there is mail, show a notify icon (for 2 minutes)
- I click the notify icon to open Outlook.
The advantage – when there is no new mail, a new process is started every 3 minutes, and it ends straight away. When there is new mail, perl continues running, which takes up barely any ram. (13 mb last time I checked). I click the icon and Outlook starts up, allowing me to read the mail in my usual client.
So, RAM usage has been minimized, yet I am not missing any features. Files for this can be found
here.
Tags: imap, mail, notify, perl, systray, win32