• Using an Evoluent VerticalMouse 4 on Linux

    Evoluent’s VerticalMouse 4 is one of the better ergonomic computer mice I’ve used. It’s comfortable, it doesn’t take much getting used to, and the price isn’t unreasonable.

    While it works great on Windows and Mac, the same can’t be said for Linux. The button mappings cause some truly odd behavior, particularly with the scroll wheel.

    Fortunately, there’s a quick fix.

    First let’s play with xinput to make sure the settings are what you want. The following command will print out a list of input devices on your system:

    xinput list

    There should be a line that looks something like this:

    Evoluent VerticalMouse 4 id=10

    The important thing here is the ID number, which in this case is 10. It will vary from one computer to the next.

    Now we can assign a new button mapping. I like to keep it simple, so this will only activate the left and right mouse buttons (on either side of the scroll wheel) and will set the scroll wheel to scroll and act as middle click. If you want a different setup, I recommend reading this and this and playing with these values in xinput until your mouse does what you want.

    xinput --set-button-map 10 1 3 0 4 5 0 0 0 2 0 0

    Note that I bolded the first parameter: as you may have guessed, that 10 is whatever ID you found above.

    Got it working? Good. Thing is, xinput will only temporarily set your mouse buttons. Once you reboot, they’re gone.

    To make these changes persist we need to create an Xorg settings file. First we’ll need the USB ID of your mouse. The following command will list all the USB devices on your system:

    lsusb

    One of them should look kinda like this:

    Bus 004 Device 004: ID 1a7c:0191 Evoluent VerticalMouse 4

    The funny text I bolded is the device ID. (Again, it will likely be different on your system.) Now you can create a config file for your mouse. Note that this works on Ubuntu, perhaps your distro stores configuration files elsewhere.

    sudo touch /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-evoluent.conf
    sudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-evoluent.conf

    Copy and paste the following into the file, remembering to swap out your mouse’s USB ID and the button mapping string (if you changed it.)

    Also, note that the button mapping string does NOT start with the device ID you used above; that was only for xinput.

    Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "Evoluent"
    MatchUSBID "1a7c:0191"
    Option "ButtonMapping" "1 3 0 4 5 0 0 0 2 0 0"
    EndSection

    Easy, right? Well okay, not at all. The lack of a good mouse configuration UI is a nasty oversight on modern Linux systems. Someone needs to make one.

  • Bikes invade furniture store

    Bikes invade furniture store

    San Francisco based Public Bikes is temporarily taking over part of Harrington, that massive (and pricey) used furniture store on the corner of Valencia and 17th.

    To make up for the lack of space, Harrington has opened part of their upstairs space to the public; which makes me wonder if I was supposed to be wandering around up there the other day. That would explain why there’s no prices on anything in that part of the store. Hmm…

    No word on exactly when the bike shop will open, but Harrington’s website says it’ll be sometime this spring.

  • Cyclecide’s Heavy Pedal Crank Art Exhibition

    Bike drum
    Bike art
    Smoking bike baby
    Beer cans.
    Face punching bike
    Dragon bike
    Golden Gate Bridge bike
    Golden Gate Bridge bike

    Nothing says “look what I made for Burning Man” quite like a mutant bicycle. The Heavy Pedal Crank Art Exhibition last weekend was a tribute to such vehicles.

    Above are the crappy iPhone photos I took during my visit; click any image for the full-size.

  • How to setup Rhythmbox 2.95 as an Ampache client

    Ampache, for those who don’t know, is a personal streaming music service. It lets you play your MP3s anywhere there’s an internet connection.

    You don’t need anything special to play music via Ampache, just a web browser. But certain music applications integrate full Ampache support, which means you can browse all your MP3s from within the app.

    On Linux, I use Rhythmbox to play music. There’s an Ampache client for it, but it’s not as easy to install as it should be with newer versions of Rhythmbox.

    Here’s what worked for me.

    1. If you have not done so, on your Ampache server set permission to allow XML RPC (Manual is here for complex setups.) For the most basic setup, log into Ampache as an admin. Click the Admin button, then “Add ACL.” In the box that pops up, enter the following:
      • Name: [whatever you like]
      • ACL Type: RPC
      • Start: 0.0.0.0
      • End: 255.255.255.255
      • User: All
      • Remote Key: [leave this blank]
      • Level: Read

      Now hit “Update.”

    2. Make sure Rhythmbox is not currently running.
    3. Install or upgrade to Rhythmbox 2.95 (or 2.96) if you don’t have it already. For Ubuntu Oneiric, you can grab it off this PPA.
    4. If you don’t have it, install Subversion. Check out the code for the Ampache plugin:

      svn checkout http://rhythmbox-ampache.googlecode.com/svn/branches/for_rhythmbox-gtk+3/ rhythmbox-ampache-read-only

    5. Copy the files.

      cd rhythmbox-ampache-read-only/
      mkdir ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins/ampache
      mv * ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins/ampache

    6. Run the installer.

      cd ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins/ampache
      sudo python setup.py install

    7. Now open Rhythmbox.
      • Go to Edit -> Plugins
      • Check the box next to “Ampache Library”
      • With Ampache Library selected, click “Preferences”
      • Enter your server info here.
      • Now close the dialog and double-click Ampache in the Rhythmbox sidebar.

    It may take some time to sync with your server, but once it does you should be good to go. Personally I find this plugin to work a lot better than the Amache plugins for Amarok and Banshee, but your mileage may vary.

    Updated Aug 2012

  • Ass so fat

    Ass so fat

    Those aren’t very original hashtags. Not going to work well for searching; lern2tweet sticker guy.

    And is it just me, or do the red letters almost seem to say Front 242?

  • Pagoda potty

    Pagoda potty

    Fit for a Japanese emperor, don’t you think?

    (Spotted at 20th and Dolores.)

  • Rad Dog is ready for summer

    Rad Dog: summer's near

    You might recall Rad Dog, the sunglasses-wearing dog who gives advice and quotes 90’s Ice Cube films. Now it appears Rad Dog — like many of us — is ready for summer again after last week’s wind and rain.

    (Spotted at 14th and South Van Ness.)

  • Gangster Smurf

    Clarion St. Copyright violation

    Today’s youth know only of the Smurf’s wild adventures with Neil Patrick Harris in NYC. They’re too soft to be told stories of Smurf-on-Smurf gang violence that broke out over the only Smurf female. Those were tough times in Smurf Village.

    In reality, the young children I saw wandering down Clarion Alley with their parents were learning all kinds of life lessons about human excrement, public urination, and alcoholism. I don’t think they even noticed Gangster Smurf.

  • Stripper pole truck

    Stripper pole truck

    First came the food trucks, then the bookmobiles, the bloodmobiles, and now… the stripper pole truck. Has the truck-ification movement finally gone too far?

    Alas, no strippers were to be found when I took this photo. Seeing as how this truck was in a church parking zone, I can only assume the strippers were at the Sunday service.

    Spotted at Dolores and 16th.

  • Pipe vagina

    Pipegina

    When you think of pipes, you don’t tend to think of female anatomy. Well, that’s where your wrong! Female pipes do exist. The above photo is one spotted in the wild; you can tell it’s female because it has a pipe vagina.

    Spotted at 15th and Capp.