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Lately, I have been spending some quality time again with my TC1000 from Compaq.  I purchased mine last year, along with two friends of mine.  We all have taken different approaches to making the tablets work well.

I have been using the tablet off and on since then, with most of the functionality available while logged in, but there have been a few rough edges.  With a tablet PC, how do I log into the tablet while it is undocked from the keyboard?  I have used a great on-screen keyboard/handwriting recognition tool called Cellwriter.  It requires a little training, but the tool is very accurate after training.  There are two instances where a user needs to enter a password, when logging in and when unlocking the screensaver.

• Login: I use Gnome, so GDM is the login manager I prefer on this tablet.  Changing the configuration was fairly wasy.  The configuration file, in Debian, is /etc/gdm/Init/Default.  I found that a single line, added above the final “exit 0″ line, was enough to add the keyboard: “cellwriter –keyboard-only –window-x 170 –window-y 568 &” and restart X by logging out.

• Screensaver: The screensaver was slightly more difficult, requiring two steps to configure within gconf-editor:

1. Enable the embedded_keyboard_enabled key in /apps/gnome-screensaver.
2. Edit the embeddes_keyboard_command to include: /usr/bin/cellwriter –keyboard-only –xid

I could have chosen one of a number of alternative keyboards, but Cellwriter works so well and looks so clean compared to the other tools I had tried.  There are two issues that I have been dealing with with little success…

First, the –keyboard-only flag is in both locations to run the keyboard without regards to the written input.  I expected to need that during login, as GDM has idea who is logging on until after they have logged on and GDM is no longer needed.  However, I did try to use it normally with the screensaver login, and I could not get gnome-screensaver to accept my known-good password while using the handwriting portion of the application.  While I would like to be able to write my password, your entire password remains on the screen in the input box until you accept the input.  So, I will try to get at working sometime, but it probably better that i have to type my password, keeping it hidden from view.

Second, each of the applications would randomly spam one of the input buttons as I was typing on the screen.  This forces me to have to simply hit the enter key and start again.  At some point, I will have to try using the native fpit driver within Xorg.  I might already be, now that I have upgraded my system to the post-Lenny testing version of Debian (Squeeze).  I haven’t otherwise updated the system’s overall configuration in several months.

So, hopefully, I can start getting even more utility out of this again, without the encumberance of this keyboard.  As much as I would like to try one of the new netbooks, like the Acer Aspire Once or the HP Mini 1000, the lack of a touch screen makes those devices a less-attractive form-factor that this handy piece of gear.

Once again, I am a little lacking on posting, but I’ve got some exciting news….

I would like to announce the arrival of the Apple2PC. My first mod, I took an old Apple IIe and swapped out the original components with modern parts. The system includes:

• Via M10000N Mini-ITX motherboard with 1GHz processor, onboard audio, video, and network connections, 256MB DDR RAM, 4 USB ports and 2 Firewire ports on the back, and more…
• 30 GB Maxtor hard drive
• 250 watt low profile power supply

The actual construction only took me about 3 days, once I sat down and did it. The parts had been sitting for more than a year, waiting for me to get motivated…

I plan on writing up something about the construction later. I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep, but I want to get it done soon.

Today, I am finishing up my Streaming Media Server. It will wirelessly share music streams and setting up in-house file sharing for my music.\n\nThe hardware included a Thinkpad 390E from IBM (333 MHz Pentium II, 192MB RAM, 6 GB hard drive) and a D-Link DWL-122 USB Wireless Wi-Fi Adapter. The software I am using is Debian 3.0 stable and the SlimDevices.com SlimServer software.
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My secret modding project was being held up by the lack of a metal part for the back of the machine. Two days ago, Bill (the gentleman making the part for me) came through. I have had some success with grinding and deburring, but I will need two brackets before I can finish the project. I can at least get started, however.

Once I finish with the metalworking, there have to be several holes drilled to attach the backplate to the chassis and to attach the motherboard and other components inside the box.

After that, I can begin assembly, as long as I don’t want to paint the rear panel.

My hardware project is beginning to come together nicely. So far, I have all of the computer components I need, while the exterior case is something I need to work on. Actually, there is a gentleman who is going to help me out by bending the metal pieces I need for the back and the brackets to hold it all together. The only thing I have to do is draw it up so that he knows what I need.

Once I get those pieces, I can assembled everything and then begin to work on the operating system/system configuration. I am leaning towards a dual-boot configuration so that I can have full gaming support no matter which game I want to play.

I have a bit of a secret project that I am working on… it ought to be rather sweet when it’s done. Today, I ordered the parts after dealing with a credit card snafu. Anyway, the parts should arrive in a matter of days, and then I should be able to begin. Of course, I plan on documenting the process and posting it here on my website.

Oh, I love the wireless internet stuff. I just bought a wireless card from Linksys last Thursday, and I got it set up in Linux and an using it right now to surf the 802.11b network at NC State.

Once I got the card added to /etc/pcmcia/config, it bound to the Orinoco driver, and I just pulled up an IP via DHCP. Really slick.

Sitting in the lobby, I an getting about 50KB/s, downloading OpenOffice 1.0.1. Figured it was about time to upgrade.

Next, I will have to update my main box to Debian 3.0 I feel confident enough now that I can get it installed without too much hassle.

This week, I bought a laptop. The specs are not bad for a three year old laptop. I installed Linux on it, anyway. It runs very nicely. I figured I could use it this fall during the three hour breaks between my classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. I will come home for one of those per day, most likely. Two trips is not bad, but three each day is really awful. That will kill the gas really quickly.

This week, I finally bought a laptop, an IBM Thinkpad 390e.

Specs:

• Pentium II – 333MHz
• 128 MB SDRAM
• 6.4 GB hard drive
• Neomagic video chipset
• 14.1″ LCD screen
• Built-in 56k modem (Winmodem )
• Included Xircom 10/100 PCCard NIC

All this for only $350. I knew I would be able to install Linux on it, it was just a matter of how completely. Once again, Mandrake comes through. 8.0 installed flawlessly except for the modem. It even detected the modem; they just didn’t include drivers for it. A quick download from a link from www.linmodems.org solved that problem. The only other things I have done to it are changing the sound system from ALSA (which I despise with a passion) to OSS and to update GAIM from the 0.11pre1 version included with 8.0 to the newest version, 0.59.1. Neither sound driver works terribly well (especially for MP3 playback, but well enough for alert sounds and audio CD’s. Besides, this is a laptop, and I don’t want to kill the battery playing MP3’s or DVD’s (if that were available on this laptop).