HCMC Blogs

...with the Dean re HCMC.

Shaun Macpherson will be joining the project this week, in an editing and copyediting capacity.

His work for the project is part of a directed study course that he and Susan Doyle have constructed, with input from Martin and I, as part of the English Department's Professional Writing program. This is an unpaid position, and Shaun is working for course credit. Shaun will work/learn for 6 hours per week under my guidance and direction, until sometime in April--roughly, the semester's end.

We look forward to his contributions! To start, he will incorporate Frank Leonard's latest batch of biographies from 1848; he will then move on to write, edit, and code abstracts.

Discussed opening remarks, and dates. I need to get a quote for 50 t-shirts, 25 medium and 25 large.

Note: I am going through the Myths on Maps database in order of book-chapter-section in a linear fashion and identifying any errors, omissions, and points of discussion. I will not be editing the database at this time.

1.9.16 - Cretheus is mortal father of Aeson (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Polymede is daughter of Autolycus (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Tiphys is son of Hagnias (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Orpheus is son of Oeagrus (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Idas and Lynceus are sons of Aphareus (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Amphiaraus is son of Oicles (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Atalanta is daughter of Schoeneus (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Admetus is son of Pheres (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Acastus is son of Pelias (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Ancaeus is son of Lycurgus (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Iphiclus is son of Thestius (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Euryalus is son of Mecisteus (add?) "character/character/citation"
- Peneleos is son of Hippalmus (add?) "character/character/citation"
- ID204, Pronax is mortal father of Amphithea (doesn't belong in 1.9.16) "character/character/citation"
- ID234, Argus (3) is an Argonaut (but in char/char/cite it says Argus (1), what is the difference between Argus 1 and 3?) "group/character/citation"
- ID246, Idmon (1) is an Argonaut (but he is not mentioned in 1.9.16, please clarify) "group/character/citation"
- ID577/578, Jason lives in Iolcus (should we include Cretheus, who was king before Pelias?) "event/character/citation"
1.9.17 - ID205, Adrastus is mortal father of Argia (doesn't belong in 1.9.17) "character/character/citation"
- Add a new group "Lemnian women"? Hypsipyle is a Lemnian
- ID625, Lemnian capture women from Thrace (is it supposed to say Lemnian men?) "event/character/citation"
- Add new event "Argonauts have intercourse with Lemnian women"?
1.9.18 - ID206, Adrastus is mortal father of Aegialeus (not mentioned in 1.9.18) "character/character/citation"
- Add a new group "Doliones"? Cyzicus is king of the Doliones
- ID631, Argo goes among the Doliones, slaughter (should this be clarified to say they accidentally killed the Doliones because at night they mistook the Argonauts for the Pelasgian army?) "event/character/citation"
- ID214, Argo goes among the Doliones, slaughter (the location is Doliones, but these are the inhabitants, should this say "Nowhere" instead?) "event/place"
1.9.19 - ID207, Adrastus is mortal father of Cyanippus (this doesn't belong in 1.9.19) "character/character/citation"
- According to Demaratus, Hercules sailed to Colchis (add event?)
- ID217, Polyphemus founds Cius (location is Cius, but text says Cius is in Mysia, should this be the location instead?) "event/place"
- ID220, Hercules left behind by the Argo at Aphetae (location is Aphetae, but text says Aphetae is in Thessaly, should this be the location instead?) "event/place"
1.9.20 - ID208, Pheres is mortal father of Lycurgus (doesn't belong in 1.9.20) "character/character/citation"
- Add event "Pollux kills King Amycus in a boxing match by a blow to the elbow"?
- ID221, Argonauts go to the Land of the Bebryces (the location is Land of the Bebryces, should it be "Nowhere" instead?)

I've finally gotten around to rebuilding onion and carrot with my latest script. No log in problems yet, but OOo may still be flaky. One user has had problem with insufficient user rights when saving documents. Investigating.

I'm working on an updated version that includes stuff like setting up a printer by default, providing a choice of lab or developer build (extra apps, no ldap login).
I've got the printer going by creating a /etc/cups/printers.conf file with info on the printer (make, model etc.) and putting a pre-made PPD at /etc/cups/ppd/HCMC.ppd. Finally, printers.conf needs to be chgrp'd to group "lp" and the cups service needs to be restarted.
I'm now working on making it a bit more informative (echos out what is about to happen, provides choices etc.)

EdeR requested a virtualhost for this project in January 2011.
I had one set up, but due to an htaccess file (presumably for development)
there were some issues. Here's how they were resolved:

1) changed the name of the viewer from viewer.php to index.php
2) edited viewer.php to redirect to mallarme.uvic.ca to catch hits to the old URL.
3) commented out the line - suPHP_ConfigPath /u/lang02/www/fall_07/coupde/penultima2/
4) edited the (new) index.php file: $this_webpage_file_name = "index.php" (was viewer.php)
5) removed links to apparently obsolete js files:
<script type="text/javascript" src="../script_files/javascript/ajax_calls.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="phrases.js"></script>
** note that, while referenced, these files were not accessible to the final
version of this application and therefore threw 404s
6) removed one of the final divs (came immediately after the <div style="clear:both;"></div>):
<div class="roundbottom" style="background-color:#e8e8e8">
<img src="../image_files/bottom_left.gif" alt="" width="14px" height="14px" class="corner" style="display: none" />
</div>
** note that the lack of any file called bottom_left.gif in the entire development tree led me to believe that the entire div was superfluous.

general edits on WS and HispItal sites (very basic - editing links and uploading docs etc.)

Dealt with mostly admin-type stuff the last week:
* Filled in and filed forms for HRIS regarding new hire.
* Took 4 candidates from English on the HCMC tour.
* Met ER, EF and AC regarding projects
* dealt with timesheet submissions, payroll errors, departmental misunderstandings regarding same, ad nauseum.

ANOTHER UPDATE: bizarre! When I first power-up and log in the script either doesn't fire or just doesn't work. If I log out and back in - it does! WTF?

UPDATE: this is an annoyingly difficult thing to nail down, but I think I've got it now.
I wrote a script called mice and put it in my path at: /usr/local/bin/mice
Then, I add it to my startup applications pref panel like this:
sh -c '/usr/local/bin/mice'
And it seems to work.
Here's the script I wrote
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#!/bin/bash

# get ID and current set up for each input device
emID=`xinput list|grep 'Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse'|cut -d "[" -f1|grep -o [0-9].`
stID=`xinput list|grep 'Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball'|cut -d "[" -f1|grep -o [0-9].`
emButtonMap=`xinput --get-button-map 'Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse'`
stButtonMap=`xinput --get-button-map 'Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball'`
emAccel=`xinput --list-props 'Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse'|grep 'Constant'|tr "\t" "|"|cut -d "|" -f3`
stAccel=`xinput --list-props 'Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball'|grep 'Constant'|tr "\t" "|"|cut -d "|" -f3`
emBMap="3 2 1 5 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12"
stBMap="1 8 3 4 5 6 7 2 9 10 11 12"
emDACD="3.000000"
stDACD="3.000000"

# check current settings against desired setup and change if necessary
if [ "$emButtonMap" != "$emBMap" ]; then
xinput --set-button-map $emID $emBMap
emBmapCurr=`xinput --get-button-map 'Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse'`
tsEm=`date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"`
echo "[$tsEm] set Expert Mouse (device ID: $emID) button map to $emBMapCurr">> /home/gregster/.hcmc/mice.log
fi

if [ "$stButtonMap" != "$stBMap" ]; then
xinput --set-button-map $stID $stBMap
stBMapCurr=`xinput --get-button-map 'Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball'`
tsSt=`date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"`
echo "[$tsSt] set Slimblade Trackball (device ID: $stID) button map to $stBMapCurr" >> /home/gregster/.hcmc/mice.log
fi

if [ "$emAccel" != "$emDACD" ]; then
xinput --set-prop $emID 'Device Accel Constant Deceleration' 3
emDACDCurr=`xinput --list-props 'Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse'|grep 'Constant'|tr "\t" "|"|cut -d "|" -f3`
tsEmAc=`date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"`
echo "[$tsEmAc] set Expert Mouse (device ID: $emID) acceleration to $emDACDCurr" >> /home/gregster/.hcmc/mice.log
fi

if [ "$stAccel" != "$stDACD" ]; then
xinput --set-prop $stID 'Device Accel Constant Deceleration' 3
stDACDCurr=`xinput --list-props 'Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball'|grep 'Constant'|tr "\t" "|"|cut -d "|" -f3`
tsStAc=`date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"`
echo "[$tsStAc] set Slimblade Trackball (device ID: $stID) acceleration to $stDACDCurr" >> /home/gregster/.hcmc/mice.log
fi

exit

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In order to get my two trackballs working as I like (one left-handed, one right-handed) I tried a few ways but ended up going with adding instructions to the System > Preferences > Startup applications applet. (BTW, this adds .desktop files to ~/.config/autostart/ directory).

The trick is to get your syntax just right. Running something at the terminal is not simply duplicated in the Startup applications applet. I ended up creating one startup app for each instruction (doing many in one eluded me). This is what I put in the "command" field for each one (that is, each of the following lines is the meat of one startup app):
sh -c "xinput --set-prop 'Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse' 'Device Accel Constant Deceleration' 4"
sh -c 'xinput --set-button-map 'Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse' 3 2 1 5 4 6 7 8'
sh -c "xinput --set-prop 'Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball' 'Device Accel Constant Deceleration' 4"
sh -c 'xinput --set-button-map 'Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball' 1 8 3 4 5 6 7 2'

You have to use an invocation like sh to get it to run, and sh needs the -c flag to know that it's operating the stuff after it outside of the context of standard input (ie. running it directly from the CLI). Also, strings with spaces (e.g. Device Accel Constant Deceleration) need to be enclosed in SINGLE-QUOTES. Standard practice seems to put the entire command following sh -c in single-quotes, but in this case I use double-quotes to avoid painful escaping.

So, one of my .desktop files looks like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=sh -c "xinput --set-prop 'Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse' 'Device Accel Constant Deceleration' 4"
Hidden=false
NoDisplay=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name[en_CA]=Add accel for ExpertMouse
Name=Add trackball configs
Comment[en_CA]=accel for ExpertMouse
Comment=eccel for ExpertMouse

NOTE: unfortunately, this does not work all the time. Re-investigating.

UPDATE: this is ridiculously hard. It looks like even if I put the commands in my .profile something else resets the button-mapping. I'm going to try udev again. Of course, the problem I see with this actually working is that it's a system level adjustment, and it *should* be per-user.

Anyway, here's the way I'm proceeding:

1) Gather info on the device by running this:
udevadm info -a -p $(udevadm info -q path -n /dev/input/by-id/usb-Kensington_Kensington_Slimblade_Trackball-mouse)
2) Unplugging/plugging a mouse while tailing the Xorg log gets this output:
[ 28709.701] (II) config/udev: removing device Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse
[ 28709.702] (II) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: Close
[ 28709.702] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
[ 28717.858] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse (/dev/input/mouse0)
[ 28717.859] (II) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
[ 28717.859] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse (/dev/input/event2)
[ 28717.859] (**) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall"
[ 28717.859] (**) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: always reports core events
[ 28717.859] (**) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: Device: "/dev/input/event2"
[ 28717.880] (II) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: Found 8 mouse buttons
[ 28717.880] (II) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: Found scroll wheel(s)
[ 28717.880] (II) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: Found relative axes
[ 28717.880] (II) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: Found x and y relative axes
[ 28717.880] (II) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: Configuring as mouse
[ 28717.880] (**) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
[ 28717.880] (**) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: EmulateWheelButton: 4, EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
[ 28717.881] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse" (type: MOUSE)
[ 28717.881] (II) Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse: initialized for relative axes.

Some links I've been using:
http://reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Input
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/X/InputConfiguration