Big mistake.

It’s now 1:35am, and I finally have my solution. The trick is to use the evdev X.org input driver, as for some reason the mouse driver can’t handle all of my buttons. I followed sections 1 and 2 of this howto for the general idea of setting up evdev.

The problem is, none of the howtos I dug up really worked. Things sort of worked, but there seemed to be confusion about the number of buttons (xmodmap reported 9, while xev dumped events from up to #12). Also, the tilt wheel mapping seemed to be reversed. At this point, I began to suspect something was going awry, so I started looking over /var/log/Xorg.0.log. Here’s what I found:

For some reason, X seemed to be adding a new <default mouse> InputDevice with the message “No default mouse found, adding one.” This mouse used the standard mouse input driver, and somehow was jumping in front of my configured mouse settings as the default mouse. Oddly, running xinput list showed that my properly configured evdev device was loaded perfectly (with 20 buttons!), but apparently wasn’t being used as the primary mouse.

I persisted twiddling with X config settings and checking the logs, but for some reason, this default mouse would always be created. At this point I started googling this strange “no default mouse found” message. The only apropos result, and my solution, was in this blog post. It seems that someone decided to write a failsafe hack in 7.2 where if no InputDevice using the mouse driver exists in xorg.conf, the server adds one.

As Zaitcev writes, as apparent from the code, this hack has one exception, in which if some InputDevice invokes the driver void, it assumes that the user (as the code states) “probably wants to run footless”, and no default mouse is instantiated. Thus, the solution:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier    "Configured Mouse"
	Driver        "evdev"
	Option        "CorePointer"
	Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/event2"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "IHATEKLUDGERS"
	Driver      "void"
EndSection

[...]

Section "ServerLayout"
	[...]
	InputDevice    "Configured Mouse"
	InputDevice    "IHATEKLUDGERS"
EndSection

Unbelievable.

Apparently, this will be fixed in 7.3.

I feel like I need to make up for lost time. I’ve let things collect dust here for the past term, so it seems strange to be trying it again on the eve of the next wave of school. Yet right now, I want to. That’s all I’d like to say. I know am rarely interested in reading other peoples’ apologies for not writing on their blogs. So I’ll try to keep things topical from here on out.

Tomorrow will bring Popular Culture and Intro to Operating Systems, in the lovely city of bridges. I am very much looking forward to it, even though it feels a bit deadening to go back to school after merely a week’s break. Even so, it seems every time I get a break I see the alternative — diddling — which makes me wish for the linear deadlines of the school year. I’m kind of concerned that this is what it’s coming to: preferring force-fed work instead of real projects. It’s hard to be both productive and self-motivated.

I wonder occasionally if someday I’ll look back at these years and wonder how I had all this time and managed to choose this as what to do with it. I simply have not found something better to do. In his Stanford commencement speech Steve Jobs said:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

And that’s where I’m at. I feel most purposeful when I am aware my time here is limited; when I remember things are temporary. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that this feeling passes as soon as the thought leaves my mind. The problem is remembering. There’s the existential concept that as hard as we try, we’ll inevitably fall back into states of unawareness in our daily life. The challenge is keeping the context stored up somewhere. So that when it’s needed, it will return.

Once for a little while I became interested in lucid dreaming. I programmed myself to achieve consciousness in my dreams by training myself to constantly ask myself “Am I dreaming?” while I was awake. My process was linking this idea to as many thoughts as possible; so that many actions, feelings, and thoughts reminded me of the dreaming test. I reasoned that if this worked in my waking consciousness, it would when I was dreaming. It did. After some time, I stopped keeping up this mental practice, and the dreams stopped. Nowadays I rarely dream lucidly, or even remember my dreams.

Perhaps this can be applied to Jobs’ self-test as well. By linking the question of purpose to as many ideas as possible, I think I could remember to ask the question more often. The only tough part is remembering to get started. This sense of context is something that I’m so looking for… and hope for tomorrow, as the drone of school starts again. I want try it. Yet for now, I must be dreaming.

Download:

Close Your Eyes – 192kbps OGG Vorbis

Close Your Eyes – 128kbps MP3 VBR

Well, another school term has passed and yet another whirlwind of homework and activity has come and gone. Shifting gears was totally weird. I guess I fell into a mode where there was always another assignment around the corner that had to be worked on… the shadow of procrastination and doom lurking over my head. When there wasn’t, there wasn’t this startling realization or a lifting sense of freedom… just the realization that I didn’t have to go home and get studying any more. The day after finals were over, sleep deprived and braindead, I recorded this song.

This piece is about a month and a half old. While I wrote it, I imagined it as an experiment in multitracked pianos. Most of the primary melody however was improvised as I added layers on Friday. Everything, except from various percussion, is piano. The cymbal crash is a mixture of two samples courtesy of the freesound project. There’s some great stuff over there.. I wish I’d learned to use the site sooner!

I guess what I envision when I play this piece is the sort of unfolding patterns of shapes and colors I see when I press on my eyes. A sort of introspective journey. Close your eyes.

Cymbal crash attribution:
By ltibbits : crash-Z-custom-projection-19-choke.wav
By loofa : BIG DOOR SHUT DOWN.aif

This piece is released under a Creative Commons License.

I wonder what I would put inside this package
Simple things perhaps, which at moments I know I’ll need
Like bandaids, rubber bands, and papers and pencils
A note with some writing on it, saying “don’t take yourself too seriously”

Colors, emotions, and nuances might fade with time
So I will have to pack them up into words, drawings, and music
Music that reminds me what passion feels like

I wonder what my kit would look like
It could be a metal box with a lid
Or a piece of paper
A brown paper bag, or an investor’s suitcase
Something to hold all my wildest dreams, and most solemn plans
To take anywhere and everywhere

Or maybe
It would be a tiny seed
A great truth, a burning flame
That when planted will grow and expand and change shapes
As I do

It would grow limbs, branches and leaves-
Permutations and tiny variations of every path across time
And a trunk anchored into the deepest wholes and creations
And it would breathe the air just like I do
Whereas I exhale carbon dioxide, it would take it in
It’s height would make the sky seem taller

And that would be enough
For any moment
For any dream
I can open up my kit
And find what I need.

Once I had built my kit
My kit in a day
Then
I would throw it away
Because then I wouldn’t need it anymore.

I’ve had these things with me all along.

As this moment passes

We will grow old.
We will lose hope.
We will have to ask for forgiveness.

We will find ourselves in our parents’ shoes.
And someday in our grandparents’ shoes.
And we will wonder
If we did the right thing.

Yet never forget

This moment of possibility:
Never forget
That we have two eyes, two legs to stand on.
Never forget
That this moment is ours to create.

We could change the future and make history
This time to never forget
The living hopes and dreams that shaped today.

And to never forget
That life goes around in circles
This is our turn.

Download:

192kbps OGG Vorbis

128kbps MP3 VBR

I know I haven’t posted much, let alone music, in quite a while — though that does not mean I haven’t been working persistently on both. I am very excited to finally share a new musical composition. I woke up this morning with the intention to create music, and work this tune that had developed by accident in the last few days. Originally, I had intended to put up an entirely different piece. However, this one stuck in my head constantly and just would not leave until I had completed it.

This is the first time I have done multi-track recording in a very long time (I believe on the last, I was about 9 years old). With cornelius’s suggestion to try multiple instruments in my mind, I tried adding a flute to the mix. Another instrument was added, and soon another. Keeping in mind that I never claimed that I could play flute, I will simply sing the praises of digital pitch correction. Hopefully this is what you had in mind, cornelius.

I’m not all too proud of the piano performance, and I’m sure I’ll find more flaws later… but right now, I’m just proud of the music. This tune is available under a Creative Commons license; the same one as this blog.

Other than that, I hope you will simply enjoy the composition, and that it will speak for itself. Play it loud!

Late friday afternoon I was checking on the rear tire. I’d pumped it up a few weeks ago, only to find the next day that it was flat. So I pumped it up to 55 psi — the normal pressure I keep it at — and waited. I figured there was a leak somewhere, and thought I could feel a small amount of air coming out around the valve. So I leaned close to the valve and listened. Stupid idea. After a second of listening and with no warning, the tire blew. PAFF! Right in my face. Thankfully all it did was leave my ears ringing for about a half hour, and things were fine…

However, the tire wasn’t. The inner tube had a nice patch of tears where it exploded. My father and I checked the tread for anything sharp that could have punctured the tube… nothing. So we figured that after three years of owning the bike and storing it, the tube had a defect and had worn out.

The next day, we went to GI Joe’s and and bought a new tube. The only ones they had with the right valve were these “SLiME” leak resistant inner tubes with a liquid sealant agent inside. After the experience I had with the last tube, it didn’t seem like a bad idea. So we brought the new tube and put it on, fit it back into the frame, and pumped it up to 50 psi.

Everything looked good, so I took it up a hill to see how it felt. I stopped at the top and checked the wheel. The frame was a bit out of alignment, and rubbing against the brake pads, so I started riding back home to give it a quick adjust. I was watching the speedometer hit 17mph as I rolled down, letting go of the brakes and seeing what it felt like to be going fast again. PAMMFF. Yes, the tire blew again right there at 17 mph on the road. Luckily stopping the bike was really mild, and I had really good control. However, this time, I stopped to find the entire of back of my bike splattered with green goo, dripping green onto the road.

It was beautiful. I truly wonder what someone would have thought, observing this explosion. It kind of adds to the humor that I believe the first thing I said was “not again.” Detached from it all, it was really quite funny, carrying my bike, with it’s trashed back wheel, dripping this ridiculous green liquid all over the place.

I got to spend that afternoon wiping plastic goop out of the frame, the gears, the chain, and everything else. Before cleaning we compared the old tire with this new one, and found that they both popped in the same place. However, another check of the frame and tread found no obvious sharp spots — though the inner belt between the spokes and the tube looked a little compressed and thin. Needless to say if there was a pointy spot before, there now are many more, as the wheel frame was what dissipated most of the force of my 17 mph up down the hill.

I think this is one of those cases where it’s a better idea to wait until I can have someone look at the wheel in a shop. At this point, the frame pretty is damaged and might need replacement anyway. Long story short, it doesn’t look like I’ll be riding so much this summer…

I decided to be a little bit risky this time and do some subtle transparency over large swaths of the layout… it shall be interesting to see the browser compatibility fallout from this one (I laugh at how badly this breaks now in IE) . Here’s a screenshot of it on my desktop for your comparison/reference. Also, here’s the original mockup I made when first envisioning the design. All in all, I’m really happy about the update. The typography is something I fussed with the most on this, and I finally feel like I can be satisfied with the lettering looking good on-screen. Yay! Well, I’m excited and exhausted.

Sorry there hasn’t been much going on here as of late — though I have been busy working on a new art project here that I will disclose more details about as soon as it is ready.