HP TouchPad Liquidation

Last night, I read from TechCrunch "HP Issues TouchPad Liquidation Order – Get Yours Now For $100". Wow. Is that's true? I would like get one for $99 and use it for browsing, reading, listening music and watch video. I don't need other apps.

I do some more research. It looks like that price for Canada only.

But for BestBuy in USA, it still $399

Even I cannot click thru the link at BestBuy.com, I check the special return policy for HP TouchPad

So I will stop by at BestBuy to check it out. If it's $99, I will buy it.

Is Free Software Open Source?

No. Some software or applications are free to use but they are not open source. For example, Microsoft Security Essentials is free to use on licensed Microsoft Windows operating system but you can not get the source code. LibreOffice is the power-packed free and open source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux. You can download LibreOffice's source code to look at, modify, build and run.

The Open Source Definition:
1. Free Redistribution
2. Source Code
3. Derived Works
4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
7. Distribution of License
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

Disable Mousepad on Dell Inspiron 1545 with Ubuntu 11.04

After upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04, I could not use the command 'sudo modprope psmouse -r' to disable. Executed that command cause my laptop hung.

This discussion "Ubuntu 11.04 with Gnome on Dell 6510: cannot disable touchpad" on UbuntuForums.org offered me a solution. Here, what I did on on my computer:

user@vn-software:~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech USB Receiver id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech USB Receiver id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ ImPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Dell WMI hotkeys id=14 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Integrated Webcam id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]

Device ID for my mousepad is 13. Let find out what properties on device 13 are:

user@vn-software:~$ xinput --list-props 13
Device 'ImPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint':
Device Enabled (127): 1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (129): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Device Accel Profile (250): 0
Device Accel Constant Deceleration (251): 1.000000
Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (252): 1.000000
Device Accel Velocity Scaling (253): 10.000000
Evdev Axis Inversion (254): 0, 0
Evdev Axes Swap (256): 0
Axis Labels (257): "Rel X" (137), "Rel Y" (138)
Button Labels (258): "Button Left" (130), "Button Middle" (131), "Button Right" (132), "Button Wheel Up" (133), "Button Wheel Down" (134), "Button Horiz Wheel Left" (135), "Button Horiz Wheel Right" (136)
Evdev Middle Button Emulation (259): 0
Evdev Middle Button Timeout (260): 50
Evdev Wheel Emulation (261): 0
Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes (262): 0, 0, 4, 5
Evdev Wheel Emulation Inertia (263): 10
Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout (264): 200
Evdev Wheel Emulation Button (265): 4
Evdev Drag Lock Buttons (266): 0

The Device Enabled property for device #13 (Touchpad) is 127 and it set to 1. Let turned it off.

user@vn-software:~$ xinput set-prop 13 127 0

It worked! I loved it.

So, to enable the touchpad, I will using this command "xinput set-prop 13 127 1" on my computer. Please note: The device ID and device enabled property for the touchpad on your computer may not same as mine. You need to find out yours by using commands 'xinput list' and 'xinput --list-props' as describe above.

Updated Aug. 13, 2011: Make sure you check device number by using command "xinput list" before disable your touchpad. Otherwise, you may disable the wrong device.

Upgrade to Eclipse Indigo (3.7) from Eclipse Helios (3.6) on Ubuntu 11.04

I'm using Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers to develop Android applications on Ubuntu Linux 11.04. The latest version Eclipse in Ubuntu Software Center is Galileo (3.5). To install or upgrade new version of Eclipse IDE:
1. Download 64-bit Linux package from Eclipse.org. Please select the approriate version for your machine: Mac OS, MS Windows, 32-bit, 64-bit.
2. Extract the downloaded zip file: eclipse-jee-indigo-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz
3. Rename Eclipse folder in my home directory to Eclipse-Helios
4. Move the Eclipse folder from Downloads directory to home folder.
5. Re-install ADT Plugin for Eclipse Indigo (3.7)
6. After Eclipse restart, check, and enjoy new version Eclipse

Free Internet Fax

Which one is the best to send free fax from computer using online service without fax machine? I don't like any fax service with monthly fee. I don't like to provide my credit card number for a free trial. I like these below fax services because they are free. So, what is the catch?

Are they reliable and secure? How about the privacy of our faxes?

http://www.myfax.com/free/
MyFax Free lets you send a fax for free to over 40 countries. This free faxing service is provided by Protus IP Solutions.
* Please note that existing MyFax® customers cannot use this free Service.
MyFax® is a trademark of j2 Global Communications, Inc. and its affiliates.

http://faxzero.com/
Free Fax
Ad on the cover page
Fax 1 document — max 3 pages
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http://www.bestfreefax.com/freefax.php
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3 pages per fax maximum
2 free faxes per day maximum

Free Fast Public DNS

If you experience a slow internet response, your DNS (Domain Name System) may have outage. You can use the follow free fast public DNS below to improve the speed and more security.

Google Public DNS:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

* OpenDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Level-Three GTEI Public DNS:
4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4
4.2.2.5
4.2.2.6

* Norton DNS by Symantec:
198.153.192.1
198.153.194.1

* ScrubIT DNS:
67.138.54.100
207.225.209.66

DNS Advantage:
156.154.70.1
156.154.71.1

* In additon to block the bad sites that are potentially harmful to your computer, OpenDNS, NortonDNS and ScrubIT DNS allow you to set your owm content filtering policy.

Install WordPress 3.1.3 on Ubuntu 11.04

WordPress is web application you can use to create a beautiful blog or website. This is an open source software. You can get it free at http://wordpress.org/download/ . Before you install WordPress on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), make sure you already install on your Linux machine: Apache, MySQL and PHP (LAMP).

1. Unzip wordpress-3.1.3.zip to a specified.

2. Make the virtual path for Apache web server:
sudo gedit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
add a new line:
Alias /wordpress /home/yourusername/wordpress
and
restart sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

3. Type http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/readme.html on your browser to read some instruction.

4. Create MySQL database and user for WordPress

mysql -u root -p
mysql> use mysql;
mysql> create database wordpress;
mysql> INSERT INTO user (Host,User,Password) VALUES('localhost','wpuser',PASSWORD('wppass'));
mysql> grant all privileges on wordpress.* to wpuser@localhost;
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> exit;

5. chmod -c 777 -R ~/wordpress

6. Type http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php to install.
If you got this error message: "Error establishing a database connection", make sure user name and password are correct. It took me almost an hour to figure it out. For some reason, my MySQL password for wpuser@localhost is empty instead of a specified password that I set when I create a MySQL user account.