TrueJournals

Well, I wasn’t sure I was going to make a blog post about this, but I feel I have to.  As I’m sure you’re well aware, Apple announced on Wednesday a new product that they guaranteed would once again revolutionize computing.  It was the product people have been waiting for Apple to make, and Apple finally delivered.  What is this “magical” product?  It’s none other than Apple’s new tablet computer: the iPad.

But… if you’ve seen any of the press about the iPad, you might be confused by what I just wrote.  Almost every tech blog I know is bashing the iPad for being an all-around crappy product.  Considering myself a technology enthusiast, I can only say this: I agree.  Apple had the potential to dip into a market that no one’s really gotten quite right, and create a booming industry for themselves, like they did with the iPod.  It seems, however, that they’ve ruined their chance to do that.  So, where did Apple go wrong?  I’ll start with the obvious and most-touted answer, and I’ll try to work down to some more original points, but pretty much everything’s been covered already.  However, if you do really like the iPad, keep reading to the end of the article, and I’ll try to point out what Apple has done right. (continue reading…)

After a lot of figuring out how xmodmap works, I’ve finally been able to get my caps lock to work as a shift key, instead a locking key.  There are actually two steps to this, the second one being the tricky part.  Just create a file called .Xmodmap in your home directory with the following contents:

remove Lock = Caps_Lock
add Shift = Caps_Lock

This removes the lock from caps lock (so it’s a press-and-hold, not a toggle), and makes it a shift key, even though the computer still recognizes it as the caps lock key.  If you wanted to get fancier, you could make the computer recognize it as the left shift key with the following:

remove Lock = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Shift_L
add Shift = Shift_L

The tricky part here is realizing that after you tell the computer that Caps Lock is actually left shift, you need to add this key to the “shift” list, even though it’s already there.  I don’t quite understand this, but I know that it’s necessary.

Have fun getting rid of that annoying caps lock key!