inportb

Most embedded mobile devices have an option to automatically lock the interface when idle to prevent accidental access, and the Android-powered G1 is no exception. Interestingly, some people actually want to disable this feature. There’s no direct interface to this setting, however. While tinkering with the Setup Wizard applet, I may have stumbled upon a hack.

1. using AnyCut, create a shortcut to the activity “Setup Wizard”
2. launch “Setup Wizard”
3. unplug+replug the battery and power on the device

The applet apparently disables the lock and re-enables it when it finishes. I wanted the screen lock back so I simply ran “Setup Wizard” again, this time completing the procedure.

Note that this method also disables the manual lock triggered by pressing the End button.

December 29th, 2008: Incidentally, other people have noticed strange effects after a botched Setup Wizard. The folks at xda-developers have experienced similar effects, but their connection to Setup Wizard is at the moment unconfirmed.

History is, and has always been, misunderstood. Retrospectively, we view history as a linear progression that leads logically from event to event to event, from fact to fact to fact. While such a simplification is often necessary for historical instruction, it masks the true complexity of history.

When we study history, we often ask, how did we get here from there?, where here is the state that we are in now and there is some state that we were in previously. Rarely do we ask, starting from there, where could we have gone? Historians do not concern themselves with possibilities; what could have been is not nearly as important as what has been. As far as we know, there is just one timeline linking our very beginnings to now, and we invest quite a bit of effort into linearizing our account of the past. If it did not happen to us… if it did not happen in our universe, we should not care. After all, we are a selfish people.

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I’d known from the beginning that KDE 4 libraries and applications could be installed on Windows. I hadn’t actually tried installing them on Windows because I’ve been warned that they’re unstable (Windows support is new), bulky (there’re many dependencies), and inefficient (KDE is not just a widget library). I’ve also heard reports of excellent integration and ease of installation, so I decided to give it a try. The test system is a virtual machine running Windows XP SP3 with no theme.

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WebKit support in Konqueror is coming along nicely in the form of a KPart called webkitkde. If you’re running Konqueror on Ubuntu 8.10, it’s really easy to try WebKit without disrupting your usual workflow:

1. install webkitkde
2. when viewing a Web page in Konqueror, select from the menu: View > View Mode > WebKit

It’s beta-quality software, but it works alright. Konqueror defaults to KHTML whenever navigation occurs, so you have to manually select WebKit for each page. Now you can do some basic WebKit-compatibility testing using Konqueror.

I bumped into a former classmate from middle school yesterday. We talked about what we did after graduating… then he started asking some interesting questions.

Dude: You’re telling me you’re studying biochem? Whoa, that’s interesting.
Me: How come?
Dude: Well, I’ve been writing quite a bit lately. Mostly detective stories, you know.
Me: I love detective stories.
Dude: Yeah well, I was wondering if you could help me. Know any good ways of killing someone? Like a poison, maybe.
Me: I don’t exactly study this stuff, but we were talking about arsenic and cyanide poisoning in class the other day.
Dude: Oh, those are classic. How do they work?
Me: Well, arsenic inhibits some important enzymes in the aerobic respiration pathway. It also affects the oxidative parts of some other pathways, which backs them up and keeps them from working. Cyanide works sort of like arsenic in that it affects energy metabolism, but it’s more acute; it binds to cytochrome oxidase in mitochondria and blocks aerobic respiration. Basically, it keeps cells from using oxygen and suffocates them.
[I explain in a lot more detail.]
Dude: Ah, now that’s all very interesting, but how would you actually use these?
Me: Erm… I’ve heard of people getting sick from drinking arsenic-contaminated water. But cyanide can be used as hydrogen cyanide gas or cyanide salts.
Dude: Awesome! I might have to call you up later for details… but I’ve a quick question for you. Do you know where one could obtain arsenic or cyanide in a place like New York City?
Me: … erm… I gotta go to class…
[I retreat into the nearest convenient lecture building.]
Dude: Hey! What’s your phone number?