MX Revolution 5500 Keyboard and Mouse middle button config

Having replaced a very loved Logitech MX Revolution mouse, with the only version I could find available where the mouse has a second wheel, I ran into the same configuration issues regarding middle mouse button functionality.

Short version for those of you impatient to get things moving....
After you've installed the Setpoint software and the mouse and keyboard are working correctly, RIGHT CLICK on the Setpoint icon down near the clock and select EXIT.  Then on your computer, go here;

C:\Users\YOURLOGGEDONUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Logitech\SetPoint\user.xml

You and I both know that in the line where it says YOURLOGGEDONUSERNAME, it's referring to the current user, which is usually your name, but I think I've explained that enough right now....

Find the line in the file that says this;
            <Button Number="6" Name="4">

From there, down to where it reads
            </Button>

Paste this;

            <Button Number="6" Name="4">
               <Trigger Class="ButtonPress">
                  <Param Button="6" FirstRepeatDelay="0" RepeatDelay="0" Silent="0" Type="0"/>
                  <TriggerState Name="ButtonDownUp" HandlerSet="MiddleMouseButton">
                     <Handler Class="MouseButton">
                        <Param ButtonName="MiddleButton"/>
                     </Handler>
                  </TriggerState>
               </Trigger>
               <Param IconLoc="" Type=""/>
            </Button> 

SAVE the file, then run Setpoint again.
ALL PROGRAMS > LOGITECH > MOUSE AND KEYBOARD > MOUSE AND KEYBOARD SETTINGS

Ok geeks need not read any further, but for those of us who don't speak fluent Matrix, here's some detail.


For whatever reason, someone at Logitech didn't think that anyone would want to be able to use the little search button as a middle mouse click, so this is a way of forcing the software to do what you want it to, even though the levers and pulleys are not available to you on the outside. Sort of like making a bus driver drop you off right outside your house even though the route is nowhere near it and if you asked they would tell you there was no way you could buy a ticket to that exact destination.  A lot of software works this way, and you can probably find lots of other incomprehensible text files all over your computer that set very specific things in very specific ways.  If you must fiddle, do be a good chap and make a backup copy of any file BEFORE you do it.  In this case I just RIGHT CLICKED the USER.XML file, selected COPY, then PASTE to put a copy right there with it.  If you do screw up, you can just delete the (now useless) USER.XML file, and rename the USER - COPY.XML file to USER.XML and you are all good.

To edit that file you can use Notepad.  Open Notepad first, and then drag this file in, or RIGHT CLICK on the file and select OPEN WITH, then from the list that appears select NOTEPAD.  If that doesn't show up then you can select it from the option CHOOSE DEFAULT PROGRAM and any more than that is probably outside the scope of this particular post.

To insert the above text into the file, just copy the text above, then find the corresponding line in the USER.XML file and highlight that, then select PASTE.  You should see it change.  Then SAVE the file, and run the Setpoint software again (as it says above).  Then go to a link on a web page, click the little button and OH MY GOODNESS, it opens in a new tab!

Oh and if you were wondering (which you probably weren't but what they heck) I use the second mouse wheel for volume up and down, and click it to mute/unmute.

My work here is done (except maybe some pictures to brighten up the entry..... soon)

P.S. This is obviously for a PC, and perhaps the Mac version lets you do this already.  Do YOU know?
P.P.S Now I have two functioning middle mouse buttons right next to each other.  So if someone ever brings out a Track and Field game that uses the middle mouse button, I AM GONNA WIN!

Retro classic gaming tales part 3 of ..er.. we'll see

Intellivision


I remember looking at the Intellivision over and over in the Littlewoods catalogue. In fact, the word 'Littlewoods' in Greek, means 'small payments, long time, big total'. The Intellivision had two fairly large controllers which were 8-way directional discs with buttons on the front. You got two plastic overlays with each game that you slid into the controllers for your basic selections. There were also two buttons on each side of the controller for more action packed goodness.

One I think I played a lot of was Auto Racing. Top down racer, with the tracks that were much larger than just one screen. Five different cars, from slow and turnable, to fast and drifting. In two player mode, it was simple, as you both played on the same screen, the first player to reach the leading edge of the screen won the point. So it was a good balance of, I'm in front but have less time to see the corners. The part about this I got into later was going off the track into the wilderness. Which was really just what ever the programmers had put in areas you were just never meant to look at. I get the feeling that you COULD go into these areas because they simply never even considered such a thing might happen. It was an exciting adventure that could last many minutes, navigating the bushes/trees/random squares of concrete. If you did this, you too would have discovered the drag strip. Once you knew the track layout, and put in a little time, it seemed that your car was always oriented for one turn ahead, and you could even perform 360's on the turns. But remember ONLY try this if you're a professional. Looking at it now, it does seem strange that the tracks were all set in what looked like residential areas, and not just raceways.

Also played a LOT of Soccer, because I think it's the one you got with the system. This was the first I remember of how you always could score a goal if you shot from the corner of the penalty box. A life skill which carried me through many soccer games for years to come.

Astro Smash was just a vertical asteroids of sorts. Left, right, shoot, avoid incoming death. Even had endless random teleporting. This resulted in anyone playing it the first time thought they were first to figure it being a way of being invincible, and got killed about 10 seconds into the teleport-button-spamming technique.

Space Hawk, now that was something. Adventuring through space coming across all sorts of weird aliens, and hopefully one day being able to tell my grand children, that I was one of the few that met, in person, the Space Hawk.

If you feel the need, you can get this as an Xbox Original, directly to your Xbox360. Gosh darn it, after all this, even though I have it on the PS2, I may just have to splurge the Microsoft Points myself!

Retro classic gaming tales part 1 of ..er.. we'll see

At the end of 2008 I heard more classic gaming stories, than in previous years.

So here's my journey...

The earliest game I can remember is a yellow LED battery powered game, Galaxy Invader 1000 that was something like Galaxians... only er... not quite. Played it to death, and I remember it being VERY hard!



I originally put the entire gaming history of Krysss.com towers in one post. However it became a long list of YouTube videos which while a lot of people would identify with, wouldn't really be that interesting. So I need to go away and try to remember some vaguely interesting stories to put around these games.

As for this little plastic game, I cannot remember much about it, but I am shocked I could track it down online.

IBM 300PL desktop unable to boot

I get asked to resurrect all kinds of ancient hardware, and this was no exception. An IBM 300PL desktop system with a strange error message on booting up.

The RF-ID Tag has changed
184 Asset control antenna not detected
System-Security Keyboard is locked.
System-Security Keyboard is unlocked.
176 The system has been tampered with.
Turn power to your system Off then On.
Your system is now locked.

Mysteriously 1984ish style boot message.

After lots of Google searches it appeared to come down to a couple of things. Changing the BIOS battery, resetting the BIOS, or malfunctioning capacitors on the motherboard.

Once you open up the case (and let all the ancient spirits similar to the Ark of the Covenant swirl around the room and dissipate) you may be lucky enough to find a sticker directing you to certain motherboard features.


This sticker was inside the lid of the case, which detaches completely, giving you an awesomely metallic one page book of instructional knowledge and power.


So according to this, the jumper is more or less in the center of the board. The sticker indicates the position to reset the BIOS. It's just a matter of moving the little plastic jumper so it connects the other two pins of the three, for a moment, and then putting it back again.



Here is the jumper on the board, yes, it's THAT exciting!


If after all that, it still just refuses to work, and all the cables appear to be connected (and you have removed the battery for a moment, or better still, replaced it entirely) then it could be the capacitors on the motherboard. I am so not into replacing these types of components, but if they are swollen or leaking they should be replaced.



The rest of the board appeared ok, but these looked jolly bulgy indeed to me. I have had other PC's die slow painful deaths from just this very issue.


And now a dirty and some might even venture, filthy, image for your delight...


If you know anything further, leave a comment.

Nintendo Free Stuff

While reading through the stuff at mynintendo.com I noticed that in a similar way that most PC games require a serial code to install the game, Nintendo have serial numbers included with your games (and consoles) to register them. No big deal until I saw that just by registering you can extend your Wii warranty by 90 days.

Also by registering the DS Zelda - Phantom Hourglass game, they send you a free feather stylus*. So from now on I will be taking note of all that paper that usually is covered in FCC regulations, and epilepsy warnings, to see if there is a registration code in there somewhere. It just turns up in the mail, but sadly doesn't make the treasure discovery sound just like the game, when you open the package**.

As far as I know, it's only Nintendo games that come with the codes in the box. So for now, registering the DS games, and PSP system has produced booty. The PSP one was a demo UMD disk of Killzone which arrived in the mail.


*Ok I know, it's not complicated but it IS very Zelda.

** But you never know, yours just might.

Wii

Ever since the Wii was supposed to be in the stores here in America, I have been asking at my local Best Buy if they have any in stock. It finally paid off during my last visit, when one of the staff there who remembered I kept asking, remarked that they currently had three in stock. Of course I thought they were joking, because this was the VERY FIRST time I had NOT asked about it. But sure enough, there were three on the shelf. As negotiation* over accessories began, the others were snapped up by passing families.

Buying extra controllers and chargers (and of course a couple of games) brought the price up from the standard $250, to unmentionable levels. You do get one set of controllers with the console, but right now $60 gets you another set of controllers. Being the console that supposedly brings non-gamers into gaming, only having one set in the box, means you have to add that $60 to the $250 before you even start to think of all those 'must have' accessories for it. Ker-ching!

I plonked down the bucks for a 4 Wiimote recharge station, that comes with 4 rechargeable battery packs. So you don't have to keep buying two AA batteries for each one, or even worse, buying expensive rechargeables and charger**. If you do buy this one (which the Best Buy dude tells me I need because the Wiimotes eat through batteries at fearsome rates) you can't leave the included rubber jackets on because they obscure the charging contacts on the back. Instead of a battery pack, you get 4 replacement battery doors, with the rechargeable packs molded into them. So when you want to charge your Wiimote, you just put it in the charging base. When seated they are quite wobbly, but the normally blue light on each slot turns red until the charge is complete. It is totally worth it for the overall blue neon lit round base.***

Next morning the game disk slot was pulsing and flashing blue. I suspected it to be speaking to the recharging base about something to do with nanobotic** legs. This wasn't true. I had connected the Wii to my wireless network so it could get updates etc, and it had been gathering messages from the Nintendo mother ship. This blue flashing was to tell me there were unread messages, and there were a LOT. Nothing of note, but all to do with the strange Wii 'channels' I had looked at. One was a voting channel, where they asked you simple questions like "If you won the lottery would you still work?" or "Do you turn your PC off at night?". You could answer them, and then predict what you considered to be the most popular answer. Remember kids, popular rarely equals right. Not to give too much away, but more people said they WOULD continue to work if they won the lottery! So the blue flashing was letting me know there were more questions to answer, and poll results from others were in. One handy feature for anyone who needs to make sure younger household players are not spending too much time with the Wii, is the daily calendar of what, who, and how long the different members of the household have been playing.

One REALLY smart move, was to charge for the internet browser. The Wii has no user log in as such. You can create a personal character, called a Mii, which you can model on yourself, and it actually appears in the games you play. So when you start a game you say, I want to use my Mii. The score and records for that Mii change accordingly. So if your kid plays a lot one day, it shows up in the daily messages. Also the mere fact of charing 500 points**** for the web browser, means this is one less piece of network connected equipment you have to worry about your children using (so much). There are parental controls but to use them, you have to point at the code on screen***** and that's going to last about three seconds when the kid finally persuades you to let them get online for something.

Most of the Wii games were great fun, just flinging your arms about in some vaguely realistic manner depending on what activity you are doing (cow riding still to be confirmed), is all great fun. So far nothing broken although not for lack of trying on a nearby table top, chair, and a stunt breakaway lamp. Shall I save grandma's ashes, or get that backhand in properly?

If you can find one, it's a must buy. If you can't find one, pretend.





All the Wii hardware so far reminds me of medical supplies from the future.
*Not actually any negotiation. Just the heart stopping realization of the cash total at the checkout, which you feebly try to cover up. Of course, everyone ELSE in line knows exactly how much their pile o' booty is going to come to, and will scoff at your inability to add up. Even though they too are locked in the Sauron like gaze of consumerism.

**Which you instantly lose all the batteries after leaving them unattended for more than 2 hours. Rechargeable batteries share the same hyperspace as balls of string, retractable measuring tapes, rolls of sticky tape, and little headphones. I think they make them from special nanobotic plastics, which grow little legs in the dark, and just go home.

***If you are 8.

****1 point, 1 cent. Did you hear that Microsoft? PS3 owners are even better off because they just get the price marked on screen. Microsoft Points (with which to purchase Xbox content) have a algorithm known only to people long dead, as to how many points is one dollar.

*****Something Microsoft DID do right, by making the pass code, be a sequence of buttons you press on the Xbox360 controller. With the Wii you have to enter on your 8 feet wide TV screen, with exactly those people you don't want to know it, er... knowing it.

Amazon Kindle

I am not someone that reads a lot of books. I go through phases, and recently got back into reading completely not-in-any-way-ever-contributing-to-the-quality-of-my-life books. A long time ago I was reading using a Dell Axim X5 PDA. I really enjoyed it, and to have something that automagically downloads books directly to the device, like the Kindle, would be great.

I have found a few times I have settled down to read a book and then discovered I was closer to the end that I thought. Usually at that point I would have to haul my saggy, pale, sorry backside out of what ever I had draped it over, and go back to Amazon and find either the next one in the series, or worse still, try and find a book that is similar.

WAIT!

I am not moving from where I am to browse Amazon.com for similar books and then play the 'Do I want to pay for super-speedy shipping that never actually delivers it in super-speedy times which would have been a $3 saving by just ordering standard delivery?'. So being able to find it from the book (meaning the device I already have in my pudgy fingers) I am already looking at is kewl. To have the Kindle deliver content over the cell network works for me. No computer needed, no expertise of any sort at all. Just (say this in your best drooling idiot voice now) "WANT BOOK, PRESS BUTTON, HAVE BOOK NOW". Then you can get back to reading. Some bright spark decided that SD Cards can be added for extra storage, plus adding a USB cable to the included stuff in the box means you can put what ever you like on the thing.

I would definitely purchase one of these readers if it wasn't so expensive, maybe $200 and I would have purchased it on pre-order, but $400 means I will have to wait for my workplace to be convinced (by yours truly) to purchase one for every student, in a way to save on books, and administration. Shipping and then tracking all those dead trees really gets tedious after a while.

I don't tend to care too often about the look of a thing, because most of my life is spent within secret hidden fortresses of solitude/secrecy/lots-o-expensive-stuff, and so nobody else ever sees the equipment. For me to shudder uncontrollably about the look of the Kindle means it could actually be pretty hideous. It comes with a cover, designed to be left on while you're reading it, or carrying it around, and maybe that's enough to be able to quickly flap shut before the whole room shows you using something that isn't an IPhone. Certainly enough to be able to quickly stuff it in a bag without fear of keys or pens ruining the screen. You KNOW you want to stuff it in a bag with broken glass, shards of metal, miniature versions of that friend of yours that likes to tell you how your gadgets should be set up and break it faster for you without telling you, on a plane with the flight attendant using the smush technique for getting obviously too-large items into the overhead storage compartment, and then sit on the bag. Not sure if the cover would actually protect against all that, but normal hauling should be ok.

The batteries last for days, you don't need a computer, and you can use it in ordinary lighting. I am sure any geeks reading get tired of informing people that putting a PDA, laptop, or phone, under a desk lamp will NOT enable you to see the screen better (in fact the darker the room the better for those). It looks like a book, acts like a book, just doesn't weigh the same as a book. It even has huge flaps on each side for you to turn pages. You can make notes on the pages, as well as bookmark sections etc. I think it's great, but I am nobody.

For those that don't know what this piece of $400 equipment is. It's a small screen which displays the text of complete books (but you CAN make the text huge if you don't want to bother with your glasses), page by page, allowing you to flip through it just as you would a real book. It keeps your place automatically, and weighs much less than a small paper back book, but can hold the equivalent of 200 (even more if you put an SD memory card in the thing) without you having to really carry all those books. No computer needed (or smug know-all friend that insists that they didn't break it, honest) because it works completely by itself. Once you work out which thing to press, there is nothing more to worry about, except maybe which books you want to read on it.

Isn't this one of those weird things that Android could be used for?



Someone, please buy me one :)

Xbox360 red ring of death

Back in August I succumbed to the Red Ring of Death on the Xbox360. Three red lights showing around the power button. The ones that usually turn green, indicating which controllers are active. So I got online, filled in a form, received a box, put the Xbox360 in it (after removing the hard drive), waited, got it back again.

They send you a small box. That box contains a plastic bag, two pieces of foam, a strip of sticking tape, and a UPS label. You remove the hard drive from your Xbox360 just by pressing the button and lifting it off, put the unit in the bag, then in the foam padding shapes, seal the box with the tape, slap the UPS label on the outside (over the one that got it shipped to you), and then just leave it at any UPS place. You can monitor it online, where I could follow every step, from them processing my request, to letting me know the unit had been shipped back to me.

They swapped mine out for a new one it seems. I assume it's new because one of the little mysterious receiver windows on the front of the unit still had that clear plastic you are supposed to peel off if you are not anal about scratching things. And the fact they said it was a different unit. I put the hard drive back on, and powered up. All groovy, although since I sent it off, I purchased an Xbox360 Elite, so I had migrated my live account to that one a while back. So when I tried to access that account on this unit, it said the account was invalid. I don't think I will bother going back to that unit anyway.

They put a months free Xbox Live service in the form of a scratch off card, in the box. Also included was a notice telling me how to reconnect the wireless controllers by holding the connect buttons. I always wondered how to do that anyway. Sometimes I press the button in the center of the controller to power the unit up, but it just continues to flash and not do anything else. So if you hold the connect button on the unit, and then press the one on the controller they can see eachother again.

So for me, the whole process from reporting the fault, to getting a new unit back in the mail was approx six weeks. I say approx because I was on vacation when it came back. But now I DO know that you can get an Xbox360 through the x-ray machines at the airport, and they survive. No I didn't put it in a suitcase, I had it in a bag with a ton of wires and crap which I was sure they were going to make me pull out and account for every single strand. They didn't, and it still worked, smiley.

USB Headset

I recently picked up a Logitech USB 350 headset to enjoy the voice filled beta of Second Life. I had a couple of ordinary headsets, with the microphone and speaker connectors, and they had always worked well. However on one machine they were simply not loud enough. Other programs such as Skype and Yahoo messenger seemed to work well, but for Second Life, people told me I was way too low.

Apparently (so I am informed) some sound connectors are just not so hot at actually connecting, hence the lower sound volume. If anyone knows different please let me know.

The headset was the first thing in a long time which didn't have an installation CD in the box. Just plug and play. It's nice to have a fairly decent set of headphones too, to listen to music, without having to switch. I suppose it is helping pick out different voices in a crowd within the Second Life voice beta, which incidentally is extremely addictive. Voices get louder as they approach, as well as tracking to the left or right depending on where that other speaker is. So far so very groovy indeed.

Accepting the inevitable

I usually have access to so much hardware, I never THOUGHT I could get too attached to any particular piece. But recently, a fairly rock solid PC was giving me serious issues. Unexpected rebooting, failing to detect the graphics card, BIOS beeping giving different messages, unexplained blank screens. By now I would be trying to get someone to get a new PC, but I installed a new power supply, different hard drives, and just kept limping along. Removed most of the components, and STILL had issues, where it was unusable and unstable at best.

While working on it, I was finding out what the different BIOS beep codes (the mysterious morse code like beeps a computer makes if it cannot display anything or start booting up) were telling me.

I came across this post at Via Arena, which told me that at the moment, my computer was convinced there was no graphics card installed. It also mentioned further down to check for leaking capacitors. It wasn't until a little while ago, I was delving in yet again, to remove even more, and tried to brush away what I mistakenly took for dust. It was hard, and looked just like an old battery which has split and is leaking its innards.

I had to sit myself down, and break the news to myself, that it was indeed time to let it go and pass on quietly.

**UPDATE** From Draele in the comments, a perfect ending.



You can see examples of normal, and leaking, capacitors here.