> The hardest part was operating the mouse with its axies transposed

Couldn't you just rotate the mouse to match? It might be a bit awkward to 
hold at 90 degrees, but at least it should be easy to control.

> the user thought I was God-like for pulling that off! ;-)

Hehe, reminds me of when I had to download and reinstall the graphics card 
driver on a Japanese laptop.  I managed to locate and download the driver 
from a Japanese website, uninstall the old one and put the new one on there, 
all without being able to read a single word of Japanese.  The owner of the 
laptop was suitably impressed that I could apparently "translate" phrases 
like "do you want to restart now?" and "are the new display settings ok? if 
not will revert back in 15." :-)

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>> The hardest part was operating the mouse with its axies transposed
> 
> Couldn't you just rotate the mouse to match? It might be a bit awkward 
> to hold at 90 degrees, but at least it should be easy to control.

Hmm, would that actually work? And how do you press the buttons?

Anyway, it's not _that_ hard to do this. (Ever played a flight simulator 
where the Y control is inverted?)

>> the user thought I was God-like for pulling that off! ;-)
> 
> Hehe, reminds me of when I had to download and reinstall the graphics 
> card driver on a Japanese laptop.  I managed to locate and download the 
> driver from a Japanese website, uninstall the old one and put the new 
> one on there, all without being able to read a single word of Japanese.  
> The owner of the laptop was suitably impressed that I could apparently 
> "translate" phrases like "do you want to restart now?" and "are the new 
> display settings ok? if not will revert back in 15." :-)

Hee... I did this with a machine that was running a German copy of 
Windows 3.11. (This was in 2006 by the way...!) I can't remember what I 
was called in to do - probably just install the right language files - 
but I succeeded at any rate.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> Couldn't you just rotate the mouse to match? It might be a bit awkward to 
>> hold at 90 degrees, but at least it should be easy to control.
>
> Hmm, would that actually work?

Yes.  I used to use that trick the whole time in some puzzle game where it 
rotated the pointer response to make levels harder.  So long as it doesn't 
invert just one of the axes you are ok.

> And how do you press the buttons?

For a rotate left 90 degrees, use your thumb and 1st finger to click, for 
right 90 degrees I used my left hand, for 180 degrees I think I used both 
hands to hold the mouse and then my thumbs to click. [if there was anyone 
else in here they would be wondering what the hell i was just doing with my 
mouse!]

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Invisible wrote:
> 
> Anyway, it's not _that_ hard to do this. (Ever played a flight simulator 
> where the Y control is inverted?)
> 

I'll have to confirm - does inverted Y on flight simulator mean that 
pressing the UP key or pushing the joystick actually makes the plane go up?

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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scott wrote:
>> The hardest part was operating the mouse with its axies transposed
> 
> Couldn't you just rotate the mouse to match? It might be a bit awkward 
> to hold at 90 degrees, but at least it should be easy to control.
> 
>> the user thought I was God-like for pulling that off! ;-)
> 
> Hehe, reminds me of when I had to download and reinstall the graphics 
> card driver on a Japanese laptop.  I managed to locate and download the 
> driver from a Japanese website, uninstall the old one and put the new 
> one on there, all without being able to read a single word of Japanese.  
> The owner of the laptop was suitably impressed that I could apparently 
> "translate" phrases like "do you want to restart now?" and "are the new 
> display settings ok? if not will revert back in 15." :-)
> 
> 

I once installed the German version of Windows ME on a computer with a 
French keyboard.  I've never used ME before or since.  Not as bad as 
Japanese, but still, kinda crazy with the different position of some 
keys in each language.  BTW, I don't know French or German.


Tom

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Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> gregjohn <pte### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> > The question then, if Linux is chosen, is which distro is best for guiding your
> > Dad in for a landing over the phone.  I've seen Linux big-wigs in forums say,
> > "I positively do not care if Linux is ever the right OS for someone's
> > grandfather. UNIX never was."  I think I'd stay away from a distro where too
> > much say was purists about closed source drivers.  Folks' Dads might not be
> > able to roll their own.
>
>   Well, you have two options:
>
> 1) A computer with an OS which has a steep learning curve.
> 2) A computer with an OS that doesn't even boot.
>
>   Which of the two options is better?
>


3) A computer with a version of an OS which does NOT do crazy things like make
you recompile the kernel to install a wireless driver in order to meet some
ideologue's view of "freedom". [Debian circa 2005 did this.]  Ubuntu, for the
moment, unless RMS's legions get to Mark, does not.

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gregjohn <pte### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> 3) A computer with a version of an OS which does NOT do crazy things like make
> you recompile the kernel to install a wireless driver in order to meet some
> ideologue's view of "freedom". [Debian circa 2005 did this.]  Ubuntu, for the
> moment, unless RMS's legions get to Mark, does not.

  I have had linux in my computer for many years (started with Suse 9.3,
then upgraded to 10.2), and I have not needed to recompile the kernel
even once.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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>> 3) A computer with a version of an OS which does NOT do crazy things like 
>> make
>> you recompile the kernel to install a wireless driver in order to meet 
>> some
>> ideologue's view of "freedom". [Debian circa 2005 did this.]  Ubuntu, for 
>> the
>> moment, unless RMS's legions get to Mark, does not.
>
>  I have had linux in my computer for many years (started with Suse 9.3,
> then upgraded to 10.2), and I have not needed to recompile the kernel
> even once.

I tried several different Linuxes on my machine over the last couple of 
years, and I never managed to get past the really steep learning curve that 
would enable me to get the wireless card working.  I found some ridiculous 
50 page PDF explaining in detail how to do it, but then I got stuck on like 
page 3 when something it told me to do didn't exist on my system.  Every 
time I just gave up (and it's not like I didn't try for several evenings and 
several hours on Google to get it working).  And I'm not even going to 
mention the first few times I tried Linux (maybe 5 years ago) where I got a 
big green triangle across half the screen permanently, or that I couldn't 
get 3D acceleration working, or ..., or ....  It's just too much hassle to 
learn when you can't even get started.

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scott <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> It's just too much hassle to learn when you can't even get started.

  Then don't use it. It's that simple.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 29-Aug-08 9:50, Invisible wrote:
> andrel wrote:
> 
>> My wife did that once. Try ctrl-alt-shift up (or down or sideways).
>> If that works, disable that shortcuts in the advanced settings of your 
>> monitor.
>> Shortcuts are handy if the monitor physically can rotate, if not they 
>> are annoying.
> 
> Yeah, I've seen monitors that do. But the Dell monitors at work don't 
> rotate like that...
> 
> As it is, I managed to open the video options window and manually adjust 
> the setting. The hardest part was operating the mouse with its axies 
> transposed -

been there, done that.

> the user thought I was God-like for pulling that off! ;-)

unfortunately not, the user was my wife.

Did you turn off the keyboard shortcuts? Or do you want to play God 
again later?

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