tap and scroll

To install Leopard, I have to click through a few screens answering questions such as "Which of your one hard drive do you want to install Leopard on?" I can then select the components I want to upgrade. Anyway, that's what another screen promises. I choose 'customize install' and am rewarded with ample selections, almost all of which are greyed out. Among them X11. It is selected by default and cannot be removed, and I am forced to upgrade to a buggy version of program which is running just fine at present. In the knowledge that I'm using a superior operating system, not only the best in this world but also in any other imaginable world, past present or future, I suffer silently and somewhat proudly.

When all is said, I send the install off by clicking OK. Oops, didn't work. I tap again. Still nothing. One of the first things I did when I started working with the Mac yesterday was activated tapping, clicking the touchpad with your fingers. I was excited when I found this feature available. The Mac doesn't like it and has already swallowed it. It might come back when all is done, but at the end of the day, the Mac's touchpad will remain brutally crippled, a faint shadow of what could be possible.

There is the issue with the lacking buttons, middle and right. Many lemmings devoutly belief that one mouse button is not only enough but simply more ergonomic and infinitely less confusing. Apple thinks so too. Curiously, when they invented the scroll mouse, they hid extra buttons underneath its smooth white skin. In my opinion, what resulted was the first usable mouse Apple had ever produced.

I need mouse buttons for fast work. Why cannot someone slip this extra functionality underneath the smooth silver skin of the elongated button of the MacBook's touchpad? I'm not asking for it to be marketed as the next revolution in personal computing. It doesn't have to be active by default. It shouldn't even be easily activatable lest the orthodox get confused. But if there could just be an unadvertised, well-camouflaged customization, a command-line jiffy allowing those who think different to degag their touchpad, I'd be eternally grateful.

The lemmings are happy with it as it is, even exuberant and happy to share their excitement. I was asked yesterday if I had already discovered two-finger scrolling. Two-finger scrolling, I was wondering? Why do I need to fingers to scroll? The Sony Vaio I bought almost nine years ago had one-finger scrolling, and so does the Thinkpad. Those who can't handle two mouse buttons readily use two fingers to scroll? I just don't get it.

As the install takes longer than even Fedora 7 the other day (Why exactly is verifying the integrity of the DVD mandatory?), I'm writing this post on my Thinkpad, immensely enjoying the luxury of a delete key and a right button on the touchpad. I scroll down and hit 'Publish Post'.