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eureka!
Originally uploaded by gilesbooth.

I take it all back. Screen rotation does work in OS 10.4.4 – I just needed an external display on my PowerBoook for the option to show up. A humble telly sufficed. Thanks to westy48 for setting me on the right track here.

vertical desktop
Originally uploaded by gilesbooth.

further to my snap at www.flickr.com/photos/gilesbooth/97657473/ …
here’s a proper screenshot of MacOS 10.4 working in portrait mode. You can almost see all is apps in one list!

The Mac Mini is such an obvious tool for kiosks and arrivals boards and the like; it’s small, quiet, reliable, cheap, can be wall-mounted and has DVI output. I’m amazed that the rotate screen option is hidden, and probably missing completely in later versions of OS 10.4.

x-logo
Originally uploaded by gilesbooth.

It was Henry’s academic review at school today. He’s been using a robot called Pixie and programming patterns using 2go. I wanted to play with this stuff at home, but 2go is part of a package costing 75 quid a go.
Anyway, it all reminded me of Logo, a very simple programming language where you move a turtle around using simple commands. It’s fun, and helps to teach programming (breaking down tasks into simple elements and repeating them) and geometry.
I found a very neat, free, OS X version of it called Xlogo at xlogo.sourceforge.net – I’m having fun with it, I’m sure Henry will too.

Sideways Tiger
Originally uploaded by gilesbooth.

Trying to get a Kiosk running in Mac OS X has been a challenge… then we decided we wanted it in portrait format. Tried the undocumented Tiger screen-rotation feature on my Powerbook – didn’t work, maybe because I don’t have an external display, maybe because the OS is too up-to-date. Updated the work MacMini to an old version of Tiger, though, and the option appears – launch System Preferences and hold down the alt (option) key when you click on ‘Displays’ and you get an extra button – rotate.

I can’t help thinking it shouldn’t be this hard. Plus if I get new MacMinis, the trick might not work if the OS is more recent. Still, in Windows you need to buy PivotPro or get the right video card driver.

And of course the version of Applescript bundled with Tiger seems to make apps that give a warning dialogue box when you make calls to the command line, which sucks if you want to use one to run at start-up to launch Opera in kiosk mode (something that you can only do from the command line).

Just had a rather expensive trip to Maplin to get some educational toys for, er, my children.

Got William a Slinky at the checkout.

The Beavis (or Butthead) in me is delighted to discover that they are made by the good people at Poof-Slinky, Inc on Beaver Street, Hollidaysburg, PA.

Visit their web site. Enjoy the Poof-Slinky song and browse the exciting range of Poof Toys! Caution: subsequent analysis of your browser history may cause embarassment.