Disable Your Touchpad While Typing

Do you ever have problems with your netbook or laptop when typing? Maybe when you’re typing all of the sudden a big segment or all of your text is mysteriously gone! Or maybe while you’re typing every now and then the cursor mysteriously moves or jumps to odd places and messes up your typing? Or perhaps some similar problem?

Well if that is the case, then the odds are high that your Touchpad is the problem! I never have this problem (because my hands are so big they are almost always well away from the touchpad when I type), but I know a lot of people who struggle with this, and it can be quite frustrating from what I’ve been told.

Well here is an easy solution: Disable the Touchpad automatically whenever you are typing! Sounds great doesn’t it? But you’re probably wondering… “Oh man, ‘EASY’ — Yeah Right! How difficult is this really going to be to setup?” and the answer is that it is actually really simple and you only have to do it once!

I’ve figured out a way to do it in on Ubuntu, Windows, and even Mac (though I can’t test it on Mac as I don’t have a Macbook, so if it doesn’t work, let me know). Here’s how to do it…

Disable Your Touchpad While Typing In:

Ubuntu

1. Go to: System->Preferences->Mouse
2. Select the “Touchpad” Tab
3. Check: “Disable touchpad while typing”
4. Close the window, you’re done

Ubuntu Mouse Preferences

Note: If you are using the Unity interface (which comes default in Ubuntu 11.04) you can find the Mouse Preferences by clicking on the Ubuntu logo in the top left, then typing in “Mouse” in the search box. It should show up under the “Applications” section as the first choice.

Windows

1. Download TouchFreeze (it’s free)
2. Install it by running the executable file (it’s an MSI extension, which is an executable, just double-click it or select it and press enter/return)
3. Check your taskbar (usually bottom right, near the clock) and make sure it’s running. It will look like a little touchpad with a green checkmark. If it’s not there, run it from the start menu. It should run automatically every time you boot up your computer and as long as it’s running, it will work.
4. That’s it, you’re done

TouchFreeze Running in the Taskbar

Note: I’ve tested this in Windows XP and Vista. I have not tested it in Windows 7, but I have been told it works without problems there too.

Mac

1. Open your System Preferences
2. Click on Trackpad
3. Check: “Ignore Accidental Trackpad Input”
4. Close/Quit the window, you’re done.

Mac Trackpad Options

Note: Again, I haven’t tested this yet in Mac as I don’t have a Macbook so please let me know if I need to change anything here. If you can’t find that option (or something equivalent) it may be under the Keyboard or Mouse sections of the System Preferences.

WordPress Logo by koka_sexton via Flickr

So I noticed yesterday that a newer version of WordPress was available. I clicked on the upgrade link and proceeded as usual until I was presented with the following error:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 2515174 bytes) in /var/www/usr/htdocs/wordpress/wp-includes/http.php on line 1327

This appeared very odd to me at first… 33,554,432 bytes allowed, but when it attempted to allocate only 2,515,174 bytes it caused a fatal error? Well as strange as that looks, there’s an easy fix…

(note, I assume you already backed up your DB and existing wordpress installation — proceed at your own risk)

To Fix*: (assuming you want to use the auto-upgrade feature still and not a manual upgrade)
———————————————

1. Open your existing wp-config.php file in a text editor of your choice
   (note: if your blog is hosted on your computer you can just open the file and save it when you’re done, if your blog is hosted on an external server like mine is, you’ll probably need to FTP or SSH in, retrieve a copy, edit, then upload the new version).
2. Scroll down to almost the end of the file and you should see a comment that looks like this:
   
   

   /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

   
   you want to put the code in step 3 just above this comment.

3. Insert the following line of code on it’s own line (mine is on line 67):
   
   

   define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');
   

4. Save the file (and be sure to upload the new copy if you have an external host).
5. Go back to your dashboard, click the upgrade link, and proceed as normal.

I hope this helps someone, I know it helped me…

*special thanks go to the kind folks found here: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/344567