Fixing mouse button/wheel from unintended double clicking

I am currently using a cyborg R.A.T. 7 on my desktop which, after less than a year, has started exhibiting signs of wear. This is evident from the fact that a simple click of the wheel will at around 60% of the time send a double click instead. This is due to the membranes (ie: the switches) wearing away causing it to be faulty. Naturally, this is driving me completely nuts since opening a hyperlink using the mouse wheel will, most likely, open the hyperlink twice.

Aside from fixing the problem by sending it back to the manufacturer, it’s possible to just ‘patch’ up the problem using AutoHotKey (http://autohotkey.com/). The program allows you to programatically control actions sent by your mouse or keyboard. In order to fix the problem described above, run the following ahs script:

MButton::   
   If (A_TimeSincePriorHotkey < 150)
      Return
   Send {MButton}
Return

The above will simply check whether the double click is below 150ms. If it is below 150ms, the double click is effectively ignored as it's improbable that any human can click that fast. You may raise or lower this depending non your requirements, though a higher number for the middle button wouldn't hurt since it's rare to ever need to double click the wheel anyway.

You may want to replace MButton with LButton or RButton as well in case your mouse is defective on the left or right button. For more information on different keys, see http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/KeyList.htm

Oh, and I do not recommend the Cyborg mouse at all. Aside from its modern appearance, it is not a very good mouse. It's a little uncomfortable to use despite the fact that it is 'customizable', and I miss the free scrolling mode which my logitech G500 has. My G500 after 3 years of use still seems to work flawlessly.

Boot into Single User on Darwin/x86 (Mac OSX 10.6) on VMware

I was frustrated for over an hour trying to get into single user mode on a mac which was running under vmware. Supposedly, you’re suppose to hit ⌘-S while it is booting in order to get into the rescue mode. However, this doesn’t seem to work, at least on my PC keyboard (I tried hitting Win-S and Alt-S) through VMware Workstation 8.

Instead, try:
1. Restarting the VM
2. hitting F8 while booting Darwin/x86.
3. At the boot menu, select the hard disk option (h)
4. Specify the boot parameter ‘-s’ for single user (just like linux)

That should boot you into single user mode, allowing you to reset your password amongst other things.

To reset a password:
1. umount -uw /
2. launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
3. dscl . -passwd /Users/username password – You may see an error, but it should be fine.
4. reboot