So, flipping through the otherwise good MeeGo SDK setup instructions, I was pretty disheartened to see this:

Next, configure X on the host machine to enable the Simulator (running from the chroot) to access the display of the normal user:

xhost +local:

This gives everyone who can execute anything on your machine full permission to rip your credit card numbers out of Chromium and your password out of gnome-terminal. Sweet. This comes up all the time, so man wouldn't it be great if there was some kind of better way?

xhost +SI:localuser:usernametogiveaccesstogoeshere

I'm pretty sure this has been available in every single X.Org release since 6.8 or so, so next time you see someone advocating something as daft as the above, please point them towards the correct way. Thanks.

(Pushed it with the wrong date originally; couldn't fix it without bumping it to the top again. Sorry!)

So, I spent an hour or two this afternoon following the iPhone 4 liveblog. It all looked fairly compelling (the screen!), right up until Steve's 'and one more thing': video calling.



HELLO I'M IN 2007, CAN YOU HEAR ME
(Photo of the Nokia N800, which shipped in January 2007, from rnair.)

The moral of the story? If you want to be four years ahead of the WWDC closing bombshell, email sales@collabora.co.uk. :)


PS: The 2010 'fuck it, we're going to fivefour blades' version; we also had a six-way video call going earlier today.