Xah Keyboard Blog Archive 2016-05

Linux: Keybinding Tutorial

now, there's navigation panel on the left.

Trackball Ball Replacement

Trackball History 🖲

new index page.

ah, smell the sweet history of trackball.

for history's sake, here's

another dead endeavor

lots research on trackball in past days. They are not dying.

old one, new page.

Efficiency: Mouse vs Trackpad vs Touchpad vs Joystick vs Pen Input

another update today.

this one, is a 3D mouse.

as far as design goes, this one is basically a 4-way joystick, plus up/down sensor, and twist clockwise/anti-clockwise sensor, and a non-tilting NSEW 4-way push sensor.

all in all, it actually is inferior to a design based on trackball or mouse, because, as a joystick, it does not have any instantaneous variable speed capabilities, such as in a mouse or trackball or touchpad.

a better design, would be starting with a trackball, then add up/down sensor, and twist clockwise/anti-clockwise sensor, and a non-tilting NSEW 4-way push sensor.

but, if that, still not good because these added movement doesn't have instantaneous variable speed.

so, a even better design is to 1 trackball, 1 joystick, and another one, may be trackball or joystick. The joystick will be used as 8-way control without instantaneous variable speed. For some movement, it's better that way.

but the problem is that now you have multiple parts that you need to hold, as if needing 2 hands operation.

what is instantaneous variable speed?

first, know that there's continuous change of position (mouse) vs instantaneous jump to position (pen tablet)

instantaneous variable speed is like mouse. A joystick is not. It has constant speed. But some joystick has variable speed, depending how far you push it in one direction. But still, the speed change is not random instantaneous variable.

see Math Models of 3D Input Control

lots mouse update in a day. This one, has a updated version with 1 extra button, and also has left hand version. Also, there's now a video review.

updated: Best Trackballs, Xah Pick

Trackballs That Can Spin

Type Habits, How People Actually Type?

Mouse with 2 Scroll Wheels and Thumb Wheel

Using Piano to Type Text, More Efficient Than Steno Machine

computer ball mouse mechanism 2005-s
How Mouse Works

Cute Keycaps

nomic62 keyboard, added to bottom Atreus Keyboard

planck keyboard MustacheRabbit 2015 2-s

Planck Keyboard, my review.

Elecom DEFT Trackball vs L-Trac

found a fantastic trackball video review of Elecom DEFT Trackball, and it also compares to the other best trackball the L-Trac. See Elecom DEFT Trackball (refresh page if you opened it recently)

Sonder Keyboard
each key is a display.

someone posted my hacker keyboards rant to hacker news. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11611635

Trackball Reviews