Xah Keyboard Blog Archive 2017-10
Microsoft Classic Intellimouse
(on its own page. Updated info.)
Trackball History
updated
This is the first DIY keyboard, around 2009.
how i love happy hacking
oh yeah, i love happy hacking. it makes me happy, and hacking, and all cool kids in town married one.
on the first day of xmas i love its F1 key. On the 2nd day of xmas i love its F2 key. On the 12th day i love its F12. On the 13th Friday i love its virtual arrows. I can finally live my life in virtual Doom.
when friends come over, they envy my expensive brick. All the chicks wanna touch it. I can't even fight their dirty hands off.
i used to pride in thinking, but the hhkb made me unthink fast by bouncing on rubber domes. Colleagues can't even tell with my fingers all over in production.
highly recommend: once you get this you'll forget about touch typing and never pain again
see Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB)
context reddit
updated.
I credit @xah_lee with opening my eyes to the importance of spacebar size and modifier key placement. (It did ruin some otherwise great keyboards for me, e.g., Sun Type-5.) @XBowstech seems to have some original ideas here that also feel like they would be genuinely useful.
from Davor Cubranic (@OddsAndBits) https://twitter.com/OddsAndBits/status/936965933326770176
Thanks!
the article about space bar is Tiny Spacebar
Ask Xah, emacs, JavaScript, keyboard, 2017-12-01 at https://www.patreon.com/posts/15656041
just upgrade Mac to “High Sierra”. The dwell feature (autoclick) got screwed. One humongous keyboard panel pops up everytime mouse is moved. Solution: use the panel editor, and create a panel of just 2 buttons, click, and pause, and make it not disappear.
see Mac: Hover Mouse Auto Click (updated for macOS High Sierra)
Is Keyboard Tenting Important (Wrist Pronation) (minor update)
updated, the series:
this just became available on amazon.
the famous IBM Model M keyboard (1985) (major update)
Keyboard Firmware (updated)
if you like my writings, put in few bucks in my patreon. https://www.patreon.com/xahlee Saves you some bucks from buying the wrong keyboard.
added a video by Chyrosran22. Hilarious.
removed comment system on my site
just removed disqus comment on all my sites for now. They are now forcing image ads. And their ads are those low quality sensational types. To opt ad free, would be $10/month. But, comment takes 30min/day to reply, and 95% are garbage. (i have 5 thousand pages on my sites) might add back, we'll see. let me know what you think.
Heavy Metal Apple Keyboards. Weights a brick. literally.
Keybinding Design ⌨ (new index page)
San Francisco Bay Area Keyboard Meetup 2017-11 Impressions
now with tens of photos
patreon answers. what keyboard has macro keys on the side. https://www.patreon.com/messages/1778777
also, tested this out yesterday at meetup. it's excellent!
new photo, of xbows keyboard's double-injection keycap, bottom X-Bows Keyboard
Best Way to Insert Parenthesis/Brackets (minor update)
own the couch!
funny!
ask me keyboard questions. At https://www.patreon.com/posts/15199065
Esrille New Keyboard (updated. new pic and new info)
Keyboards without Numeric Keypad (updated)
Leopold FC660C keyboard (updated)
San Francisco Bay Area Mechanical Keyboard Meetup, Saturday, November 11th, 2017
I'll be going! Thanks to Andy Lee.
i'll be there probably 10am to afternoon. Exactly i don't know yet. email or twitter me if you want to get in touch.
so far there are 200 people registered. Be sure to register. I think they allow max of 300.
San Francisco Bay Area Mechanical Keyboard Meetup, November 11th, 2017. any going? give me a holler.
I would like to announce that the Bay Area Mechanical Keyboard Meetup 2017 that is organized by the combined forces of Input Club and myself will be held on November 11th, 2017. Andrew@Inputclub (/u/inputclub), Haata@inputclub (/u/triplehaata), and I, have joined forces to create the BEST, Bay Area/NorCal meetup. We would also like to extend our thanks and gratitude to Yuppie for making this possible. Without Yuppie we would have never been able to secure such an amazing venue. We hope we can see you there.
- At a glance, here are the relevant details:
- Date: November 11th, 2017
- Time: 10am-5pm
- Lunch: Yes
- Location:
- Nest Headquarters
- 3400 Hillview Ave.
- Palo Alto, CA 94304
- USA
- Parking is available
- Transit: Caltrain is a 20 minute walk from California Avenue Station - Also close to the VTA 522 and 22
of ergo keyboards, now i think the correct position for shift is the thumb. keyboardio, esrille, x-bows, did it right.
new page
Keyboard Key Switch Loudness Comparison
most quiet mech keyboard are
• romer g switch. e.g.
hhkb type-s. Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB)
in that order
now there's bluetooth version of Happy Hacking Happy Hacking Keyboard bluetooth
See also: Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB)
best trackball 2017, hit #hackernews. thx to whoever posted it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15533079
corsair glaive mouse
this mouse is interesting, in that it has what seems deep buttons.
i've been thinking that mouse should have deep buttons as keyboard, because they require less effort to click. (you'd appreciate this line of thought only if you have Repetitive Strain Injury)
i haven't looked into this mouse yet. Need research. But putting it here now.
by the way, on linux, i use hover to activate window. Now on Mac, i use the dwell feature (automatically click when pointer is not moving). So, i basically NEVER do mouse click now. However, the auto click feature has its own issues, that you are prone to click by mistake. But i persisted. Basically, you have to train, carefully, when to move the mouse, and where you can rest the pointer.
What is Mouse DPI? Does DPI Matter? (updated)
logitech's mx master mouse has a new version, “2s”. amazon
it's out!
new video added, video by the redoubtable keyboard expert Thomas Ran (aka Chyrosran22)
Xah Revenge on reddit/r/MechanicalKeyboards
Xah Revenge on /r/MechanicalKeyboards reddit
Ok, I see your reason. But let me give alternative view.
Vast majority of people, will never, ever, change keycaps. Now, even mechanical keyboard fans, I'd say, 99% of those who bought mechanical keyboards, will never, ever, change keycap.
who changes keycaps? the people here, which is a very niche group, like, comic book collectors or novelty pen collectors.
and what keyboard that lets you change keycap? not that many! well, vast majority of them are just cherry mx, and 99.99% of those are standard IBM PC flat keyboards. The few exceptions are, ergodox, variations, maltron, truly ergonomics keyboard, and that's almost about it.
This keycap changing love is actually preventing keyboard progress, because by basing on Cherry MX, it prevents the flow of newly designed key switches. For example, Logitch's Romer-g switch, which fixed the cherry mx problem of not able to put led in center thus light leak. But, many will complain, cannot change keycaps!!
as to X-bows design, I disagree with your heavy handed dislike. For example, first consider keyboard innovation. This is very rare. Even in this explosion of ergonomic mechanical keyboard since Truly Ergonomic keyboard about 5 years ago, we have maybe just 1 new design per year, and X-Bows is one of the better ones, and arguably better than ergodox, by introducing back the physical arrow keys and function keys. Let's remember, consider the keyboard user population, I'd say 99% would want physical arrow keys.
and then, stupid center key, huh? there are many keyboard designs, either split, or 1 piece. If we go by one piece and compact, you have this center gap situation. What would you put there? a triangle key? sure, I think that adds 1 key, and might be better. But every cranny of decision we can dislike.
... but let's stand back and look at the broader picture of /r/mechanicalkeyboard/ . Ask an average keyboard user, who suffers the pain of Repetitive Strain Injury, and want ergonomic and mechanical keyboard. What do they think of this forum? Answer: crazy sixteens! But even among us keyboard fans, many of us find it crazy too. You (guys) attack this keyboard, while the dumb of the dumb and the dumbest the Happy Hacking Keyboard and Planck, kept appearing here day after day with stupid shoes!
Character Frequency Plot (updated)
if you like my work, put a few $ at https://www.patreon.com/xahlee Thanks.
Google's ngram is not maintained?
looks like Google's ngram is not maintained since 2012. Dead links.
http://storage.googleapis.com/books/ngrams/books/datasetsv2.html