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My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

jackevansevo.github.io

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Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#361

Post by pr0zac »

trey-jones wrote: post #332
pr0zac wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not know how to touch type without looking at the keyboard at all or have you just not learned where the numbers are? Shouldn't you take the time to learn to type correctly instead of relying on moving your entire hand just to type a number? I truly do not mean to be insulting or anything, but I read comments like this a lot and they really confuse me. I don't need a numpad because I know how to touch type and…

This seems like some weird flex about being able to type numbers as effectively on the number row as on a number pad (not sure I believe that). I would rather flex that I never have to move my hand to the mouse...

I get why my comment could come off that way but I truly was not trying to show off or talk down. I theoretically know each person and what works for them differs but it can be hard to comprehend someone else’s preferences when they are opposite of your own (which usually feel perfect).

I was being a bit ignorant but was ok looking dumb in hopes of getting a better understanding of that other perspective. Mainly expressed my own as context for where I was coming from. Like yes, I think my opinion is objectively correct (which leaked in some), but I apologized in advance cause I recognize my doing so is irrational.

To maybe balance out my coming off as superior, until moving to a country with chip and pin where it was regularly necessary, I could not touch type on a keypad. I would screw up embarrassingly often when forced to use one. Even once lost a card to an ATM after typing my pin wrong too many times. I rarely used one and thus lacked the muscle memory while typing numbers with the row is engrained from doing it so often for so long.

I will not however have my good name besmirched by the implication I use a mouse while writing code! I’m an old curmudgeon who’s completely incapable of moving off of vim, I would never soil myself in such a manner. The mouse is used if I’m on MacOS where the UI lacks good keyboard navigation as well as the main situation I was having ergonomic issues during, playing video games.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#362

Post by krackers »

tomduncalf wrote: post #180

Big fan of the MS Sculpt myself. I like the "MacBook-esque" low profile keys. The only downsides are: - I've had keycaps fall off after a couple of years and they're almost impossible to get back on (for me at least). The second time this happened I realised it had a 3 year warranty though, so got a replacement. - It requires a dongle rather than Bluetooth, and if you lose the dongle, you're screwed, as they're paire…

>I realised it had a 3 year warranty though, so got a replacement.

Who did you contact to get the warranty? Forums online seem to indicate that MS support is basically non-existent.

As for keycaps, they're similar to macbook pro keycaps in that if the underlying plastic hook is broken, the keycaps won't stay in no matter what. Luckily the plastic hook is also replaceable, the only thing that you never want to break is the rubber nub.

There's a much bigger downside with the ms keyboard, it's the fact that there's an actual bug with the keyboard matrix or something. I don't understand the details, but if you type "SELECT" (all caps) fast enough, you will notice that the second "c" comes out lowercase.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#363

Post by K7PJP »

darkteflon wrote: post #335

Having used many mechanical keyboards over the years - including a Model M inherited from my dad - my dirty little secret is that I keep coming back to the Apple Magic Keyboard. I’d never admit it in public, though.

Me, too.

All of my custom keyboard dreams start from the Apple Magic Keyboard as the basis. I want all 78 keys. I just want them split, and Columnar, and… something like ZSA's new Voyager but preserving the things that make the Magic Keyboard great is what I have in mind.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#364

Post by slaymaker1907 »

frameset wrote: post #16

I really don't understand the numpad-less trend of fashionable keyboards. Doing any kind of number entry beyond one or two digits is very annoying without one. They also don't take up that much space really. If your keyboard is a portable one you pack with you on trips, I get it. If it lives on a desk, why not splash out the small amount extra to make number entry much easier.

Having a narrower keyboard reduces travel time when switching from mouse to keyboard and back.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#365

Post by tnecniv »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #271
taneq wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like those articles on gaming addiction where they're like "Anthony (27) spends up to 8 hours a week playing an online game, and his parents are worried about him!"

Meanwhile, most respondents to this post use a keyboard daily for 8+ hours to do work that's valued extremely highly. Have you seen an auto mechanic's toolbox, or carpenter's tool crib? Using the wrong tool, or even one which is only a few percent less efficient than optimal, is a mistake.

They’re probably sitting in an office chair that is either awful or good but not set up ergonomically

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#366

Post by tnecniv »

frameset wrote: post #16

I really don't understand the numpad-less trend of fashionable keyboards. Doing any kind of number entry beyond one or two digits is very annoying without one. They also don't take up that much space really. If your keyboard is a portable one you pack with you on trips, I get it. If it lives on a desk, why not splash out the small amount extra to make number entry much easier.

For me, I just straight up never use the number pad. I never integrated it into my workflow. It just takes up unnecessary space for me.

What I hate are those tiny arrow keys on the Mac keyboard

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#367

Post by pr0zac »

kedean wrote: post #185
pr0zac wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not know how to touch type without looking at the keyboard at all or have you just not learned where the numbers are? Shouldn't you take the time to learn to type correctly instead of relying on moving your entire hand just to type a number? I truly do not mean to be insulting or anything, but I read comments like this a lot and they really confuse me. I don't need a numpad because I know how to touch type and…

For me personally, the number row is far enough away from the home row that my fingers become inaccurate. It's not unlikely that when I reach for 7 I'll hit 6 instead. That's easy enough to correct in normal operation, less so for entering lots of numbers. Another issue is when doing data entry or 2fa codes, one hand tends to be busy holding something. The number row is basically unusable one-handed as far as I'm con…

Thinking about it after reading the responses, it makes sense a keypad is faster simply from reduced finger travel. Just for me personally, never so much faster having one would outweigh what I gain removing it.

Also possible I never needed to enter numbers often enough prior to learning to touch type with the num row to incentivize finding a more efficient method and once I was regularly typing a lot of numbers my num row method was sufficient.

Also while I don’t remember the exact timeline, because of my dad’s employer, Thinkpads were one of the main types of computers I used as a kid meaning I spent a lot of time growing up using built in laptop keyboards without numpads.

It’s interesting how random quirks during childhood can result in very different ways of looking at a certain topic later in life.

I definitely did a bad job explaining the kb + mouse thing. Writing code I rarely touch the mouse and if I do its for UI navigation that doesn’t support key strokes or is faster by mouse (usually stuff in a browser) so I’m mostly not using the keyboard at the same time (one exception being ctrl/cmd clicking links). I actually keep a trackpad to the left of my keyboard (I’m left handed) which I generally use to mouse during work with minimal arm movement.

The situation where I was getting shoulder issues was playing video games. Getting a compact keyboard let me move my normal hand position inward to be better aligned while playing without the risk my mouse hits the side of the keyboard. I’ve worked from home for almost a decade using the same desk/monitor/keyboard/mouse setup for work and play and since I never used the keypad anyway it was no big deal to just switch both contexts even if doing so was initially only related to gaming.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#368

Post by pxc »

spear wrote: post #328
pxc wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My current favorite keyboard is a Unicomp Mini M, and my collection includes a couple of IBM Model Ms, which I grew up typing on. It's basically a slightly nicer mechanical tenkeyless than the original IBM SSK: lighter, slimmer, native USB, and more simultaneous keypresses, but still hefty and solid, with the same buckling spring action and wonderful curved backplate. Unicomp's brand new Model M keyboards are also qu…

I happily used my Unicomps for more than 15 years. They're still fine but I got a Model F reproduction a couple of years ago. It's much more expensive but the feel is even better!

Ugh, don't tell me that! I've been thinking about those ungodly expensive keyboards for months...

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#369

Post by pxc »

mmphosis wrote: post #349
pxc wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The built-in macOS functionality for remapping modifier keys so that 'PC' keyboards behave as expected in macOS is relatively new, so maybe longstanding macOS users are less aware of it. But third party apps did have the capability to retrofit that into macOS before Apple added that feature, as well.

I am a longstanding Mac OS X user that wishes Linux had an easy way to remap modifier keys. For now, I've settled on having keyd installed: /etc/keyd/default.conf [ids] * [main] leftalt = layer(control) leftcontrol = layer(alt) With AutoKey, I can swap Alt and Ctrl keys for Terminal apps and make my remapped ⌘C and ⌘V work as I expect.

I wish I could remap keys in a universal way to be macOS-like on Linux, because it's really nice to be able to have GNU readline-like shortcuts and CUA-like shortcuts at the same time in every text field. Just swapping the modifiers doesn't feel worth doing in my case since I don't really have a muscle memory problem.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#370

Post by peepee1982 »

someplaceguy wrote: post #182
peepee1982 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you configure the knob to hold down the left mouse button when you turn it and move either up/right or down/left diagonally? If yes, it would be great for adjusting parameters in Audio Workstations. If not, well ... I guess I'm out, sadly.

I believe so, but I'm not 100% sure as I haven't tried that specific configuration. See this URL and search for "Programmable Knob": https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q6-qmk-custom-mec... If you go down a bit, you'll see you can program a knob rotation (in one direction or the other) to perform a macro, including key combinations. I'm pretty sure there are also key designations for mouse movements. That said…

Thanks a lot!
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