Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

byok.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 70 posts

Re: BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

#51

Post by tomjen3 »

wenc wrote: post #34

There are a bunch of distraction-free writing devices, from the BYOK to the Freewrite. They range for $100 - $500. List here: https://kadavy.net/distraction-free-writing-devices/ To me, YAGNI. Let me suggest two cheaper alternatives (battletested by me): 1. Fountain pen and a nice notebook with nice paper (Mnemosyne, or Rhodia) 2. A foldable Bluetooth butterfly keyboard ($43 on Amazon) paired to an old tablet (I have…

You can get any old thinkpad, remove the WiFi module and then you have the full choice of any writing app you want to use.

Re: BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

#53

Post by john_the_writer »

jval43 wrote: post #41
wenc wrote: post #34

There are a bunch of distraction-free writing devices, from the BYOK to the Freewrite. They range for $100 - $500. List here: https://kadavy.net/distraction-free-writing-devices/ To me, YAGNI. Let me suggest two cheaper alternatives (battletested by me): 1. Fountain pen and a nice notebook with nice paper (Mnemosyne, or Rhodia) 2. A foldable Bluetooth butterfly keyboard ($43 on Amazon) paired to an old tablet (I have…

100% agreed. Save your money. That's also my opinion after spending several thousand on a couple of these devices over the years, only to find that they don't solve my problems. E-ink is slow and is hard to read because of the low contrast. And contrary to all the marketing it actually increased eyestrain for me because it's so dark. Not to mention the software on all the tablets I had was severely lacking, slow and…

I find a clipboard is nicer than a notebook. Pen and a folded A5 works nice. I learned Gregg (or partly learned it). I do use my iphone and bluetooth headset to isolate. Phone stays in the pocket.

Re: BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

#54

Post by john_the_writer »

jimbob45 wrote: post #40
wenc wrote: post #34

There are a bunch of distraction-free writing devices, from the BYOK to the Freewrite. They range for $100 - $500. List here: https://kadavy.net/distraction-free-writing-devices/ To me, YAGNI. Let me suggest two cheaper alternatives (battletested by me): 1. Fountain pen and a nice notebook with nice paper (Mnemosyne, or Rhodia) 2. A foldable Bluetooth butterfly keyboard ($43 on Amazon) paired to an old tablet (I have…

1. Fountain pen and a nice notebook with nice paper (Mnemosyne, or Rhodia) Spending money is overrated. The pen at the back of your junk drawer from a hotel you don’t remember staying at will do just fine. There’s a notebook in there too that’s as good as new if you just rip out the first page.

Agreed, but sometimes a nice pen, and a paper makes the task more fun.

Re: BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

#55

Post by Tepix »

I have an alternate proposal:

• buy a ball-head typewriter. Very satisfying to write on. And you get to see your text on paper right away.

• modify it to have a USB interface

• setup a Pi Pico to log all text entered on the typewrite

• when you connect the Pi Pico to your PC it replays the entered text at high speed.

Re: BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

#56

Post by ajsnigrutin »

scripturial wrote: post #44
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #18

Why is this so expensive? Raspberrypi zero 2w + some stripped down OS that boots directly to an editor, lcd display and a nice case would be much cheaper. Also easier to implement other stuff, like different fonts, use your own 'cloud' to sync stuff (and not being forced into a subscription), etc.

Parts for something like this? $1 ESP32, $5 LCD, $2 lithium battery, $5 3D printed case. Assembly? (Depending on quantity) maybe $5. This is max $20 to build. I guess if you want something like this but don’t have time to build it it could be worth $100

And the regular (non-reduced price) is $200.

Which is already in the chromebook price teritory

Re: BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

#57

Post by ajsnigrutin »

TylerE wrote: post #22
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #18

Why is this so expensive? Raspberrypi zero 2w + some stripped down OS that boots directly to an editor, lcd display and a nice case would be much cheaper. Also easier to implement other stuff, like different fonts, use your own 'cloud' to sync stuff (and not being forced into a subscription), etc.

Because a bag of parts isn’t a functioning device, and things like labor and customer support cost money? Things like a “nice case” can only be done affordably when you’re stamping out tens of thousands of the things.

Sure, but the full price is $200, which is already in the cheap laptop range. With much more functionality, more expensive parts and yes, with labor and customer support.

ASUS E410 is $159 currently on Bezos' website.

Re: BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

#58

Post by ajsnigrutin »

nkrisc wrote: post #30
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #18

Why is this so expensive? Raspberrypi zero 2w + some stripped down OS that boots directly to an editor, lcd display and a nice case would be much cheaper. Also easier to implement other stuff, like different fonts, use your own 'cloud' to sync stuff (and not being forced into a subscription), etc.

Wait until you find out the BOM for every device costs less than the retail price.

Sure, but the retail price of a ASUS E410 laptop (some celeron, 4gb ram, 64gb storage) is currently $159 on bezos' website.

So for the same price, I either get some small gadget that is horrible to actually use (just try scrolling through tens of pages on this), or a full featured laptop (yes, performane-wise it sucks, but less than the gadget) and just run gEdit fullscreen. Keyboard included.

Re: BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

#59

Post by dsr_ »

TZubiri wrote: post #28
dsr_ wrote: post #26

"Universal keyboard compatibility" -- bah! I have working keyboards in my possession that this thing cannot connect to. - No ADB port for a Mac keyboard - No Sun Type 5 Mini-DIN - No PS/2 port - No PC keyboard port - No Newton serial keyboard port - No RJ11 for an LK-201 So much for universal.

I'd like to see that collection of keyboards Do you have any interesting layout and language variations?

Not really; I have pretty much the "standard" keyboard for each of a bunch of systems.

The most interesting thing about them is the range of variability in quality. Some of that is survivorship bias, but I think it's remarkable that the Newton MP2000's keyboard works at all -- as far as Apple products go, it looks like a product of the middle Mac age but feels like the worst membrane HP ever shipped with their bottom-range consumer PCs.

Re: BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard

#60

Post by hasperdi »

Tepix wrote: post #55

I have an alternate proposal: • buy a ball-head typewriter. Very satisfying to write on. And you get to see your text on paper right away. • modify it to have a USB interface • setup a Pi Pico to log all text entered on the typewrite • when you connect the Pi Pico to your PC it replays the entered text at high speed.

No need for the trouble with USB / Pi. You can use an app on your phone to OCR the paper.
Post reply on HN