Darkoshi

keyboard usability

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 18:27:56 GMT

Well, no wonder I've always found this laptop keyboard so hard to type on. It's not that the Insert key is in a different position on the top row than I'm used to. The top row doesn't even *have* an Insert key. It is only present on the zero key at the bottom of the number keypad.

Surely I must have noticed this before (to paste, I end up pressing Ctrl-V instead of Shift-Ins), and yet it feels like a brand new discovery.

In contrast to this one, my work laptop is relatively easy to type on.
The work laptop keys are much easier to read, a thick white text on a black background.
This laptop's keys have thin black text on a grey/silver background, along with light blue alternate text. I always think if I peer hard enough, that light blue text will say "Insert" somewhere but it doesn't.

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keyboard typing sounds espionage

Sun, 27 Sep 2020 22:59:11 GMT

Errant thought this morning while typing on my computer/laptop keyboard:

A program might be able to decipher what is being typed simply by the different sounds each key makes and/or the rhythm of the words being typed.

There are several devices around the house which could be hacked to take audio recordings.

- The Alexa Echo Dot. Often we keep it unplugged, but sometimes I forget that it's still plugged in and turned on.

- The cams; on some of them, I've turned off audio recording, but it's hard to remember which ones and if I've changed the settings or not.

- The cell phones or laptops themselves, or the TV maybe, if they've been hacked to record audio when they aren't supposed to.

This 2005 article cited a study showing it was possible: Acoustic Snooping on Typed Information

The article comments indicate similar things have been done in the past, possibly all the way back to World War 2. So intelligence agencies most likely do have and use that kind of spying.

And if intelligence agencies are using it, it's not too far-fetched that serious & determined hackers could use it too. So that's another keylogging thing for me to be concerned about in addition to the wireless keyboard signals being snooped on.

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standing desk setups

Tue, 17 Jan 2017 05:00:49 GMT

I bought this adjustable shelf to try out as a standing desk setup. It's wide enough for both the keyboard and mouse, and deep enough that I can rest my forearms on it.

At home, my laptop is on an adjustable mount that can be lifted and lowered, so that is how I raise and lower the display. At work, I have 2 monitors, one on the desk for use while sitting, and one on a higher shelf for use while standing (to switch between them, it only requires an alt-ctl-fn key press).

The above is okay in terms of comfort. (Having my skin touch cool metal is unpleasant, so I cover the metal with cloth as in the above photo). But to switch from standing to sitting, I need to re-position the keyboard and mouse from the shelf back to the desk, and move the shelf away. The shelf, while light, is big and awkward to move around. So switching between standing and sitting isn't a very simple matter. (Though, if the keyboard were wireless rather than corded, that would help somewhat.)

I found the below setup to be more convenient.

I use a box (or a stack of books) to raise up my mouse & mousepad. I've found that using the mouse is most comfortable when my forearm is horizontal like that, not angled up or down.
I put a wedge (about 2" high) under the keyboard (or stick something else under the front edge so that it is higher than the back edge). Typing is fairly comfortable to me in that position, even though my palms & wrists don't rest on anything. Without the wedge, I would have to bend my wrists a lot, which quickly becomes very uncomfortable.

To switch from sitting to standing, I just need to move over my box, put the mouse & mousepad on it, and slip the wedge under the keyboard. It's much simpler than the shelf.

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Boston

Wed, 05 Aug 2015 05:46:01 GMT

Nearly half the window shades were kept down during the flights. Have those people flown so much that they are bored with seeing clouds and sky and the land below?

Free soft drinks were still served even though the flights were short.

At the hotel, greeted by a sweet scent of pink petunias.
The room had the same layout as the one in Jacksonville.

Difficult typing without dedicated Home & End keys.

Car alarm that goes off, apparently if you open the car door with the key and don't put the key in the ignition soon enough. Though at first it seemed to go off even when opening the door with the button on the key. The rental car company did not warn us about this; we had to figure it out on our own.

Running Firefox from a USB 2 flash drive is maddeningly slow and jerky even on a laptop with 32 GB RAM.

Parlour Bells played the opening act at the concert. They were quite good. The lead singer reminds me of Billy Idol, without a sneer.

The Culture Club gig was great. They did end up playing most of the new songs I had heard on the SoundCloud page, interspersed between old songs. Here are some videos from the concert that others have posted.

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hunh? who-woulda-thought?

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 06:22:42 GMT

So, apparently a hyphen is different from a minus sign which is different from a hyphen-minus, not to mention the n-dash and m-dash.

Oh. Oh, my. My, my, my.

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refreshened ironed bitten

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 04:07:20 GMT

The "View - Reload" menu item has been removed from version 25 of Firefox. Apparently for quite a while already, "Reload" was only available when pressing "Alt+V" to view the menu. But now it's no longer there at all. I wonder why the Firefox designers feel the need to remove functionality from the menus, when the menus aren't even visible by default anymore.

Why do little changes like this bother me so much? Because it's like coming home to find that all your door handles have been removed and replaced by knobs, and furthermore, the knobs are on the top of the doors rather than in their hitherto-normal positions. Then you find out that for the last 10 years, 98% of other people have been using wireless mobilephone apps to remotely open all their doors, rather than using the door handles.

Now I have to remember to use either F5 or Ctrl+R to refresh the page when I don't have my hand on the mouse. I feel like I'm too old to learn new mnemonics. I can never even remember that Ctrl+Tab is for switching between tabs, even though I constantly use Alt+Tab for switching between windows. (I also can never remember the hotkeys for indenting or outdenting a block of text, in my email program at work).

Hmm. To press either F5 or a Control key combination, I have to look at the keyboard. Maybe that's why I find the menu mnemonics using the Alt keys easier to learn/remember. If I need to copy/paste something while typing, I still tend to use the Alt-Edit-Copy and Alt-Edit-Paste keys. My fingers however, know that Ctrl+Ins, Shift+Ins,and Ctrl-C can also be used.... but I don't use Ctrl-V much because how am I supposed to remember that V is for Paste?

Hmm. When editing text (as opposed to typing), my left hand is in the normal position, but my right hand is centered on the arrow keys. That lets me scroll through the text with my right hand, and also lets me do copy/paste/delete operations using the keys on that side.

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I've found that it is much easier to iron clothes while they are still damp from the washer. No need to first let them dry. No need to put water into the iron, nor to drain it out afterwards. Ironing damp clothes makes them dry faster too.

This makes me more likely to iron clothes right after I've washed them, avoiding an ever-increasing accumulation of wrinkled clothes waiting to be ironed. If I know that I won't have time to iron right after washing, I may not even put those particular items into the wash.

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I've been noticing a recent tendency to bite my lower lip while washing dishes, especially if I'm in a hurry. It's an odd subconscious thing; as if biting my lip will somehow make me get done faster. I have to consciously put effort into not doing it, as it's not a habit I want to have.

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