a thread for those who heard Think Different and took it as a challenge
as a creature that is driven by discontent as much as by novelty, i enjoy trying out different ways of being every so often just for their own sake. one day this'll get me into hot water, but until then i like to think that it helps me to keep my brain active. but i assume that this condition has to be shared with some of the others here – otherwise why would the emacs thread here be so long when vscode works just fine?
so anyway this can be a thread to show off the weird input peripherals that you've become attached to, whether they're hardware or software.
keynovo if98 pro, dvorak layout
i'm not sure why i decided to learn how to type dvorak as a teen. i think the desire came from wanting to type really really fast and choosing a layout that would help me do that, with some background justification that this'll decrease my chance of developing rsi years down the line. although… it mainly made me realize that, even if i am able to type at 100+ wpm, my thinking speed is much slower than that. and as for the rsi question… :')
i knew that other keyboard layouts existed around that time, with colemak having its fair share of supporters, but i opted for dvorak mostly because i figured that it would be available on more devices without needing to install a custom keymap into whatever i was using… hell, some apple ii versions had a switch to change the keyboard layout to dvorak.
as for what the experience of typing in dvorak is like… you know the master hand and crazy hand in smash? typing dvorak honestly feels like that, with the left hand staying pretty fixed while the right hand is all over the place.
and then, as i was shopping around for keyboards after my last one crapped out, i decided that i wanted one with a 1800 layout. a compact version of a full-size that only remove a handful of keys that i never used much to begin with? sure, i'll go for that… i'm sure i'll find a way to manage without the scroll lock key. the downside is that there aren't many options for 1800s, but i do like the one i ended up with. the translucent plastic reminds me of a time that i wish could've stuck around… though you still can find it in places.
elecom ex-g trackball
i saw this one recommended by natalie back when i used to roleplay as a subaru on the fediverse, and seeing it brought back memories of hanging out in my cousin's basement during the windows 98 era, where her former uncle had a whole computer nook with a likely-expensive-for-the-time setup. his computer used a trackball for movement and i thought it was so strange and cool. and since my other mouse was getting a bit fucky and this was so cheap, there'd be no harm in trying this one out.
i ended up taking to it surprisingly well? to the point where i got another one to use with my work computer? i like having a thing to move my cursor around that just stays in place, plus moving the ball around gives enough mechanical friction to make things feel natural in a way that pushing around a hunk of plastic never fully did. i feel like if i did any keyboard + mouse gaming then i would have more of an issue with its lack of quick precision, but i only really play retro console and arcade games so it doesn't bother me.
still, it being so cheap means it has its share of quality issues that came to light. my one at home has issues with clicks instantly doubleclicking and my one at work developed scrollwheel issues quite quickly (oh, and it shipped without one of the tiny guide balls that keeps the big ball stabilized and i had to buy a set of those to fix it). so i'd be interested in trying something else out, but what next? a finger trackball instead of a thumb one? that kensington one that looks like an alien artifact? that expensive one that you can hook foot pedals up to?! the… the ploopy?!
thumb-key / messagease
my first love, after rikku, after my high school crush, was the moto droid 1. it ran an early version of android that was laggy and never felt quite right, the touchscreen was much less precise than the iphone i had before, but it came with a full slide-out keyboard.
i went through two of those phones – both succumbing to water damage in somewhat-embarrassing ways – before my family switched back to iphones for good, yet ever since then i've had occasional dreams where i'd be trying to tap out a word on the touchscreen and having it come out wrong. they used to involve words autocorrecting to ones that i don't want so i turned off autocorrect, and then they started involving me being unable to press the right keys. god i hate on-screen keyboards… so much.
since i got my last phone (pixel 4a, named "Neptune"), i decided to try out gboard's glidetyping feature and i took to it pretty well. i still have to redo about one out of every ten words, and for some words it's easier to just type them out manually, but being able to slide from word to word is kinda fun!
but then i met a girl. she speaks in a way that touches my heart and carries multiple delicious types of pain that i'm attracted to and seek out – that borne by those who live one or two missteps away from ruin, that borne by those who crave love as much as they fear the exposure it entails. she's also the kind of girl who daily-drives qubes and is proud of it, so her condition is kinda telegraphed from the outset… but i think i could love her, and i want to love her in a way that counts.
so when the topic of phone inputs came up and she highly recommended using thumb-key with the messagease layout, i downloaded it that day. it looks just strange and cryptic enough to appeal to me, and the fact that it's very reminiscent of kana pad typing in japanese only made it sweeter.
messagease started as an input layout from the flipphone days, back when your options were either t9 (if your phone supported it!) or hammering on the 7 button just to make a single S. a good amount of research went into constructing a layout that minimized the travel distance between letters, and i find that it flows quite well. so far i've been able to consistently do 25+ wpm, while my equivalent with glidetyping is around 35, so if i'm able to clear that threshold then i'd consider this experiment to be a success.
i'll still probably keep gboard around for japanese input though, as thumb-key's kana pad implementation makes no logical sense and lacks word completion, making it kinda useless.
though while researching phone text inputs recently i also came across 8VIM, which absolutely looks like an alien artifact design. i spent five minutes trying to figure out how to input a single word before giving up and watching a video tutorial, and while i absolutely want to love it now that i know how it works… remember what i said earlier about rsi?
for your introjection,
