I used to use a wordpress theme called DarkPad, i have taken this theme and essentially made the inverse (and called it LightPad) plus some other tweeks.
Tell me what you think… I am always open to suggestions.
Posted by mb under Mods, Server Stuff | Comments (0)
2009.01.10 - edit - The links to the pictures are now broken, i migrated servers and did not bring the old gallery to the new host.
If you know me, then you know a few things about me; I use a Dvorak keyboard layout and I am rarely satisfied with the norm. Now if you know anything about Dvorak, the keyboard is laid out much more ergonomically, all the vowels are under your left hand on home row, and under the right is the most used consonant. The major reason I switched to Dvorak was my wrists; using Qwerty my wrists hurt almost constantly. It took about a month to switch, and now that I have my wrists don’t hurt.
So at this point I am assuming that I have you convinced. Now you want to know, where can I get an inexpensive Dvorak keyboard… well there in lies the problem. They are not cheap, and anything you could find for a reasonable price is so ugly you wouldn’t want to touch it.
For the past few years I have been using an IBM keyboard from the mid-eighties. This keyboard kicks butt. By default it is a QWERTY keyboard, but all the keys are interchangeable so switching it to a Dvorak layout is trivial. The keys have excellent tactile feedback, and a great mechanical ‘Click’ sound for every keystroke you make. But i find myself missing my old school Microsoft Natural keyboard (There was an incident, water was involved, keyboards were hurt).
Recently Microsoft released a new version of the Natural Keyboard, with a better design than ones of late; mainly the insert / delete / home … keys are back to their standard layout. The keyboard is the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000. It features a whack of media keys and a “Zoom” slider that can be hacked for more useful purposes. The major problem is of course that it is not offered in dvorak, so we need to fix that.
Step 1.
Get a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000. If it doesn’t come in a brown or white box you are paying too much. I got mine from MemoryExpress for $50 CAD, and it came with a fancy tilt wheel mouse.
Step 2.
Remove the letters that we need to re-label
Step 3.
Sand off the original lettering. Yes, you are going to paint them anyway, but if you don’t the flat spot where the letters are printed will be visible when you are done.
Step 4.
Paint. I recommend Krylon Fusion because it bonds to the the plastic. and a satin finish to better match the rest of the keyboard. If you have some magic way of making a laser printer print white toner on a clear label then I definitely recommend the satin black. Since my color laser printer prints everything but white I had to choose a paint color that would allow the black letters (on the clear label) to be seen. So silver it is.
Step 5.
Print the letters on clear labels, and place them on the FRONT of the keys. If you place the letters on the top of the keys, I suspect it wont be long before they come off and leave a sticky mess.
Download my letters template (letters.doc). Even though its a ms-word doc, I suggest using OOo.
Step 6.
Re-assemble the labeled letters on to the keyboard.
Step 7.
Enjoy.
Also available in un-lettered black.
I have used this keyboard at work for about a month now. The paint looks as good as the day I sprayed it, but I do miss the feel and sound of the old IBM keyboard. (although I’m sure my co-workers don’t miss it.)
Here is the mod gallery.
Posted by mb under Hacks, Mods, Tips | Comments (2)
