June 6, 2007
I am a big fan of keyboard shortcuts. The 3 shortcuts I use the most are not known to most people, they are cut, copy and paste. Now this is not the standard CTRL-X, C, & V but better (IMHO). Here they are:
copy : CTRL-INSERT
paste: SHIFT-INSERT
cut : SHIFT-DELETE
These shortcuts work in almost every application I have come across (except a few Java applications), AND it works on both windows and Linux. Also if you switch between a qwerty and dvorak keyboard layout, the keys for the shortcuts don’t change with your layout (like C, V and X do.)
Posted by mb under Applications, Tips | Comments (0)
May 22, 2007
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)
January 10, 2007
I made a few coasters last weekend with Nero 7. I was getting a helpful “Unspecified Reader Error”. After some searching I found a few posts that recommended downgrading to Nero 6. So I dug through the archives and found a demo version of Nero 6.6. Tried to install it, and what do i get… a message saying the Demo is too old and I should download the latest (which would be Nero 7… the one that is causing the problems.)
I have been a huge fan of Nero Burning Rom for years and years, however I have found of late the software is no longer what I am looking for. Apart from making coasters, Nero 7 (and Nero 6 somewhat) is starting to become bloat-ware. All I am interested in is nice reliable SMALL program that does what I need it to. Nero Burning Rom used to be that program. Now Nero comes with tons of other programs that I have no need for (ie. Nero Scout, Digital, PhotoShow, Recode, Vision….). I know i don’t have to install all the programs but some, like Nero Scout, you don’t have a choice.
So the search was on for a different burning program, something small, not bloated, and does what I need it to do. I found two options, CDBurnerXP Pro, and DeepBurner Free. Both options are free (or have a free option). I haven’t yet tried CDBurnerXP since DeepBurner did what I was looking for.
I started with DeepBurner Free because there is a “Portable Edition” that is less than a 3MB download, and since it is “Portable” it doesn’t require an install… just unzip and run. That is exactly what I did. I have used it to burn disks in my laptop drive and a USB drive, on DVD+R and DVD+RW, and every one of them burnt without issue. Sure the interface isn’t pretty, but it doesn’t need to be.
Does this mean I am going to stay with DeepBurner Free forever… No, I will however use it until it no longer fills my needs (or starts making coasters).
Posted by mb under Applications | Comments (0)
December 20, 2006
I got tired of always copying text off web pages and pasting it into Google, I also got tired of copying and pasting non-hyperlinked URLs on websites… The solution is a bookmarklet that i created, I call it:
Goto Selection
The linked page explains more and gives examples… check it out.
Posted by mb under Tips, Web | Comments (0)
December 20, 2006
I have been busy setting up a blog for Kyran and finalizing the Photo Gallery setup (and adding more pictures), hopefully now I can do more posting and less setup… provided I can find the time.
Posted by mb under Family | Comments (0)
December 15, 2006
What goes better with a new camera than a new photo gallery? The gallery is running beside this blog on my home server. The software i decided to use is called Gallery2. It is quite easy to install and super customizable. The gallery comes with 6 themes and has 56 modules. Almost every theme and module can be configured, this leads to an almost overwhelming level of customization. I like how i have it configured… for now.
I have also changed the default logo to one I created…. if you can call a bunch of fading dots a logo.
Check out the new Gallery.
Posted by mb under Photos, Server Stuff | Comments (0)
December 9, 2006
Kyran Macpherson came into the world on December 9, 2006. He is 9 pounds and 6.8 ounces, and 21 inches long.
Posted by mb under Family | Comments (0)
December 7, 2006
After tons of humming and hawing, I finally decided on what camera to buy. I originally purchased the Canon S3, great camera, but it just wasn’t quite what I was looking for, so back to the store it went. After weighing the pros and cons, I finally decided on the Nikon D80 with 18 - 135mm lens (quite the step up from the S3). So what should I take pictures of …. hmmm…. I know my pregnant wife:
This image has of course been webified the original is full of 10 mega-pixel goodness.
Update: Check out more photos of Jori throughout the pregnancy here.
Posted by mb under Photos | Comments (0)
December 6, 2006
The folks at lifehacker.com had an excellent tutorial on running your own wordpress blog on your personal computer… not that the steps are that hard (it is really quite easy), I just had not realized how easy it is to go from boring XP to full on server with useful web applications.
The article suggests using wamp as the base server, but i decided to use xampp. I have toyed with it in the past, and have wanted something useful to do with it…. this is my opportunity. (there is more addons for my new server to come too.)
Since I am never satisfied with normal, the server is being run from inside a virtual machine. The biggest advantage of doing it this way is the ability to backup the virtual hard files regularly. If at some point down the road I mess up the install, i can easily recover from a backup without having to re-install any thing. It also lets me move the virtual machine between physical machines without having to do any reconfiguration. Lastly I believe it is a little safer to compartmentalize the public server which should keep the host machine away from the prying eyes of the evilweb.
Posted by mb under Server Stuff | Comments (0)
