Best Tiny Bubbles Ever: Jim Butcher is in Toronto filming a scene as an extra in the upcoming tv show THE DRESDEN FILES, based on Jim’s own books. *beams like an idiot*! To quote Jim, “So I’m standing there, with Butters and Murphy and Harry, only EVERYBODY ELSE CAN SEE THEM TOO.”
AHAHAHA *beam*
Lots of bubbles today:
Fuel-cell hydrogen-powered motorcycle. Top MPH of 50, which they’re complaining about as being snail-like, but I think it sounds awesome. I want one. More here.
I swear I’ll lose thirty pounds so I’ll look That Hot if someone will just buy me this military jacket. It’s even a tax writeoff! (And, ok, it’s a Bon Jovi thing. I’m a fangirl, what can I say?) (Jesus, they only come in XSmall, Small, and medium. I’d probably fit in a medium, but jeez.)
Wood computer & stereo cases. V. sexy.
The new Apple iPhone is, to quote
So I went out searching on the intarwebs and found this site yesterday, which allows you to practice a dvorak keyboard without actually converting yours over. It gives you words in 200 word blocks so you can practice.
After 800 or a thousand I was getting pretty comfortable with the home row keys, so I switched up to the next level. Which … went … much … more … slowly … :) Exhausted my little brain, trying to keep the right letters in mind.
However, I’ve got to say that it’s a fairly intuitive layout (which, yes, I gather is the point); the worst problems for me so far have been the O and U, which, in home-row words, don’t get enough use for me to remember where they are. Switching up to the next level, where I started to use more letters, helped me start to get over that. It introduced the next difficulty, though, the L key switch: “L” is where a QWERTY keyboard’s “P” key is, which basically puts it close enough to where it “belongs” to confuse my brain. Similarly with the E/D switch: close enough to home to be confusing, obvious enough in placement to be natural.
Problems that are possibly unique to me and I find amusing: on a standard, non-ergonomic keyboard, I hit the “Y” key with my left index finger. You’re supposed to hit it with your right index finger, but I cross over. Can’t do it on an ergonomic keyboard, obviously, because the layout stretches it too far away. But the example keyboard they’ve got on the screen on that page is a standard one, so looking at it makes me reach for the “F” key (where the “Y” is on a qwerty board) with my left hand. And miss. :) I also had to type out some stuff just to see what finger I typically hit the “R” key with (left index), so I could explain to my brain that it would be more efficient to try to hit the new “P” key with that finger instead of the left middle, which I kept trying to do.
I’ll probably keep doing dvorak postings for the next several days while I work on switching over to that layout. I’m sure you’re all really excited about that. It’s kind of fun, though, or at least, *I* think so! :)
“The new Apple iphone is basically made entirely out of sex.”
Yes, I think that about sums it up.
Yr link to the wood computer case, um, isn’t. It’s another Bon Jovi jacket. Girl, you’re obsessed; buy the bloody jacket, and get over it…
Huh. The link to the jacket I see says they go all the way up to XXL.
-laughs-!
*fixes the link* Thanks. :)
That, apparently, would be because I linked to the mens’ version of the jacket. Which I presume is cut differently from the womens’… *fixes the link* :)
made entirely out of sex.
Sex and money, I think. Or perhaps sex that can only be bought with large piles of cash. See http://darkforge.livejournal.com/84415.html.
50 mph for the motorcycle isn’t all that bad. I keep looking at the electric cars, and wondering why they can’t get the top speed up to something you can drive outside a development.
Good luck with the switch! You won’t regret it. :)
To quote Jim, “So I’m standing there, with Butters and Murphy and Harry, only EVERYBODY ELSE CAN SEE THEM TOO.” *ROTFLOL* That is awesome!
OH WOW, Jim as an extra. That is too, too terribly cool. :D
Does Jim get to die horribly in the background? >:)
http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=386
The more iPods, cell phones, laptops, PSP’s, and now power tools people buy, the lower the price gets. LiIon batteries good.
Second the luck!
I switched a while back, then chickened out because I had problems with a few games. Then switched back because I wasn’t gaming. So I’ve now been using Dvorak for…a year and a half? or something like that. I started out being able to type 30wpm on either QWERTY or Dvorak, but I’m at the point now where I type 20wpm on QWERTY and 80 minimum on Dvorak. Last time I checked my sustained typing speed, I was nicely in the 80-90 range, but I can peak around…I think it’s 110 or so; I don’t really care. My error rate is something around 3-8%, depending on how much typing I’ve been doing recently, and which model of keyboard I’m using (and have been using recently). My typing speed and accuracy really impresses people, for some reason…and then they borrow my keyboard to type a few lines, and wonder why gibberish shows up. I *love* confusing people.
I was always going for accuracy in typing, not speed as such; there are three programs I found helpful there: the Stamina typing tutor, the KP Typing Tutor, and TyperShark ($20); I found the last one first, and the first two much more recently. Speed comes with confidence, from what I’ve found, so go for the accuracy. I still typo on occasion during normal typing, but not as frequently as I did before I switched.
I use Dvorak almost exclusively, and generally don’t play games all that much. Probably because I grew up reading, not playing lots of video games, I accumulate games but lose interest in them because they (generally) require less imagination. Of course, there could well be another explanation….