4.91 km 16120.40 feet 3.05 mi
1597.00 seconds 26.62 minutes 0.44 hours 6.88 mi/hr
Very, very, very short ride today, just for completion. I had never ridden
on the Maple City Trail in Ogdensburg. It only goes up to the first bridge
over the Oswegatchie River, which is too bad, because the steel is still
there. It's lacking only a deck to allow the trail to continue. Oh, and
possibly legal access, since the !@#%$!$%!$ Lighthouse Point Corporation
sold off the railbed as individual parcels to adjoining landowners.
posted at: 22:18 |
path: /bicycling |
permanent link to this entry
I need more experience building my Chordite keyboard. So,
I will build two custom keyboards for two Nokia Internet Tablet users who send me a letter
with a photocopy of their hand along with an explanation of why they
should get a free keyboard. Note that this keyboard only supports Linux, and it's only been tested for the Nokia N800. Send the letter to:
Free Chordite Offer
Crynwr Software
521 Pleasant Valley Rd.
Potsdam, NY 13676
Include your return shipping address, and email address so that I
may notify you of your acceptance. This offer closes September 10th,
so if your letter may take that long to get to me, send it
now. I considered doing this on a time priority basis, but I
want to get the keyboard to the people who want it the most, not the
people who happen to read it first. Plus, I need the hand scan no
matter what.
posted at: 16:36 |
path: /770 |
permanent link to this entry
This keyboard is finally salable. It has worthy
electronics which will give you a nice long battery life. It's
sturdy. It's replicable on a reasonable basis. Right now I'm still
building it on a custom basis, but I have some ideas for how to fit
people with different size hands.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get past the custom firmware
hurdle. I'm using a driver on the Linux side which pulls in seven
different keys and implements the chording algorithm. It works well
enough, but it's restrictive to need a driver. Can't sell into the
Windows or Mac market without modified firmware. Blue Packet has
offered to modify the firmware for a stiff price. Unfortunately, that
requires a larger committment than I can put forth given my current
lack of understanding about how to fit multiple people.
Plus, not only is the fit a problem, but everybody
(everybody, everybody) thinks it's hard to learn how to
use. It isn't, because the most common keystrokes are also the
easiest ones to make. Given the cheatsheet, you can type your name
within five minutes. It's really not that hard, but it's so
unfamiliar to people that it looks hard.
Here's the front of the keyboard, folded for pocketing. Notice
the classy 1/4" plywood and ground-off wood screws. This is for
strength. Relative to the stresses on the keyboard, the 1/4" plywood
is quite strong, and the hinges ensure that the wood meets up with a
hard stop at the limit of its extension.
With the keyboard unfolded for use, you can see the whole wood and
brass steampunk thing going on here. The previous keyboard fell apart
in several ways. This one won't, not even if you throw it into a soft
suitcase and take it on an international trip.
You can see how the upper piece of wood hangs off the knuckle of your first finger, and how your thumb rests on the top of the AAA battery box. The piece of wood at the bottom rests against the base of your palm, and provides one end of the lever that allows your finger knuckles to reliably press against the keys.
Here's how you grip the keyboard. The thumb only holds the keyboard. You press the keys with the knuckles of your four fingers.
Here's how it looks from the edge, or top, of your grip.
posted at: 16:27 |
path: /chordite |
permanent link to this entry
