March 24th, 2015
I develop programs. I touch type. I use a keyboard extensively. I use Microsoft sculpt, Falbatech ergodox, 1337keyboard and BecerroInamovible.
I don’t take light on keyboards and don’t understand other keyboard jockeys that just use whatever comes with the machine.
I’d love to make my own keyboard.
Here is a the Geekhack forum for DIY and buy.
Software:
I have made my own 1337 keyboard layout that mixes the layout of Us-En (good for programming languages), Swedish (my language of birth) and Azerty (switched numbers/characters in top row). I used it with my Autohotkey based BecerroInamovible for an extra layer of keys.
Hardware:
But until then I keep track of existing. Both ergonomic for extensive use and portable for mobile use.
Atreus. DIY or order. Ergonomic. Open source. Looks wireless. Looks awesome for typing and hacking. Me want.
Ergodox. F/OSS. Kickstarted if I remember correctly.
Falbatech is a Polish copy of Ergodox. I have one made out of bamboo and it looks gorgeous. Presently I am training myself in using it. Since there are fewer buttons than an ordinary keyboard I have to remap my fingers. On the other hand I can decide what each button does so it will be natural for me.
Keyboardio home page. is open source and ergonomic. A bit ugly but triggers my want-hormones. It also has a wooden surface and and an Arduino to run it all. Kickstarted successfully. A colleague of mine has it but doesn’t like it due to not having separate arrow keys. For me that is not a problem as I use a meta key, like I do with my Authotkey based BecerroInamovible solution.
Ultimate hacking keyboard. Split. Crowdsourced.
Waytools Textblade. For mobile use. Blue tooth. Qwerty layout but not totally touch type. From about 100€. Might work.
Id love to get my hands on one to test and review.
Update: I have stopped tracking ergonomic keyboards
January 16th, 2011
Just installed a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo RND2110 1TB.
+ Small.
+ 2 disks with a variety of RAID.
– Unfortunately with a proprietary solution called Xraid which we know nothing about. This is considered Not Good for a device that manges data. What if a disk fails? Is it readable again? Noone knows since Xraid is proprietary.
+/- Outside transformator. Make it easier to place but one more thing lying around. For me it was good.
+ Easy to reach disc bays.
( – Noisy.
Noisy like a fan running at full speed. Always. Netgear themselves have written that the developers took the drive to the bedroom to make sure it was quiet. My comment: 0ne developer was deaf and the other had the device turned off. It might be faulty unit I have.
UPDATE: replaced the unit without any problem and the new one was quieter. There was some error where the machine didn’t recognise the fan. ) I won’t say it is quiet because it isn’t. But it isn’t noisy.
– The hard drives that came with the machine has gotten louder. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of them and am too lazy to open up and check.
+ Dropped some movies into the folder called media. Started an xbmc client on a laptop, browsed the LAN, chose, and the movies streamed.
+ At first glance (I haven’t researched) the site/forum/users at readynas.com seems good. Having a user base and a community is good.
+ Supports Time machine for Mac. But it only supports 1 client since the user name is hard coded.
– Slow web admin interface.
– Crashes once in a while.
+ Supports dyndns but only with a 3 letter suffix. E.g.: not myname.dyndns.info. I guess it is the 3 letter suffix that is the culprit at least; I got …dyndns.com working.
+ It can report errors both through built in SMTP server and through logging in to gmail and send from there.
+ Easy to setup backup. Just connect a drive to USB, or find a windows share or an FTP or some other endpoints I cannot remember now. Choose weekdays to backup and which folders (has some choosings) and whether to backup all or inrementally (and overwrite once a week or so). Seems a bit slow though. Can report automatically both errors and success per email.