Dump post

[roadrunnertwice]

Four things, and I post.

Expansion

Anyone else notice those new "Expand" links in the comment threads? Best new LJ feature ever.

Insomnia

My computer has again developed insomnia. We've already been through this! It was totally fixed! Why is it broken again? Pain in the ass!

Time to back up and call AppleCare again. arrrrrrrggggghhhh.

Under There

Boxer-briefs. Someone explain these to me.

If one has an underwear model's abs, hips, ass, thighs, and package, then yes: boxer-briefs are the most aesthetically pleasing underwear for men. This is the undeniable truth. Until the wearer runs, walks, twitches, or scratches himself, at which point the legs roll into these sort of unappealing donut shapes and the garment rides up and smooshes one's balls.

Boxer-briefs: The underwear for physically perfect men who never move. Get yours today!

ARE WE NOT MEN

So I don't know if I explicitly mentioned it here, but I recently (late November or so) switched to typing on the Dvorak keyboard. Yeah, the weird one with all the keys in the wrong places.

I've always been aware of Dvorak as this completely weird cultural phenomenon, where I've been continuously told that it's better, but never actually known anyone who's made the leap. The whole situation was almost too perfect a cautionary tale, from the genesis of QWERTY as a speed bump in the secretarial parking lot to the world's³ total disinterest in the obviously superior technology. I like a quality fable of inertia and perversity as much as the next guy, but reality really overdid that one. Anyway, I was reading yet another of those perennial earnest appeals for a shiny Dvorak future (the comic book one that was linked on BoingBoing, if you're wondering), and my curiosity finally got the better of me -- could moving the keys around possibly make life that much better? Could I really be faster, sexier, and at less risk for RSI? I had to try it. Preferably while I was still unemployed and could pull that kind of bullshit stunt without mortally pissing anyone off.

It didn't hurt that the piece of evangelism I had in front of me was a particularly slick one. The authors gave heavy emphasis to the two points that silenced my last objections — to wit, that it's possible¹ to keep hold of one's QWERTY speed, and that picking up a new key layout is orders of magnitude faster than developing the fundamental skills of touch typing in the first place. They were dead right on the second one — it only took two or three weeks of (not particularly heavy) typing for me to stop feeling like I was in a foreign country, as opposed to the years it took before I could touch-type worth a damn.

I went pretty low-rent on my teaching strategy: I didn't use any tutor software, and I didn't switch or relabel my keycaps. I just flipped the software switch, found some online typing tests to check my progress on,² and went about my usual business, albeit in an embarrassingly ham-fisted fashion. (Friends, the best way to learn a new keyboard layout is to start IM conversations with people and desperately try to stay in the conversation without looking like a shithead. This I have learned.) And like I said, I managed to escape keyboard aphasia in a matter of weeks, but my lackadaisical training regimen (especially over the winter holidays and their fallout) meant that I improved a little more slowly than most serious switchers seem to.

Which brings us to today's news: A few days ago, I finally cracked 70 in the least-shitty of the online typing tests, which means I am back at status quo ante — 70 WPM is where I topped out at the absolute peak of my QWERTY prowess.

So how's it feel to've spent four months clawing my way back to where I was in the first place? Fucking awesome. I Am Not Being Facetious.

For one thing, I'm still improving at the same speed. The current limiters on my WPM are mental: I'm still shoring up confidence in my key-sense, and I'm still developing my repertoire of clusters. With QWERTY, I had shitloads of clusters and knew the board like the back of my hand, but I was operating at the limit of what my muscles were willing to do; 70 was the end of the road. With Dvorak, I seriously think I'm going to top out at 90 or 100. (I'll keep you posted.)

For another thing, they are not joking about Dvorak being more comfortable. This is the real reason I haven't spent the effort it'd take to hold the line on my QWERTY speed: QWERTY hurts like a motherfucker. Having to type more than a sentence or two on the family computer wears me out, and getting back to my own board is a breath of fresh air. It's quite possible that these four months of slowness and irritation have extended the useful life of my fingers by years. That's no mean feat to someone who hopes to more or less live by the pen. (Well, keyboard. Whatever.)

Besides — and I cannot overemphasize the importance of this — I type on my keyboard and the wrong letters show up. C'mon, admit that is awesome.

---

3: Well, the Anglosphere's, anyway — it's optimized for English and of limited use to everyone else. Still, though, QWERTY isn't any good for anyone.

1: Well, technically — I sure as hell haven't done, but I probably wouldn't have tried this in the first place if someone hadn't claimed that I could. Hope that doesn't bite me in the ass on my next job search!

2: Why oh why oh FRIKKIN' WHY are there no usable typing tests for Mac OS X? The only one that isn't analytically useless eats 100% of one of my processor cores and causes the fans to kick on, which is distracting as hell and not all that great for my MacBook.

Comments

[benefitz.livejournal.com]

Got to disagree with you there on the boxer briefs thing, and I speak as one who certainly does not have an underwear model's abs, hips, ass, thighs, and package. I've been wearing nothing but boxer briefs for about 10 years now, and I find them to be very comfortable. I hate boxers. They ride way the hell up, they offer no support at all, and they don't look particularly good. Briefs at least are comfortable and offer a bit of support. Boxer briefs? The best of all possible worlds. Voltaire was right after all.

[roadrunnertwice]

Oh snap!

We must have exactly opposite leg shapes or something, because boxers don't ride up on me at all. And I always considered boxers to look aesthetically neutral on guys.*

You've got me dead to rights on support, but I ended up deciding during high school that I don't actually need any -- as long as my clothes limit the forward and back, the up and down isn't really a problem for me. (And heck, the Greeks ran nude.)

_____
* They look much hotter on girls. True fact.

[tomax.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, if you have an underwear model's package, you NEED support, and boxers simply can't do that. Seriously. I do usually wear briefs, but I've never had the described problems with boxer briefs.

[benefitz.livejournal.com]

Also, I might have to try this whole Dvorak thing. You write a convincing testimonial. Also, I wouldn't mind typing on a system that as far as I'm concerned was named after a composer.

[benefitz.livejournal.com]

Also, also also. In Oslo.

[roadrunnertwice]

Oh man, I totally forgot to mention the musicology angle! And it's even better than it seems, because it turns out that August actually WAS related to Antonin. (And was apparently a prof at UW, so woo, hometown pride!)

As enthusiastic as I am about Dvorak, there are definitely some really good reasons NOT to switch. But if you're in a situation where you can get away with it -- especially if you're in that 40-80 WPM sweet spot where you're likely to end up with a slick speed boost -- I'd say go for it.