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OT: keyboard layouts
by phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

I've been using the Dvorak layout since the early 70's. I'd been trying to learn to touch type using the Querty layout, without much success, and a friend (the same one who recommended the 3-wheeled Messerschmitt car ;) suggested Dvorak. The concept made sense to me, so I bought an SCM electric typewriter with the Dvorak layout. Needless to say, it was hard-coded. I was doing useful typing in a few hours. Once you learn the home row you can do a fair bit, and that's encouraging. The Dvorak training manuals were quite good. Then I got a Commodore PET computer and rewired the keyboard by cutting traces and adding jumpers with #30AWG wire. Nowadays I would reprogram the keyboard lookup table, but computers were still pretty mysterious at that point. For a number of years, I've been using a Keytronic keyboard which is switchable between Querty and Dvorak. They don't make it any more, apparently. These days, there is usually some sofware method of changing the configuration. In X for example, there is xdvorak. Even windows has methods of changing keyboard configuration to Dvorak. So if you're using a machine in an internet cafe you can still reconfigure the keyboard. (This causes no end of confusion of the computer goes in for service and the tech guy doesn't know about Dvorak. They figure the keyboard is defective.) My wife learned Dvorak at about the same time I did and she uses it without complaint on her Windows machine. I gave my daughter the option and she chose to learn Querty, figuring that she'd be using machines that could not easily be configured. But it took my daughter much longer to learn to touch-type. Personally, it's my opinion that it's gotta be easier on the hands to have the commonly used consonants and vowels in the home row. In Querty, the 'e' is on the top row, where you have to reach for it. Apparently IBM used to sponsor typing speed contests to promote their typewriters. One of Dvorak's claims was that IBM did not want to have to produce two layouts, so they opposed the Dvorak layout. When Dvorak typists began to clean up in the contests, IBM dropped their sponsorship. It would be interesting to have a modern-day speed contest between an expert Querty and Dvorak typist and see if there really is a consistent speed difference. As for RSI, I did have to deal with that at one point, and it's very scary indeed. Eventually I got it sorted out and yes, wrist position and height are very important. The key for me, were the upper back and shoulder stretching exercises which a sports medicine doctor/chiropracter prescribed. I have no idea why the upper back has such an effect on the wrists, but it seems to be important. Peter On Fri, Dec 12, 2003 at 10:10:01PM -0500, Marcus Brubaker wrote: > On Fri, 2003-12-12 at 16:15, Henry Spencer wrote: > > On Fri, 12 Dec 2003, William Park wrote: > > > > Placebo effect is powerful, and it's the reason why tests of things like > > > > new drugs absolutely must be done as "double-blind" tests: neither the > > > > patients nor the experimenters know which patients are getting the real > > > > pills and which are getting the dummies, until the experiment is over and > > > > the sealed envelopes are opened. > > > > > > Those who died were given placebo, and those who got better were given > > > real drug. Or, was it the other way around... :-) > > > > Well, at least the large-scale experiments typically also have third-party > > monitors, who know which group is which and are watching for signs of > > strong adverse effects (death certainly qualifies :-)). This is why you > > occasionally hear of a clinical trial being halted early -- it means that > > the real-drug group was having a suspiciously large number of heart > > attacks or whatever, and the monitors sounded the alarm. > > Actually, on occasion, long term studies are halted early for the exact > opposite reason. In fact recently a 10 year study of a certain drug > treatment on breast cancer was halted 6 years in so that those on the > placebo could take the real treatment because the results were so > positive. I forget the details anymore though. > > -- > Marcus Brubaker <marcus.brubaker-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org> > > -- > The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org > TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns > How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml -- Peter D. Hiscocks Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada Phone: (416) 979-5000 Ext 6109 Fax: (416) 979-5280 Email: phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org URL: http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~phiscock -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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Albatron motherboards
by anton-F0u+EriZ6ihBDgjK7y7TUQ＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

Hello Everyone, Following my motherboard problems (See "What to do with kernel panics?"), I have decided to buy myself another motherboard (the one I got apparently supports FSB up to 400MHz; my P4 runs at 533MHz). I am looking at the Albatron PX845PEV-800 (or perhaps the Albatron PX865PE PRO II). I would like to know if anyone has had any good/bad experiences with these, as well as how compatible they are with Linux (I am going to do a search on that myself too, but I want a real-world opinion). The URLs for the details are: PX845PEV-800: <http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=4> PX865PE PRO II: <http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=51> (This one is sweet!) Thanks. -- Anton Markov <("anton" + "@" + "truxtar" + "." + "com")> GnuPGP Key fingerprint = 5546 A6E2 1FFB 9BB8 15C3 CE34 46B7 8D93 3AD1 44B4 "The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success." - Some bad guy from 007 -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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OT: keyboard layouts
by marcus.brubaker-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

On Fri, 2003-12-12 at 16:15, Henry Spencer wrote: > On Fri, 12 Dec 2003, William Park wrote: > > > Placebo effect is powerful, and it's the reason why tests of things like > > > new drugs absolutely must be done as "double-blind" tests: neither the > > > patients nor the experimenters know which patients are getting the real > > > pills and which are getting the dummies, until the experiment is over and > > > the sealed envelopes are opened. > > > > Those who died were given placebo, and those who got better were given > > real drug. Or, was it the other way around... :-) > > Well, at least the large-scale experiments typically also have third-party > monitors, who know which group is which and are watching for signs of > strong adverse effects (death certainly qualifies :-)). This is why you > occasionally hear of a clinical trial being halted early -- it means that > the real-drug group was having a suspiciously large number of heart > attacks or whatever, and the monitors sounded the alarm. Actually, on occasion, long term studies are halted early for the exact opposite reason. In fact recently a 10 year study of a certain drug treatment on breast cancer was halted 6 years in so that those on the placebo could take the real treatment because the results were so positive. I forget the details anymore though. -- Marcus Brubaker <marcus.brubaker-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org> -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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Testing - no need to read
by james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

Wil McGilvery wrote: > Please ignore Will do. ;-) -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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Testing - no need to read
by wmcgilvery-6d3DWWOeJtE＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

Please ignore Regards, Wil McGilvery Manager Lynch Digital Media Inc 416-744-7949 416-716-3964 (cell) 1-866-314-4678 416-744-0406? FAX www.LynchDigital.com -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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OT: keyboard layouts
by henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003, William Park wrote: > > Placebo effect is powerful, and it's the reason why tests of things like > > new drugs absolutely must be done as "double-blind" tests: neither the > > patients nor the experimenters know which patients are getting the real > > pills and which are getting the dummies, until the experiment is over and > > the sealed envelopes are opened. > > Those who died were given placebo, and those who got better were given > real drug. Or, was it the other way around... :-) Well, at least the large-scale experiments typically also have third-party monitors, who know which group is which and are watching for signs of strong adverse effects (death certainly qualifies :-)). This is why you occasionally hear of a clinical trial being halted early -- it means that the real-drug group was having a suspiciously large number of heart attacks or whatever, and the monitors sounded the alarm. Henry Spencer henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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C considered harmful: was Debian attacker may have used new exploit
by robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Marcus Brubaker wrote: > Absolutely. I've written a number of "real" projects in Java. Further, > I use a number of applications that are written in Java. (E.G. PCGen) Some friends of mine run a company of 20 people writing solutions to real world problems (under contract) using java. They've been doing this for years. I've been really impressed by a lot of the stuff they've done. obLinux: They are really committed to OSS & Linux too. They've been using Linux desktops for development since the mid 90s. For most of its history the company had 1 MS-Windows licence for an accounting box. Even that may have changed by now, who knows :) Rob -- Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy at public.gmane.org, zzbrock at uqconnect.net Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://counter.li.org) "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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OT: keyboard layouts
by opengeometry-FFYn/CNdgSA＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

On Fri, Dec 12, 2003 at 02:13:29PM -0500, Henry Spencer wrote: > Placebo effect is powerful, and it's the reason why tests of things like > new drugs absolutely must be done as "double-blind" tests: neither the > patients nor the experimenters know which patients are getting the real > pills and which are getting the dummies, until the experiment is over and > the sealed envelopes are opened. Those who died were given placebo, and those who got better were given real drug. Or, was it the other way around... :-) I've read it somewhere that the single most factor is the angle of wrist (ie. up and down angle). It should be straight. The angle of elbow or the side-to-side angle of wrist are less important. -- William Park, Open Geometry Consulting, <opengeometry-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org> Linux solution for data management and processing. -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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M$ to license FAT
by adb-tlug-AbAJl/g/NLXk1uMJSBkQmQ＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

Tim Writer wrote: > Taavi Burns <taavi-LbuTpDkqzNzXI80/IeQp7B2eb7JE58TQ at public.gmane.org> writes: > > Most (all?) of the standard Flash memory devices these days have onboard > > controllers which can detect failing sectors in the flash memory, and will > > reroute data to spare sectors, much as HDs do these days. > > Are you sure? The JFFS2 folks don't seem to think so and anecdotal evidence > seems to bear me out. Compact Flash has onboard smarts to do wear-levelling, etc, and presents an IDE-compatible interface. JFFS2 is meant for vanilla flash, where you're getting directly at the stuff and have to implement all of that yourself. I can't speak for the other flavours of consumer-grade removable flash, but they'd be somewhere on the spectrum between those two. Leaving off the smarts will of course give you a smaller and cheaper device. -- Anthony de Boer -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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OT: keyboard layouts
by henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg＠public.gmane.org 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003, Taavi Burns wrote: > > Beware of placebo effect. *Expecting* that typing on a Dvorak layout will > > feel better has a strong tendency to *make* it feel better. > > There are strong arguments that a Dvorak layout should feel better than > qwerty regardless of speed. The most commonly used keys are in the home > row, the second most commonly on the top row, and least common on the > bottom row. This does indeed reduce the number of times your fingers > have to move away from the neutral position. That's gotta be a win, eh? It seems likely, but (a) sometimes the real world delivers surprises, and (b) even assuming it is a win, that doesn't mean it's a *significant* win. Placebo effect is powerful, and it's the reason why tests of things like new drugs absolutely must be done as "double-blind" tests: neither the patients nor the experimenters know which patients are getting the real pills and which are getting the dummies, until the experiment is over and the sealed envelopes are opened. > I do find it hard to believe that there is NO improvement whatsoever > from using a keyboard layout designed for use with electronic interfaces > with careful attention to useability versus one that was actually designed > to reduce jamming on old mechanical typewriters. Uh, say what? Dvorak, like Qwerty, was designed for manual typewriters. (And to the extent that it had any significant advantage, it may have been reduction of muscle fatigue in that physically-more-demanding case.) The major experiments hyping its superiority were done during WW2, and the first unbiased trials -- which largely ended interest in it -- were done in the 50s. The only currently-extant keyboard layouts which can be said to have been designed for electronic interfaces are the split keyboards. The mere fact that Dvorak does not assign home or near-home positions to RETURN and BACKSPACE demonstrates clearly that it was not designed for electronic keyboards. Henry Spencer henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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