It’s been awhile since I updated this blog, been pretty busy IRL. Just recently got back from a Longsword Course with ARMA, in Ohio, was very nice, and I learned a lot. I’ve also been playing the silver market recently; there’s a pretty nice blog that I follow. If you’re looking for an interesting perspective on precious metals, check this guy at Along the Watchtower; he seems to know his stuff.
Okay, back to the point of this post.
I have studied several scripting and programming languages; off the top of my head, I know Ada, C, C++, Fortran77, FORTH, Perl, PHP, Python, Java, and JavaScript. Which language do I prefer, though? C. (Read more)
There hasn’t been much of an update from me in a while, as I have been working on my projects at Uni, and preparing for trip for the Alpha Chi Honor Society National Conference (which I just got back from), to give my presentation on Artificial Life.
The conference was in San Diego, California, a very beautiful place. I was there for 5 days, and I had experienced my very first time on a plane. I won a national award (10 are handed out, from a pool of over 11,000 alpha chi members made up of the top 10% of their universities), saw some seals at the Children’s Pool Beach, and got to go to Sea World with my Aunt and Uncle!
On a side note, I’m up to about 67-68 wpm with the Dvorak layout (remember that?) when on my macbook (I’m abit slower on my main computer). Should be back up to my 100+wpm I had in QWERTY in no time!
Anyway, there were plenty of pictures (I didn’t take any, I just asked my fellow students to take some and give me theirs); I hope you enjoy!
NOTE: Big thanks to Teresa for taking the following pictures! (Read more)
There was an interesting benchmark on a friend’s blog. He was running a “switch() vs else if” test in php, which yielded some very interesting (and at first, perplexing) results.
I’d just head over there and read his article as a primer, so you know where I’m coming from. Now, after reading his results, I was desperate to find out why this was happening, and I decided to run some benchmarks on my own.
Might want to sit back, this is going to be a long one (you’ll have to click “Read More” for this one). (Read more)
It’s been about two weeks since my switch to the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard. I checked my typing speed on TypeRacer earlier today, and I’m currently running at about 40 wpm – I’m getting there.
Then, today my $129 keyboard came in the mail; with gold-plated mechanical switches and absolutely no labels.
That’s right; I bought the $129 Das Keyboard Ultimate – it’s loud, it’s heavy, and when added to this key mapping, it’s confusing for anyone that attempts to use my computer.
2022 Update: I am re-reading all of these as I migrate from aj.ianozi.com to aj.immo, and I am still using my Das Keyboard Ultimate over a decade later!
There’s been quite a few people asking me about this layout, and I have to say, the immediate results are pretty nice. I managed to learn to touch-type with this new layout in a matter of days, and within two weeks, I’m around half the speed I was with QWERTY. I’m able to type most of my words on the home row (consisting of aoeuidhtns), and my wrists don’t hurt after a long day of typing anymore (please be aware, I punched out almost 2000 lines of code this week while programming). But then again… I’m not typing as fast as I did with QWERTY yet, so we’ll see.
On a side note, I no longer have a problem with “F”, though I’m slipping up with “j” and “q” once in awhile.
PS: On a side note, I ran this entry though a neat little applet that would calculate some stats based on how much I’d type, etc…
Is this post, 64% of my typing took place on the home row, and my fingers traveled a distance of 58 feet.
If I were to use QWERTY to type this, only 32% would’ve been on the home row, and my fingers would have traveled almost 100 feet!
Well, it’s been about 5 days since I’ve switched do the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, and I’m slowly progressing.
My current typing speed is about 15 wpm now, and I can finally “keep up” with people on IMs. I’ve already memorized the layout (using the normal QWERTY keyboard, no labels or anything), and can type words such as “the, there, is, as, etc” without thinking, as fast as I could with my QWERTY.
I am having problems with afew letters, namely “f” and “j”, for some reason. Probably because “f” is in a really awkward position for me, and I rarely use “j”.
Most people use the well-known QWERTY layout for their keyboard. Little do they know that this layout was meant to be slow and inefficent! It causes strain on the hands and can lead to Carpal tunnel syndrome.
Back when people still used type with typewriters, the typist would hit the keys too quickly and it would cause the typewriter to jam. The solution to this, was to slow down the typer, which is why the QWERTY system was invented. It spread out the most used letters, so touch-typing would be much more inefficient.
Meet Dvorak. In the 1930s, Dr. August Dvorak, a professor at University of Washington, created the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard. This keyboard is meant to work much more natural for your hands, and reduces the chance of getting any typing-related injuries.
As the wikipedia page notes:
Awkward strokes are undesirable because they slow down typing, increase typing errors, and increase finger strain. Hurdling is an awkward stroke requiring a single finger to jump directly from one row, over the home row to another row (e.g., typing “minimum” on the QWERTY keyboard). In the English language, there are about 1,200 words that require a hurdle on the QWERTY layout. In contrast, there are few words requiring a hurdle on the Dvorak layout and even fewer requiring a double hurdle.
I’m making the switch to Dvorak cold-turkey, that is, I’m no longer using QWERTY for anything. My typing speed went from about 100wpm to about 5. I’m curious to see how well this works out for me after a week of dvorak-only typing. I guess we’ll see.
For some more information on this layout, check out these links:
Well, after getting off college for winter break, I decided to try something I’ve been wanting to do for a few years now – switch to Gentoo as my primary Operating System.
For those of you that don’t know, Gentoo is a linux-based distribution that relies entirely on source
packages. This means that if I wanted firefox, I’d need to download the firefox source code and compile it. Installing Gentoo took a few days, because I had to download the source code of the linux kernel, configure it, and compile it. I had to build the filesystems, everything from scratch.
I think I’ve learned much more about linux than I ever did; I find myself using the console much more, and I recompiled the kernel 3 times so far – it’s fine-tuned for my PC now.
Just yesterday, I was able to get OpenBox running as my default windows manager, and then I installed Tint2 and Trayer for my “taskbar”. I have almost nothing on this box so far; only reason I can type this, is because I just got done compiling/installing FireFox; my only means of communication before then, was talking to some friends in IRC though my console-based system.
Next step is getting Pidgin up and running, and after that, a music player (so far, I’m using mp3blaster) – it’s proving quite a task, since I can’t just download an executable.
But one thing I can say for sure about this new setup: It’s fast!
It may be a little late to post this now, but my dad did another Home Tips with Jim. This time, he drains the pool.
He tries to explain to us how to drain a pool without using any electricity, and all you need is a hose, and a mouth.. But will things go as he has planned?
Well, I have a Corn Plant (aka Dracaena Fragrans, aka Dragon Flower) that I’ve had for the longest time. And a few weeks before Thanksgiving, something amazing happened – it started to grow flowers!
This is a big accomplishment for me, and I’ll explain why.
First off, THIS is a Corn Plant – mine looks kinda like that one.
I first bought it this about 8 years ago, it was on clearance at the local grocery store. The store price was about $30, but it was on sale for $5 since it was almost all black/dying. The person there said that the tree was going to die, and if I didn’t buy it, they’d just throw it out at the end of the day. I’ve always liked trying to revive plants, so I figured I’d buy it and nurse it back to health.
It was, of course, a success – since I still have that tree today, and after 8 years, the tree just started growing flowers! (Read more)
