ilc

Ex-Datahand user, current Svalboard user: (Disclaimer, I work on their firmware as a volunteer, they send me hardware.)

The designer was 100% dependent on his Datahand, now he uses a Svalboard.

When I got sent my first Svalboard, it was so close feel wise that my old muscle memory came back instantly and I started complaining that the layout wasn't the same as the old Datahand Dvorak layout. I ended up doing a faithful port of that layout, then ever time evolved it to the layout I use today.

If you doubt, order a test cluster. You'll see how close it comes.

On the discord some users are willing to meet-up with people to let them try a board in real life.

You can do both. You should ALWAYS write a formal resignation letter that's about 3 lines at most, before talking to the manager.

It just stops a ton of confusion, hope, etc. It allows that discussion to focus on "Do you want the two weeks?" and "What do you want me to do with those two weeks if you want them."

Part of being a good employee is making things clear to your manager.

The Datahand / Svalboard branch is even more niche than a standard mech board. They are really designed for people who are facing injury, injured, or have been injured.

I'd encourage you to look at the Svalboard, I think it solves many of the issues you are running into. In the end, moving a large mouse is not good for someone with shoulder issues, the "Svalmouse" has been tried and solidly rejected. (Using a Svalboard hand as a mouse.)

If you want to discuss things, I'm sure you can find me on the Svalboard discord. :)

Disclaimer: Volunteer Svalboard Firmware Dev.

For most people the south keys and center are easier to press and more importantly hold. I don't care much about directions anymore, except for holding down keys.

Layout is a personal thing, we use Vial, so different people have different layouts, mine has a ton of mnemonics in it. It's really up to the user what they want, I'd be surprised if there are 2 Svalboards with the same layout. (Maybe stock when they are starting out, but people develop their own opinions pretty quickly.)

I still get octopus hands, even with just "Octopus DJ with no fingers." nothing else.

Maybe you got a lucky roll :)

Tried a simple prompt, and got some pretty interesting results:

"Octopus DJ spinning the turntables at a rave."

The human like hands the DJ sprouts are interesting, and no amount of prompting seems to stop them.

Opinionated, as the paper says.

It is hostile because I've seen people mess up optimization too many times.

Sometimes leaving the spaghetti alone IS correct. Sometimes it isn't.

But most awful spaghetti happens because what it was asked to do was awful, IMHO.

Interestingly, you didn't learn the full lesson:

When optimizing, always consider the cost of doing the optimization vs. it's impact.

In a project where you are looking a 45/30/25 type split. The 45 may actually be well optimized, so the real gains may be in the 30 or 25.

The key is to understand the impact you CAN have, and what the business value of that impact is. :)

The other rule I've learned is: There is always a slowest path.

The GPL doesn't do anything when the project is just used internally by another company.

They never trigger the distribution clauses, and they own the copyrights of all the work being done. So if you NEVER distribute binaries outside your company's walls. The GPL is a giant nothing, for most practical cases.

That's why we're starting to see the AGPL more now. But even then, for INTERNAL applications. It's still a nothing.

The GPL doesn't cure people being greedy. It just changes how they are allowed to be greedy.

To be very clear: Svalboard's firmware is on GitHub, and releases are made using github actions. GPLv3.

There is a reason kits are offered, and in part it is due to cost.

That said, if there is a true need, talk to the owner. I've watched this business for a while. I have enough parts to have Svalboards forever. But I decide to stay and help, because his heart is in the right place with regards to this whole thing.

That said, he has to put food on the table, and I respect that.

I wouldn't even compare mouse keys to what is done on Svalboard.

I know I personally found mouse keys unusable for day to day use, and another local DH users thought much the same, we had other pointers we used. (I used a fingerworks trackpad back when, clamped onto the side of the laplander, the other guy used a mouse, if I remember right.)

When the question becomes:

- Lose your career as a computer user.

- Surgery.

- Try funky expensive keyboard with lots of research behind it, and tons of testimonials.

The funky expensive keyboard suddenly looks like the cheap option.

If you don't value your time, or enjoy 3d printing and assembling stuff, kits get shipped every few months, with all the electronics, and access to the files needed to 3d print the board.

I'm typing this on a board I printed. If I valued my time at my hourly rate, the price listed is dirt cheap. But I enjoyed doing it :)

In the end, most of us using these keyboards care much less about speed than comfort. Not to say you can't go fast, people do.

Giving people back pain free use of their hands, and pain free computer is much more important IMHO.

I've been using one for over a year now, and I really like it. Ended up finding out about it from the Glove80 discord.

Now, I help out with their firmware updates, as a volunteer, just keeping things somewhat sane and debugged. Adding features as needed, to support new pointers, etc etc.

Disclaimer: My views are my own, I get provided hardware to do firmware work, and that's it. I do not work for Svalboard, etc.

On the discord there are some really small handed users. If that's your concern, join the discord, and I'm sure folks will nerd out with ya to figure it out. :)

If it's only half. There's a chance it'll work :). You can mount a finger cluster up as a thumb cluster if you want. A custom bracket to get it to the right spot. Not totally infeasible :)

But as with all things adaptive and ergo, it depends on the nature of the injury, etc, etc, etc.

Better IMHO. The integration of pointing devices, especially the trackballs really changes the game.

You really just never take your hands off the keyboard, everything is in nice close range, etc. :)

Good man. I've worked with a man who did time. I never knew until he told me, and once he did, I didn't give a rats ass.

I knew the person, and whatever was done in the past. Is the past. He's done his time. It is not mine to add penalties over what the state imposed.

Ironically it DOES. Because part of your ability is your ability to convince others etc.

People think of ability as just technical, or just soft. It is mixing it all together that produces true strength.

If I wear a suit at the wrong time, it shows an inability to read the room, and in some firms may even have gotten my manager to ask if I was looking for a job!

So, understanding how to dress how you want to be seen is critical. I'm not saying it's high fashion time, but at least understand the audience, and the aura you want to put out.

As an older engineer:

I give my help. I don't lease it. I don't rent it. I don't keep an IOU sheet.

It is given freely, with no expectation other than that it might help the individual involved.

I hope some of them go on to be better than me, because they got to rest on my shoulders for a moment before finding the next giant's to climb on.

I'm happy to hear when they do what I do, and help young engineers, but I have no expectation of that. Nor should I.

What I give as a mentor, is given freely. No strings attached.

I call this "Wearing your uniform."

You need to look like you are a person who would be doing the job. You wouldn't hire a gardner with smooth hands, clean shoes, and no dirt under their nails would you?

Car mechanics, you can see it in their hands, and the way they act around cars.

Every profession has its tells, from what we wear, to our physical traits etc.

After a while, you know if someone adds up or not. But part of that is changing with the times. :)

How do you run Gemma 3n locally?

It isn't that small.

And the swing between states depending on how it's measured can be QUITE large.

As someone from a state that puts in a hell of a lot more than it gets out. I'd be glad for you to reduce my tax load, and let my state improve its services all at once! I can't speak of how happy I'd be.

Even if it is 10-20%, that's nice phat cut. Which isn't far off in the more extreme cases.

Only one?

You got off light. I had a good number of people call me by my username at my undergrad.

When I went to grad school, they let us select user ids. My user name matched my first name, most elegant solution to that problem yet ;)

Going to the doctor shouldn't be seen as privileged. Especially for a broken finger, which if it sets wrong can really wreck your life.

Admittedly not like cancer. But, a broken finger can be a serious long term injury if not treated correctly.

My action was to remove disinformation. It is the least I can do as a human wanting to help.

I hope op finds the resources they need, and gets to a better place in life, as you have.

Updated my comment. You are very correct.

Poster who replied is right. I am out of my depths.

And if the Principal is good, they should stand up and say exactly why the code is bad. If there's a reason to laugh because it is cliche bad, they should say so.

If someone gave me code with

if (x = 7) { ... } as part of a C eval.

Yeah, you'll get a sarcastic response back because I know it is testing code.

What I think people ignore is that personality matters. Especially at the higher levels. If you are a Principal SWE you have to be able to stand up to a CEO and say "No, sir. I think you are wrong. This is why." In a diplomatic way. Or sometimes. Less than diplomatic, depending on the CEO.

One manager that hired me was trying to figure me out. So he said (and I think he was honest at the time). "You got the job as long an you aren't an axe murderer."

To which I replied deadpan: "I hope I hid the axe well." (To be clear to all reading, I have never killed someone, nevermind with an axe! Hi FBI, NSA, CIA and pals!)

Got the job, and we got along great, I operated as his right hand.

Deepseek,

I use Firefox on Linux. I can not scroll your TOS to see all of it.

This is at BEST bad web design. At worst, VERY SCUMMY.