After 3 weeks of using Dvorak as my keyboard layout and actively trying to learn to touch-type again I have given up! My typing speed in Qwerty is about 4-5 times faster than Dvorak and it has barely improved since I started.
I think this reflects partly on my personal inability to learn to type as some of my colleagues are typing faster than me in Dvorak after only one week! I suspect that learning to type in Dvorak in the first place would have its advantages over Qwerty but I feel that it's too big a hit to take considering I can type already. It is also worth while if you have RSI or similar issues as it reduces strain on the wrists and fingers.
Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Dvorak so far...
I noticed one of the guys at work was using Dvorak as his keyboard layout. I'd thought about converting over before but I couldn't bare the idea I going back to basics again.
Well, it's now been 5 days since I first tried using Dvorak and I've got to say its already looking worth while. When I first started it has to be said that I was completely incapable and my memories strayed back to my first IT lessons at primary school where I learnt to touch type all those years ago.
The first 2 days were terrible and whereas before I could express myself at almost my speed of thought, I found that I was managing only about 10 words a minute with the new layout!!
After that initial sacrifice and after taking a couple of free online Dvorak typing lessons I have managed to bring this up to around 40 words per minute. I was never the fastest typist in querty but I used to type around 70 words per minute.
After 5 days I feel I am still rapidly improving and that I will very soon relearn the muscle memory required to type in Dvorak. I can already feel the benefits in terms of how little I need to move my fingers to type commonly used words, I think I will soon overtake my qwerty typing speed, and I certainly find typing much more comfortable already.
If you're thinking of converting I would advise you try it during a quiet time in your life / at work where you can afford to type VERY slowly for a bit. The most important thing is to keep at it and not to chicken out to qwerty at any point.
My only problem with Dvorak is the fact that keyboard shortcuts tend to be designed for qwerty keyboards so I would recommend using "autohotkey" to remap all shortcuts to qwerty. For me this made the transition considerably easier.
Finally, if you have RSI or similar issues I would advise you to make the effort to move to Dvorak. Qwerty was designed to slow down typists because typing too fast used to jam type writers. In doing so qwerty was designed to have many awkward movements which slow you down and strain your wrists. These movements are avoided using Dvorak and therefore minimise the risk of RSI.
Well, it's now been 5 days since I first tried using Dvorak and I've got to say its already looking worth while. When I first started it has to be said that I was completely incapable and my memories strayed back to my first IT lessons at primary school where I learnt to touch type all those years ago.
The first 2 days were terrible and whereas before I could express myself at almost my speed of thought, I found that I was managing only about 10 words a minute with the new layout!!
After that initial sacrifice and after taking a couple of free online Dvorak typing lessons I have managed to bring this up to around 40 words per minute. I was never the fastest typist in querty but I used to type around 70 words per minute.
After 5 days I feel I am still rapidly improving and that I will very soon relearn the muscle memory required to type in Dvorak. I can already feel the benefits in terms of how little I need to move my fingers to type commonly used words, I think I will soon overtake my qwerty typing speed, and I certainly find typing much more comfortable already.
If you're thinking of converting I would advise you try it during a quiet time in your life / at work where you can afford to type VERY slowly for a bit. The most important thing is to keep at it and not to chicken out to qwerty at any point.
My only problem with Dvorak is the fact that keyboard shortcuts tend to be designed for qwerty keyboards so I would recommend using "autohotkey" to remap all shortcuts to qwerty. For me this made the transition considerably easier.
Finally, if you have RSI or similar issues I would advise you to make the effort to move to Dvorak. Qwerty was designed to slow down typists because typing too fast used to jam type writers. In doing so qwerty was designed to have many awkward movements which slow you down and strain your wrists. These movements are avoided using Dvorak and therefore minimise the risk of RSI.
Thursday, 28 June 2012
4GB Too Small For Raspberry Pi
Just in case anyone makes this mistake too...
I brought a 4GB SD card for my Raspberry Pi but after trying to clone the Git project I've been planning. I'm about to buy a 32GB card but I'm a bit sad that I wont get my project tested tonight :(
I brought a 4GB SD card for my Raspberry Pi but after trying to clone the Git project I've been planning. I'm about to buy a 32GB card but I'm a bit sad that I wont get my project tested tonight :(
How to start the Raspberry Pi without an HDMI Screen (or no screen at all)
I just downloaded the debian squeeze image and copied it onto an SD card. Then I realised I had no HDMI screen as I always use my laptop. I thought I'd have to get one but thought it looked a bit expensive so I thought there may be a way to start it without a screen at all!!
From:
http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2012/05/enable-secure-shell-ssh-on-your-raspberry-pi/
All I needed to do was turn on the RPi, log into my router and wait for the RPi's IP to turn up. I then brought up putty and logged straight in using the credentials provided from where I downloaded the debian image.
I'm really glad I managed to start using my Raspberry Pi without having to buy a new monitor/TV!!!
From:
http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2012/05/enable-secure-shell-ssh-on-your-raspberry-pi/
To enable SSH automatically every time the Pi starts you need to :
- Prepare an SD card with the Debian “Squeeze” image
- Insert the SD card in your PC
- Rename ” boot_enable_ssh.rc” as “boot.rc”
- Eject the SD card and insert into your Pi
When the Pi boots SSH is enabled by default.
All I needed to do was turn on the RPi, log into my router and wait for the RPi's IP to turn up. I then brought up putty and logged straight in using the credentials provided from where I downloaded the debian image.
I'm really glad I managed to start using my Raspberry Pi without having to buy a new monitor/TV!!!
Raspberry pi unboxing
Below are the photos of my BRAND NEW RASPBERRY PI!! Very excited to get this little thing up and running. First thing I need to do is set up an SD card with the OS.
For anything who read my previous post... RS Components were very quick to send me a new one after I opened my empty box :( The only issue is I didnt see it sitting where my house mates put in on the kitchen table so its been sat there a week!
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Raspberry Pi Empty Unboxing
Well the time has come for me to unbox my Raspberry Pi - it arrived earlier than expected! Unfortunately though I have had a bit of bad luck. I'll spare you the photos, but basically I unboxed two bits of foam with no computer hidden inside them!
That's right - an empty box!!
After looking around on Google it seems I'm not the only one, but I sure am disappointed! To be fair to RS Components (from which I brought it) I contacted them by email on a Sunday evening and got a response within 20 minutes... There should be another one in the post for me arriving soon.
If you order a Raspberry Pi and get an empty box simply send an email to
Bray, Mike Mike.Bray@rs-components.com
My email:
Hi,
I ordered my Raspberry Pi and it arrived today, but the box was empty. The box was not tampered with as far as I could tell. The security seals were still intact.
My invoice number is: ************
After looking through the forums (http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Please send my raspberry pi to the following address as soon as possible:
*****
*****
*****
*****
London!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Hugh
His response:
Hi Hugh,
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve reported this to the Pi team, and asked them to issue you with a replacement as soon as possible.
Best regards,
Mike
Although disappointed I am somewhat impressed by the fast reply. I will post again when it arrives - hopefully it'll be better news next time round.
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Raspberry Pi Project
You should all of heard of the Raspberry Pi by now, but in case you haven't head over to http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs for a preview. As a summary: A Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized Linux-powered computer that costs between $25 and $35. That price tag makes it VERY interesting to me.
Although the Raspberry Pi is designed for educational purposes there is a growing community using them for projects ranging from home automation to robotics. Recently I have been writing a program that scrapes data from both websites and xml feeds, aggregates that data, and does some useful things with it... I ordered a Raspberry Pi about 6 weeks ago (due to arrive next month) and I intend to use it to run my web scraping program.
As my project has grown I have had to distribute the scraping work and much of the calculations across multiple AWS servers while keeping the database on a single server. The database server I will scale upwards onto larger hardware due to the high write to read ratio (yes more writes), but the scraping work I hope to distribute across a small farm of Raspberry Pi computers back home. If this works I should be able to massively cut down my AWS bill.
I am yet to find out whether the Raspberry Pi will be able to run my scraping program in just 256MB of RAM, but if all goes well I will be buying at least 10 of these little gems!
I'll post again when my Raspberry Pi arrives.
Although the Raspberry Pi is designed for educational purposes there is a growing community using them for projects ranging from home automation to robotics. Recently I have been writing a program that scrapes data from both websites and xml feeds, aggregates that data, and does some useful things with it... I ordered a Raspberry Pi about 6 weeks ago (due to arrive next month) and I intend to use it to run my web scraping program.
As my project has grown I have had to distribute the scraping work and much of the calculations across multiple AWS servers while keeping the database on a single server. The database server I will scale upwards onto larger hardware due to the high write to read ratio (yes more writes), but the scraping work I hope to distribute across a small farm of Raspberry Pi computers back home. If this works I should be able to massively cut down my AWS bill.
I am yet to find out whether the Raspberry Pi will be able to run my scraping program in just 256MB of RAM, but if all goes well I will be buying at least 10 of these little gems!
I'll post again when my Raspberry Pi arrives.
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