MADE MY OWN PORTABLE CHORDED KEYBOARDAdapted an Intelligent Design to suit me. Wrote a large Keyhandling Macro 1,340 lines of manicured code (lots of hierarchy trees)
My new keyboard kicks ass! Cost of materials was about $30, and writing the autohotkey macro took a lot more time than I'd planned,
but after I gave up on some pesky keys, namely 000 and a num lock key that sends no scancodes (grrr), steady progress towards completion
was the order of the evening. Cutting out the stickers for the keys: not a chore, but drenched in awesome. (Typed completely with my pad)
Okay, back to deluxe Ergo USB for the recap and the blow by blow: (My new MS 4000 Keyboard is supremely hackable with a little harmless, undoable XML configuration file editing!
So, first, checkout http://www.frogpad.com/ (I'll Wait)
Cool how they state that the vast majority of hunt and peckers are super suited fot this. Also I notice that one-handed and two dont mentally overlap, Two hand travelling H&P Qwerty in the dark is not impeded AT ALL. it's like your wing and index fingers are some other kind of crazy hands.
Cost of Mod:
HW $17 from Amazon,
<$1 Sheet of Sticker-Backed Paper
< $1 of Ink. Time for Mod: Few hours for the software (one big elegant AutoHotKey macro ) Few Hours graphic design/layout One Hour remapping a few keys (the 000 is an annoying key, the capslock on the keypad is non-binding to the host PC, i.e. sent only during other keypresses) Ok end of post. Sleep much. then I use KB for all sorts of awesome free mousing! (Plays Freebird)
FROM MY NOTES: Keys that didn't make it (out of 20):
Shift (first to go, thx to a 1x2 enter key)
(Thankfully a Sentence Case algorithm exists for post proscessing)
The D/V key (000, sends 0 3x, not it's own code)
The F/Tab key (a caps lock that only sends when another key is pressed, individially un-addressable)
Left over: 13 letter keys (for all 26 letters; cramped a bit but necessary due to losing 2 regular keys) and 4 modifier keys.
So I moved D and V to the bottom right corner keys, and consolidated any symbols duplicated on the keypad like - / & ^ * was lost in the mix, (altho it's not used very often at least) Faced with losing a few orange special key function (such as PgDn Home Delete, i chose Ins, Pause, SysReq(?) and Left(not the arrow key, perhaps a format toggle from Frog people? The I/D/3 key refuses to chord to anything, so I remaped delete (on U/V/^) to do Backspace instead (THE END. Keyboard Done!) PHRASES I TRAINED TYPING:
johnny too bad
horace andy
regggae mus itc feeds the world stage
and weeds tend to them tend to reason
with all these goings oin was not sexyyy or very drunk
Tarzan, King of Mars
Monster Magnetic
Tosca - Wonderful
jammys
excedrin
oxycontin
trazodone
supercalifragilisticexpialadocious
stupifying
Valtrex Covalent Bonds
Yammem Mediocracy
i would hold up
when he says we touch too much
Snap Crackle PoP
3 more divas
apple computer
centris
dellacorri!
from earth to the moon
gatecrasher iota
jam band
jambandsysdtpowerf
khemeni
khomeni ayatollah
love actually
macintosh quadra
raffi sectional faciliation
spinal cord injury
ttony hawk isis mmy gooklvalencia
watch the watchmen
wayne gretzky
where the wild things are
one, two, free, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! satisfied?
