Re-Watching LOST

My #FrogPad keyboard wanted to thank everyone for re-watching #LOST with @LOST_WFTB:

Construx Mega Collection

 Rounded Rhombicuboctahedron (go ahead, google it)

Rounded Rhombicuboctahedron Elements


Rounded Rhombicuboctahedron Taken Apart


Light Bulb


Light Bulb Taken Apart


Green Column


Green Column Taken Apart


Small Beam Cube


White Shipping Crate


Beams Big Case #1


Extras Big Case #2


Gears Wheels Pulleys Motors


Rounded Rhombicuboctahedron Applies to the #LOST Numbers :)

To Build... Construx

The Coolest Building Toy ever. eBay is a godsend. 27 years after Construx debuted, it is still widely available. The pieces, made of ABS Plastic, retain their bright colors and most definately a fun factor.

In addition to making a bad-ass custom Keyboard & Mouse tray, there are many ways to play...

How tightly can one pack them in a box?
Given a random set of pieces, can you connect them?
If so, what is the smallest area you can do it in?
Make a structure that can hold x pounds, arranging the beam's directions to keep the structures intact)
A variant on the egg-drop engineering challenge

Merry Christmas everyone!

I wanted the perfect keyboard

I wanted the perfect keyboard














The Final Maltron-Inspired Letter/Symbol Layout












The TypeMatrix Keypad and Arrow Cluster Overlay

Quad-Key Layout Grid

Keyboard Revelations

Red Dvorak DiGlyphs

White Dvorak KeyCap Designs,
with Qwerty shadowed in Red for reference,

and for use WITHOUT Key Remapping,
or for comparison of the layouts differences

These Caps were applied to My Classic MS Ergo Keyboard, which is about to get a nice even coat of Black spray paint applied. the keys are then capped with matte cellophane tape over and around each printed letter or symbol, rubbed down until it goes clear, leaving a nice smooth slick finish that relaxes the fingers.


I'm finding that Dvorak switches hands more often than Maltron, because of the Vowel segregation of AEIOU. I prefer the <>;:'" characters on the bottom row as on the Maltron Layout, because they are more often covered by the hands. The first two rows, being easier to reach in general, then allow access to the top 20 letters with the remaining 6 dropped down (3 on each side)

I also re-key-capped the new Apple USB Keyboard I had from my Dad's new Mac. He needed the Apple Extended Keyboard (with a full keypad) to Access all Finale's functions, but the standard board was already bundled with the Mac. He uses Keyboard Maestro for system macros on Mac, it's nowhere near as flexible as AutoHotKey for PC, but it has a clean interface.



Staggered Keyboards abound, but the square key layout is so much less messy. That said, any derivation from the standard PC Keyboard layout has benefits, so after I know Dvorak better, I will make a skin for my TypeMatrix Keyboard and enjoy the benefit.

My brother is learning to use the Dvorak as well, so this will be his take-home concession prize for coming to see me and Dad. I asked if he'd like any custom keycaps, but I think he's going for an "au natural" key treatment. (he will come around eventually)

It could be quite cool to have oversized glow in the dark leters on the keys, and maybe even integrate an enclosed light charging tray to recharge the keyboard's phosphorescence quickly when it fades.

Last Thoughts: Does a Backlit Keyboard with a Square arrangement exist? How about one that could be arranged in a sunken key-well formation?

Keyboard Nirvana

The 3-month Journey for a perfect keyboard has led me here, customizing both the innovative FrogPad and TypeMatrix Keyboards in a way that visually expresses their intrinsic awesomeness.

The TypeMatrix and The FrogPad are both miracles of "engineering done right" , light and super portable. The whole process has ended up teaching me so much about input devices and Windows automation and I finally,truly Grok It. A Maltron Keyboard is the Holy Grail of Keyboards, and Windows does only one keyboard remap for all
attaced keyboards but thanks to an advanced type correction word list, any mismatched key layout gibberish resolves to words after hitting Space. This must drive any keylogger crazy! It allows for obfuscation also so people don't shoulder-surf you or see a word before Commit is pressed.

Shifted up One Row

So I reclaimed the F-Key Row for numbers (Esc shifts numbers to F-Keys as a modifier) to allow the super-useful sub-alphanumeric Matched Symbol Row that the Maltron Contoured Keyboard provides:
( [ { -_ =+] } ) (with <, >. also on some models) -Balanced!

F-Keys that often used were lowered F2 rename / F4 path+closewin / F5 reload+find / F8 replace (in TextPad)

F6 hop active panes / F11 fullscreen moved up out of the center


Esc is moved down one, and used to shift the symbols (made primary for coding) to numbers. The FrogPad is still a superb dedicated NumPad as well as a full keyboard to itself

I flipped Right Alt / Ctrl to match the left side. KeyTweak (used for TypeMatrix boards) can be used to remap the relocated keys in the registry.


The FrogPad however, sharing the same SW keymap, is thrown off because windows does not have the ability to support multiple keyboard layouts (it lumps them all together as one keyboard)

I wrote a short remap script that is toggled by the caps lock key, (For Frog Use Only)

and alternate solution:
word-replace filter that corrects for the incorrect characters being sent due to the remap (15,000 word permutations, gathered from my chats and emails over the last 10 years)

e.g.
"<-can become - "Keyboarding" -> can become -> ">y=euacim.f "

... the correct word is dropped in when you hit Space. Hey, it's Kludgy, but quite fast on a 2GHz PC due to AutoHotKey's Awesomeness
When I type BFE it launches my keyboard.ahk script, for customization.

Ergo Maltron Key Caps

Finalized Tosh-Pad

The Last Ergo Mod