Synthesis Studios

About six years ago I made up a weird keyboard layout for myself. I’d developed a severe case of RSI in my wrists, and having gone through several types of ergonomic keyboards that didn’t cut it, I took the plunge and got a $350 Kinesis. Once it arrived it took me about five seconds to realize that the learning curve on that thing was so steep I might as well switch to the Dvorak layout since that had a reputation for being much faster and easier to type on than the usual QWERTY. But, after about three or four days of using Dvorak I discovered it still wasn’t particularly comfortable.

I was writing large amounts of Java and PERL code in Emacs, and found that I frequently had to bend my hand in weird ways or type two-letter combinations with the same finger which was slow and uncomfortable. I searched around (using a new search engine still in beta at that point called Google), and found a letter frequency chart so I could design my own mapping. I used that to modify Dvorak, making my first two (strongest) fingers responsible for the most common letters, and put all the vowels on the left to limit the “multiple letters with the same finger” problem, as well as some other tweaks. But it still didn’t feel quite right.

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Yup - back to blogging. Its been a while since any of us have blogged, whether it be a need to withdraw for a while, or whether it be sheer laziness. But, with every new venture comes a new start, right? That being said: welcome. We’ll be putting things up here that may be cool, may be interesting, or may make no sense what so ever. You let us know.