Keyboard Layouts

Do you ever think about your keyboard? And I don't mean think about it like, "Stupid keyboard, I know I hit the spacebar, why didn't I jump his rocket?!" I mean think about the comfort, shape, and layout of the keys.

I'm sure everyone has used someone else's keyboard and been thrown off by a few slight changes in key positions. I used to get all messed up when the backslash key was placed next to the backspace key, instead of below it. Oh, and that modern trend towards the block of keys around Page Up and whatnot? You know, where there's the really large Delete key and the block is oriented vertically? That really F's me up every time I try to use it.

But I digress. That's not what I was planning to write about, although apparently some part of me wanted to. What I wanted to write about was ergonomic keyboards and the Dvorak layout.

History

Back when Sholes & Glidden created the QWERTY layout (Wikipedia), (sounds like I was actually there, eh?) the goal was (supposedly) to prevent the typebars from jamming together. Some theories about this include it being designed to be inefficient, so the user simply could not type fast enough to jam the keys, or, that by placing common letters far away, the internal mechanisms were less likely to conflict.

So, basically, the layout was not designed for comfort.

Dvorak

The Dvorak layout, however, was. By studying letter frequencies in the English language, Dr. August Dvorak designed the layout with these goals (copied from Wikipedia):

• Letters should be typed by alternating between hands.
• For maximum speed and efficiency, the most common letters and digraphs [two-letter combinations] should be the easiest to type. This means that they should be on the home row, which is where the fingers rest, and under the strongest fingers.
• The least common letters should be on the bottom row, which is the hardest row to reach.
• The right hand should do more of the typing, because most people are right-handed.
• Digraphs should not be typed with adjacent fingers.
• Stroking should generally move from the edges of the board to the middle. An observation of this principle is that, for many people, when tapping fingers on a table, it is easier going from the little finger to index than vice versa. This motion is called inboard stroke flow.

So what does this mean for you? Probably very little, since most people aren't willing to put in the time to relearn how to type. But, if you are not yet a touch typist, or you have difficulty with the standard QWERTY layout, it may be worth the switch.

I am a touch typist. I have been for a long time, at least 14 years (that may not sound like a very long time to some, but I'm only 26). I learned on QWERTY. But last year I started to have problems with my hands; I would have trouble gripping stuff, some of my fingers would go numb, and my wrists always hurt. So I decided to make the switch.

I also got an ergonomic keyboard for work (already had one at home, thanks to my wife; that was an awesome birthday present) for my wrists, since changing the layout wouldn't help there.

How did it go? Well, thankfully there are keyboard shortcuts that you can set in both Windows and Linux for switching between layouts, since fighting your habits about which keys are where is draining. Additionally, I'm a programmer, so not being able to get my thoughts out quickly enough can be disruptive to my workflow. So I would use Dvorak as long as I could stand it (generally about half an hour at a time at first), and then switch to QWERTY to relax for a while. Probably three or four times a day I'd fight my way through some less-intensive work using Dvorak for practice.

It paid off. After about two weeks I'd gotten up to 20 WPM (there's a good WPM test here, which also makes for good practice). As a reference, I'm generally around 75 WPM using QWERTY.

After three more weeks I'd hit 40 WPM. Another month and I was around 60 WPM, which is comfortable enough to switch over full time. Now, a year and a couple months after starting, I am at 75ish WPM (I just took the test again), although I haven't improved significantly in quite some time.

Oh, and QWERTY? Can I still type that way? Yep. It takes a minute to warm up, and I'll make more mistakes (at least at first) than I used to, but I can still do it. I'll take the WPM test now to see how I do... 56... 67... I can't seem to get above 67. Probably because I haven't been practicing as much as I used to.

How do I keep going with both? I use Dvorak at work and QWERTY at home. That forces me to keep going with QWERTY, although I do have a tendency to switch to Dvorak if I will be typing something longer than an email. Lately I haven't been using my computer at home so much (now that we have a house, there's too much other stuff that needs to get done).

And I'm not the only one interested in switching; one of the guys at work has decided to take the plunge as well! I hope he has as good an experience with it as I did; he complained to me the other day about how it is getting harder to type on QWERTY now. Speaking of, I typed the first half of this article using Dvorak, and the second half using QWERTY.

How To Try It

Windows XP: Open up the control panel, choose "Regional and Language Options", switch to the "Languages" tab, click the "Details..." button, click the "Add..." button, leave the input language as is, and choose "United Sates-Dvorak" for the layout. Once you've OK'd your way out, pressing Ctrl+Shift will switch between the layouts for the program that owns whatever window you are currently in.

Fedora: Open the Control Center, expand "Regional & Accessibility", choose "Keyboard Layout", click "Enable keyboard layouts", choose an available layout, and then choose the "dvorak" layout variant. You can also set up options for whether the layout is per-application (like Windows), or for the session.

I would have outlined Ubuntu here, but apparently I don't have a VM of it like I thought I did. As for Mac OSX... You're on your own, I have no access to a Mac, so I can't even walk myself through it.

I recommend leaving a Notepad (or gedit or whatever) window open in which you've typed out the key layout, just as a reference in case you get stuck. You may want to find a layout diagram to print out (here's one). Also, there's a good, free, online beginner's course called ABCD (A Basic Course in Dvorak). The version that I used seems to be gone, but someone created a Flash-based version here.

Brew Day

Yesterday was my first Brew Day. I made a Scotch Ale, using an ingredient kit from my LHBS (Local HomeBrew Shop). I mostly ignored the recipe, since it didn't mention sanitation at all. Interestingly enough, though, the startup equipment kit included BTF (the link suggests that BTF is a chlorine-based sanitizer, but the bottle actually says that it is Iodophor-based; Iodophor is a very popular iodine-based sanitizer whose only real competition is Star-san).

Everything went pretty smoothly, except perhaps for the wort chilling. Need more practice with that, or perhaps a counterflow wort chiller... Xmas is coming up, I think I'll add the pieces for Bobby_M's counterflow chiller to my list.

The new pot I bought (from Walmart) specially for this and will never be used for anything else (at least until I get a really nice one):

Some of the ingredients (see the end of the post for the recipe). I didn't show the hops or the yeast, since pellet hops all look the same and I forgot to take a picture of the yeast:

The steeping grains:

Some more equipment (the red spray bottle is to keep curious cats from being too curious):

The second best way to enjoy homebrewing (best would be with another homebrew, this was a Saranac Vanilla Stout):

This is why I need a special spoon to go with the special pot:

Baby's first boilover, aww. Lesson learned: always turn the heat off for a few seconds before adding hops; the other two hop additions were uneventful.

Teh kitteh likes teh hops!

This one... not so much. Not sure where the bag came from, either:

And this one is trying to steal my recipe book!

Here is why you should always keep the cable for your digital thermometer dry. Even after 15 minutes in the fridge, it was still reading 194*F when the water felt like 75*F. Thanks to Bobby_M again, here's a trick I may use next time. Anyway, the pic:

Here's a video of how I aerated my wort (that's a whisk attached to the power drill). Thanks to Padstack31 for the idea. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a specific gravity reading until afterwards. Oh well, brew and learn:

And finally, about nine hours into fermentation:

Recipe:

Ingredients (Note: links are only to see details about products; I purchased everything from the LHBS in an ingredient kit):

• 2 lbs Caramel Malt, 120*L (go down to the Briess Caramel Malts section)
• 6.6 lbs Northwestern Amber Liquid Malt Extract
• 1 oz Chinook Pellet Hops, 12% Alpha Acid @ 1 hour
• .5 oz Aurora Pellet Hops (unable to find an online source), 7% Alpha Acid @ 10 minutes
• 1 oz Fuggle Pellet Hops, 4.1% Alpha Acid @ 5 minutes
• 1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 minutes
• 11 grams Dry Windsor Yeast by Danstar

Procedure:

• Steep the Caramel Malt in a grainbag in 2 gallons of 155*F to 160*F water for 30-45 minutes with the lid on and the heat off (unless the temperature drops too much, then turn it on low for a bit).
• Pour 2 quarts of 170*F water over the grains into the pot. Allow the grains to drip for a bit, then place in a collander over a bowl to collect anything else that might drain out; pour that into the pot also.
• Turn heat to high and add 9 quarts of water. Assuming 1 quart was lost to the grains, this makes 20 quarts or 5 gallons. Wait for it to boil (putting the lid on will help).
• Once boiling, TURN OFF THE HEAT and add the Chinook hops, then turn the heat back on. Set a timer for 1 hour. Leave the lid off.
• Half an hour in, turn off the heat and the timer and add the malt extract. Make sure it is completely disolved (no thick feeling on the bottom of the pot), then turn the heat back to high and wait for it to boil again. Once it is boiling again, allow the timer to continue.
• At 15 minutes remaining, add the Irish moss.
• At 10 minutes remaining, turn off the heat and add the Aurora hops, then turn the heat back on.
• At 5 minutes remaining, turn off the heat and add the Fuggle hops, then turn the heat back on.
• When the hour is up, move the pot to a series of cold water baths. It helps to have a double-sided sink, so you can be filling up one side while the pot is giving up its heat to the other side. Ice is very helpful. (I actually froze a couple of two-liter soda bottles, sanitized the outsides of them, and used them to stir the cooling wort.)
• When the wort has chilled to 70*F to 80*F, take a specific gravity reading. (I forgot to do this until after aeration, unfortunately.) The recipe provided by the LHBS did not mention the target gravity; mine was 1.054 after aeration and at an indeterminate temperature. I am assuming that, corrected, it would be 1.055 at the hydrometer's calibrated temperature, and 1.058-1.059 without the aeration. I will be using 1.058 when I calculate alcohol content.
• Rehydrate the yeast (I did this too early, it was sitting in the water for at least 30 minutes instead of the target 15 minutes).
• Get the wort into the fermentation vessel, add the yeast, and relax.

Here's the rest of the album, in case you want to see more pictures of beer and kitties.