Simply type all the keys and shift, alt, alt+shift combinations and then you can print out an overview of your keymap for easy reference. (Or make a PDF, or take a screenshot, of course.)
Works best in Safari on the Mac, but most keys will be detected correctly with other browsers / operating systems, too.
(This is Apple's "ABC - Extended" layout, formerly known as "US Extended".)
Read the article - posted 2021-01-29
As most people who’ve used a keyboard in (another) European country can attest to, all the other countries use really crazy keyboard layouts. An effort like EurKEY tries to solve this by coming up with a keyboard layout that works for all latin script languages. Apple’s ABC Extended (formerly US Extended) is also a pretty good effort.
However, coming up with a really good keyboard layout is pretty easy. Getting people to abandon the keyboard layout they’re used in favor of a “better” one to is the big problem. (Insert old joke: standards are great, there are so many to choose from!) So what I wanted to do is come up with something that works for people who find themselves behind a foreign keyboard, but also those who appreciate having a layout that makes it easier to type their most-used language.
Back in 2003, Apple released the Apple Wireless Keyboard:
(Not to be confused with later keyboards of the same name that look like laptop keyboards.)
The keyboard still works with an ancient MacBook Pro, but it won't pair with anything from the 2010s. That's too bad, because I think it looks pretty nice. So I decided to see if I could bring its essence into the 2020s by transplanting the keycaps to my Drop CTRL keyboard.
Read the article - posted 2021-03-05
Eight years ago, I wrote Why I use a 20-year-old IBM Model M keyboard for Ars Technica. And now, after a slight (well, five-year) hiatus, I have a new story on Ars, about my new mechanical keyboard.
Read the article - posted 2021-03-08
The other day I noticed how dirty my VT420 terminal's keyboard was, so I decided to take off the keycaps to clean them.
Then of course it's always good to put the keycaps back where they belong. That's a task made a lot easier with a keyboard tester app such as the online one I made a while ago. However, I don't think the VT420 supports the latest Javascript features...
So I whipped up a command line keyboard tester: kbdtest.php. Save the page, rename to kbdtest.php, then run with ./kbdtest.php. Works on the Mac, haven't tested other systems.
This web tool lets you click on a list of accents to add those accents to text you've typed or pasted in a text box. Or remove accents with a click. So no need to remember those pesky alt codes or unintuitive key combinations!
Read the article - posted 2021-05-14
Original Amiga mice were never that great, and a few decades of use and storage didn't help. So if there's one part of the Amiga I have no problem replacing with something new, it's the mouse. (Don't feel bad, I swore of Apple mice, too.) So a while ago I got a USB-to-DB9 mouse adapter. That one worked fine with wired mice, which was a big improvement.
However, a few years ago I discovered the Logitech Anywhere MX 2 wireless mouse...
Five months ago, I put Kailh Box Orange switches in my Massdrop CTRL keyboard.
Today, I took them all out and replaced them with the Cherry MX Browns that the keyboard came with. There were just too many keys that generated an extra spurious press. So that would be "I typee" rather than "I type". This seems to happen especially with often used keys like e. So let's see what happens when I've used the Cherry MX Browns for five months.
Permalink - posted 2021-08-07