There's a few things to know about keyboards you plug into your computer:

1. They have little computers in them.

2. When you press a key, the little computer in the keyboard sends a signal to your actual computer telling it what key you pressed.

3. The little computer in your keyboard is programmed with a map that defines which keys send what signals to your computer (i.e. when you press the "a" it sends and "a" signal).

4. Some keyboards let you reprogram the map to change the signals each key sends (e.g. you can set it up so the "a" key sends the "z" signal).

(Keyboards built into laptops work the same way. It's just a little easier to think about them as separate things for this post.)

Good Defaults

Each keyboard come with a default map that defines the signal each physical key sends to your computer. That map is what lets different keyboards lay out keys in different ways. For example, the "Alt" key on this keyboard is the third one from the left.

On this one, (where it's labeled both "alt" and "option") it's the second from the left.

Thanks to the maps, the computer receives the same "Alt" signal regardless of where the key sits on the keyboard.

Change-Up

You can change things around if you're keyboard has a way to reprogram the mapping. For example, you could reverse the letters of the alphabet. So, pressing an "a" sends the signal for a "z", "b" does "y", etc... Probably a bad idea, but totally possible.

A more practical example is moving frequently used keys so they are easier to reach. As an example, I use parenthesis all the time when I'm programming. By default, the "(" and ")" keys are mapped so you have to reach up to the number row and hold shift to type them.

I updated the map on my keyboard so it sends the signal for "(" when I hit the "j" key while holding down the "control" (aka "Ctrl") key. The "l" key does the ")".

Landing Changes

I use a keyboard called a Moonlander. It looks like this:

Here's how the keys are mapped for the right half:

When I press the "control" key, they switch to this:

That's how I get the parenthesis under "j" and "l".

The keys are mapped specifically to reduce how far I have to reach when programming. The goal is to reduce the risk of repetitive strain injury (RSI) issues.

The Rabbit Hole

In theory, you can update the mapping layout on any keyboard. In practice, that's not the case. You can only do it if the manufacturer provides an app that let you do it¹.

Lots of "mechanical keyboards" provide that software. Start looking into those if you want to change things up. Fair warning though, there are a billion options and even more opinions.

Totally worth it, though.

-a

Endnotes

• I glossed over some of the complexities of how keyboards work. For example, the signal that's sent when you press a specific key is a code instead of an actual character.

• It's also possible to update some computers so they do different things when they receive given signals. For example, you press the "a" key and your keyboard sends the "a" signal, but the computer acts like it received a "z" signal and types that. It's been a while since I've looked into that. Last time I did, the options weren't great.

• The full keyboard layout mapping for my moonlander is on this page.

Footnotes

• ¹ you can also get into hardware hacking, but that's a different thing entirely.

Image Sources

• keyboard 1

• keyboard 2

• moonlander

As of yesterday, the RSS feed is operational. There's still work to do. Things like adding a little header to posts that feature JavaScript based features that won't work in most feed readers. All that stuff will come in time. The important part is the basics are in place and ingestible now.

You can pick it up on this page.

-a

Endnotes

• Right now, the feed only contains blog posts. One feature on the TODO list is to provide a way to include other pages into it as well. For example, I don't want to have to make a separate blog post for projects (e.g. my QR Code Clock). I just want them to show up in feed.

• Careful observers will note: the feed isn't actually RSS. It's Atom. I'm using that format because it has an RFC. As far as I can tell, RSS does not. With the vastness of technology, I'm sure there are cases where the difference matters. I'm not aware of them. Nor am I worried about them.

  Past me worried about the fact that I called it an RSS feed even though it's Atom. I've grown less pedantic. Folks are more familiar with the term RSS. Atom works in readers. That's all I need.

Footnotes

• ¹ I'm Not Ready To Start This Blog - in which I make the first post on this site just to get started. The only thing I really had set up for it was the folder and the naming convention I'm using for the page addresses/urls.

  I could have waited until I was "more ready". That way lies dragons. The big one of paralysis by perfection, in particular.

• ² this site is built from a custom site builder I'm building specifically for it. The builder is very much an early work in progress. The general advice is not to make your on site builders. After a decade and a half working on the web I disagree with that for those with the skill set to make their own.

  It's slower to start, but the time you spend on it is like compounding interest over time. Especially compared to the never ending treadmill of jumping to new frameworks.

unoficehours.com

I've got a bunch of traveling to do. Setting up calls with some folks is on the list for when I get back.

-a

Endnotes

• I'll totally be using this to talk with techy folks about bitty to get feedback from them.

• For the non-techy folks, we'll play the conversations by ear and see where they go.

What if we made a Digital to Analog Enlarger for photographs? I mean, this already exists in some ways. Any time you get a digital photo printed there's a process that does it that can output to various sizes. That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about one that looks like this:

Ones that project light onto a piece of paper covered with a light sensitive emulsion. The next step being to run the paper through a series of chemicals to produce the image.

It's a bit of a ridiculous way to go about it, but it would give you the chemical experience from your digital images.

Endnotes

• The source of the enlarger photo here.

• Probably someone has already built one of these.

• It's unlikely I'll ever try, but the idea is fun.

Notice I did not say, I want to write something. I need to.

My brain has been offline for a couple weeks. Not too bad. Not full on depressions. I expect it might have been if it weren't for the meds. Or, if I had to go to a day job.

That's maybe the most interesting thing for me. How much less do I get impacted by the swings of bipolar disorder without having the pressure of a gig.

I don't think there would be a difference on the mania side. The depressions side? It feels like I would have spiralled down if I'd had to deal with a 9 to 5 over the past few weeks.

Struggling with one during my big depression was the major reasons I ended up in the hospital A measure that was necessary because I'd become a danger to myself.

I got stuck in this cycle of thinking that I couldn't get my brain moving which meant that I couldn't do my job which meant that I'd get fired which meant I'd lose everything which led the rest of the way down the dark path.

TODO List

I've got stuff I want to work on right now. That's better than the past few days where I didn't want to do anything beyond watching youtube.

I don't have any momentum though. I'm at a stand still.

The purpose of this post is to get a little. It's not much more than leaning forward a bit. Not much. Just enough to take a first step.

Hopefully, that'll be enough. It always has been so far. Even as ever time it feels like the fire might not re-ignite.

Support Notes

Ok.

Things are better now.

Looking at the time stamps, it took me 16 minutes to write down to this point.

It's fucking magic.

It gave me enough to clear the fog. Like turning on a kitchen fan to clear the smoke after you burned something in the frying pan.

It also let me put music back in my ears. I haven't really been listening to anything. It's tough to hear tunes over react videos of folks watching Doctor Who.

But, I need music as much as I do writing.

Input from one. Output of the other. Balance between.

It's cranked now.

Goose's "Give It Time" on repeat.

Outro

I don't have the energy to do an edit pass on this post. It would be nice. It would also be pushing it.

This time is fragile. Nothing more than an ember.

I'm not exactly sure how to land this post either. This wasn't an exercise in prose. It was a stretch. A warm up.

It's done now.

I'm not sure what's next. But, I know it'll be something. A vast improvement over an hour ago when the part of my brain that does things wasn't with me.

-a

Endnotes

• I've written variations of this post a few different times. I've written it even more in my journal. Back when I did that.

  The most concise iteration was The Clicky Sound. The one where I finally dug out of two years of major bipolar depression.

It's been nine years since I had my manic episode and started taking meds for bipolar disorder. The first two or three of those years were going though the depression along with my brain healing from the episodes. The thing I'm wondering now is how much of the way I was feeling was depression and how much was healing.

Like, maybe I don't know what depression actually feels like because a bunch of what I was feeling beat up by was the physical impact on my brain and the recovery from that. It would be nice if most of it was the healing. That would mean the depression wasn't as bad. I doubt that's the case based on the clinical descriptions of depression.

It would be nice though.

Whatever, that was what it was and will be what it will be.

Anyway, The Good Place was a nice way to spend the past few days. Kristen Bell is a delight. It was a lot of fun to see Ted Danson. Those are the two I was familiar with. William Jackson Harper and D'Arcy Carden were great. Manny Jacinto was good in his own way, though I wasn't a fan of his character. He was the most Networky one. Too far on the caricature side of a character.

-- h2

Kant and Crew

I give credit to the writers for the amount of philosophy they threw in. I'd heard of half the philosophers before thanks to J. The recurring joke about everyone hating moral philosophers landed for me more than most because J has told me before that she didn't trust them. I can't imagine most folks have either known a moral philosopher either first or second hand. The riff felt like an inside joke that I knew just enough about to appreciate.

-- h2

The Exit

When I saw there were four seasons and the last one ended six years ago I wondered how they were going to wrap it up. This was in the middle of the second season where it was clear how much effort the writers put into the philosophy. I was really hoping the series would have an explicit end instead of just ending because the show didn't get renewed. I'm glad they got to complete it. They landed it wonderfully. The humans walking through walk into the universe and ceasing to be was... powerful.

I don't have the words to describe it. It was very affecting. I'm crying right now thinking about it. Not because it was bad, or sad. And, not because it was beautiful. It was that, and it wasn't.

I don't know. I really don't know how to describe it. Something like catharsis.

The word sublime comes to mind too. Not in the way most folks use it. Not an ecstasy. An impact. An intensity.

The thing that got me the most was the way they described knowing it was time to move on. The characters each recognized when they'd done what they needed to do.

I get that.

I'm at a time when I feel like I've done enough. What I've needed to do. If there were a door, I could see myself walking through it. I expect that feeling will pass. Possibly it's some depressions. It doesn't feel like it though. It really does feel more like I've done what I've needed to do. That I've had enough experiences that I've covered the enough of them that I'm content. There will always be more to see, but I've seen enough that I'd be happy if it's all I got.

-a

-- endnote/

I'm not suicidal right now. I've been there. This isn't that. It's weird to think I might be again. Doubly so now that I've got the analogy from the end of the show in my head. The idea of the wave and the water. The wave is a thing, but when it crashes on the shore it ceases to be. It's just water again. Part of the ocean.

-- youtube -- l1IchzbtNj0

-- /endnote

-- endnote

With The Good Place and Everything Everywhere All at Once I'm super impressed with the stories in film and television. They are new high marks for putting big thought narratives in play for wider audiences. Love the evolution.

-- endnote

As always happens after a period of being kinda offline, writing this has helped start me up. I'll have to link up "The Clicky Sound".

Welcome to the al9000.com blog!

Things to know:

• I've used alanwsmith.com as my website since the 1900's. It's always been formal sounding and more syllables than I'd like. It finally bugged me enough that I bought this one and am moving everything here.

• There's a few thousand pages on alanwsmith.com. Migration is gonna take a while.

• If I keep blogging there, I'll keep putting off the work to migrate here. It's similar to "broken gets fixed, shoddy is forever". Not that the old site is shoddy or broken. It's just that considering it no longer viable pushes me to work here.

So, I'm making the leap. I've got to hand code a lot. Things are barely styled. Links and pages break all the time as I figure out where to put things. But, the basic framework is in place. Enough that I can start putting down words.

As bumpy as it's going to be, I'm looking forward to the ride. Even if it doesn't feel like I'm ready to start.

-a

P.S. I've been posting other content. You can get to it from the home page. It's just not what I consider blog content. Though, the more I'm thinking about what I want to do with the site the less that distinction is going to matter.

P.P.S. I haven't built the RSS feed yet. It's coming soon.