I totally agree. I was focusing on getting the positioning of symbol layers and such right, and I wanted that to be independent of the number of thumbkey so when I add thumbkeys back in (say for weteor/grumpy) the core layouts will remain the same.

Personally I’m not sure it’s worth it longer term. 5x3+2 is my preference but I’m doing this to sort my layers so I can try some of the unibody split keyboards that have less keys to go round.

Yeah I’m doing it to establish a common layout for my symbol / number / navigation layers more than anything else, so I can expand from there to some 28 and 30 key keyboards as well as the Ferris Sweep with some consistant muscle memory.

It’s my own layout starting from Colemak DH with the “missing” outer keys on another layer.

Somewhere in the middle? More of late night realisation than anything else.

To be fair I am planning on putting them back at some point.

I’m working on a core 18-key layout that I can expand anywhere up to 34 keys, so I have a consistent layout that I can use on some of the unibody split keyboards that are usually in that range of keys.

I use the Hario Switch almost exclusively for pourovers. It’s glass plus you can throw in immersions with it. Bit spendy compared to the plastic cones though.

Beautiful design. I love the casing over the nice view and roller.

Yeah they’ve left the dipper in it too.

I know you don’t want to spend too much but there’s also no point buying something that misses the mark in terms of the grind you need for the espresso you want. When I was looking at grinders for espresso I narrowed it down to the 1zspresso J-Max for a hand grinder or the Baratza Encore ESP for a machine grinder. Both are a bit more expensive than the basic options but give much more versatility for dialing in grinds.

Yes it’s to keep my wrists a bit further apart but also to give my pinky fingers less work to do.

Yeah I’m new to it and still getting used to it. I’ve gone the slow but accurate route, which is incredibly frustrating, but I’ll get there.

Haha its actually a Neon Genesis Evangelion themed keycap set so the additional keycaps are icons of the angels. I have them wired up to Vim and AutoHotkey shortcuts.

It’s mostly a copy of my 34 key layout so the thumb keys are shift - space - enter - layer. Having the spacebar would throw that off. I was tempted but in the end I didn’t want to lose a key on the top three rows for “enter”.

I just worked out that a rotary controller can be mapped onto a mouse scroll wheel, which suddenly makes a lot of sense. I’ve been sitting here thinking “why would I want a volume knob? Why would I want two?” Is there anything else I am missing about rotary controllers?

I almost feel like my piano training has kicked in with my QWERTY technique. I almost move my left hand above my right sometimes to hit certain keys. It’s definitely a lost cause and you are totally right: we know so much more about ergonomics now that if you are going to learn to touch type at this point, you might as well learn an alternative layout.

I’m really enjoying learning it so far. Semimak sounds really interesting. I think what I take away from reading about alt layouts is, beyond a certain point, you need to start to understand the dexterity and capability of your own fingers because metrics won’t tell you much more than the very basics of what a layout can do.

That’ll work. I will have to try that myself to see whether immersion vs percolation in cold brew makes a difference.

There’s only so many rabbitholes I can go down …

Ech what a nightmare. I figure I have one shot at an alt layout before my brain plasticity finally gives out so Colemak DH it is.

I hear you re: row stagger. I actually just realised in terms of touch typing the keys on the bottom row are shifted one column/one finger compared to a column staggered keyboard. Just as well I caught that before CDVK got too engrained.