(no subject)
I have a lot to journal about. But first I'm going to whine about my tweaks to my interface with the computer.
Maybe this is a technological get-off-my-lawn rant?
I've been spending more time helping Miriam or doing my own stuff at the computer lately, and the more I do that the more I want to tweak the computer to function the way I want it to.
The biggest problem I'm having right now is that AHK scripts I've set to execute with a key combination of a letter or number plus F13 are sometimes triggering without pushing F13. I thought maybe the F13 is getting 'stuck' on somehow, but no keyboard status monitor program I can find will show me the status of F13. I'll be typing along and suddenly a string just pops ittoex t ctohloer : blue it just did it again.
I'm going to leave it there as an example of how *ridiculously annoying* it's becoming. The recorded macro to change text color (using what happened above there for instance: that's supposed to trigger on F13+n) within Google Sheets just intertwines itself with what I'm trying to write and I have to delete it all and retype.
It could be a problem with my AHK code, or with the key remapper that I used to make volume up into F13, or with the way Windows deals with an F13 press, or with my actual keyboard hardware and I can't figure out how to troubleshoot.
Speaking of actual keyboard hardware, my nice pink mechanical keyboard is being flaky with its shift and space keys lately too. It was supposed to be a new open box item and it's been great up until now, but suddenly shift and space occasionally don't work and that's almost as annoying as the random macros in terms of having to go back and delete things.
I type quickly. I would guess around 60-70wpm when my brain and fingers are cooperating and depending on content. Having to fix all these random bits of mess just kills that, and it's so frustrating!
I'm pretty sure the shift and space problems are physical hardware problems because if I remove and reseat the keys on the switches, it gets better for a while. Maybe AUKey switches aren't as high-quality as my perusal of reviews led me to believe? I could order new ones and replace the ones that may be bad, I guess. The soldering shouldn't be too bad. I just don't have a good workspace because I'm *still* living in a temporary apartment 6 months after the fire.
I *really* miss my Enterpad and my Kinesis.
That Kinesis keyboard was a champion. I'd had it since a manager at a job I had when I was still with my ex bought it for me to combat RSI pain, probably 11 or 12 years ago now. It was showing its age, but it was still working just fine. A new one is up to almost $500 CAD now (thanks inflation!), so it needs to wait for insurance.
Speaking of RSI pain, my left wrist/hand/arm pain is has been significantly increased lately as I find myself at my computer for longer periods recently. I know that a lot of it comes from extension of my left pinky to press modifier keys (shift, ctrl) and tab frequently. The Kinesis moves a lot of those keys under your thumbs (though not tab) and it's a godsend. It makes a real difference in terms of pain.
I just...I really want my computer to do what I want, and look the way I want, and I've become more irritable about it as I get older I guess. I at least have it looking mostly the way I want, between dark mode in Windows, a dark mode browser plugin, and registry tweaks to change the color of inactive windows, for instance, because apparently stuff like that is too important and complicated to trust to average users? There's also Open Shell, making the Start Menu behave much more like windows 7 or 8 than Windows 10, which was driving me crazy. No, I don't *ever* want web search integrated with searches on my local machine. Ever.
And sometimes I think about all the things that I love my desktop *so much* for, when it's behaving, and I think about people who use a phone as their primary "computer," and it just boggles my mind. How do you *live* like that? I don't even feel like I can work as effectively as I'd like at a laptop, let alone a phone.
One of the things Miriam is working on is an interface for doing complex searches on a mobile platform, and I'm like, why is that even a thing? Why would you willingly torture yourself that way?