A smaller format keyboard that you can allow your pinky finger to do less since the other fingers can reach easily, as well as some minor retraining will allow you to type at nearly the same rate without a large learning curve. You can also look at some of the different brands and ergonomic keyboard types and see if the computer function (return, command, alt, etc) are in more suitable locations for your hands.

With my old EEE I only used 2 fingers for typing since the keyboard was so small.

Phil

My upgrade experience on an old dell last year was less than peachy. I took my Dell XPS with the core2 duo, running XP, dropped in a moderate video card (EHA5450 silent) and 2 gig of ram bringing it up to 3 gig of ram. The performance improvement was dramatic, but not nearly as much as I hoped for. I also soon learned that upgrading to 4 GB of ram would be useless because XP can't address more than 3GB!

The on board NIC failed about 2 months later. I dropped in a pulled intel etherexpress 10/100, a few weeks later the on board sound failed (I tried reloading drivers, etc, finally turned sound off). At this point I specked out a new kit and started buying parts as I could afford, with Christmas money and a small windfall I built a new system in January, but made the mistake of putting Win8 on it.

I ended up with a
Asus Sabertooth x79
Radeon 7950 3GB
I7 3820
8 GB Crucial Ballistix ram
WD black 1TB
Antech earthwatts EA750
in a
Cooler Master HAF 912

The problem with Win8 is it won't recognize all the onboard devices, won't allow the manufacturer drivers to load, and is a general pain in the ass.

Phil

Heh. Wait till you bring the newborn home. The first few months may be impossible. I know I had it bad with my daughter having a few severe allergies that have proven to be life changing for myself and my diet, let alone my wife's diet and routines. However the first few months are all about the new one. (and god forbid if you have family and friends who expect you to entertain! Tip: send them to the store, or other errand before they come over, be sure to pay them back, cash, for what they spend that you ask for)

Then responsibility mounts, laundry, dishes, house cleaning, yard chores, vehicles, other hobbies...games get a close second to quite a many things for me. Christmas pageants, spring concerts, and extra-curricular activities for the child also take a huge chunk of time in just transportation needs, let alone showing for the big show!

I only get to game while my wife is working on "homework" from her office after our daughter is in bed. This ends up a couple times a week in a 2+ hour block.

We do "game" some together but it is limited to the multi-player WII offerings, or physical board games and cards, most of those offerings geared towards a younger child playing as well.

About the only game we play together online is "words with friends" (I am currently kicking her butt, though I lost by over 200 points last game)

Phil

While I generally recommend using known steels, particularly for sale, coil and leaf spring from automobile and truck suspensions are typically 5160, oil hardening, and very suitable for learning. Selecting scrap stream steel that is likely know is good to help with learning since there is some odd stuff out there.

If you are going to stick with the hobby for any length of time or start producing items for sale then using new known steels makes sense, helps produce a better product with fewer failures, and is general good business sense, even if your hobby business is only doing a couple thousand dollars of annual business.

Producing and selling 1 premium quality knife per month, sold at $100 per blade (quite cheap if you look at custom blades) translates to $1200 annual sales, will require a business license and the filing of taxes, at least in the US. I state this for perspective, and as a sound reason to agree with you in buying new steel.

Phil

Automotive leaf spring is good too. I just don't have any. I have 6 coil springs left from replacing strut assemblies on my car and my wife's car.
Phil

Don't need acres. Many hobby smiths are using a space of little more than 100 square feet for a shop. Of course no power hammer, just forge, anvil, and some small power tools.

While I don't make knives (not because I can't) my "workshop" is my driveway. Everything gets put away in the garage when I am done. A person can start out using a coal or lump charcoal fired forge made by digging a shallow hole in dirt, and using a hair dryer with an iron pipe on the end for air. Find a large steel slug, or piece of axle, or railroad track, say 30-100 pounds for an anvil (and it will be better than a cast iron anvil by far). Get a couple hammers such as a 2 pound ball pein and a 3 pound cross pein to start with. You can use long stock without tongs, and make your own tongs (Remember the BLACKSMITH makes the TOOLS, not the other way around)

Car or truck coil spring is nice stock to make knives and tools out of for a beginner.

There are forums dedicated to blacksmithing and knifemaking.

Phil

I like Papermate myself. Pencil is not permanent which can be a problem for some work, but for figuring is probably the best answer here

The no pressure bit screams fountain pen with high quality ink. Hook up with one of the writing implement forums. Be amazed at what some people think of writing utensils.

Phil

I am not nearly that old and I remember sitting at a desk in high school with that picture printed on the desk top in a study hall. They did not use them for regular teaching anymore, but the idea is to provide a means to memorize the keyboard and finger positions.

The image was actually carved into the desk and had a slight texture to it. You had to have a pad of several sheets of paper in order to write with a pen or pencil. Seriously low tech. You have several examples on site and can have local craftspeople make up a few dozen in a few days. Heck, you could have the STUDENTS make up some using a keyboard stencil and paint!

I never took typing and type faster than most people I know. Touch typing is not as useful in most fields, except where large quantities of text information needs transcribed directly into the machine. Programmers use such a non-language language that touch typing is less useful than a secretary, transcriptionist or author find touch typing.

Phil

I know a professional and semi-professional photographer who use this scheme. They state that data cards "go bad" if they are wiped and reused too many times.

Specifically the semi-professional photographer stores her working files on her computers and uses an on-site backup scheme that I believe is simply data mirroring to a USB drive. After the files are copied and mirrored, the original data card gets stored in file cabinet at her parents house.

Phil

Some probably will, but I expect your siding is already well grounded.

I had aluminum siding on my old house, it was grounded in several spots (plumbing for garden hose spigots, electrical inlet and meter, AC unit, grounding spike, probably at a few other points too), and phones, pagers, etc did not work well inside. It was kinda nice most of the time. My wireless was very low strength, but usable, on the front porch in front of the picture window, and as expected very strong inside.

Phil

living room 4
3 bedrooms 6
kitchen 2
dining room 2
breakfast area 2
den 2

Right there is 18

Add in my personal wishes for basement, garage, and workshop gets 24.

Interesting thing is I don't use my wired network for computers, generally. I have TV's on them. The new systems use a connection for each device, so TV and blue ray are 2 ports. I use wireless for most of the computers.

No, I do not have this many TV's or computers. This is how many connections I would like in my house.

Phil

In Ohio it is "Mean high water" or something similar. If you own floodplain (like I do), then it is public access. as long as they are not hunting (fishing is the point), not littering, and not stealing your stuff (burning your firewood, happens to my neighbor all the time) there is nothing you can do.

There is a group who kayak through and pull up on my property all the time. Normally it is not a problem, they pack up and take everything with.

They are not permitted to access from anywhere though, they have to go to a bridge access (public road meeting public right of way) or some other access point. They are not permitted to walk down my driveway to get to the river.

Phil

A slow connection after a rain means your phone line has a damaged casing and gets water inside. I worked at a store with this problem we would loose phone, data, credit card processing....horrible.

They eventually had to replace the whole trunk from the building to the pole.

Phil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin
Seems like a different input technique...

Phil

If you CAN do this on the clock and at the office, bring it up at the next review as performance that "exceeds expectations" and talk about a new position, job description, and associated pay raise. Loosing the rights to your creations is part of being employed, but compensation of some type should be expected.

However don't talk yourself into the unemployment line either, unless you really feel you need to change employer that quickly.

Phil