Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Broader question.... (Score 1) 146

Go deep, not wide. Offer Fn layers and dedicated keys, but put those dedicated keys in back, not off to the side. If you do expand to the side, expand left, not right.

You may want a Tipro MID, though those are hard to come by in the U.S.

Cherry MX Black switches (heavy linear), relegendable keys on the top three rows. You can get them in either a matrix layout or a staggered ANSI or ISO layout for the bottom four rows. The top four rows are always a matrix. If you want more keys, they come in various sizes and bolt together.

Be aware of the significant problem that the programming software requires Windows. It does not run on anything else. The PS/2 connected versions not only require Windows, but 32-bit Windows. (The USB versions will accept 64-bit.) While PS/2 to USB (and vice-versa) conversion works, it does not allow programming. They must be programmed on their native interface. However, once programmed, they stay programmed and can be used on any system or any OS, and either interface type.

Another option is the Cherry boards I posted elsewhere, though they don't have nearly as much customization ability as the Tipro.

Comment Off the shelf answers are out there. (Score 1) 146

There are simple, off the shelf answers out there, you just need to look at the point-of-sale market. This means you may end up with an unnecessary credit card reader attached to your keyboard, but otherwise there is no real issue. (Besides, wouldn't being able to swipe a card, even a magstripe, be a nice second factor for login?)

As I posted to Deskthority just yesterday:

http://cherrycorp.com/product/...
http://cherrycorp.com/product/...

And the one that I have chosen (for now) to serve in a similar role, that of having alternate language characters and mathematical symbols within easy reach, would be this:

http://cherrycorp.com/product/...

I chose the non-trackpad version.

You can play with the Cherry programming software to see the limitations of the hardware without actually buying anything, but I can tell you that doing things like typing {} followed by a left arrow would be quite trivial, as would double characters like == and !=. Emulating Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V is also pretty trivial.

Comment Re:The content of this article was lost in the noi (Score 1) 422

No matter how good your "live view" screen is, it won't be of resolution comparable to a matte glass screen. This may eventually become indistinguishable. However, there will always be a little bit of latency and flicker, no matter how good it gets. The "latency" of a mirror box is and always has been well below detection thresholds for humans.

The only "mirrorless" I'd be interested in at this pint is more accurately a half-silvered mirror. Some of the light goes to the detector, some of it to the focusing screen, and nothing moves. Unfortunately, you sacrifice half your light sensitivity (one stop) for this.

Comment Re:Different market segments (Score 1) 422

Quite true. But keep in mind that this might not be free of cost (or effects) for those of us at the middle-to-high end. There's probably a bunch of "infrastructure" and overhead-type costs that are currently shared across different market segments.

You need look no further than the discrete GPU market for an example of this. Integrated GPUs have long since eaten up the low end. They're starting to eat the middle of the market too. The consequence is that high-end cards escalate in price, and come out less often because each generation has to be milked longer to get the ROI. Another, more fortunate consequence is that even if you don't want to pay for a high-end GPU, you still get something that doesn't totally suck.

Comment Wow. Maybe they should call it a swamp cooler. (Score 4, Interesting) 183

I lived in an apartment which had a swamp cooler and no air conditioning. Even in the dry air of suburban Los Angeles, it sucked. It required moving massive amounts of air, which meant constant noise. It meant interior doors – and exterior windows – had to be left open.

I suppose it's better than nothing, but so is a fan and a wet towel.

Bug

Security-Focused BlackPhone Was Vulnerable To Simple Text Message Bug 46

mask.of.sanity sends this report from El Reg: The maker of BlackPhone – a mobile marketed as offering unusually high levels of security – has patched a critical vulnerability that allows hackers to run malicious code on the handsets. Attackers need little more than a phone number to send a message that can compromise the devices via the Silent Text application.

The impact of the flaw is troubling because BlackPhone attracts what hackers see as high-value victims: those willing to invest AU$765 (£415, $630) in a phone that claims to put security above form and features may well have valuable calls and texts to hide from eavesdroppers.

Comment Re: What's wrong with a scroll wheel? (Score 1) 431

I have a mouse (the one currently at my right hand side) that is perfectly useful this way. I middle-click without any issues at all. I have another one -- also made by Logitech -- where the spring force of the click function significantly exceeds that of the scroll wheel's detents. The only way to middle-click reliably without scrolling is to reach forward and press down on the leading edge of the wheel, where it basically can't spin under the pressure. Luckily I only keep that one around as a backup. It also has a tendency to occasionally "spin out" and send the cursor (or viewpoint) flying around randomly for about 300 ms.

Comment Re:Car analogy (Score 1) 145

You'd be kinda foolish to only add one can at a time though. When you needed the last five, why not put all of it in at once? For that matter, why not have a single five-gallon can? It would certainly simplify refilling.

Of course, you'd still be well within your rights to complain about the misrepresentation of the fuel capacity.

Comment Re:Paid sick leave (Score 1) 673

The problem is that a lot of these diseases can spread before you see the symptoms. If you are a Disney worker and are spreading a vaccine-preventable disease without having any symptoms (yet), how are sick days helping?

The most obvious example of this would be polio. It has an incubation period of six weeks, during which the infected person is highly contagious. Stack a cold or flu on top of that so they're sneezing and rubbing a runny nose all day, and you have a full-blown outbreak from a single source.

If you stayed home for every cold or sniffle, you wouldn't have a job for very long – especially if you work in an environment with lots of children, such as teaching or day care. Also, the kids aren't going to be kept home for every little sniffle, because that would mean one of the parents (quite possibly the only direct parent) having to take time off work to do so.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Just think, with VLSI we can have 100 ENIACS on a chip!" -- Alan Perlis

Working...