Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:CODE Keyboard (Score 1) 452

You could also get them without backlighting if you go to WASD Keyboards directly.
Without backlighting you could get fully custom printing.
However, I have heard (said) that the WASD Keyboards' keyboards are louder than others in its class, so you may want sound dampening O-rings that also available from them.

If you are lucky, you may also find some left-over stock of Ducky G2 Pro with Cherry MX Clear. I have one, and I recommend them.
If you don't need the numeric keypad, a KUL ES-87 might also be a good choice.
BTW. all of the above support swapping Win/Command and Alt/Option if you use Mac.

Comment Re:Logitech wired LIK (Score 1) 452

I would also recommend the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard K800.

The type of scissor switches is branded "PerfectStroke", and they are also found in the (no longer made) Logitech DiNovo Edge.
These are my favourite scissor switches.

Comment Re:quiet mechanical keyboard (Score 4, Interesting) 452

Whether Royal Kludge has mechanical switches or not is debatable.
The switches are copies of those of Topre, but with a different stem which accepts Cherry MX-compatible keycaps.

The switches of Royal Kludge (what a name...) and Topre are actually rubber dome switches but not the regular kind: they bottom out distinctly and the keys are sensed in a capacitative manner which has faster response time than most other keyboards.

I would say that the Topre Realforce line has the highest quality of any rubber dome keyboard, and not just for the switch type. The key action is very smooth and the materials and build quality is top notch. Enthusiasts who like them often liken the experience as "typing on a cloud of boobs" ...
If you can get old of one, I would suggest Topre Realforce with variable weighting (similar to the classic Key Tronic ErgoForce), and a Type S version for silencing also on the up-stroke.
These are really comfortable and silent, with a luxurious feel, but they are also pricey. Part of the price is because they are made in Japan.

Comment Re:Names as Spock tribute ? (Score 1) 52

There has been some speculation that the name would have something to do with AMD. AMD has their own low(er)-level graphics API called Mantle, referring to the Earth's mantle. Vulkan is the work for volcano in some languages, and a volcano spews out magma from Earth's innards.

When Vulkan became public, AMD announced right then that they are stopping development on Mantle to focus on Vulkan.
It has been speculated that spurring the creation of Vulkan and the low-level API in DirectX 12 would have been AMDs intention with Mantle all along.

Movies

Gritty 'Power Rangers' Short Is Not Fair Use 255

Bennett Haselton writes: Vimeo and Youtube are pressured to remove a dark, fan-made "Power Rangers" short film; Vimeo capitulated, while Youtube has so far left it up. I'm generally against the overreach of copyright law, but in this case, how could anyone argue the short film doesn't violate the rights of the franchise creator? And should Vimeo and Youtube clarify their policies on the unauthorized use of copyrighted characters? Read on for the rest.

Comment Vulkan vs. OpenGL ES (Score 1) 91

Imagination Technologies (PowerVR) posted this today with more in-depth info:
http://blog.imgtec.com/powervr...

The purpose of Vulkan is apparently to be a low-level alternative to the high-level APIs OpenGL and OpenGL ES.
Game consoles such as the Playstation series have had both high-level and low-level graphics API:s for many years. Using the low-level API means that you can squeeze out more performance, perhaps at the expense of more developer time. The application takes over more duties, such as resource management etc.
If your app is a game, then your resource management and shaders are often pretty much static anyway.

Graphics

Khronos Group Announces Vulkan To Compete Against DirectX 12 91

Phopojijo writes The Khronos Group has announced the Vulkan API for compute and graphics. Its goal is to compete against DirectX 12. It has some interesting features, such as queuing to multiple GPUs and an LLVM-based bytecode for its shading language to remove the need for a compiler from the graphics drivers. Also, the API allows graphics card vendors to support Vulkan with drivers back to Windows XP "and beyond."

Comment A variant of C++ (Score 1) 407

C++ isn't really one language. The language has evolved in several ways over the years. C++11 is vastly different from the first incarnation.
In real-world programming you might therefore encounter many different styles: C++ used as a better C, C++ but with the coding style dictated by the C libraries that are used, C++ as "C with classes", C++ with STL, C++ with STL and Boost, and then C++11.

I would suggest C++11 or at least C++ with Boost. C++11 is the most modern, and shares some traits with other modern languages such as C#, Python and Ruby but which older versions of C++ lack. Also, several of the more recent additions to C++'s standard library have come from Boost.

C++ is also an incredibly complex language, with many workings that are more or less implicit. An assignment, parameter passing or return could involve several calls to virtual functions into the classes being used.
But once you have learned the philosophy behind programming in C++ and how to do it correctly, you will find that C++'s way is very powerful.

Objective-C is like "C + Smalltalk", and is mainly used by Apple because of historical reasons.

Comment Bad usability, man (Score 5, Insightful) 516

The biggest problem with the new icons is not lack of beauty but that the overly stylistic design has made them more difficult to visually parse.

The purpose of icons is to make recognition of objects on the screen easier. The use of three dimensions, contrasting edges, shading and shadows are significant visual aids - and those are the things that these new icons lack the most. It takes more than Photoshop skills to earn the title of UX Designer.

Comment Re:Don't complain about 'the Intenet' (Score 1) 188

It is not about having ads, but the nature of the ads. Ads that blink, flash, have lots of moving objects .. and worse of all: play sound.

There is a reason why some browsers have had the feature to disable GIF animation for many years. Until recently, the majority of animated ads were made in Adobe Flash, which you could have configured as click-to-play.
With HTML5 and the most popular browsers, there is no click-to-play.

Comment Re:6 key on the left side (Score 1) 146

Different schools of touch-typing assign the digit 6 key to different hands. This goes back a long way.
We talked about this at a keyboard-oriented discussion forum recently and one user had found two different touch-typing manuals in English from 1889 and 1893 that were different about this key.

The original Scholes and Glidden QWERTY layout used the letter I as the digit 1. The numeric row started with the digit 2, so the whole row was shifted one step to the left compared to modern keyboards.
So originally, the number 6 was truly on the left side but moved to the right when the numeric row got a proper 1-key.

I once did a survey of split ergonomic keyboards. The most popular series: the Microsoft Natural Keyboards, has it on the left.
Out of 24 keyboard models, 16 had the number-6 key on the left side, 7 had it on the right side and one even had it on both.

Comment Re:Gee, what a coincidence (Score 1) 146

Most people don't use the number pad on a full-size keyboard.
The function keys are largely superfluous if you are using anything but MS Windows.
Most people press the Space bar in exact the position where it is located on this keyboard.
Using the mouse too far to the right, past arrow and numpad contributes to shoulder problems. ... and I have met lots of programmers who use emacs or vi who don't need the cursor keys or the nav cluster.

This form factor is actually quite popular among professionals who do a lot of typing. Just look at the Happy Hacking Keyboard, Poker and Ducky Mini, to name a few. They are small premium keyboards, and they sell.

The big feature of this keyboard that separates it from others is that it splits into two. I can tell you from having tried many ergonomic keyboards that just separating the hands a bit is the most significant feature that an ergonomic keyboard could have. Besides that, you can position and tilt the halves the way you want.
You could view this keyboard as a more portable alternative to the Microsoft Natural Keyboard if you will.

Slashdot Top Deals

What is research but a blind date with knowledge? -- Will Harvey

Working...