The march to the clouds continues...

So with the end of year coming and what's with all the Black Friday deals and IT Shows, I gave in and bought for myself not one but two Chrome devices! One is the Acer C720 chromebook. This is an oldie but goodie and what's different this time is that it comes with a Core i3! This thing will surely fly!

The second chrome device I bought is the ASUS Chromebox. The deal was too good to pass and I gave in to temptation.

Do I need either of these devices? Hell no. I already have a HP Chromebook 14. It is serving me very well and for my needs more than sufficient for 90% - 95% of my needs. Its only downfall is its poor screen. Not the resolution mind you but its bad viewing angles and that constant "pastiness" which gives a sort of fuzziness which drives me nuts sometimes. Performance wise it has been a champ and runs everything I throw at it.

So why get the Acer C720? Based on most reviews it has an equally poor screen like the HP. I got this mostly for its size. At 1.25kg it is a lot lighter over the 1.8kg HP. It might not sound like much on paper but in real life, portability wise, it makes a lot of difference.

As for the Asus Chromebox, well.....I do have a proper Windows desktop for my other 5% - 10% needs and I have a great 24 inch monitor. Problem with that desktop is that it takes a bit more longer to boot up and get connected. Well actually its boot up time is not very long as I have an excellent Samsung SSD for its boot drive. I am however spoilt by the instant boot up of my HP Chromebook. I could be up and running and get connected in no time. Can't beat that convenience. I would like a similar experience at the desktop level and especially on a big screen. Old eyes you see and every little bit helps.

We'll see how it goes when they arrive.

Revisiting the Leopold FC660M Part 2

I've swapped back the ABS keycaps on the Leopold FC660M to the original PBT keycaps. Now that I am more or less doing proper touch-typing, the experience on the Leopold FC660M has been quite different.

When I was typing using my old ways, I have the tendency to hit the keys quite hard and this results in a very tiring experience due to the stiffness of the Cherry MX Clears on this keyboard. However, when you do proper touch-typing on it, the tendency is for you to type lightly on these especially when you want to type fast. What I've discovered is that I can type pretty fast on these and quite accurate too. In fact I can get up to speed and get almost as fast as I can on my Topre keyboards where I've mostly been practicing my touch-typing on. In fact at times, I feel I am even more faster and accurate on it. Due to the stiffness of the keys on initial entry, I find the actuation quite early on and as a result, my fingers quickly raise away from the keys. My fingers are not as tired. In fact I don't find them more tiring than I do on my Topre keyboards. Maybe just a little. So what accounts for this? On Topre, the keys literally invites you to bottom them out. It is just the way they are designed. You can try not to bottom out but it does not feel natural and it is very difficult to feel for the actuation point. On the Cherry MX Clears you do not have this problem. I'm actually quite surprised how fast and accurate I am on them.

So I decided to learn...touch-typing!

So I got all these wonderful keyboards and I think it is time for me to learn proper touch-typing. You know, the one that you don't look at the keyboard at all and having your fingers on the home row and using proper fingers for the proper keys.

Man...it has been tough. I'm now averaging about 30wpm which is just well...average. My target is at least 100wpm but I think that is really a long way to go. I'm having real problems getting my pinky to reach the letter "P" and I keep missing typing the letter "I" especially after I stretch my fingers to reach the less frequent keys like the letter "Z" and "Q" as well as "?". I guess part of it is because my fingers get out of position after reaching for them but the letter "I" I always forget where it is in relation to my fingers. I keep hitting it with the wrong finger.

I try to touch-type whenever I can. This post is one of them.

Well, I still have a long way to go. Wish me luck!

UPDATE 1: I can't seem to be able to go beyond 40wpm!

UPDATE 2 : I'm consistently hitting 40wpm now. Can't wait for it to reach 50!

UPDATE 3 : The highest I've hit is 60wpm. Will not be repeating that anytime soon lol. My average speed is still 40wpm. This is quite depressing.

UPDATE 4: I realised that the more accurate I am and even though my typing may not be very fast it will still maintain a high typing speed. I will try to be as accurate as possible while still trying to maintain a fast typing speed while not making any mistakes or making as few as possible. I will correct each and every mistake in the whole word or even the previous word to force myself to be as accurate as possible.

It has not been very easy. The positioning of the fingers are very important. What I've noticed is that I have problems hitting keys which are close together and also hitting keys which I've not hit for quite some time even though they may be common keys. I keep using the wrong finger which is usually the finger which is to the immediate right or the immediate left of the correct finger. That has been the toughest to correct. Generally and on the whole though, my fingers already remember where they are supposed to be when hitting the respective keys.

UPDATE 5 : I'm using TypeRacer to keep track of my progress and currently I have just reached 50wpm as my average score but I don't quite trust that as I can vary quite wildly between test pages. I can go as low as 30+ wpm to as high as 60+ wpm. On average I'm hitting a high 40+ wpm.

Improvements are getting harder by the day. I'll take whatever bit of improvement I can get. I'm still trying to improve my accuracy as I find that it has the biggest impact on my typing speed.

UPDATE 6 : My average speed is more or less 50wpm now. On good days it has been quite consistent. Being accurate has definitely helped. I've even reached a maximum of 72wpm! I'm also seeing a bit more 60+wpm as well. That will be my new target but it definitely won't be easy.

UPDATE 7 : My average speed has reached 60wpm if TypeRacer is to be believed. It has been a very tough time getting here. Even then I find it hard to believe that I can hit 60wpm consistently. 50wpm is a given. Even 55wpm. But I'll take whatever TypeRacer is telling me. It's a nice morale booster and makes me want to continue to get better. At these speeds, accuracy becomes even more crucial and actual typing speed also becomes a factor. Another factor which I've noticed which I've not noticed so much before is fatigue. If you come in fresh and alert, I can easily hit 60wpm without a problem. The longer you type and the sleepier and tired you are coming in, the more mistakes you make and the lower your average becomes. I'm fastest somewhere between the 3rd typing test and the 8th. Anything earlier my fingers are still acclimatising to the keys and anything beyond, I start to get tired.

It goes without saying that the difficulty of the test passage also plays a part on how fast you can type but that has always been a given.

UPDATE 8 : I've just hit a maximum of 75wpm! Yeeee Haaaaw!

UPDATE 9 : Ok, pretty much confirmed that I can hit a consistent 60wpm when I'm not too tired and relatively alert. I believe when I'm fresh and even more alert I can go even faster. Wish me luck!

UPDATE 10 : Another observation. I type fastest and with lesser errors when the words are short and familiar. The longer and more complicated they are, the slower I become and the more mistakes I make. Sometimes the words can be familiar but simply long. I make mistakes while typing along the way.

I still have not mastered the positioning of my fingers. Once they start stretching from one end of the keyboard to the other, I make mistakes. The worst ones are those where the letters are side by side. Have to master this in order to increase my typing speed.

The biggest impact still seems to be fatigue. One time, I may hit a max speed of 70+wpm and in the next test I would go down to 50wpm or slower. The fact that I was coming in from a "high" does not help and the tendency is to go fast in the next test which does not help. I also do not give my fingers sufficient time to recover from the last test. I now try to rest my fingers more. However at the end of the day, there is always a limit and when I find myself making too many mistakes than I normally would, I will just stop and call it a day.

UPDATE 11 : My favourite keyboard for typing seems to be the Leopold FC660M with the Cherry MX Clears. I also prefer it for gaming. For everything else, I prefer to the Topre keyboards where the keys massage your fingers while you type.

UPDATE 12 : Reached a maximum of 78wpm today with zero errors. I wasn't typing particularly fast so accuracy definitely played a major part today.

Revisiting the Leopold FC660M

So I got bored and decided to play with my other keyboards which I have been neglecting. One of them is the Leopold FC660M. Those who followed my blog will know that I am not exactly too enamoured by the Cherry MX Clears on the Leopold FC660M. I love their tactility but not their stiffness. As I also have a Cherry MX Blues Armageddon Stealth Raptor, I decided to play with the keycaps by swapping them around. Based on my experience with swapping keycaps on my Topre keyboards, I know that the keycaps plays a part in the feel of the keyboard. I figured I have nothing to lose. I was bored after all hehe.

The result is what you see above. Not perfect and not all the keycaps are an exact match. What I did not expect however, was an improvement made on BOTH keyboards after I had finished switching the keycaps. If you remember, one of my complaint of the Leopold is that the keys are hard to see with the gold-lettering on the white background. They are also stiff on entry and very stiff when bottoming out. The ABS keycaps of the Armageddon are not exactly that much better legibility-wise but it is an improvement. The biggest improvement however, is in its feel. I was caught by surprise how great these feels on the Leopold. The Armageddon keycaps are lighter (more flimsy actually) and also a bit taller than the original keycaps. In one stroke, it solves the problem of the stiffness and fatigue on your fingers. I mean the stroke is still stiff but not as stiff as before. It actually changes the character of the keystroke quite a bit. These are lighter on entry and because it is taller, the stiffness on bottoming out is also much lessened. Is it perfect? No but I sure as hell can live with it. Now even typing is a pleasure. Also because it is taller, the tactility is even more pronounced which is a real delight. I think ABS keys have been given an undeserved reputation. Maybe the lettering quality may not be as good but in terms of feel it is not necessarily worse than a PBT.

I really enjoy typing on the Leopold FC660M now. Initially I was thinking of using soft landing pads or o-rings to solve the stiffness problem. I was also thinking of lubing the stem to further smoothen the entry when typing. I may still do them but as it is now, these are really great to type on. At times I even enjoy typing on them more than the Topre. Never thought I'd say that.

P.S. I forgot to say something about the swapped keycaps on the Armageddon. The Leopold keycaps actually improved the feel of the Armageddon. Where previously the typing experience can be a bit wobbly, the new keycaps tighten up the experience. If anything, the keys are even more clicky than before making it quite enjoyable to type on. I still prefer the Cherry MX Clears though.

The Holy Grail (or is it?)

Yep. It finally arrived.

Initial impressions. Very light keyboard. Key feel is typical Topre. Better than the Realforce 86U. It's definitely more "thocky". Is it more "thocky" than the Leopold FC660C? I'm not too sure about that. It's a different kind of "thock". I still prefer the "thock" of the Leopold. It's more crisp and the "thock" is deeper. The HHKB Pro 2 keycaps are also slightly lighter than the Leopold which offers a bit more resistance which I like. When typing fast, the "thock" on the HHKB Pro 2 is very pleasurable and I can see why people get addicted to it. Still preliminary impressions though.

I've configured the DELETE key to be BACKSPACE by flipping on the SW3 DIP switch and changed some keycaps to highlight the location of the cursor keys. The current keyboard arrangement is throwing me off a lot and I think it will take some time before I get used to it.

Did it meet my expectations? Not really. I mean, it did not disappoint me but it does not feel like what I thought it would feel like either. I guess I just have to give it more time.

More impressions later.

UPDATE 1 : I'm slowly but surely adapting to the keyboard. My typing speed has increased by at least 10 wpm and I'm slowly familiarising myself with the new layout. I've actually taken out the orange keycaps to wean myself off them. What I'm struggling with though, is the effort that I have to exert to hold the FN key to trigger my often used keys like the cursor keys, the PGUP / PGDN keys and the HOME / END keys. It's taking its toll on my fingers. In short, finding them is fine but to trigger them is becoming a problem.

I'm slowly getting a hang of the keyboard and I now find the typing experience to be at least equal to the Leopold FC660C. The HHKB might even be a bit superior. Overall I find the experience to be quite different. The HHKB has a very nice "thock" and less of the "thunk" that the Leopold has. The keycap quality is also excellent with big letterings on a beige background. All the keys are fine except maybe for the DELETE key which I've made into my BACKSPACE. That one has a bit of a "ping" on the upstroke which I'm not particularly thrilled with.

My biggest bugbear is still the layout and although it is a lot better now, I keep getting tripped by the location of the BACKSPACE key which is a row lower than what I'm used to and the CTRL key which is now 2 rows above where it used to be. I'm ok with the location of the cursor keys even though it was my biggest worry initially. I also keep forgetting to press the FN key in order to trigger the DEL key.

I hope I can adapt.

In short, the keyboard feels fine (if not fantastic) but the layout is driving me nuts. I can't help but wish the keyboard was a TenKeyLess. It would have been perfect.

UPDATE 2 : Is there a break-in period for keyboards? I don't know but the "thock" on the HHKB is becoming more and more prominent the more I type on it. Maybe it's all psychological but that "thock thock thock" is damn addictive. I just want to keep on typing. At times I feel it to be superior than the Leopold. I still type faster on the Leopold but I attribute that to my familiarity with its layout. The HHKB still trips me up at times.

Both the Leopold and HHKB are a pleasure to type on and you can't go wrong with either. Depending on my mood, my preference will swing from one to the other. Overall I still have to give the edge to the Leopold due to its more conventional layout.

One thing I noticed, the more I type on the HHKB, the worst I become when I go back to my other keyboards. My fingers seem to remember the position of the BACKSPACE and other keys on the HHKB. Takes me awhile to get myself acclimatised back to the other keyboards.

Realforce 86U Keyboard Modification

I've been trying to put a few of my keyboards up for sale. I've not been successful. Nope. None at all. Only got 1 query and after that nothing. Nada. Zilch. This is quite depressing. I know where I'm from, not many people are into keyboards. But what I'm experiencing is pretty bad. I do stuff like these all the time. I would buy and sell stuff to try them out. Usually I will be out of a little bit of money. I take that loss as some sort of rental for me to try out the product. This is expected. On very rare occasions, I can even make a little bit of profit. On the whole though, I have no problems selling. Unfortunately I can't do that with keyboards. This is turning out to be a really expensive hobby (if I can't get rid of them). Looks like that HHKB keyboard I recently ordered will be the last one for awhile.

One of the keyboards I've been trying to sell is the Realforce 86U. If I can't sell this, I'm very tempted to modify it into the silent version. Although with modification, I know its resale value will plummet even further. It may not even turn out as I expected. But you'll never know if you never try.

I intend to get some soft landing pads to modify the keycaps on the upstroke. The modification does not look to be very difficult and there is no soldering involved which is great because I sucked at it. Actually I've never done any soldering in my life! Lol. The modification will just be a bit tedious as it involves removing the bottom plate and the individual keys to insert the pad. We'll see how it goes.

Wish me luck!

Dilemma

I've been playing with all my keyboards these past few days, putting them through their paces. I really really like the Leopold FC660C. It is a very nice compromise between a tenkeyless and the small form factor. I've gotten used to the size and it no longer feels cramped. The keyboard is more or less perfect except for 2 things. The redundant INSERT key and the poor gold laser-etched lettering of the keycaps. I don't think they can do anything for the INSERT key and to be honest, I can't think of anything to replace it with. They can of course do something about the keycaps. Something like the Topre produced dye-sublimated PBT keycaps. However I do worry that it will change the character and feel of the key. The current original keycaps are perfect except for that ugly laser-etched gold letterings. I did not realise how much keycaps play a part in changing the feel of the keyboard. I get to experience these first hand when swapping keycaps among the various compatible keyboards. I guess there is something to be said about manufacturers fine-tuning the keycaps to the keyboards.

Now to the dilemma.

I don't know if I should get the Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 (or HHKB for short) as I am more than happy with the Leopold. I'm very tempted to get another one in either the same colour (I like black!) or one in another colour. Not that I'm afraid that the HHKB would be a disappointment but the character and key feel will be different from the Leopold and I'm afraid that it will not see much use. My plan is to settle down with 1 or 2 keyboards and sell the rest. Either get 2 Leopolds or 2 Leopolds and 1 Cherry MX for gaming.

But the HHKB Pro 2 is the "supposed" holy grail of keyboards and if I don't get it, I will always be left wondering. And being the OCD person that I am, it will tear me to pieces. It's very likely that I will get it anyway just to satisfy my curiosity. That is why I bought the Leopold FC660M with Cherry MX Clears on impulse. Just to satisfy my curiosity. Some people will say just get the HHKB and if you don't like it, it is easy to sell away. I don't know where they come from but where I'm from there isn't a big pool of people who are into keyboards. So chances are I will be stucked with them. That's not a good thing. Currently I'm trying to sell off 4 of them but have not gotten a single bite.

Oh what the hell, I'll just get it. I've been into worse and more expensive hobbies before. Keyboards in comparison seem to be very tame.

UPDATE 1 : The will is still strong. Manage to resist the urge to buy immediately. The absence of dedicated cursor keys in the usual inverted "T" layout is a real turn off. I realise I use them constantly. I tried to simulate the HHKB FN cursor keys combo with my current keyboard but it feels really awkward because I will automatically try to use my 3 middle fingers to press the cursor keys. It's just not possible.

We'll see how much longer I can hold out. Wish me luck!

UPDATE 2 : I've utterly failed. :(