Category: Tech
Das Keyboard III
Das Keyboard, Take Three. If this had been announced a month ago I might have paused before importing the Filco. It appears to use the blue Cherry keyswitches, which are a bit clickier (and consequently louder) than the brown switches on the Filco. It also has a USB hub, which the Filco lacks. It would be nice to try one, if only to feel (and hear) how it behaves.
More importantly, the new Das comes in two flavors, one of which has the characters printed on the keys. I can appreciate that not having the keys marked would make you a better touch typist if you stuck with it, but I like that they’re finally giving users another option — especially if they’re less concerned with touch-typing elitism and just want a great-feeling keyboard.
As for the Filco, I’ve settled in after a period of adjustment. It’s a bit higher than the Macally Icekey that it replaced, so my hand position had to change slightly. The keys have a very “light” feel — it doesn’t require much pressure to type a character, so I find myself bottoming out less unless I’m really typing fast.
svn:externals and the Versions svn Client
Update 2008-06-16: The latest beta of Versions (1.0b2 (31)) now allows you to set a different program for comparisons. I set mine to Changes, which I find a bit easier to work with than FileMerge.
I recently stumbled upon Matthew Weier O’Phinney’s explanation of svn:externals and how you can use it to mix stuff from multiple repositories in one project. This helped me when I was setting up a new project at work, since we keep a lot of core code in a centralized repository, but of course each project gets its own separate location. Matthew’s explanation should be included in the svn documentation, which (as he points out) lacks a simple example of how to use svn:externals.
The gist is to navigate to the folder into which you want to check out the external library, and then execute:
svn propedit svn:externals .
Within the editor session you need to add one line for every external library. The order goes: name of local folder, path to external library, like so:
extlib http://www.foo.com/path/to/external/libary
After you save and exit, an svn update on the directory will pull the external library into the folder you named in the property declaration.
I ran into one small issue — the propedit command requires that the environment variable SVN_EDITOR is set, otherwise it’ll bail. I added a line to my bash profile (export SVN_EDITOR=/usr/bin/vi) to point it to vi.
PS3 HDD Upgrade
Ran out of disk space on my 40GB PS3 last week, so I took a bit of time last night to swap out the hard drive. One of the great things about the PS3 is that it uses a standard 2.5″ notebook drive, as opposed to a proprietary setup. I had replaced the stock 120GB drive in my Macbook a while back with a 250GB model, so I decided to put the leftover drive to use. The process was easy, with the actual hard drive swap taking about 10 minutes. Of course, doing a full backup of the data on the PS3 took about an hour, but I just let that run while Jordan and I cooked dinner.
CNET Asia has good step-by-step instructions here. The PS3 backup utility mentioned in the instructions is a bit buried in the XMB interface; here’s the path: Settings >???????? ????? ???????? System Settings > Backup Utility.
After installing the new drive I ran a restore off the backup, and I was up and running again with a bit more headroom for game demos, GT TV downloads, SingStar songs, and TV episodes that I’m making my way through. Finally, I put the old 40GB drive into a portable enclosure for quick data transfers between the office and home.
Filco Majestouch
This just in, after clearing customs from Japan: a Filco Majestouch FKB104M/EB.
I first heard about Filco via the geekhack.org keyboard forums, and eventually ended up placing an order for one via BeNippon. I had originally tried to get the newer FKBN104M/EB (which features N-key rollover) via another Japanese buying service, but it was sold out everywhere they looked. So I went for the standard model, figuring that since I’m not a gamer the lack of N-key rollover wasn’t going to affect me.
Sony’s E-book
From earlier this week: my look at Sony’s Reader Digital Book (such an awkward name), over at Greensearch.
I enjoyed my short time using the Sony Reader, and I would really like to try Amazon’s Kindle just to compare the two. I keep wondering whether both products are too narrowly-focused to make a big impact, however. The whole time I was using the reader I found myself dreaming up a possible alternative — perhaps a larger cousin to the iPhone which also had an e-book reader application, instead of a dedicated e-book reader.
