I too tried dcraw and among other things (file size?), I never really liked the white balance afterward.
Vuescan on the other hand, is very well built. It has a linux version and was made for film and flatbed scanners (some of which have little to no linux support otherwise), but it can also scan from CRW files (canon raws). It still has all the flexibility you get with film scanners when you scan from raws (gamma, white balance, etc), and it does ICC profiles, too. You can even calibrate using your IT8 target if you have one.
Sure it's not free, but I think they deserve $60-$80 for their work.
Pike65 was talking about tracing the light's path from the light sources. This would be redundant if you did it for every ray from the camera. The trick is to store the light "rays" or "photons" and use them to estimate the illumination at any given point that a ray hits. This is photon mapping, and it can accomplish much better lighting than any "reverse" ray tracing method.
It does have some pretty big deficiencies, which is what my graduate work is about.;-)
Your tracer looks nice (it's in java?!?), but you don't appear to be doing any attempt at "radiosity" or "global illumination." This is where the real interesting stuff is. You've only scratched the surface. And any math person would say that the math involved here is elementary (that's why I hate math gurus) - A few 3 dimensional line equations, some vector math, a few affine matrix transformations..
If you really like the rendering thing, check out any of a number of books about illumination. The one that inspired me was was Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping by Henrik Wann Jensen.
Zero-feedback keyboards... Once the skill is learned, it is so much easier on the hands. I will be the first to say it is a pain in the neck to learn typing on a flat touchpad, but it is also worth it.
This is the other end of the spectrum from the M's. I wouldn't go after ZF typing if this keyboard didn't offer so many benefits.
I've been running dvorak for about 8 months now and its not about speed, its all in the name of comfort.
Ditto. I bet if you ask any Dvorak user what they like most about it, it won't be "I can type crazy fast" but rather that it is simply more comfortable most of the time. There are a few words that are awkward, but 99% are much more comfortable to type.
And that alone could make overall typing speed better, since it is less tiring on the hands/wrists. But for raw afterburner typing speed, anyone wanting to get that fast could do it on any layout.
As sarcastic as the comments might have been, they are right. The first big thing to do was SCREEN 12 for 640x480x16 or SCREEN 13 for 320x240x256, unless you use a SVGA library for QB4.5. Actually 4.5 was the best for games unless you did all kinds of weird hacks like in Gorilla.bas or Nibbles.bas. Most of my games were in 4.5.
If you are serious for nostalgia's sake or whatever, I still have my zip of qb4.5 as well as some progs I wrote in those days, such as my asteroids clone (~500 lines) and lunar lander (~250 lines).
Yes, availability was the issue in those days. For alot of us, the internet hadn't exploded yet when we were poking around the contents of the Win3 install, so besides BBSes (I never got into that), we were cut off from other sources of instruction. All there was was that help file (I think QB4.5 had a better help file and everything else).
After my first few years in QB in Jr. high, I stumbled on 4.5 and a SVGA graphics library that among other things had easy-to-use 3-d projection. Talk about fun stuff when 3-d accelerators or opengl/directx hadn't gotten big yet (I am not sure if they had been introduced yet).
Now there are better languages and we are not all so isolated, so self-teaching is not an option anyone has to resort to anymore. For that reason, I would not recommend that anyone run off and learn QB unless all they ever want to do is write better VB. In that case, I am sure there are good VB books. BASIC in general makes it too easy to learn bad techniques and could cripple someone hoping to go further in the field. Try to explain OO to someone who only knows GOTO and GOSUB. QB was good back in the day, but it should be only be a display at a museum today, and not in actual use.
I agree that it was good for its time, but now we have better languages that are just as available as QB was.
QBASIC was my first language, simply because in those days my sheltered computer life consisted of DOS/Win3.11 and no instruction or guidance. I can honestly say it gave me a good introduction to the mindset of programming. Sure, it has problems and deficiencies as far as programming style and efficiency are concerned (ie. GOTO, globals, etc), but it was a good way to learn the concept of telling the computer what to do with high-level instruction. After exhausting the capabilities of QuickBASIC 4.5, I gave up being lazy and went into more useful languages.
I still keep my code for lunar lander and bubble asteroids (hadn't yet gotten to sprites for the jagged asteroids), but I cringe when looking at the almost totally non-function-based spaghetti code. My 3d graphing program was better structured, but that was near the end of my QB days.
QB got me into programming because it was fun. I could have been crippled by it though, so I am fortunate that I grew out of it.
I would bet most universities have a similar soul-forfeiting deal. Baylor offers XP for $5 and OfficeXP (even mac version) for $10. Yes, it is probably a special case licence that is "invalid" once you're not a student at the school, but do they check?
Having used an LP for about 10 months, I can say that it is well worth the time and effort (and money!). It was a rough 2 weeks at the start, learning to type again, but after that it has only gotten easier. I still make a few typos, but that may partially be due to learning Dvorak only a month before switching to the LP. I would NOT recommend trying both switches simultaneously.
If you remind yourself of the awesome mousing/gesture abilities the keyboard offers, the headache of learning zero-force/zero-feedback typing is manageable, and the typing itself offers benefits once you've gotten used to it. For one thing, it is totally silent, which is good when in proximity with lots of people.
From what I've seen, everyone who has posted on slashdot (in related articles) about owning one of these keyboards has been very happy with them. We (the TouchStream users) don't have to reach to the side of the keyboard to move the mouse. Our pinkies do alot less travel to the side keys, thanks to the modified key layout and modifier chords. If you try the keyboard and stick to it, I am sure you will agree that it is superior to clickity-keyboard and mouse.
Fingerworks may have some network of people who can demo the keyboard, but if you find someone who owns one, they would likely be willing to let you try it out. I certainly would be willing to let anyone in my area (Waco, TX) see what the LP can do and how difficult it would be to learn. Perhaps Fingerworks could host some kind of Touchstream Users Group (TUG) so interested people can contact someone nearby to ask for a demo. Mr. Light Touch, you work there, could this sort of thing be a good idea to help with promotion?
In my experience, it is a rare case to mistake a row on the chords, and the reason is this: In order to type on the LP (this will also apply to MacNTouch when it is released), your heels must be immobile, either by training or by keeping them firmly placed. This prevents "drifting" of the hands since you no longer have the feedback from the keys to keep your fingers in position. Once you learn this and successfully type on the keyboard, it is obvious to the hands where each of the rows is, and therefore easy to distinguish which of the chords you are using. If you just plop your hands down, you will probably be off, but taking the 2 seconds to align the hands using the braille dots prevents that.
Nonetheless, very interesting ideas, but it may not be ready for everyone.
Maybe "everyone" is not ready for it. Fingerworks can't do much more to make it more appealling (except of course the price). It will just have to catch on. The technology is probably better in terms of comfort, efficiency, and health (RSI, CTS, etc), and I'm sure this will be fully verified in time by more than just enthusiastic advocates. Now, not everyone will be willing to put up with the headache of learning it (zero-force typing is not fun to learn at first), but those who do will see the vast benefits available.
I switched to dvorak about a month before getting the LP, and yes that switch alone helped my typing comfort immensely. Then I got rid of my mouse by switching to the keyboard the MacNTouch seems directly descended from (glue the halves together and compact it a little to fit).
I don't really laugh at the qwerty-ness of the MacNTouch. Somebody "normal" at some point will want to type on it since it is so cool. They won't pause for a month to learn Dvorak before trying out the keyboard, and dvorak typers are 99% touch-typists, so qwerty is the best bet if you can only afford r&d for one layout for starters. Keep in mind that the keyboard can go dvorak in firmware (it has to to get all the extra keys mapped correctly) so soft-dvorak is unnecessary.
Yes, dvorak will help, and it should probably be learned first, in my opinion, but that doesn't detract from the MacNTouch's appeal or value. It is very much worth the cost, if you ask me or any current TouchStream user.
Well the labelling may be permanent but the function isn't. If you really have a serious problem remapping the backspace key in your head, remap it with the gesture editor. You can change just about anything the firmware does with that.
And no, I don't think the split space bar is stupid because backspace is now extremely easier to hit.
Three fingers is click/drag, so gone are the days of double-click-dragging on the glidepoint. Another very useful thing is two-finger-drag on the non-mouse hand (default: left hand). That controls the text cursor.
Yeah, check the gesture guide. There are too many to mention, most of which I use frequently.
Having used the LP (obviously since I submitted the story) for a while now, this is a welcome advancement from Fingerworks, even if I don't own a 15" Powerbook (yet). The layout I find to be very intuitive relative to the LP. The LP itself has some oddities that really help after learning them.
Modifiers: I can say from experience that you will never use the modifier keys again, except maybe for double-modifier combos (although double-chording does work). Chording is the way to go. You can even "cheat" and apply the chord and then hit a key with the same hand (by keeping at least one finger down while typing the other key).
As far as enter/return... Another key you will never use, if you use one of the multiple chords for return. I mostly use the "3 fingers on home row on each hand" chord more than the new "thumb and pinky" chord, since even after years of piano, I mess up the timing on that one. Also, I believe that the chords are for "enter" but it is all configurable with the gesture editor.
I also heard rumors about the regular keyboard on the 15" powerbook sometimes damaging the screen. This will no doubt solve that potential problem. And the price is $80 less than the LP (since it now comes with the $40 tent stand) so it should be very affordable.
Heat? It doesn't seem to me that the airspace under normal keys does any good at radiating heat, since the keyboard as a whole is not permeable (metal or plastic plate under the keys). Therefore, the MacNTouch should make no difference heat-wise.
I wait anxiously for the same keyboard to be available for Dell laptops. =)
Search around slashdot for some of my posts in the last few days about this.
Yes, the learning curve is high for most people, but in my opinion it is the best input device available to those willing and able to learn the skills. Typos in general will be a problem for a while, at first mostly due to learning things like the straight-column key layout and the keys with new locations (backspace/delete/enter). After you master that, the next big problem is hand drift. With the metal tent stand, the tendency is to drift outward down the slants. The way to prevent/correct this is to "center" the hands by putting all 5 fingers down on the Braille dots (on home row keys and the space/backspace keys), then moving the heels of each hand so that the fingers are naturally curved at a comfortable angle. After that you have to consciously avoid letting the heels slide around. Doing this, the fingers will quickly learn "where" each key is and you can type pretty much normally.
A useful yet annoying feature is the English model auto-correction. If you hit a "crack" between the areas on the pad marked as keys, the keyboard will guess which one you meant based on the previous letters typed. If it realizes it was wrong (based on letters following the missed key) it will automatically backspace and retype everything with the correction. The range that it applies to is only a couple words at most, but it was the first thing to go for me, since I often type on slow terminal connections and I don't really like the keyboard trying to be that smart.
Really, if you're willing to take the time to learn, and your hands are for the most part normal-sized (Michael Jordan might have a little trouble typing, but it would certainly be possible), then you should definitely invest in one of these. I believe that anyone who is willing to try and has no mental block against non-clickity keyboards can successfully use this keyboard.
(BTW, if you have a 15" powerbook, check this out. I submitted this to slashdot, we'll see if they post it)
If you ask me, the "use value" is well worth the cost. Think about it.
Monitor: used every minute the computer is looked at, $300+
Mo/bo+Proc: used every nanosecond the computer is on, anywhere from ~$200 to ridiculous chunks of money.
Hard Drive
Memory
Et cetera.
My point is that the keyboard is also used extremely frequently. Would it not be worth it to get something that's not just cool, but has many benefits? Now if you would actually like the Touchstream, that is a different question, but if the only thing is the cost, then reexamine the itemized cost of your computer, unless you totally can't afford $340 right now -- that's different. I had to save up a few months to afford it.
Search around the past few days in/. I personally have morally defended the Touchstream keyboard more than once since yesterday.
If you want a short review: The LP is awesome, but not for everyone yet. Not the fault of the LP but so many people are rigidly embedded in the clickity keyboard mindset. It will take you about 2-3 weeks (they aren't lying in the description) to be comfortable typing on the keyboard. It will take 2-3 minutes to master mouse control and basic gestures (read those gesture cards). After 2-3 months you will be persuading your friends to drop $340 and get one.
Typing can be expected to be about as fast as your old keyboard after you master it (9 months and I am still improving). And a major benefit to many people: it will be totally silent. Not almost silent, but completely, unless you type like a maniac and tap the keypad a little harder than necessary. There are a few keys that you will have to reposition in your mind, such as the left-hand backspace/delete and thumb enter.
Gestures are the real benefit of this keyboard. The list of gestures seems endless and they are multi-OS-friendly, including linux (2 modes for linux: "KDE" and "emacs"). Gestures aside, the ability to control the mouse without moving the hands at all is invaluable, well worth the pricetag.
Not to mention the very high geek factor.
One last thing, the layout you choose isn't permanent in the firmware -- All LPs can type in a number of layouts even some goofy ones like Qwerak, a weird dvorak-qwerty hybrid. Personally I got the Qwerty and use the Dvorak firmware mode, in the off chance that someone will want to type qwerty on it. Dvorak is very touch-typable, but I wouldn't recommend learning it and Touchstream at the same time.
Exactly, I never expected or even wanted to type faster, since sometimes I type faster than I think anyways. The main issue I looked at was the amount of "flailing" the fingers seemed to do on some tough words in Qwerty. I don't mean the cross-hand timing issues (ie. "teh"), but rather the word fragments that required lots of hopping around on one hand (like I said in a different post, try typing "excruciating"). Dvorak has much fewer instances of such worst-case words, in my experience (that "xp" wasn't very fun.. imagine that).
To the masses: Try learning it for a week if you happen to find a week where typing is not a crucial task. Don't touch qwerty at all during that week if possible. If you like it, keep learning, if not then switch back and never return. Worth a shot.
Start with that in your bashrc. 'ls' is a horrible combination of keys, especially when hitting return with the pinky as well. I find / to be in an intuitive spot, as much as with the other punctuation being in the left hand at the top, which I actually like now.
I suffer the same problem at the labs, helping other people on their qwerty keyboards. After a minute or so, sometimes immediately, I can type at a decent speed/accuracy, but sometimes I brain-cramp and look like a dyslexic idiot. Switching back and forth is a skill you learn with necessity, but it is quickly forgotten. Most OSes allow a quick switch, too, going through a few menus (or use "setxkbmap dvorak" in linux, "setxkbmap us" when you're done). You should switch back and maybe institute an alternating layout schedule to hone your switching skills. At one point, I alternated between "Qwerty Day" and "Dvorak Day," and that, along with having to use qwerty in the labs, helped quite a bit.
Qwerty is as much a standard as MP3, JPEG, etc if not more so. That is not to say that MP3 is the best or should be the only format. (repeat statement for other standards) Ogg has a growing number of advocates who honestly think it is better, and there are studies (mostly done by xiph of course) to demonstrate it in many cases. Same goes for Dvorak. It is arguably better in alot of cases. And I like to think that the number of Dvorak users is growing, since I for one switched in the last year, and I am slowly converting friends to it.
It is a competing layout and I would subjectively say it is better than qwerty. I would encourage anyone I know to learn dvorak, but if they don't want to and want to type on my computers, after a couple of clicks it is in qwerty. Both layouts deserve an existance.
As for the OrbiTit^H^Houch, I would expect it would be difficult to get anyone who wants to type on your computer to, um... handle the learning curve.
Slashdot Mirror
I too tried dcraw and among other things (file size?), I never really liked the white balance afterward.
Vuescan on the other hand, is very well built. It has a linux version and was made for film and flatbed scanners (some of which have little to no linux support otherwise), but it can also scan from CRW files (canon raws). It still has all the flexibility you get with film scanners when you scan from raws (gamma, white balance, etc), and it does ICC profiles, too. You can even calibrate using your IT8 target if you have one.
Sure it's not free, but I think they deserve $60-$80 for their work.
I'd give both the above comments +1 Informative. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be picked up soon.
Thanks
Pike65 was talking about tracing the light's path from the light sources. This would be redundant if you did it for every ray from the camera. The trick is to store the light "rays" or "photons" and use them to estimate the illumination at any given point that a ray hits. This is photon mapping, and it can accomplish much better lighting than any "reverse" ray tracing method.
;-)
It does have some pretty big deficiencies, which is what my graduate work is about.
Your tracer looks nice (it's in java?!?), but you don't appear to be doing any attempt at "radiosity" or "global illumination." This is where the real interesting stuff is. You've only scratched the surface. And any math person would say that the math involved here is elementary (that's why I hate math gurus) - A few 3 dimensional line equations, some vector math, a few affine matrix transformations..
If you really like the rendering thing, check out any of a number of books about illumination. The one that inspired me was was Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping by Henrik Wann Jensen.
not to pick nits, but that's Dr. Heisenberg.. :-)
omg, you are right...
compare this to this(end of second row)
The status icon is exactly the same.
Zero-feedback keyboards... Once the skill is learned, it is so much easier on the hands. I will be the first to say it is a pain in the neck to learn typing on a flat touchpad, but it is also worth it.
This is the other end of the spectrum from the M's. I wouldn't go after ZF typing if this keyboard didn't offer so many benefits.
I've been running dvorak for about 8 months now and its not about speed, its all in the name of comfort.
Ditto. I bet if you ask any Dvorak user what they like most about it, it won't be "I can type crazy fast" but rather that it is simply more comfortable most of the time. There are a few words that are awkward, but 99% are much more comfortable to type.
And that alone could make overall typing speed better, since it is less tiring on the hands/wrists. But for raw afterburner typing speed, anyone wanting to get that fast could do it on any layout.
You don't even have to spell things correctly. There should be a "google prerequisite" for posting a question to slashdot.
According to this the pronunciation is the former.
As sarcastic as the comments might have been, they are right. The first big thing to do was SCREEN 12 for 640x480x16 or SCREEN 13 for 320x240x256, unless you use a SVGA library for QB4.5. Actually 4.5 was the best for games unless you did all kinds of weird hacks like in Gorilla.bas or Nibbles.bas. Most of my games were in 4.5.
If you are serious for nostalgia's sake or whatever, I still have my zip of qb4.5 as well as some progs I wrote in those days, such as my asteroids clone (~500 lines) and lunar lander (~250 lines).
Ah, the memories.
Yes, availability was the issue in those days. For alot of us, the internet hadn't exploded yet when we were poking around the contents of the Win3 install, so besides BBSes (I never got into that), we were cut off from other sources of instruction. All there was was that help file (I think QB4.5 had a better help file and everything else).
After my first few years in QB in Jr. high, I stumbled on 4.5 and a SVGA graphics library that among other things had easy-to-use 3-d projection. Talk about fun stuff when 3-d accelerators or opengl/directx hadn't gotten big yet (I am not sure if they had been introduced yet).
Now there are better languages and we are not all so isolated, so self-teaching is not an option anyone has to resort to anymore. For that reason, I would not recommend that anyone run off and learn QB unless all they ever want to do is write better VB. In that case, I am sure there are good VB books. BASIC in general makes it too easy to learn bad techniques and could cripple someone hoping to go further in the field. Try to explain OO to someone who only knows GOTO and GOSUB. QB was good back in the day, but it should be only be a display at a museum today, and not in actual use.
I agree that it was good for its time, but now we have better languages that are just as available as QB was.
QBASIC was my first language, simply because in those days my sheltered computer life consisted of DOS/Win3.11 and no instruction or guidance. I can honestly say it gave me a good introduction to the mindset of programming. Sure, it has problems and deficiencies as far as programming style and efficiency are concerned (ie. GOTO, globals, etc), but it was a good way to learn the concept of telling the computer what to do with high-level instruction. After exhausting the capabilities of QuickBASIC 4.5, I gave up being lazy and went into more useful languages.
I still keep my code for lunar lander and bubble asteroids (hadn't yet gotten to sprites for the jagged asteroids), but I cringe when looking at the almost totally non-function-based spaghetti code. My 3d graphing program was better structured, but that was near the end of my QB days.
QB got me into programming because it was fun. I could have been crippled by it though, so I am fortunate that I grew out of it.
I would bet most universities have a similar soul-forfeiting deal. Baylor offers XP for $5 and OfficeXP (even mac version) for $10. Yes, it is probably a special case licence that is "invalid" once you're not a student at the school, but do they check?
Having used an LP for about 10 months, I can say that it is well worth the time and effort (and money!). It was a rough 2 weeks at the start, learning to type again, but after that it has only gotten easier. I still make a few typos, but that may partially be due to learning Dvorak only a month before switching to the LP. I would NOT recommend trying both switches simultaneously.
If you remind yourself of the awesome mousing/gesture abilities the keyboard offers, the headache of learning zero-force/zero-feedback typing is manageable, and the typing itself offers benefits once you've gotten used to it. For one thing, it is totally silent, which is good when in proximity with lots of people.
From what I've seen, everyone who has posted on slashdot (in related articles) about owning one of these keyboards has been very happy with them. We (the TouchStream users) don't have to reach to the side of the keyboard to move the mouse. Our pinkies do alot less travel to the side keys, thanks to the modified key layout and modifier chords. If you try the keyboard and stick to it, I am sure you will agree that it is superior to clickity-keyboard and mouse.
Fingerworks may have some network of people who can demo the keyboard, but if you find someone who owns one, they would likely be willing to let you try it out. I certainly would be willing to let anyone in my area (Waco, TX) see what the LP can do and how difficult it would be to learn. Perhaps Fingerworks could host some kind of Touchstream Users Group (TUG) so interested people can contact someone nearby to ask for a demo. Mr. Light Touch, you work there, could this sort of thing be a good idea to help with promotion?
In my experience, it is a rare case to mistake a row on the chords, and the reason is this: In order to type on the LP (this will also apply to MacNTouch when it is released), your heels must be immobile, either by training or by keeping them firmly placed. This prevents "drifting" of the hands since you no longer have the feedback from the keys to keep your fingers in position. Once you learn this and successfully type on the keyboard, it is obvious to the hands where each of the rows is, and therefore easy to distinguish which of the chords you are using. If you just plop your hands down, you will probably be off, but taking the 2 seconds to align the hands using the braille dots prevents that.
Nonetheless, very interesting ideas, but it may not be ready for everyone.
Maybe "everyone" is not ready for it. Fingerworks can't do much more to make it more appealling (except of course the price). It will just have to catch on. The technology is probably better in terms of comfort, efficiency, and health (RSI, CTS, etc), and I'm sure this will be fully verified in time by more than just enthusiastic advocates. Now, not everyone will be willing to put up with the headache of learning it (zero-force typing is not fun to learn at first), but those who do will see the vast benefits available.
I switched to dvorak about a month before getting the LP, and yes that switch alone helped my typing comfort immensely. Then I got rid of my mouse by switching to the keyboard the MacNTouch seems directly descended from (glue the halves together and compact it a little to fit).
I don't really laugh at the qwerty-ness of the MacNTouch. Somebody "normal" at some point will want to type on it since it is so cool. They won't pause for a month to learn Dvorak before trying out the keyboard, and dvorak typers are 99% touch-typists, so qwerty is the best bet if you can only afford r&d for one layout for starters. Keep in mind that the keyboard can go dvorak in firmware (it has to to get all the extra keys mapped correctly) so soft-dvorak is unnecessary.
Yes, dvorak will help, and it should probably be learned first, in my opinion, but that doesn't detract from the MacNTouch's appeal or value. It is very much worth the cost, if you ask me or any current TouchStream user.
Well the labelling may be permanent but the function isn't. If you really have a serious problem remapping the backspace key in your head, remap it with the gesture editor. You can change just about anything the firmware does with that.
And no, I don't think the split space bar is stupid because backspace is now extremely easier to hit.
Two more cents worth...
Three fingers is click/drag, so gone are the days of double-click-dragging on the glidepoint. Another very useful thing is two-finger-drag on the non-mouse hand (default: left hand). That controls the text cursor.
Yeah, check the gesture guide. There are too many to mention, most of which I use frequently.
Having used the LP (obviously since I submitted the story) for a while now, this is a welcome advancement from Fingerworks, even if I don't own a 15" Powerbook (yet). The layout I find to be very intuitive relative to the LP. The LP itself has some oddities that really help after learning them.
Modifiers: I can say from experience that you will never use the modifier keys again, except maybe for double-modifier combos (although double-chording does work). Chording is the way to go. You can even "cheat" and apply the chord and then hit a key with the same hand (by keeping at least one finger down while typing the other key).
As far as enter/return... Another key you will never use, if you use one of the multiple chords for return. I mostly use the "3 fingers on home row on each hand" chord more than the new "thumb and pinky" chord, since even after years of piano, I mess up the timing on that one. Also, I believe that the chords are for "enter" but it is all configurable with the gesture editor.
I also heard rumors about the regular keyboard on the 15" powerbook sometimes damaging the screen. This will no doubt solve that potential problem. And the price is $80 less than the LP (since it now comes with the $40 tent stand) so it should be very affordable.
Heat? It doesn't seem to me that the airspace under normal keys does any good at radiating heat, since the keyboard as a whole is not permeable (metal or plastic plate under the keys). Therefore, the MacNTouch should make no difference heat-wise.
I wait anxiously for the same keyboard to be available for Dell laptops. =)
Search around slashdot for some of my posts in the last few days about this.
Yes, the learning curve is high for most people, but in my opinion it is the best input device available to those willing and able to learn the skills. Typos in general will be a problem for a while, at first mostly due to learning things like the straight-column key layout and the keys with new locations (backspace/delete/enter). After you master that, the next big problem is hand drift. With the metal tent stand, the tendency is to drift outward down the slants. The way to prevent/correct this is to "center" the hands by putting all 5 fingers down on the Braille dots (on home row keys and the space/backspace keys), then moving the heels of each hand so that the fingers are naturally curved at a comfortable angle. After that you have to consciously avoid letting the heels slide around. Doing this, the fingers will quickly learn "where" each key is and you can type pretty much normally.
A useful yet annoying feature is the English model auto-correction. If you hit a "crack" between the areas on the pad marked as keys, the keyboard will guess which one you meant based on the previous letters typed. If it realizes it was wrong (based on letters following the missed key) it will automatically backspace and retype everything with the correction. The range that it applies to is only a couple words at most, but it was the first thing to go for me, since I often type on slow terminal connections and I don't really like the keyboard trying to be that smart.
Really, if you're willing to take the time to learn, and your hands are for the most part normal-sized (Michael Jordan might have a little trouble typing, but it would certainly be possible), then you should definitely invest in one of these. I believe that anyone who is willing to try and has no mental block against non-clickity keyboards can successfully use this keyboard.
(BTW, if you have a 15" powerbook, check this out. I submitted this to slashdot, we'll see if they post it)
If you ask me, the "use value" is well worth the cost. Think about it.
Monitor: used every minute the computer is looked at, $300+
Mo/bo+Proc: used every nanosecond the computer is on, anywhere from ~$200 to ridiculous chunks of money.
Hard Drive
Memory
Et cetera.
My point is that the keyboard is also used extremely frequently. Would it not be worth it to get something that's not just cool, but has many benefits? Now if you would actually like the Touchstream, that is a different question, but if the only thing is the cost, then reexamine the itemized cost of your computer, unless you totally can't afford $340 right now -- that's different. I had to save up a few months to afford it.
Search around the past few days in /. I personally have morally defended the Touchstream keyboard more than once since yesterday.
If you want a short review: The LP is awesome, but not for everyone yet. Not the fault of the LP but so many people are rigidly embedded in the clickity keyboard mindset. It will take you about 2-3 weeks (they aren't lying in the description) to be comfortable typing on the keyboard. It will take 2-3 minutes to master mouse control and basic gestures (read those gesture cards). After 2-3 months you will be persuading your friends to drop $340 and get one.
Typing can be expected to be about as fast as your old keyboard after you master it (9 months and I am still improving). And a major benefit to many people: it will be totally silent. Not almost silent, but completely, unless you type like a maniac and tap the keypad a little harder than necessary. There are a few keys that you will have to reposition in your mind, such as the left-hand backspace/delete and thumb enter.
Gestures are the real benefit of this keyboard. The list of gestures seems endless and they are multi-OS-friendly, including linux (2 modes for linux: "KDE" and "emacs"). Gestures aside, the ability to control the mouse without moving the hands at all is invaluable, well worth the pricetag.
Not to mention the very high geek factor.
One last thing, the layout you choose isn't permanent in the firmware -- All LPs can type in a number of layouts even some goofy ones like Qwerak, a weird dvorak-qwerty hybrid. Personally I got the Qwerty and use the Dvorak firmware mode, in the off chance that someone will want to type qwerty on it. Dvorak is very touch-typable, but I wouldn't recommend learning it and Touchstream at the same time.
Exactly, I never expected or even wanted to type faster, since sometimes I type faster than I think anyways. The main issue I looked at was the amount of "flailing" the fingers seemed to do on some tough words in Qwerty. I don't mean the cross-hand timing issues (ie. "teh"), but rather the word fragments that required lots of hopping around on one hand (like I said in a different post, try typing "excruciating"). Dvorak has much fewer instances of such worst-case words, in my experience (that "xp" wasn't very fun.. imagine that).
To the masses: Try learning it for a week if you happen to find a week where typing is not a crucial task. Don't touch qwerty at all during that week if possible. If you like it, keep learning, if not then switch back and never return. Worth a shot.
Start with that in your bashrc. 'ls' is a horrible combination of keys, especially when hitting return with the pinky as well. I find / to be in an intuitive spot, as much as with the other punctuation being in the left hand at the top, which I actually like now.
I suffer the same problem at the labs, helping other people on their qwerty keyboards. After a minute or so, sometimes immediately, I can type at a decent speed/accuracy, but sometimes I brain-cramp and look like a dyslexic idiot. Switching back and forth is a skill you learn with necessity, but it is quickly forgotten. Most OSes allow a quick switch, too, going through a few menus (or use "setxkbmap dvorak" in linux, "setxkbmap us" when you're done). You should switch back and maybe institute an alternating layout schedule to hone your switching skills. At one point, I alternated between "Qwerty Day" and "Dvorak Day," and that, along with having to use qwerty in the labs, helped quite a bit.
Qwerty is as much a standard as MP3, JPEG, etc if not more so. That is not to say that MP3 is the best or should be the only format. (repeat statement for other standards) Ogg has a growing number of advocates who honestly think it is better, and there are studies (mostly done by xiph of course) to demonstrate it in many cases. Same goes for Dvorak. It is arguably better in alot of cases. And I like to think that the number of Dvorak users is growing, since I for one switched in the last year, and I am slowly converting friends to it.
It is a competing layout and I would subjectively say it is better than qwerty. I would encourage anyone I know to learn dvorak, but if they don't want to and want to type on my computers, after a couple of clicks it is in qwerty. Both layouts deserve an existance.
As for the OrbiTit^H^Houch, I would expect it would be difficult to get anyone who wants to type on your computer to, um... handle the learning curve.