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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • I figured out a mental trick after 2 days. It’s hard to explain in words, but here goes…

    In my brain, I created a second typing profile where in my minds-eye, I imagine the ortholinear keys while on my new keyboard. When I go back to my old keyboard, I try to keep my brain aware that it’s the old layout. I have a Logitech G13, which is an ortholinear style gaming pad, so I think my brain was already wired for ortholinear finger movements and it was already natural for my brain to distinguish between the two.

    Now, the “weirdest” keys for me to type on the old keyboard are C, B, Y. I realize how super annoying it is having to stretch my fingers out for some keys and that’s why I’m certain that I’m going to stick with ortholinear in the long run.

    Edit 25 days later: I am now slower on a staggered keyboard because my fingers are no longer accustomed to stretching far. I now hate the number row and backspace on staggered keyboards.


  • I just received my 4x12 keyboard 4 days ago! While there has been a steep learning curve and I took a huge hit on my typing speed, I really enjoy using it. I was a bit hesitant to spend much $$$ on something I wasn’t sure about, so I decided that if I didn’t like it that I could just use it as a macropad or use it in place of my dying Logitech G13 gaming pad. So far, I’ve been carrying it between work and home and using it for everything. If all goes well, this will be my main and only keyboard.

    It’s a CSTC40 that I bought from aliexpress. Unfortunately, it looks like they stopped selling it after I received mine (lucky me!). This unit seems to get shit on by mechanical keyboard enthusiasts, but I love it because it was cheap ($70CDN shipped) and didn’t require soldering. I happened to have a set of keycaps that I’ve made work for this keyboard. I don’t really look down when I’m typing, so I don’t really care that some of the legends don’t make sense.










    1. Add myself to the sudoers group: sudo usermod -a -G sudo myusername
    2. Updated my sources list to include main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    3. Enable multi-arch (for Steam): sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

    I use KDE and something that annoys me is that file explorers launch files on single click, so I always have to change that to double click in System Settings.


  • My distro is Debian, but I installed it using the Linux (generic amd64) method as posted on https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/installation/linux. I picked this method because I liked the installation instructions. All the files would be in a folder that I specified, I’m accustomed to using systemd to manage services, and the only manually installed dependency is FFmpeg.

    I use docker for some other things, but since docker does take some effort to learn (it’s easy but it still slows me down), I ended up sticking with my manual Linux (generic amd64) installation. Upgrading versions is as simple as extracing the latest file to a folder, updating a symbolic link, and restarting the service. I may choose docker in the future, but haven’t had any problems for the 3-4 years that I’ve been doing it this way.





  • As a longtime Debian user, Steam can work really well on Debian, but rarely there are some things that fall between the cracks when some packages get updated. There’s also a bit of latest-and-greatest envy because Debian (even testing) is a little bit behind. If you’re only using your computer for Steam, look elsewhere. If you want a mostly reliable desktop computer and are okay with occasional hiccups, Debian is pretty awesome. Honestly, any computer you use will run into some issues eventually. If you get familiar with the Debian way of doing things, you’re gonna have a good time!




  • Once I fully embraced the DontBreakDebian way of doing things, I haven’t looked back. I have 3 desktops and 3 laptops on cycles of testing, stable, and testing again depending on the current state of the testing distro. Debian + Flatpak meets most of my needs. Also, not having the latest, shiniest version isn’t always a bad thing. I have only had one major item break in testing and it was fixed within 3 days.