A new tool

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I have a new keyboard. It is the Nuphy Air 75. It will take some getting use to but I am sure we can become friends over time. The trick will be to just use it and eventually my fingers will develop the muscle memory to be able to touch type with my usual degree of inaccuracy. I am also sure that the extra fun I am having will also go away once I become use to the spacing on the keyboard and the way in which the keys feel as I type.

This is a good exercise in writing without editing. It really is the only way to get words down and the story or whatever written. It would help a lot if there was a way to get Vim to recognise the need to automatically add a full stop after two spacebar presses and to auto-capitalise the first word of every sentence.

I will eventually be using this with the Raspberry Pi or the Laptop at whatever secondary typing station I happen to set up. I am hoping I will be able to get use to using this keyboard as it feels great to type on and is small enough to satisfy my need for a truly minimal keyboard. I am still hoping for the day when someone comes up with a true typewriter experience without all the other clutter found on “modern” day keyboards.

It does take a little time to get use to things. How much time depends upon what it is one is getting use to. A new pen may take an hour or so, a car may take a day, a new computer keyboard usually takes me around 2 to 4,000 words. Most of the adjustment happens in the first 1000 words, or 10000 key strokes if one counts the pressing of the backspace key.

Getting the lights to work the way I want them to is also a challenge. Let’s face it, this whole new keyboard thing is a challenge that is good on one level and a wild pain in the butt on another. I would rather have a keyboard that just works and fits under my fingers like it was made to be there, but there are no keyboards like that. Instead what I have is a learning curve that I need to go through every time I get a new device that determines how much I think I have spent and how much I will have wasted.

It is a fine line that all too often appears blurred and at times disappears into the background. The difference is in the way something fits. I have always thought the best tool for the job is the one that fits into your hand and enables you to get the job done. There may be specialist tools out there but are they the ones that fit best into your hand? If not, then are they the first ones you are going to pick up when they are needed?

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