Nothing and More

It’s been a while since my last post, alas a lot of things have change since then.

To start I’ve become formally unemployed, I say formally, because I am freelancing, and I’m trying to start a company. On the time I was working for my last employer I was physically and mentally exhausted, so much so, that I’ve spent the last month and half being poked in every way a living human being can be poked (Well almost every way, no prostate exam for me yet. yay!).

One of the things that really made me happy, was that I was able to play guitar again, I had to stop due to tendinitis, as I reduced my computer use quite a bit, it seemed to be better. Sadly it only seemed, because tests discovered that my tendons are in very bad shape, and the Doctor recommended I stop playing, as it was hurting not only my tendons, but I had pinch nerve, which cause occasional discomfort, and I had developed a triggered finger, which didn’t manifest itself while playing, but if I used the computer right after playing, my index finger would start dancing on it’s own, not fun I tell you. The doctors advised that if I needed to use a computer, to use a ergonomic keyboard which I have, but don’t use (I use my laptop 100% of the time, so that’s is a bit of a pain to have an external keyboard) and to get an ergonomic mouse, to alleviate trigger finger (which can cause focal dystonia) *sigh*. There other medical issues but those are under control for the most part.

Now this has made me think and study the way I interact with a computer, you see this days we are mostly mouse driven, most application don’t have key bindings for the most important features, and when they do, they can be quite uncomfortable. The web is basically mouse driven, with the exception of gmail, and google reader, that have sane key bindings, although gmail key bindings could be a bit more extensive. I’m sure there are other sites, that have sane and useful key bindings but those are not among the sites I use. Their are a few firefox plugins that make firefox to be more keyboard driven and that is nice. Windows for the most part is quite usable with a keyboard, ironically Linux with gnome and kde, are not as keyboard driven or friendly, and can be a pain to navigate sans mouse.

As I dabble with programming I have come to really valued the old editors, I’ve always been a big fan of both emacs and vi (yes that sounds weird, but I believe they are both good, and they are both worth learning) this editors were made at a time where computing was keyboard oriented, so they have amazing keyboard support, you can make your own key mappings, or re-map the existing ones (which I’ve done in emacs, to avoid doing chords).

On the whole, I’m happy, I have time to play with my kids, I have little to no stress, and will do everything I can to keep it that way, It would had been nice not to have the tendinitis, and be able to play, but as they say you can’t have everything.

So in conclusion I am in fact alive for those who care, and for those who don’t well, you know ……….