On distraction-free writing with the iPad Air 2

The laptop is in the shop (bad video chipset, SD card slot that fries cards, and they volunteered that the battery is subpar for its age). This has given me (nay, forced upon me) the opportunity to do a lot more with the iPad and keyboard. The iPad is certainly lighter than the laptop, but the keyboard … Continue reading On distraction-free writing with the iPad Air 2

The Apple keyboard under Linux, revisited

Since I made my original blog post about using the Apple keyboard under Linux two years ago, did a bit more refinement to the process. I don’t think I blogged about it, but did post a few instructions and configuration files to my “notes to myself” wiki at StackOverflow (no, not THAT StackOverflow). To this … Continue reading The Apple keyboard under Linux, revisited

In which I rant about the sorry state of tabbed documents under Mac OS

One of the things the Mac is known for is its consistency in keyboard shortcuts. Obviously, the cut, copy, and paste shortcuts are the same across apps. Cmd-comma always brings up preferences, when available. Cmd-W closes the current window. Cmd-P is print. Cmd-Shift-P is print settings. The Cmd-whatever list goes on and on: N for … Continue reading In which I rant about the sorry state of tabbed documents under Mac OS

Gmail & Firefox & the Mac keyboard?

Dear LazyWeb, Do any of you fine Mac folks know how to get the Command-Left-Arrow and Command-Right-Arrow keyboard shortcuts working when editing a message in Gmail? In every other application, and in fact in every other website under Firefox, they do the regular system “beginning of line” and “end of line” positioning. For some reason, … Continue reading Gmail & Firefox & the Mac keyboard?

Apple Keyboard

After playing with the new Apple keyboard for 5-10 minutes at the Apple Store the other week (the sales folks were curious as to why I was writing what looked like code into a TextEdit window), I decided to get one. The key spacing isn’t a big deal at all–they just squared the beveled edges … Continue reading Apple Keyboard