Things on my mind. George Drapeau's Weblog

I have a Kinesis Model 130 keyboard, an ergonomic keyboard that I love to use. Actually, I have three of them, acquired over the past 10-15 years. I am convinced that they have saved me from tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome; that, and my switching to the Dvorak keyboard layout about 15-20 years ago.

But only recently did I try using the Kinesis with my Mac computers and the problem is that I couldn't find the Apple "Clover" key on the keyboard, certainly not in the place where it should be (in the center area of the keyboard, where Kinesis mounts the Alt/Ctrl/Home/End keys where the thumbs can type them).

Turns out the Kinesis keyboards do have the Clover keys mapped, but in different places depending on which model keyboard you have. On older models like my older 130, they are mapped to the embedded layer, to the "H" and "N" keys. (the embedded layer is the layer of keys that you get when you press the "Keypad" button; other keyboards would call this button "Num Lock") On more recent Kinesis keyboards that don't already have a standard Mac keyboard layout, Clover is found in the "PrintScn" and "Scroll Lock" keys.

Here is how to map from the embedded layer to the non-embedded layer. For example, mapping the Mac Clover key from the embedded layer to have it sit where the "Alt" key is (you press "Alt" to get "Clover"), follow the instructions below, which you can also find on Kinesis's web site on this page.

Remapping bottom layer windows key to top layer:

For PS/2 Contoured keyboards, the Windows key (or Command for Mac users) is located in the embedded "PrintScrn" and "Scroll Lock" keys. If you would like to remap the embedded Windows key to the top layer, follow these instructions:

1. Turn Keypad ON.
2. Press and hold the Progrm key and tap F12 (LED's on keyboard will flash rapidly).
3. Press and release the "PrintScrn" key. (LED's will slow down).
4. Press and release the destination key, for example- Right Alt (LED's will speed up).
5. Press and release the "PrintScrn" key (LED's will slow down).
6. Press and release the KEYPAD key.
7. Press and release the SAME destination key, example- Right Alt (LED's will speed up).
8. Exit by repeating step 2 (LED's will stop flashing).

Now, in this example, the Right Alt key will function as the Windows/Apple Command key when keypad is ON or OFF.
NOTE: For older PS/2 Contoured keyboards, the Windows / Apple Command ("Clover") key is located in the embedded "h" and "n" keys.

By the way, Kinesis now makes keyboards that easily map between a standard Windows and Apple keyboard layout with a simple key sequence you can press. I just purchased one of those, too...I'm a big fan of Kinesis.

One last note: I've had my oldest Kinesis keyboard for well 12+ years, and I still have no problems with it. They make a high-quality product. It's not cheap (maybe $300), but for how it makes my fingers feel, it's a no-brainer.

I got an iPod nano recently, to replace my third dead iPod Shuffle (watch this space for a rant on my woes with the iPod Shuffle).  Since running is my primary form of exercise, I decided to spend the extra thirty bucks or so and buy the Nike iPod Sport Kit, a device that lets you use your nano to track your running (or walking) workouts.  It uses a sensor that you put into your shoe, which transmits data to a device you plug into the nano.  Here's the catch:  the sensor is pretty sensitive about where it needs to go (into the midsole of your shoe), and there are only a few Nike shoes that have the proper hole in their midsoles that can fit the sensor.  I don't have any of thoes shoes.  Here's what I did to make it work with my non-Nike-supported shoes.

Here's What Not To Do

The first thing I tried was to place the sensor between the laces of my shoe and the tongue, as far forward as it would fit.  If you were looking at the shoe from above, the sensor would be visible, looking as if it were lashed to the shoe.  That didn't work at all; no motion was detected whatsoever.  Apparently the accelerometer in the device needs to have some pressure on it to help determine your footstrike; here in Nike/Apple's FAQ about the device.

Next, I tried placing the sensor between the side of my ankle and the shoe, sort of on the side of my Achilles tendon.   That seemed to work better, but it wasn't terribly stable (it jostled some) and I don't think it made for very accurate measurements.

Here's What Worked

Finally, I decided to carve my own divot out of the insole of the shoe.  Turns out that really isn't necessary to make the sensor work, but if you can carve a little divot into your insole, it'll help.  Otherwise, it feels a little bit like you're running with a pebble under the arch of your foot.

Step 1: Remove sole insert, optionally carve hole for the sensor.  I used an Xacto knife to carve this hole, which wasn't very deep (I hit the hard part of the sole and didn't want to cut into that for fear of ruining the ride of the shoe).  Turns out this step didn't do me much good; I don't recommend it unless you're bolder than I am and are willing to cut deeper than the soft tissue of your shoe's midsole.

Step 2:  Place the sensor in the midsole, directly under the highest point of your foot's arch.

Step 3: Tape the sensor to the midsole to keep it stable.  When the sensor was placed here and held in place by the tape, it worked perfectly.  This must be the proper place for it to optimally determine your foot stride.  When I compared the distance reported by the sensor vs. my Garmin Forerunner GPS unit, they matched well.  I also ran around a 400-meter track and the sensor was right on target.

Once Again, Duct Tape Is Our Hero

Well okay, it was electrical tape in my case, but you get the point.  I'll probably buy a pair of Nike shoes that has the divot already made, because it's deep enough to fit the sensor in it all the way.  The way I did it here, I could feel the sensor during the entire run.  It wasn't too bad, not enough to really bother me or make a bruise on my arch; nothing like that.  But I'd like it better if I felt nothing at all, and I can't find a better place for the sensor so that it works correctly.  If anybody else has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.

First, Credit Where Credit Is Due

I don't have time to make this a long entry, which is probably a good thing. I just need a place to keep this info. (gotta give credit where credit is due; I am stealing the idea of keeping tech-admin notes in a blog from this guy, my vice president. Thanks, Juan Carlos.

The Problem

So I bought myself a Canon SD-450 digital camera. The thing is way cool, and after I took some initial photos with it, I wanted to upload them to Shutterfly. I run the Java Desktop System Version 3 on my notebook computer, so thought I'd just connect the camera and JDS notebook via USB and transfer the photos.

Nope. No worky.

A Bone-headed Move

Next step was to upgrade the "hotplug" package from its default version of 0.44-whatever to 0.50-whatever. That was a Bad Idea (tm). Don't do that. My wireless network hardware stopped working; /var/log/messages shows the following:

Jan  3 23:35:46 lummi kernel: ipw2100: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection
Jan  3 23:35:56 lummi kernel: ipw2100: eth1: Firmware 'ipw2100-1.3.fw' not available or load failed.
Jan  3 23:35:56 lummi kernel: ipw2100: eth1: ipw2100_get_firmware failed: -2
Jan  3 23:35:56 lummi kernel: ipw2100: eth1: Failed to power on the adapter.
Jan  3 23:35:56 lummi kernel: ipw2100: eth1: Failed to start the firmware.
Jan  3 23:35:56 lummi kernel: ipw2100Error calling register_netdev.
Jan  3 23:35:56 lummi kernel: ipw2100: probe of 0000:02:05.0 failed with error -5

I found a few references to this kind of problem on the net, but the answer seemed to be to increase the timeout in the file /sys/class/firmware/timeout from the value of 10 to 100. I tried that several times; it didn't work. Also, I could no longer plug in my USB keyboard and mouse. And even the default Ethernet driver didn't load by default. Things got pretty grim.

The Solution

Finally, I checked with YaST to see what it thought the default version of hotplug should be for this version of the OS. I then asked YaST to please re-install that version. YaST did that, I rebooted, and -voila- everything is fine again. Network drivers are loaded by default and work fine. I'm typing this blog entry on my ergonomic USB-attached keyboard.

Whew!