MagLit VS Qwickly

On the privacy front, we're never going to compromise the user data, never going to sell it, never going to share it with anybody else. We'll be making writedown self-hostable as well.

On the security front, we're using firebase firestore as the database. So at rest, it's well encrypted.

We're thinking of introducing some sort of encryption via passwords (kinda how I already am doing it on https://maglit.me). E2EE would be quite difficult and would affect the usability.

maglit.me, can use custom links and is privacy respecting

jesus christ use https://maglit.me/ so your link will not be so fucking fat.

There are many services that offer such a functionality. Just search for "password protected link shortener". One example would be https://maglit.me/ by u/NayamAmarshe (I haven't tried it, I only read this post). However if you care for privacy (kind of the point of the whole post) and you have a web server you might want to selfhost the service (has a lot of other advantages as well, link all the easy to remember keywords are still available), which gives you even more options: like again MagLit or YOURLS with the Password Protection Plugin. (disclaimer: I am using a self hosted YOURLS instance myself, but have not used this plugin yet).

I'm using a typical ten-keyless keyboard that otherwise has a standard US 103 ANSI layout. My need for remapping keys is for the letters as I accidentally developed[0] my own custom non-Qwerty layout[1] that turned out to be very similar to NIRO.

[0] https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly

[1] https://github.com/qwickly-org/QwickSteps

I specifically looked at Colemak and Tarmak. I didn't like the number of transition steps of Tarmak that reassigns already moved keys.

Ultimately, I came up with my own easier layout[0] and transition steps[1] that's on par with Colemak, or better IMO (on English prose).

One advantage is that it's closer to QWERTY which makes the transition less frustrating. A disadvantage is that the similarity makes it actually harder to easily switch between it and QWERTY until substantial new muscle memory is gained.

One final observation is that I was never a very fast typist and the new layout didn't make me faster. In fact, the amount of typing that I do as a developer in a day wasn't enough to learn a new layout smoothly and had to use typing practice websites to make up the volume. What I do appreciate is that my hands feel much more comfortable all the time now, whereas I was having occasional cramps and on rare occasion shooting pains on the backs of my hands that prevented me from typing for several days at a time.

I have layouts for Mac and Windows. If anyone has an easy to follow how-to reference for Linux (console + X/Wayland?) that would be appreciated. Ultimately an inline USB mapper would be ideal.

[0] https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly

Over the years, I've written many apps and utilities for myself or others (that didn't end up get used). These are the interesting ones I remember. Many not quite complete/usable. Other than hackerer.news none of them are 'up' and running. Some have and others haven't been published as opensource.

- https://hackerer.news HN viewer (source[0]): I use daily so I can see today's top stories in reverse chronological order with mainstream topics sorted to the bottom.

- qwickly[1] keyboard layout: I use all the time as an easier to learn and more comfortable to type than Colemak/Tarmak

- safeql[2]: Java type-safe SQL expression composer that reduces constant expressions and eliminates N+1 queries loading associations by always operating on set relation or array of models.

- moja[3]: Composable computation pipelines for Java: Async, Lazy, Option, Try, Result, Multi (List), Stated, Reader, Logger, Writer.

- gitgrep.com[4] Opensource SaaS version of etsy/houndd (now called hound-search).

- statuspages.me: Status page aggregator with dynamic javascript for scraping each source using selector expressions.

- movies to watch aggregator: with links to sources to watch. It was hard then to get 3rd party deep links into streaming sites so included some torrent links. Got a DMCA phone call, so took it down. Combined thumbnails, summaries, actors(?), imdb ratings, links.

- java2cpp: Translate a moderately sized java app with test suite to c++, not 100% required final manual fixups.

- swift2java (or maybe it was java2swift, it's fuzzy now): translate Swift to Java obviously, using ANTLR4. Not 100% required final manual fixups.

- gui2log: to make an ASCII rendition of on-screen GUI widgets into an application log file when form submitted, so users couldn't complain that they saw X, but got Y.

- some basic stats/ML algorithms: k-nearest neighbour, RNN back-propagation, etc?

- Java in-memory DB: Small SQL-like memory tables with indexing/searching.

- wwwsqldesigner: This exists as opensource and I extended it to infer foreign key relationships based on naming conventions used in a MySQL schema. It was great for zooming around a large ERD.

- tracelog: combination of microservices parent/child span logging and generated high level events shown as a sequence diagram. Integrated with Loggly for full/verbose logs of selected high-level events.

- pcl2bmp downscaler: Reduce high resolution HP LaserJet (PCL5) printed to file to lower resolution bitmap pages for screen display (before retina DPI was common). It aimed to shrink same-color areas and preserve black/white transitions while reducing.

[0] https://gitlab.com/karmakaze/hackerer-news

[1] https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly

[2] https://github.com/karmakaze/safeql

[3] https://github.com/karmakaze/moja

[4] https://github.com/gitgrep-com/gitgrep

I'm also 50+ and had issues with shooting pains along the back of my hands. My solution was to use a keyboard layout that reduces awkward finger movements. I tried some alternative keyboard layouts but wasn't happy with how hard they were to learn and ended up making my own[0] that ends on the Qwickly layout[1] that was easier to transition to compared to Colemak/Tarmak.

My error rate is probably still higher than using Qwerty but my hands are more comfortable so worth the tradeoff. I also learned that I don't type all that much while coding, spending much more time thinking than typing and had to use a practice site[2] to get enough practice to learn a new layout.

[0] https://github.com/qwickly-org/QwickSteps

[1] https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly

[2] https://www.keyhero.com/free-typing-test

Qwickly

I'm a software dev and thought that learning a new layout would help me. It does, but not in the way I thought it would. I found that the normal amount I type every day isn't enough to actually learn a new layout and that I had to go to sites like keyhero.com a few times per day to get enough typing volume. The greatest benefit I've learned is that my hands are so much more comfortable and I never get pains along the backs of my hands that I used to get. I too struggled with Colemak (and the Tarmaks) then gave it up to learn a layout I made that I thought was easier to learn and as fast or faster. I use the Qwickly-KZ (pinky comma) variant and there's QwickStep layouts along the lines of Tarmak.

I love the similar journeys and rediscovery that happens in this area. Before committing to a big layout change, I also wondered what's the minimum set of changes from Qwerty that would give a significant benefit. I came up with a similarly inspired Qwickly-1 layout swapping more frequent keys to home row rather than entire row-swaps.