Keyboard vs. mouse
Heat map of dirt underneath a keyboard.
(Credit: Tony Targonski)Inspired by Tony Targonski's wonderful heat map of the dirt distribution in his keyboard, I decided to take all my keys off and give my own keyboard a good cleaning yesterday. (Honestly, everyone should do it once a year, unless you've got some crazy, futuristic, self-cleaning device.)
As I painstakingly scraped off all of the gunk, I learned two things. No. 1: I'm a proud PC gamer. Most of the dirt was concentrated under W, A, S, and D. No. 2: I love my keyboard and I hate my mouse. My keyboard provides endless creative potential, while my mouse helps me click on stupid links. I never clean my mouse.
In order for we keyboard lovers to make the most of our wonderful input devices, we need good launchers, i.e. apps that let us run programs or load Web sites without clicking that silly mouse.
One of my favorites is AutoHotKey, classic freeware that lets you create unlimited macros for your keyboard. It's much more powerful than a simple program launcher, but it also provides unique default features such as expanding abbreviations like FWIW, BTW, or even WTF (?!) to their respective full phrases. (You can also use it to customize your mouse behavior, if you're into that sort of thing.)
Skylight's interface is clean and easy to read.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Another app that's been getting some attention this year is Skylight from CandyLabs, which also makes AppRocket. Skylight is still in beta, slightly unstable in my testing, but it offers quick access to real-time search results via Alt+spacebar.
A new program that I just recently discovered is Keybreeze , which uses a system similar to Skylight, but it's super lightweight and very stable. During install, Keybreeze creates shortcuts for all of your programs and desktop items. Hitting a hot key then typing brings up the Keybreeze interface seamlessly, and a very helpful tutorial demonstrates how to use the program very well.
Do you use keyboard launchers and macros to make your life easier? What are some of your favorite software programs for enhancing the power of your keyboard? Tell me your own picks in the comments.
http://www.launchy.net
I can't imagine using my computer without AutoHotKey, which must have saved me hour upon hour of boring repetitive tasks, and massively repays the few minutes it takes to learn.
One of the ways I use SlickRun is to launch each of the AutoHotKey scripts I've created. Three of four taps on my keyboard and I can sit back and let my computer run all sorts of tasks.
I can also recommend 8start, which provides a mouse equivalent for quickly launching programs, files etc.
See http://colibri.leetspeak.org/
With that my ranking becomes:
1. Trackball and keyboard 3. Mouse
Ever played an FPS with a trackball? A TPS? Or even a RTS?
Might be good for an office, but not so good for an WASD lover .
All you need to remember is alt-spacebar and the name of the program. :)
- by LCARS 24 November 28, 2008 4:21 PM PST
- Cleaning the keyboard
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(16 Comments)A keyboard can be thoroughly cleaned with a soft paintbrush and a towel dampened with soapy water, by alternately stroking the keyboard and towel with the paintbrush. Using a strong cleaning agent speeds things up, though, squirting a little at a time onto the towel.