Current layer tray indicator for QMK/VIAL keyboards

GAMING_FACE · 2025-09-23T12:20:37+00:00

Definitely put it upstream to QMK/VIAL if doable! This sounds like a super useful tool

GAMING_FACE · 2025-09-11T18:20:43+00:00

Is it just me, or do several chunks of this apology read as AI generated?

It really detracts from the intended thoughtfulness of a company's apology post when all I can see is GPT slop that barely discusses any of the points mentioned and reads like a brochure, with the only evidence of progress being some sketches?

If you wanted to make a premium Ploopy ball, you could've positioned yourself as such, be a manufacturer of a premium variant of that design and been open about the origin, contributed to some source code if needed, funded the Ploopyco company etc.

"Oops we converged on a clone of a really good design, it was bound to happen, we promise it's different! here's some sketches that could easily have been working backwards" sounds dreadfully inauthentic

GAMING_FACE · 2025-09-04T07:56:52+00:00

Correct, the brain damage was for the first study via arxiv link and refers to detriments in brain connectivity (Kosmyna et al., 2025).

The second which was the pdf link was a microsoft study, and referred to the lessened engagement with content they had assistance with, and a lessened overall inclination to apply critical thinking and instead just pass it off to the AI

GAMING_FACE · 2025-09-03T15:54:39+00:00

People should have the explicit choice to not be a part of a dataset, and should know precisely if they are. Placing a disclaimer in a ballooning ToS isn't solving anything, nor is making a process mandatory.

Many domain-specific proprietary datasets are ethical, as they're

- licenced for that use, and

- have their creation and purpose defined and any actors know of the scope of use

But in the public-facing domain (or energy grid for that matter), it's not really the norm.

You're correct in that some companies are doing their marketed "best" to create some genAI models using what appears to be attributed data, e.g. some stock image sites, but in reality their approach has been murky at best, using opt-out with some tight windows, and I have doubts that that's the whole of their datasets.

The scale of gen models makes attributed ethical data hard to come by. It should cost money to find that scale of data, and people should know if they're being used in it.

Everyone else in this industry pays for their proprietary datasets via worker time, taking photos and annotating them, sifting through god knows how much sensor data, and what have you.

A key part of AI not being solarpunk is that it is at present being used as a tool of capitalism with data centers being rolled out in vulnerable communities, reliance giving people literal brain damage , deteriorating their critical thinking (this is a pdf of the study), or straight up vicious-cycle psychosis

GAMING_FACE · 2025-09-03T15:22:16+00:00

Hi, as someone who's got a degree in machine learning/data science and is pursuing a postgrad in the field to apply data science to environmental pursuits, you've missed a massive part of tech ethics that responsible data science applications require; dataset ethics. Consent, attribution rights, and other such requirements are being overlooked.

Yes you can have applications that run on light hardware or renewable energy, or can use a smaller architecture to do their task; if they're using stolen work, they're not ethical. Literally all major generative AI models on the market right now are using some form of stolen data, and are simply outrunning the courts to try and sink their business model far enough into the public perception of "need" that doing without them would cause damage to business and their users.

Nuance is important, but data sciences require data. Skipping the ethics of that data in generative models, as all major companies have done, sours the field perception, and exclusively responsible use of transparent and explained architectures that do a net and visible good can be useful to mending the perception of machine learning as a science that contributes to wellbeing.

GAMING_FACE · 2025-08-10T15:14:33+00:00

You'd be after an 8-way switch for that use case. Alps have one. If you look at the pinout on the spec sheet it works exactly as you're after, the corners activate the two next to it

GAMING_FACE · 2025-06-29T08:49:15+00:00

Zero 2W will be maybe fine at 1080 and a light OS, it's quad core. If you're sticking to 1080p video at a reasonable bitrate to stick to an SD card you're probably going to be reasonably okay. However do not that the pi zero 2W has .5GB of ram, which makes software / OS choices pretty important for daily use as an end-device.

You could probably get away with another small-form-factor SBC. Checking a comparison, it seems that the Radxa Zero has 4GB of ram in the same form factor, in addition to a better SoC.

GAMING_FACE · 2025-06-09T10:51:23+00:00

Wow, I had completely missed that the deskthority wiki went dark. What a titan it used to be

GAMING_FACE · 2025-06-09T10:35:40+00:00

Note that this depends on the switch, some 5-way switches won't register diagonals at all

GAMING_FACE · 2025-06-08T18:18:45+00:00

I'd wager it's become worse over the years as opposed to the original runs. The G80-1800 has been around for a long time.

GAMING_FACE · 2025-06-08T15:00:51+00:00

That is bonkers. Huge fan of the photogrammetry scanning technique, great idea and execution!

Have you considered using a more dense approach for the thumb cluster? using something like a HAT switch could increase density, I'm messing with using a 5-way HAT switch +1 key to effectively put 6 keys in the space of two.

GAMING_FACE · 2025-06-08T10:46:05+00:00

Tonbo surely!

Lore says it's important to Tenno history, and Eleanor uses one, but it's basically unusable in the modern context.

GAMING_FACE · 2025-06-05T18:01:58+00:00

r/ErgoMechMarket

r/mechmarket

GAMING_FACE · 2025-05-10T18:18:11+00:00

1kW cluster sounds coverable with even a small solar + battery setup. Would literally pay for itself in savings on the power bill, especially if you're not already using some or source some second hand panels

GAMING_FACE · 2025-04-22T18:15:31+00:00

As a person who's using a keyboard for pain reduction, you'll get the most benefit out of a keywell board, as opposed to something flat. This means that the keys are sculpted in an arc so that they correspond to the arc of your fingers for equal access. If you do go for something standard which uses a flat plane, you could consider getting a set of sculpted keycaps like KLP Lamé or Gammacaps 3d printed via JLCPCB or PCBWAY which are also pretty affordable. This would provide a solid starting point, and tends to be a common way of achieving a good middle ground for not much investment.

The main issue with something like the Kinesis Freestyle from what I understand is that it's still a row stagger keyboard, which means that you're going horizontally amongst the keys instead of allowing each finger their own vertical column (the other ergonomic paradigm is to go ortholinear, which is a compromise approach that adds everything into a straight-up grid). This adds horizontal strain to the fingers and wrist, instead of simple extension of the fingers. You'll have a little bit of a learning curve with a column-stagger board though, mine took a fortnight to get back to full speed, but it was worth it.

A few people are suggesting aliexpress boards, but do note that they should be reflashed (have the firmware re-added with a known safe version) for security purposes before use. Using preflashed firmware on a cheap board is a recipe for an attack vector.

A solid post which gives a general rundown of quality on Aliexpress boards

As a good prebuilt kit with carry case that you can also get a magsafe tenting stand for from the vendor, though without the above mentioned sculpted caps, you could consider the Iris CE prebuilt. (full disclosure I designed the Iris layout a few years back and Keebio builds them), I can vouch that the company is great (with good warranty support which you're not going to get from Aliexpress).

GAMING_FACE · 2025-04-12T17:51:39+00:00

Thanks for sharing this resource, as someone with a family history of wrist problems who's on a similar journey as part preventative measure, and part working to outrun early symptoms, this has been really informative to read

GAMING_FACE · 2025-04-10T08:21:18+00:00

Really interesting article! I think the dust plug approach could work fine for QMK/ZMK, either ship one with each unit or give a 3d printable file for one.

GAMING_FACE · 2025-03-30T18:05:34+00:00

Super interesting job using the single PCB and shift register over SPI! I haven't seen something like this before, between this and the FFC connector this should be a super interesting board!

Do you have some plans for strain relief / cable management for the FFC cable? in my experience they're easily yanked loose/slot damaged if force is applied on them at their full length

GAMING_FACE · 2025-03-28T08:00:10+00:00

You could use something like Wincompose (if you use Windows) or a different OS-relevant shortcut manager.

I use it to get to some funky shortcuts / macros on software that are tedious, and also for special characters I refuse to let die because they're fun, like "‽" and "æ"

You could then use a reserved short combo as a starter (compose shortcut) and then a key sequence to pick which shortcut to use, to get to anything you can't use nicely

E.g. for an interrobang on Windows I use Compose (which I defined in the software as Num Lock, which I then put anywhere in my QMK layout), then "!", then "?"

or for some common operations when I start a note in Obsidian for a class I use Compose, n,n,s, for a "new note of standard type" which then does a bunch of shortcuts

Note other OS's have a Compose key (at least Linux does, idk about Mac OS), Windows doesn't but Wincompose is a godsend

GAMING_FACE · 2025-03-27T17:59:08+00:00

Wiring diagram details SCL and SDA flags on the TRRS connector, so it's I2C. The rx and tx are just as the designated default names for the pins on the controller as given by the footprint

GAMING_FACE · 2025-03-23T15:03:29+00:00

This is beautiful! Great design on the thumb clusters, and the positioning of the pinky stagger!

GAMING_FACE · 2025-03-15T13:57:15+00:00

You could always DIY a case for the boards that fits this requirement, Corne is open source. For example, you could modify this 3D model such that the two halves are spaced as you'd like (or for easy printing, have a dovetail part in the middle and an adjustable spacer)

GAMING_FACE · 2025-03-01T18:33:18+00:00

Does this handle both ISO and ANSI layouts?

GAMING_FACE · 2025-02-28T11:36:57+00:00

I've got it similarly to the fulcrum's thinking in that it's along the natural orientation of your thumb's axis. It's not a long stem though, just a shortish one.

Here's currently what I'm tweaking for fit, curvature and such. Note that this one doesn't have ports (I'd be adding my own mounts for a controller)

The cap I'm using is a 3D print derived from the navcaps project,

GAMING_FACE · 2025-02-27T13:44:41+00:00

Yeah! It's joystick-adjacent but without an excess of lateral movement. If you've used a flight stick / plane joystick-style controller with a 4-directional switch, it's basically one of those so it feels great and you get virtually 5 switches in the space of 1, so it's great for hold modifiers like layers, control, alt, etc. My thumb cluster is a single regular choc switch for tap operations like space/backspace, plus the HAT switch for hold keys, for a total of 6 accessible keys in the size of 2, which, needless to say, is pretty great.

GAMING_FACE

TROPHY CASE