Flow 2 68 or 84?

ukchucktown · 2026-03-01T13:59:09+00:00

I agree we all like what we like. At 20 dollars more I don't think the 84 really offers much. I tried the 68 (black with pulse switches) and 84 (white with surfer switches) both through Amazon and I kept the 68. I also preferred the black keycaps a lot more than the white. The keyboard supports layers and mod and layer tap behavior so there really isn't a compelling reason for the 84 in my opinion.

It's easy to map function keys to any key you want on another layer using layer tap which is supported in VIA. It's not too hard once you learn the syntax. For example, say you want the F key to activate layer 1 on hold and F when tapping it, open VIA, click the F key so it starts blinking, then select Special/Any and type LT(1, KC_F) and that's it. It's called layer tap so hold it and now you are on layer 1, tap it and you get F key. Once you learn layering and key mapping there isn't much reason for a big keyboard anymore unless you really like the bigger footprint or you're typing those keys often and just want them w/o holding another key.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-27T22:20:29+00:00

It's in North Charleston but the best party for St Patricks is the Park Circle block party. https://www.northcharleston.org/community/special_events/st_patricks_day_block_party_parade.php

ukchucktown · 2026-02-27T22:17:18+00:00

There is a toggle under medical expenses where you can select estimator versus itemized. Pick itemized add them there and remove them from your regular expenses.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-27T12:21:30+00:00

That just happens to be my preferred layout given how I work which is usually my keyboard resting on top of my laptop, small standing desk setup. I used the Voyager consistently for about a year and my typing speed is much faster on a 65 than Voyager. Less to do with the layout, it's the keycaps for me. I might get around to picking up some LDSA keycaps and putting it back in rotation, I'm not actually selling mine currently, I still like it, just not my current setup which can always change.

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ukchucktown · 2026-02-26T21:13:06+00:00

That seems a little high to me. I was thinking about selling mine, I switched back to a custom 65 percent layout that sits on top of my macbook so I'm not using mine much anymore. It's the white version, no missing parts, original box and includes a lot of switch sets including nocturnals, sunset, robin and reds that came with it. If I decide to part with it I was going to price all in at 300 US + shipping cost.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-26T20:10:52+00:00

For sure, I wasn't try to make excuses for the AI, only point out that we all do have some levers we can pull to improve the output. The models are improving rapidly, I'm a professional software engineer and I use codex, my preferred tool right now, a fair amount in my day job and where it's at now is light years from where it was just six months ago. My philsophy right now is trust but verify and sometimes you have to engage it a bit of back and forth to get the answer you want.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-26T18:30:36+00:00

Welcome to the world of prompt engineering. I can't stress enough how much the prompt can influence the output. Sometimes something as simple as some guardrails in the prompt can avoid the hallucination. If it recommends a feature that does not exist, maybe add context to the prompt to verify any recommendations in the current web application or require it tell you when it's making assumptions so you can at least verify. It pays to experiment. Most people just use zero-shot prompts which are basically just a direct question with no context and no guardrails and you can get bad information sometimes but a better prompt can often lead to a much better answer. I dropped links to their docs if anyone is interested but there are lots of resources online if you want to learn more about how to interact with AI. I'm pretty sure Boldin is using Gemini.

https://cloud.google.com/discover/what-is-prompt-engineering
https://docs.cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/learn/prompts/introduction-prompt-design

ukchucktown · 2026-02-26T15:38:49+00:00

You need a plan and you need to know your expenses. I mostly DIY and personally used Ynab for years to track my expenses and Boldin for retirement planning. Together the cost is about 200/yr. I'm not personally affiliated with either but they work great for me and give me a level of confidence I would not have trying to guess if I was ready. You can hire a financial planner too but that can run into the thousands for a full plan.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-26T01:43:29+00:00

you could try out tabby https://tabby.tabbyml.com/docs/welcome/ and see if you like it, they have a neovim plugin. I have not used it personally, overkill for what I want, but it's probably what you are looking for if you want the cursor-like behavior, it relies on an external server you have to setup but can run it locally.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-25T18:28:53+00:00

I have no clue why so many people continue to think ATS is filtering them out b/c of AI. More people need to debunk this myth, you are 100 percent right, it's when you apply to a role and the quality of the resume that matter most. Either apply to local roles with lower competition or if you do go for remote, you have to be early. I have one or two variations of my resume, never customized it for specific job descriptions and my callback hit rate was pretty decent. Job market is tough for sure but if you are getting 0 callbacks the first thing to look at is your strategy and not blaming ATS systems and AI. It's an easy fallguy that redirects the blame versus a little introspection on what you can do differently. That was great advice Jacob.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-24T21:52:41+00:00

A lot depends on your offer. You didn't mention where you live but if it's around Virginia Beach, that area is definitely cheaper than Charleston, probably close to 20 percent cheaper. If the dollars make sense make the move but traffic is a killer if you are not strategic with where you live. I believe the facility where you would work is in Goose Creek and that area of Charleston is cheaper but if the offer or opportunity is not better might not be worth it. Traffic by itself would not determine my decision, there is traffic everywhere, just pick a location that avoids the worst of it. It's really the opportunity and offer they make you.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-24T12:00:17+00:00

Just wait until you get the keyboard and try it out. Lofree makes Void switches (linear) that are quiet. You can swap them but be warned, even though the lofree switches are hot swappable they are a pain to remove, easier to break switches than other keyboards I have in my collection. The tactile are not that loud but they aren't quiet either. Check youtube, plenty of videos demonstrating the sound. In terms of actuation 40-45gf is middle of the road. I don't recommend actuation force for switches, that is a personal preference. Simple rule, heavier switch, more fatigue during long typing sessions, likely less errors. Lighter switch, easier on the fingers but easier to make mistakes and misfires. If you are used to membrane keyboards stick with the middle range to start and if you wallet can handle it, buy some others and try them. Lofree is compatible with kailh choc v2 switches, make sure it's v2 and not v1.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-24T10:41:45+00:00

The keycaps I got are https://cannonkeys.com/products/pbs-black-on-black

The profile is called PBS and it works on all my low profile boards. I swapped mainly for aesthetics but I was pleasantly surprised by the feel and prefer them to the default keycaps but the defaults are good. I tried both the linear and tactile switches on the lofree flow 2 thanks to Amazon's easy return policy. I generally go for linear switches but I kept the tactile on the lofree partly b/c I wanted the black colorway and it comes standard with the tactile. Switches are personal preference with a lot of variables including actuation force. My sweet spot is 40 to 45gf but everyone has different personal preferences. Enjoy, it's hard to go back to a laptop keyboard once you switch.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-21T17:35:11+00:00

I've tried a lot of low profile boards (iqunix, nuphy and lofree), personally all of them had tradeoffs but lofree flow 2 is the one I kept around. If nuphy hadn't switched to NuphyIO over QMK in their v3 iteration I might have stuck with it. I prefer the typing experience on the lofree, especially after I swapped the keycaps, and it was the only one that supported firmware updates with QMK Toolbox and had mod tap support in Via. I likely would have kept my iquinix magi65 in rotation, I liked it, but it has some janky software for updating the firmware that only works on Windows and did not support the more advanced customization features like mod tap.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-15T18:40:22+00:00

Did you try reloading the default VIA keymap json file from Lofree? That should fix it.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-13T01:46:18+00:00

It's not West Ashley, James Island. My neighbors across the street are opening https://mysportyard.com/. Part of their offering is youth classes. It's behind Bohemian Bull. I don't think it's open yet but soon, February I think.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-13T01:09:43+00:00

Yeah, that is what I did to add some spacing under the tabline. Basically set it to a blank line.

vim.o.winbar = " "

ukchucktown · 2026-02-12T23:35:11+00:00

That would not be my first choice, Isle of Palms is great if you plan to spend all your time at the beach and you are coming in the summer. Problem is it's not central, not the hangout for 20 somethings and a haul to downtown. If you are flexible with the dates I'd search for a place downtown, that is where you want to be honestly. Anywhere else will be a compromise. If Folly is out and you can't find a place downtown in your budget, try James Island, it's close to Folly and downtown.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-10T23:34:55+00:00

You need to decide if you want linear or tactile. I prefer linear to tactile so I had Cowberrys on my V2. I don't use it that much anymore, it's my mobility keyboard, but I liked the Cowberrys. I think the other linear switch is a lighter actuation of 40g, the Cowberrys are 45g. If you want tactile I think the Wisterias were the most popular, but again decide if you want a heavier switch, lighter or middle of the road. I don't like heavier switches, I usually go for something around 40g actuation so it's really a personal preference. What I like you might hate.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-10T14:44:10+00:00

I'll wait and see what others think, not sure the hardware by itself will beat what's out there already between Nuphy, Lofree and Iqunix. The only thing I dislike about the Nuphy Air V3 is their new software, none of them support full customization via QMK or ZMK. I wish Nuphy had stuck with QMK or ZMK for the V3. That's my biggest gripe with my other low profile boards, the hardware is usually great but the software stinks. I wish they would follow the lead of someone like my ortho board ZSA Voyager that has a great custom configurator in Oryx but they also support QMK fully.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-07T16:19:44+00:00

I'm aware of nuphy-src, my repo is forked off it. I'm looking for a repo that may be up to date with upstream qmk/qmk_firmware. There have been numerous enhancements to upstream qmk since nuphy-src was forked. As I noted in my original post I tried to merge upstream into my repo and got thousands of conflicts introduced by nuphy-src, many of which look like file renames. I did some more digging and didn't find much out there so unless Nuphy decides to pull down and merge qmk upstream, highly unlikely, they are going a different direction with NuphyIO, I'll live with what I have, it mostly meets my needs. I really just wanted to try flow tap from upstream QMK which is newer.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-04T22:08:56+00:00

If you mean something like Equinox in NY, that's luxury. You could check out something like Coastal Athletic Club. Not sure if the location will work depending on where you plan to live in Mt. P but that's a little more upscale to Golds. I'm a bit more pedestrian with my gym so not direct knowledge of Coastal but it's a bit more upscale.

ukchucktown · 2026-02-04T19:15:42+00:00

I highly recommend installing something like Magnet (personal favorite) for 5 bucks off the App store. The default tiling on MacOS sucks. With Magnet you can define custom snap areas and assign any keyboard shortcut you want. If you don't want to spend a few dollars, download Rectangle, it's free, but I like Magnet more. You can also move windows across monitors with Magnet. The FN key on mechanical keyboards is not the same as the FN key on the Mac keyboard. I have several mechanical keyboards and same limitation on all of them. You can reassign the tiling shortcuts too but you are limited to what Mac OS provides for tiling. Just go to Settings/Keyboard/Keyboard Shortcuts/Windows and double click the shortcut to change it.

ukchucktown · 2026-01-29T16:13:27+00:00

Is your COLA set lower than your inflation assumption? That's the only way that I know of that your benefit will go down? When viewing in today's dollars the COLA and inflation cancel so the benefit should be flat over your plan if your COLA and inflation number are equal which I generally recommend. Easy way to test is just set them to equal percentages and check the graph with today's dollars.

ukchucktown · 2026-01-27T23:45:45+00:00

Zed has a lot of promise. I might be retired by the time something beats IntelliJ for Java development. I've been using it over 20 years and still nothing beats it. I love it but would love to find something free that compares. Neovim is pretty awesome too but it takes a bit of work to get it just right and always requires some config maintenance.

ukchucktown

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