MTGandP
Joined 14 years ago
Karma
41
Submissions
21
Member since
Aug 13
Recent submissions
Comment · 13 years ago
Can you elaborate on why -O3 often generates slower code? I've never heard that before.
Comment · 13 years ago
It's nice to see some big names focusing on anti-aging research. It seems obvious that anti-aging research is a good idea, but surprisingly few people are actually pursuing it.
This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm-5s__aZE0) has an interesting debate about whether immortality would be a good thing. I'm still uncertain about this; but I think it's fairly straightforward that our healthspans have not yet reached optimal length. Heck, we currently spend the first 20-30% of our lives just getting the ball rolling.
Comment · 13 years ago
"The Dennis Ritchie of this generation was just born."
Comment · 14 years ago
Then I'll make sure my test subjects continue to practice QWERTY.
Comment · 14 years ago
Thanks, that could be valuable. Is the data separated by keyboard layout?
Comment · 14 years ago
You can use a new keyboard layout and still remember QWERTY. It's just like learning a second language (only it takes a lot less time).
Comment · 14 years ago
You can use [my keyboard layout optimizer](https://github.com/MTGandP/Typing) to create your own optimized keyboard. I provide a corpus of programming text you can use, and you can change the weightings to increase the significance of the programming text. (I don't remember if I wrote documentation explaining how to do this; if you want to do this but can't figure out how, remind me and I'll write up some documentation.)
Comment · 14 years ago
The [Kinesis](http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/) Advantage is a cheaper alternative to Maltron that follows the same design pattern. It's the keyboard I use, and it's definitely more comfortable than a typical staggered keyboard, or even a simpler ergonomic keyboard.
Comment · 14 years ago
Author of The Keyboard Layout Project here. I'm familiar with Workman; it's a reasonably strong attempt, but I think it has a number of problems and fails to perform as well as Colemak or my own layouts.
If you compare Workman and MTGAP 3.14 (shown [here](http://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/the-keyboard-layo...) using [my keyboard evaluator](https://github.com/MTGandP/Typing), MTGAP 3.14 performs better on every single statistic except finger work. (You can see all of the different statistics explained on [my GitHub page](https://github.com/MTGandP/Typing/blob/master/Fitness). I didn't post them all here because it takes up too much space, but if you want, you can pull the program and to the comparison yourself.)
Comment · 14 years ago
IIRC, Dvorak has about 500,000 users worldwide.
Comment · 14 years ago
I'm not trying to design yet another standard. I recommend that people use [Colemak](http://colemak.com/)—even though it's not as popular as Dvorak right now, it's easier to learn, so I think it has a better chance of overtaking QWERTY in the long run.
I design keyboard layouts because it's fun. I want to discover what it means for a layout to be the best. It's more of a scientific curiosity than a desire to make things better—although I do think QWERTY is in need of replacement.
> qwerty might be 1 to 5% less optimal than something else - let's even say 10%.
It's definitely a lot worse than that. If you're just talking about finger travel distance, for example, most modern keyboards (Colemak, [Arensito](http://www.pvv.org/~hakonhal/main.cgi/keyboard), my keyboard) do about three times better.
Comment · 14 years ago
That's why my keyboard layouts try to optimize for rolls more than any other layout I've seen. The most recent version has a number of very nice rolls, TH, IN, ST, and some other less-frequent digraphs.
Comment · 14 years ago
Hi, writer of The Keyboard Layout Project here. I'm well aware of the limitations of scoring a layout based on crude heuristics, and I'm trying to collect some good data. Right now I have some data from a few layouts that I've collected using [Amphetype](http://code.google.com/p/amphetype/), which records speed and accuracy for characters, trigraphs, and words. I'm curious, what program did you use to collect typing data?
If you or anyone else has typing data or is willing to collect some, please post a comment on my blog (preferably [here](http://mtgap.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/wanted-typing-data/)) and I will email you.
Ideally, we would have typing data not just from QWERTY and carefully-designed layouts, but randomized layouts. All the layouts people use (except QWERTY) share design patterns—putting the most common keys on the home row, etc. We can get more accurate data if we know how people type on random layouts.
I plan on using a little grant money from my school to pay some people to learn randomized keyboard layouts and then record typing data. If anyone's willing to do this for free, I'd love to have your help; again, you can contact me by leaving a comment on my [blog](https://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/).
Data collection with a web app is also a good idea. I don't plan on writing such a thing any time soon, but if anyone does plan to, I think it would be very useful.
Comment · 14 years ago
The entire purpose of the modern economy is to pay other people to do things so you don't have to do them yourself. Did you build your house from trees that you chopped down yourself? Do you grow all your own food? Do you cut your own hair?
If you think it's worthwhile to do your own grocery shopping, then you may do so. But there's nothing wrong with paying someone else for a service.
Comment · 14 years ago
Maybe it's obvious, but I think the observation resembles an NP-complete problem: it's easy to verify that it is true, but finding it is difficult.
http://mtgap.wordpress.com/
https://github.com/MTGandP/