Stolen idea: Adding tactile feedback to the F and J keys.

Here is a link to an interesting idea, I might try one of them.

Here is the link

Timbuk2 messenger bag review, an update

EDC is where it's at.  How to carry is just as important as what to carry.  Living in the city is different than living on an island.  For example. a pouch was an essential EDC carryall on an island, where a notebook, pen, magnifier, knife, flashilight, wallet, etc., are always handy.  A large pouch was just right.  (My mom did not agree).  The EDC (Every Day Carry) function is served well, almost always: just grab your pouch.  A backpack was another essential component, when larger objects were involved.

In the city, especially in the classroom, the most important pouch functions can be accomplished by a shirt pocket and pants with pockets.  Cell phones are now an essential EDC item, I guess.  Pants pocket (but I wonder whether this habit led to scratches or what the T-Mobile clerk said is a crack).  Pens and small notebooks in the shirt pocket, with a pocket protector.  It's hard to find a good pocket protector.  I have a bunch that bought on ebay for 3 or 5 dollars, but the quality, size, and functionality vary.  I'm on a question to find the best pocket protector.  Someday.  Maybe.  I'm making do with the crummy vinyl ones I have.  For now.  Ideas: magnetic latch to hold it on the shirt pocket, or a snap that works through the cloth. The pocket protector is a much maligned and greatly underappreciated invention, for which several web sites extol the virtues, including a pocket protector museum and a web site about the invention of the PP.

Many EDC objects cannot be held in pants pockets or a pocket protector.  The holy grail is a small bag, an easy tote, with many pockets, a computer protective envelop, able to carry at minimum a letter size folder (probably A4 too) and some books, space for snacks and lunch, ideally, easy access pockets and deep, inaccessible pockets.  Maybe even secret pockets.  Some would like more nerdish features like passport/card security sleeves, cut proof straps.  I like a comfortable strap with a shoulder pad.  It would be easy to carry, and easy to open and reach into when walking.  Walkability.

Back packs hold an important advantage: they are readily available; however their disadvantages are several.  It's almost impossible to carry a file folder neatly; it's difficult to reach in and grab an item.  Any day, anywhere you will see commuters or students carrying backpacks like sling bags, but they don't adapt well.

Some tactical small sling bags are possibilities, but far from perfect, IMHO.

I didn't seem messenger bags coming.  The hybrid slingbag/messenger bags, of which Timbuk2's are---IMHO---the best solution, solving the most problems.

Timbuk2's bags USED TO be the ideal EDC bag for me.  The rest of this piece profiles the apparent demise of the Timbuk2 brand, with a continuing decline in features.  Whether driven by economics, or not, this is an unacceptable and disappointing development. 


I posted earlier about my Timbuk2 messenger bags.  It is time to update these comments, and speak some truth about TB2.  In what may be a trend for the chase for commercial success, the newer "classic messenger" bag still bears the same outward robustness and coolness; but the functionality has been severely compromised.  I ordered a large Timbuk2 custom made bag, when I had a teaching job that required me to tote heavy loads of paper and books.  The cost was staggering, compared to the original small bag I had purchased at REI.  And the features and (I still feel) quality fall short.  In an outlet mall, I found a medium Timbuk2 classic messenger for a remarkably low price, and, because I have long been imagining a medium bag would be a better fit in terms of capacity, I pulled the trigger.  Outwardly, almost identical, but the functionality has even further been compromised that what I remember.

The Timbuk2 Classic Messenger Bag is the most comfortable walking bag I have personally experienced. It nestles in the small of the back, and does not swing around when walking.  It's great.  But what's on the inside?

To be fair, my first Timbuk2, the smaller Classic Messenger, was possibly a special edition.  I haven't seen anything around like it, for years.  It has several fantastic features not found in either of the other two bags I own:

• A waterproof zipper along the top/back, so files and folders can be quickly stashed and pulled out.  Nice!
• A nifty arrangement of velcro patches near the corners where the flap meeds the top of the body of the bag, so than when the flap is closed, these velcros automatically pucker up the corner underneath the overlying flap, to prevent any possibility of rain getting into the bag while carrying it.  I don't understand why this feature has been omitted, expecially from the custom "Made in San Francisco" bag costing over 200.00 in 2015.  Nice feature!  Sorely missed.
• A nice computer pocket, in both large and small bags, not found in the more recently purchased (at a discount) medium bag.  The medium bag has a pretty nice stiffened  central partition that would have made the earlier models easier to use.
•  Silencers were made available on request in earlier bags, 
• Inner compartments and front compartments are larger and more functional.
• A full size side zippered pocket is found in both the smaller and larger models, but the more recent medium bag exhibits the first hallmark of the decline of the excellence of the Timbuk2 bag line: a much smaller, almost useless side pocket.
• The small (2012) bag was made of robust material, with an excellent strap.

The front pocket leads to a consideration of the feature of these bags that has suffered the most lamentable symptoms of decline:

• The small (2012) back has three zippered pockets down the front---EXTREMELY useful---along with a toss-in pocket behind them, perhaps for keys for some, for me, some nuts and a bar or two.  Inside, an array of pockets runs all they way across, for pens, a flashlight, backup battery, charging cords, etc.  A zipper all along the top, above these, reveals a similar set of pockets within, and a large storage space.  
• The large (2015) custom bag has one deep zipper pocket at the front, with a similar toss-in compartment above it.  This was the first disappointment.  There still is a side pocket, similar.  The array of inner compartments does not reach across the full width of the bag.  That's sort of ok, but more would have been better.  The zipper along the top reveals a similarly narrow array of inner pockets, that could certainly be wider.
• The 2019 Medium Classic Messenger has the initial look and feel of the older bag, but the front zipper pocket is very small, as is the side pocket.  It seems almost ridiculously small.  And the array on the inside is narrower still than the others, with fewer pockets, narrow to the point of dsyfunction, and less thought paid to the function.  The zipper across the top reveals an almost useless array of pockets in a narrower row, and the size of the inner pocket---like the side pocket---is constricted.  

The newer bag shows that Timbuk2 either is selling cheaper models at the Outlets, or is cutting features and functionality.

I am going to turn in my small bag at the factory in San Francisco, for lifetime warantee service. But I doubt they will be equipped to return this bag to its original glory.  Not that it's all torn up, or anything.  I think the normal wear and tear explains the need: velcro wears out, and the waterproof lining is cracking.  But in general the bag is still in serviceable condition.

Timbuk2 has made its name on a fantastic bag, that is no longer to be found in REI, and whose contemporaries are unable to hold a candle to earlier versions.  There must be some economic principle of mediocrity at work here.  You make a fantastic product, develop a clientele and grab some eyeballs, then capitalize on the reputation and start cutting quality and features.

I was told at the outlet that the bag is guaranteed for life.  This is a great thing.  I would at some point possibly buy another Timbuk2, but my eyes are now wide open.

Out of my league: custom keyboards.

I just ordered a new keyboard.  It's been a slog.   I'll install o-rings if noise is a problem to others in the room.  I was fooling around with my Keytronic el cheapo, long a favorite, but waaaayyy too noisy.  Found that two large paper clips do well in place of a keycap puller, just hook them on at opposite corners and pull.  Nice.  So I started lubricating with silica grease, and it quieted it down some.  A M$ Surface keyboard is flaky on the bluetooth end; two different logitech, and I NEVER could feel good typing on a logitech---ANY logitech.  Luckily I'll be able to try a G.Skill KM360, a mechanical switch keyboard with white backlighting:

https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-gk-w0wc4-km360-h10na-usb-wired/p/N82E16823828021?Item=N82E16823828021

I've spent a few days plumbing the depths of the WWW, learning about mechanical keyboards.  This one has a Cherry Mx Red switches, highly tauted, but perhaps noisy?  Tom's Hardware's best keyboard for typing was also affordable, but I could not make the deal.  

During all this, random bolt from the blue: All those custom keyboards, and DIY keyboards (too much soldering and hands on,  limited in flexibility if using off the shelf Printed Circuit Boards, and extremely expensive)..  What if I could get my hands on a TKL (tenkeyless, meaning no number pad), normal size keys,  with F1-F10 keys along the left side like the IBM-XT's fantastic keyboard.   The move by IBM to the AT keyboard layout alienatied me all those years ago.  Look what I found:

From an Unknown Reddit post, I think. 

Someday maybe.  This was custom built, apparently, and is featured on a reddit post at reddit post here_with_additional_function_keys_on_the left. This is apparently a work in progress and is also featured on the site of lfkeyboards.

Someday hopefully.

I had honed my typing on an IBM-XT, with WordStar, an early word processor.  Today I would not use WordStar, but then, it worked for what I needed.  Today, I use Emacs, a text editor, a programmer's editor, which does not insert formatting codes into what I am writing. For what I've been doing, this is essential.  One of the reasons I've steered clear of M$. The F1-F10 keys were organized in two vertical rows along the left side, as in this custom keyboard.  I used my pinky on the F keys to type key chords, or rapid sequences that became impossible to type on the successor to this keyboard, the IBM-AT, with function keys along the top.  Any more, keyboards have 12 Fn keys, but I think the AT keyboard had 10.  Maybe not.

The transition was painful, and it happened at the time I was learning to type fast.  Even today, I sense the onset of an anxiety attack when I think of this.   When I use Micro$oft Windows, I experience a similar anxiety attack, but in my fingers.  I never could feel comfortable writing in Word or even Libre Office.  Muscle memory is developed through a training period, and, at least for me, overcoming this is difficult.

I am certain this keyboard can be worked into the Emacs workflow.  It will not happen in the even distantly foreseeable future.  But as Basho wrote in what may have been his last (final) Haiku:

   On a journey ill
   And over fields, all withered
   Dreams go wandering still.

Fountain Pens: Pilot Prera Review

This will read like an endorsement, because, I guess it is.  I have been a fan of the Pilot Metropolitan for a couple of years, and no other pen I have tried comes close.  A short list:

• Lami Safari: I'm a grownup who doesn't need my fingers to be told where to rest on the pen.  
• Platinum Toy Pen: Doesn't write well, never did.  Is it the ink?  What is it? I finally got one to work just barely, while another (both are fine) doesn't write at all.  I've tried to set them up as eyedroppers.
• A chinese pen: bulky, writes ok.  To thick of a point.   Jinhao. Has a standard #6 nib, which may be interesting in the future.
• I've used wings nibs for the PMP, and they are ok, but not up to the Pilot standard, IMHO.
• Some knockoff Parkers from the Philippines, they write.  
• An Eversharp Skyline from my Mother is a hopeful one, and I've used the nib on my Charlie, which works.  I don't trust myself to fix the bladder, even if I could afford to buy a bunch of tools.
• Noodler's Charlie: Interesting enough, but I didn't have the courage to set the nib, the supposedly amazing ebonite feed.  Maybe I should.  It's too broad of a point, but my eyedropper experiments have not yet been 100% there.  Interesting enough that one day I'll buy a different Noodler's pen.
•  

I finally broke down with my Father's Day gift card and purchased a Pilot Prera, which looked interesting because it (1) is a Pilot; (2) is reportedly convertible to an eyedropper pen; and (3) was not too expensive for this gift card.

I have found my main ink: Sailor Kiwa Guro black.  I love the color of  a Monteverde California Teal.  I have multiple pens inked with those, so I thought, what of the Noodler's Bay State Blue?  I love the color, it's permanent (or so), but the bladder of the one PMP I used it in was difficult to recover from BSB.

This time I could use it as an eyedropper, the only contraindication being a note on a web site that it damaged the prera feed, but this was disputed.  I'll try anything once, so let's try.

I am so incredibly impressed with this pen and ink combination that I cannot imagine any other pen in the future.  There are one or two things that   bother me about the comments on the WWW (which, in fact, have been mostly positive).  There are a few horrible comments among the almost unanimously raving ones.  The headscratcher for me is the claim that the nib is identical with that of the Pilot Metropolitan and is interchangeable. 

I have about 6 or 7 PMPs, including my wife's and son's.  None of their nibs have the same engraving (or stamping) on the nib.  This pen writes so much better than any PMP I have used that it's hard for me to imagine how I could have been so taken by them!

It's hard to describe the writing experience.  And when my wife---who loves the PMP that was a gift to her---tried it, she immediately said "I want one."  I am not going to go into detail about this at this point.

A second point makes this pen the best I have ever tried (and the Montblanc pens I used to use never got this sense of smoothness of writing): the useability as an eyedropper pen.  It's not a wrinkle free experience, but it works.  The only wrinkle, so far, however, was my experience trying to use an o-ring.

The smallest o-rings I have are from Ace Hardware, and are 1/16" in stock diameter, and approximately 0.9cm diameter or so.  The 1/16" diameter of stock is too thick.  The cap will not snap into place with this o-ring for me, no matter how tight I make the connection with the body.  So I have used Silicon Grease. 

I tried plumber's tape, which was described elsewhere as aesthetically unpleasing.  I have to agree.  It would work, but it's a bit of a mess.  I tried cutting the teflon tape, which is extremely thin and hard to work with, down to a narrower size, but it's tricky to get the pen to thread over it.  I'm not HAPPY with using only silcone grease, but it's the best option, for now.

Silicone grease is no silicone grease.  I had a dow corning brand of SG from a machine shop supply that was a completely different beast.  The one that comes from a pen supply company is regular, run of the mill silicone grease.  It's not a big deal, but it's something I might play with in the future.  I tried at first a light coating.  Well maybe not all too light, but somewhat light.  Then I saw a photo on a posting that showed how another person had applied grease, absolutely slathering the SG onto the threads, screwing the barrel onto the section, then wiping the excess away.

The light silicone application did not seem to be sufficient for this pen, with BSB.  But a somewhat heavier application has been working find.  The experience has been incredibly good.  Even BSB hardly stains my fingers. 

I found a web site with a description of how to unscrew the metal disk (holding the clip) n top of the cap, using pliers (protected with something) to allow to unscrew and remove the inner liner of the cap.  This will be necessary, since BSB has gotten past the liner and in to in between the liner and cap.  It's not serious. 

Fingers are crossed.  So far, absolutely so good.   SOoooo.... Goooodddd....

I will clean this pen when the ink is near empty.  At that point I'll decide whether to purchase another PPrera for the Black Kiwa Guro, or clean and change inks.  I'll be searching for other o-ring options---hopefully an extremely thin o-ring. 

I did an experiment like this: Burlap-Crete.

Ken Kern's book inspired me.

My project didn't look like this.  The desing in this figure instpired me.


On the island of Moen (also known as Weno), i built a structure using burlap-reinforced plaster/concrete.  I think it was something of a success; however I haven't returned to the island except once since the 1990s.  Maybe someone knows the outcome of this experiment.

Our plywood home, with corrugated iron roof, was blown apart in Typhoon Nina, in 1997.  I had just been paid my first paycheck, covering 5 pay periods, so I had some cash in my pocket.  But no home.   My son Forrest's first birthday was a few days away.  It was essential to hold a massive celebration; in these islands, the first birthday is of special significance.  It may be the only one to be celebrated.  It marks the arrival of a new person, a significant landmark marking survival of a whole year. 

Luckily (in some ironic sense), Joe Ten "super" market had put a container full of frozen chicken on sale for 5.00 a case.  In this case, I had enough for the main course!   It was a fine celebration, held on Capitol Hill, one doesn't remember quite where, in a large room.  Possilby an office building.

One problem solved.  Another, bigger challenge remained: what about a house?  I had wanted to build a burlap reinforced concrete house, for years.  Ken Kern's _Owner Built Home_ presented some ideas.  Could this work?

I had enough cash to purchase tools and some materials.  I don't remember how the plan came together---maybe it wasn't a plan at all, but an unfolding.  What resulted was a small, 8' x 12' dwelling, with electrical wiring.  This is something worthwhile.  This time, it had a corrugated iron roof.  I did come up with a solution for rolling long rolls of plaster slurry saturated burlap up and over a frame work of joists.  I envisaged a 40' x 20' (or so) building, costing no more than $2,000.00.  On some isiands, this would be a practical idea: all one needed was some number of sacks of concrete, a very small number of rebars (to provide some strength where required), some burlap, and a number of tools.  Burlap was readily available as coconut sacks. 

Did it work?  I wouldn't be surprised if it still is standing.  But I don't know.  Maybe the roof would go first.  It was very comfortable, and it had a feature that would have been very difficult to built in any other way: a vent at one corner, drawing a draught of air from under the house.  With windows high on the opposite side, air would be drawn through, and it was drawn through, making it comfortable on a hot night.

I cannot go any farther for now. 

This is from Annesley’s Weblog 

Here is a web site on a
more ambitious use of this material.  I am told that buildings around the Bay Area were built in a similar fashion, including the Palace of the Legion of Honor, by a highly regarded architect from Berkeley.

This awesome website has gone far far further than I might ever have imagined:

https://annesley.wordpress.com/burlap-crete-explained/

Annesley's website gives instructions for the method.  It seems like he spent a lot of time on this, and experimented exhaustively with materials.  Ken Kern recommended incorporating "Asphalt Emulsion." 

Towards making a lab illuminator using CREE LEDs

I have a Fenix UC35 flashlight, rechargeable by USB, and extremely powerful and robust.   1000 Lumens max, adjustable.  I have been using it in place of a microscope illuminator for a Stereomicroscope.

One thing that troubles me is the limited amount of time to be able to use full power.  I think 25 minutes is the maximum.  Also, it does not run directly from USB when connected.  That is, it charges from a bulit-in USB-Micro port, but when USB is plugged in, the lamp does not operate.  Oh!  And by the way, the flashlight's micro usb port has been malfunctioning for a long time.

Fenix has not reseponded to my trouble report, even though the light has an ostensible lifetime warrantee.  I'll probably buy a charger.   And I'll file another trouble report if I don't hear from them---heck, it's been several months!

Meanwhile, I'm combing the internet searching fore ideas about making a lamp.  I plan to post some links here.

Something about Electronics, and some other bits:

• This idea for building a 1300 lumen bike lamp was panned, and a pointer was given to the following link:

• Here's something about Making a bike lamp
   Here
  

A supplier with DIY stuff

• LED-Supply
• Including optics and brackets, etc., dox.  Good!

 

More on Pocket Protectors

Very simply put: A pocket protector is my new pouch.  

Actually, a couple of pocket notebooks and a pocket protector.

EDC: "Every Day Carry"

Pouches are better, but they are worse.  A wallet, a Pocket Protector, and a small pocket notebook can---to a large extent---replace a pouch.  This is especially so taken in combination with other items one may carry in his/her pockets.  Obviously, in colder climes, more pockets are available.  The one disadvantage is the need to always wear shirts with large pockets.

Some links 

• Do It Yourself Pocket Protector 

• Webseum of Pocket Protectors