My First Mechnical Keyboard
I just received my first mechanical keyboard, the Keychron C3 Pro, and this is the first blog post that I am writing with it. It is a relatively inexpensive keyboard, so a good first one to try out. This Keychron has brown switches and what comes to mind when I press them is they feel like I am pressing on rows of blocks.
I have been using the Logitech MX Keys keyboard, which has a much lower profile than this Keychron keyboard and I am starting to notice the difference in my arms. I’ve raised my chair to better position my arms and wrists over the keyboard.
I think I have to give this keyboard a period of time before making a decision about whether I like it or not. It is certainly different, but not sure whether this is a good or bad difference.
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
For years people have been ignoring the full text to the second amendment as if there is no consequence to ignoring its purpose. In my opinion overlooking the beginning of the amendment exposes originalists for who they are, hypocrites. I think we are seeing the consequences of neglecting the idea of “well regulated” in Minneapolis right now.
Christian nation? Look at this!
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Using Obsidian With Viwoods AI Paper Mini
Ever since I got the Viwoods AI Paper Mini I have been developing processes for using it with Obsidian, which I use for my second brain. At present I have Obsidian installed on the tablet but I do not use it for writing on the tablet. I do have Obsidian Sync running on the tablet but not syncing all of my oldest notes imported from Evernote.
Have three Papers (notebooks) that I am exporting from the tablet in to Obsidian and I am doing this in two ways. I am using a Viwoods Sync Obsidian plugin, which is currently in development, to import PNG images of the notebook pages in to Obsidian which I can then view and link to from other Obsidian notes. The plugin uses the Viwoods native .note file as input, creates PNG image files of the pages, and then creates an Obsidian note (markdown) page with the image embedded.
For the second export method I am using the AI Text Conversion function of the Viwoods Papers app to create ASCII text of my handwriting. The AI feature uses the Gemini Pro Version 3 model and I manually select one more more pages for conversion. I find the Gemini Pro does the best job of converting my handwriting. I copy the result to the clipboard, switch to Obsidian on the tablet, open the note in which I am storing the text version of the notebook and paste the text in. After the updated note syncs to my desktop computer I then edit what I pasted to correct what is usually a small number of errors.
Finally, in the correct areas of the text version of the note I insert links to the image file, created by the Viwoods Sync plugin, that is the source of the text. I can then open image side-by-side with the text with a right-click of the link and Split Pane right.
In feedback I provided to the developers of the Viwoods Sync plugin I asked if they could do OCR of the notes as part of the sync process, which they suggest might be a feature they add in the future. The issue for that part of the plugin might be the quality of the handwriting recognition.
Raspberry Pi USB Gadget
Back in 2019 I learned about and testing using a Raspberry Pi as an accessory to an iPad. The idea is useful for people who want a local Linux terminal on an iPad rather than making a remote connection to one on a server. People who use terminal apps like vi or emacs and developer tools are the ones who find this the most useful.
The process involves connecting a Raspberry Pi to an iPad via USB-C cable, and software on the Raspberry Pi make the USB-C connection function like an ethernet network connection. You get an IP address that you can use to login to the Pi using SSH, at which point then have access to all the tools available in the Raspberry Pi OS. If a VNC Server is running on the Pi you can even get a desktop connect using a VNC Viewer.
The instructions for setting this all up,, in which is called USB Gadget Mode, are not daunting but take a little bit of work. Today I learned that the functionality for USB Gadget Mode is now available directly in the Raspberry PI OS.
We watched Star Fleet Academy last night, which started slow in the first episode and got better in the second. Most likely because they have to build so much backstory. What I find amusing is that the show is set in San Francisco thousands of years in the future and the Golden Gate Bridge still stands in all its glory, and incredible feat of engineering if you ask me.
I wonder, is all the posturing about Greenland really about data centers for AI? What is the benefit of such a conquest to the wealthy class and how does Trump profit from it?
Ted Gioia, 25 Propositions About The New Romanticism:
The dominant system today is built on analysis. And it’s worth remembering that the root meaning of analysis is the reduction of things into parts. Holistic thinking, in contrast, is always inherently Romantic. You can also call this visionary thinking.
Productively Retired
I am less than a month in to my retirement and I am still feeling my way around. One thing I am noticing about myself are changes in some of my interests online. Over the years, like many people in tech, I have had an interest in productivity apps, particularly ones built around processes like Getting Things Done or PARA. Inevitably that leads me to installing an app or two and checking them out. Over the years I have tried so many todo apps!
Now that I am retired I think that my definition of productivity is not consistent with how most people on the Internet define it. Right now I am thinking retirement is less about getting things done and more about the best ways to spend my time, and none of the apps I’ve seen has this focus.
It is another bitterly cold day here, so much so that I really don’t want to go outside, which impedes my walking plan. I walk several times a day, primarily after eating, as a key tool for managing glucose. On days like today I take those walks on the treadmill, but that does not come with the benefits of being outdoors.