The Wacom Jitter - Addendum

This is an addendum to an older post about a jitter wacom tablet: (http://poonheads.blogspot.com/2007/12/wacom-jitter.html)

To sum up the old article: I had recently purchased a new PC case made of PVC. The PVC did not shield anything from the RF coming off of the fans and pc parts. My Intuos3 Wacom tablet was jittery because of the RF interference coming from the plastic case. The solution was to get a new PC case.

I just started Grad school at Indiana University in Bloomington. Because I can no longer leech off of my parents, I decided to move into a small apartment in Bloomington while I go to school. This is all relevant, I promise.

Because the apartment is relatively small, space is at a premium. Instead of a nice computer desk, I'm using a 2foot by 4foot wooden folding table. It has no keyboard drawer. This small table must hold my two very large monitors, my keyboard, my speed pad, miscellaneous desk accesories, and my Wacom Tablet. Everything is very close together.

When I first set up my computer in this new place, I noticed that the Wacom Jitter had returned. I was almost certain that this was caused by my tablet being too close to the monitors. Turns out I was only half right.

The RF interference was coming off of the monitor, but it was not hitting the tablet directly. It was seeping in through the USB cable that connects the tablet to the computer. I had the cable running under the monitor and behind the desk. Since the cable is not well shielded, the RF had no trouble getting in through the cable.

I discovered this on a hunch. Instead of running the cable behind the monitor and behind the desk, I ran the cable around the front and taped it to the bottom of the desk so that it no longer runs near the monitor. My hunch was correct. The tablet is still as close to the monitor as it ever was, but since the cable is farther away, the jitter has disappeared.

Bottom line: The cable is more important than the tablet itself to shield from the RF.

On a related note: For months, I've noticed that my Wacom mouse (that I use as my primary input method) has been randomly double clicking or not clicking at all. I've always thought it was a driver problem, or caused by the same RF interference as the jitter. As there is no jitter, I'm fairly certain it's not the interference. After doing a little testing, I've decided that it's probably just that my mouse has gone bad. The issues occur at different frequencies depending on where I physically press the mouse button. It seems that the move probably exacerbated the problem, as it's been happening more often since I've moved here. My solution: Buy a new mouse. It should be coming in on Tuesday and we'll see if that's actually the problem. If not, I'm out 50 bucks and have no idea what's wrong with my tablet.

On an unrelated note: Now that I've started grad school, I'll probably not be able to update as often as I'd like. I'll do my best, but make no guarantees. In addition, it may be some time before I'll be able to finish the Ants comic - at least until my new mouse comes in.

Later,

~Ben

Update - 9/2/08: I got my new mouse in the mail. It was just as I suspected. I must have worn out the buttons on my old mouse. This new one works like a charm. The middle click mouse-wheel button even works (it never worked well on my old mouse). So that's awesome. ~Ben

Classic Wisdom: Demon PC from Hell

Oh dear.. I'm slacking again. But there's TV to watch again! Also, Anarchy Online! And I've been working on Numbskull! No excuses, though.

This classic wisdom references this comic: (http://www.poonheads.com/comics/Default.aspx?id=9)

This is the first appearance of my demon PC. It was evil. So I replaced it. It's long gone, but I'm sure it's still up to deviant behavior in a land fill or something. Good riddance.

Demon PC from HELL

This story is entirely true. The Demon PC from Hell totally eats CD burners. It ate at least 5 different burners before it got passed down to me. I decided it was wise to not feed it a 6th. That didn't stop the Demon's reign, however. Because I didn't feed it, it decided to take over the mouse. When I would move the mouse left, the cursor would move right. When I would move it right, the cursor moved right. Up moved the cursor down and down moved it left! I couldn't figure the damned thing out!

And then it grew teeth.

So when I got my new computer, Brick, I gave the Demon to my little sister. Let her figure it out. Perhaps call an exorsist?

Anyways... Yeah... this comic is kinda lame, but I think it's funny. So this is what you guys get stuck with this week. The Poonheads slogan is "Sex Geeks and Rock n' Roll" after all... This is where the geekdom comes in, I suppose.

As far as the actual comic goes... Hmm... what can I say? The art's not too bad. At 8 panels, it's a bit longer than my average strip size, but I felt that it definately needed the length.

In other news, I finally got a decent camera, so we'll begin filming the movie fairly soon. Also, don't foget to vote if you have a few minutes. The voting button should be located along side the right side of the comic on the comic page. And give me some damn feed back! I've got an e-mail address that gets 0 e-mails and a forum that has a grand total of 3 messages that aren't me. I want to hear from people!

Okay, that's it! Later!

~~Benabus

PhotoDon: Anti-Glare Extrodonaire

I used to have a thing for gadgets. Small, portable electronic devices that can make my life better. I'm not as much a technophile as I once was, but I still keep quite a few.

One common theme for most gadgets is that they all have a display of some sort. Just about every gadget I own has some form of screen to display content. Some screens are big, some screens are small. All screens glare. And glare annoys me.

When I first realized that it was the glare, and not the game, that was frustrating me, I was playing Tetris on my Game Boy Color. Game Boys have notoriously poor screens. Until very recently they were not back-lit, so you can't play them in the dark. You can barely play them in the sun, either, because you have to get it at just the right angle to avoid the glare but have enough light to see the game.

Something must be done. After thinking about how to backlight the thing myself, it occurred to me that other people have probably shared my pain and perhaps a more technically apt modder had already solved the problem. So I went googling.

My search turned up several options for 3rd party Game Boy Advanced front-light kits. These were hard to find, too expensive, or obsolete with the advent of the Game Boy Advanced SP. I researched further until one element of the kit caught my attention.

These kits contained a transparent film that was used to diffuse the light to prevent the front-lights from glaring the screen. This told me two things: 1) Front lighting would cause glare, which is what I'm trying to get rid of and 2) I can get a film that would diffuse the glare.

The googling quickly shifted from "Back-Lighting Game Boy Mods" to "Light Diffusing Film". This turned up lots of results, all giving me exactly what I was looking for. For one reason or another, the site I chose to go with was PhotoDon (http://www.photodon.com). The site itself is a bit amateurish, but these guys are monitor accessory suppliers, not web designers.

Photodon has a large selection of Anti-Glare protective films. There are several different grades of anti-glare-ness and a plethora of pre-cut sizes ranging from $6.50 to about $35. Most of the sizes are for various computer monitors, but they do have several PDA sizes. Of course, there were no "GameBoy Color" pre-cuts, so I would either have to have them cut a custom piece (which they are more than happy to do for an extra cost) or, like most of my other products, just do it myself.

The gameboy screen is very small, so even the smallest of sizes would have to be cut down. I elected to go with the smallest size of the highest anti-glare-ness that I could find. I think it ended up being about $10. I placed the order, paid via Pay-Pal and received my film in a week or so.

They shipped it in a stiff cardboard envelope which kept the film free of creases. They also included a really nice micro-fiber cleaning cloth. These are awesome for removing smudges and fingerprints from just about everything. I use them mainly for cleaning my eye-glasses, but they work good on monitors.

After a few measurings and markings with a sharpie, I clipped out a piece perfect for my GBC. I peeled off the backer and stuck it on. Unfortunately, some dust got trapped between the film and the screen, resulting in bubbles and more aggravation. That's okay, though... I had enough for a second try (and third and fourth if need be). On my second try, I made sure to wipe clean the screen with the provided cloth before applying the film.

With the film applied, I turned on my lamp, reclined my chair and turned on the GameBoy. With the light shining straight on the screen, there was still some glare. A slight tilt to the left and the glare was gone. The light was adequately diffused and the only aggravation was the music as my stack of Tetrominoes grew.

I was elated by this success.

A little while later, I noticed a similar glare problem with my Creative Zen Sleek. So, I whipped out what was left of my initial PhotoDon sheet and applied a piect to the screen of my MP3 player. Success.

So much a success, that I decided to replace the screen of my homemade, duct-tape, Zen Sleek case. I had originally used a zip-lock bag for this purpose, but I had enough PhotoDon left to replace the zip-lock, resulting in a sturdier, more protective, and glare-free case.

Since then, I ordered a second sheet. This second sheet was larger, of a lesser anti-glare-ness, and about $20. I decided that the super-anti-glare-ness of the first sheet was a bit overkill, and I felt that this option would give me the biggest bang for my buck.

I've used this second sheet in a number of applications. I re-built my Zen case around a fresh piece of photodon film. I added some to the outer and inner displays of my cellphone -- no more having to squint to see the caller-id in sunlight. And, more recently, I added a piece to my newly acquired PSP.

Let me tell you: This produced is ESSENTIAL to a PSP. PSPs feature a mirror-piano-black finish. The case itself smudges terribly and creates a glare of its own, so you can imagine how the screen would be. The photodon film eliminates the glare, cuts finger-print-cling in half, and protects the screen from scratches. The new Slim PSP 2000 that I have does not have a cover, so the protection is important. My only regret is that I waited a week to add the film -- It's already got a couple of scratches. Not a big deal, though, because I mainly play it using a video link to my TV.

Bottom line: This product is absolutely essential if you have any number of gadgets. In fact, it would be good for any application that requires a reduction in reflective glare, including monitors, tv's, auxiliary displays, watches, and car-radios. You should definitely look into it.

Until next time,

~Ben


Resources:
PhotoDon Glare Reduction and Privacy Protectors: (http://www.photodon.com/)
GameBoy Color on Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameBoy_Color)
Tetris on Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_DX#Tetris_DX)
PSP Slim on Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSP_Slim)

The Wacom Jitter

I'm going to try and make this short because I'm tired and more than a bit aggravated. Now that I'm a college graduate with a steady job, I'll have more time to post new and relevantly irrelevant articles about all sorts of nonsense. Unfortunately, in order to post articles to a blog, you need a computer.

Herein lies the problem. I have a computer. It's alright. But as a geek and computer enthusiast, I always want the fastest and coolest. As me, however, I never get the fastest or the coolest. In all my life, I have never once had a brand new computer. Only hand-me-downs and discarded medical equipment.

Now that I've got a job and have a larger disposable income, I was hoping to remedy this. I've begun assembling a collection of pieces that would hopefully combine to form a being of fantastic computational power. Not that I need it... Just cuz I want it. I want fast and I want cool. And the pieces I've been collecting are both.

One recent addition to this pile of components that I call my room, is a brand new case that was thoughtfully donated to me by my parents. It's really nice. It came with three case fans that will assist in the cooling of my super fast Pentium D. More importantly, however, is that it's made of transparent PVC. Which is super awesome because I put in these blue neon lights and the whole thing lights up. It's super cool.

Now, I've been having trouble with the assembling of these components from the very beginning. The original fan couldn't cool the processor enough. The video card wouldn't fit in the expansion slot. The power supply was too weak to power all the awesome stuff in there. All sorts of problems. All, of which, were eventually overcome. I figured I was almost home free. I was wrong.

One of my first, and definitely one of my favorite peripherals is my Wacom Intuos 3 digital graphics tablet. It's been with me for quite some time and I love it dearly. It has come to my attention that the power of the pen is completely incompatible with the coolness of the case.

Wacom tablets use a radio frequency (RF) to communicate between the pen/mouse and the actual tablet. Computer components, such as monitors, motherboards, hard drives, and powersupplies all produce excess RF. By itself, one component would not produce enough RF to interfere with a tablet's communication. Collecting a large number of components in a single place (such as a complete computer system) will create enough RF to cause interference. Typically, the metal computer case that surrounds the computer's innards would shield the outside world (and tablets) from the RF emitted by the components inside.

But guess who's computer case is not made of metal and does not shield anything from anything. That's right. My super leet transparent plastic case with all the lights offers my tablet no protection from the machine's RF.

And since my tablet (with its mouse) is my primary input device, this is a problem. The tremendous amount of jitter caused by my super leet case makes the tablet completely unusable.

So, I have to sacrifice something. I'll tell you what I won't sacrifice: My tablet. We've been through thick and thin and I love it dearly. What this means, unfortunately, is that I need to find another case which can shield the RF and still allow enough airflow to cool the chips. Which also means that, when I find such a case, I'll have to take my computer completely apart and put it back together again from scratch.

Rebuilding a computer is easy enough, but it takes time. And anything that takes time also requires patients. I'd like to think I'm a patient guy, but at this point in time my patients has been worn thin.

My computer is my life. It's sad but true. I spend a great deal of time on my computer and I just want it to be the best it can be. But that will probably never come to pass.

I've been working on this new computer for about 2 months now. I'm really getting fed up with it. I should have known from the beginning, when I had bought the wrong kind of graphics card, that it would be a fruitless endeavor resulting in nothing but stress and aggravation.

When I had thought that I was close to completion, I dismantled my old computer so that I could hook up all my good peripherals to my new, faster computer. This was two weeks ago. I've yet to re-set-up my old machine. With each new part comes new false hope.

"Eventually", I think, "I'll get this bastard up and running. There's no point in reassembling my old computer if I'll only have to disassemble it again when I'm finished with my new one."

Because of this, my old machine is sitting on my floor, haphazardly running with an old dell keyboard, an old 3 button balled mouse, and an old 1080 x 768 display. This is what I'm writing from. To some, this may seem more than enough, but when you've got expensive, new, powerful equipment sitting feet away but turned off because you can't get it to work right... It's more than just a little distressing.

I don't want much out of life. Materialistically, anyway. One of the few things is a nice, new computer. It's the one possession that I use more than any other. All I want is for it to be as awesome as possible. Shit. Awesome is optional. I just want one that's not a hand-me-down. I just want something I can call my own.

An artist deserves a good pencil. A carpenter deserves a good hammer. A cyclist deserves a good bike. A musician deserves a good instrument. Does a webmaster not deserve a good computer?

Apparently not.

So much for making this short... Oh well. I'm done with my ranting for the time being.

For anyone who came here in search of a solution to the wacom cursor jitter problem, I'll try to sum up: The jitter is caused by RF interference. RF can come from any piece of electrical equipment. The RF that interferes with a wacom most commonly comes from a CRT that is too close to the tablet. In my case, the jitter was caused by the RF coming from my unshielded computer case. The best solution is to get a new, metal, RF shielded case.

Until next time,

~Ben

PCI-Xpress

So, apparently, there are more than 3 types of expansion buses. Up until tonight, I was aware of only AGP, PCI, and PCI express. I am now aware of many others. You see, I've been trying to shoe horn a PVR into my main desktop and I have not been very successful as of yet.

The other day, I scored a Pinnacle HDTV card (http://www.amazon.com/Pinnacle-Systems-8230-10023-51-PCTV-Card/dp/B000X27YQI) from WOOT. At 50 bucks, it looked like a good deal. I've been wanting to make up my own PVR Media Center PC thing for a while, but never had the funds or the drive to do so. I still don't really have the funds to build a new one from scratch, so I decided to stick the HDTV card into my desktop. It fits and works great.

The problem is that I've got a TV and stereo system that would just be wasted if I started watching TV on my PC. Plus, I like using my computer while watching TV, and having an extra window sitting on top of everything gets old really quick. And also, people watch movies and stuff with me in my room, and it would be a pain for them to have to watch it on my monitor. This problem is easily remedied with a couple of cables coming off my PC and sticking into my Stereo setup.

My machine is kind of old. It came from a hospital or something where it probably operated some kind of crazy expensive piece of equipment, so it's still pretty powerful. When I got it, it had a 3GHz Xeon processor, 512MB of ram, and a sweet-ass video card with a Nvidia Quadro4 chipset. I've upgraded the ram to 2 gigs and through in a few old SCSI hard drives. It's a pretty more than decent machine for what I do. Unfortunately, it's got an integrated sound card and no TV out.

Not a problem. I hit up newegg (http://www.newegg.com/) to snag a new sound card and maybe a cheap video card with just a TV out. Before I buy anything, I check the MoBo to see what kind of expansion options I've got. It has an AGP slot that's inhabited by the sweet nvidia card. It's got two PCI slots, one of which was holding an extra ethernet card. Below those, it's got three PCI-X slots, one of which was filled with my PCHD card.

Okay, I thought. I'll get a video card that's PCI-eXpress and a soundcard that's PCI. More than enough room. So I order a cheap PCI 7.1 sound card. And I order a cheap PCI-Express video card with Nvidia chip set and a TV out. Totaled to about 60 bucks. I'm in business.

They came in today. I removed the extra ethernet card and replaced it with the sound card. Awesome. I still can't hook it to my stereo yet because of a weird grounding problem that causes a buzzing noise. That's okay, though. I'll go to radio shack and get a magical box that will eliminate the buzz.

I pull out the new video card and try to cram it in one of the PCI-X slots. It doesn't fit. I cram harder. It still doesn't fit. I took it out and look at the pins. It's obvious that the pins won't fit the slot. Weird. It says PCI-Express on the box... Maybe they mis labeled it? It looks like an AGP card. So I tried replacing my good video card with the new one. Nope. Not an AGP card. So if it's not a PCI Express card, and it's not an AGP card... and it's definitely not a PCI card... what the heck is it?

A quick googling reveals that it is indeed a PCI-Express (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express) card. Just like I had ordered. However, PCI-Express and PCI-X are not the same thing. PCI-X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCIX) is more like PCI 2.0 or something. This kind of makes sense. It's a really old mobo, so it was probably made before PCI Express (PCIe) got popular. PCI-X and PCIe are not compatible.

A check of the box that my PCHD card came in reveals that it is not a PCIe card. Just a regular PCI card that can also fit in PCI-X slots. Cuz they're compatible sometimes. Or something. I don't really understand it.

The bottom line is that PCIexpress and PCI-X are not the same thing. And I've got a $30 video card that I can't use. I guess I'll try to sell it to some guys at school or try to swap it out with something else I've got around the house. If all else fails, I'll just send it back. In the end, it's just kind of a bummer.


Anyways. Until next time,

~~Ben

Dual Monitors for the Masses

Lets not beat around the bush. I'm a nerd. There's no denying it. I'm a nerd of many interests, however. Comic books, video games, TV, toys, anime, sci-fi, Star Trek, computers. Wide variety. I try to pretend I'm not, but I am. I geek out about things that most people would find excessive or boring or stupid.

One of the things I geek out about is my home computer. I want the fastest and the biggest. I don't do any read computing on my home PC but that doesn't stop me from bragging about my 3Ghz Xeon or the 2gigs of memory. I know that compared to some, that's nothing, but it makes me smile.

In the web-design industry, one of the things that people most frequently geek out about is the monitor. At work, they got me a new monitor to replace the tiny old one that I was using before. It was the biggest among the programmers and everyone ooooed and aaaahed. In the grand scheme of things, my single huge WSXGA+ was canceled out by the other guys' multi-monitor setups. Having a huge one is great, but having several is better. Scott Adams wrote a Dilbert strip about it today (http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20071016.html).

At home, I used to have a 21-inch Dell Trinitron CRT. That sucker was great. It let me pull off 1600x1200 (UXGA) at 85Hz. A high refresh rate is important to me because if it's set too low, the flicker gives me migraines. Unfortunately, Dell Trinitrons had a defect where one of the resistors goes out and the pictures goes way too bright. Glenn and I managed to patch it with a little solder, but it eventually gave out. I had to down grade to a 19inch we had lying around. Luckily, it also let me have UXGA at 85Hz. Unluckily, it suffered the same defect and eventually crapped out.

Needless to say, I needed to get a new monitor. By this time I had grown accustomed to the obscenely large resolution. You see, a high resolution lets you have multiple windows open and lets you spread out some. This increases productivity greatly. I'm not too productive at home, but I was still compelled to use a high resolution, as smaller ones feel cramped and uncomfortable (like downgrading from a Buick to a Civic). I finally settled on a 22 inch ViewSonic. It natively supports UXGA (which means there's actually 1,920,000 pixels on the screen) and since it's an LCD, I don't have to worry about the refresh rate (I'm not going to go into this, but suffice to say that LCD's don't work the same as CRT's). I was happy.

Last weekend, my mom brought home a ViewSonic CRT that they were throwing away at work. Of course, with an extra monitor in the house, I couldn't help but try to set up a multi-monitor setup in my room. I managed to acquire an NVIDIA Quadro4 750 graphics card which allowed me to plug my LCD into its DVI-D port while at the same time plugging the new CRT into its VGA port. Cake. So, now I've got my main LCD at 1600x1200 and my CRT at 1024x768 (the highest resolution it could pull off at 85Hz) which brings my total pixel width to 2624. That's pretty awesome, though we'll have to see what happens when I get my PCHDTV tuner card in and have to rig up some way to get my computer to hook up to my TV.

Now, this isn't my first foray into the multi-monitor world. About this time last year, I was able to nab an old generic laptop for $200 off of e-bay. I also had this extra PC set up (with its own monitor and keyboard) off to the side where I could play with SQL Server. A while back, I stumbled over an amazing piece of software while googling mult-monitor setups. It is called MaxiVista (http://www.maxivista.com/). It allows you to use the monitors of networked PCs as extensions of your main PC's monitor, essentially emulating a PC with a dual-monitor video card. In addition, if you wanted, you could use it to remotely control the networked PC instead of using it to extend the desktop (like an awesome KVM [KeyboardVideoMouse] switch, without the monitor part). This let me use the laptop to run e-mail and AIM on its processor while I used my main PC to run Photoshop on its processor, both using the same keyboard and mouse, and at the same time I could let my SQL Server run in the background doing its own thing while I used its monitor the extend my main PC's desktop.

It was a super awesome setup. I have a stereo pic of it (http://www.poonheads.com/mUpload/images/200710162234124.jpg) but I won't post it here because it's kind of big. In the end, however, I was left with only my Dell because my laptop died and I had to return the server, as it was on loan. It was fun while it lasted.

So, this morning, I got to campus at 9:30AM where I realized that Maples had canceled class. I had forgotten because I am a dumbass. Since I had another class later that day, I decided to stay on class and fool around in the computer lab while my classmates studied for their 470 exam. The room was relatively empty and I was the only person seated at a row of 4 PCs. With 4 monitors (one for each PC) lined up nicely on the desk.

That's when it struck me. I was bored and had a room full of computers at my disposal, specifically, a row of 4 unused computers with nice monitors. I knew for a fact that this particular lab was all networked together and behind a firewall because I had assisted in its networking last semester. With this setup, it would be VERY easy to set up MaxiVista in this room.

I installed the server software for the main machine on the second machine from the aisle. That way, I could have the main monitor and one on each side. I didn't want to be too greedy and use the 4th, mainly because it would be too much trouble (MaxiVista DOES support up to 4 monitors on a single server). I set everything up and it worked like a charm. I didn't think it would hurt anything because this particular lab was utilized almost exclusively for MIS classes, meaning that it would mostly be people learning Visio and Project, SQL Server and Visual Studio.

Visual Studio is what I planned on using the most here. The one thing that always aggravated me was not being able to spread out when using Visual Studio in this lab. It was filled with monitors that sported either SXGA or, because of some misinstalled drivers, XGA resolutions. Now that I had installed MaxiVista, however, I would be free to spread out as much as I wanted. A total of 3328 pixels across. I could use one screen for the main design/code window, the left screen for the properties, tools, solution and server explorer windows, and the right screen for the browser.

I was in desktop real-estate paradise. Even though few of my colleagues were impressed, in my mind I had racked up some serious geek points. I think I'll go in early on Thursday to install the 4th client on the teacher's machine which is connected to the overhead projector. Sure, it's only SVGA (800x600), but how cool would it be to have a 4th monitor that's 6 feet across to act as a heads up display?

In short, having an obscene amount of desktop real estate will change your life. Once you try it, you won't be able to go back. Whether you us one huge single monitor or multiple smaller monitors (or multiple huge monitors, which can get really pricey), it doesn't matter. With more room to spread out, you'll instantly be more productive because you won't have to switch between windows. It's essential if you're a designer or coder or other serious computer user, but it's still really fun if you're just a web surfer.

I'll leave you with this tip: If you do end up using a setup with a higher resolution, DO NOT maximize your windows. They put things in separate windows so that you can open many of them at the same time. Try putting them side-by-side. It lets you view many things at once and makes switching between browser windows, word documents, and other applications, a lot faster than having to navigate to the task bar every ten seconds. You have all this extra room... USE IT. It's kind of like a Buffet line. You don't want to cover your whole plate in just Seseme chicken. You'll want to have some low mein and egg rolls and maybe some fried rice as well. If it's a really small plate, try using two or three. Same effect, just harder to carry. And then the old Chinese lady will yell at you when you drop one of them on the floor and she has to clean it up.

Until next time,

~~Ben

P.S. I use Windows XP in a custom box. I don't know if MaxiVista works in Linux or MacOS, nor do I care. I'm 100% positive that you can have multi-monitor support in both, but I don't know how, and again: I don't care.

Keyboard

After a while of using the same keyboard in an area where you do other stuff like eating and drinking and carpentry, you'll find that the keys become a little sticky because of the crust that forms in the tray under all the keys. And, even thought you might dust and keep clean your desk, you'll notice that dust builds up (along with missing pens and rubber bands) underneath the keyboard. This happened to me a while back.

I decided that my keyboard needed a make-over. The first thing I tried to do was clean up the key-crust. To start this operation, I first had to pop off all the keys. This was easily taken care of with the aid of a pocket knife. I was able to use a toothbrush and some compressed air to clean the tray and all the keys.

While I was at it, I created a skirt with duct tape. The skirt would drape around the edges of the keyboard, touching the desk so that dust and pens and crap could not get under the keyboard and leave a disgusting surprise for me the next time I tried to clean my desk.

It wasn't until I had turned my computer on and reattached all the keys that I had realized what I had done. The space bar didn't work.

Actually, it did, just not correctly. See, all the keys are attached to the board via one little post in the center of the key. All the normal keys are so small that the one post is sufficient. Larger keys, like the Enter, Shift, and Space bar, require assistance. Without the aid of a metal bent-paperclip-looking thing, if you push down one side, the other side comes up, like a see-saw pivoting on the center post. Because of this pivoting action, the post is never depressed and the keystroke does not register.

My space bar's paper-clip thing had broken during the cleaning. Over the next few months I would try to repair it with hot glue, paper clips, duct tape and all sorts of other things, never to any success. It was really getting on my nerves because sometimes it just wouldn't register, and other times it would stick and I'd have to pry it back up.

Today, after a couple of hours of work with some cardstock and hot glue, I managed to fix the issue. My space bar is now wonderfully responsive and makes typing a pleasure.

Yeah, I could have gotten another keyboard. In fact, I have a lot of other keyboards. I just like this one. It's got a row of hotkeys which are super useful for volume control and Hibernation. I picked up a replacement keyboard at Office Depot, but it didn't feature the Sleep key, which I use at least once ever day. So I returned it, getting back my 14 dollars (which was a rip-off to begin with... the one I've got costed $10.) I figured after enough time, I'd figure out a way to adequately repair the afflicted key.

Which I did. And now I'm happy.

Until next time...

~~Ben