THE NEW BIZNESS

There's a fresh 4X compo in town, and we're getting to it with gusto. Or at least I think that's what's happening. Regardless, it has been a long road from Revision to getting back into the IDE. I'll admit that the first few evenings were a painful affair. Fortunately, I sit here a week later with no compunction about writing code, even after an entire work day staring at... well, I guess we'll be generous and call it code.

In other news, I did pick up my first new keyboard in almost a decade. This is probably a good thing, as I already have several dozen keyboards that I will likely never type on for more than an evening or two. This one is the 8BitDo take on the C64 keyboard, and for the most part it's pretty groovy. After typing on it for a week, I still have occasional issues with oopsies and double-tapping keys, which I believe has a bit to do with the relative ease of the box white switches versus the historically stiff buckling springs that I've grown up (and old) with, coupled with a generous amount of throw.

It's a weird beast. You've got a fairly solid plastic case, aluminum backplate (which I haven't inspected), and double-shot key caps, all in easily recognizable C64 coloring. The switches themselves are clicky, tactile, and have (as mentioned above) a surprising throw distance. The only serious complaint I have thus far is the short distance between the top row and the F-key row. Since the board is slightly elevated and not curved like the model M, the key caps themselves are curved forward, which is hella weird. This, combined with the recessed surface of the caps, makes it perilous to reach for an F-key unless you raise your finger a little. Otherwise you may accidentally trigger the key below it, which took me a few days to sort out. So far I haven't seen any issues with wired or 2.4Ghz communication. I haven't bothered with Bluetooth.

I think I'm going to retire my industrial model M and use this for my daily driver at the work station. For hobby development, I'll still be relying on my trusty 1987 silver-badged model M. It's tagging along until the very end.