Author: Steve

 

I would be sending out bird pictures like this Baltimore Oriole.

 

But we’re not, so I won’t…

 

 

Matt and Becky.

 

I wonder where Matt is.  Haven’t seen him for a while.  Better go check on him.

 

 

I’ve been looking at computer keyboards.  That got me to remembering old typewriters with those letter-keys on long arms that had to travel all the way up to the ribbon and whack it against the paper on a roller.  That’s what Judy and I grew up with.  I’ve recently read that the layout of the modern computer keyboard, inherited from the typewriter, the QWERTY keyboard, named after the order of keys on the left hand, was designed not for typing speed, but to minimize the number of times the next key ascending collided with the previous letter descending.  It makes perfect sense to design a system that will minimize mechanical jams and delays.  I certainly don’t miss the pauses required to untangle those long typewrite letter arms.  It also makes sense that the layout of a typing keyboard could be redesigned now to facilitate obstruction-free fast typing, but for the reeducation required of all the existing typists.  There will always be existing typists on the QWERTY keyboard, so the QWERTY keyboard may never change.  That’s okay with me because I’ve been typing this way for 60 years, thanks to that typing class in Junior High.

 

Meanwhile, my quest for the perfect keyboard continues.  The one I’m using now is made by Velocifire.  It’s a mechanical keyboard to get the action I’m looking for.  It’s pretty good, nice feel, but the keystroke is a little long; longer than it needs to be, I think.  I’d rather something more along the lines of the old IBM Selectric from the 1960s.  Short stroke.  Snappy response.  Haven’t found it yet, but as I’m writing this, I’ve stumbled across the Das Keyboard Model S.

https://www.daskeyboard.com/model-s-professional/

 

 

That might be just the ticket.  It’s designed more for typists than gamers.  It’s offered with either blue or brown cherry switches (keys); the colors representing different touch characteristics.

https://www.cherrymx.de/en/blog/cherry-mx-switches-at-a-glance.html

 

 

 

Texas has this thing.  They make road surfaces out of chipseal.  Chipseal is a really coarse form of asphalt that makes a really rough surface.  Generally, chipseal is suitable for 45mph backroads, but Texas puts it on 70mph highways.  (Practically every backroad in Texas is a 70mph highway.)  It’s a really loud surface to drive on.

 

Along comes the Mazda3.

 

 

I’ve had it for quite a while now.  It’s a 2013.  It rides like a roller skate.  I really like that.  It’s still like new; it’s only got 25,000 miles on it.  I have to gas it up once or twice a month and it only takes 9 gallons.  There is a lot to like about that car.  Except the road noise.

 

It’s loud.  It’s loud on normal roads, but unbearably loud on Texas high-speed chipseal roads.  The noise comes from the tires.  I researched and bought the quietest tires I could get for it.  I bought new tires before the original ones were even worn out.  That helped, but not enough.  I downloaded a sound meter app to my phone.  Normal comfortable background noise is 70 decibels.  The Mazda, on the loudest chipseal is 80 decibels.  I took it to an auto stereo installer.  I asked if they did any soundproofing on cars before they installed expensive stereo systems.  They said they did.  I asked if they could pretend they were going to install an expensive stereo system in my car, but stop when they finished the soundproofing.  They said they would.

 

Soundproofing involves sticky patches of thin sound insulation stuck out of sight to inside surfaces in the car.  They took off the door panels and soundproofed the skin of the doors.  They took out the seats, lifted all the carpeting, and soundproofed the floor, firewall, and inside the wheel wells.  It is soo much quieter now.  On a normal stretch of road it’s a nice quiet 60 decibels.  I can listen to the radio without having to turn it up past my pain threshold.  On the loudest stretch of pavement, instead of measuring 80 decibels, which is in the danger zone for hearing damage if that level is maintained for too long, it measures 75.  That’s doesn’t sound like as big a decrease as I expected or had hoped for, but we have to consider that decibels are a progressive scale.  80 decibels is twice as loud as 70 decibels.  By dropping to 75 decibels, we’ve accomplished a 25% reduction of total sound on the noisiest road possible.  Most of the time I’m not on that road.  I can now cruise normal highways at a very comfortable 60 decibels, which is only half the noise level of an acceptable 70 decibels.

 

Brilliant!

 

 

Before it was Washington State, that land was part of the Oregon Territory, a very large western territory that included all of present-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming and Montana.  When it was proposed to break off the northern part of the Oregon Territory, the part north of the Columbia River, the Columbia River being the current border between Washington and Oregon, the proposed name was Territory of Columbia.  That name was refused because it was thought it might be confused with the existing Washington, District of Columbia, so they named it Washington Territory instead.  Go Figure.

 

And now we’ve come to the day that Washington, D.C. statehood is being discussed.  (Thank you, Ken, for that thought.)  Should that happen, if that community goes from a district to a state, what will that be called?

 

 

 

 

 

Which one?  That’s the question we always have to ask unless someone is so specific as to answer the question before we ask it.  When we already had a Washington, District of Columbia, why would we name a state Washington as well?  If we’re telling someone about Nebraska, all we have to say is Nebraska and we’re done.  If we say Washington, then we have to say Washington, the state, not Washington, D.C., or vice versa. 

 

Not an efficient use of language.