[Gllug] is KMAIL a good enough client for gllug?

[Rich Walker]

Nix <nix at esperi.org.uk> writes:

> On Thu, 08 Sep 2005, Rich Walker spake:
>> Nix <nix at esperi.org.uk> writes:
>> 
[snip]
>>> Windows 2 was new and Linux hadn't been thought of. Now I run X as a
>>> way
>> 
>> Grief! I believe my first "cool GUI" experience involved the AMX Mouse
>> on a BBC. I even wrote software for it...
>
> Oh wow. I'd quite forgotten my one-day-long experience with that.
>
> Thanks for digging up the memories. :)

Everyone can stop screaming now :->

>
>>> to get tiny fonts and lots of colours and tabbed konsoles and session
>>> management and the occasional bit of GUI here and there, for those
>>> programs which actually benefit from it. (e.g. the book classification
>> 
>> I find w3m provides most of the GUIness I need when I need it - the
>> ability to display images on a text console is one Monster Hack and well
>> worth supporting...
>
> Well, it can only do that in an xterm... and yes, it's an *appalling*
> hack.
>

It does it on the console as well. *That* one really surprised me. I
can't remember if you need to be running an fbdev or not.



> If you wait a week I'll have given it a remote dcop interface. Wait another
> week and I'll have it tied into XEmacs. :)

AAAARggggh... Wrong Emacs Fork ... gibber ....

>
>> [These days, I use "less" to read books on a laptop wherever possible. I
>> get to choose the font and the font size, the pagination is irrelevant,
>> I can use Search to find the previous reference to that d'd character to
>> work out what was going on, and 1000 books weigh 1.6kg.]
>
> Snap, except that I don't have enough books in textual form, and paper
> *is* still far easier on the eyes.

Dark room, black background, green text in Courier, lie on your back,
laptop balanced on beer-belly [optional - you can be thin and do this],
one hand for the space bar and the other for your beer - what more do
you need?

Oh, the *books*: well, I find gnutella has quite a lot, and since I'm
substituting my existing paper infrastructure I only have one working copy
at a time... [The other day I went to my local library, got a couple of
books out, then read the electronics copies on my laptop...]

>> 
>> Which is the keyboard+trackball - sounds interesting as a means of
>> reducing desk space - and does it make Proper Clicking Noises?
>
> No, I didn't care about that. It's one of these:
> <http://www.maltron.co.uk/images/press/maltron-ergonomic-english-trackball-tq-hr1.jpg>

Oooooh. Interesting. Can you use it to beat computers into submission?
(the other advantage of the old IBM's)

>
> (Warning: *big* image.)
>
> It costs a *lot*, but it's eliminated RSI symptoms for me completely ---
> well, it would do if work would buy me one as well. As it is my RSI
> intensifies at work and then fades at home, even though I do much more
> typing at home than at work ('cos I'm not stopping typing all the time
> 'cos of the pain, that's why).
>
> Selling conventional QWERTY keyboards and mice should be a criminal
> offence. Warning labels won't cut it.
>
> (Semi-serious there. I've seen *so many* people permanently injured by
> those fucking things...)

1 in 50 in the UK, I heard recently, have work-related RSI.

It's the modern version of black-lung disease.


>>> Note that moving your hand from the keyboard to the mouse is difficult
>>> and slow compared to hopping between keys. Since you *know* you'll be
>>> using the keyboard when using an email program, unless you compose
>>> emails with the mouse, why not stick with the same input device and
>>> speed everything up and reduce RSI? (Composing emails with a pointing
>> 
>> Indeed, if you're in a position of authority in an organisation that
>> requires people to use computers, promoting "not using the mouse" will
>> be a wise Health and Safety decision ;->
>
> I *wish*. I can't even get them to buy me something non-hideous. Hell,
> they won't even get a (totally useless) wrist rest, or a chair that's
> adjustable to the right height, or a keyboard costing more than five
> quid.

"Don't weep for me, boys: organise"

Seriously.

This is what you have a union *for*. 

And if all else fails, contact the HSE, say you're worried about RSI at
work, and see what happens...

<http://www.google.com/u/HSEC?q=rsi&sa=Go&sitesearch=hse.gov.uk&domains=hse.gov.uk>


>
> (Health and safety law? They claim to conform to that by sending round a
> leaflet each year asking you if you're sitting at the right height and
> so on. The idea that the *keyboard itself* might be harmful, rather than
> any problems being caused by just `using it wrong', hasn't occurred to
> them.)
>
> (I'll probably have an official diagnosis of RSI soon --- I've actually
> got around to booking a doctor's appointment at last --- and then
> perhaps they can be forced to actually *do* something.)

Good luck with *not* having it - but if you *do, then you *should*
report it under RIDDOR. Mind you, if you do so, you will probably have
to use IE to get through their website.

cheers, Rich.

>
> -- 
> `... published last year in a limited edition... In one of the
>  great tragedies of publishing, it was not a limited enough edition
>  and so I have read it.' --- James Nicoll
> -- 
> Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
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-- 
rich walker         |  Shadow Robot Company | rw at shadow.org.uk
technical director     251 Liverpool Road   |
need a Hand?           London  N1 1LX       | +UK 20 7700 2487
www.shadow.org.uk/products/newhand.shtml
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