Library of Time

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Hi Enrique,

September! I was talking to a friend who's long past school age and he told me that every September 1st he still feels like he's going back to school. Does that happens to you?

We were actually going to launch the Navigator (our trackball) on Sept 2, but managed to be ready (hardware, software, everything) a full week ahead of time, so ended up launching late Aug instead. That felt nice. Also, thank you to everyone who got a Navigator and who said nice things about it.

Time for the typ.ing leaderboard! Top 3 for last month:

• y6oxz43p completed 31 challenges at 107wpm with 98% accuracy, woah.
• Darrio, a new name to the top 3, completed 26 challenges but at an average of 143wpm and 99% accuracy!
• Serhey complete 31 challenges at 82wpm, but at 100% accuracy — a first for this leaderboard, not a single typo all month long. Talk about prioritizing accuracy!

Three very different strategies, quite fun to see.

Below you'll find two excellent posts from Robin, one on firmware and the other on hardware — both handy for keyboards in general, not just ZSA boards. I also loved Yuki's video, which includes using the Moonlander with an Apple Vision Pro. Out of the links, my favorite has to be the Library of Time — just so many ways to look at time.

Finally, if you're curious to hear me talk about the company and how we think about support, I was on the Help Scout podcast earlier this month. Mat, who interviewed me, uses a Voyager himself and knows ZSA deeply, so it was a fun chat. And as long as we're on audio: This month I wrote about my favorite pair of bone-conduction headphones. These are all about the ergonomics, but they sound good, too.

As always, thank you for reading, and please reply with any thoughts or feedback!

All the best,
Erez

“I also set up various shortcuts and snippets in my text editor and use the Mooonlander’s layout features to speed up my typing”

- Yuki Ito, Moonlander User

Layout Buffet: Home Row Mods

A deliberately simple way to try home-row mods

If the term "home row mods" (or modifiers) sounds a bit daunting or like keyboard-nerd speak, this is the post to read. I mean, it is keyboard-nerd speak… but it's not daunting, especially not after you read this. Feel free to send it to friends, too — it's a helpful concept to understand and try even with some non-ZSA keyboards.

Removing the internal stabilizer of a Choc switch

A simple sound mod for the most common Choc switches

Another great post that's applicable to any low-profile keyboard, not just ZSA boards. Some low-profile Choc switches have a little bar inside, and some people don't love how that bar sounds while typing. Here's a simple DIY fix. There are nice videos, too.

Featured User Interview

Ladislav Benc

Senior Developer

As a dad, I found a lot to like about Laci's interview. There's a lot of family and kids between the lines, and I also quite enjoyed the anti-consumerist and DIY vibe. Fun read!

"The last part is my “server stack”, which I’ve made into a literal physical stack and stuck it into the inaccessible, empty space between my PC and the wall."

4x6+4 v2.1 [adaptable]

I use several principles to guide my keymap: use opposing hands and Home Row Modifiers (HRM) for layers and modifiers, keep the layout familiar to standard boards for compatibility, don't underestimate the thumbs, avoid getting lost in layers, and apply the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) rule. To keep things manageable, I deliberately limit QMK features: no combos, macros, or tap-dance; mostly momentary (MO) layer switches; and as few layer toggles as possible.

Things we liked

Library of Time →

So many calendars

This is a big, interactive list of various historical and proposed calendars and ways of slicing up time (remember Swatch Internet Time?). Every tile shows the current time in its system, and you can click it to learn more. A free, open-source passion project.

Impossible split scan shader →

So trippy

I believe we’ve featured Etienne Jacob’s art in the past, and here’s another striking creation. This is a looping animation of boxes coming apart and slamming back together in an isometric grid. There are sliders that let you adjust various parameters. Some are obvious, like the size of the grid or the density of the boxes, but others are surprising. There’s one that lets you make the boxes “melt” and morph in trippy ways. Very interesting, if slightly overwhelming. I recommend trying this on a desktop.

The Atlas of Economic Complexity →

By Harvard Growth Lab

What does Brazil (for example) export, and what does it import? What does Ecuador export to countries in Africa? What’s percentage of the world’s chemicals come from Canada, and how did that change over time? This is an interesting visualization tool for looking at the flow of goods all over the world, but the data only gets to 2023. Obviously things have changed since, and are changing rapidly still, but the interactive charts are still fun and interesting to play with. I do wish they’d update it.

Library of Short Stories →

Read History’s Best, Anytime, Anywhere

This clean and free website presents thousands of short stories from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, F. Scott Fitzgerald and many, many more. Each story is nicely formatted for reading right on the site, and is also available for download as a PDF or an ePub. No account required. This is a wonderful personal project by Australian author Evan C. Lewis.

Tip: We have a subscriber-only link archive with all of the links we shared over the years. Just for you. ❤️

Wallpaper of the month

This is one of my favorite Voyager Printables — the Wrist Rest Kit by Bruno F. It fits the Fellowes wrist pads and offers a gentle tenting angle. So nice.

Thank you for reading!