Who are you, and what do you do? What do you like to do outside of work?

Hello, my name is Cynthia, and I am a recovering Binge Coder.

I sit and think and
type until the pain is extreme:
this is binge coding.

I began my career as a professional software engineer in 1998, at the peak of the dot-com boom, just after getting my master’s degree in Library Science. I fell deeply in love with writing code while in grad school. The first language I learned was Prolog, but in those days, Java was taking the world by storm, allowing software to run in browsers. I translated the application I had developed in Prolog for class into a Java applet, and I was hooked. Four years later, in February 2002, I became a Sun Certified Architect for the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition. I earned my most recent professional certification, as an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, in April, 2024.

As a graduate student, I wrote code for fun. As a professional, I wrote code for work, and what did I do for fun outside of work? I still wrote code.

Fourteen years later, my right shoulder began to complain. I had been using a normal keyboard and reaching for a mouse without taking enough breaks because I was having way too much fun building stuff, getting dopamine spikes every time a bug was fixed or a feature implemented.

In 2014 I started typing with my left hand only on the left side of my keyboard using an AutoHotKey script that mirrored my keyboard, so hitting the letter ‘A’ and the space bar at the same time produced a semicolon; hitting the letter ‘S’ and the space bar produced the letter ‘L’, etc. I also began using Contour Design’s RollerMouse, which sits at the base of a keyboard and looks like a mini rolling pin.

I also saw a lot of doctors; had ergonomics experts evaluate my work station, posture, and habits; but by 2017, my left arm was starting to complain too.

In early 2018, I purchased tapwithus.com’s first version of the Tap Strap and also TekGear’s Twiddler. The Tap Strap looks a bit like flexible brass knuckles and senses finger movement to produce characters.

The Twiddler is a handheld device that looks a bit like a TV remote control and is somewhat like playing a guitar. It has a tiny joystick operated with your thumb which moves the mouse. Both the Tap Strap and the Twiddler are programmable, but in the end, I chose to use the Twiddler because the mousing was better and it was easy to use with my arm hanging at my side.

I credit the Twiddler with saving my career. I could type again without pain. By the end of 2023, though, I knew I had to replace the Twiddler with something more reliable. Twiddler is guaranteed for one million key presses (and has excellent tech support) but I would blow through that limit pretty quickly, literally wearing down the plastic. I purchased many replacement Twiddlers over the years.

By 2023 Tap had come out with a wrist-worn device, so I purchased that, but found that it is still not really up to the task with mousing and connects only via Bluetooth, which drops too frequently. I love that Voyager is connected by USB.

Eventually, I found ZSA’s Voyager. I’ve been using it for a year now, for both work and play. I haven’t worn out the keys yet, but I love that the keyswitches and keycaps are both replaceable with standard components.

Today, I do still write code both professionally and for fun. I also knit and write the occasional haiku. My latest “just for fun” project is knit.NimbleWands.com, an online database of customizable knit stitch patterns. I also wrote EmptyStrings.com for haiku.

What hardware do you use?

At the heart of my setup is my ZSA Voyager keyboard. To be more precise, it is just the left side of the Voyager. The right side remains in the box and has never been programmed. I type and move the mouse with just my left hand, with my arm hanging straight by my side, my elbow at roughly a 180-degree angle, as opposed to the more conventional (but to me, more painful) angle of 90 degrees.

To achieve this position, I have mounted the Voyager keyboard to a tripod using ZSA’s magnetic tripod mount connected to a standard tripod L-bracket. This works wonderfully when I type while standing. To accommodate sitting, I have added a standard tripod C-clamp and L-bracket to the lower portion of the tripod. The L-bracket there has the other ZSA magnetic tripod mount (they come in a pack of two). When I change position from standing to sitting, I simply pull the keyboard off of the magnet on the top of the tripod and snap it onto the magnet lower down.

To provide extra stability, I have a weighted counterbalance draped over the leg of the tripod opposite from the keyboard. (The counterbalance is a microwaveable heated shawl. The heat is great for my shoulder, and eventually I wear through the fabric beyond what is patchable, so I buy a lot of replacement shawls and had an older, much patched, one to use as the counterbalance.)

I share the Voyager keyboard, via a switch, between my work machine (a Lenovo ThinkPad), my primary home development machine (a Dell XPS 13 9310 running Ubuntu), and a Microsoft Surface Pro 6 running Windows. I use two Dell P2418HT 23.8” Touch Monitors, one for work and another for home (sharing the home monitor between the Linux and Windows machines with a KVM switch).

I use a DOIO KB16-02 macropad for frequently used strings that have more characters than Voyager’s macros can handle, for example, ”----- >>> LEFT OFF HERE <<< -----” and ”----- >>> THIS IS WHERE THE MAGIC FAILS TO HAPPEN <<< -----“. It has a layer devoted to SQL commands, but I use those less frequently now that I have the IntelliSense tool SQL-Prompt installed in SQL Server Management Studio at work. Those DOIO KB16-02 sql short-cuts are still handy when I’m working in MySql for projects I write for fun.

All of this sits on an adjustable height desk from UPLIFT Desk.

And what software?

At work I spend a lot of time in SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio (for C#) and Visual Studio Code (for Python). At home, I use Visual Studio Code for HTML, Javascript, CSS, and Node.js. I use MySql Workbench to access the NimbleWands.com database deployed on AWS, and phpMyAdmin to access a local, development version of that db. On my Windows Surface Pro, I use CreateStudio to create YouTube videos explaining NimbleWands.

What’s your keyboard setup like? Do you use a custom layout or custom keycaps?

I use a custom layout configured so I can use just the left side of the Voyager as both a keyboard and a mouse.

I use nine keys on three layers under my three strongest fingers for letters of the alphabet. I rarely use my pinkie. The layout was very much inspired by my Twiddler layout, which also does not use the pinkie much. My Voyager layout makes extensive use of double-clicking and click-and-hold to keep common commands (save, copy, paste, etc.) within easy reach of those nine keys. The keycap under my middle finger has a bump, which helps keep me oriented. There is another keycap with a bump on the top row, second key in from the left to make it easy for me to find “Save,” “New File,” and “Caps Lock.” When I switch to the mouse layer, I move my fingers so that the middle key cap with the bump is under my ring finger to make Alt-Tab and Ctrl-Tab navigation easier to reach.

I make extensive use of the LED lighting to make it easy to find the nine main keys used by my three strongest fingers and to identify which layer is active. With the keyboard mounted vertically, I look down to see its “bottom” edge, but the different color lighting makes it easy to see at a glance when the keyboard is on a mousing/navigation layer vs. a character-producing layer. I’ve found that I use the color cues less frequently than when I first started to use this layout. Instead, if I am uncertain which layer I am on, I hold the large thumb key to get back to layer one, and from there easily find the key that moves the layout into mouse mode (or whichever layer I am aiming for like numbers, symbols, or FN keys).

What would be your dream setup?

I love being able to walk up to my tripod-mounted keyboard and start working, but I did love the feel and small size of the handheld Twiddler. I would love to have the best of both worlds: the robust build and easy-to-replace switches and keycaps of Voyager, but the convenience of Twiddler not needing a tripod or desktop.