david

Keebio has a bunch of options on their keyboards for arbitrarily bindable rotary encoders... this is super handy for media control. https://keeb.io

Millennial here. I used computers from a very young age, and when my near-continuous use became untenable, my parents got me my own: first computer was a Macintosh IIfx, then a Sun Ultra 1, then a Power Mac G4 (the stripes on the front, handles, don't remember exact model name). Everything after the G4 has been less exciting, even if it's all more powerful. Not sure if this is because I've gotten older or if the gear has gotten less fun.

Man, I love this OS. Review here: gemini://nnix.com/gemlog/34.gmi

I would consider these: https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/ instead, if you're the kind of person who really uses something for 25 years at a time. You won't care about the cost amortized over that period, and the build quality is really much higher. Unicomp is not bad, but Model F Labs is simply higher.

Alternatively, look at whatever other keyboard you want to try in a modern layout (Keebio has some amazing kits) and get a super tactile switch, like a Kailh Box Jade or Box Navy. It's true that Cherry MX aren't always amazing, but also, the keyswitch world is a rich place if you want to experiment, and many switch types are every bit as accurate as buckling spring. Naturally, they'll have a different feel, the buckling spring is really an outlier, but a good switch doesn't double or anything really off by default.

Bone stock Kailh Jades here on all my current keyboards, and I love them. SA keycaps on everything.

ew!

This is very true re: desktop utilization patterns.

You bring up another good point that I haven't considered - signal! Man, why isn't there a signal client? I almost want to make this a side project now.

I've found sysupgrade to be pretty good at the core OS, but I have definitely had issues with drivers (particularly audio and display) and third party packages installed through pkg_add. Upgrading seems to be a mixed bag in terms of continuity of function when you're running a richer system, as a workstation often is. On a server, with minimal package surface area, things are just fine.

Helpful, thanks for writing this. I have an FT-65R and I feel similarly. It's a solid piece of gear, but could have had a lot more user design work applied to it at this price. I don't know what it is about amateur radio, but it seems extremely conservative in terms of resistance to modern features and practices for a technical hobby. Not universally, a lot of SDR gear feels modern, but in many areas of the hobby things feel almost steampunk. The concepts are familiar and the hardware is capable, but the manner of implementation is of another era.

Exploring! SDF is like the coalition of servers I ran in college with friends and campus friendlies. A little of it was explicitly practical, some of it unstable, all of it educational and fun and sometimes stuff took off. I love that SDF survives, and I love that they have paying members.

When new or esoteric stuff hits, whether it's 9front or the latest fedi service, SDF is where to see if it makes sense for you. Sure there's home labs, but a home lab doesn't have the community around it that we have here on SDF, which means it doesn't give you the sense of how a service runs at scale or in the (sometimes positive, sometimes corrupting, but always informative) presence of others.

Do you know for sure you're on it? Might just be the recent registration time of the subdomain... some mailservers are especially unenthusiastic about novel domain names, even subdomains, and then when they've seen enough mail from them in circulation they calm down a bit.