Moonlander Trackball

Hi |FNAME|,

Earlier this month, I took a day off and got to see my first-ever full solar eclipse. It was so worth it. If you can make time to see the next one (and if travel is feasible), I do recommend. It was totally packed where we were, but everyone was polite and quiet and peaceful. So even just from the perspective of "going to a crowded event" it was quite unique and fun. Go Canada. :)

In other news, this month's ZSA Loves post comes from Robin, all about a powerful CAD app that's not too hard to learn, and is even reasonably priced (not a subscription!).

Speaking of 3D design, below you'll find one of the most impressive "printables" I've seen for the Moonlander yet: A working trackball thumb cluster! Its creator, Kevin Christens, takes us on a deep technical dive in the blog post. Quite fun.

Kevin isn't the only maker featured this month: The interview with Bertrand is quite inspiring too. There's also a game site I've been a little obsessed with, as well as Melon King (always your pal!).

Thank you for reading, and email me anytime – ez@zsa.io.

All the best,
Erez

Tap and Hold Explained

A fundamental refresher

In this blog post, Robin goes over all of the different ways you can tap, hold, double-tap and tap-and-hold keys and makes sense of it all. It's a great explainer, and if you've ever felt some of your keys are "laggy" it may contain the answer you seek. Also contains a GIF of Robin demonstrating a "key press" versus a "key bounce".

Adding a trackball to the Moonlander

A DIY journey

When Kevin asked if he could add a trackball to the Moonlander, I told him it can't be done (or at least "not sanely"). Then he went and did it anyway. This is the story of one man's relentless determination.

Featured User Interview

Bertrand Fournier

Cybersecurity Architect by Day, DIY Maker by Night

If you're a hobbyist maker prone to jealousy, I'm not sure you're going to want to read this. Both the breadth of Bertrand's projects and the level of fit-and-finish he displays are either highly inspiring or demoralizing, depending how you think about it. :)

"What I like is always to invent useless things, such as small toys or decorative items, but what I prefer above all is to build clocks. Not the ones that display the time, but the ones that use the time as an excuse to build a beautiful object."

Layout of the month

Left Hand Only: Ninekey

Make your small and mighty Voyager even smaller by eliminating the right-hand side and even mightier by using it as a mouse. All letters are reached by the three strongest fingers on 9 keys spanning three layers. The thumb keys are used to switch between the letter-containing layers.

Things we liked

Randle →

Randomly-generated “game” scores

One of my friends recently celebrated completing 1,000 Wordle games. I played Wordle maybe three times. But with this handy Web tool, I don’t have to feel left out anymore!

Weightless Books →

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Magazines as eBooks

Did you know you can subscribe to a whole bunch of amazing science fiction/fantasy magazines and get them as ePub or PDF files? If you like short speculative fiction stories, Weightless Books is a goldmine. You can also buy individual issues.

aichat →

Chat to AI from the terminal

I don't have to memorize arcane Git and shell commands anymore. Now I just go "aichat -e [whatever I want to do]" right in the terminal, and it makes a good suggestion. Plugs into multiple AI backends using your own API keys. So powerful.

Abstract Play →

Make time for games

A site (mainly desktop-friendly) dedicated to two-player abstract strategy games. Lots and lots of games to try. Free, no ads. Games play asynchronously over several days (”play by mail” style). Helps when trying to decide whether to take the time to make a physical game yourself. Fits into my day so well.

Melon King →

Always Your Pal

Anything I say about this might spoil it, so I'll just suggest you visit this from a computer rather than a phone, and you might want to wear headphones (set to a reasonable volume). "You've got mail!"