Blogging: 1 Year On

Well, It has been almost 13 months since I started Wear & Tear. I am shocked that I haven't been "discovered" and made a web celebrity. What have I learned over the past year?

• The Internet's a big place- Don't expect people to stumble upon your posts unless you actively market yourself, or write about the hottest topics of the day.
• Trackpoints- People apparently see the light and want Trackpoints for their Macs. I have actually lost interest in Macs since writing about them last August. That Trackpoint posting has been far and away the most viewed & commented on post on this blog. I actually did point to my posting on several other sites and it is a pretty easy to drive traffic if you really want it.
• DVORAK- I am a now a proficient DVORAK typist. I am not sure if I have fully returned to the speed I had with the QWERTY keyboard, but I am close and I don't think I make as many mistakes as I used to. Would I recomend making the switch? It depends. I love DVORAK on my home and business computer, but am very frustrated when I show people how to do things on their QWERTY keyboard. At this point I am focusing all effort on DVORAK so I don't go back and forth and I have essentially lost all memory of QWERTY aside from using my Treo keypad (remember, I hate the Treo keypad so I am likely to use Graffiti input.
• Google Street View- My photo captures from Google street view are popular with the Euros... Some spend 10's of minutes laughing and laughing at the kid falling off his bike, or the wrecked Mercedes.
• Abarth- The logo I have posted for Abarth gets almost as many hits as anything else.

I really enjoy putting thoughts up here and I am going to try to do it more frequently.

DVORAK is HARD!!

I have so many things I want to write about, but have been recently crippled by an attempt at increasing my typing efficiency. I completely switched to the DVORAK layout last week and am in kind of a no man's land right now. I know where all the keys are, but I have to actively think about every keystroke. I have completely forgotten the QWERTY layout and am in a sad state of tortoise speed typing.

The most annoying thing is I find myself editing what I want to say in hopes to simplify my keystrokes.

Although I am frustrated right now, I am confident this is the right thing to do. The keys are much more logically laid out. I used to be able to type out words phonetically with my fingers with my mind doing very little legwork.

Questions:
1. How do I globally change to DVORAK? Right now I have to change the keyboard settings for each program i use.
2. How can I map my keys so Control+C, X and V etc. are associated with their QWERTY locations? Using these keys in their DVORAK locations is inconvenient
3. Any suggestions for DVORAK exercises to improve dexterity?

THANKS!

11/18/08 Update: I have finally exceeded my typing speed with QUERTY prior to switching to DVORAK! I am in excess of 45 WPM corrected for accuracy according to TypingTest.com. Typing is much more fluid with DVORAK. The only downside is using other people's computers. When I go back to QWERTY, I am almost completely lost. I can type my logins & passwords in QWERTY, but that is about it. Overall, I think if you are adventerous and a bit eccentric, take the dive. Embed a photo of the DVORAK keyboard in your desktop wallpaper and don't look back!