Peak influencer-dom has probably been reached when you convince other co-workers to buy a good-quality-but-pricey keyboard. Since my last blog post, two more Moonlanders appeared on our floor, and it all started with rows of blinkenlights on my desk instead of lettered keykaps. Three Moonlanders on one office floor should be enough to finally report results after long-term usage.

Pain and Posture

Monotony is the enemy of good posture, and so it is with my keyboards: Instead of completely switching to the Moonlander, I alternate between my trusty QWERTZ, off-the-shelf keyboard and the Bone-layout Moonlander. On some days, I prefer typing at high-speed, on others I crave the macros and dedicated special keys which I configured on my own layout. I will never reach my QWERTZ speeds with the Bone layout, but a mouse, scroll wheel, and media control all on one keyboard makes it a powerful tool for tedious tasks. Form-wise, I currently use the Moonlander with its platform add-ons, and prop up the hand rests via stacked cardboards, so I don’t create a dent in my wrists. My body also welcomes these changes: The more variety I introduce, the better for my posture. Conversely, the more monotony my body suffers, the more it complains.

Traveling: Back to Basics

Traveling gear is the only thing I have not quite figured out yet. One thing I love about my Kyria, the little keyboard that started my keyboarding adventures: At 480g, it’s extremely compact and light. However, it gave me some wrist pains and I just can’t reach a reasonable typing speed. On the other hand, I shlepped the Moonlander in a big plastic box to a week-long workshop and struggled to set up and stow away the thing every day. For another recent workshop I brought a cheap, light Logitech QWERTZ keyboard, which was enough for the occasional typing. At 75%, it neatly fits into my backpack and I can temporarily live without a numpad. For now, this is my go-to solution.

Layout and Macros

After over two years, my Bone-DE-CH layout has been refined to the bone (ha). The only downside lies in some macros: the circumflex and the backtick are notoriously cumbersome to type on a Swiss keyboard, and I’ve written macros for each. Sadly, they cannot be directly integrated in ZSA’s online tool Oryx (or I was too impatient for a GUI deep-dive), so flashing the keyboard directly from the browser is not possible. Instead, I:

Download the source
Fiddle the macros into the updated keymap file
Compile the firmware
Flash the keyboard using Wally

It works, but it’s time-intensive and I fear Wally won’t be supported anymore at some point. Here are the two macros for those who want to add them to their own QMK keymap (DE-CH):

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enum custom_keycodes {
  ST_MACRO_0,
  ST_MACRO_1,
};
// --- lots of layers here ---
bool process_record_user(uint16_t keycode, keyrecord_t *record) {
  switch (keycode) {
    case ST_MACRO_0:
    if (record->event.pressed) {
      SEND_STRING(SS_TAP(X_EQL)SS_TAP(X_SPC));  // prints ^ with one keystroke
    }
    break;
    case ST_MACRO_1:
    if (record->event.pressed) {
      SEND_STRING(SS_DOWN(X_LSFT)SS_TAP(X_EQL)SS_UP(X_LSFT)SS_TAP(X_SPC));  // prints backtick ` with one keystroke
    }
    break;

All in all it took me about six months to learn the layout, another six to master all the unconscious controls like Alt+F4 or Ctrl+S, and touch-typing complex passwords is still next-level hard.

Blinkenlights, Baby

Strangers rarely assume I’m a computery person even if I and the job title say I am – something something bias – until they see my keyboard. The blank blinkenlight keycaps evoke gasps and seem to max out my hacker scale in the eye of the beholder, when all I can say is “I really like computers” and “pain is a good motivator”. Still, it amazes me how much the Moonlander serves as a signifier of nerd-dom, instead of being just a tool that suits your needs. It’s also a bit sad to still experience this in 2025.

Last modified on 2025-03-20