I probably don’t want the same thing from computing that you do, but that’s OK.
Computing never really feels like we’re direct manipulating the language of the universe, I think, particularly with so many of us just pushing down mushy rubber domes or pawing the candy colored pictures under the glass all day.
But it should. Computing should be – at the very least – tactile.
This work should feel kinetic, even ceremonial. You know: real. I want to hear metal sliding and snapping into place. I want blinking lights, hissing wires, I want the smell of ozone.
I want to feel it. I can’t always have that, but sometimes.
Mechanical keyboards, obviously, but my workspace is lit up by salt lamps and repurposed industrial fixtures running through heavy switches bolted to the desk. I’ve got a few hotkeys running through some delightfully clicky buttons on a custom panel I’ve built that are very satisfying. It’s a work in progress; I’m thinking about ordering one of those AliExpress tesla-coil speakers, presumably so I can electrocute myself while listening to Dragonforce. Which should look and probably smell amazing.
The most recent experiment in this vein involves replacing the trackball in my beloved MNT Reform, a machine excelling in its role as a monument to my idiosyncracies. On a whim, I ordered a single high-precision silicon nitride bearing and dropped it in.
It was an excellent decision.
It didn’t work out of the box, I had to let the shiny wear off before it started working reliably, but a day of use is plenty for that. But once that’s done, my goodness.
It is amazing to me that you can just have something like this, that you can impulse-buy a sphere of some exotic material machined to within a few microns of perfect for not very much money. And if you’re a trackball aficionado you definitely should, because this thing is absolutely decadent. Oil-on-glass smooth, with a slight hint of heft in the motion, slightly cool to the touch.
It’s a small source of joy and I love it.
Mushy keyboards and touchscreens are garbage, they’re the nutrient slurry of the computing experience. All computing should have some sort of tactility to it, and it should all be this good.
In conclusion, you should replace your trackball with a silicon nitride bearing machined to micron precision.
You will not regret replacing your trackball with a silicon nitride bearing machined to micron precision.
(I tried it with ceramic alumina, it didn’t work.)