Tinker or Not

In biblical thinking, context is everything.

One of the few certitudes in our existence here is change. The context will morph. The changes may come in batches and you’ll notice trends. At other times, though, the changes are incremental and we don’t really notice until the sum total of small changes become one big change. Perception is a critical element. Our challenge is to recognize when trends and shifts are for us alone and when they matter to others. And then we have to decide how they matter.

It’s probably of no significance to you, for example, that after testing various configurations, I’m most comfortable doing my computer stuff with a laptop on a lapboard in an office chair that leans back on a swivel mounted under the seat. In other words, not those chairs in which only the back moves, but the whole thing has to tip or I can’t use it. And it needs armrests at just the right height, and a bit of lumbar curve so that my booty sits back into the pocket.

I’ve also decided that, for the most part, the technology for touchpads never lived up to the hype. My netbook is the first and only good touchpad I’ve ever used. All the rest have suffered from quirks that frustrate me to the point that they interfere with the flow of things. So my lapboard has to have a mouse pad of sorts. Would you believe I’ve spent some hours discovering the right size and placement of a small flat surface attached to the lapboard, so that I can use it all instinctively? And then there was the question of how best to construct the thing with elegant simplicity.

The image shows that I cut a block of soft pine lumber and covered it with stiff brown paper because any optical mouse tracks well on that. The mouse in question is a Logitech G100S gaming mouse I found on the discount shelf; it is internally accelerated so that only small movements are necessary. I’ve found that wired is far more responsive than any wireless pointer. The block has on the bottom a thick piece of corrugated cardboard folded to fit over the end of the leg plank on my home-made lapboard. It doesn’t block the optical drive slot and the power cord doesn’t interfere, yet the placement is comfortable for me in the armchair.

Our Western culture bears a false dichotomy of luxurious perfection versus Spartan tolerance when it comes to such things. In a biblical heart-led existence, we know that a certain amount of tension between what’s possible and what’s ideal is the norm. Mass marketing attempts to commoditize our tastes for the sake of the merchant’s convenience and profit, but you and I know better than to tolerate something that hinders our service to God. Whether we tinker with things is a matter of personality and taste; whether we succeed is a matter of savvy and experience. Whether we ever stop tinkering is yet another story.

In my case, some of the tinkering is for the sheer joy of exploration. That’s a part of what makes a hacker in the computer world, a part of the gamer’s ethos. When you play computer or video games, a fundamental element is poking around and trying out various tricks to see how it happens. If something goes wrong, you restart the game session. With computer technology, that’s a critical safety net enabling the freedom to explore. You can’t do that with near as much freedom in meat space. Some explorations carry a far higher risk. Not that it stops everyone; that is also a matter of personality and character. It’s utterly wrong to question the sanity of someone with a different scale or risk assessment; there is nothing objective at all about it. There is no moral standard that applies there. Even in pure business calculus, each actor has to decide whether the gain is worth it. It is entirely valid to consider “gain” in your own way. The only real bottom line is what your conscience tells you is in your convictions.

Side note: Avoid when possible agreeing to hold yourself accountable to folks whose values are significantly different from your moral convictions.

So no one should be surprised that, after a couple of days playing this used laptop, I’ve decided that my previous habits need not change by much. The blog post following this will be a techy description of what I found, but the intent here is more pastoral.

Be who you are.