Server change

I'm reliably informed by my hosts that bentbacktulips.co.uk will be moved to a new server at around 0500 GMT Saturday morning. Depending on how long it takes for the DNS stuff to propagate, there may be some odd things happening around here, but they shouldn't last long.

Dashing all over the place

Dasher is a program that allows you to compose text using just your mouse (or similar thing that controls a cursor). On the right hand side of the screen and aligned vertically is the alphabet (capital letters, numbers and punctuation optional, with their own clearly marked sections). To select a letter, point your cursor at it and the display will zoom in beautifully, revealing another alphabet within the block of the letter you just selected. Repeat.

The zoom accelerates as you get further from the central point, and you can set the maximum speed so that it doesn't all whizz past you. The alphabet is ordered alphabetically (there's a phrase I never thought I'd have to write) but letters which you're more likely to use depending on what you've just written are given more vertical space. It uses a predicted text method which really makes it easy to write common words - you can write "tomorrow" in the same amount of time as a four-letter word - and is claimed to learn new words that you write, although I haven't checked this. Less common letters that it doesn't think you'll write next are much smaller. It's definitely harder to make spelling mistakes - earlier I tried to write "scarered" without realising, but I remember ("remember" is another word its predicted text likes) finding it more difficult to seek out the second "r".

I can't say how useful it is for people with disabilities who actually need to use it - although I would hazard a guess at 'very' - but my god, it's fun to use. When I first downloaded it I spent forty minutes absolutely enthralled, writing out snatches of song lyrics that happened to be playing in Winamp at the time. This whole post was written using it, apart from the markup, and took only half an hour. The only aid I had was writing out the order that the punctuation was displayed, which I soon remembered. Yes, of course it's slower, but it's so much more fun than simply typing away at a keyboard! I'm seeing how long it takes me before I can use it at the fastest zoom setting, at which point I shall feel a great sense of achievement and self-satisfaction.

It'd be perfect if you're tired and thinking more slowly - usually when I'm typing in that state, my fingers run faster than my brain and have a lot of sitting around and waiting for my brain to say something else.

It runs on dozens of different platforms and outputs .txt files. Download it. Go on.