colemak

I have some time off from work and decided it is time to
finally learn and use the colemak keyboard layout.
This is one of my new year resolutions, and I cannot
explain how exited I am about this. I'm actually typing
this post using it, but its still slow going.

I had some trouble getting it to work in ktouch, but I figured it out:
http://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?pid=4378#p4378

I also had some trouble convincing kubuntu to handle the capslock key
as a backspace key. The final solution for me was to make a little script,
and get it to run when kde starts up.
script:

#!/bin/bash

#setup capslock -> backspace (nice for colemak)
xmodmap -e "remove Lock = Caps_Lock"
xset r 66

run it automatically:
system settings -> advanced -> autostart

I practised for 30-45 minutes per day and I learn more keys every day.
Some of the nice things about Colemak for me are:

1. You learn the common keys first, so you can actually start typing quite soon. (You can type a lot by just using the home row.)
2. You are forced to touchtype, because looking at the keyboard doesn't help (assuming you didn't swap your keys, which I recommend.)
3. Most of your short cut keys are in the same position.

I found these finger stretches quite handy:

1. http://ergotrading.net/officeathlete/ergonomics/Nine_Stretches_and_Alternative_Instructions/FingerStretch.htm
2. http://www.rsiwarrior.com/stretches.html
3. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stretching/WL00030