6/12/2008

"I'm working on it, I'm working on it!"

Well, the first Dvorak Day was a success! Many people wrote in to tell us about passing out flyers, or copies of the zine and hopefully we convinced a few new people to give Dvorak a try! We'll have more time to plan out NEXT year's Dvorak Day, so start thinking up some new ways to spread the word.
The title of this entry is a line from Han Solo, when everything is going wrong on his ship (the Millennium Falcon). This is a bit how we feel here at DVzine.org this summer! While there have not been many updates recently, we are still fighting the good fight! Recently Alec exhibited at the 2008 MoCCA Arts Fest where he passed out many copies of The Dvorak Zine and heard from people who had picked up the zine years ago and are now happily typing Dvorak! Alec is also working on a new 12-page Dvorak comic which will be in the next volume of Syncopated Comics. ALSO Gabe and Alec are preparing to be interviewed for an upcoming documentary about QWERTY.
This is all to say that there are still many updates in the works and we will get to them as soon as we can. We appreciate your continued patience. Soon enough we'll launch back into Hyperspace!

5/17/2008

The 1st Annual Dvorak Day!

We hereby declare this Wednesday, May 21st to be the first annual DVORAK DAY! In 1932, Dr. August Dvorak turned in the patent for his simplified keyboard on May 21st, so we thought "What better day to get out and spread the word about Dvorak?!" Since this is the first year, we thought we'd start out small, by making up some flyers to pass around to our non-Dvorak friends.

There are four flyers total, which you can get in the Downloads section. You just print out the PDF file double-sided, cut the sheet on the dotted lines and you are ready to spread the word about Dvorak! Be creative and come up with your own ways to tell others about Dvorak on Wednesday, and send in your stories. That way we can all have some more ideas for NEXT year's Dvorak Day!
We also wanted to note that while doing some research for these flyers, we learned that the world's fastest typer, Barbara Blackburn passed away on April 18th, 2008. Barbara was a lifelong Dvorak typist and did a lot to promote the greater efficiency and SPEED that were possible when typing Dvorak. We are sad to see her go, and send our condolences to her friends and family.

4/23/2008

Dvorak Day - May 21st!

Well, the new site updates are far from over, but people can at least get the idea of what's going on. The biggest update is our new international section where we will be posting translations of the zine and other resources for our international friends of Dvorak.
The other big announcement is that we are declaring May 21st International DVORAK DAY! The original patent for The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard Layout says it was filed on May 21st, 1932 so we thought this was as good a day as any to celebrate Dvorak. (We were going to use Dr. Dvorak's birthday, but he was born on Cinco De Mayo!) The goal for Dvorak Day is to tell at least ONE new person about the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard. You don't have to "convert them" but just spread the word to a new person. Just think! If every year we doubled our ranks, eventually we would HAVE to take over, right?!
Anyways, we'll post more info about Dvorak Day as it draws closer and also more about various updates around the site. Viva La Dvorak!