A couple months ago, the folks at VicTsing reached out and offered to provide their keyboard and mouse for a review. I’m a sucker for input devices so I took them up on it.
Through their contact, Haven, I tried to learn more about the company’s origins and story. Haven was friendly but ultimately couldn’t share much with me. Who started this company? What are their goals?
The answers are a mystery.
Which is a shame. In a sea of commodity junk, VicTsing’s products stood out to me as both thoughtful and well-built. I’d love to understand their philosophy better. What I can tell you is what you can read yourself on their about page: they were founded in 2012 and they sell everything from computer and car accessories to humidifiers.
Checking out these two products can tell us a lot about how electronics commerce works in 2019. Faced with competition from better-known brands and contending with ever-dropping prices, the savvy move for new players is to differentiate through features. What we see here are a keyboard and mouse that do the basics well, but add a little something extra.
The keyboard
I cut my teeth as a spreadsheet jockey, so I grew attached to having a numeric keypad. The problem is, extended keyboards with keypads are huge, and these days I don’t need a numeric keypad that often. As a result I’ve trimmed down to the ten-keyless or “TKL” style in recent years. The typical TKL shaves off the numeric keypad, but keeps the clusters of arrow keys and Insert/Home/Page Up, etc.
Most of the time this is fine. But occasionally, I still miss the numeric keypad.
And I thought I just had to live with it.
But VicTsing came up with a clever alternative1. Using a key to switch modes, it overlaps the numeric keypad with the button clusters you typically find on the right of a TKL. You can have both.
QMK enthusiasts will recognize this trick at once: it’s using layers to shift part of the keymap. But thoughtful design also makes these feature easy to understand: when the numeric keypad is disabled, the light pattern changes to create the silhouette of a typical right-hand cluster.
in TKL mode
in numeric keypad mode
Indeed, the RGB color effects suggest QMK may be driving this under the hood. This would be smartâit lowers the cost of building interesting features like this variable-mode keypad.
More thoughtful touches: the keyboard comes with a blank key you can use to replace the “Win” key if you’re a Mac user, which I appreciated, and it’s stored on the case, which was nice. Alongside it was storage for an included keycap plucker, which is great for those who want to rearrange their keys.
Other than that, it’s an RGB mechanical keyboard. They’re blue switches, so the keyboard is loud and clicky. I think I prefer my Kaihua whites, but they’re perfectly fine switches.
My only gripe is with the shine-through, which has some weird stencil cutout effects. It’s a strictly aesthetic issue, but it makes this otherwise excellent keyboard feel a little cheap.
Still, it’s a pretty great buy, currently retailing at $43 on Amazon. Or, $40 if you don’t want the white frame. I actually liked the keyboard a lot better when I took the frame off, so save a few bucks if you want.
In the realm of budget mechanical keyboards, this one has some nice touches that separate it from the pack. Nice way to try out the mechanical life if you’re tired of rubber cup keyboard junk, too.
The mouse
Meanwhile, I just love the Pioneer mouse. It’s the best rechargeable mouse you can buy for $30, simple as that. You charge it with a USB micro cable, so no batteries to manage. It has scroll wheels for vertical and horizontal, along with some nice side buttons for forward/back in your web browser.
But the best part is: you can use it with three computers at once.
It includes a dongle for a wireless USB connection, but can also pair with up to two more devices via Bluetooth. This is very handy if you have, say, a Mac and a gaming PC, like I do.
But even if you don’t, the fact that you have the option of using a dongle but still have a perfectly useful mouse even if you (inevitably) lose that dongle is a fantastic touch.
The only issue I have with this mouse is its plastic pads, which feel a little rough against my work surface. Compared to my Logitech mice, which glide smoothly, the Pioneer feels like it’s gently scraping.
Still, it’s not a dealbreaker.
Mac users will want to use something like SensibleSideButtons to enable the back and forth buttons.
It’s a pretty good buy at $30. For similar prices, you can get a Logitech G602, which has adjustable DPI settings like the Pioneer, but requires AA batteries. Or you can get the Logitech Triathlon, which allows similar multi-device connectivity, but lacks DPI control and also requires AA’s.
The Pioneer gives you adjustable DPI, multiple devices and a rechargeable battery in one package at a competitive price. It is a right-handed mouse, though as a lefty I don’t find that a dealbreaker. As a hedge against RSI, I try to switch mousing hands every couple years2.
They’re good input devices, Bront
Despite so many competing options in both categories, I think both of these entries are pretty solid. VicTsing clearly has some product vision to help it stand out from the crowd. It’s worth checking these out if you need a keyboard or mouse soon.
Short version: this is the best product Apple has ever shipped.
My credentials on this: Iâve been using Apple products since the Mac SE and Apple IIe. Iâve had a Mac in every major processor generation since the 68k, most of the iPods, most iPads and every iPhone except the latest one.
Clearly I love a lot about how Apple does their work.
But this is the pinnacle of their abilities: a hyper miniaturized, super futuristic, intensely satisfying piece of personal hardware.
First, letâs hit the deltas with the original. They donât look stupid anymore. Look, I loved the original but they looked a little stupid. The stems were too long. We all got used to it and it didnât matter because the hardware was otherwise so convenient and easy to use.
But now the proportions look great. The stems are nicely balanced against the rest of the unit.
Of greater importance, though, is the elimination of seams on the buds. The old model would get fucking nasty, building up gunk in its seams. In the new version, thereâs minimal gap between the white plastic and the black housings for microphones and sensors.
Theyâve moved the indicator light to the front face instead of inside the lid. This is niceâgreat to know at a glance if theyâre done charging.
Now, the new stuff.
Their magic valves are amazing. I donât understand how this works but it does: you put the AirPod in, and then it equalizes pressure so that the rubber cup seals against your ears without trapping air inside uncomfortably. This alone destroys all competition in the rubber-cupped earbud space. Iâve never had anything so reliably comfortable also go in my ear.
The noise cancellation is truly impressive. It just cleans things up so well. John Gruber noted this in his review: you can use them without music to enjoy silence wherever you are. Itâs really nice. If I still worked in open plan offices, I would submit an expense report with these on it and go to the mat for their indispensable value.
Speaking of rubber cups, itâs impressive how they snap into place. You know theyâre seated properly. Itâs a very tactile experience. Feels great, and yet again, just destroys the incumbent rubber cup bullshit gang. Replacements are $4. These also make the buds so much easier to clean compared to the gunk scoops on the last model. Each cup has its own screen to prevent crud entering the speaker chamber it covers.
I love them for music as much as voice calls. I can hear myself clearly despite the rubber cups and my correspondent sounds like theyâre in a quiet room with me.
One gripe: the things are just supposed to die when their battery does? I wish Apple would make the batteries replaceable. Iâm not sure how to make that work against the miniaturization at play, but it seems worth doing. I bought the Apple Care+ for $30 because I know Iâll destroy these batteries inside two years. That will give me a free replacement when it happens, assuming I donât lose them.
Since the iPhone, my read on Apple has been that they create futuristic, science fiction artifacts that you can buy right now. The iPhone 4 was a perfect example, and these AirPods Pro are another. They just seem impossible, but theyâre quite real.
After Cook took over, there was much handwringing about whether heâd be able to ship the sort of detail oriented, aesthetic-defining, delight-inspiring work that put Apple on the map. I think this answers that quite definitively.
My generation canât afford to do things like buy homes and start families. In the United States, birth rates have declined steadily since the last financial crisis.
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And weâre not out of the woods yet. As births hit a thirty year low, economists wonder if this signals yet another recession. As would-be parents lose confidence in their ability to generate the income necessary sustain a family, they logically cut back on their conception plans.
Why is this happening? Why is the economy leaving so many people behind? How can we have so much profit, but so little going to everyday people?
The answers are complex. Finance is a system thatâs almost as complicated as modeling global weather patterns. The shape of todayâs world is dictated by the goals of financiers, political elites, and ultra-rich business leaders. Their incentives are shaped by complex financial instruments, tax codes, and most of all, a deep and gnawing fearâcentral to the lives of every humanâthat no amount of money will ever be enough.
Understanding our place in this system is the only chance we have of healing its sicknesses. But how can we make sense of something with such global complexity?
We need to learn how the economy actually works. Unfortunately, our economics classes didnât offer us nearly enough tools for this job.
Here are some books that can help.
Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century
Have you ever felt that something is wrong about work? Ever get to Sunday evening with a feeling of dread, knowing your week is about to start and youâre not in control of your everyday life? Even with jobs we like, with coworkers we love, work can feel so disempowering and frustrating.
Why?
In Labor and Monopoly Capital, Harry Braverman tries to explain:
The reduction of the worker to the level of an instrument in the production process is by no means exclusively associated with machinery. We must also note the attempt, either in the absence of machinery or in conjunction with individually operated machines, to treat the workers themselves as machines.
Itâs profitable to codify the process of creation as a series of repeatable, scalable, discrete steps. Production is an enormous mechanism, of which workers are individual parts. The more fungible the workers, the more control and flexibility the business has over the production process.
Being a cog in the machine doesnât always feel great. Why do people continue doing it?
First, workers are separated from the means with which production is carried on, and can gain access to them only by selling their labor power to others.
[âŚ]
The worker enters into the employment agreement because social conditions leave him or her no other way to gain a livelihood.
Labor and Monopoly Capital is, in other words, an introduction to class relations, who has power in the workplace, and what goals shape the structure and management of our jobs.
Class awakening
Thereâs a reason I put this book first. The powerful fiction of the American dream discourages us from fully considering class. The deal for Americans is that, with hard work, we should be able to determine our own class. Wherever we are today, we can be somewhere better tomorrow.
Meanwhile, classâthe economic resources we have, the opportunities open to us, and the goals we pursue based on these assetsâis essential to understanding why the world works as it does. To ignore it, or to pretend itâs irrelevant, is to blind ourselves to reality.
Debt shapes the world we live in perhaps more than any other social construct. Debt determines our individual opportunities. Debt creates reins for foreigners to set the paths and policies of entire nations, without ever loading a single gun. It was debt that created the tangle of financial instruments that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
In Debt: The First 5,000 Years, David Graeber explores its past and present.
I could have begun by explaining how these loans had originally been taken out by unelected dictators who placed most of it directly in their Swiss bank accounts, and ask her to contemplate the justice of insisting that the lenders be repaid, not by the dictator, or even by his cronies, but by literally taking food from the mouths of hungry children. Or to think about how many of these poor countries had actually already paid back what theyâd borrowed three or four times now, but that through the miracle of compound interest, it still hadnât made a significant dent in the principal.
Graeberâs perspective is as much critic as anthropologist, and he works to explain the history of debt better than what we were given in school:
In fact, our standard account of monetary history is precisely backwards. We did not begin with barter, discover money, and then eventually develop credit systems. It happened precisely the other way around. What we now call virtual money came first. Coins came much later, and their use spread only unevenly, never completely replacing credit systems.
Economics: The Userâs Guide & 23 Things They Donât Tell You About Capitalism
Both of these are by economist Ha-Joon Chang. They provide a strong foundation for understanding economics, by explaining how broad concepts fit together, and demystifying common issues in current events. I enjoy Changâs style: itâs approachable and compelling, while deeply respectful of the readerâs time and intelligence.
In 23 Things They Donât Tell You About Capitalism, Chang explains the cult of shareholder value, tying its impact back to real events:
Shareholders may be the owners of corporations but, as the most mobile of the âstakeholdersâ, they often care the least about the long-term future of the company
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William Lazonick, the American business economist, estimates that, had GM not spent the $20.4 billion that it did in share buybacks between 1986 and 2002 and put it in the bank (with a 2.5 per cent after-tax annual return), it would have had no problem finding the $35 billion that it needed to stave off bankruptcy in 2009.
Chang is also a critic of the thinking that suggests the âthe marketâ is some natural space, where interference from government regulators does damage to its workings. From Economics: The Userâs Guide:
Once you know that lots of things that cannot be bought and sold todayâââhuman beings (slaves), child labour, government officesâââused to be perfectly marketable, you will stop thinking that the boundary of the âfree marketâ is drawn by some timeless law of science and begin to see that it can be redrawn.
Chang is a believer in capitalism, yet a sharp critic of its irresponsible stewards. In his recap of capitalist industry, he gives appropriate attention to the costs borne by colonized peoples:
There is a long-running debate on whether capitalism could have developed without the colonial resources of the sixteenthâeighteenth centuriesâââprecious metal to be used as money, extra food sources such as potato and sugar and industrial inputs such as cotton.While there is no question that the colonizers greatly benefited from those resources, those countries would probably have developed capitalism even without them. There is no question, however, that colonialism devastated colonized societies.
Principles is a victory lap by hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio. I find a lot to be frustrated by in his analysis of wealth inequality, but I still recommend the book because it reveals much about how the arcane workings of high finance translate to real-world impact.
âŚin economic terms a chicken can be seen as a simple machine consisting of a chick plus its feed. The most volatile cost that the chicken producer needed to worry about was feed prices. I showed Lane how to use a mix of corn and soymeal futures to lock in costs so they could quote a fixed price to McDonaldâs. Having greatly reduced its price risk, McDonaldâs introduced the McNugget in 1983. I felt great about helping make that happen.
Itâs weird to feel pride about creating an unhealthy fast food staple, but I canât help but find the process fascinating. Dalioâs tale is one of systems thinking and automated analysis as a path to wealth.
Principles also shows how wealth creates opportunities to protect yourself from economic downturn, in ways that arenât available or practical to the working and middle classes:
Making a handful of good uncorrelated bets that are balanced and leveraged well is the surest way of having a lot of upside without being exposed to unacceptable downside.
When your resources are limited, so are the bets youâre able to place.
Postcapitalism has an ambitious goal: to describe what comes after capitalism, and to provide an alternative to the looming, ongoing boom and bust crises created by the financial system.
Most compelling about this work is that, while it places its conclusions in rigorous historical and academic context, it has some new conclusions.
While the critics of capitalism have, for a century, clung to the fantasy of its eventual demise, it continues to define our economic reality. Why? Journalist Paul Mason insists itâs because capitalism is an emergent system that adapts to preserve itself:
Kondratieff gave us a way of understanding mutations within capitalism. Left-wing economics had been looking for a process that led only to breakdown. Kondratieff showed how the threat of breakdown usually leads to adaptation and survival.
Intriguingly, it is Masonâs view that information technology is fundamentally incompatible with our existing market premises:
âŚinformation goods are corroding the marketâs ability to form prices correctly. That is because markets are based on scarcity while information is abundant. The systemâs defence mechanism is to form monopolies on a scale not seen in the past 200 yearsâââyet these cannot last.
Tip of the iceberg
Of course, economics is a tradition that spans thousands of years. Six books canât be more than the barest starting point. Still, if youâre anything like me, your economics education in school did little to prepare you for the complex, messy, unequal world we inhabit today. Hopefully these books give you a starting toolset for making sense of the world as it is, and for imagining a more just and equitable world that could be.
