keyboards for touch typists

[ghostjmf]

It occurs to me that the reason the bulk of humanity isn't driven crazy by those itty-bitty flat laptop-etc keyboards is that the bulk of humanity isn't (aren't) demonically fast touch typists (like meeee!) so they could care less about things like distance of keys from each other, weight of keys, nice concave tops to keys that their fingers can fit onto. ("Could care less" is a phrase that means "couldn't care less", if ya don't know.) So those who never actually learned to type, probably many of them in laptop manufacture, are having the revenge on those of us who used to be the Chosen Few. If you type via the "hunt & peck" system, using the index finger of each hand while staring at the keyboard, whaddayoucare.


I have to resign myself to getting a laptop on which I type v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y with those 2 index fingers, or lugging around a big heavy real keyboard, with unnecessary adding-machine keys at the right side, which some tech dept at the place that sells me the laptop will probably take 2 weeks to try to get to hook up to the laptop, after which they'll say "it can't be done". (I actually have a few such keyboards, but they're from pre-laptop days. They probably have essential components different, which is what the store that sells me the laptop will say even if they don't.)


Because trying to really type on that thingie I was typing on this weekend was truly horrifying. I spent more time correcting mistakes than typing. (The Lenovo Specialty was getting the letter "Z" everywhere.)


I'v auditioned a few keyboards that reviewers have raved about, such as the one that comes with the Chromebook or whatever they call it, & they are equally untypeable-on, though they do have some keys for functions that other laptop keyboards lack that users actually need.


It also occurs to me that people who learned how to touch-add on those unnecessary adding-machine keys don't consider them any more unnecessary than I consider a real keyboard for typing English letters.

[tlynn78]

It occurs to me that the reason the bulk of humanity isn't driven crazy by those itty-bitty flat laptop-etc keyboards is that the bulk of humanity isn't (aren't) demonically fast touch typists (like meeee!) so they could care less about things like distance of keys from each other, weight of keys, nice concave tops to keys that their fingers can fit onto. ("Could care less" is a phrase that means "couldn't care less", if ya don't know.) So those who never actually learned to type, probably many of them in laptop manufacture, are having the revenge on those of us who used to be the Chosen Few. If you type via the "hunt & peck" system, using the index finger of each hand while staring at the keyboard, whaddayoucare.


I have to resign myself to getting a laptop on which I type v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y with those 2 index fingers, or lugging around a big heavy real keyboard, with unnecessary adding-machine keys at the right side, which some tech dept at the place that sells me the laptop will probably take 2 weeks to try to get to hook up to the laptop, after which they'll say "it can't be done". (I actually have a few such keyboards, but they're from pre-laptop days. They probably have essential components different, which is what the store that sells me the laptop will say even if they don't.)


Because trying to really type on that thingie I was typing on this weekend was truly horrifying. I spent more time correcting mistakes than typing. (The Lenovo Specialty was getting the letter "Z" everywhere.)


I'v auditioned a few keyboards that reviewers have raved about, such as the one that comes with the Chromebook or whatever they call it, & they are equally untypeable-on, though they do have some keys for functions that other laptop keyboards lack that users actually need.


It also occurs to me that people who learned how to touch-add on those unnecessary adding-machine keys don't consider them any more unnecessary than I consider a real keyboard for typing English letters.

I gave up and simply attach via USB an ergo keyboard to my laptop when I have a lot of typing to do at home.

[TheCalvinator24]

I hate not having a number keypad on my laptop.

[SportsFan68]

Not so much now, but when I was working, I used my number keypad all the time.

Also, until we got the little automatic scorers, where a BridgeMate at each table transmits directly to the club computer, it came in really handy for inputting the scores off the scoring slips.

In neither case was it a laptop, though. So these remarks don't apply to the current topic.

[macrae1234]

If you type via the "hunt & peck" system, using the index finger of each hand while staring at the keyboard, whaddayoucare.

Guilty as charged while the Mrs rolls along at about 80-90 words a minute. My mother used to type 80 words a minute on the old manual style before the selectric from IBM came out. She had strong fingers LOL.

[ghostjmf]

tlynn78 says:

I gave up and simply attach via USB an ergo keyboard to my laptop when I have a lot of typing to do at home.

That's what I'm going to have to do.

I'm beginning to think, or it appears already "definitely think" that the worst offence of itty-bitty keyboards is not the lack of concave key-tops but the distance, or lack of it, between keys. However I can't audition laptops/notebooks for their keyboards only. I'm still dancing around on "do I want Google products' 2 or 3 years of free 3-G" (it has WiFi too) with "do I want Microsoft's Surface products' free Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel & Word", & deal with the fact that it only connects to the web via WiFi.

Problem, for me, with laptops with only WiFi possibilities is that it may be that a lot of them piggyback on "the Wifi you have for your other computer", whereas I don't have an "other computer", nor plans to get & pay for seperate Wifi, so the WiFi really has to come built in. And 3G connections may expect you to have a 3G phone you can piggyback on. And I don't trust store clerks, like the one at Best Buy who told me the Google Chromebook (or whatever it is) didn't have a USB port when we were clearly both looking at it.


I'm wondering if those "project a keyboard onto any flat surface" connections let you fiddle with the
space-between-keys on their projection. More technical reading ahead.

[tlynn78]

I'm wondering if those "project a keyboard onto any flat surface" connections let you fiddle with the space-between-keys on their projection. More technical reading ahead.

I wondered about those, too.

[Bob Juch]

tlynn78 says:

I gave up and simply attach via USB an ergo keyboard to my laptop when I have a lot of typing to do at home.

That's what I'm going to have to do.

I'm beginning to think, or it appears already "definitely think" that the worst offence of itty-bitty keyboards is not the lack of concave key-tops but the distance, or lack of it, between keys. However I can't audition laptops/notebooks for their keyboards only. I'm still dancing around on "do I want Google products' 2 or 3 years of free 3-G" (it has WiFi too) with "do I want Microsoft's Surface products' free Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel & Word", & deal with the fact that it only connects to the web via WiFi.

Problem, for me, with laptops with only WiFi possibilities is that it may be that a lot of them piggyback on "the Wifi you have for your other computer", whereas I don't have an "other computer", nor plans to get & pay for seperate Wifi, so the WiFi really has to come built in. And 3G connections may expect you to have a 3G phone you can piggyback on. And I don't trust store clerks, like the one at Best Buy who told me the Google Chromebook (or whatever it is) didn't have a USB port when we were clearly both looking at it.


I'm wondering if those "project a keyboard onto any flat surface" connections let you fiddle with the
space-between-keys on their projection. More technical reading ahead.

I use my 4G LTE phone as a hotspot when I need to connect my tablet when there's no other WiFi available.

[ghostjmf]

BJ says:

I use my 4G LTE phone as a hotspot when I need to connect my tablet when there's no other WiFi available.

That's what I mean; I don't have a 4G phone. It's not like I'm morally opposed to them or anything; I just can't afford one at the moment. Or probably anytime in the near future. I have a 3G pay-as-you-go phone for which T-Mobile no longer offers the "pay only when you want it" 3G service to connect to the internet I used to get for $1.49/day, only when I wanted it. Gee, thanks, T-Mobile. (It no longer offers $30/month as a base price for internet-connection phones, either; it only has the $50/month & up service. I know I can get cheaper service from other networks, but those are other networks with even worse coverage than T-Mobile, which is not Verizon, unfortunately.)


So that makes the Google notebook/tablet/whatever attractive even though it doesn't run Microsoft products at all, let alone give them to you free (let's leave alone for now the "ways to make them run this stuff if you've bought it", as I'm sure there are ways out there). It offers I believe free 3G for a couple years. So you only pay once, for the notebook/tablet/whatever, not monthly.

[jarnon]

Here's a keyboard ghostjmf would love:



www.usbtypewriter.com

[ghostjmf]

fairly funny.


Not so portable.


About the connections:


I saw "Back to the Future" at a library-lawn movie showing last Friday night.


Never had seen it before.

Among many anomalies we won't discuss, like time-travel or sloppy handling of plutonium, I was bothered by the plugging of the '85 videocamera into the '55 TV. I'd guess it went in through antenna slot, but antennae were screwed on on such sets (so there *were* no antenna slots!). Never had a videocam, but am reasonably sure, because did & do have VCRs w/ slot for videocam, that they're meant to connect via modular plug.


Remember when phones were hard-wired? Remember phones?

[Jeemie]

If you type via the "hunt & peck" system, using the index finger of each hand while staring at the keyboard, whaddayoucare.

Guilty as charged while the Mrs rolls along at about 80-90 words a minute. My mother used to type 80 words a minute on the old manual style before the selectric from IBM came out. She had strong fingers LOL.

I can type 80-90 wpm using the hunt and peck method.

Oftentimes I don't even have to look at the keyboard...although I have to do spot corrections when I do that.

[Jeemie]

Here's a keyboard ghostjmf would love:



http://www.usbtypewriter.com

[ghostjmf]

Yeah, I know they could have clamped the lead from the cam onto the antenna & maybe got it to work that way, but I didn't see any darn clamps in the movie.


Plus I could swear at the end of movie I could see Doc pouring cans of pop into the flux capacitor ( the time travel drive). Maybe its plutonium.

[ghostjmf]

Ooh; "movie error sites" point out that the audio from the camera would not have worked on the '55 TV w/o having been seperately connected to the TV's audio circuits. The camcorder's audio output would not have been compatible w/ what the TV expected. And because the cam had a viewfinder playback, hooking up to TV wasn't necessary, except for movie purpose of having a bigger picture.

[earendel]

Plus I could swear at the end of movie I could see Doc pouring cans of pop into the flux capacitor ( the time travel drive). Maybe its plutonium.

You did. In the future Doc Brown added a "Mr. Fusion" converter to the DeLorean, so he could use anything for fuel. Not only beer (not soda), but banana peels and anythinig else.