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AOL Joins The Hardware Marketeers
Compaq and Dell are among the PC manufacturers who already ship PCs with similar "direct contact" buttons, a calculated bet that convenience and ubiquity are going to beat due diligence on the part of consumers. Embedding a URL in hardware will certainly make alternatives (no matter how easy) just a tad less convenient than the built-in link. I wonder how the linked AOL addresses are embedded in the keyboard, and whether they're alterable. Even if they're not, would it be difficult to set up a layer which "listened" to your keyboard and performed on-the-fly translation when you hit one of those buttons?
At least one of those keys is straightforwardly user-programmable: as the article says, "[D]on't worry; there is one key, with the infantilizing name "My Key," that lets you create a link to any site on the Web." Wow -- users get one key.
AOL may change their mind about shipping these to anyone willing to fork over a few dollars for shipping. For the novelty value, or even for a one-programmable-button keyboard, less than $10 may replace a lot of coffee-ruined keyboards. Then again, the production of AOL come-on CDs doesn't seem to have waned. (But if there's a practical way to hack the pre-set presets, dollars-ta-donuts they pull the deal faster than you can say "Netpliance.")
Be grateful they haven't gotten to "direct-Internet-link" buttons on mice. Yet.
this is just another step in the automation of idiocy.
As are computers in general. Just read most any comment posted here.
People who use AOL, and most of the rest of 'em too, just don't want to do shit. Congratulations to AOL for marketing this.
You're right. Everyone should be forced to wade through as sea of configuration files, man pages, chat scripts, incompatible PPP versions, etc. just to get online. Did you build the house you live in? Maybe you were to lazy to do it the old fashioned way and do it by yourself? Congratulations to the real estate agent for marketing it.
We're approaching a world where everything is automated for ease of use
It's called 'progress'. Perhaps we should go back to steam power? Horse power? When your argument is taken to it's logical conclusion, we should be back in caves, fighting mammoths with our bare hands and eating trees.
College graduates can then sit on their asses and buy computers that do their laundry, their dishes, and jack them off...all at the same
time.
Gee...it was probably college graduates who designed said machines. Or did the computers invent themselves? Please explain.
The cool part is that all the dickheads who have BA's in Business Administration (read: "Well, no, Mr. Prospective Employer, I don't know any *nix or networking but i'd like to be a system administrator!") get to do nothing while the REAL geeks of the world get to do all the work.
Translation: despite the booming economy, no one will hire me. As a result, I resent anyone with a job. Pity me, please.
You obviously have some sort of issue with the advancement of technology. It was luddites like yourself who tried to destroy the Industrial Revolution one machine at a time. But they failed just as surely as you will. AOL has a product. They offer it for sale. People want it. They take money and buy it. They don't buy it because they are stupid, but because it makes sense. You see, it in a society like ours, innovation is encouraged. Remember all the fuss about patents? AOL selling these keyboards is along the same lines. It's called capitalism, and it works much better than any other system. In fact, the only moral option that AOL has it to sell these keyboards: doing so creates capital, which is the highest persuit a man can engage in. Think about it sometime. I mean really think, too, not just repeat the mantras you've been instilled with by the state-run education system. You might be surprised at the result.
Tell me again how this is different from the current version of emacs? :)
Model M is nice for a PS2 keyboard, but it's only half a loaf. There's one sitting on my lap as I type--the tech guy finally 'fessed up to having a real keyboard when the malfunctiong keys on the annoying gateway keys got up to 3 . . .
:(
But at home, I have genuine AT keyboars, with the control key where God meant it to be, and the 10 (not that new-fangled 12) function keys to the left, where I can reach them while typing.
I don't know what I'm going to do when I get a motherboard that won't take the old keyboards
You do need a replacement keyboard for your i-opener, don't you?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
What's wrong with convenience? If 14 million households have AOL accounts, why should they have to custom-program "email" "web" and "weather" keys on their keyboard, or go through menus to get to the 3 or 4 things they use their computers for 95% of the time?
What a bunch of babies y'all are. Is ease-of-use really so horrible? Why not just crawl under a rock and go back to flipping a panel of toggle switches to enter data like you had to on the Altair?
Anyone near Seattle who wants cheap computer parts should visit the Boeing surplus store. They usually have rolling bins with about 2 cubic meters of assorted keyboards, for $4-5 each. If you know what you're looking for, the "assorted circuit boards" bin can be a great resource too, I got enough 10-base-T NICs to set up a home network for about $5 each, and a Dell pentium-75 (now a firewall) for less than $50. You too can be the envy of your friends with a modem and telephone labeled "not for use with Classified data"
0 1 - just my two bits
The "Windows" keys on the bottom row of keys on most modern keyboards aren't what I technically call "hot keys." Now, what this company wants with its one key access to certain web sites and certain AOL-specific functions is definitely a hot key. In a way, the Internet keyboards function in a similar manner.
I still like the MS Natural Elite keyboard because after using the keyboard for a few months, using another keyboard is very uncomfortable and feels cramped.
(BTW, what I find ironic about the the Linux crowd is that while they have a dislike for Microsoft software, they do admire Microsoft mouse pointers and keyboards.)
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
What I find ironic about your statement is that while a most Linux users rant on and on about Microsoft software, many of them actually have lots of praise for Microsoft keyboards and mouse pointers.
You'd be surprised how many people use the MS Natural Elite keyboard; it's shape--while it does get some getting used to--is surprisingly comfortable and going back to a normal keyboard results in a cramped feeling. By the way, the "Windows keys" are actually useful for many of the "themes" in KDE and Gnome GUI desktops. And of course, the current Microsoft Intellimouse and Intellimouse Explorer are very popular, mostly because of the shape that fits your right hand very well (it should be noted that Linux programmers know how to take full advantage of the Intellimouse Explorer's features).
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
Personally, I _hate_ the concept of a computer keyboard with pre-programmed hot keys. All that does is direct traffic to certain sites instead of other sites. I've seen it on my stepfather's e-Machines 466 MHz Celeron machine and it smacks of advertising overkill.
I'd rather get a keyboard that emphasizes comfort--like the Microsoft Natural Elite keyboard (no hot keys around!).
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
Heh. What you want is one of the old-school IBM PS/n keyboards. No OS-specific keys, tactile feedback you can feel and *hear*, and a built-like-a-tank construction you just don't see in computer hardware anymore. This thing weighs like ten pounds. It eats other keyboards for breakfast };-)
And as for the Ctrl key thing, hey, nothing a couple of self-adhesive stickers and xmodmap can't fix . . .
iSKUNK!
_______
2B1ASK1
The Jon Katz keyboard: It has fourteen-thousand letters, yet nobody ever gets past the first thirty...
And it's got a direct-link button just like the AOL keyboard; it automatically sends preset flamemail to Jon Katz. Comes in very handy when you're in a hurry.
--
RumorsDaily
I'm scared by this
Really, you think this is scary? Why? No one is going to force you to press the button... There are tons of keyboard manufacturers out there.
Sorry, I don't think I'll be seeing this after eating too much sardeen and olive pizza and falling asleep.
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Goodwill has a store in Pittsburgh, too. It's much the same as the one you described. Pity they weren't willing to part with the Commodore PET, VIC-20, and Apple IIe on display. :)
For more information, click here.
I'm surprised nobody has pointed this out before. The keyboard isn't free per se; you still have to pay $7.95 shipping and handling. If you look around at thrift stores and the bargain racks in computer stores, you can find 101- or 104-key keyboards for less than that, without advertising built in.
Besides, the true geek either uses an IBM buckling-spring keyboard (raises hand) or some funky ultra-ergonomic dealie.
For more information, click here.
i have a 105 key logitech internet keyboard with 17 extra internet keys (for a grand total of 122 keys (= ) and i couldnt figure out what to do with the extra keys in linux (in windoze it used the logitech software drivers in order to work)
/)
then i found the scan codes for the extra keys and now in linux a row of internet keys are used to switch to consoles 1-6 (havent figure out what to do with the other 11 internet keys)
anyhow, it seems the keys work through some kind of software in windows, in *nix, we can figure out the keyboard scancode and use these extra keys on the keyboard for other purposes (such as rm -rf
p.s. is extrans (html tags to text) not working?
_______________________________________________
There is no statute of limitation on stupidity.
At the risk of giving away a not-at-all-secret source;), I'd like to suggest to anyone who does crave a nice IBM buckling-spring behemoth and is anywhere near Austin, TX to visit the Goodwill computer store on Research Blvd -- near the Dell Factory outlet, too, so you can get a Dell Precision(tm) WorkStation to go with the good keyboard, and only wish it would have as long a useful life.
...
I've purchased several keyboards there, all of the heavy, clicky, substantial variety. They tend to have quite a few 'ergonomic' split-halves variety, though exactly how ergonomic these are I leave for others to decide, since I don't really like them. And plenty of run-o-the-mill cheapies, too, but some people like that chicklet feel, I think. Anyway, lots of people don't care.
Among the keyboards I've purchased there are two IBMs 'retired' from govt. service at a) NASA and b) some other agency, I forget which. The stock is pretty fluid, though -- you get what you get, and the nicer ones are understandably more than the cheapies.
(Two more bonuses: 1) There's a mini computer 'museum' as you enter with some interesting hardware. For anyone who's only read about a Lisa here on Slashdot and knows Ronald Reagan only from Saturday Night Live re-runs, this is one place you can see one running. 2) Many of the PCs / Macs sold at the store are running Linux -- mostly or all Debian, I think.)
Well, that's a ramble, but I hope someone liked it. I'm sure Goodwill would be happy to be slashdotted with your donations of obsolete (to you) equipment
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
The keyboard I am typing on is useless. It has a resonable amount of tactile feedback, but more would be nice. The thing that really bothers me is the keys. Control is in the lower left corner. Wrong place. No, I will not get a Sun keyboard. Read on to find out why. This keyboard has a bunch of useless crap keys, namely F1-F12, Insert, Delete, Home, End, PgUp, PgDown, Num lock, caps lock, scroll lock, print screen, pause/break and most of all the win95 keys. The windows keys piss me off more than anything. Because Microsoft wanted some ego reinforcement, they have effectively guarenteed that it is impossible for the average consumer to find a resonably priced keyboard without four useless keys with their logos on them. I mean useless literally. Come on, two keys pull down the start menu and one pulls down a contextual menu (we already have the right mouse button to do just that, but I don't see a button to left-click). All of these keys are just legacy crap taking space on my keyboard and making it heavy and ugly. Give me something slick like the Happy Hacking keyboard. The Hacking keyboard is the keyboard of my dreams, EXCEPT it does not have physical arrow keys. For using a shell, editing in a console editor, or gaming, these 4 keys are essensial. It's really too bad - they got everything else right.
Look for a rant on mice coming soon. :-)
I wouldn't think that the URL would be determined by the keyboard... they simply send a keycode to the computer which does what it needs to do to handle that. Just as my Win95 key [ :( ] is bound to Compose on my current X setup, these AOL keys could probably be bound to anything on software, and on Linux it wouldn't even be a hack.
If this is a true aol keyboard, there must be no option to turn off the caps lock.
-Reid
He didn't say anything about Linux. You know, even AOLers have a right to privacy.
--
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
Ceterum censeo Microsoftam esse delendam.
I wonder what such a key costs? Maybe we could all chip in and buy one with a cute penguin .... press it and some time after midnight when you're not looking it wipes out the M$ crap and pulls a Linux distro in in its place :-)
This is the Age of Microsoft. Hardware vendors HAVE to write their own OS drivers. Ibm could have easily added a routine to their M92G ActiveKeyboard Driver to 'accidentally' redirect me to their site every 100 presses of the 'Internet' button.
What's to say that the PROM/KBC imbedded in their keyboard is actually returning in-range scan codes for those 'AOL keys'?? It would be a plus for them if they could do it otherwise!!
.sig: Now legally binding!
1. Run msconfig.exe from start, run (alternatively, accessories | system tools | system information, tools | system configuration)
2. Under the "startup" tab, look for the program and uncheck it. It should be called "CPQEASYACC".
3. Create a shortcut to the program in case you want to use it later.
4. Uncheck the box next to "CPQEASYACC" in msconfig.
Similar methods might be necessary for computers sold with AOL keyboards or computers sold by other manufacturers; I've only tried Compaq.
--
The shareholder is always right.
Since Warner Brothers invented the web, it seems only fitting and proper that their URLs take the place of the keyboard.
They gave you your own key and look at the ingratitude it bought them! I bet they'll be so wimpy as to leave you with your "My Key", and maybe even add a few -- one for each member of the family. And you, embolden by their capitulation in the face of your ruthless greed, you will continue pounding nails through their innocent hands with your hate speech.
Seastead this.
One button for /. site, one for Blue's News, etc. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Scared by a keyboard, now there's something you don't see everyday.
Of course, if this was a Linux keyboard with seventeen such keys which range from recompiling your kernel incorrectly, to popping up echoed "M$ suckz" ego boosting messages, it would be deemed "very neat" by the Slashdot Editorial crew
would it be difficult to set up a layer which "listened" to your keyboard and performed on-the-fly translation when you hit one of those buttons?
It probably IS just a software driver that handles the URLs because all a keyboard transmits is a scancode. This scancode is translated to an appriate character code by the operating system. The translation layer would be in the form of a driver (guess which operating system its for). As a result, it'll probably be fairly easy to hack up.
Because of the way the keyboard 'protocol' (if you want to call it that) works, there is no real way to transmit a true URL from the keyboard, except by having it transmit the actual scancodes for the characters that make up the URL, but that wouldn't allow you to run a program from that button. It would allow to type that URL into a word processor pretty quickly though.
RocketBoard's website isn't helpful; it looks like you can't get the keyboard yet. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if you needed drivers for it. Even Microsoft's new keyboards need drivers for any extra button functionality beyond volume and suspend.
"The best way to do mathematics is to be creatively lazy." -I. M. Isaacs
From http://www.rocketboard.com/legal/priv acy.html:
When you install your RocketBoard driver software, you will be assigned a unique global user identification number (GUID). This number along with your IP address is used to help dentify you and your browsing habits and to gather broad demographic information.
Since they are using a GUID, they will know exactly who you are and everything you look at in their network. No doubt they will be providing your name, address, phone number, etc to any of their advertisers whose pages you visit.
this is just another step in the automation of idiocy. People who use AOL, and most of the rest of 'em too, just don't want to do shit. Congratulations to AOL for marketing this. We're approaching a world where everything is automated for ease of use - College graduates can then sit on their asses and buy computers that do their laundry, their dishes, and jack them off...all at the same time. The cool part is that all the dickheads who have BA's in Business Administration (read: "Well, no, Mr. Prospective Employer, I don't know any *nix or networking but i'd like to be a system administrator!") get to do nothing while the REAL geeks of the world get to do all the work.
Thank you AOL...my life is complete! oh...i'm sorry, sir, would you like fries with that?
-FluX
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"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
I wonder if it comes with an AOL 5.0 recovery key (Format c: /s /u)...
It's not like it is surprising or anything. We've known for quite some time that they intend to make boxes that do nothing except run AOL- this is just the logical predecessor to that box and it's cousins. AOL gets a little practice in distribution and organization for very little skin off their back.
Besides, this isn't really a big threat. It's not like AOL can control HW makers in the same way MS does, especially once they start competing. What should be scary is their newfound control (via TimeWarner) of content. I can always get a box from VA or office depot or any of about a zillion online sites, and I'll be able to get them without AOL keyboards. I won't be able to get whole bunches of movies that the Turner Networks own with that box, though. I may not be able to read Time. And don't forget those NBA contracts... think espn.com might get shutout of the loop anytime soon? That is the kind of domination that has been staring us in the face for months, and that is what we ought to be scared of.
~luge
IAAL,BIANLY
It seems like it shouldn't be too hard to watch the keycodes that are flying around and system() something when the button press is detected. A program like this would make this and other keyboards' extra buttons somewhat useful (volume control/mute would pro'ly be the best)
The slashdot keyboard...it has /., freshmeat, jennicam and userfriendly
* 4 hot keys for favorite sites, defaults to
* a "submit story" button
* a "first post" button (ac version only)
* a "first post" button (ac version only)
* an lcd karma counter (login version only)
B. coming soon to an e-tailer near you....only $59.95 (or 3 shares of ANDN)
-mark
-mark
If your computer says LINUX, run...computers can't talk! [unless you have text-speech software]
But AOL is the point-of-entry for many people into the net -- come on, even I started out as a brain-dead AOLer for a month or so. AOL is the Ellis Island, the NYC of (often computing and) the Internet. As such, people will buy the keyboard, get lock-in syndrome, and THE ASSIMILATION WILL STOP, which is the importantly sad thing. AOLers are meant to move on, to grow from AOL into mature ISP users. The AOL keyboard would keep them in the womb.
And children don't know any better than to buy what the womb tells them to.
Ceterum censeo Microsoftam esse delendam.
How on earth do you reach the conclusion that a culture that paints on the walls of caves is nonverbal?
I'm not sure I can agree with the assertion that having more and different keys is going to lead to the downfall of civilization. I don't think a couple extra keys on a keyboard could be held accountable for that. Face it, it's not a bad thing. The difference between having a button on the keyboard that loads AOL and an icon on your screen that loads AOL is nil. They both allow a user to open an application by clicking on it. This kind of rant reminds me of my grandfather, who always seemed to have it better in the good ol' days: "sure we had to walk to school, barefoot, through 12 feet of snow in the winter...but we liked it. Now a days you kids have it too easy with your modern school buses and your automobiles."
What's the difference between pressing a key to take you to AOL (or your choice) and having it come up as a homepage? Or, what's the difference between typing in a URL and pointing and clicking it from your bookmarks? Your assertion that it would be useful to have keys for bold, italics, underline etc., doesn't seem to be different in kind from having a key for an internet application.
As far as people limiting their vocabularies to what they can "immediately see." Sounds interesting on first reading, but is it fair to suggest this is what happens? Where does discourse revolving around emotions fit into this model? How about two cavemen agreeing to meet at the hunting grounds the next day? Even such a simple conversation is not limited directly to what they see around them. It involves recognition of man's relation to both spatial and temporal elements.
Perhaps it is more a reflection of the communities you associate with that leads you to see this in people (or conversely, perhaps it's a reflection of the people I associate with that I don't see this). As a rule I think people use language to represent a spectrum of experience far greater than what they simply see around them. Consider the difference between your hypothetical troglodyte pointing at a deer and saying "food" and a level of discourse that is limited simply what people see around them. The recognition of deer as food represents a level of symbolic manipulation that we often overlook: the furry animal is not merely a creature, but a potential dinner. Certainly the discourse is related to what he sees around him, but it is not limited to that, as it refers to internal stimuli (hunger, conceptual recognition that the object can be manipulated) and external stimuli (deer as object). Even if your caveman just points to the deer and says "deer," we still have a rather complex manipulation of symbols going on (on the verbal-language level).
It's a mistake to assume that oral cultures and/or oral people are stupid/suffering because they don't have an extensive (or any) written discourse. The same holds true for iconic discourse. "Do you have any idea how many pictures it would take to have a decent conversation now days?" No. But efficiency is a different issue. If you want to talk about efficiency, do you have any ideas how many words it would take for Michelangelo to describe the images portrayed on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel? I don't think the issue is so much about one method of communication being inherently better than another one, so much as it is a question of difference. It is easy to broadly conflate the issues of quality and difference. History is replete with examples of this as Western cultures came into contact with other cultures.
So, if you don't want a keyboard that will take you to the web page of your choice at the click of a button, fine. But don't assume that your decision not to use that option makes you inherently better than someone who does want/use it.
Thanks, AC, for the food for thought!
synesthesia
Isn't it just sad when M$ decides that the difference betwixt a "Pro" and an "Amateur" is 17 "hot keys"...if i buy one of these Internet Keyboard Pro's do i get to be involved in some sort of corporate sponsorship program?
The following is courtesy of ESPN-3, or "The Thrice"
"Hi, my name is FluX. I surf for microsoft!"
angle shot of a keyboard with 17 (count 'em) hot keys, adorned with various manufacturing stickers including a Microsoft logo and a felt patch from "Tommy's Burrito Shack"
cut to shot of FluX surfing Antionline.com
Annoyingly southern-californian anouncer: "Woah bro! Did you see that McDoubleClick...flawless execution."
cut shot of FluX bitch slapping the announcer with his Internet Keyboard Pro (void in Utah, Nevada, and where prohibited).
-FluX
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Your Ad Here!
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"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
What's different here are the 18 colorful keys lining the top of the keyboard, most of which have generic subject names like "travel" or "auction."
Eighteen control keys is good news. It means that at last we can have really useful Emacs keyboards.
"To spell-check, just hit Auctions-Travel-Q. If you want to spell check against a French dictionary, use Music-Auctions-Travel-Q instead."
Note: I am only partly joking.