Slashdot Mirror
Not A Bat, Nor A Plane, But A Vertical Keyboard
A reader who chose anonymity writes: "As usual ZZZ online was updated this Sunday. Nevertheless the issue number 67 contains quite unusual info about vertical keyboard. It is made by splitting normal keyboard into two parts and and rotating them by 90 degrees. The human imagination has no limits, vertical keyboard looks really weird." It also looks much comfier than most flat ones. Maybe that would make me learn to truly touch type, as well?
A reader who chose anonymity writes . . .
Are we seeing a new era of respect and tolerance for anonymous cowards on Slashdot? Or was this guy just named "A reader who chose anonymity"?
I have one of those split-keyboards which raise up a fair angle, but there's one major drawback that comes up when I use it - mouse control.
Although most of my machine usage is within a shell and using vi as an editor, but on some occasions, I find I need to take one of my hands away from the keyboard to make use of the mouse.
What would be truly cool would be some mouse control on the ergonomic keyboard. That would be handy - bridging these two worlds.
I donate all spillover Karma to the charity of my choice... Ada was still a babe despite what people may say...
some raised charatcters on the key caps? I really want to know. A keyboard alternative like this brings up a few ideas like a curved forward keyboard ala the m$ one but with more curvature forward and vertically. Not to the extreme we see here where its perpendicular to the workspace. I think more in the range of 60 degrees up and 40 degrees forward (adjustable would be nice so while I'm dreaming...). The tactile sensation of the finger tip could easily recognize the shapes after a few uses. I worked on a CAD system for a few weeks in '86 (i cannot remember the name possibly microcadam) that used a breakout keybord to input commands that lit up when they commands were active and had recognizable shapes on the keycaps. It made using the system very easy to learn.Why don't these newfangled keyboard designers use the raised symbol/character idea and build us a real keyboard that everyone could learn to touch type with?
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
This thing was invented at least ten years ago. It didn't end up in volume production at least partially because the guy who patented it wanted it built in the USA only.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
>What I want from a mouse is for it to not require me to take my hands from the keyboard, and I don't mean a touchpad.
I've seen the alternative.j Trust me, it SUCKED.
It was on a 486 Zenith laptop. They made the J key a J key _and_ a pointing device. Tap it and it makes a letter. Wiggle jand smush it and it moves the mouse. Tap another key j(or something like that) along with it and it "clicked". Ugggh...
I found it It hard to control, and it occasionally made udiciously placed mistakes. What a oke. jjj
Maybe there are better ideas. I'd like to see jthem...
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
This keyboard looks a little like a chair to me. Sit on it and operate the keyboard(s) on either side of the butt. Next step, sit the keyboard on top of a tower-format PC. Use LCD-head-up display instead of a CRT monitor. Lower a cardboard container around yourself. Hey presto, you're in the ultimate cubicle. Fit 20 software engineers in the area normally needed for one! Hell, why not stack'em too?
And when the dot.com crashes the Boss can just open the garage door & push them out on the street.
Remember, you read it here first.
Regards, Ralph.
Don't accordian players already enjoy far too much of an unfair advantage in the struggle for world domination as it is?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
...and that goes double for accordion players!
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Hmm. Maybe they were appealling to the mass market rather than to the perfectionist properly taught typists.
Personally I've never been taught to type, I find that the 'b' key is on the wrong side of the MS split keyboards for how I type, but (and I just checked this) the '6' key is on the correct side for me.
Then again, I can only touch-type with 100% accuracy at 80wpm, so I'm not exactly an expert. Anybody that can do 100+ care to comment?
~Cederic
ps: I have no idea whether it's appealling or appealing. But one l looks better.
seing several vertical split keyboards over the years.. the most notable one being adjustable, so you could set any angle from a flat normal keyboard to pretty much 90 degrees vertical.
It also had some small, rounded but hard (plastic) wrist rests.. but they were designed to keep the forearm (just behind the wrist) supported off the table, so you didn't get guerilla-arm syndrome from typing on the vertical pad.
I know that 2 usb mice can be used at the same time, is that also the case with 2 usb keyboards, just tilt them up, one to each side, which would jut right in front of my keyboard... nevermind.
"If IE is 'just a web browser' then emacs is 'just a text editor'."
Yes, it's odd, but this is really not that newsworthy a story.
/. And I'm a part of the group that this would supposedly be "great news" to.
As someone with carpal tunnel, I'd say it's great that it might someday exist in a usable form, but nobody is going to take this on.
Carpal tunnel damage occurs as the tendons scrape the walls of the carpal tunnel from repeated motion (i.e., typing). The vertical keyboard would, theoretically, have your hands resting in a way that your wrists would not need to flex, thereby avoiding the damage.
However, I'd bet that if there's _ANY_ flexing on the vertical axis, lifting your hand sideways will be _MORE_ stressful, just from the extra bit of resistance provided by gravity.
Anyway, this story is still not worthy of
-k.
Just another example of people copying from Apple. Apple had a split keyboard prototype at least 4 years ago.
When I want to explain ergo keyboards to people, I ask them to hold their hands out in front of them at chest height. Go ahead and do it. Now look at your hands: your hand will be in a straight line with your arm, and your hands will be slightly angled. It isn't natural or really comfortable to bend your wrists at the precise angle needed to line up your fingers in a flat row for a normal flat keyboard.
Now look at a Microsoft Natural Keyboard. The angling of the keys allows your hands to be in more of a straight line with your arms. The bulge in the middle more closely matches the slight angle you want to hold your hands at. It helps.
The Microsoft Natural Keyboard is nowhere near as extreme as other ergo keyboards I have seen, but in my experience it makes a big difference. Once I strained my neck muscles, and typing on a flat keyboard became very painful if I did it for more than an hour or so. Since I was programming for 10 hours a day I had a problem. I tried the Microsoft Natural Keyboard and I was able to type on it all day, even with the strained muscles. I very much doubt that this new keyboard would have helped me.
P.S. Of course I could be wrong. If you naturally hold your hands out angled and rotated in such a way that your fingers are in a flat row, congratulations! You are perfectly evolved for non-ergo keyboards!
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
...is for it to not restrict me just because I have two hands.
_Mice_ really need to be revamped. What I want from a mouse is for it to not require me to take my hands from the keyboard, and I don't mean a touchpad.
Perhaps a mouse not used by the hands would be good. What kind of alternatives can be thought up? I've read about a setup that follows eye-blinks and eye-movement, but it was used for somebody that is permanently bedridden (but they could type with it too, and wrote a book or two).
Maybe some kind of under-desk light sensor, with a knee-pad, so that you wobble your knee around to move the cursor would be usable...actually, wouldn't that be annoying?!
I don't know. I want something better than a mouse, what can you come up with?
-k.
Heck, just shell out the few extra bucks and get a natural kb. I've got the Trust natural Kb (not sure if they still make it), and it's the best kb I've ever had. Absolutely love it.
The vertical keyboard can't be bought anywhere, it has never gone out of the lab.
Crap. Why, in fact, did this ever make it here as an article? Look what I just found.
http://www.typesafe.com/.If it's not available, why does NASA recommend it?
--
--
Wait a minute, this sounds like rock and/or roll. - Rev. Lovejoy
Are you sure that's a keyboard and not a couch?
BH
Fools! They laughed at me at the Sorbonne...!
Actually the "6" key is on the right side of the keyboard for the split. That's how I was taught to type at least. But then again, I can only type 75 wpm with 95% accuracy. To the above poster, the B key on my lovely Adesso ergo keyboard is on the left side, just where I like it.
cheese logs keep my wang warm at night.
...is a split keyboard so I can put one piece each of the arm rests on a big comfy chair, so I could lean back and get some distance from the monitors and rest my arms so I wouldn't have to worry about any wrist-problems. Anyone know where to get one? --- I work with my computer, I eat with my computer, I sleep with my computer... No, wait.. ---
________
Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?
Definitely looks strange. I wonder how they'd stack up to a split keyboard on the ergonomic scale... looks like it could potentially be good, if the comfort level increases with practice.
Gordon S. McLeod October's Fools
I have thought about this as well, but I would like to have the keyboard on my belly, and I would lie down on a dentist chair or a sofa (tapping my belly as if I had just had a great dinner). Instead of a monitor I would use a video projector aimed at the ceiling! Lying on a sofa or dentist chair (forgetting the dentist, of course) is way more comfortable for my back&shoulders than sitting in a usual bureau chair and I guess it is also way healthier for my eyes, to have the screen 2m above me instead of at 30cm or so in front. And I am not a gamer (except for chess), but playing action games with 3D effects would be life sized in this way, much more impressive than confined in 15inch box...
It's cool, you rest your head between the halves of the keyboard and doze off while keeping the hands on the keyboard to look like you are typing.
But, seriously, don't you think a keyboard that felt like a pair of tits would sell better among the male geeks ?
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
...to spot the boss approaching when playing Quake! Saves spending money on one of those little things they sell over at ThinkGeek...
-- Mike
...specifically, a chord of about 8 inches diameter cut from a sphere of about 2 feet diameter. You could wear it on your chest and look like Tarzan beating your chest as you type -- but I think it would be pretty comfortable to use. The slowpokes could look down and see the keys, too.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
Hello! This file is hosted by Tripod, a Lycos Network site, providing the best personal and commercial publishing tools available on the Net. For premier homepages and lively community interaction, visit Tripod often.
Please click on http://members.tripod.com/laffs/images/keyboard.jp g to load this file."
Clicking that takes you to exactly the same place. What delightful recursion.
--
--
Wait a minute, this sounds like rock and/or roll. - Rev. Lovejoy
Heck, just shell out the few extra bucks and get a natural kb.
Maybe if/when IBM makes a split keyboard I'll consider it, but I can't use anything less than an IBM keyboard with those oh-so-wonderful keys. I think I get at least another 20% speed just because of the key feel.
Say what you want about IBM, but they are the keyboard king. Everything else is cheap crap in comparison. Unfortunately, I don't think they make the really indestructable, old-school I-can-kill-you-with-this-steel-case-keyboard anymore. On the other hand, the plastic ones are virtually indestructable, but it would be harder to kill someone. :) [would probably take several blows]
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
MyopicProwls
MyopicProwls
My homepage
And not looking at the keyboard?? Guess you've never used keyboards from different countries/timeperiods have you? The symbols that you need for coding are all over the place!
Ditch the windows key....what's wrong with Ctrl-Esc?
the twiddler. A handheld chording keyboard. check out www.handykey.com I just got one last week and it is very cool. There's a bit of a learning curve involved but it will be well worth it. Frees up tons of desk space. lean back and relax instead of hunching over your desk. Great for mobile computing. I found the twiddler by following links on a previous /. article, but since since i just got one and love it, i'd thought in put in my $.02.
I didn't find the nipple to be that bad after a month or so of using it.
I think this quote stands by itself...
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
Take a look at this:
http://www.ergopro.com/comfort.html
I saw one of these at MIT's Adaptive Technology lab back in the early 90's. The toothed gears on the bottom are used to secure/release gimble mounts on each section, allowing full adjustability, including the (supposedly less than optimal) rectilinear configuration used above.
You know what I mean. All those Windows, menu and web keys will soon make the space bar and the Ctrl-keys smaller than the regular keys.
I just want a plain keyboard with 101 keys and maybe a built-in fridge, to prevent all the pizza cumbs between the keys from stinking.
Just because I can imagine doing a hippopotamus, doesn't mean I'd like to do it.
A co-worker of mine has had a chair with a vertical keyboard attachment for at least the past 4 years.
At first I thought he manufactured it himself, but according to him, he bought it from a place online.
I'm not interested in finding it right now though. I still hate split-ergonomic keyboards. I like my $10 cheapy one that's lasted for 7 years.
-m
an accordian player's dream keyboard.
---K2K was here---
-- The_Messenger
It was on tv about 5 years ago. (I think it was on that old Discovery channel show Beyond 2000) It looked liked this one, but there wasn't a spacer in between the halves; they were directally attached to each other.
You can get a minimal 3-piece keyboard called the Ergo-Flex from the Comfort Keyboard company. Then you can arrange it however you like, even on the arms of your chair, like this fellow.
The closer you are to the code, the happier you are. - Ancient Geek Proverb
All generalizations are false.
--
I like to watch.
You know, one of the nice things about flat keyboards is the fact that you can lay your hands down on a wrist rest while typing, thereby giving your arms a rest. I don't see that happening with that keyboard...
Also, that keyboard would have to be stuck down pretty well to keep it from moving as you typed something that required only one hand or hit the arrow keys a bunch. I don't think I like the idea of that keyboard too much.
Posted from the wireless couch.
I've seen keyboards like this since '94 when I worked at Hewlett Packard.
There is nothing whatsoever new about this keyboard. Lame article.
- Necron69
http://www.comfortkeyboard.com/
The comfort keyboard is fully adjustable from standard keyboard position/flat to full upright vertical. The individual sections also rotate along the Z-axis to allow for people of different widths. (Think of it -- a *w - i - d - e* person's hands will angle in to a keyboard from a different angle than a |thn| person's.
The adjustability helps you adjust from 'normal' to whatever degree of vertical you want. They are *great* keyboards.
They truely allow a "zero" wrist bend / torque for typing. Think of the ergonomics. Stand with hands at your side. Bend your elbows and bring your hands up. Your palms will be facing *in. Now bring your hands in till they arout a foot apart. If a keyboard was "vertical", you still have to bend your hands outward to be parallel, but if the keyboard is fully adjustable, you can adjust the keyboard on the 'Z' axis to match the natural angle of your inward bend -- a unique angle depending on your body frame size.
If you have wrist strain and work at a desk top -- this is GREAT. I wish laptop manufacturers would come up with something like this built-in (yes you can attach the keyboard as an external keyboard, but that doesn't help when you are using your laptop on your lap). Sigh.
-l
This would be a good time to mention the Interfaces Keyboard from Cramer. It's a split keyboard, each half attaching to the arms of your chair and having six degrees of freedom. I've been using one for over a year. Sweet! My wrist and, surprisingly, back problems have decreased by an order of magnitude.
I only have two complaints -- One, the integrated trackpad sucks rocks. It's as good as any other trackpad I've ever used, but I think they all suck rocks. I ignore it and still use my ancient Mouse Systems optical rodent. The other is that the function keys and obscure punctuation keys are a far reach. I have to move my whole arm to get to F12, and I find myself hittting backslash instead of backspace if my arms are a little out of position.
The other complaint is price. It ain't cheap! But I got my company to shell out for it, so I can't complain too much...
A great side-benefit is that the IS people refuse to touch my computer now, since they don't grok my keyboard. This is a Good Thing! :-)
Chelloveck
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
This was done many many years ago. The Comfort Keyboard can be horizontal, vertical, or anything in between. A friend of mine broke his arm and used one of these because his cast confined his arm to handshaking position.
After doing the little imaginary finger dance that all of us did immeadiately after reading the description of the keyboard, I would have to say that this would be LESS comfortable than a regular keyboard. It is much easier to press keys downward (with gravity) than it is to press sideways. It would also require more vertical strength in the index and middle fingers, I think.
------
Let me give you the lowdown
Isn't this pretty much the same as the 'Comfort (TM) Keyboard system', except maybe a bit less adjustable?
>
>What's next? An airbag?
Yes, because the next version of this will appear in your internet-enabled car, replacing the steering wheel, in order for you to type on your head-up display whilst driving.
--
--
Wait a minute, this sounds like rock and/or roll. - Rev. Lovejoy
Umm... Yeah. Sure. The parent post.
________________________________________________
suwain_2
I saw one of these in a computer store four years ago. It had a crank that could be used to ajust it from totally flat to totally vertical.
A quick scan through dmoz's keyboard list returns lots of examples of vertical keyboards. Like this one.
Slashdot monitor for your Mozilla sidebar or Active Desktop.
That will really be the best shape for a computer keyboard, guitar shape, and you could play some good rock while working too.
~~~Please pass the salt, I hate unsalted MD5s
It looks like Kinesis (makers of the best ergo keyboard on earth) have a new model out similar to this (only much more practical I think). Check out the Kinesis Evolution Keyboard. It can be adjusted to any size/shape person and even has a trackpad (or two) built in.
-Stype
-Stype
Bus error -- driver executed.
Sun made nice boards with IBM-style keys (an of course the superior key placement) up until a couple years ago. I believe that Type 5c was the last nice one. The Type 6 has really mushy "quiet"-type keys that provide even less tactile feedback than Dell "softkey" boards. Ew.
All generalizations are false.
--
I like to watch.
This will go *so* well with my vertical desk chair!
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I would buy one of those things. Hold your keyboard up vertically and try it. It's a natural wrist position to have your palms facing each other. What would make this *really* good is if they angled the keys a bit along the y-axis (having the keys perpedicular to you is a little uncomfortable..maybe make this adjustable?) and included some contoured palm rests on the bottom.
-
IBM did make a split, adjustable keyboard. I'm typing on it now. It's Part # 13H6689, the one I'm using was manufactured in September 1995. Standard PS/2, with that great IBM feel, and an adjustable split.
Might be able to pick up one used. It's substantially relieved my hand pain, when other weirder keyboards (e.g. Kinesis) didn't.
--
I used a flexpro keyboard for years and loved it. One of my coworkers still uses one at his home. I tend to destroy about 2 keyboards a year, and it not only helped my wrists, but it prevented me from pounding on the keyboard.
It was also really cool for MS-Pinball. =)
It comes with RS6K systems
Indeed. When I left one company a while back that was an AIX shop, I made sure I took with me five keyboards just so I would make sure I had a lifetime supply. :)
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
First of all, the keyboards sold at pckeyboard.com are real IBM keyboards. Recall that IBM spun off IBM Lexington, which made PC hardware like printers and keyboards, as Lexmark about a decade ago. A bit later, Lexmark spun off the keyboard division as Unicomp and focused on printers. pckeyboard.com is Unicomp. Some of the keyboards they sell say "IBM" on them, and some say "Lexmark," which doesn't really matter.
I've bought two of the "Customizer," which are basically just buckling-spring IBM PS/2 101-key keyboards. They're just about perfect. They weigh about as much as a small truck, have perfect springy tactile feel plus clicky audio feedback, and will probably last until we're no longer using keyboards. (I know a guy who still uses the keyboard from his 1986 IBM AT.)
The other nice thing about IBM PS/2 keyboards is that they're the de facto reference standard for the PS/2 keyboard interface. Some motherboards (most notoriously early Pentium II boards like the Abit LX6) have twitchy keyboard ports that will only work with some keyboards. If they work with any, they'll work with the IBM.
The threat that this model will be upgraded to include Win95 keys has been on the site for a couple of years, but they haven't done it yet. If they do, all is not lost: you can still order old IBM keyboards by model number.
The only things wrong with this keyboard are price ($79; a bit cheaper for the non-clicky ones with not-quite-perfect feel) and noise (my computers are in the basement, and I can hear my wife typing when I'm upstairs in the TV room, through a closed door.)
Worth the $79? Hell yeah, if you type a lot.
As far as the company goes, I've ordered twice from them with no problems. Shipping charges were reasonable. Not much of a sample size, I know, but they're legit.
-- David Ripton
Don't these guys realize that when people hold their hands up for a while they get tired?
Has anyone here ever heard of the light pen for MS-DOS? No? Well, there you have it. Before the time of the squeky thingie (i.e. mouse), there was some PC (I think PC jr, so I guess it was PC-DOS, not MS-DOS) that had support for a light pen pointing device. It flopped. Know why? Because a person's hand gets tired after he/she has to hold it in front of the screen for a while. It's called ergonomics and common sense, folks.
Also, if you read the comments at the bottom of the page, there are quite a few people claiming that this idea isn't new anyway.
Furry cows moo and decompress.
The typing injury FAQ has some of the best alternative keyboards detailed including the Maltron and the Kinesis Ergo which you can completely remap the keys to any custom configuration. Just write a little app that analyzes the frequency of all the keys in a typical week and then remap the keyboard accordingly. Also makes for a good security feature. Nobody can figure out your interface!!
NotoriousGDD
Yeah, the story on DARPA's research into "Starship Troopers" (the book, not the lame movie) style powered armor was also cool. Still some power storage problems...
InstaPundit! Ahead of the Curve Since 30 Minutes Ago
Hmmm... Very interesting idea...
I didn't find the nipple to be that bad after a month or so of using it. Your idea sounds really good, though. You could even have the "mouse key" be something that would activate when you press your thumb against the side of your finger, so it would really be a pointing action. Maybe some slight modification to avoid RSI, but I imagine it could work well. Of course, it's been far too long since I've touched a real erect nipple, so I'm kinda partial to the IBM approach at the moment.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
another thing you could do would be make the key halves foldable inward so other people (or non-touch typists) could use the keyboard as a normal one simply by folding them inwards. Also make the width between the keypads adjustable.
-
Ooh! Ooh!
No more keyboard-face.
Because your eyes would be too near the monitor.
Oooh, baby, yah! Talk to me, talk to me!
I have one of the wing o' deth keyboards. Weighs a frigging metric tonne. Got those sweet, sweet ALPS keys in it... real springs and everything. Built like a freaking brick shithouse. When you put it down, it *stays* put. And clicky! Oh, so clicky!
I was lucky enough to score a replacement keyboard for free the other day. It's not a steel-plate wing o' deth, but it's got the ALPS keys. I figure I can swap out the guts.
For others with this sort of fanaticism for great keyboards, this website looks promising: they repair keyboards, and it sure looks like they're using ALPS keyswitches in their custom keyboards. I'm particularly horny for the one with the rubber joystick-mouse on it: [PC Keyboard].
If anyone does buy a keyboard from PCKeyboard, how about writing a Slashdot review?
--
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
You'd think they might want to at least take a look at a typing tutor or finger chart before going through the trouble of engineering a whole device...
"I can be self-referential if I want to," said Tom, swiftly.
I looked at the page source and there's lots there.
Whyinhell should I have to debug someone else's HTML just so that I can read their bluddy page? ARGH!
-Eldurbarn
Finally! A keyboard that will support my head AND prevent the half inch checker board pattern from being imbedded on my face!
The vertical keyboard can't be bought anywhere, it has never gone out of the lab. But if you feel like an ergonomics researcher and want to carry out your own experiment, you can always cut up any horizontal keyboard and try to assemble something better. Any other ideas about this keyboard? Don't forget about the discussion board at the bottom of the page :-)
Is it even possible to mod it into this configuration at home?
Goat sex free since 2001
When human hands relax, they curve, going eventually into a fist. This keyboard would require the hands to be flat, only rotated through 90 degrees - a posture that I imagine would become quite tiring. If the keyboard halves were curved, so that using it was like putting your hand around the far side of a cylinder, it would probably be a lot more comfortable to use.
--
--
Wait a minute, this sounds like rock and/or roll. - Rev. Lovejoy
Well, I may have clicked on it but at least I'm not the kind of loser who has nothing better do do than think of ways to pull shit like this off.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
That middle part looked pretty empty, probably so you could see the monitor. So, instead of putting the monitor behind the thing and having to look through it, why not just put it in that blank spot, and end up with a few more square inches of desk space?
How about this for an idea. You take one of the ergonomic keyboards with the keys on curved bulges, and you separate it into two pieces. Then you could add an optical sensor on the bottom of the keyboard to turn it into a mouse. When you want to type, you do, and when you want a mouse, just grab the key hump and move it around!
Old IBM keyboards rule.
Damn straight, they do. Excellent tactile and aural feedback -- none of this squishy, silent key crap you get on new plastic piles of crap. No windows keys, no stupid multi-media controls. Completely indestructible -- I'll still be using my IBM keyboard, despite spilling coffee on it every day or dropping it on concrete when I move my computer, long after everyone else has been through 10 plastic chunks. And in an emergency the 10lb hunk of metal can be used as a weapon. ^_^
The enemies of Democracy are
There was a post on /. a long time ago about a guy who did just that with his own keyboard -- sawed it in half, ran wires to connect the two halves, and mounted it on his chair. I'm not posting a link; you can do your own search. I don't care, since I don't have a chair.
The enemies of Democracy are
yr fucking lame
The picture shows the right side of the keyboard to the left. Now I know why typing was so hard!
Mmmm.. Donuts
The exoskeleton or the water integrator computer were more worthy of ./'s attention. (The articles&pictures are on the same page where the vertical keyboard is)
Sigged!
I'm suprised this idea hasn't come out sooner; I've been thinking about splitting keyboards even more drastically since I got my first split keyboard.
I think that the best angle isn't actually 90 degrees, but somewhere in the middle, closer to 30 or 40 degrees. But ohwell.
-S
Checkout this link for the best Natural keyboard with mechanical switch keys!
DATADESK SmartBoard
Your eyes can already pick out a single pixel. At least, *you* know that you're looking at it.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
is it just me, or was the section about the 'exoskeltons' for use in the army use more interesting??
/. with a single command!
i can see it now:
multiple armies of geeks suited up for the holy os wars in their exoskeletons. mysteriously, the windows warriors suffer from a myserious blue blob in their optical sensors, leaving them defenseless to the prowless of the linux zealots, who can not only see perfectly fine, but are faster, stronger, and able to post to
my $.05
and I quote
"The users don't see what they are typing, so the keyboard has two fixed side-mirrors."
Side mirrors? on a keyboard?!
Judge Pag, the Learned, Impartial, and Very Relaxed
--
This space left intentionally blank.
This looks like a rather extreme version of the ergonomic keyboards that are split in the center and tilted off to the sides. I'm all for outside-the-box thinking, and I think this is a good exercise, but in the long run, we may be better off with something kinda between a modern ergonomic keyboard and this radical design. Hopefully with a trackball or something in the middle too, because having a mouse that requires taking hands off the keys is a terrible productivity killer. Despite the somewhat small keys, I have never been more productive than on an old thinkpad I once used with the little thing that resembles an erect nipple in the center of the keyboard. I could type and use the mouse without any delay between the two actions. As it stands I have one of those awful trackpads on my current laptop, but it still beats having a separate mouse for most purposes.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Laura fucked me silly last night. -The President of the United States of America Death to Presidential Imposters!
I am not the antichrist. Hasselhoff is.
The keyboard is ok, but the rest of the issue is what got my attention, particularly the SpringWalker. I wish I'd heard of this publication before this. Neato stuff.
Microsoft's new keyboard kicks ass.
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
See my user info for links.
Hmm.. I seem to recall seeing this, a long time ago - maybe in Popular Science magazine? Anybody else care to confirm? The version I saw had mirrors mounted in such a way that you could see the keys as you looked head on at the keyboard, to help you in placing your fingers etc.
Anyway I remember them touting the same benefits too, about it being better ergonomically etc. Can somebody out there back me up on this? I've even told other people about it, i'm sure of it...
I had severe problems with finger joint pain several years ago. The docs never figured out what the specific medical problem was, but after years of enduring the pain, the solution turned out to be two-fold: 1. Keyboard retraining in a technique that uses very little finger movement and instead use the large muscles of the arm to position the fingers and press the keys (more a kin to a hunt-and-peck but with all the fingers). The technique works well on a flat or slightly canted (a la MS Natural) keyboard. I can't do the 90wpm I used to, but it's plenty fast for coding. 2. Daily finger and hand exercises with exercise putty before and after work (which I do during my hour commute). Ergo keyboards may help wrist positioning problems, but they don't do anything to reduce stress on the fingers or hand and may, in fact, exacerbate those problems over time.
Just be aware, if you do find a Part# 13H6689 IBM ergonomic keyboard, they are around $250 new. I don't have an idea of what a fair used price would be. Search the web for the part #.
I no longer have to take my hands off the keyboard to move my mouse. Of course, it took me a while to learn to type with my feet...
I had a feeling you were going to say that.
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
I wonder if there'd be anybody who would want it in bass guitar style, with bunny-ears and painted pink.
--
>DON'T LOOK AT YOUR FINGERS
;)
I used to get that ALL the time from my teacher during typing class in high school. That and "you can't hit the backspace key".
IMHO, It's an idea from the rickety manual typwriter days. The days when a backspace meant a twist of a platen and using a scrape pencil to take the top layer of paper off.
I once looked a lot at my hands as I typed. I think of it like training wheels. After a couple of months, you will eventually realize you can type without looking at your keyboard. Until then, you probably need to. That's why they printed the letters on the keyboard. For the beginners. The tits are there for the experts.
I still make a lot of mistakes. But, I type just under 80 WPM uncorrected (about 55 WPM corrected). I consider that a decent rate. I really don't care that my mistakes take a 30% hit on my typing rate, because I notice them as I type, and correct them before I'm finished. My mistake level was much higher. As time goes on my mistake level will go down, my speed up.
'Till then, I'll just have to keep using my electric Smith Corona with the Auto-Correct tape. Maybe one day I can graduate to the manual. One day...
As far as the CTS, well, doesn't that always seem to happen to the most dedicated people? The ones who spend hours at their terminals without breaks...
Just my 2 cents.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
IBM doesn't still make the steel case keyboard any more *sniffle* but they DO make a plastic-cased keyboard nearly as heavy; It comes with RS6K systems. It has a bell built into it too, but I don't know how to ring it on a PC.
If you have to ask what I mean by a "bell", you aren't old school enough. Go away. :)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I recall something similar within the past few years, a split-keyboard that was able to be placed at or nearly vertical.
The difference with THAT one was that the split was a hinge and the far sides of the keyboard were then attached with a belt, making the keyboard rigid ( the force of gravity and typing pulling the belt tight ) . This had the advantage of making the keyboard angle variable, so you could set it to your own preference.
I always thought that would be nice, being able to type with my hands at a 45 degree angle ( or so ) . I don't know if being forced to 90 degrees would agree with me.
The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
And, as a bonus, this is who to learn to type fast as well. Three rules:
1. Don't look at your fingers.
2. Look at the screen, not your fingers.
3. DAMMIT DON'T LOOK AT YOUR FINGERS, LOOK AT THE SCREEN!!
Put a box over your hands if you have to, but DON'T LOOK AT YOUR FINGERS. In two weeks, you will be typing twice as fast as you do now.
Hell, here's another typing tip. I'm convinced this is how to eliminate wrist problems. The typing books always show the wrists turned, and then the hands being perpendicular to the keys. Don't do this. Instead, hold your hands the way you would on a "natural" keyboard where it's split. In other words, keep your wrists totally straight with your hands at about a 30 degree angle to the keys. You can type just as fast, and I'll bet you'll have far fewer carpel tunnel problems. At least, I've never had them and I've been typing really fast for 20 years (on regular keyboards). Your mileage may vary, but it seems like it makes sense.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Nah. Apple had a keyboard just like it in the mid 80s. I saw one at a computer trade show a couple of years ago. It was quite comfortable. Unfortunatally, the owner was unwilling to sell it. Then again I only offered him $30USD. Too bad though. If there was a USB version I'd buy it provided it was under $50.
Maskirovka