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Pyramid Shaped Keyboard
Lordkolya wrote in to tell us about a pyramid shaped keyboard. It's supposed to be ergonomic, but it sure is ugly. I still need to try one of the Kinesis keyboards out. It's time for me to change keyboards again. I dunno if I can learn a new chording keyboard. I've tried a few one handed boards and had bad luck. Maybe I'm not destined to learn any more chords then E-A-D.
I'd much rather have the Zero Gum laser than a pyramid keyboard.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Did you see the rest of the stuff on that site? Melting gum off the road with high powered lasers, optical spy doohickies and much much more. And their poll is much more clueful than the past two or three I've seen here! I'm bookmarking those guys oh yeah!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Taco, pull your foot out of your ass. That guy didn't find that keyboard, ZZZ.CO.RU did. Queer.
I am weary of any keyboard that completely changes the layout that most are accustomed to..
I have tried many keyboards but I have found that any keyboard that is supposedly better for your wrists actually causes me immense pain for several days (long enough to have me cease its use).
I am currently using a MS keyboard of some sort that has one of those wrist rests. It works fine. My main problem is that I keep breaking the metal folding chairs that are inexpensive enough for me to afford and I have to keep reverting to a footstool w/a pillow on it for my desk. It is very low and doesn't really make the angle of the wrists very good.
The other keys that must be reached by your thumbs on this pyramid thing would actually be a bigger pain in the ass than they are worth.
I guess I will continue to type the old fashioned way. Hell, I still prefer standard transmissions, regular phones, and non-power anything.
I mean seriously?
I've spent my entire life on QWERTY. I type pretty well, and it works just fine.
Tried an alternate once... and never again.
I don't think QWERTY will ever be replaced.
hmm, well, the way I see it, those three chords were good enough for the Troggs so they're good enough for me.
--- Don't ever trust a woman until she's dead- B.B. King
When he demonstrated the orginal computer mouse, Doug Engelbart used a one handed chorded keyboard for his left hand at the same time. The system that they developed allowed users to type all characters using just the chords on the left hand, but they still had a normal keyboard... Why? Because the standard keyboard was pretty efficient. So, what did they use the chorded keyboard for? Functions. Copy, paste, print, etc were all associated with chord combinations. This way, you move your hands away from the keyboard to use the mouse and chord when you want to do functional stuff. But, when you're typing you put both hands on the keyboard and pound away.
The learning curve for a two-handed chorded keyboard is sort of long, but not rediculous. Learning a new layout (e.g., Dvorak) on a standard keyboard takes about 20 hours (e.g., 1 hour a day every weekday for a month). Chording is a learned skill, which can be acquired relatively quickly. I'm guessing it's faster if you have piano skills...
Buy Hex-Rated Stuff, fight the DMCA!
His credibility does take a hit, though, in that he repeats the myth that the QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow typists down...
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
On a normal keyboard, I usually leave one hand on the keyboard at all times when using the mouse. This hand can hit all the modifier keys(control, option, commands, shift - on a Mac), for when pressing those keys is necessary in what you're doing with the mouse.
With this keyboard it's designed so the modifier keys are split between both hands. So when your right hand goes to the mouse, it becomes difficult to hit the modifier keys with the left.
Also, say what you want about flat keyboards, but being able to rest your hands on the desk or wrist pad is nice. Do you really want to be holding your arms up in the air for hours on end while typing?
It needed to incorporate telephone and voice recognition requirements.
What does telephone and voice recognition have to do with the keyboard? This 'requirement' seems a bit out of place to me....
I need a new ergonomic keyboard, a split keyboard. I am considering Logitech's Cordless Freedom Pro. Any experience with this? Any chance of Logitech coming out with a new ergonomic keyboard soon? Suggestions for competitor keyboards? Trying to stay below $100. Thanks
"There ought to be limits to freedom"
The name of that site should be bootlegGear.com. Who buys that crap?
Sheesh, even the Ramones used more chords than those.
"Fundamentally, it is a pyramidal design with two edges rounded to accommodate and orientate the palms of the user's hands."
WTF do people have to make up words like "orientate" when perfectly servicable words (like "orient") already exist?
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
I was a fast 2 finger person. But now I can touch type using the Dvorak layout. I don't have the stress. Besides qwerty was designed to SLOV a person down so the mechinical arms would not hit. Who carse about that now, but we still teach the old system as opposed to changing over to the new system. All this is really moot as voice recognition keeps getting better and better.
For all the Illuminati wannabe among us.
heh, sould learn some augmented or dim 7th cords, better yet augmented 6th then do some funky cirle 5ths progressions mixed in, if u are into tonality, whihc im not, hehe
Spaceghost: I know! I'll get one of those memory eraser kits!
Zorak: You already have one.
Spaceghost: I know! I'll get one of those memory eraser kits!
Look, only the thumbs are accessible to shift, ctrl, space keys! Wouldn't this be a pain if I wanted to do ctrl+shift+delete? The lost freedom of the fingers to glide over might be a deterrent to its popularity..
Although the current QWERTY keyboard is very slow to type and not well-thought out. I wouldn't mind having a a radically new standard for keyboards even though that would mean I'd have to re-learn typing to an extent.
FWIW, I love my Kinesis contoured keyboards. It only took me about a week to get used to typing on them (about 3 years ago) and since then I haven't had any wrist problems at all. Compare that to 2 hours or so of coding before wrist pain on a standard keyboard- these things are worth the $275 (as anyone who owns one will tell you).
Pyramid-shaped keyboards make baby Osama cry.
I work with someone who had an 'ergonomic' keyboard, and he makes as many typos with either keyboard, tho probably more with the 'ergo' keyboard.
Maybe a Dvorak pyramid shaped keyboard, yeah... that's the ticket.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
can I get it on thinkgeek? But seriously it looks pretty cool. I'd like to try one out and see how easy it is to use.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
TWAJS
http://www.essentialreality.com/products.html
It's about a company using a high-powered laser set-up to remove gum from pavements. More interesting. BTW, surely that's a tetrahedron rather than a pyramid?
Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
Seriously, this keyboard looks like it would put a serious damper on any onehanded typing.
Looks more like a tetrahedron than a pyramid to me...
sig fault
Looks like bad sci-fi from Lost in Space, or Quantum Leap.
The first question that arises is how one can duplicate 101 keys that are on today's computer keyboards with the 24 finger key locations (3-way for 4 fingers of each hand) on the ISOS keyboard . The answer is you don't want to.
First time I saw that I thought they were going to get rid of lesser used characters completely... But then I realized they probably would have had to say it like this:
The irst uestion that arises is ho one can dulicate 101 keys that are on todas comuter keboards with the 24 inger ke locations (3-way or 4 ingers o each hand) on the ISOS keboard. The answer is ou dont ant to.
Wheeeee
Slashdot
/dev/razor
News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.
Lawnmower with internet access
Monocycle @ 100 MPH
Taco's new desk
Power generating boots
Back to the Future board
etc.
...tip sets, like those found in William Gibson novels. As long as we're switching to a different way of talking to our boxes, why not make it something that's a lot more portable and flexible? Yeah, the new interface would be a bit of bitch to learn (now just what gesture do I do for 'q'?), but I think that you could do a lot with a system like this.
For example, the keyboard and the mouse could become the same unit. This would probably be the easiest part of the new interface to learn; after all, how hard is it to point? Even if it was more complicated than that I would be happy to figure it out if it would keep me from having to do that annoying keyboard-mouse-keyboard switch that some programs require.
As for the learning problem in general, we already have keyboarding classes. They'd just have to start teaching the new tech (tip sets) over the old (keyboards). The new generation would laugh at the old until we and our ridiculous habits died out and then keyboarding would join the ranks of punch cards and paper terminals.
Why do I think that tip-sets would be better than your trusty keyboard? Well, what I'm thinking of is gaming. You can go from one game to another and (usually) not have to think about what button does what. Somehow the concept of "My guy needs to jump now." goes straight from your mind to your hands, without passing through any state of "So what button is jump?". I would think that a well-engineered gesture-system would be the same thing. The letters that you wish to enter would go straight from mind to hands. Not that the keyboard doesn't do the same thing, but if your hands are shifted over a bit you'll get all screwed up, whereas the tip-sets are wherever your hands are. You could "type" with your hands lying by your sides or behind your head or whatever. You could also control the mouse pointer from this position, though who knows: maybe tip-sets would bring about an interface that didn't involve a pointer. (Nah.) Also, it would bring us one step closer to a VR environment, something that I believe has a certain amount of potential; especially given the graphics power of today's computers.
Okay, I'm beginning to ramble but the bottom line is that tip-sets are cool and probably more efficient and ergonomic than keyboards and mice.
----------
OpenNIC. Because it's just better, that's why.
I build model citizens.
After suffering intense tendonitis in my left wrist, which could only be alleviated by a nice shot of steroids, I tried the Kinesis.
2 weeks later, tendonitis was *gone*, and has never returned.
Definitely get the programmable version that allows key-remapping, so you can turn CAPS_LOCK into a more reasonable CTRL, and put ESC right under your left thumb, which makes vi just perfect.
...I've often wanted a chair that had a keyboard in each armrest, the left & right sides of a standard keyboard, yet you just move your fingers vertically for the upper and lower rows, or press down for the home row. I doubt anyone could learn it that knows how to hunt and peck, but us touch typists that go 120 wpm could benefit from it after you get used to it.
Who knows, maybe one day will figure out a way, but I just don't see voice replacing typing, many people can type faster than they talk.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
I'm gonna say what everyone is thinking:
How do I play ?
-- Dan =)
OK, those times I put the mouse on the left...
That is such rubbish. Not only are there six characters in 'QWERTY', but the original layout was not meant to slow down the typist, but to reduce the chance that two letters next to each other in a word would require that two keys next to each other on the keyboard (as viewed from the 'piano keys with the letters raised on them's point of view) be struck, thus increasing the chance of a jam.
So, in fact, the querty layout was designed to speed up typing, by requiring less of an artificial pause between keystrokes.
Imagine if you will trying to be the marketers of such a device! This odd-looking device that is suppose to be a good source of ergonomics and make more use of the thumbs. Even so, I know of a few reasons why it won't take off:
:-)
1) People are reluctant to change. Most people have already adapted to the QWERTY-style of keyboard because it's the most common, and I'm sure those who like and can find a DVORAK keyboard use them as well.
2) Gamers won't be pleased to have something that would restrict the use of other devices... those that don't use a joystick are likely to be using the keyboard, the mouse, or the combonation of the two, as in Quake (duh. btw, if you find someone that uses a joystick with Quake, hit them with a newspaper and rub their noses into the joystick and go "Noooooo..." See if they stop
3) Training costs of having to teach *each* person that you stick this keyboard with -- of course if a computer is *down* and this keyboard is the only one available, you can't expect them to know how to switch keyboards; so it makes sence to the PHBs out there that you should train them all... that takes time and money.
Anyway, my $0.02
Karma whorin' since 1999
I've got a Kinesis Contoured 'board at work now, but I'm going to return it.
First, the good: Learning the new key positions wasn't very difficult. They're pretty natural, and the hand position is very nice. Less stress than a standard 'board. The keys themselves are mechanical, not membrane, and low-pressure. Very nice feel, very positive contact, although not much of a click. There's an audible click that you can toggle.
On the bad side, the 'board is almost useless except for typing characters. The control (shift, alt, etc) keys are in difficult positions. A design goal of the 'board, they tell me, was to make key combos like 'CTRL-SHIFT-S' easier to hit with two hands. This may be better for your hands, but at high speed it's very very hard to coordinate two hands to nail a combo like this (and I play guitar, so I know a little about coordinating hand movements).
There's no numeric keypad, but there is another 'layer' that can be toggled with a function key or foot switch. Kind of a pain. The 'board's programmable, if you spring $50 for the extra chip (with that and the footswitch, you're easily over $300), and this helps a little, but not enough.
Bottom line for me: the keys feel beautiful and typing characters is very easy, but the 'board's nearly useless for anything else. It's hard to hit function keys and key combos, hard to use with one hand while keeping a hand on the mouse - in other words, nearly half of what I do. Too bad.
BUT if you do nothing but type all day, buy this board and never let it out of your sight. Your life will improve dramatically. If I could afford to have 2 'boards, this would be one of them.
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
man, that's pointy. gone now are the days when we could bash our heads into our keyboards in frustration when 'hello world' didn't compile right.
With this simple pyramid keyboard scheme, you can type not twice as fast, not ten times as fast, but MORE THAN ONE MILLION TIMES as fast as you do now. Do you know what 1 million score -1 Slashdot posts look like? It's amazing!
How does it work? For every key that you press, you will get back DOUBLE THAT NUMBER of AOL "Me too!" posts, greatly expanding your word count by including numerous un-edited follow-ups WITHOUT YOU HAVING TO LIFT A FINGER!
Simply copy this post to 10 of your closest friends, and ask them to follow you up on Slashdot, quoting your post in total and asking them to do the same to their ten closest friends...
(you get the idea)
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
If you're already hitting multiple keys to generate a single 'key press', how do you go about doing multiple 'key press' combinations?
Of course Windows users will love the fact that they can customize the key settings and bind an extended middle finger to Control-Alt-Delete.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
Commander, you really should try out a Kinesis... I got my first about a decade ago when tendonitis threatened to keep me from working. It was a fortune ($700) and non-reimbursable but it was that or no more programming. I've got three now and each cost 1/2 what the previous one did. I kept working and the tendonitis never came back. I also custom-made a tilted stand for a Trackman Marble trackball since I found that mousing could cause as much pain as typing. (The newer Marble FX has much the same pronation-correcting effect.) I do miss a true numberpad on the Kinesis boards and the function keys are not great, but you'll get used to using your thumbs for the "meta" keys... and you can do Control-Alt-Delete with one hand!
I picked up one of these keyboards a while ago.
:P).
Overall, I've been quite pleased. The general feel and construction of the keyboard are good - it's nice and solid, feels well made, and the tactile feel and "clicky-ness" (not much at all) is to my (admittedly personal) liking.
My previous keyboard was a Microsoft Natural Elite (ergonomic), and I had very little difficulty switching to this one (one annoyance is the Home/End/Insert/Delete/PgUp/PgDown block above the inverted-T arrow keys is vertically oriented (similiar to the Elite) but with a slightly different arrangement than the Elite which throws me a off a bit from time to time (although actually I think Logitech's arrangement make more sense - the keys are arranged Home, End, (next row) Insert, Page Up, (next row) Delete, Page Down)). The wrist rest is nice, although I would prefer if it were more solidly attached (I got used to picking up my Elite by the wrist rest, which doesn't work out with the Logitech as it'll just come off. However, after a bit I just learned not to do that
I haven't played with the software for the function keys at all (No Linux version, but check out the Linux FunKeys patch for some support).
The mouse is pretty good too. I was a bit reluctant on replacing my trusting Mouseman 97 (similar to the USB gaming mouse) - BEST MOUSE EVER. I've found it's pretty good, although it'd be nice if it were optical. The shape of it, how it sort of fits your hand, is rather comfortable, although I would prefer if it were less bulky. The (additional) middle mouse button on the side is a bit odd but useful when you get used to it. Sometimes I pick up the mouse and sort of use it as a remote when I'm reading a large web page, holding it above the table and just scrolling the wheel.
As to the wireless. Overall, having wireless is rather snazzy. Sometimes I jack up the fonts sizes and recline in bed while I play games. I have a pretty small room, so I can't give you much on the range, but they don't claim more than 6 feet or so. One gripe - the docs say you should put the reciever 18 inches away from any other electronic equipment. Besides the fact there is not much space in my room that meets that suggestion, it's also hard to do since the cord for it is only about 3 feet long. Since I keep my computer under the desk, it's hard to get the reciever in an optimal position (I'm thinking of getting an extension cable and duct taping it to the ceiling or something). Also, occasionally (like maybe once every few days) it'll blip out for a few seconds and miss a few keystrokes/clicks whatever, but that's a minor thing.
An interesting thing about the wireless - if you take a look at both the keyboard and mouse as well as the reciever, there's a small "connect" button that you use when you first set them up (assumedly to pick a transmission key or frequency or something). I noticed at the store there was the same sort of button on the wireless optical mouse they had. So if you prefer the optical mouse, it looks like there's a good chance it will interoperate with this system, but that's just an educated guess.
Speaking of the reciever, the cable comes out to USB plugs. There are also adapters included to use it for PS/2 style ports (for both mouse and keyboard). Interestingly enough, although it says it'll work fine on any USB system (PC or Mac), it recommends you use the PS/2 adapters on PC. I have taken this device to heart and so I can't give you any info on using them USB under Linux or anything. The adapters worked just fine (even when I used them on my old pc - the keyboard was going USB -> PS/2 -> AT).
So all in all, I would recommend this keyboard. It's comfortable to type, well made and very convienent from the wireless angle. The price did turn me off a bit, but I'm glad I went for it
i doubt many of you have been subjected to typing classes but i sat through 2 years of them at school. yep, two! (and this wasn't as long ago as you might think, i'm talking '91 here) so as you can imagine, my typing style is pretty good.
i have my wrists high, i have my fingers at the correct angle over the 'home row', i can type numbers from there without having to lift off and go one fingered. repeat after me, 'a-s-d-f-j-k-l-;'
alas, if only everyone was still subjected to typing classes on typewriters (no nasty backspace) we would all be able to type perfectly and wouldn't need these gimmicky and stupid devices that other employees would either a) steal or b) laugh at.
I don't see it here, so I thought I'd give a link to the U.S. Patent that has been awarded for this keyboard. A wealth on information there for anyone curious for more details on how it would word.
One of the odd details in the patent is that they also intend for it to function as a telephone dialing pad, so you can dial your phone without removing your hands from the keyboard. I guess they are interested in the secretary/telemarketer market here...
I still use the same 102-key keyboard that was once upon a time connected to my first IBM-compatible PC back in 1989. Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but then again I've never found another keyboard in today's market that seems to have the same kind of feel and feedback. Today's keyboards feel so mushy and haven't got the kind of click this keyboard does.
By the way, the article perpetuates the myth that the QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow typists down. It wasn't. It was designed to prevent the original mechanical typewriters from jamming. You can type as fast as you like on a QUERTY...
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
The truth isn't hard to see under the FUD: the QWERTY layout was designed to speed typists on the original machine by reducing the frequency of jams. It did this at some cost (of the most frequently used keys, ETAION, only one (A) is on the home row, and that under the left pinky, arguably the weakest finger). It was a reasonable tradeoff at the time but became a standard, with all the attendent entrenched opposition to change. This is where the FUD starts to come in. Dvorak et al overstated the advantages of their alternatives, and this gave the established manufacturers enough room to "debunk" their claims, launching hundred years of bickering.
-- MarkusQ
...will stay fresh under it for weeks.
Put your razor blades under it at night, they will be sharp in the morning!
Chip
Dr. Who is the absolute most dreadful BORING excuse for sci-fi show that I have ever seen. It looks like something produced in Wayne's World basement. Oh, I guess I must not be 1337 enough to appreciate it.
Whats next, a national ID card?
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Who would want to use something like that? The only real use that I can think of for that kind of a keyboard would be for blind people. They might find it easier to find the keys. But for the normal /. reader, that's just another ugly plastic box.
Hey, what's the "postercomment compression filter"? I violated it prior to adding this useless text.
Ceci n'est pas une
I wish I could stick my penis under a faucet to get an orgasm. Oh... hang on... there's a small orifice here...what if I just... Damn! It won't fit!
Maybe if I push harder.
Ah Shit! It's STUCK! FUCK!
HELP! DEAR GOD! THE PAIN!
...maybe if I turn the tap on...
You don't have to go that expensive. I baught this cheap no-name IR keyboard, it's black, has good battery life, you don't really have to aim it(unless the batteries are really low), and best of all it has a laptop keyboard layout and integrated mouse(Not like thinkpad). :)
The pointing stick is horrible for graphics work, and things like that, but with an extra (normal) mouse hooked up, no worries. It's more than adequate for zooming around your desktop and copy/paste.
As for the laptop style keyboard, well, alot of people hate them, but I love them. I consider them the most ergonomic keyboards made. Think about it, the keys are close together, and don't travel as far. This means you have to move less. My wrists havn't hurt since I started using it.
My only gripe about this thing is that it lacks a third button on it's pointing device. This can be worked around, of course..
You can get these things just about anywhere for ~$50(US). If you are hardcore(using computer for 10+hour days), 2 sets of rechargable batteries are also a good investment. Or you can just mod it and put a power jack in it.. sure it's not 100% cordless, but you can unplug and walk around any time
This has been a shameless attempt at getting undeserved karma by posting other people's work.
OFF TOPIC, but on the same page as the keyboard!!
scroll down all the way to the botom or here is the link:
http://zzz.com.ru/pic98.jpg
It is the triangle problem and to stop many of you from banging your head here is the solution:
The top image is not a triangle... The red and dark green triangle do not form a straight lines and there slopes are different the what should be the slope of the large triangle. The top image is "concave down" while the bottom image is "concave up" The area of the slope when added up makes 1, thus where the box comes from.
Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
Maybe even tried.
We'll fry your sorry asses! Soon, all of you will be "fallen comrades".
I always thought that the keyboard would lead to wrist/arm pain, but strangely enough, it hasnt. (I got one of those curvy Microsoft deals, and it's sweet.) The mouse arm is now starting to hurt! I leave it perched up on the desk for long periods of time, with very little movement (reading something long, or watching porn) and now I got all kinds of pain. Shooting pains, elbow pains, wrist pains... I think I need to try something before it gets serious.
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Help!
I spent ten minutes staring at, then I loaded it up in photoshop and tried dragging the pieces around... I still don't get it.
Err.. never mind I figured it out. The big triangles are actually 4-sided. The small triangles have different angles.
Did she do it side to side as well?
Have any vi users tried the dvorak keyboard? I imagine it would be immensely confusing for a while at least. I know that when I'm typing something, I don't think "gee I need to go down a line so I'll type v", I think "press the letter under my index finger."
All of the stated advantages regarding corded keyboards are totally true, unfortunatly, there is the difficulty of training.
What should the chords be? Is it possible for all different types of corded keyboards to use the same chord to produce the same character? If not (which is the likely case), how many different sets of cords will someone have to learn?
With a traditional one character one key approach someone who has never typed before can be given a keyboard and can pound out a document. With a chorded approach, first a person must sit down and practice the chords. In order to type with any profeciency, one must practice long enough that the chords become part of muscle memory.
Furthermore, some of the corded designs, like the pyramid, would seem to accomidate only one handsize. It would be easy to make several sizes of keyboard, but each person would have to carry around their own keyboard.
The flat arrangement isn't going away any time soon. The QWERTY arrangement might not stay, and 'ergonomic' keyboards based on a flat arrangement are going to become more common, but going to chorded keyboards isn't likely to happen for the general populace because of the extreme amount of training required to operate one.
I have seen other arguments here that it isn't hard to learn DVORAK, so it shouldn't be hard to learn chording, but that's ignoring the most basic and obvious difference. If I can't remember where a particular key is, I can look. If I can't remember a particular chord, I need to look it up. In other words I need something seperate from the (read easily lost) pasted somewhere so I can use the thing. On the other hand If I were placed on a DVORAK keyboard right now I could still post this message. I would just have to use the hunt and peck method rather than the method that I currently use, which is a rather nonstandard form of touch typing, and the occasional look at the hands.
There is a civil war coming in the United States. Remember which side has most of the guns
I don't know if anyone else was as stumped by (or even cared about) the triangle diagram in the weekly picture at the bottom of the article as I was, but after toiling over it a bit, I finally gave up and found a solution on a small mathematics site. I found the solution kind of interesting.
I mean seriously?
I've spent my entire life on manual typewriters. I type pretty well, and it works just fine.
Tried a word processor once... and never again.
I don't think manual typewriters will ever be replaced.
The qwerty layout was designed to alternate keys between different parts of the keyboard (which reduces jamming on mechanical typewriters), not necessarily to slow typists down. Whether or not that kind of layout slows typists down is a separate question. In practice, even proponents of alternative layouts seem to have demonstrated only a very modest advantage of new layouts.
You see, I even don't think about it often enough to realize that I press j.
Bright monitors cause eye strain... I'm fed up with finding my monitor or television back at 50% or higher brightness settings when I leave them unplugged for a while - it washes out the blacks, and in my case tends to cause headaches after a while.
Screens should have sufficiently good contrast that you can run them at about one-third brightness, with the contrast turned right up instead. Much better for your eyes over long periods of time.
My Iiyama VM502 is pretty nice, although the picture isn't quite as sharp as my old Iiyama 17" was (although it's close). On the other hand, I can fit more stuff on it when I'm developing code, and that trade off is worth it for me...
Regards,
Denny
Police State UK - news and
still standing.
The Microsoft "Professional" keyboard is pretty good. They should withdraw from the software biz and stick to hardware..they're actually good at it.
In addition to which, Bush had the motive to coordinate the plane crashes, note the "Come Together In Time of Stress" mentality that prevails now, and contrast it with the "Impeach the Election-rigging Coke Fiend" mindset that was widespread before the WTC crashes.
This news just in: the *BSD troll has just been found dead, apparently he had choked his chicken far too many times and died of chronic wanker's cramp.
- Kaos games and encryption systems developer
The only use I can see for this device is to keep *others* from using my computer when I'm not there.
Maybe even claim its an antenna for receiving signals from aliens.
Good function, eh?
Ever thought about that most software was designed for the qwerty-layout? (think about some emacs shortcuts...)
So switching to another layout comes with a double effort: you have to learn new letter positions (for typing) and even more annoying the key-combos (CTRL-C, CTRL-A, CTRL-E...) aren't where they feel right.
So what use would this be for the intermediate/advanced user who likes to use a mouse and a keyboard at the same time?
And it would surely suck for any sort of gaming requirements..
This thing can be filed under 'Gimmick' along with the smell-o-vision thing, the force feedback mouse, the phone-watch and the Java ring.
I'm certain i'll hurt myself on this thing...
but i gotta at least try it out.
I just know i'll hurt myself....
::stabs face trying to sleep::
i spose i'll stick with my old IBM PS/2 qwerty...
-Johno
Even if it is true that the 24 can be used for 99.5% of English text, won't there still be annoyances for many users. Programming (particularly C) frequently requires the use of characters other than letters. Thus, many of the characters that a programmer would use are less convenient to access with this keyboard. Optimiziing just the letters is probably fine for secrectaries, but who is more likely to try some new gadget?
I've got a mind like a steel trap - it's got an animal's foot stuck in it.
What happens when you've been coding for 36 hours straight and fall asleep on your keyboard!??!?!
What, do they want us to hold it in our laps?
"Type like an Egpytian"
I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
We see this same symbolism today. Pyramid schemes, for example, which (like their Egyptian counterparts) look impressive to the untrained eye, but really just holds some decomposing remains.
The Great Glass Pyramid of Stockport is the HQ of a bank that can be sure of sharp razor blades, even if they can't be sure of sharp management. About the only redeeming feature of what Prince Charles almost certainly sees as a "monsterous carbuncle" is that nobody is going to bother flying an aircraft into it, making it perhaps one of the safest structures in the world, right now.
Finally, we come to the pyramid keyboard. Invented by Rubix, this device is intended to befuddle, confuse and mystify, and offer hours of frustration. Well, almost. Like all pyramids, it will survive only because of a total lack of wear & tear. As designs go, the only keyboard I've ever used that comes even close to being as unusable & impractical is the Sinclair spongy keypads of the ZX80 & ZX81.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
...for unorthodox input devices like this.
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
Although it's enough to play almost every AC/DC song out there (sorry, couldn't resist ;), but are those the only guitar chords you can play, Taco? Or are we still talking about keyboards?
(from a fellow guitar-geek)
They also use the (non) word "orientate" in their description.
I hate that almost as much as "that being said."
as a codpiece, this keyboard would make a perfect complement to an eyeglass-mounted display. That way one can compute even whilst walking thru traffic, just stick your hands in your pockets and have at it. (Make a call from your head mounted cellphone at the same time and you may even score a Darwin Award.)
"Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design
>Since one cannot see the keys inside the cavities, their character assignments can be reassigned for optimum alphabet distribution in any language
I was so impressed with this "feature" that I used white-out to blank all the labels on my standard QWERTY keyboard. Now I too can reassign my character assignments without confusion!
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
One bad experience I had with Logitech split keyboards was the placement of the 6 key. The last time I needed to buy a new keyboard, Logitech had two split keyboards on the market. One of them had the 6 on the left hand side while the other had the 6 on the right hand side. Unfortunately, I am used to 6 on the left hand side and the keyboard with the better tactile feeling had the 6 on the right hand side. I tried it for a week and it drove me crazy and I eventually returned it for something else.
Do they come with an eye in the middle?
Psychic spies from China try to steal your mind's elation.
The finger and thumb placements are right, but the selection of pyramid seems merely a convenient choice based on those placements. The mistake is choosing a solid. A better choice would be a multiple grip design, each grip loosely based on an old-fashioned telephone handset. That handset was and is a masterpiece of ergonomic design. Applying it to this keyboard could yield something wonderful.
Instead of using a solid pyramid, mount two roughly handset-shaped grips onto a platform. Put keys under the fingertips, using the same finger arrangement as in the pyramid design. Between the two grips, mount a small thumbs keyboard again containing the central keys from the pyramid.
Now you have a mostly-open design that is much more susceptible to adjustment for a given users hand size, position, and desk placement. No issues with fingers getting sweaty in enclosed places. No issues with getting your fingers into and out of a bunch of holes when you need to grab the mouse. No pyramid edges to be holding your hands against all day -- instead, comfy grips.
By getting away from the solid, you also make it possible to have an adjustable device. The grips should be on some sort of pivot so the user can select the angle of choice in all directions. It should be possible to move the closer and further aparts, and up and down the arm. The center keypad should be adjustable as well. And all those adjustable parts can be obtained `off the shelf'; go by a music store and look at a good microphone stand.
I think that the ideal chording keyboard would come with the keys, the driver, and some sort of hand-molding stuff that you could use to either cast the keyboard yourself, into a shape that fit your particular hand perfectly, or send away for someone to do the same.
I looked into the abyss, and the abyss looked into me--and we both winked.
yeah...but anyone know the awnser to that triangle puzzle at the bottom of that page?
Its driving me crazy!
You can't take the sky from me...
I realize that, using chords, you can get more functions into one hand without forcing the user to look at the keyboard than you can with a standard keyboard. . . but you can still do it with a QWERTY (or similar style of keyboard, regardless of key layout) keyboard. I use Blender, and they did a good job of making sure all the hotkeys were within easy reach of my left hand's fingertips. If people were willing to use hotkeys optimized for position rather than mnemonic(sp) value, we could get the best of both worlds.
Is E-A-D even a chord? E and D are next to each other; couldn't sound all that good :)
This pyramid keyboard reminds me of the Data Hand keyboard (search Yahoo for "Data Hand") except that the Data Hand looks more flexible in that each finger has 5 switches to choose from.
You don't need to be 1337 to appreciate Doctor Who. It pioneered television science fiction and due to the budget constraints (what was spent on the pilot of Voyager would have paid for all 30+ years, with change), it was able to focus on the scientific notions at hand and not waste effort on thinking up new ways to make the phaser fire look more 'realistic'. And on the topic of weapons, the good Doctor never employed anything more lethal than his Sonic Screwdriver, or the odd Jelly Baby. Surely a better view of the future than the current wave of "lock photon torpeedos on their warp core and blow them back to the Stone Age!" Go rent the tapes, watch them with an open mind and try to think of any other TV show with a more memorable theme song.
Did you see his reaction when they first told him about it? Very somber looking.. obviously fake. We all know his natural reaction would be a stupid grin followed by "huh huh.. what?".
I'm also a vi user; I map Escape onto the left-thumb Delete key, symmetric with Return. Works well for me.
I also map the otherwise useless Insert key to Mod5 and dedicate it to window manager operations, so I rarely have to take my hands off the keyboard.
Do you look inside. :)
...They want to sell the thing internationally. Different people would have different keys set to do different things. I can even see a programmer-friendly keymapping with { and so on set for easy-access.
That said, I think it's well past time for someone to come up with a dynamically-labelable keyboard...
Don't know what keyboard you tried, but this Logitech keyboard has the 6 on the left side.