Posted by
chrisd
on from the click-smack-click-smack dept.
graymalkn writes "My wife has repetitive stress problems and prefers typing on old-fashioned mechanical typewriters. For Christmas, I converted a mechanical typewriter to work as a computer keyboard. My favorite feature: slap the carriage return for Enter."
Seems so simple...
by
LostCluster
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Early keyboards used to have a "clicking" resistance mechanism, until "quiet" keyboards created the "flying until you hit a wall" feeling that the poster's wife complained of.
We seem to all have standardized now on similar keyboards in tactile function, but that clearly leaves a market to serve those who perfer other styles of keyboard. Could this kind of keyboard-that-feels-like-a-typewriter device have enough appeal to get a mainstream keyboard maker behind it?
My experiance
by
oliverthered
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Well, I play the guitar, not that well but that's another story.
I find I get more problems with my hands from using the wheel on the mouse then from playing the guitar.
Although the motions are fairly simila, the extra bit of resistance on the guitar strings might be what prevents the stress....
I've never had any problems typing, and I've been doing that long enough. (though again I use clicky not soft keyboards).
-- thank God the internet isn't a human right.
One problem i can see right off the bat..
by
TheHawke
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
She's stuck using the margins that are available to them on the manual typewriter... You see, shes sitting there rattling away and then, DING! end of margin. No word wrap, no automatic carriage return. She has to hit the manual return level to move the unit back to its original position, thus issuing a CR to the program. The other issue is ZERO arrow keys so if she has to move the cursor to edit or change posistion or shift to another page, she has to fuss around with the mouse, hence more chances for her carpal tunnel to get worse. He should have butchered the machine up, disabled the automatic advance, got the backspace to work, and then found a way to wire in a 10-key keypad that would have given almost all the functions of a standard 101 KB.
Oh, I can see her now, trying to enter a URL on a browser with it... heheh it'll drive her bonkers...
-- First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Ah yes, the revered IBM keyboard
by
kfg
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I missed mine. . . until I got one of the new Logitechs. Ok, not the solid 5 pound monster the IBM was, and not quite as "clicky," but it seems to have just the right compromise between click and quiet with absolutely no feeling of "hitting the wall" that the membrane boards give you. I can type like in the "good old days" again.
And I don't have to mess up a perfectly good typewriter to do it. I still love my old Underwood. Leave it alone.
But for God's sake, don't make me have to *type* on it.
Sorry, but you're quite wrong about the lack of a CPU. Most (all?) PC keyboards have an 8048, or an 8048 core in an ASIC. 'Twas the stuff of legendary hackery to harness that 8048 for your own purposes, back in the day.
-- You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
What about the 1 key?
by
/dev/kev
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
More importantly, he seems to have forgotten about the "1" key. Many old typewriters, including the one he appears to have used, lack a "1" key. Typists would simply use a lowercase "l" (ell) key in lieu of 1 - you can probably still see this on very old documents if you look hard enough. The missing key made the typewriter mechanism (marginally) simpler, and helped to make them cheaper. I'm very curious as to how his wife types a one character, but there's no mention of that on the site.
-- Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Check this out
by
DrunkenPenguin
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
You'd think that there'd be LESS stress with an elecronic keyboard than a mechanical one.
Yeah, I think so too, but what do you guys think about this computer chair? ---
Music to type by
by
Black+Rabbit
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
When I read the article, for some strange reason I found that a certain tune was running through my head. Anybody remember the little instrumental that played 8 bars with the typewriter going in the background in time to the music, then the line would end, the bell would ring and then the unmistakeable, (to those of us beyond a certain age), sound of a carriage return, then on to the next 8 bars. Haven't a clue what it's called, but it's going to be running through my head for the rest of the evening now.
CTRL-ALT-DEL ?
by
sapped
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I dunno about you, but I don't envy her trying to CTRL-ALT-DEL her way out of a lockup.
a few notes on my typewriter-keyboard conversion
by
Graymalkn
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The biggest thing people seem to have mentioned is the lack of a backspace key. Yes, it is a problem. While reading people's comments on here, I finally had an idea of how to fix it- there are a couple of other keys on the typewriter that aren't being used, like the "1/2 1/4" key. The "backspace" key cap could be moved over to that key , which could then be wired on the underside just like the rest. It would even be closer to where backspace is on a regular keyboard. Thanks for getting me thinking about that.
As for my wife being limited by the regular length of a line, this isn't the case unless she were to try using it as a typewriter at the same time. Otherwise, she would still be able to type merrily away even though the carriage had come to the end of the line, so there really isn't a problem there.
One person emailed me with a link to an even cooler creation of his from a few years back: http://www.idiom.com/~decay/art_folio/letter.html
Erik
--
*******
"What good is science if no one gets hurt?!" - Professor Chromedome
yeah, famous last words
by
nido
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I got an ibm thinkpad in August of 1999. Within a couple of months my right hand was starting to cramp up. "no problem", I said, and I switched to using the left hand on the track point. Then after a bit both hands were cramping up. So I started to switch back & forth. And then the pain gradually spread to typing too, and it hasn't gotten better yet.
So switching mouse hands was, for me, a disaster - I should've changed pointing devices, or my usage patterns...
-- Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly. www.teslabox.com
Slashdot Mirror
Early keyboards used to have a "clicking" resistance mechanism, until "quiet" keyboards created the "flying until you hit a wall" feeling that the poster's wife complained of.
We seem to all have standardized now on similar keyboards in tactile function, but that clearly leaves a market to serve those who perfer other styles of keyboard. Could this kind of keyboard-that-feels-like-a-typewriter device have enough appeal to get a mainstream keyboard maker behind it?
Well, I play the guitar, not that well but that's another story.
I find I get more problems with my hands from using the wheel on the mouse then from playing the guitar.
Although the motions are fairly simila, the extra bit of resistance on the guitar strings might be what prevents the stress....
I've never had any problems typing, and I've been doing that long enough. (though again I use clicky not soft keyboards).
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
She's stuck using the margins that are available to them on the manual typewriter... You see, shes sitting there rattling away and then, DING! end of margin. No word wrap, no automatic carriage return. She has to hit the manual return level to move the unit back to its original position, thus issuing a CR to the program.
The other issue is ZERO arrow keys so if she has to move the cursor to edit or change posistion or shift to another page, she has to fuss around with the mouse, hence more chances for her carpal tunnel to get worse.
He should have butchered the machine up, disabled the automatic advance, got the backspace to work, and then found a way to wire in a 10-key keypad that would have given almost all the functions of a standard 101 KB.
Oh, I can see her now, trying to enter a URL on a browser with it... heheh it'll drive her bonkers...
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
I missed mine. . . until I got one of the new Logitechs. Ok, not the solid 5 pound monster the IBM was, and not quite as "clicky," but it seems to have just the right compromise between click and quiet with absolutely no feeling of "hitting the wall" that the membrane boards give you. I can type like in the "good old days" again.
And I don't have to mess up a perfectly good typewriter to do it. I still love my old Underwood. Leave it alone.
But for God's sake, don't make me have to *type* on it.
KFG
Sorry, but you're quite wrong about the lack of a CPU. Most (all?) PC keyboards have an 8048, or an 8048 core in an ASIC. 'Twas the stuff of legendary hackery to harness that 8048 for your own purposes, back in the day.
You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
More importantly, he seems to have forgotten about the "1" key. Many old typewriters, including the one he appears to have used, lack a "1" key. Typists would simply use a lowercase "l" (ell) key in lieu of 1 - you can probably still see this on very old documents if you look hard enough. The missing key made the typewriter mechanism (marginally) simpler, and helped to make them cheaper. I'm very curious as to how his wife types a one character, but there's no mention of that on the site.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
You'd think that there'd be LESS stress with an elecronic keyboard than a mechanical one.
Yeah, I think so too, but what do you guys think about this computer chair?
---
When I read the article, for some strange reason I found that a certain tune was running through my head. Anybody remember the little instrumental that played 8 bars with the typewriter going in the background in time to the music, then the line would end, the bell would ring and then the unmistakeable, (to those of us beyond a certain age), sound of a carriage return, then on to the next 8 bars. Haven't a clue what it's called, but it's going to be running through my head for the rest of the evening now.
I dunno about you, but I don't envy her trying to CTRL-ALT-DEL her way out of a lockup.
The biggest thing people seem to have mentioned is the lack of a backspace key. Yes, it is a problem. While reading people's comments on here, I finally had an idea of how to fix it- there are a couple of other keys on the typewriter that aren't being used, like the "1/2 1/4" key. The "backspace" key cap could be moved over to that key , which could then be wired on the underside just like the rest. It would even be closer to where backspace is on a regular keyboard. Thanks for getting me thinking about that.
As for my wife being limited by the regular length of a line, this isn't the case unless she were to try using it as a typewriter at the same time. Otherwise, she would still be able to type merrily away even though the carriage had come to the end of the line, so there really isn't a problem there.
One person emailed me with a link to an even cooler creation of his from a few years back: http://www.idiom.com/~decay/art_folio/letter.html
Erik
*******
"What good is science if no one gets hurt?!" - Professor Chromedome
I got an ibm thinkpad in August of 1999. Within a couple of months my right hand was starting to cramp up. "no problem", I said, and I switched to using the left hand on the track point. Then after a bit both hands were cramping up. So I started to switch back & forth. And then the pain gradually spread to typing too, and it hasn't gotten better yet.
So switching mouse hands was, for me, a disaster - I should've changed pointing devices, or my usage patterns...
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com