Slashdot Mirror
A One-Handed Keyboard For $25
Bruce Perens writes "Slashdot has often featured attempts at improvement upon the QWERTY keyboard. Here's a one-handed USB keyboard that you can buy for $25 online, or a bit more at the CompUSA. There's one catch: someone will have to design a keying pattern and hack up software for it. It's a task just crying out for an Open Source project." Bruce has also included on the linked page code with which to read the output from the device.
let the stream of one-handed web surfing jokes begin...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
about what the other hand is doing. "I tried to have phone sex, but the holes were too small" - Sage Francis
"yes, but is it left-handed?"
Saying that you can buy a one-handed keyboard for $25, but you have to roll your own software, means you're not buying a one-handed keyboard for $25. That's like saying you can buy your own crystal meth for $25 - sure, the ingredients are only $25, but you have to know the recipe and risk life and limb cooking the stuff.
Not that I'd know about those things. (And that applies to both coding my own keyboard drivers as well as cooking meth.)
What's your damage, Heather?
Looks pretty armless to me ;-)
What is the sound of one hand typing?
elSpike out.
Dvorak allready has keyboards designs for both left and right hand only. These could probably be put on the new kb easy enough. Not that I can read the article, mirror anyone?
My daughter only has one hand. I used to think she had a really hard time typing because of the style of typing she used on AIM, it was very fast but did not make much sense. Then I realized all the kids type that way. She can type about 15-20 wpm with just her one hand. I guess it depends on how handicapped someone is but if someone handicapped learned to type with this device, they would be "stuck" using this device any time hey needed to type.
Writer must be stuffed, this couldn't possibly become a successfu... oh Bruce Perens, ^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h
Wow, great idea! Lets start coding! Where's the source-forge page?
This idea is akin to changing the steering wheel in a car to a joystick; possible, but why change something that is a functional standard?
Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!
Mod this up. This isn't even close to a one handed keyboard. It's just a Belkin Speedpad that gamers use for FPSs. They've been out forever. The link is just some blogger speculating about what might be done with it. Belkin isn't marketing one handed keyboards. Just one handed keypads. Stupid post.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
the fact that most people only type with two fingers which I guess will now be one finger...
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process ?Product_Id=157024
Seems the technocrat site is already slashdotted.
(Article is /.'ed but hey). Why would a company bring a prodcut to market if there is no support. Its not like you ever see people like Sony or Epson bring things to market and not have any drivers at all. OK The drivers might be for Windows and flakey but least they tried
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
man xmodmap
As long as the one-handed keyboards gives any kind of output, it can be mapped al gusto.
but you have to know the recipe and risk life and limb cooking the stuff
The nazi method is fairly safe with some basic precautions. Now, getting the ingredients is hard.
Someone will have to BEEF UP their webservers first.
Yo Grark
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
First, you will not risk life and limb writing your own keyboard driver, unless you've somehow decided to add in a force feedback option.
Second, my bet is that there will be an open source driver for this thing by the end of the week. Just keep watching the comments on this story and someone may have a link by later today.
KDE (and, I believe, Gnome) allows you to configure shortcut keys to more or less anything, based on keys/key combos.
It wouldn't be all that difficult for someone with a modicum of experience to configure a one-handed keyboard so it becomes very usable - at least for whatever it is you'd want to use a one-handed keyboard for. No need to write code.
...what isn't imperfect. I live with it comfortably,
with no RSI or anything else. Why squander brain power on yet another weird device? If you really are sitting there pounding away at 100wpm all day then what kind of coding bot are you anyway?
(and are you thinking about what you're coding?)
It's far too late to educate anyone about the merits of a new device that replaces an old device wot works. Try convincing the Brits or US that metric is a good idea? 3/8" bolts on the ISS (yuk). (and I'm old enough to remember (ouch) don't want to comment...).
Perhaps the open source world needs to discuss what we ought to play with (gee: i have this neat
idea for photographing emperor penguins...) rather
than the old well worn stuff. Try a sci fi style
workshop maybe?
sidenote: Wagtails wag their tails in order to create turbulence. Prove me wrong.
"some blogger"!?
Bart: Did, did you lose your arm in the war? Herman: My arm? Well, let me put it this way: Next time your teacher tells you to keep your arm inside the bus window, you do it!
Why this is in the "Linux" section?
Imagine what you could do with two of those!
Unfortunately, I already have my left hand reserved for the mouse. Being right-handed, I prefer keeping my more dexterous hand on the keyboard. Dexterity would be particularly required for a novel alternative like this. But it looks like there is only a left-handed model available :(
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
One potential problem: Does it work equally well for left-handers as right-handers. The picture on the Belkin page looks like it's designed for lefties, which is fine with me, but probably a problem for about 95% of the population.
the previous version of the nostromo, the n50 ( same thing w/ less keys and less orange ) had some linux software written for it avalible here
My small form factor ThinkPad has such a small keyboard, it's essentially one-handed.
And it even comes with a nipple!
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
It looks from the picture like it might be designed to used with a left hand, i.e. there is a button that looks like it's supposed to be used by a thumb on the right.
Is this true or am I looking at the picture funny? I had a stroke when I was very young and type one handed but if there was a keyboard designed for just my right hand (that was cheap: I'm not how much faster I'd be than on a QWERTY), I'd give it a shot.
Struggling to find a day everyone can make? WhenShallWe.com
Other than the title, category, subject matter and content - great post!
theres a device similar to this, called the space devilfish, thats ambidexerous.
it also supports force feedback and the ability to strap it to your leg. an astute reader will realize that these two features are complementary
was never any where near as popular as the nostromos (which were never that popular), and like them only officially supports windows/mac, so i dont know if theres any linux software avalible for it
There IS software for the product. It's a gaming "keypad/keyboard". The idea of the poster is to use it for other stuff too. Like normal typewriting for handicapped or to leave one hand free. for using the mouse i guess... :?
So I can't see picts and I hope it's a left handed keyboard 'cause I'm right handed.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Actually, from the description at Belkin's site, this keyboard is designed for gamers, not the physically challenged. It only comes in a left-handed configuration, so it wouldn't be very useful to someone who had lost the use of their left hand.
This ISN'T for people without full use of their hands, it is marketed towards gamers.
Note the Up/Down/Left/Right pad, and IIRC, the keyboard is scriptable, to allow a single keypress to take the place of multiple keys.
I've been looking for a cheap one-handed keyboard for use with my tablet PC, hopefully something I could velcro onto the back for use while holding the tablet. Photoshop and Painter are tedious without tab, alt, shift and ctrl. This could be just the thing to provide those.
Teach me to read the /. comments before reading the article! Sorry folks. I've worked in the disabilities market before and am a little sensitive sometimes.
so yes this is left handed and I doubt the manufacturer has the kind of production run that makes a left handed device worthwhile.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
"It's a task just crying out for an Open Source project"
I'm on the case! Do you want the ability to use colours in your text editor?
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
It is aimed at adding control to games, but it has been noticed that it could also form the basis of a particularly inexpensive and well-designed chording keyboard.
It is not designed specifically to support the needs of people with limited dexterity.
I have one of these things and it works fine. You could probably use joy2key to use it as a keyboard. I'm not sure if the shift functions work or not.
Clickety Click
Funny, but one handed keyboards have been around since the Englebart demo.
Except for CAD, they never really took off - until the modern video game.
And while I certainly would not want to type a comment like this with a one-handed keyboard, I can see where they would be damn useful in editing a document - click-drag, button press for bold, click-drag, underline (or click-drag indent, click-drag create-subroutine-skeleton, click-drag lookup-definition).
www.eFax.com are spammers
Of course, it's intended for gamers, but can easily be made into a one-handed chording keyboard to nurture your inner cyborg, if you just...
Yeah, so why buy a $25 gaming thing with 14 buttons when you can get a numeric pad? those have 17 keys, have been around for ever and can be had for a buck at your friendly computer recycler.
What's so different with the gaming pad? why didn't Bruce propose the same thing with numeric pads? hell, why didn't he propose the same thing with the numeric pad section of a normal keyboard?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
This one is smaller, and supports both a USB and a Bluetooth connection (so you can use it with your cell phone).
s p
I only wish they included flash memory on it.
http://www.frogpad.com/information/bluefroginfo.a
(please mod down parent, I accidently submitted before finishing editing)
I bought a nostromo n52 a couple of months ago. I definitely wouldn't consider it a candidate for a "one-handed keyboard" but it is a good complement to your existing keyboard. Don't let the goofy Slashdot editor limit the potential of this device. The software that comes with it is already quite good. You can assign any macro you want to any of the 14 keys (and with the "shift" key that lights up 3 different LEDs, you can basically multiply that 14 by 4). It also has a scroll wheel, thumbpad, and button. All can be set up to do whatever you want, launch programs, type snippets of text, etc.
If you shop around a bit for keyboards with a large number of programmable keys, you will find that most are quite expensive. In fact, there is a thriving market over on eBay for the Gateway Anykey keyboard with 124 programmable keys, which I don't believe is even manufactured anymore.
In reality, I don't actually use the nostromo all that much, as I rely more often on the terrific
Winkey to set up most of my macros. But I'm happy with my purchase of the $25 Nostromo and do use it from time to time.
slashsearch.org - slashdot search. powered by google.
Correct me if I'm wrong, as I've only seen a few peripheral numpads (generally for laptops), but my impression is that they tend to be built the same way as the average computer keyboard. You know, where you can't press two keys at the same time if they're in the same row? If this device allows you to detect which keys are pressed as individual signals, then chording is much more feasible. And I would not be surprised if they indeed allow for multiple keys being pressed as this is one of the major problems with playing FPS games using a keyboard.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
The Quinkey Microwriter... I had a left-handed one for a while, some ... 17 years ago, maybe?
Look here
for a review of one. This item has a picture of one...
Since the website is /.'ed I must ask the obvious question: What makes a keyboard one handed? I can slide my keyboard over to the side and type with one hand just fine. (Yes, I just opened myself up to many jokes)
---
Those who can, do
Those who can't, teach
Those who don't know how, supervise
I actually own the n52, upgrading from my earlier n50.
As a gamer (yes, I admit it), I do find these devices useful. After about 4-5 gaming sessions, I became extremely comfortable with the device, and began integrating its usefulness into more traditional applications (like 3DS Max). Given the included software (albeit Windows), you are able to map keystrokes (macros as well) to the device, to which you can reconfigure/reinitialize the mapping through an app that sits in the systray (Loadout Manager).
Now onto the bad stuff. The n52 makes some improvements over the n50 (extra row of keys, dpad, thumb shift key), however the response of the keys themselves seems to have suffered a setback. While I was never completely satisfied with the response of the n50 keys (not enough tactile feedback for these fingers), the n52 has this even less so. More importantly, the keys sometime stick, making you depress some of the keys more than once in order to execute the keystroke - a pretty large issue when it comes the one thing a keyboard should do well.
Hopefully, the problems I encountered with this n52 is a defect with this particular unit (/.er's, chime in!).
All-in-all, the n50/n52 are good and versatile products, and I recommend them for those looking for a one-hand input device - particularly if you come across them at a cheap price (I bought my n52 for $35). The software support is a little flimsy, but Belkin seems to be more focused on this as their products are growing in popularity.
Another extremely interesting input use... The ILL Clan (a Machinima team I co-founded) use these devices to puppeteer their virtual characters during their Machinima productions/live performances - mapping the keys to facial gestures, lipsync and triggered animations.
Rejected from about a year ago, even, so who says Slashdot doesn't keep up with the times? :)
Here's my old review, in plain text glory:
Review of the Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52
The Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52 is a reworked version of
the n50: both are gaming peripherals that combine a small keyboard,
a D-pad, and a scroll wheel into a small, ergonomic package. Using
the included software, you can bind keys and macros to the Speedpad
for use in games and applications. So, for example, instead of using the
typical WASD layout on your keyboard, you can map those keys to the
Speedpad, along with keys for throwing grenades, switching weapons,
etc.
With macros, you can initial multiple actions, such as targeting
the nearest enemy, following him, and going into attack mode, all
with a single keypress.
The n50 is probably the best gaming peripheral I've ever owned: I
find it indispensible for FPS and MMORP games. When news of the
n52 began to filter out, I was hoping that many of the flaws of
the n50 would be eliminated, but that the core utility of the
device would be maintained. I'm happy to say that I was not disappointed.
Firstly, some of the flaws with the n50:
* Lame "scroll" wheel was really not a scroll wheel, but more like
a throttle: it did not have full 360 degree motion.
* Shift state indicators in a bad spot: the n50 (and n52) has three
"shift modes" that you can switch between, allowing each key to have
more than one use, depending on the shift mode. However, the n50's
shift mode indicators are on the left side of the unit: when you are using
it, your hand blocks the ability to see those indicators.
Minor problems, really: the scroll wheel was easy to just disable, and after
a while, you didn't worry about the shift mode indicators.
The n52, though, fixes both problems: it has a 360 degree scroll wheel (that also
can act as a button when pressed, just like many mouses) making it actually
useful. The shift indicators have been movies to the right side of the
controller, near one of the new thumb buttons. Now you can see the shift
state at a glance.
There's a new row of keyboard buttons, adding 4 more buttons in good positions.
Your pinky will now be able to trigger death and destructions much more easily.
The new thumb buttons, though, are a disappointment. The idea is great: two
buttons above and below the dpad on the right of the controller. However,
the round orange button above the dpad is extremely difficult to press without
Pros:
* Great ergonomics
* More buttons
* Better positioning of shift indicators
Cons:
* New thumb buttons are a little annoying in placement and use
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
Did you manage to make money selling disabilities? /obvious
codegolf.com - smaller *is* better.
They had to make the one handed linux keyboard to prepare for the war that is coming. This war I speak of is the war against M$. We will need one hand free for a weapon, to use against the M$. The other hand must remain on the keyboard to make sure to inform everyone about just how bad the M$ really is, and it is bad, they told me. This invention is as big as the wheel. It's the first sign of the coming of the great war. Take part!
...trackball that is, I find it an excellent way to use AutoCAD. ...oh...you didn't think that......
;)
you people are sick....
A goal is a dream with a deadline
I like how the summary includes direct quotes from the other page, but has a block quote around that and paraphrased stuff as well. A wee bit too early in the morning for a post, perhaps?
What are you talking about, the slashdot story quotes what Bruce submitted to slashdot, which was just a re-wording of what he wrote on the main article. So what?
Uh, it was designed for gamers, not for the handicapped. So get off of your humanitarian high horse!!!
Selling? I'm a software guy, I code the stuff.
Maybe court reporters could use a device similar to this since there are not that much more keys on their keyboard. I looked at a transcript once before it was translated over to real English... it was worse than trying to decipher a 12 year old AO-hell kid.
http://dont.spam.me.anymore.com
Get over it. Many of you have full use of both of your hands. That's great. This keyboard isn't for you.
k eyboard application? It isn't as simple as it sounds. Someone has to do some ergonomics research to determine the most efficient way to use it, lest we be saddled with another QWERTY disaster.
Many people do not have full use of thier hands.
I sort of got the impression it wasn't for them, either. What percentage of people with the use of one hand do you think are likely to spend $25 on a keyboard, then spend the next month or so writing their own drivers, developing and perfecting their own chording scheme, and then learning said chording scheme? At least if they spend the extra $100 or so to get a product targeted specifically at this market, they can get drivers and probably a tutorial CD that makes the learning process a lot simpler.
This is about a guy saying, "Look what could be done if someone took it on as a project," not "Here's a ready-made solution for the handicapped."
BTW, open-source drivers are only half the picture. What about an open-source teach-people-how-to-use-this-weirdass-one-handed-
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
I typed that command, and my keyboard still doesn't work.
I bought one of these to use in Quake, mine's not belkin, but it does have an impressive range of buttons.
I thought to myself, "self, it would be cool to ditch a full keyboard and use this with my left hand and never taking my hands off mouse or keyboard"
By no means is this product marketed for this purpose. I do agree, it would be cool.
"Lame" - Galaxar
Or you would reserve your more dexterous hand to the mouse.
I wonder if normal word-processor, cursor positioning, plain office usage wouldn't also require high dexterity with the mouse...
If there is a 1-hand keyboard, is there a 2-hand mouse?
I asked Google, and interestingly enough, it gave me just the opposite - a 0-hand mouse: No Hand Mouse.
Simpy
what the other hand is used for. Bruce uses it to keep repetitively patting himself on the back since he has that nagging feeling of self importance. Freakin' tool...
My QWERTY is just fine, as long as I use one hand at a time:
Fred was a fat ass
"Hop on my jolly polonium puppy, you union ho'..."
Greedy Fred created extra stewardesses
"Union ho?" I'll kill you!
Badass stewardesses cratered Fred
Unholy, huh?
I got one of these last year the the intention of doing this. The problem is that if you use the four way thumb pad as a shifter, it sends the finger key(s) held again when the thumb pad is released. I eventually got to typing on it, but that "feature" severely limited my speed.
funny munging
Maybe there would be some way to purchase two of these devices, synchronize them somehow, and then you'd have some kind of cool two-handed key-operated input device for computers. We'd need some kind of drivers for it though.
It actually does have Linux Drivers: "Project: Linux Nostromo Speedpad Driver" http://sourceforge.net/projects/nostromodriver/
__________
Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace!
> I definitely wouldn't consider it a candidate for a "one-handed keyboard"
Why not?
Yet another site that has been crashed by being Slashdotted! The one hand keyboard has been around for a very very long time. Someone just made the hardware to fit the situation, so to speak.
...gives a fuck about wpm. They're still stuck in the old days when they had to write everything on paper and then transcribe it to the typewriter or the word processor. Nowadays, we just type everything in directly into the comp, and it doesn't really matter how fast it is, as long as it's not too slow (yeah fp's can be copy-pasted).
IM: u only put in a few words, 15wpm or 200, it only takes seconds for a few words. Message forums: You take your time type in comments anyway, I'm typing this using 4 fingers, and sometimes just one as I also eat breakfast. Progamming: very few us write cobol anymore, so not that many words to type in anyway.
WPM is passe.
I bought one of those for gaming. I was surprised at the amount of filangy strength needed to depress keys. Not to mention that on occasion keypresses repeat and sometimes arent read at all, though that could be a driver issue.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
If it doesn't work, then how did you type it?
Just junk food for thought...
You can't? I just tried that on my ps/2 keyboard under XFree4.2 using an old keyboard I pulled from a friend's broken e-machine (which means it's roughly the cheapest ps/2 keyboard you could buy). I used xev to monitor keyboard events.
Then I pressed (on the keypad) 4,5,6,and + all at the same time. I repeated this three times. Then I tried it on j,k,l and ; and got the same result.
xev registered every event - four separate key presses, and four key releases. Of course, it didn't consider them as one event, but that hardly matters, does it? All you have to do is check for events that are within the same tenth of a millisecond or so.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
It seems they let just about anybody post to Slashdot these days.
Course I guess as a leftie I win, because I don't need to buy $50 of extra equipment to have my hands sitting perfectly for gaming. Left hand on the trackball, right on the arrow keys for movement, number pad nearby for weapon switching, near cntl and backslash for triggering things, numpad . for reload, 0 for crouch...
The only thing I don't have is good auto-chat stuff, but for what I tend to play I either have teamspeak up or want to type a full message (both hands, for speed).
Slashdot Patriotism: We Support our Dupes!
One-handed Dvorak are mappings for a full-sized keyboard. The one-handed keyboard mentioned does not fit the bill.
when douglas englebart invented the mouse (and windows, and networking, and hypertext, etc.), he made the first machines to use a mouse and a one-handed keyboard so that both hands would be utilized.
then xerox parc had the alto, but their mouse didn't have a mouse ball -- it was apple that invented the mouse ball, and shipped the first commercial computer that came with a mouse as standard.
one of the devices that came out in the late 1980's was a device called 'the bat' -- a one-handed keyboard -- you can still by this device here.
regards,
j
you are right this one is almost $600
http://www.half-qwerty.com/
And this website has lots of options
http://www.aboutonehandtyping.com/enewsnov00.html
I always thought of Creationism as the Raving Right's version of the Loony Left's Anthropogenic Global Warming-brightmal
I thought we were boycotting them ...?
..
I know I am
And I love it for gaming, though I would think that typing on the think would be hard, unless you could get some lighter springs in it. And for all of those "calling for linux drivers" Yeesh Can't say as I have tried them but I am one of those sad sacks that still uses his windows box for gaming.
Sera
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
I've used KeyTweak (freeware) to remap the control key on my old Toshiba laptop.
It is extremely useful for non-standard keyboard layouts.
You can download it at http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/
Since you seem to have insight into this stuff, what's the best way to treat a serial stream as keypresses? Say I have an embedded system receiving a continuous stream of serial data, but I need to look for sequences of six or seven hex values and treat the various detected sequences as keypresses, where do you suggest I start? How about a method that will not affect the system if I want to occasionally attach a USB keyboard?
TIA,
LH
Intelligent Life on Earth
How is this a Linux topic? Maybe I'm missing something.... Perhaps Timothy forgot not all open Source development is done on or for Linux.
This guy is way out there
Yeah ... he's Bruce Fucking Perens, doesn't mean he's making something out of nothing. Honestly why would you want to take the time to write a KB driver for something which was never designed to be a kb? That's like taking my gamepad and saying you can write a driver so it can be a keyboard too!! YEAH!! I have alot of respect for Mr. Perens, I just think he's gone off on the wrong idea here.
Kleedrac
Sure we wang, can.
I cannot get to the link (Do you think it is /.'d?) but I was even going to go to the lengths of *gulp* making my own keyboard that would rest in my relaxed palm, allowing me to type (via bluetooth eventually) to my pda without any stressful movements.
One handed though.. not sure, I planned to have two joystick shaped (ergonimoc) keyboards each with 5 pressure sensors / buttons, and use a simple keying algorithm that I found suitable , or perhaps adapt dvorak or look to newer input methods (ref. David Mckay at Cambridge) that have been investigated since mobiles and PDA's were new.
*waits to see link*
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
At least you don't use Dvorak, where the longest word that you can type with one hand is "papaya."
Gee, a lot of us old-timers have a long resume (although most of us haven't made the transition from engineer to manifesto-writing Guru), that doesn't mean we should get a free pass for a dumb idea.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
It's pretty trivial to create keypresses in the same way, and chording would just be a matter of mapping out all the button combinations.
Yeah, maybe they fixed it after the subsequent uproar. But I don't remember that they ever issued an apology. Tell me that they fired somebody over this, and I'll think about buying another Belkin product.
The idea with open source is that it only takes one sucker to write the driver and the rest can benefit from the novelty of it.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
"man xmodmap"
Oh gee. One of the most unfriendly tools for changing a keyboard. Why don't you have people flip toggle switches?
tsk tsk, the y is incorrect typing. ;-)
So the device they are talking about is the Belkin n52. /. link mirror.
You can see the mirror (thanks to JWSWythe) over at his
And you can order it from any of these vendors.
There are numerous reviews of the device, including some at PC Mag, Extreme Review, and Tom's Hardware. For the lazy it receives rather good reviews when looked at for it's original gaming purpose.
...and an n50, incidentally...
Both of these models will actually output text in normal applications already, no modding required (running XP).
Maybe all that needs to be done to make this usable in a windows environment is to whip up a profile via the included customizing software
Howdy.
The same way he typed the post. :)
Voice-Activation has certainly come a long way.
I'm just glad to know I wasn't the only one to think that.
I was so ashamed, I couldn't put a response in until now.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d Capitalization really works: i helped my uncle jack off a horse
>
>tsk tsk, the y is incorrect typing.
Serves me right for using my fingers instead of grep. Then again, so was my use of the shift key. For future reference:
In my opinion, you look plump.
Red cabbages are savage weeds
Federated rats vacate West Texas!
Steve evades scattered egg beaters!
Red cabbages are savage weeds! Ferrets wear sweaters.
(I think we've pretty much confirmed it. Left-handed typing is more fun. Or my right hand is a lot busier than it shou-oh, wait, this is Slashdot. Most of our right hands are busy.)
Does your daughter have any other issues with computers that you would like see helped?
Does she have trouble with double keystrokes like ctrl-s?
I always find switching between mouse and keyboard annoying... that is, I don't mind mouse-intensive activities, and I don't mind keyboard intensive activities, but I dislike activities that require switching back and forth. Does your daughter have issues with that? Have you tried using a keyboard with an integrated trackball or mousepad?
Other issues I haven't thought of? Any devices or software you would like to see developed?
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
This would probably help quite a bit
Why is this in the Linux section?
You gotta give him credit for the "technocrat.net" link in his story, though. Linking directly to Belkin wouldn't help his ad revenue.
So, I type with my left hand while my right hand... ? Oh, never mind.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=SpeedPad+n52&b tnG=Search+Froogle&scoring=p :)
Sad that people profit so much from disabilities, things like that should be free, or almost free, for those who need them.
Why didn't they just stick a freaking optical mouse below the damn thing? It'd be a hell of a lot more useful if we had keyboard-mice instead of seperate ones. I'm thinking of buying this and modding it with a cheap old optical... Might be neat.
I can't read the article since it's slashdotted, but if you need to design the keying pattern and write your own software, then what are you buying for $25? Why not just make a keying pattern and write software to work with a normal 101/104-key keyboard to give it a one-handed mode?
It seems far more useful to me not to make a keyboard that must be used only with one-hand but to make a two-handed keyboard that allows one-handed use when you need it (the other hand's on the mouse, you dirty thinkers).
Enter OkayKeybees. It lets Windows users define keying chords to make your own one-handed mode. Its GUI is kind of clunky (I found it easier to edit the configuration file with a text editor), and it kind of sucks that you have to define your own key chords (Matias has a patent on their layout).
Gee, $25 sounds kind of expensive. I don't know about drugs, but last I heard, all the chemicals of a normal human body ran at around $10.
The reason it's $600 is that volume is just about zero. I'd be surprised if they've sold more than a few hundred of these.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
note the difference between something like this, where the product that requires the community to take action would yield a practical result, as the people working on the project would be the ones that decide how it would be used and thus would likely create a more appropriate end-product than the company, and a company that releases a half-assed shoddy driver for their device as "open source", expecting the community to make all the necessary improvements to get the device to work at all in the designed function of the device.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
http://www.aboutonehandtyping.com/
I found this site a few weeks back, and it caught my attention. It advertises the sale of a software product (or maybe just information...) designed to teach you how to type one-handed on a normal, full sized QWERTY.
At first I was interested but skeptical, and then I saw a diagram showing basically how it was pulled off, and the whole thing just clicked into place (home row == FGHJ, use pinky and index fingers to access most of the keyboard).
I expect it would be a bit harder to pick up than two-handed touch typing, but as I played around with going for the keys from the home rome, I realized that all it would take is training your muscle-memory for a new situation (the keyboard is still fully accessible, albiet requiring a stretch at times to get to the characters on the far right). The only other issues I can think of involve the Shift key... I can't figure out how to press the damn thing. Maybe just learn to switch CapsLock on/off for each capital letter?
It'd be a cool party trick, though, huh? One-handed typing on two different keyboards? At the least, it would be nice to keep my hand on the mouse at times.
And of course, if I was disabled in any way, being able to use my good hand anywhere I went would be priceless.
Oh wait... I wasn't supposed to admit any of that was I.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Plus, what QWERTY keyboard has the punctuation on the left?
In case you don't have one of these Belkin Speedpad 52s already, they're awesome. I use it for gaming, and there's no limit to what you can program these things to do. In fact, I might even consider using one borderline cheating if you program the macros well enough.
Anyway, because I had some with the "profile editor" of the included software, I went ahead (after reading the article) and made a profile that does (what I believe) the original author had intended.
I did this in about 30 minutes, so bear with me if some keys are missing or if it's a little buggy. All major symbols and lettered keys are included but I still need to find where to put keys like "[", "]", and so on.
I broke the keyboard down into 4 logical secions:
1. All function keys / most symbols
2. Right lettered side
3. Left letter side
4. Numpad
From there, I made each of those sections one of the four "shifts" for the controller. Shifting is controlled via the 4-way D-pad with up being "cycle shift", right being right letters, left being the left letters, and down being the numpad. Function keys are the default. Additionally, because of the frequency of their use, the enter and space keys exist in all "shifts" on the circle button and button number 15, respectively.
I know this sounds complicated, but it's really not. Once you take a look at the design in the profile editor, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
I'm posting these files up on my university filespace. They're small, but if anybody wants to mirror, feel free to do so. Also, feel free to change my design and distribute as you see fit. (Patents/copyrights are for the birds, imo.)
To use these files, you'll have to already have to use the software that is included with the device. Directions, which consists of 2 steps, are included within the readme.
DOWNLOAD HERE
-Grym
They also market to the handicapped market, though their products for them tend to be overpriced - all you really need to implement it is a different driver for a standard keyboard that lets you flipflop both sides. They've got demoware that lets you try it out. And unfortunately, they've patented what they've done, and would probably get annoyed if somebody released a freeware driver...
Another interesting design is the FITALY keyboard, which is designed for one-finger use, or one-stylus use on a palm touchscreen. Like DVORAK, it's designed for low-travel efficient movement.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
There was a story in the news recently about a Carjacker who couldn't drive a stick shift and got caught quickly.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The morale of the story is that if you are a (code) warrior, you should be right handed. Otherwise you should purchase feminine products and wear womens clothing. Just thought I'd clear that up.
http://repetae.net/john/computer/hk/
There's no real patch available and it's not clear in which kernel version the shown code can be inserted. However it's worth checking out for the idea alone. Text of the linked page:
what this is is a patch to the Linux kernel to allow half-QWERTY or half-Dvorak or half whatever layout. basically it is a way that allows you to touch type completely one-handed without loosing any keyboard functionality (two handed typing works as normal.) basically while the space is held down the keyboard is mirrored down the middle axis... keystrokes will produce the result they would have if typed by the other hand. since the movements are the same, only the hand changes the brain can adjust to this almost immediately. to type a space you just type it as normal.. if no other key was pressed concurrently then a space is outputted. you can think of the space as a shift key that mirrors the keyboard and also produces a space if nothing is pressed. its very impressive to outsiders when your touch typing away and suddenly you take one hand off the keyboard to take a sip of coke and you don't even miss a beat! its great because it doesn't interfere with normal typing but is always there to call upon.
It's just a Belkin Speedpad that gamers use for FPSs.
Is that what it is? I couldn't get to the site (wonder why?) but if it's the Belkin Nostromo Speedpad they're talking about, well yeah it's not a one-handed keyboard but it does truly rock and everybody should have one. A friend brought one over once and let me try it. The very next day I went and got one. I actually bought a floor model, sans driver disc and box because that's all that was left. I already had the drivers thanks to my buddy so that was fine, turns out they're easy to get from the web also. As soon as I spotted them in the store again, I bought another one in case the first one wore out and the maker disappeared, that's how much I like it. For games where you don't chat at people, it is excellent. I have found uses for it in applications also, for it mimics keyboard keypresses to any windows software, whether games or just notepad. It can do macros, which can be very handy for some repetitive things you might find youself doing in an app from time to time, and the app itself doesn't support macros. I've probably saved hours with it outside of games, and with games it is *SHWEET*. A minor hassle to get it all set the way you want for a new game, but once you've got a good profile saved for what you're doing it is awesome. The auto-profile-select feature seems a bit buggy under XP (it worked better in Win98) so I just choose my profile manually. A small sacrifice for the usefulness it offers.
Could it be that todays mods are too dumb to realise what the AC was getting at and needed it spelled out?
My sig was never more appropriate
My keyboads not woking popely.
My keyboads not woking popely.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Yes, and it is easier to move a control surface that isn't under 3 tons of metal. If you were to use a stick with a car, you'd have to rotate the tires working against the weight of the car, friction, etc... With a plane you are really only moving control surfaces in the air (with air resistance at speed, but still...)
EXACTLY! There's a question of leverage involved here. A wheel takes two or three rotations to get a full range of motion out of those tires, that means theres some serious gearing going on. A joystick would require massive amounts of force to make the tires turn, unless you were using a very long joystick which moved quite a bit of distance.
Here in Brasil, it's forbidden to get your license driving an automatic. period. Your license is valid to drive automatics, too.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
The last time I was involved in the design of a product in a mouled case, the tools for the case cost about $60k, admittedly it was more complex than this ought to be inside.
The tradeoff between price and quantity is not a simple matter!
Some trivia along these lines:
"typewriter" is the longest word you can spell with just one line of the qwerty keyboard.
Correction: there are more...
Linux-Mafia Nostromo n52 Linux review.
Already supported according to this review.
Picture
One-handed keyboards sell for $99 to $350, but here's one that can be had for $25 at a well-known net merchant, and a little more at the CompUSA. Of course, it's intended for gamers, but can easily be made into a one-handed chording keyboard to nurture your inner cyborg, if you just...
design an appropriate keying pattern and learn it, and write a little software. This is just crying out for an Open Source project. You can help handicapped people, perhaps even influence a new generation of low-budget cyborgs!
The Belkin Nostromo n52 Speedpad has 14 typewriter-style keys that chord (meaning they can all be read individually), LEDs, a dial, and a game controller with firing button. That's easily enough to make a chording keyboard. You can use the game controller as four shift keys (your thumb rests upon it).
To make the job easier, here's C code to read the device on Linux. To finish the job, you'll also have to push key events back into the Linux console or X Windows. Code to do that is already available on the net, it's been written for use with other USB devices.
REST OF CODE DELETED FROM THIS COPY BECAUSE SLASHDOT THINKS THE LINES ARE TOO SHORT - SEE ORIGINAL WEBSITE FOR THE REAL CODE.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I bought one of these about a month ago specifically for this purpose, but the key and button feel is still just really really bad- (like the original Nostromo)
y _P5_3D_Hand_Controller_101
Lately I've been thinking that this thing might be useful as well:
http://www.epinions.com/pr-A_D_S_Essential_Realit
I browse at +5 Flamebait- moderation for all or moderation for none.
The Microwriter Agenda, with its 5 large key chording sequences for letters sorted out the issue of one handed keyboarding back in the 1980s.
...
This line carries on with a couple of single-handed keyboards to be found at:
Bellaire Electronics
Bellaire Electronics established 1978, British Design Award 1990 for AgendA specialist
in turning small and medium scale electectronic projects into hardware
www.bellaire.co.uk/
Called the "CyKey" (afer the late film director, Cy Enfield, who financed the original research way back).
This originally was for a largish box used by the Post Office, and later manifested itself as the Microwriter Agenda in the early 1990s. A lot of us use these now venerable machines - which shows the quality of their construction! - to this day.
I am writing this on a CyKey MK1, mousing with the left hand. Very efficient.
A device like this could be rekeyed to the Microwriter standard, ideally, or the MW pattern adopted for the existing clunky keys.
It is hard to imagine as well thought out a single handed chording sequence, which had a decade of evolution. Trust me, it works fine, takes minutes to learn, and a few days practice to get as fast as handwriting.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Only gays and Japenese schoolgirls DO use SMS. They just use it A LOT.
Not left handed but I have a very strange config, left hand mouse, right keyboard (kepad). Nearly every kepad i've found always key locks when holding down 0,8, and 9. The nostromo would be great, but I never got a straight answer about a right handed one. Sure, you could use it with your right but its made for the left.
While looking for another cording keyboard, google turned up the frogpad. I like the look, might even buy they bluetooth version so I can use it for with a PDA. Apparently there is a gamming version out soon so i'm waiting for that.
my associative arrays can kick your hash - TCL
what ever happened to Dvorak keyboards? they were meant to speed up typing heaps
http://www.gnufoo.org/ucontrol/ucontrol.html#twerq
If it's the Belkin Nostromo pad, our friends ata ker.htm">MacroMaker</a> it can do anything. (Well almost anything, dynamic things are another story.) I use it for everything: Games (FPS mostly), CAD (2d/3d), and any other program that has many functions tied to keystrokes. The software it comes with even can associate specific layouts with different programs. (Ex. If you start a game, it automatically loads the function layout associated with the game.) </sales pitch>I love mine, I just wish the buttons were a bit more sensitive (they have to be pressed absolutely all the way down to register.) If only there were OSS drivers for it. (The OEM ones work fine for windows/mac, but some linux drivers would be nice.)
I have one and love it. <sales pitch> It comes with software that allows any key/mouse button to be mapped to any key/gamepad direction/mousewheel function on the pad. It even allows keyboard/mouse macros to be mapped to any key. Combined with <a href="http://members.ij.net/anthonymathews/MacroM
Actually everyone already has a one-handed keyboard, the standard kind. A driver to allow macros and other necessary one-handed features for a STANDARD keyboard is what is really necessary. Such a piece of software would be a truly useful open source project.
Thanks for taking the time to create the config and make it available!
Wondering how hard it would be to map your num pad to act like that (like a phone)?
Someone with some experience care to comment?
ND
This statement is forty-five characters long.
Once this thing is working, I can type and keep one hand on the trackball, er..wheel when I'm driving.
Divide by zero hurts my brain.
How can that be, when it hasn't been rated at all?
You know, that's one thing I hate about split keyboards. I hit B with whatever hand is available at the moment. (In practice with this message so far, "B" with the left hand, "b" with the right except when I quoted it.) Yet those split keyboard designers insist that I always use my left hand to hit B.
Give me a split keyboard with redundant B, Y, and 6 keys and a negative tilt angle. And none of these space bars that are split so that one gives a backspace. More ambidexterity!
That aside finished, I have one of these nostromos and may give chording on it a try. I just wish the palm cradle was adjustable as it doesn't quite fit my hand comfortably. My fingers want to use the SEDF cluster rather than the expected AWSD on it. The natural resting position seems designed more for typing than gaming.
Sounds right to me. Problem is I don't have the kind of magic needed to hack drivers, so I'm stuck with what they give me.
funny munging
but what does this have to do with "INcopetent Exploder" tigger??? and with "XTreme Patheticc"??? tell us tigger!!!!!1!
"the quality of plastics used for the key mounts are less than optimal. After about 6 months, mine began to wear down enough that keys would occasionally jam or not register."
I guess that you're new to Belkin products.
My experience is that they're built like toys, shoddy work, poor (or no) QC -- even for the products which DON'T have moving parts!
"Hopefully, the problems I encountered with this n52 is a defect with this particular unit"
0 &c id=9951545
I suspect not.
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11756
If you use Autocad, that speedpad is the *BEST* thing to use. Honestly. I use one for Autocad daily. It literally DOUBLED my productivity.
Buy one, I PROMISE you won't regret it. The thing that makes it really powerful, is the ability to bind long string macros to it...
for instance, imagine this..."zoom ex qsave close"
yeah...it's that good.
You want one of these, really. Let me know if you need me to mail you a setup file for Autocad that I use. Goes really really really fast. Very worth while.