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Blank Keyboard
Raynach writes "A friend of mine recently sent me a link for Das Keyboard, the keyboard for UberGeeks. This keyboard is unique in that it has no inscriptions on the keys, which the maker touts will make you type 100% faster in a few weeks since it will keep you from looking at the keyboard. This keyboard also features individually weighted keyswitches, "The keys are divided into groups and their feedback springs are weighted differently; from 35 grams to 80 grams, which correspond to the strength of the finger that touches the keys." But is this "UberGeek" keyboard really worth the high price tag?"
here's a tip that can save you around 80 bucks:
BUY PRIMER -- take off cap -- spray.
Does it have the `any' key?
Banu
$79 for an IBM keyboard that has been painted black (I know there is more to it than that, but that is essentially what you get). Now can someone tell me what solvent I can use to rub off the characters on my $30 white ergonomic keyboard?
Nowadays keyboards come with an extra row of buttons along the top: email, internet, volume and so forth. The mute key is pretty useful but the real piece of genius is the calculator key.
I don't care how funky your keyboard is: if you don't have a calculator key I'm not buying it. I'm used to it and I've come to expect it. Five years ago, sure, but get with the program. I'm not willing to remap and lose a regular key.
I'm really suprised there isn't an ergonomic version available. A recommendation of the split keyboard from a friend (hi Nugget) saved me from wrist surgery ~6.5 years ago. I swear by them now.
Trolling is a art,
I like the looks of this keyboard. But, for those looking and drawing any conclusions (I've been burned by this before), read the specs! The web site clearly represents pictorially the keyboard as wireless (I consider this deceptive -- even the "click to zoom" pictures fail to show a cable!). It is not wireless! This may not concern some, but for my uses these days I consider only wireless keyboards... not a commentary on what technology and keyboards should be, just my personal preference.
So, look before you buy.
On a related note, if you're looking for an excuse to improve your typing speed this keyboard may give you that (albeit a bit pricey). I finally was shamed into learning touch-typing when a frustrated on-looker (a friend) wrested my keyboard from my hands to finish typing something he was dictating. That incident prompted me to spend the next week refusing to look at the keyboard to type instead learning the keys by touch. Everyone around me went crazy for a week since my immediate result was essentially less than 10 words/minute with about zero percent accuracy. Within only one week I was typing 30 words/minute with about 80 percent accuracy. Today I easily go 60 wpm... that one incident/response dramatically changed my life professionally and personally.
benefits from learning the keyboard:
I thought that the differing force between various keys has been standard in all keyboards for a very long time. Keytronic has called it Ergoforce.
What is more interesting is a rearranged keyboard. It is also free - just pop up the letters and rearrange them in some random order. I prefer alphabetical order myself. This screws up hunt-and-peck typists and doesn't look wrong at first.
The keys are divided into groups and their feedback springs are weighted differently; from 35 grams to 80 grams, which correspond to the strength of the finger that touches the keys.
Why not 500 grams? Sure, it'd hurt for a few weeks but then the jocks'd have to welcome their new muscle-nerd overlords! Muahahaha!
keyboard really worth the high price tag?
Hell yes. 80 bones for a good keyboard? I could care less about the whole blank thing, but the 5 different levels of force? I'm all over that ( like Paris on a cheeseburger ).
Now if it comes apart and I can clean it in the dishwasher...mmmm.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
it worjs perfevtky wekk anf i'n revommenfing it to everuone#
They finally found a use for those dell keyboards that come with every order!
So it's:
1. sand the letters off my $20 keyboard
2. put a few extra drops of glue on the random key
3. sell it for $80!
4. That's like...at least 400% profit!!!!
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Hey, if Philippe H., Tom T., and Jean V. think it is good, and that you should buy two while you're at it, then it must be great!
Theyre saving money by not paying for paint AND ripping your ass on a standard keyboard. Profit margin on this thing must be huge. Of course, they come up with this idea from an AOL chatter who has worn the paint off of his/her keyboard. Does AOL get royalties?
iarealdy got one of the and itsx awsome, i cani tye much faste rnow
The letters on half the keys is worn off...the printing on the rest is unreadable due to dirt and grime....not much incentive for me to upgrade.
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
Your keyboard is the most fundamental part of your computer. It should be basic, it should be consistent, it should not change.
Anything else you can upgrade and improve; but with the exception of wireless keyboards, every 'improvement' on the basic keyboard over the last 15 years has made it worse.
--
To confirm you're not a script,
please type the text shown in this image: xqcirgp
Now that is what differentiates the true entrepreneur from the ordinary folk: market the feature on which you're actually saving money and sell the item for 3-4 times comparable items.
see a Text Widget
Blank monitor screens to stop us constantly checking our work. Then we'll be flying.
I've been using a mouse like that for years.
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird -- Proverbs 1:17
If you are a TRUE uber-geek, your keyboard will already be missing most of the markings from using it so much...and the ultimate uber-geek will usually be missing the markings from only one side... ;)
In a word: no, it's not worth the price. If looking at the keyboard is what keeps you from being able to type faster than you currently do, then you can achieve the same effect by just (for example) putting stickers on your current keyboard; but most likely, it isn't, anyway, at least not if you really are an übergeek. Switch to a Dvorak layout if you really want to be able to type faster. :)
(Incidentally, that might be the one thing that this kind of keyboard is good for: you can easily switch between different keyboard layouts without anyone (you or other users) getting confused by the fact that the keys don't match the keycaps anymore. But again, there's no reason to pay 80 bucks for that.)
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
I don't know if it would increase the typing speed or decrease the motivation - at least it has blank arrow keys.. I think the HappyHacker keyboard made a blank version some time ago though.
It's all fun & games until someone loses the game.
I want a keyboard with "delete" on all the keys.
Unfortunately mice are one of the most overlooked computer peripherals, while in reality should be one of the first places where your hard earned cash should be invested in.
Now I don't know where to put my money!
No.
More detailed explanation:
(a) I can type at 85 wpm, and sometimes I still forget where a key is sometimes. Even if you know where all the keys are, sometimes you may brush the keyboard to one side, and lose orientation, thus needing you to look down at the keyboard anyway to get it back. Not seeing keys makes it harder to regain that orientation.
(b) Differentially weighted keys is a minimal improvement at best. Regular keyboards with regularly weighted keys have never bothered me, and unless these keys make me feel physical pleasure of some form when I hit them, it ain't worth spending extra money on.
(c) It's not even wireless. No bells, no whistles, nothing. Pass on it.
Buttons and keys on Star Trek (original series) were never labeled - looks like we have finally achived the same! Personally I never look at the keys as it is now when I type, unless I need some obscure shift character or a function key, so I don't think it would be too difficult to get used to that keyboard. Then again, the question "why" is still begged.
If they didn't bother to label any of the keys, why did they label the LEDs?
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
The keys I use frequently are already looking like that, the ones I don't still look new. My Happy Hacker keyboard is holding up pretty well, but the keys are faded, not blank.. a bit of 200grit sandpaper would get-er-done.
As the article about mice earlier stated, these are the peripherals that you interact with the most. You want the best.
I paid over $250 for my keyboard/mouse combo, and feel it was worth every penny. ( Logitech diNovo bluetooth/ultrathin )
We all use our systems everyday, and if we don't use the best interfaces, then problems will develop. People are willing to spend hundreds on flat panel displays for their computer, and you use kb/mouse just as much.
Course, I use CRT's exclusivly, both price and quality cannot be beat(21" Trinitron + 2 X 17").
Anyway, that's just my opinion, but I think it's valid in this forum...
JC
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
As far as typing without looking at the keys, I've had my Virtually Indestructable Keyboard for going on 4 years now. I've never had any issues with it, and as a side effect of the letters being painted on the rubber coating, over time all my letter keys have been worn blank. The F1-12 keys, and various other seldom used keys are fine, but all the letters, most puncuation, and most of my numpad is blank. All for only 40$ when I bought it (they're cheaper now) and I never have to worry about damaging it with food/drink near the computer.
All in all, I'd say this keyboard is an expensive toy for people to make themselves feel better, than an actual useful tool.
Wow! A broken keyboard! I am sure this will sell like hotcakes.
I wonder if I can accomplish the same effect by blocking my view of the keyboard; some kind of cardboard shelf suspended between my monitor and keyboard so I can't see the keys. Hmm ... I *will* try this.
Sam
Have a logo or other scene spray-painted onto the keyboard before shipped? Nice!
> which the maker touts will make you type 100%
> faster in a few weeks since it will keep you from
> looking at the keyboard.
10-15 years ago I might have agreed with this, but today there are so many keyboard layouts that it is impossible not to look. The ~ and | symbols are in a different place on every one of the 10 keyboards I use daily, for example.
sPh
They should sell it with a blank monitor. If you can't double check to see whether you've made any mistakes, it will force you to be accurate the first time.
"Is this just useless, or is it expensive as well?"
So they're effectively trying to market a product which is cheaper to make (i.e: they don't have to print the text) but charge more for it?? Good Plan!
Anybody want a Ferrari without an engine? It's a lighter car so the power to weight ratio rocks! Only £25,000 more than a standard Ferarri!
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. - Douglas Adams
Or if you use a Model M or Model M clone, just pop off your key caps and type on the underlying bases, for a unique typing experience.
But really, you might as well just arrange your keys in whatever configuration you like, if you've got a Model M.
I jist bpught one anf it is GREAY!
...
i cam typr 100% fastet!
Thid is realu rebolutiomary!
it's crap.
A good ergonomic keyboard serves the same purpose as the Das Keyboard or Dvorak layout - no one will touch your computer because it scares the hell out of them.
"My God...it's full of trolls!"
It annoys my girlfriend. We live in Japan and bought a Japanese keyboard. I'm so used to touch-typing that it doesn't bother me all that often. She, on the other hand, has to press all the buttons in the vague area with the shift key off and on. Lot's of fun to watch. Not even the 'shifted' number keys work as expected. The open and close brackets are on 8 and 9 respectively.
:-)
One of us has to suffer. I'd rather her than me
Refuse to make a statement in your sig!
Übergeek my foot. Check the picture - it has a Windows key. No geek worth his salt wold use that.
I'm still happy with my old metal IBM keyboard that goes CLICK CLICK CLICK when I type
Underholdning.info
They already make keyboards with pressure sensitive keys:
h p
http://www.robopimp.com/keytronic-keyboard-3600.p
And they don't cost near as much. They greatly improved my typing speed.
Blank keys is hardly a unique feature. Take a look at Happy Hacking Pro.
Give me liberty or give me kill -s 9
This keyboard uses buckling springs for its key switches, which are revered by engineers. Typing on buckling spring keyboards has a much higher quality feel than the plastic keyboards which are sold today. The keyboards are also quite loud, which makes them not as useful for cubicle work.
Money spent to replace malfunctioning keyboard: $10 Money spent on cover so soda doesn't affect it: $5 Taking a step back in keyboard production and watching them charge more: $80 more than priceless.
We were forced to sit in front of mechanical keyboards with printers attached to them. Our task masters placed rubber caps on the keys so that we could not see the markings.
The then made us type over and over again the following phrase.
"the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
Today this would likely be labelled as child abuse.
If the keys are weighted differently based on the standard typing position of the fingers, then they would be weighted wrong for gamers position of the fingers.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
I find that I read books 200% faster if there are no words in them.
I don't usually look at the keyboard, except for some keys I don't use very often. It would be cool to get a Braile keyboard without the keys printed on it, so I could subconsciously learn Braile while I'm typing. You never know when or if you're going to go blind.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
of us without one in one (My right hand due to an injury) or both I recomend a standard keyboard. :-)
Kosh: "Understanding is a 3 edged sword, your side, their side, the Truth."
This keyboard's weighted patterns don't fit for dvorak-style. It's stupid to have a QWERTY keyboard that's supposed to be ergonomic, as qwerty (I love typing that on a qwerty keyboard) was originally designed to slow typists hands to stop jamming mechanical typewriters.
Death by snoo-snoo!
Keyboard + paint thinner = textless keyboard. Get one of the old beige IBM keyboards; the ones that click audibly when you press a key. Now that is an übergeek keyboard.
Real geeks have clicky keys.
I can already think of some misuses of this... imagine if someone set it in Dvorak. That would confuse the hell out of most people.
I am scientifically inaccurate.
...featuring 100% dead pixels. The monitor is unique as each pixel is black, which the maker touts will make you see and game 1000% faster as you don't have to wait for all those pixels to refresh.
My web domain.
But is this "UberGeek" keyboard really worth the high price tag?"
No. I achieved the same principle way back in highschool by just simply spray painting my keyboard black. While yes, my typing speed did increase a little and my computer illiterate friends could no longer use my keyboard, I would never spend $79.95USD on a keyboard that I can easily duplicate at home for $10. Who knows, maybe the "Individually Weighted Keyswitches" really make up for the cost. That just doesn't really appeal to me. I could, however, see this sell if the keys were individually backlit with optional dimming.
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
...thst I hsve one og these kryboatds, and mu typong spwwd has dranativally incteasrd!
100% faster? Let's see, if I type 60 words per minute now, this keyboard will have me typing 0 words per minute. That's incredible.
Yeah, my math is about as good as that keyboard;-) I think I was thinking $15 keyboard when I did the calculations. Duh.:-)
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If so you're a schmuck!
Maybe you'll think differently of me for my keyboard, but you'll still respect me for my skillz. I can see this keyboard as a teaching device to more efficent keyboarding but over all the entire "style in computing" thing went out with me after the Commodore 1541 II drive.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
shouldn't have three Windows application keys, is all i'm saying ...
Once again, word of Apple's latest innovation has leaked out before it got to market. With both the single button mouse and blank keyboard, they will truly revolutionize computing.
In my first IT job, I had the job of cleaning keyboards (yuk!). After dissasembling a keyboard that used foil on the back of the keys to short a pair of contacts, I found that you could type using just the circuit board. So being really 'L33T I used just the board for about 2 months. Then I went back to a regular keyboard, as it did not improve my typing speed at all.
I'm just here to regulate Funkyness
I want to learn to type faster, because looking at the keys slows me down. So I buy a $80 keyboard that not only makes me looks down at the keys, but makes me google an f'in keyboard map every stinking time I need to find the "!,@,#,$,%,^,&,*,(,)" keys too. Yeah, thanks for the big time saver.
I'm never going back to an old-style keyboard... Using Logitechs Ultraflat keyboard... I type faster, with less strain, and am more comfortable while doing it. Did I mention it costs 30 bucks and is the same type of keyboard you find on laptops?
... I got really bored at work. I modified my IBM Model M keyboard from a QWERTY into a [er*ct keyboard. There's not a key left that's on it's rightful position
My problem is that I use an American keyboard, but I switch between the US and Swedish keyboard setup.
I need the Swedish setup to access the å, ä and ö keys.
The problem is that it also switches some other keys around such as (, ), +, = and others. I use these keys, but not often enough to automatically switch in my brain where they are. So I keep screwing up when I try to type those keys. Both when I use the U.S and the Swedish setup.
If it wasn't for that I would be a much better typist. But I'm afraid that I'll never master that.
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
According to this site I type about 72 words per minute. I can't wait to get one of these and start typing 144 wpm! I am kind of worried about blisters on my fingers; I wonder if they include a free box of bandaids with these keyboards?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
When you have this
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
Can this be real folks? How do you factory test something to withstand 20 million keystrokes? At 4 keystrokes per key per second, it would still take a half a day to achieve 20 million keystrokes distributed over the entire keyboard. And how can springs have a "force" of 35-80 grams? Force is measured in newtons, or pounds, not grams, which is a measure of mass. Also, a much more useful characterization of a springs "springiness" is the so called spring constant, as the force generated depends on the amount of compression or extension of the spring. And what exactly is "premium keyswitch technology"? Finally, how is a keyboard without ID really going to make a touch typist faster? They don't look at the keyboard to begin with! Sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me.
Also available from the makers of "Das Keyboard" is "Das Display." It keeps you from looking at porn while trying to get work done. You'll find that you concentrate much better--mostly because you'll have to use "The Force" or some form of transcendental meditation to imagine WTF might be on your screen.
Coming soon: "Das Hard Drive" which has nothing on it also. You memory and recall could increase by 100,000,000,000-fold!* (*Results not typical. Void where prohibited. Some restrictions apply. See dealer for details).
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
...only 20 million keystrokes? That's going to really suck when all my HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH and LOLLOLOLLOLLO!!!11!!!! wear out! ...I mean, after all, I am, "an elite programmer."
If you are going to be a true uber geek and have an unlabled keyboard you might as well have it DVORAK and make sure only other geeks can use your computer.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Due to my extensive experience involving the unusual circumstances of using a real hardware French keyboard set to US keyboard mode in a locked-down computer at XS Arena Les Halles in the Fourth Arrondissement of Paris, I can assure you that, if you already touch-type, being forced to touch-type only slows down your use of symbols that are in different places on different keyboards. The ` ~ key and the \ key on US keyboards come to mind (although the ` ~ key is usually in the same place except on some laptops like my Toshiba).
$79.95?
For that price, I would expect it to have a built-in cup/can/mug holder (for your favourite beverage, caffeine infused or not) as standard and a STFU key that you could use to mute annoying induhviduals with.
ROFL :-)
Kosh: "Understanding is a 3 edged sword, your side, their side, the Truth."
I see it now,
in the office of DasKeyboard.com *ring*ring*
New IT Dude: Hello?
Big Mad Boss: What's Going on, internet is down!?
NID: I don't know Servers' not responding.
BMB: Well log on and fix it!!
NID: umm... someone wiped all the keys off this thing!!
BMB: Click
Sorry, see what happens when you type "blazingly fast"
When I went to work at a client's once, I swapped the keys around on the keyboard for the fun of it. When other people came to use the machine, I enjoyed seeing what happens. It seems some supposedly great typists actually can't type properly when even a few of the keys are scrambled. These are people who don't usually realize they look at the keyboard when typing, and it was interesting to hear what they had to say about it.
Even though I can't see the norwegian letters I still need to use them :)
Looks like they just painted an IBM Model M keyboard black and put their crappy logo on top of the IBM part. I should know, I've painted several Model Ms. Best keyboard ever. Modelm.org
I wanted to change to DVORAK to learn touch typing, and most "tutorials" said that one should tear off all the keys and rearrange them to the DVORAK layout. I call bullshit. I found a picture of the layout, then made it a sticky on the top of the screen. So, every time i forgot a key, I had to look up, not down. Looking down would not really help either, as the keyboard was still a QWERTY-keyboard.
Dvorak on Doomtech
For $799.99 you can have the ultimate in distraction free typing. after a few weeks you will intuitively know where on the screen the cursor is and your speed will increase at least 100%. Plus, without those distracting Graphics, you will be able to focus on kicking ass when gaming.
Order today, and I will throw in a Dolby 7.1 certified speakers that have no jack!
Rrrrrr!
I echo the comments from: http://www.gadgetspy.co.uk/2005/05/23/das-keyboard -100-percent-blank/
Sounds a bit pricey, would be better spent on some ubergeek bluetooth / wireless job
I hifgly reconnemd it to ajj of mu friemds and colleahues.
Mu rtping skolls hsve imorobed drantivally amd I tupu invredibly fadt nuw.
Yeah I boufhe ti men I am 2838 Cokk!
Grear Keuboaed~
OK now the old keyboard again...
Are you kidding? How to write with this shit?
www.lemonodor.com A mostly Lisp weblog
Where all the controls have so many buttons, but none are labelled.
What seemed to work best was very fine abrasive paper. You have to be careful at leaving the dimples in the J and F intact though, or it will make the whole typing thing a bit more difficult than stricly necessary.
Also worth mentioning is that you need to remove the keys and then file off the printing. Doing it with the keys attached is very unwieldy and makes a huge mess as the plastic particles fall between the keys into the switches.
Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
For my money, I'd go with an Avant keyboard. It's even more high-end in terms of price, but it's worth every dime. Gimmicks like blank keytops (who looks at the keytops while typing anyway?) are a novelty, sure, but Avant keyboards are fully remappable: you can create your own keyboard layout. The keytops have characters printed on them, but if you like, you can rearrange them so that they match (or don't match, if you prefer) your layout. And yes, like all reasonably high-end keyboards, they are sturdy, hold up well, and have good tactile feedback. But for me the key selling point is the ability to rearrange the layout however you want. Tired of overextending your pinky to hit shift and ctrl all the time? Put those keys on home positions like I've done, and in a week your pinkies won't ache any more.
*Shrug*. If the blank keytops are worth money to you, go for it, but don't expect them to have a measurable impact on your typing speed or comfort.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Can an ad submitted as an article get any more obvious?
Most of the people here are wondering what's the point of this keyboard.
:)
It's just some novelty item especially at the asking price.
Well it's pretty useful if you're working on multiple languages and need to type in the local keyboard layout (eg: qwerty for English and azerty in French), heck it'll be good if you want to switch between Dvorak and qwerty. But as many have pointed out, you could always buy a normal keyboard and use solvent to clear the letters away
And to think, the required typing class for all us girls in high school is finally paying off... (eh, age is showing).
With all the money they're saving by selling half made keyboards, they should really invest in some bandwidth.
would have worn off all the letterings on the keys anyway from 999 + work/gameplay. except for the notches under f and j. those little guys are immortal.
You have to show ID because it's been a law for a long, long time. Computers are just making it easier by reminding people now. Wal-Mart, K-Mart, all stores are required to see proof of age for purchase of all products distributed in a spray can, as well as anything that can be huffed for a high. Other products on this list include painballs and related supplies, pellet guns, and most obvoiusly ammunition. Note this is not a "Wal-Mart" policy, but a law requarding dangerous substances. You could actually have any place that didn't ask for ID investigated and fined for not following the law :)
~~ Please keep your arms, legs, and outright stupidity inside the ride at all times. Thank You ~~
i love the varied spring pressure under the key groups...very cool. it's also quite amusing to see the blank look on people's faces when they sit down at my cube and see the keyboard. even though they probably know instinctively what the keys are, they still feel intimidated because they cant see the letters. too funny. now if only i could get a backlit version...a nice healthy blue glow coming from under each key would be awesome. :)
It takes just a moment and an action to destroy. It takes some time and thought to create.
I would really like one of these keyboards, It'd keep the unworthy off my computer. How much do these things cost anyway? Is it so much, I might just as well break out with the sandpaper?
See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
All you folks with worn keys are now under arrest.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Yfah amd in thre measntimme miy bosss git's emails that mwke np fpcklng s3nse
If it's forcing you not to look at the keyboard while you're touch-typing, then it's only because you suck to begin with. So sure, it could double your speed... if you're currently typing at 20wpm.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Good practice or not, the last thing you want after going out for a night is getting back to a blank keyboard and trying to type. Even with the letters its still quite a challenge to type properly
I see that the ads on slashdot have made their way out of the banners and now are being held up as actual stories!
Seriously, is this anything other than a glorified advertisement for this keyboard?
A high correlation between things that were on the del.icio.us/popular list in the past week showing up on slashdot a week later? I'm starting to think about ditching slashdot altogether...
They also sell one that has the german keyboard layout.
It's name is "Das Kezboard"
Tharkban (It is a signature after all)
are companys putting out more and more stuff to inflate the egos of geeks? I dont care but i still love my $8.00 keyboard.
1.locate an old cardboard box
2.cut away one side for your hands
3.place over keyboard
4.start to type
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
...buy this. As for me, I still prefer the HHKB, featuring:
- No Windows keys
- Control key at the right place
- Needs fewer space on the desk letting more room for my cat
Blank keyboards have been standard items for a looooooooong time. They have been used for teaching touch typing since touch typing became popular. A quick google of "blank keyboard" yielded many results ranging from keyboards that are completely blank like this one to keyboards that have only the letter keys blanked out, to blank overlays to cover up the key labels.
I'm a pretty good touch typist. The thing that slows me down the most is having to reorient my hands on the home row after having used the mouse. So my vote for the best keyboard would be one that has an integrated trackpoint, with function keys, navigation keys and numberpad placed consistently, and most importantly keys with decent travel and feel.
My current keyboard has function keys grouped in threes; drives me crazy. The function keys default to FLOCK mode which assigns them office type functions. for instance F2 is Undo, F10 is spell. To use them as regular function keys I have to first press FLOCK every time the machine boots.
My keyboard has a double sized Delete key quite close to the Enter key. Not a good place for it.
One final gripe is that this keyboard has a sleep button exactly where my thumb naturally goes when I pick up the keyboard.
Just saying that I have not yet found any keyboard I really like yet.
How is this more comfortable being that some keys require more force to press?
Happy Hacking also has blank keyboards. Warning: don't at the price if you a weak stomach..
In fact the opposite happened since I would have to play "hunt-the-symbol" every time I was programming, using the shell or any other menial task.
By far the worst is the Euro symbol. On a UK PC keyboard you press AltGr+4 to get it, on the Mac you press Alt+2. Neither is particularly intuitive but when the keyboard says it's on one key and it isn't, you find yourself resorting to cutting and pasting the symbol from somewhere else because you give up trying to find it.
Eventually I gave in and got a replacement Mac keyboard (the first just failed for no reason). Now my keys are where they're meant to be - except the # mark whose location isn't even printed on the Mac UK keyboard.
I can take most of the keys off my IBM keyboard for the same effect. I can also move them into a dvorak pattern if I want.
In two colors: black ($1.29) and white ($1.99).
Am I the only one who kinda liked that noisy old IBM PC keyboard? Now I can get one with a modern plug.
Restrictions are prohibited. Be well, get better.
PFU Systems (the Happy Hacking people) also have blank keyboards in white and gray. These are the true geek keyboards, as they have the right keys (Ctrl, Esc) in the right places.
Happy Hacking keyboards
PFU Systems store
Unfortunately their webserver is as blank as the keyboard.
A colleague has one on her old laptop: letters on keys are erased after so much time. She must be the only one able to type quickly on it.
That could be a feature: "Learn to type more quickly with our evolving keyboard: letters disappear one by one with time!"
That could perhaps already be done withe the keyboard on my Powerbook with lighted keyboard: just stay in the dark room and cut light for one key each minute.
Christophe (Don't hesitate to point out my spelling and grammar mistakes, I want to learn - Thanks).
To me, this looks like nothing more than a black KeyTronic keyboard that has had no letters printed on it. As far as the user configurable weighted keys go, that might be somewhat useful, but how many times will a single user want to adjust that?
"True refinement seeks simplicity."
[email to daskeyboard...]
Hi,
Can I get a version that has the letters on all the wrong keys, so I'm
punished if I get weak and look at the keyboard?
----
[reply...]
That's a great idea. I will let you know when we can send you your punishment.
Thanks
Birgit
Introducing Das Keyboard, a precision keyboard that says who you are.
A sucker?
This keyboard looks surprisingly similar to the ones i used on the oldish IBM PS/2 back in highschool, sans letters numbers and symbols on the keyboard. I don't see anything too innovative here. If you really don't want markings, 104 squares of black electrician's tape can achieve the same effect for a fraction of the cost.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Apple Extended Keyboard.
20 years old and works & feels better than anything on the market today.
I'm using one right now and have 3 more in the closet for when this one finally craps out in another 20 years or so.
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
first off, i never look at my keyboard anyway so having no text wont speed up my typing
and second, the different weighted keys wont help me because i dont type correctly, i'm a "speed hunt-and-pecker" (minus the hunt part), i can type about 100wpm using my method (which also involves caps lock instead of using shift, yeah i'm weird)
so if i typed with that keyboard id probably get around 30wpm with lots of typos
p.s. when did slashdot start using script protection when posting? (i need to type some text to confirm im not a script before i can submit this)
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A geek would use the blank keyboard with the Dvorak layout.
A true geek would use the blank keyboard with a layout he devised himself.
An UberGeeks would wire the computer directly into his brain.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Just mix up all the keys on the keyboard, they can easily pulled off with a flat head screw driver.
Sometimes I wish computers were less friendly.
When I was forced to learn typing in the fourth grade we taped a piece of paper to the top of the keyboard so it covered the keys. Yes, you could cheat and flip up the paper as needed but for the most part it was a good solution, even for grade-schoolers.
...at the keyboard.
Who looks at the keyboard? Really?
do() || do_not();
When I occasionally write articles for my college's newspaper that require interviews, I always have a bit of a crises. Because I have nothing like a photographic memory, I have to record the interviews somehow. I don't know short hand well enough to take good notes on paper during an interview - so I generally end up recording them on tape and than transcribing them onto a computer afterwords. However, I'm legally obligated to tell anyone I'm interviewing that I'm recording the conversation, and with sensitive subject-matter, realizing that their words are being recorded on tape can make them more reluctant to spill the beans.
Just last week I had to do a few extensive phone interviews, and I decided that instead of trying to figure out how to record the conversation and risk freaking out the interviewee, I'd try and transcribe the conversation on my keyboard as we talked. I wrote down my questions first, and than just filled in the outline as the interview went on. I discovered that with a fairly average typing speed (I'm usually about 60-80 wpm) I could just about keep up with the speed of the interview. I was able to transcribe the whole thing as it happened.
Of course this still only works over the phone, because when you're interviewing in person it's nice to make eye contact and whatnot - but still, compitent typing skills are a good thing (tm).
[Get it, it's funny because I put a (tm) after good thing.]
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
What I am looking for is a good mechanical keyboard, where each key has it's own spring. I've heard it improves typing comfort and speed, but unfortunately I have never had the chance to *try* one, so I'm a little afraid to just buy the first one I see.
This isn't terribly new - uber-l33t people have been doing this for ages. See http://www-student.cs.york.ac.uk/~jw222/keyb.jpg.
The benefits, to my mind, are quite great. This applies especially to Dvorakers, for whom the QWERTY key markings are at best an annoyance. It also stops people who can't touch type from using my computer!
Here is your calculator. I'm not too proud to take the 2 dollars. Please send.
Looks like a minimalist them--the only thing on their website is a /.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
My grandfather got annoyed at all of his fellow college students who used his typewriter and didn't take proper care of it. So he removed the keys, happily continued touch-typing, and stumped everyone else, who wasn't as familiar with such technology.
Now someone wants to charge $80 for this "unique" idea that will "double" your typing speed. How odd...
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/d19f6044af329bfec 772aee0ed6d48a3/index.html
Caps Lock--> Control and
Right Alt --> Windoze
on my IBM T42P Laptop. Much easier for Emacs keybindings like Ctrl X S.
[% slash_sig_val.text %]
That bezel looks exactly like a Model M -- keys are in the same place, LED bank is identical, even has the channel around the key banks to collect extra grime.
I'm wondering if they built the mold, or if they bought one.
If it is, in fact, a Model M with blank keycaps and the extra Win keys (that can be mapped to something useful), then I'd pay $79 for it, with or without letters.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
Friends of mine live in France at borders, work in Germany or Switzerland, occasionnaly fly to the US or China. These people are used to mentally swith keyboard mappings. (*)
Imagine blank keyboard everywhere: impossible to know wich language it uses!!
[(*) As many people of my generation used to games which thought American keyboards were the only ones: in France convert A to Q, W to Z, comma and M, and do not use Shift for numbers...]
On the other side, these keyboards would be the first real international keyboards: just configure the OS, and you don't have to learn a new keyboard mapping each time you visit a new country.
(Yes, we can already do that, but it seems humans need a reason to be lazy and force the computer to adapt to them instead of adapting to it).
Christophe (Don't hesitate to point out my spelling and grammar mistakes, I want to learn - Thanks).
pckeyboard.com has some sweet buckling-spring keyboards. You remember the nice ones from late 80's early 90's? the ones that broke and then you could fix without too much trouble?
They're still sold. So if Das Keyboard is up your alley, I'd say look at these keyboards too. I own 2 myself.^^
The close up picture of they keyboard and the mapping for keyweights don't match up... the area around the 'return' key looks especially screwy. I was thinking of getting one of these, but am concerned by this. Any thoughts?
"Nothing can shake my belief that this world is the fruit of a dark god whose shadow I extend." - Emil Michel Cioran
I use the Dvorak layout so most of the keys are in the wrong place. It drives people nuts when the borrow my PC.
In any event, most keys on a regular keyboard are the same size. If you want to prevent yourself from looking at the keys can't you just move them around so that they don't match up?
http://store.yahoo.com/pfuca-store/haphackeyser.ht ml
The happy hacking keyboard seen there is much better. I got my relatively new employer to purchase the black USB lite 2 version for me. It's so amazing that I'm getting another one for home. Best keyboard I ever used, I'm so used to it now. The pro version is super expensive, boasts the same features as das keyboard with a different layout. But best of all it has actual springs in the keys rather than the membranes. High quality.
I do somewhat miss the media keys of my old logitech, but I just came up with decent key combinations for the functions I actually used. i.e: meta+up = volume up. Just have to be careful not to use any combos already in use by other programs. At least I don't have the problem where I have a ton of media keys all over and only maybe 5 of them I actually use.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
My favorite part about working at Sun was those keyboards with cut, copy, and paste under my left pinkey. Emacs was actually useable!
But what the hell were "Compose" and "Alt Graph"??
Simpson: "I've got an awful lot of these keyboards but I'm afraid that they never printed the key caps on them so they aren't really any good."
Whapcaplet: "Well that's out selling point, Isn't it? 'Away with typos, away with work-a-day grammar and syntax. Make programming fun again'"
This also reminds of the late seventies when there was a keyboard sold with clear plastic key caps.
End each key could be programmer as one or more key strokes. The Alt keys generated different signals so the thing had like five modes for every key stroke.
I wonder whatever happened to the company that made them?
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Oh well... I really wanted to see the pics.
I pretend to know more than I really do by mooching off google and wikipedia.
which the maker touts will make you type 100% faster in a few weeks since it will keep you from looking at the keyboard.
Some simple typing lessons would achieve the same effect. In fact, I'm typing without looking at the keyboard right now.
Introducing Das Keyboard, a precision keyboard that says who you are. What, nothing? It is blank...
...with some sandpaper.
Can anybody tell me how this 'Das Keyboard' thing is different from a classic IBM keyboard with 'stealth' paint?
I suspect someone had 1. a large consignment of used IBM keyboards, 2. invested a couple of hundred bucks in spraying them stealth black to 'clean them up' and 3. is now laughing all the way to the bank.
- It took western civilisation 2000 years to ensure popular literacy, and now we work with icon driven GUI's. Go figure.
this keyboard sucks complete balls.. i dont care what it does.. i've used a $10 generic IBM keyboard forever and its perfect.. when it dies, i'll buy another $10 keyboard that will last forever..
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
dayh onew- so fat so gppd. for somwe reaibns noebofy id snawering muy emaiuls.
day 3 - saving sm,lots of eiumt not havfing tp dealqwoth thopse pesky editostial comments foptme may copopwrkers
d 4 -ollk at akkthe tiume i;m sabinh - thus us mych faSTRE THWN HUNTUNG FOR TEH RITW KEY@@@
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
or less fancy version, just use sand paper
Then you can compare it to an SCO license and make witty comments like "it's a steal!" that you and other geeks can laugh about in private.
Did anybody else notice that the "uber" keyboard looks suspiciously like one of the old IBM PC keyboards from the green screen days?
I think they found an old warehouse full of them and one of them said
"I bet you I can sell these things."
"No way, $1000 says you can't sell em."
"Shit, double or nothing I can sell them for $80 each."
"You're on, fool"
Similar method, but it didn't cost as much.
/I/ had to learn to touch-type. It didn't take long, and I'm very grateful now!
My former roommate's machine was the server, and every once in a while I had to log into it to fix something. One day he had decided to pop off and rearrange all of his keys to force himself to learn to touch-type... which meant
Real geeks wear the lettering out by use!
M key is almost completely worn out here.
N key is so worn out that the surface of the key is slanting twards one corner.
if you're looking for an excuse to improve your typing speed this keyboard may give you that
Well of course you will be typing faster when all you're typing is whitespace anyway!
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
Uou'ee rifht...my thpibg is muxh faatet niw...
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
...and it'll soon give you a nice solid blue screen containing only a small amount of text characters on it that are unintelligible anyway.
Anyone know how to remove the lettering from a keyboard? I have tried alcohol, acetone, naptha (found in Lighter Fuel, removes stains labels, adhesives...) and have had no success. I would like to remove the lettering without sanding or painting. Any suggestions?
You know, I learned to type without looking at the keyboard during my first semester in my college's computer room.
There were times, particularly towards the end of the reporting periods, that all the humanities chicks chose to do their computing assignments. Some of these girls were scantly dressed (it was scorching summer outside) and had a great looking body *drool*.
At the time, I was a 6 digit typer and I sporadically had to look at the keyboard. Needless to say that when the summer ended, I could type with all my eleve^H^H^H^H ten digits and without even having to look at the screen!
My other OS is the MCP!
Trying to pitch this product to your bank for a business loan?
It seems that this company is not only an expert in blank keyboards, but also in blank websites!
Hmmm...I don't see the use of this device since most hard core geeks can type 80-100 WPM withlooking at a normal QWERTY keyboard.
It amazes me what criteria some people use when evaluating things like a keyboard. To me, layout and tactile feel is far more important than things like colour, extra keys or wireless capability (I'm at my desk, who cares if it's wired or not?).
I've had the benefit of working with IBM ThinkPads over the years, and it only wasn't until I recently moved to a new job where it became apparent to me how spoiled I had become with the ThinkPad's keyboard. Unsatisfied with the keyboard I was supplied with at work, I set out to replace it with something better. I tried numerous keyboards but nothing could match the ThinkPad keyboards feel. Then I discovered the IBM USB Keyboard with UltraNav and bought one the same day. It is by far the best keyboard I've ever used. The keys have little resistance, yet have a sharp 'click' to them without being noisy. The layout is near perfect, and it has a built in wrist rest. It's expensive as keyboards go, but it's worth every penny if you do any amount of typing.
www.brownsauce.org
We used to have keyboards like this in typing class when I was in grade school. That was like 12 years ago. Nothing new here.
Raynach says they got it "recently". Why don't they tell us whether they type 100% faster, after a few weeks. That would be a clue as to whether it's worth the expense.
--
make install -not war
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It's a trainer keyboard - for a few weeks. After it's done its work, pass it along to another trainee. After a handful of students, its amortized price will be pretty low per student. If it works at all, it's probably worth it.
--
make install -not war
No flat keyboard -- especially not with brick-pattern keys -- can be called ergonomic. For that kind of money, you can get a Kinesis Contour -- see www.kinesis-ergo.com.
I love them -- if you're going to spend 300$ on a keyboard (which is nothing, if you spend 1/3 to 1/4 of your life with your hands on one) then get a good one.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
If you want an even more exceptional option, you could always go for the Happy Hacker Professional keyboard. This has the added benefit of not having discrete keys for function and cursor keys which is going to be extra specially annoying without key legends!
Dunx
Converting caffeine into code since 1982
Switch over to the Dvorak key layout. In software.
I HAVE to look away from my keyboard when I type: the keys are still labelled for Qwerty.
When I took highschool keyboarding in 1990 my teacher told me that on parent's night a lot of parents got mad because the keyboards had keys on them (their generation had learned on keyboards without keys). It turns out that research has shown (sorrry not link! this is complete heresay) that its not the key labels so much as the key locations that people look at... some sort of visual screen actually works better than removing the key labels.
But I used to teach myself howto type using IRC or command line typing in the dark.
Yes the parents would not let me on the computer at night, But my typing would probable be a lot slower if the light was always on.
Hmm though with all the neon lights and things people mod boxen with its probable not very dark anymore.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire
I am typing this on a http://datahand.com/ if you're not melded with your keyboard you are not worthy!
And yes it really helps with finger stress/fatigue, whatever you want to call it.
I just have to deal with being refered to as Edward Keyboardhands, or Keyboardstein by the co-workers.
Still a lil slower than traditional but it's worth not killing my hands.
(I bought mine on ebay but have talked to datahand reps a number of times, they're all very helpful)
-- taking over the world, we are.
So, putting the pieces together, it *is* a Keytronic Ergoforce, spraypainted black, and sold for three times retail...
One of my best keyboards I got when I first got into computers.
I had it for probably 8 years before keys started sticking. Most of the home row keys were worn smoothe and didn't have any lettering on them at all.
If you want to learn how to type, get on irc, turn out the lights, and start the flamewars.
Why read the article when I can just make up a snap judgement?
Wow... so if I use it under Linux the "Windows menu key" will still pops up the 'Start' menu??
Save the ink cost... charge more.
"The keys are divided into groups and their feedback springs are weighted differently; from 35 grams to 80 grams, which correspond to the strength of the finger that touches the keys."
;O
You know, I never learned the "efficient" 5-finger typing system... I've just kind of adapted my own system for typing using pretty much my first 3 fingers on each hand (and of course the thumb for space). I don't have to look at the keyboard, and I bet I can type just as fast as anyone else out there who uses the "standard" typing procedure.
So maybe this board isn't for the ubergeek after all, because you're only uber if you adapted into an instinctive typing beast
A true geek kbd has only 2 keys anyway - 1 and 0. No matter how you place them, you'll be able to memorize their position in a few seconds.
In the world of keyboard manufacuturing, the "grams of force" is the "equivalent compression weight" to trigger the key. An 80-gram key would require an 80-gram weight to be set on it to trigger its function. You have to push as hard on the key as an 80-gram weight would in order to type on it.
This is useful because its relatively easy to measure it consistently, meaning it's harder for manufacturers to fabricate results.
Factory testing means a couple things. First, it means that a *sample* of keyboards are put through the full service cycle; all the switches on the keyboard can be hit simultaneously -- it might take a half-day to test a keyboard, but that's OK. It also means that each keyboard is likely tested for each key's function before it is packed for shipping.
"Premium keyswitch technology" is probably just marketing-speak.
A keyboard without letters on it will not make a typist any faster unless they are not a touch-typist. It's also stupid, since keyboard layouts are not completely standard, and since even the best touch-typists ocassionally have bad days and may need to glance at the keyboard.
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
Wow. That sure looks like they just took an old Model M keyboard and spray painted it. I know the old Ms don't have have windows keys, but _every_ other feature looks the same. Weird.
Posted from the wireless couch.
It's a word in the English language. You see, there is this thing called a "dictionary" that allows you to answer this sort of question.
Now technically they probably meant guarantee since guaranty and guarantee are slightly different. Although guaranty can be used for guarantee it more often is used where the agreement is an assurance of financial payment.
As a side note, I used to work for a bond insurance company which, due to mergers, doesn't exist anymore. The company name was "Capital Guaranty" and we were in the Steuart tower of a building in San Francisco. If I didn't spell out everything I would end up getting things sent to one of the many combinations of Capital/Capitol Guaranty/Guarantee in the Steuart/Stuart/Stewart tower...
Worse still was growing up at the (then named) Naval Weapons Center, China Lake. When you get something sent to the Navel Weapons Center it conjures up all sorts of scary images.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
It kills me that the post you responded to (1 "gram-force" = 1 Newton) has been marked informative, where your posts (above and below that) has not been modded at all. Hopefully this will be rectified soon enough - I can't stand so much disinformation in the sciences.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
My personal "favorites"
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
I love my Keytronic keyboard. Invincible. I've popped off many of the keys and moved them around. It works fine for me but throws most half-wits for a loop when they try to use it.
but seriously, you could get one of those(compleate with real capacitance keyswitches) and a can of whatever color makes you happy spraypaint for about $15 if you can find a model m at a computer recycling place, which at least for me.. wasnt hard. and for $80, you could get a NEW model m, here. the basic model is only $50 there, and im sure even ebay could outdo that for a very lightly used or new one. just makes this letterless keyboard seem like a ripoff to me..
Being able to read q,w,e,r,t,a,s,d,f,g,z,x,c,v,b with your left hand, and y,u,i,o,p,h,j,k,l,n,m with your right won't make for easy Braille reading.
Whiteout/sandpaper + elbow grease + old slvation army keyboard = $.50
hm...
or else!
http://store.yahoo.com/pfuca-store/hhkbblank.html
Just a tad expensive but so... majestic.
m.
"Sebastian you're in a mess. They called you King of all the Hipsters, is it true or are you still the Queen?" -- B
I don't want the differently weighted keys! I write code, and when I write code, since it tends to require a large amount of special chars. Because of that, quite often, the whole "home row typing" ideal goes right out the window, meaning that i have a keyboard with a seemingly random weight depending on which of my different "home row for right now" configurations i'm using.
I pity the foo that isn't metasyntactic
If you're a true Ubergeek most of the letters on your keyboard should have worn off long ago.
My keyboard is currently suffering from:
No WAS or D from too much first person shooter action
Left CTRL long gone from keyboard shortcut uberdom
No ; from too much C and PHP coding
No LS CD / or SU - or TAB due to constant command line tinkering on my Linux box
$ & and / barely visible
Oh yes - I've got two shiny grooves on my space bar where my thumbs have been slowly eroding the plastic.
If anyone wants to purchase my keyboard to confirm their status as an Ubergeek then the bidding starts at £50. I'll even throw in some genuine geek hair, skin flakes and some unidentifiable gunk lodged beside my Num Lock key. It will look fantastic in your trophy case.
You'll notice the webpage mentions it's tested to work for up to 20 million keystrokes.
That's not exactly a lot when you think about it -- especially for a real geek.
100wpm == 500cpm. 500cpm x 1 hour == 30,000 keypresses. Hitting 20 million won't take *that* long. Then there's nerds like me who type 130wpm or so, and are known to sit in front of a computer talking on msn with friends and family for upwards of 4 hours at a time some weekends, or having online business meetings...
You're gonna have to back up the absolutely ridiculous claim you just made, Steve Austin.
A year ago I tried to use the Dvorak keyboard layout, but later gave up when I needed to type a lot of things and couldn't handle typing at 30 wpm. In order to learn dvorak, I had switch all the keys on my keyboard to match the layout. I was already not looking at the keyboard, but now there was no way for even my peripheral vision to look at the keyboard. I can't say it improved by typing speed that much (maybe 5-10%) but my dependence on seeing the keyboard has been completely removed.
Oh on another note, I recently noticed that I hit the CTRL key (it's a regular keyboard, with the ctrl key on the bottom left, not where the caps lock is) with the knuckle of my left pinky... somehow I started doing this and didn't even notice. Does anyone else do this?
Just like the ones in all the action cartoons of the 1980s, particularly GI Joe, where NONE OF THE KEYS ARE LABELLED!
I always wondered about that. Action cartoons have these huge control panels in the various friendly and enemy bases, with football-field sized consoles with millions of buttons and keys, NONE OF WHICH ARE LABELLED.
I guess people who use those systems must have amazing memory, eh?
-Z
nobody has ever done this before.
or else!
In the typewriting classes of a long time ago, all typewriters had blank-key keyboards to force people to memorize the keys without looking at them...
Simply re-arrange all the letters on your current keyboard into random positions. I did it about a year ago, since I can touch type anyway. When someone else sits at my computer, the confusion that ensues is very satisfying.
Step 1) Point eyes away from keyboard. Aim them at your monitor instead. Looking at the monitor will help you with computers anyway: everyone should try this trick at least once.
Step 2) Next, pretend the keys are blank. You can't tell they're not blank, 'cause you're not looking at them anymore.
Step 3) Save money on stupid keyboard concept, and (wait for it!)... profit!!!
--
AC
Doesn't need those 3 LEDs, nor the print near to them, nor the name of the company on the keyboard. A true elite knows the name, or doesn't consider it important :-)
Perl Programmer for hire
Here's a tip: replace those bulky computers with nothing but a pencil, paper, and a slide rule and be amazed at how quickly you find yourself doing calculations in your own head.
I'm thinking of charging $750 for ready made packs. And for an extra $500 I'll personally blank over all the numbers on the slide rule with correcting fluid.
I love marketing.
Guys, and girls, this was a production error. Now they want to sell you a production error for more than the cost of a fully labeled keyboard.
The sad part is that a bunch of *nix geeks that are always preaching about the lower TCO of *nix are going to run out and buy these things, spending more money on a lesser product...
Marketing=Satan.
Some years ago, a nice fake advertisement was proposing to switch (dumb) users to the "StupidaMouse" along with StupidaKey and more
http://www.dumbentia.com/pdflib/stupida.pdf
will sell for slightly more than the keyboard itself.
Given that nobody is *forcing* you to look at the KB in the first place, here's what I'd like to see:
A keyboard that looks up what language and layout you've selected (Dvorak, Kanji, Hebrew, etc), and has teeny LCD displays in every key that automatically display the current symbol said key produces.
Now that would be really cool!
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Black isn't a good colour for DasKeyboard users. Everyone would be able to see their pecker tracks.
/.-geeks surfing for porn don't have to worry about stains after cleaning off the keyboard when they are done.
It should be semen coloured (and semen resistant). So all those
has already worn out all of the markings on the keys
come on fhqwhgads
You could save money not only on a keyboard, but your electric bill as well. Get a 10 dollar black keyboard and turn off the lights.
Two years ago I received an MS keyboard, that by accident was produced without labels on the keys. I wanted to learn to type without looking at my fingers, so I started using it, but VERY QUICKLY realised how difficult it is to correctly type whose 10-12 letter root passwords :)
Eih bennek, eih blavek
. . . a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.
I am not a crackpot.
No way is this real. The pictures of the keyboard don't match the key layout they provide and what about the "Windows" key that works in Linux? Sounds like a joke.
The bunch that make the Happy Hacker Keyboards also make a version with blank key caps. They are quite expensive but well made.
UK Distributor: http://chygwyn.com/products/hardware/#pid52842
They put all that work into coming up with an "uber" keyboard and yet still go with that wrist-crippling square key layout. You'd think that keyboard designers have never seen a human pair of hands in their life.
sic transit gloria mundi
The Enter key is the wrong size. Real Enter keys are L-shaped.
Wow, can't believe nobody has mentioned the applications of this keyboard for secure environmnents. I mean someone could watch you type your password and (unless they had memorized the key locations) they wouldn't know what you typed in! Talk about security by obscurity. Also you machine would be secure from people who couldn't touch type.
One other design I propose for the new "secure" keyboard is where instead of being blank, every key has an asterisk.
Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
This is a case of someone charging too much for something you can do at home for the cost of a can of krylon, which can then be used to defned your sister's honor.
I am on that very keyboard right now. It is a basic keytronic keyboard that you can pick up new for around US$40. They just painted the keys, removed the keytronic logo, and called it 'uB3R 1337'.
If you don't believe me, check out keytronic.com. This twit even swiped their poopy weight diagram. I love the free market economy. All hail the mighty dollar.
Quality keyboard... $30
Fine-grit sandpaper... $2
Label proclaiming übergeek status to all... $0.25
Getting morons to spend $80 for 5 minutes of labor... priceless.
- All keys are covered in duct tape.
- All "internet keys" are removed.
- Duct tape over the rest of the k/b.
- Removed CapsLock, Insert and NumLock, since they are only ever hit by accident.
- Added a three digit lcd readout on the top right that counts the number of keys pressed (wraps around at 1000) also only works when scroll lock is on, or if you tell your OS to keep the scrolllock light lit. Let me tell you: that was a bitch to set up.
Here's a picture of the last feature up and working if you're interested: http://camera.phor.net/photo.php?id=5003-- I was raised on the command line, bitch
bumpity bumpity BUMP!
I have two kineses---one at work, one at home---and I couldn't live without them.
They also use individual switches per-key, which makes the tactile feedback excellent, and if you get the Classic or better, the keyboard can remap itself (though I'll admit, getting your computer to do this for you is just a SMOP...)
-rsw
If you use your keyboard enough, you become elite via friction.
What a worthless product - truly hatched from overconsumption and egotism.
I was picturing a flat panel with no keys, something that would look like a keyboard-shaped solar panel with touchpad technology across the whole surface. At least, then, it would *look* elite.
How about a keyboard that illuminates that is actually sexy and appealing? That would be a good start on the journey to usefulness, and it hasn't been made yet...affordably ($100)
I used to coat my keys in black nail polish to keep anyone who used my computer confused. Just another step in the security chain.
Years passed, and at some point I realized, my keyboard doesn't have russian letters. Don't remember how, but I just learned to type in russian without looking at the keyboard, while I still take a look or two, when typing a sentence in english.
Here's a tip that will save you about 80 bucks; learn how to type! Part of actually learning to type is touch-typing, which requires not looking at the keyboard.
I have to say I'm a little disapointed in you so called geeks. I in know way consider myself a geek yet when the first post I read are about people boasting that they can type 60 words per minute or getting up to 60 - 80wpm by typing correctly it saddens me.
I can do that with my left or right hand easily.
I've taken one typing class in my life and they told me home row will only slow you down int he long run and I believe it.
Anyways I've had my rant now.
hah "geeks"
Take nail polish remover and just erase what you have on there.
:)
Repeated use will reveal the keys over time, but if you remove them entirely... you can't cheat
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Back in the day (we're talking MSDOS here), I got a touch typing tutor (not M*vis Br*mpton, but something like it), and spent my lunch times doing the lessons for about 30 minutes.
.... and unless they check the locale *and* their fingers know it, they can't use my login behind my back!
It all starts with 'asd' 10x, then 'asdf' 10x, then 'dsa' 10x, then 'fdsa' 10x
Sounds boring, but you progress fast with frequent short practice.
It took me only three weeks to doing full touch typing at about 35 words a minute (faster than nearly every hunt and peck guy you can name).
The bucky-board special characters so beloved of language designers take a little longer, but I was up to nearly 80 words a minute within a couple of months.
Years later I can even do it on several different national layouts (all English tho')
The beautiful thing about this is that if your employer supplies you with an unfamiliar layout you can simply switch the locale settings and you're back to what you're used to.
I work with quite a few non-native English speakers and that's what they do. They switch the locale to their native country and off they go - coding in English using the layout they're used to.
Makes it hard for me to use their keyboards though as all the characters are in the wrong position (for me at least).
This little trick has also worked for me in the past when I've worked overseas since no-one else understands my keyboard layout
The photos on the website are under-exposed.
The keyboard looks like my old IBM PS2 keyboard
spray painted black with "DAS-KEYBOARD" put on it
with pressure release lettering. The they photograph it in a dark room using a single 15w bulb
for light and under-expose (and poorly focus) the camera.
OTOH,it's the perfect keyboard for use with my
footmouse.
This is obviously a Lexmark/IBM model M5 f**k up. Someone ran across a batch of keyboards that didn't have the keys marked.
"What should we do with all those old keyboards Bob?" "Well Dave, we'll just have to dump them I guess." "Wait Bob, if I can come up with a way to sell them, I'll split the profits with you." "Go for it Dave."
1 week later. The uber geek keyboard is born.
1)Forget to print characters on a keyboard.
2)Create marketing plan.
3)Profit!!!
I had a lot of trouble when I was first learning to type. I looked at my fingers all the time, couldn't resist it.
I failed a typing class in school because my speed was so poor.
Eventually I got one of those typing tutor programs and it helped a LOT, but I still looked too often (if you ever have to look, it's too often, it breaks your concentration, even for symbols!).
Anyway, the solution was 3 days of typing tutor with a towel over my hand. It tripled my speed (I can type about 100 wpm if I'm copying from a document and not creating the content myself--in that case my hands are faster than my head anyway)
Give it a try. Don't bother buying a blank keyboard unless you like the cool look and want to piss your friends off (if you REALLY enjoy that, learn dvorak and use the blank keyboard!). Just throw a towel over your hands for a week and you'll find a significant improvement.
100% money back guarantee.
See the link for the Keytronic E03600, notice the pictures, key placement/arrangement, are exactly the same.
They didn't even bother to update the layout image for the different key weights (they simply resized it and put a note that "...the letters are visible on this diagram for information purposes only." See Keytronic's version and Das Keyboard's Version. Though for some reason, Das Keyboard's image is better.
And you can buy Keytronic's for $21.50 directly from the manufacturer, or even less elsewhere. It's currently out of stock from Keytronic; maybe these people bought them all thinking they had a gold mine at 400% profit! :-b
Marketing! Marketing! Marketing!
The fact that they used the totally-inappropriate JPEG format for their lineart keyboard layout image makes me wonder if they really are "über 1337 geex0rz". Rolleyes.
I have a for-sale keyboard here without inscriptions on W, A, and D keys. Several others are shadowed too. How much do you think it may be worth?
Is it just me, or does this look EXACTLY like an IBM model M? It's black, it has windows keys, and it's USB but the layout and the individual keyswitches scream Model M.
Go pick up an old Model M for $5 at a computer show and rub the letters off the keys for a similar effect.
Now if they'd make one with the trackpoint in the middle (M13) I'd buy one in a second!
Mitch Hedberg (r.i.p.):
"I can type 100 words per minute, but it's in my own language."
If water were beans, I'd be 70% beans.
Where's the any key?
I've got an old several-kilo ibm keyboard, with great clicky switches and even better, the letters come off. IIRC I got 5 of them for ~$7.
My friend always had the idea of using LCDs on a blank keyboard, to make it instantly configurable. I like this idea, but his original idea would have the whole thing as a touch screen, meaning it would lack feedback, and such. What good is typing if you don't make little clicky noises?
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
"It's the wild colour scheme that freaks me. When you try and operate one of these weird black controls that are labelled in black on a black background a small black light lights up black to let you know you've done it."
Yeah -- although in fact really old (pre-1998, I think) kineses have even better and clickier keys than the modern models do. They have flakier firmware, though.
I always remap my keys -- I find it's more convenient to do that at the keyboard level than the OS level. But then, I remap _all_ the keys, including a keypad layer that I access with a pedal, for programming punctuation -- I'm a bit geeky in that one tiny respect
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
I took a typing class when I was a sophomore in high school (1976-1977), and I still maintain, to this day, that it was the single most USEFUL thing I walked away from in that abysmal 4-year-experience.
We learned on classic IBM Selectric typewriters, with the bright red cases and the "typing ball," and the feel of those keyboards was just dynamite. The teacher MADE everyone learn to touch-type, and we did a ton of exercises during the semester.
Today, almost 30 years later, I still blow peoples' minds at work when I'm writing an email on my computer, a guy walks up to my cube to ask me a question, and I look away from both the computer and monitor to talk to him -- but I CONTINUE TYPING MY MESSAGE. It's amazing how people think that's the freakiest thing in the world.
And, for the record, for those people who wouldn't dream of shelling out $80 for a keyboard, I've shelled out far more than that for my FOUR (4) solid-as-a-rock, 15-year-old, built-like-a-tank, no-longer-made, 5-pound all-metal Northgate keyboards. There's no keyboard in the world that's better. With luck (and a bit of maintenance and money), I will type on these keyboards for the rest of my life.
-- An old-school touch typist who hates mushy keyboards
...use model M...
sorry guys... it's NOT wireless... it's heavy... it's noisy... and we love it...
oh... and you can (could ?) buy any set of keycaps for it... including a totally unnessesary blank one...
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
I've worn the A and N keys off my iBook's keyboard, so 24 more letters to go before I sell this puppy on eBay and rack in the big bills
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
I think it's because the keys were cheaply painted. No, it doesnt' bother me. It's an otherwise fairly nice keyboard, and I never, ever look at it. The idea of buying a keyboard *because* it doesn't have marks on it strikes me as lame, though. I'd loose a bit of respect for somebody who thought it was cool enough to actually buy. If you want weighted keys, buy a weighted keyboard, they're out there and cheaper. I actually prefer an ergonomic layout with non-weighted keys.
You can easily find an IBM model M Keyboard, and they have removable keycaps. Remove the keycaps and store them and you are all set. Plus you can take this time to clean the ceycaps. I am sorry, but no wired keyboard is worth 80$, not even this one
From pckeyboard.com, sellers of modern model M clones with buckling spring technology:
Thanks very much for the inquiry. We are working on our first USB model, the EnduraPro 104, and should have that available in the near future. We plan to offer USB models of most of our keyboards eventually.
So you might try pckeyboard.com if you want a PS/2 new issue model M, or wait a while for their USB 104 buckling spring. I'm personally waiting for the 101 key USB model M, I hate windows keys. I have enough PS/2 Model Ms from the thrift store to last me until them.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
I have had a keyboard like that for months - ordered from Unicomp, custom made. It's a Model M (Unicomp inherited the patent from IBM), an armageddon-proof, beautiful buckling spring keyboard without inscriptions (incidentally, it's a 105-key variant, I live in central Europe).
picture
we discovered a new way to think.
- Email
- Instant Messaging
- One for each MS Office application
- Open "My Documents" Folder
- Open media folder (separate ones for music, movies, photos)
- Close Document (shorthand for Ctrl-W)
- Shutdown/Standby
- Volume Control
- Eject optical drive(s)
I think there are more, but those are the ones I've actually personally used. So is the real problem that the keyboards with the special keys are useless, or that you just can't train yourself to use them?Breakfast served all day!
Just using the Happy Hacker version? It's cooler anyways...
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
Why did these RETARDS make the Shift, Ctrl, and Enter HEAVIER than the rest of the keys?!
When typing quickly, you normally hit them with a somewhat awkward reach of the pinky fingers. Your fingers don't normally rest on them, so they don't need resistance to prevent accidental presses. They should be the LIGHTEST keys on the board.
The Fujitsu is a superior keyboard, and probably the best keyboard that is currently on the market, and I'll describe why, in nice convenient bullet form.
. The backslash is big (double-wide!) and right near the top-right where it's supposed to be.
. There are almost no obnoxious extra keys that take up the space where other keys used to be.
. The Function, Printsc/etc, Esc, Insert->PgUp, Arrow Keys, and Numeric Keypad, are all in the classic layout and where we all learned they'd be. PgUp and PgDown aren't transposed.
. The numeric keypad isn't missing.
. The Shift and Backspace keys are triple-wide and easy to see.
. Control is at the bottom-left, right where you'd expect it to be. Even a former Commodore user like myself can find them without hunting.
. The tactile response of the keyboard is a buckling spring; therefore, you're not wondering whether you hit the key. If you felt it go past the buckling point, you hit the key.
. The audible click of the keyboard is a secondary feedback mechanism that also tells you very clearly when you've hit one of the keys. It's not so loud it's obnoxious though. The clicky sound is about on par with the old IBM M line of keyboards.
. It's still for sale. Fujitsu still makes them!
. They're heavy duty. Really heavy-duty. You could easily brain someone with one and plug it back in and keep working. I've often pounded hard enough to break any lesser keyboards. Mine seem indestructible.
. The keys are sturdy and can be easily removed and repositioned to match your current keyboard layout, without fear of hurting the keyboard. In the slightest.
What point is there in leaving the glyphs off the keys? You're never going to learn where F6 is by heart: you don't use it enough. Other keys are similar. I've been typing for something like 20 years and more, and I can type without looking at the keyboard, even without using a standard hand position: that doesn't mean I don't need to peek every once in a while.
Besides, when you're in the dark in front of your computer screen you can't see the keys anyway: but they're there as a convenience for you if you need them.
Telling people they'll type faster if they have to learn key position is pretty condescending. Wouldn't it be better to take a design like the Fujitsu and try to improve on it, instead, hard as that may be?
Here's a PDF describing the features and quality of the Fujitsu 4726:
http://www.fcai.fujitsu.com/pdf/FKB4726.pdf
Be informed! Join the anti-crappy-keyboard revolution!
Not sure if that company is around anymore, but their keyboard was perfect(right size, right springs, ressistant to all foods and drinks)and I used it for a good 8-9 years until it literally fell apart. But if you want to save $80, just use a kepyboard for that long and the letters will just wear right off. Granted another year of use will cause the keyboard to fall apart, but your saved $80 should buy you at least 10 keyboards.
"I don't need drugs to enjoy this, just to enhance it" - Otto
The fact that the question is being asked should tell you the answer.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Total Twaddle got to this 3 days before Slashdot did... so much for a website for nerds, eh? :)
Braille Keyboards
-kgj
-kgj
Well, Star Trek's labels are things like M SRT, M DRN, J FRK, and references to the speed of light.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
It was brutal switching over but now I'm a 100% touch typist and my hands are "happy."
.. was a normal keyboard. It was where I placed it that made a difference. I had this weird cheapo table that the place I was working at had bought at an ultra cheap office shop. The keyboard rested on a platform lower down than the desk. And there were three slots where you could place the platform for the keyboard to adjust the height.
:-)
The platform had two thingies jutting out from the left and two on the right. These thingies went into the aforementioned slots.
Now get this - I placed the platform such that it slanted AWAY from me - and placed the keyboard on it. Thus the front thingies went into the uppermost slot and the rear thingies went into the second slot.
Luckily for me the rubber feet of the keyboard prevented slipping - and my fingers were suddenly typing in the most natural position possible!
No one I have ever seen has ever had a keyboard in such a position! I found that my wrists had no more pain and typing was the easiest I had ever done! My hands were in the most natural position I have ever had them in, semi-vertical around 60/70 degrees.
Maybe I should patent this idea
This was on a plain ole Unix terminal and no mouse. I wish I could have a place for a mouse that wouldn't roll off - and that would be the best keyboard ever.
All views my own. Anyone else with the same views needs to have his/her head examined.
As a musician, the last thing I want is a variably weighted keyboard to reinforce the natural tendency to have weak outer fingers.
Wouldn't a real geek be annoyed by their usage of gram as a unit of weight/force?
Now every semi-literate high-UID spod on Slashdot will just claim that they have one of these keyboards whenever their posts contain incorrectly spelled words.
Learn Dvorak.... it's proven to speed you up! After my initial learning curve, I was typing nearly twice as fast as on a QWERTY board...
Why would I type faster because i don't have to look at the keyboard? If you learn some standard touch typing methods, you wouldn't have to look at your keyboard anyway...
Buying a blank keyboard is just annoying if someone else than you tries to use your computer and can't manage to use your keyboard
I wouldn't mind you in my head, if you weren't so clearly mad -Lews Therin Telamon
They ship internationally, too. I bought the stickers with braille on them instead of an all new keyboard. I never look at the keyboard unless I'm using special keys or typing with one hand (like when I'm on the phone, you perverts).
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
I learned to type on a real typewriter with all black keys in 7th grade, so I'm used to not looking at my fingers. Several years ago I bought a black keyboard and did the black primer thing. My friends hate it, but I dig it. It really did help too, mainly with non-alpha characters. Keyboards and spraypaint are cheap, people shouldn't have to spend lot's of money for a blank keyboard.
I can vouch for this style. I never formally learned to type, and absolutely hated forced typing classes in grade school. I got my own computer at 10 years old (I'm 23 next month), and just started "hunt-and-peck"ing. At my prime I had a 140 peak, 100 sustained wpm. That was using the old, ADB Apple Extended Keyboards, which sound very similar to this "Model M" people keep speaking of - a very solid, sturdy keyboard with nice resistance and a loud *clack* when pressed. Now that I wind up using a variety of significantly smaller keyboards, all of different sizes (the iMac keyboard I use primarily here at work, various laptop keyboards, my Apple Pro Keyboard at home that I'm too cheap to replace), I can tell that my typing speed has significantly dropped, though lay people still say I'm "really fast" when they see me go at it (I don't know what it is exactly now).
:-)
I don't look at the keyboard when I type. I use all of my fingers, not just my index fingers. My index fingers actually rest on F and J like they "should", but [checking now] my pinky fingers on left-shift and return, thumbs on the spacebar and my middle and ring fingers on W & E (left) and I & O.
That's just when resting waiting to type, though; my wrists roll about, and my hands slide up and down and left and right over the keyboard. I find it painful to my (large) hands to try to keep my fingers scrunched together over the home row, wrists still and just reach with the "appropriate" fingers. I notice now, it seems that my left hand does more of the main typing work, probably so my right hand is free to reach for the arrows, number pad, mouse, or other such non-letter functions, at a moment's notice; but all the while, my right hand is still hitting a good number of keys, just with fewer fingers (my pinky doesn't seem to do much, other than hit return; then again, my left pinky doesn't do much other than shift).
I can type in the air without even having a keyboard present, and "feel" in my mind exactly where every key is. But the same finger doesn't always hit every key; basically, whichever finger is closest will hit whichever key is needed. Y, G, H, and B get hit by either hand a lot, though in this sentence since I was placing commas between them with my right hand, my left hand hit them all. I believe this variability is why my typing speed has often exceeded even trained typists and secretaries.
An analogy just occurred to me. Apparently, English language classes in Germany teach only a strict, Oxford (IIRC) subset of English (I believe I read this fact on Slashdot, so who knows if it's true). This "English", while fully comprehensible to native English speakers, does not allow nearly the same versatility of language as naturally learned English does: the example I remember was something like "Alex comes" (implicitly, to where the speaker is) is a valid sentence, but not "Here Alex comes", "Alex is coming", "Alex comes here", etc. Those who learned the language naturally have such a greater versatility with it and ability to adapt it to their needs than those who learned it as a rigid set of rules.
I'll bet I could type faster than and touch typist if we both had one hand tied behind our backs
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
A TRUE ubergeek wears the letters off his keyboard after a few weeks of use.
A friend of mine used to pull off the keys
d -med.jpg j pg % 20-%2003/tn/All%20Time%20Great%20Microsoft%20Keybo ard.jpg.html
and replace them in alphabetical order-
always got a chuckle out of me when someone
new sat at his desk...
In any case, that would solve the problem of
finding the odd charactors: ~ / \ | etc
as well as letting you grow into learning
key location.
Thought i'd throw in another ideal placement too:
http://www.techimo.com/photo/data/4/179ms_keyboar
http://www.jardmail.co.uk/attachments/mskeyboard.
http://igloo.its.unimelb.edu.au/funny/Year%202005
(all same image)
I can't resist the opportunity to blatantly plug my favourite keyboard for the Mac: the Matias Tactile Pro, which has the excellent IBM-style keyswitches.
"He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once." - Steve Jobs on Bill Gates
When I was in 8th and 9th grade in 85 - 87 we only had a handful of typewriters that were electric daisywheels. The rest of the room was manual typewriters that had the A key and I think the 1 key were inscribed, the rest were blank.
By the end of the first semester I was typing 73 WPM with 0 mistakes in time trials or whatever we call them. Easy A. I remember when they had correction stuff on the daisy wheels. you could fix yer mistakes really quick but when the correctino tape ran out they wouldn't replace it. It had a huge buffer, like 30 or 40 chars so you could back up quite a bit, back then, it was fun to play with.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Does anyone happen to know what is used to put lettering on keyboards these days and, more importantly, what it would take to remove it? Turpentine? Acetone? Xylene? Preferably something that doesn't also dissolve the keys....
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.
I wonder if they will have this keyboard in Hotblack Desiato's all black ship?
"Giving money and power to governments is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." - P.J. O'Rourke
This was covered last year - Are you recycling stories for new /.ers...
- Hardwired dvorak/us switch (I use Dvorak, but it'd be easier to share this way)
- Black or transparent (looks good), better when used with a mac
- Not only ergonomic, but Adjustably ergonomic This is what I use today.
- I'll take the blank keys from this one
- I'll also take the variable force springs
- Wireless
- Ability to add a separate numeric keypad for those rare times when I need to input lots of numbers
- A row of buttons for macros
I'd be willing to put $150.00 for these features.Do you have any one in particular you would recommend?
I've always wished someone could build a variable keyboard, since I read about something similar in one of the old Foundation books.
You've basically got a touch-sensitive display, which is thus capable of reconfiguring its "keys" and such at whim - except this control board is also capable of extruding its surface, to give tactile feedback. You could implement sliders bars on the control board (by moving the bumps) for volume or whatnot, leave an empty square off to one side for a trackpad / graphics tablet, etc. Individual apps could present you with their own customized control interfaces.
The hard part is just coming up with the tactile element of this device. As a touch screen it's easily doable today, but the lack of tactile feedback would destroy people's typing speeds.
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
$omv;ifr >dyfop/j? ,som)_ }
omy
[tomyg)"Jr;;p. Ept;d@"_'
tryitm =2'
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Oh crap, not again.
The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
Now if you just add a monitor with not screen to keep you from being able to read what your typed wrong and it will really speed things up.
What (I think) happens is that when my eyes are seeing letters come up on the screen that are a character or two behind the letters that my fingers are typing to spell the word correctly, there is some sort of confusion in my "muscle memory" about what letter comes next, and I have to slow down my typing until the letters on-screen are coming up in synch with the letters my fingers are typing.
If the echo on the monitor is slower than my fingers are getting to the keys, I start misspelling everything; I think it's because my fingers are trying to type the letter that comes next according to what my eyes are seeing, rather than going by the more-concious(?) part of my brain that knows which letters have already been typed.
Has anyone else experienced this, or is it unique to the way I've learned to type? (I was forced to take keyboarding classes (on PC's) in Junior High & early High School, but my touch-typing skills sucked until I started having to type lots of papers for classes. Now, I'm reasonably fast.) Does anyone know of a way to correct it? I'm thinking that I can work off the theory of this keyboard and practice typing with my eyes closed, but without constant spell-checking, that could be rather detrimental to my career. =)
dragée (n): a sugarcoated nut
[honker@r11serv honker]$ su -
Password:
su: incorrect password
[honker@r11serv honker]$ su -
Password:
su: incorrect password
[honker@r11serv honker]$ su -
Password:
su: incorrect password
DAMN IT!!
- these are not the droids you are looking for -
If I wanted blank keys I'd just pull the key caps off my IBM model M.
Price; $5 bucks at computer show. It's a decade old and going strong. I've got another in use elsewhere that is over 16 years old, still works perfectly.
Are there really that many non-touch typers out there?
http://threetechguys.info Come, discuss Technology. Got a technology question? Come ask!
Learn DVORAK and keep your current keyboard. You'll never want to look at the keys anymore because they will confuse you. Result? You'll be typing without looking which is, according to the article, going to give you 100% faster typing (...) AND you'll be less prone to typing injuries AND it will cost you a whopping 0$! What a bundle! (just let the new layout sink-in for a few months)
SuperUber geeks use slide rules WITHOUT markings!
What 80 bucks for that! Better be a damn good keyboard. I used to have a blank keyboard I bought for £5 in a discount store. I figure they dont sell so well among regular people so its should be easy to find bargains.
Off course I had bought mine for the sole reason of annoying my flatmates.
Interestingly the keyboard was meant for learning touchtyping and and an extra backspace key. The spacebar was cut in two: the left part was the second extra backspace; the right part was the specebar.
Concerning the touchtiping skill improvement, their claim that you are going to speed up you typing speed by 100% is ridiculous.
If you already know how to touchtype properly, having a blank keyboard wont do much. If you dont know how to touch type properlly, having one will disgust you before you can improve.
Only in the formal setting of a touchtyping course can they be really useful imho. Or to annoy other people they are great.
What I wish for is a new keyboard standard designed to make it easier to enter accents and other characters. (I frequently have to type in spanish, where I work.)
I've got that US-Int option going on my QWERTY, but unfortunately it makes entering text with quotes a bit messy sometimes.
The current lot of keyboards out there are based off ancient ASCII-focused designs, with a few added function buttons. I'm sure there's room for MAJOR improvements.
With out international society, it would be very useful. Someone just needs to take initiative and design one.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
For those of you who have people who come over and use your computer instead of spending time with the rest of the group... this keyboard is for you. That should drive them nuts!
I actually had this. Well, it didn't come that way...
I levered off the keycaps on my keyboard (they were only clipped on), and swapped them around- keeping them in the same row due to offsets. (n.b. not all keyboards can do this, but quite a few can- some just break when you try it :-) )
It actually really helped, whilst I knew where the keys were, I kept looking down to see where they were all the time.
By swapping them around I soon broke the habit.
The main downside were the people who 'wanted to show me something' and tried to grab the keyboard, followed by a yell: 'what have you done to your keyboard!'
LOL. Guess they weren't touch typists.
Eventually I graduated to being a touch typist, and I swapped them back again.
I must admit this new keyboard looks darn cool though.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Too bad Fingerworks is going out of business. I would have loved to get my hands on a Touch Stream LP. A keyboard with _no_ keys.
The above is not worth reading.
You can get carpal tunnel syndrome 100% faster as well.
No, a true geek keyboard has only one key it is either off or on.
"See Keytronic's version and Das Keyboard's Version. Though for some reason, Das Keyboard's image is better"
Good forensics..
Here's the actual, original image: http://www.keytronic.com/home/products/specs/image s/ErgoColkeyv2.gif
DDoSKeyboard, or whatever the fuck they're called, probably wget'd and used that image.
A blank keyboard would be neat to use in an office. It might prevent your co-workers from using your station, since most people (I think) are hunt 'n peck typers. ;-)
If you're into "Das Keyboard" because you want to improve your typing skills, I'd recommend a typing keyboard skin (for more, google [w/o quotes] "keyboard skin typing"), which is what I used. Also, (and I say this in all seriousness), covering the screen while copying from a sheet will really help your typing speed. Also, if you take a look at the weights they use for the keys (which, incidentally, doesn't match up with the picture of "Das Keyboard" on the main page), the key weights seem arbitrarily chosen. Also, wouldn't they want to make various different versions of the keyboard, each key having different weights (for example, a developer version, an American/British English, German, French, Spanish, etc.)?
Far too true.
you dont need it to be blank to not help you, you just need the keys int he wrong spots. So change all the keys you normally use to different places, and you're fine.
You can even leave the less used function keys if you like.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Use a french keyboard. All those characters except the + are without shift here. Period uses a shift though, and q/a are transposed. Can't with them all though.
http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/items. main/parentcat/9229/subcatid/0/id/143557
look at that, i just saved people 40 bucks AND there's no windows key!
Does anyone use this or any other alternative layout? How hard is it to go back and forth between your favorite keyboard/computer and a regular QWERTY layout? It seems this would be a problem.
Tag lost or not installed.
... just in English, though.
Your head a splode
I was a hunt-and-peck typist when I started playing with computer (the ones with full keyboards attached) 28 years ago on CRT terminals, Decwriters and those beloved ASR-33's, but with typing all my comments on Slashdot (and Usenet newsgroups, and mailing lists, and BBS's before then, and yes, even a little code documentation :) ), it seems that somewhere along the way I became a touch typist. I may not be putting the right fingers in the right places, but I seem to get by.
Tag lost or not installed.
I'll take the blank keys from this one
Have each key be a small LCD screen, it will (if turned on) display the keybord layout, and the key displays will change from lower to upper case when shift is pressed. Okay, so that's a little TOO cute and nerdy...
I'll also take the variable force springs
How about if you can specify the force for each key? Even make it have Model-M clickable or 'mushy' feel.
A row of buttons for macros
For many years I've visualized a keyboard with e built-in LCD display and functions where you can make macros on the keyboard so pressing a key or combo causes an easily-programmed letter sequence to be sent, rather than just one letter. There have always been macro programs, but these macros will go with you when you take your keyboard.
Tag lost or not installed.
I got sick of using a mouse and the fact that my poiting device had to be off the keyboard. I threw my mouse away and got a trackball. Then I took off all the keys from the numeric pad and used velcro to mount the trackball in pace of the numeric keyboard. As a result, I don't have to reach for the mouse anymore. The movement of the wrist is minimal and the footprint of the workspace is smaller since I no long have a mouse and because the trackball is on the keyboard itself.
It's an old AST that just happened to have the exactly right feel for me. So I stole it from my former employer. I've had it for 8 years now.
It's a pretty nonfancy 101-key with pipe and backslash over the enter key. I set X to swap capslock and control so that I don't destroy my pinkie. I also avoid Emacs for a similar reason.
.xinitrc includes:
xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap&
.Xmodmap:
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Control_L
keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L
I don't do much typing on other folks' keyboards, and when I do I don't take much of a speed hit because I'm not using the keys that are variously placed.
"All of our products are covered by a 30-day money back guaranty as well as a one year limited warranty."
Who in the world spells guarantee with a Y? I checked a dictionary.. it IS a legitimate spelling. But.. who uses a Y?
there are some things i'd like to comment on the keyboard.
1st thing is that they did the backspace and enter keys correctly. i hate giant enter keys which then pushes the \ up and makes the backspace key tiny which even after months of training i'd still miss the backspace and hit the \.
2nd, is they should also come out with a ergonomic layout for those who prefer that way.
3rd, what's with the $80 price tag? there's nothing special about this keyboard besides the springs. and the weighted springs system really cost the extra $70?!?! i mean, instead of rubbing off all the letters with a eraser or scraper, one can easily swap keys around and that'll force you to learn where the keys are instinctively, instead of looking down @ your keyboard.
finally, for the geeks (you don't even need to be uber). how often do you look down @ your keybaord? i mean i typed this entire comment w/o looking down at my keyboard once. the letters really aren't there for us, but for the people who might use our computer.
HD Trailers
The TouchStream. These are amazing devices, and completely customizable. Actually the retail price was something like $350... but Fingerworks was recently bought out and the future of the product range is in doubt. So when two second-hand models were auctioned on ebay recently, they both went for nearly $500.
(One of them to me... I need a second one for work.)
Why are they so good? Well, y'know how when you're coding you avoid the mouse because it's quicker, in the end, to hammer away at the keyboard? Even for awkward things like selecting text? Well, with the TouchStream, there is zero delay between mousing and typing, because you mouse by dropping two fingers on the typing area. It's completely seamless, and it means you can integrate mousing into your typing. Things suddenly get a whole lot quicker and easier.
It doesn't stop there. They recognise gestures in a heavily customizable way. You don't need the arrow keys any more, just drop two fingers of your left hand and slide them. Much quicker, and no reaching.
In fact, it's possible (with some hefty customization) to eliminate reaches completely. That's what I've done... I no longer need to reach for any modifier keys whatsoever. I get the complete range of letters, numbers and symbols without moving my hands from the Q-P A-; Z-/ keys.
Then you have the fact that they're incredibly comfortable and will help to offset any RSI worries you may have.
Downsides? Takes some getting used to for full speed (I learned Dvorak because it means less finger movement and I'm up to 70wpm after several months; I can hit 100 on a normal keyboard). You'll probably never be as fast typing as on QWERTY. This is very definitely offset by the gestures, mousing and comfort, but it's frustrating at first.
I hope a new incarnation arises, because there's no way I'm going back to separate mouse and keyboard and no gestures without a fight. If the ones I have break I'll probably end up paying more and more buying them second hand :(
and with these clear key caps.. you could either have a "blank keyboard" or design your own custom alphabet for typing http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/items. main/parentcat/12151/subcatid/0/id/135529
I did it a long time ago.
:-)
I think it was primer... wrong paint, its been slowly wearing off, and was sticky for a long item. At least for a while it looked new... its from 1991.
I still have trouble with the carret key; otherwise I'm fine. Nobody can use my machine either
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
I personally use Dvorak on a qwerty keyboard, I never bothered to change the layout from qwerty. This makes my keyboard even more useless than a blank one :)
I my accuracy has gone up a ton since I switched my layout back to qwerty, and I still get the comfort of Dvorak :D
"Man, I am so unbelievably stupid."
...did they pick such a lousy font for the keyboard?
*ducks*
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
I use a Kinesis Countoured Programmable keyboard with a footswitch. Mine is in Dvorak layout, but they're switchable in hardware., so use whatever you like. Among other things, I use one of the footswitches as the shift key. That solves part one of your problem. In addition, most of the modifier keys are under your thumbs, which get six keys each instead of sharing just the spacebar.
Aside from the ergonomic benefits (this thing cured my tenosynovitis in college a decade ago and I've never looked back), the keyboard can program a macro to any key. And, it has an additional modifier key that lets you define a second meaning for every key - the idea being that you use this to emulate a keypad.
I use the second layer to define code macros. HTML macros on the left, C-style code macros on the right. I use one of the footswitches to activate the second layer. So, for example,[right foot][k], meaning the key under my middle finger, home row, gives me this:
Where the * represents the location of the cursor after the macro runs, since the macros can include arrow keys. All that from a foot-tap and one non-pinkie homerow keystroke. I make new macros on the fly when I find I'm retyping something too often. Like an identifier, if I'm not in an IDE with auto-complete, or deleting the first character of every line, if i'm in an editor without rectangular selection.
Tapping the footswitch and hitting middle-homerow-left gives me:
I have equivalent macros for every HTML entity I use frequently. If I need to add a code around existing text, I use the shifted macro, which I've defined to be "cut - type macro - arrow between the codes - paste". I manage to bang out most programming code and most HTML without touching shift. And most of the long complex strings - like your example - take only a few keystrokes.When I have to use my laptop, I feel pretty crippled. So I often carry the kinesis with me. Fortunately, all those macros are in hardware, so I can. And the USB keyboard is Mac/PC switchable: it's plugged into my KVM and I drive my windows, mac, and linux boxes all with the same macros. Great for cross-platform development and testing.
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
It appears to be a fairly standard 104-key layout.
The keyboard has a double-width backspace, and a single row Return key. The key between them will be the backslash (\) pipe (|) key.
None too stylish, though, is it...
It might be an interesting keyboard for a typing class. For average typists, their claim for increased speed is probably pretty reasonable, since touch typing really is a lot faster than hunt and peck.
All in all, while this might work reasonably well for a few folks, I'd suggest for most, their money would probably be better spent on a decent typing tutorial program. If folks don't have the self-discipline to teach themselves to type while looking at their screen instead of looking at their hands, I doubt they'd have the patience or discipline to use this.
Ive used some keyboards that had this, and it was a nightmare, as i alternate thumbs on the space bar. Im sure id get used to it, but it was hell while i was using it.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
I learned Dvorak at the beginning of the year and have been nearly 100% Dvorak for a few months. I wouldn't say it's hard to back and forth- a little strange maybe. I tried to stay away from Qwerty completely for a while as I learned but now going back and forth isn't too bad.
The biggest problem for me are passwords since they tend to be ingrained into muscle memory the most. That and sometimes you have to switch back and forth *even on the same computer*. Windows XP always assumes Qwerty when you log in and switches to Dvorak (my personal setting) *after* I log in. My Apple computer switches immediately to Dvorak as soon as I select my name and the password field appears so I always type my password in Dvorak (which makes more sense).
Windows also has problems with not switching for already running programs if I switch the settings back and forth to Qwerty as I use it. Then some of the programs are stuck in the old layout and some switch to the new layout. My Apple has no problems with switching back and forth. This happens often enough as other people sit down to use my computers that it's an annoyance.
A side note- Apple has a language setting Dvorak with Qwerty commands. It's Dvorak when typing but things like command-C, command-V to cut and paste are in the Qwerty locations. Interesting and cool but I found going 100% Dvorak was better in the long run for consistency.
From Their Website: Das Keyboard is compatible with all modern operating systems and has a Windows menu key that also works under Linux. Macintosh addicts be will happy to know this keyboard works well for them too. ... be will happy??? :)
Looking at "Das Keyboard", you can see that - despite it's name - it is not a German keyboard. This because the Enter key is differently shaped on a genuine German keyboard: it is two rows high and shaped like a vertically mirrored L. Look here:t er-linux.htm
http://www.cherry.de/deutsch/enjoy-line/enjoy_mas
IIRC French keyboards have the same style of Enter keys.
Ehtpajte repageitja rejgpe eir toaneu riej e aoerg jvgnvut.
Gwvoesnme
Wouldn't EVERY key be ANY key?
hrm...
Aha!
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/pfuca-store/haphackey
I knew I'd seen one before. I guess someone should tell Mr. Guermeur that someone stole his product, renamed it, and made it to market with it before his ever did.
Those bastards!
And failing that, maybe we can put them in the public labs to discourage people from using the computers. Make my job easier.
You can either type on the keyboard for several years, and have the letters just wear off..
(I have one like this, it's great, other people don't want to use my computer, because they don't know where the keys are).
Or.. get some "essential oils", since the letters will just wipe straight off the keycaps.
Windows also has problems with not switching for already running programs if I switch the settings back and forth to Qwerty as I use it. Then some of the programs are stuck in the old layout and some switch to the new layout. My Apple has no problems with switching back and forth. This happens often enough as other people sit down to use my computers that it's an annoyance.
That's because (at least if you're using the language bar to switch) it's not doing what you think it's doing -- it doesn't change a global setting. Windows keeps track for each application which layout you're using. That's why it switches back and forth.
Whether this is a desirable feature or not is another matter, but I've found it useful on a number of occasions when I have to share computers.
I don't really have a problem with it.
Here's my suggestion:
1. Get Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, version 5. I know v.5 has support for teaching Dvorak and that the recent ones don't, but I don't know exactly when they stopped.
2. Find 2 weeks during which you won't have to use the computer for much, but you can use it throughout the day. (Not necessarily a lot, just continually.)
3. During those two weeks, every couple hours sit down and do 15 or 20 minutes of exercise with Dvorak.
4. DON'T USE NON-DVORAK KEYBOARDS DURING THAT TIME. It took two tries to get it for me, and I think the reason the first one failed was because I tried to do it while I was in school and had to type reports and stuff and went back and forth.
As for going back and forth now, I don't find it a problem. In fact, I find I type faster now on QWERTY than I did before. (I learned Dvorak when I was doing somewhat of an advanced hunt-and-peck, without so much hunting, but I've very recently started to come much closer to touch typing.) You'll have a little moment when you first switch when you start to type and ismrpdkd lsl;dl;d* will come out, but you'll go "oh yeah, other layout" and all will be well.
I fully recommend the switch, especially if you have any wrist problems. That was what spurred my switch, and I find it a lot more comfortable. (Though again, I wasn't touch typing before, so it's difficult to say how much is due to learning to touch type and how much is Dvorak. However, whenever I try to touch type on QWERTY, I can feel a difference.)
*That's "complete nonsense", typed as if I were on a Dvorak keyboard while in QWERTY mode.
I wonder if they do a version for the UK?
400% profit? Hah, do you know how long it takes for them to rub out each letter?
A cover for the core keys on your current (favorite) keyboard. About 10 bucks.
www.speedskin.com
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =5201918309
It's hard to paint a keyboard and actually have the paint stick when you type hard 6-8 hours a day for months. If you just prime it and paint it will be off in a few weeks. I have spent almost 2 years painting plastics looking for a way to make the paint durable enough for a keyboard.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
well....kina odd, but true.....
with lingerie, the less material you get, the more you pay.....
keyboard is same: you get less (they dont even bother to put the names of the keys), and you pay lots more $80!
I think I type fast enough as it is, thanks.
Characterless keys. Faster typing speeds. Exactly IBM's rationale for the, as I recall, widely loathed original PCjr. keyboard in the mid-'80s. Can saving files on audio cassette be far behind? (Well, yes, but it's an amusing thought.)
Just remap some of theose otherwise useless "Windows" keys as keymap toggles - or if you have enough of them (there's three on this random Chinese USB keyboard, plus I never use the right Alt or Ctrl keys and very rarely CapsLock), just straight to keystrokes you use often. And/or remap NumLock to shift the numbers above QWERTY as well (numpad for numbers, unshifted keys-above-QWERTY for symbols when numlock is on).
You could also remap the ScrollLock key or one of the "media" keys to an uber-lock which toggles between WYSIWYG and your custom layout. Blink the ScrollLock light (xset led 3) or something to warn people if it's in uber-lock mode.
If I had to use a separate switch I'd have one or two low on the front of the keyboard under my thumbs. Much easier to coordinate. I normally lift my hands to hit back-row keys, and it's not hard (for me, anyway) to leave a thumb parked under the spacebar while doing that.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I can't believe it. I sanded my keys down, and painted them flat black over two years ago. Wherever I go, I bring it. Theirs even looks the same as mine (keytronics)! Hell, I should have patented the concept.
People always treat me like a God among geeks. I can't say that it helped me type faster, but it does boost self esteem and ego. Not that I needed that, since I _am_ the ubergeek god of geeks.
Weighted keys is something else though. But I guess, now people will just say "you got that on daskeyboard.com, loser". Now I hate my elite keyboard. I hate you, daskeyboard. You made my sweet idea less sweet.
--Lord_Alex
...cheap keyboards which die before the keycap lables do.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I had no idea I was so 1337 because I have a second hand laptop that the former owners fingernails rubbed off most of the lettering. That explains why my wife has been so much more lovey since I brought this bad boy home! ;-)
He's sped up his typing by never having to move his hand away from the business part of his fancy keyboard. And he's avoided that constant pinky-finger use that generaly goes with using keys like [shift] or [Windows].
Remember, there is no inscriptions on Das Keyboard keys. The letters are visible on this diagram for information purpose only.
UberGeeks don't need letters OR English classes.
Iam used to typing looking at the keyboard.
I would love to simply type looking at the monitor like you guys do!
Any quick [ I dont mean hours, days I mean ]tutorial /method , for me to learn typing without looking @ the keyboard at a good speed?
[ Something other than typing class pls...]
Why does yahoo do this
Now, if only Apple produced a black PowerBook with black, blank keyboard...
This keyboard looks a lot like mine (an IBM 42H1292). I'm not totally sure if this is true, but I heard IBM sold all their keyboard technology (like buckle spring) to a company (Unicomp?) in europe a long time ago. www.pckeyboard.com I think is the only company that sells keyboards utilizing the old IBM keyboard technology. They actually used to sell the old IBM keyboards for around $100 a piece, but sold out of them and sell the same keyboard called the customizer 101 http://www.pckeyboard.com/customizer.html
In any case what I'm saying is I think this new "blank keyboard" is probably made by Unicomp and utilizes old IBM keyboard technology.
Subj, I had a similar keyboard a few years ago from http://www.pckeyboard.com/ They also sell models with a trackpoint, a trackball, 101 or 104 keys, and much more.
The Keytronic discussed here is not te same, they say in the description that their keyboard has membranes while the Das Keyboard and my own have steel springs.
Anyway, I use xkeycaps to show sort of what the keymap ought to be (but the author stopped adding maps after a hundred or so were submitted! And none match my Dell Inspiron 7.5K). And a windowmaker applet I can't find now that shows 9 flags for I think 18 or 27 countries. Maybe wmkeyboard might be useful too. Anyway my Mom's Mac OS X handles other languages fantastically without even noticing how hard it is elsewhere (maybe XP is the same?) but for linux I think if you deal with more than one language this will drive you insane.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Whether DVORAK does a better job of using both hands equally, and putting the most frequently used keys in the home position is a matter for debate
Well, here's one significant data point: World's fastest typist uses Dvorak
gewg_
Of course you also have to consider that spending money to paint labels on consoles that are just going to blow up anyway is inneficient.
This post written under Gentoo-linux with an SCO IP license.
Want a keyboard that clicks? Go here:
http://matias.ca/tactilepro/
You can use your credit card.