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?"

Comments

reason for, reason not for

[yagu]

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:

• dramatic increase in productivity
• better relationships (really!)... ever get snippy with someone because they couldn't "get it out" of their fingers while trying to type? (no jokes please).
• expansion of your task universe... you'll take on things you'd never have considered before. I once converted a paper "tutorial" system for my company to an on-line ISPF set of tutorial. The main task included writing lots of code -- that was easy and I quickly dispatched that..., but had I not been able to touch type I wouldn't have been able to consider the task, there were ten's of pages to type, I wouldn't have tried to do it in my "pre-touch" days. (BTW, I got a nice company bonus for that little effort (did it on my own time)).
• better communications... you'll be able to sit down and spin off almost at the speed of stream of consciousness letters, memos, "what if's", etc.
• better karma... it's just much more satisfying and less stressful in general to create without having to establish a relationship with the keyboard.

Re:Calculator key?

[BungoMan85]

Couldn't agree more. I got the MS wireless desktop elite keyboard and mouse ($99.99 at Fry's). It is by far the best keyboard I've ever used. What makes it so is mostly the extra buttons up top. I use the calculator one at least 10 times a day. And the volume control/play control/mute button for WMP (I use it, shut up, it works for me) up top is probably going to wear out soon I use it so much. Not to mention the customizable quicklaunch buttons. I got mine set to open the command prompt, Ultra Edit, the registry editor, notepad, and MSVC++. And it has buttons to open a slew of other things too. And lest we forget the browser forward/backward buttons with a scroll wheel beneath them? And that's just the keyboard, the mouse is even cooler.

Re:Calculator key?

[AKAImBatman]

Personally, I would never buy a keyboard that has an "email key", that's what keybindings are for. I would question the build and design quality of a keyboard that relies on extra keys to get me to hand over the cash.

I never like the dumb (and utterly uselss) "email" buttons, but I am a fan of the Sun Keyboard designs. The "cut", "Copy", "paste", "stop" and other keys on the left can be very handy. It's too bad that Unix software is moving away from using such wonderful keys. :-(

The only thing that tends to throw users new to Unix keyboards is the location of the Control key. On Unix keyboards, the Control and Caps Lock are swapped. I actually find it a bit more comfortable, but many people are used to the PC keyboard design.

Re:a tip

[JWW]

Yes, but do the click like the old IBM keyboards, now THAT would be worth the extra money.

Re:a tip

[pogle]

Yes!! I had an old Gateway keyboard from my first PC that I used up until it finally and truly died 2 years ago. That thing could wake the dead (or at least my roommate) when I started coding. And I miss it. It was a good tactile response to my keypresses, and the audible portion is ingrained in my mind as what a keyboard should sound like.

Also, after over a decade, none of the key labels had worn off. My laptop is suffering after barely a year. They don't make them like they used to. I doubt this 'extra sensitive' keyboard will be any better, especially since my typing isn't 100% adherent to the traditional touch typing methods; that would render those differed key weights completely useless for me.

Re:Obligatory

[aslate]

The annoying thing is that the Keyboard image doesn't line up with the key map that they provide.

Re:a tip

[Tassach]

Almost, but not quite. QWERTY was designed to minimize jamming in manual typewriters. That much is true. It wasn't really designed to slow people down so much as it was designed so that letters which are frequently adjacent in words are widely spaced on the keyboard, and so that both hands are used roughly equally.

Since mechanical typewriters are museum pieces now, the first justification of QWERTY is now irrelevant. 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 (if not holy wars).

I've tried DVORAK and wasn't impressed enough with it to bother switching from QWERTY. What I want is a keyboard that lets me write code without having to hit the shift key. Imagine being able to type something like this without hitting the shift key once:

for (i = 1; i < n; i++){ x[i] += ((x[i] > y[i]) ? i | *z : i ^ *z); y[i+1] = x[i]; }

With a QUERTY keyboard, I had to hit the shift key 14 seperate times to type that (silly) line of code. I don't think DVORAK is going to be much better. My pinkies ache after a long hacking run.