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

Obligatory

[mukund]

Does it have the `any' key?

Re:Obligatory

[Zwets]

Or, more importantly, how do you find out where they've decided to put the backslash this time?

Re:Obligatory

[aslate]

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

Re:Obligatory

[Tony Hoyle]

Overkill. One key suffices. 1 and 0 can be distinguished according to the length of the key press. This also will teach you fast typing because if you type too slowly you'll get only zeros (assuming that zero is the longer keypress).

GENIUS!

We can use something similar to send messages between computers.. much less chance of corruption.

Gotta think of a good name for the patent.

Umm..

I know!

Morse Code!

Calculator key?

[Anonymous Conrad]

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.

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:Calculator key?

[dajak]

Nowadays keyboards come with an extra row of buttons along the top: email, internet, volume and so forth. ... and shutdown/standby. My cat loves that key.

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:a tip

[justforaday]

Great! Now all my keys are sticky and have fingerprints on them and my fingers are covered with gunk...Got any other bright ideas, professor?

i have such a keyboard

[Anonymous Coward]

it worjs perfevtky wekk anf i'n revommenfing it to everuone#

Business skill at work

[moz25]

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.

Next step

[__aaveti3199]

Blank monitor screens to stop us constantly checking our work. Then we'll be flying.

So What?

[TuataraShoes]

I've been using a mouse like that for years.

Re:a tip

[utexaspunk]

...you might want to point the can at your keyboard. alternatively, you could huff it, which might make it impossible to see what's on the keys as well (or anything else for that matter, but hey- think of what you'll save on monitors!)

Re:a tip

[tomhudson]

Great! Now all my keys are sticky and have fingerprints on them and my fingers are covered with gunk

... and how is this different from any true geek's keyboard?

What would be really handy...

[XxtraLarGe]

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.

Why stop there?

[Nothing Special]

I am selling a premium 20" monitor that will not turn on.

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!

Re:a tip

[jargoone]

Here's a tip that will save you three bucks worth of primer:

Grab moderately sharp object -- stab eyes out.

This thing is just a dumb idea, plain and simple.

I had a better suggestion

[ksw2]

[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

A true geek kbd has only 2 keys

[PaneerParantha]

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.

Re:Spray Paint...

[youlikemonkeytennis]

you need to live in the uk - we hand out glass tubes filled with petrol and green dye to our eighteen year olds so that they can play starwars properly.

Keytronic E03600 Black

[mr.bri]

This keyboard is simply a Keytronic E03600 Black USB with the caps replaced. They didn't even change their wording for most of the description.

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!

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.