Strange New Keyboards and Mice 379
robyn217 writes "Over at ExtremeTech, I just reviewed a few strange new keyboards--and they're pretty "out there". On Monday, we posted a review of a vertical keyboard (imagine a standard keyboard split in half, with both side vertical). Today we posted the review of something that doesn't even resemble a keyboard--it's a whole new system of input. Tomorrow and for the rest of the week, we'll be posting new reviews of strange, but interesting input devices."
Whoa... (Score:2, Funny)
Brave, insane souls...
vertical? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:vertical? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:vertical? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Extreme" (Score:5, Funny)
You post something nerdy to Slashdot, with a site whose articles are multi-paged, with images, running IIS and ASP?
Jesus, that is extreme!
Re:"Extreme" (Score:2, Informative)
Um ... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Um ... (Score:5, Funny)
-T
I will part with my (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I will part with my (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I will part with my (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, you've got me beat. My IBM model M2 (born 1-DEC-94, P/N 73G4614) was purchased at a computer surplus in trade for a brand-new keyboard + $5. Why the trade? Because I had just returned from a "big box" store where I purchased a brand-new PS/2 keyboard without realizing how annoying the "Windows keys" would be. I have no use for those keys, not even in Windows. They make ctrl and alt feel... wierd and confusing. The service at the surplus store has always been so friendly, I felt better giving them a brand new kb than I did paying a 20% restocking fee to the big box. Just the other day I got a 1200 dpi scanner from them for $15 and it works great. An institution like that deserves my support... anyway, I digress.
The only reason I had to get a new keyboard was because my Acer was getting sticky, and the AT to PS2 converter broke off. That converter always caused intermittant keyboard errors anyway because it was always jiggling loose.
My IBM is almost as comfortable as the Acer. The only thing I miss is the fat enter key, and having slash just to the left of a small backspace key. Otherwise, my IBM is just like the Acer, which I think is about as good as keyboard layout can get. The IBM has as its saving grace the fact that it's PS/2, so I never get any wiggle-outs or keyboard errors.
I've tried, but I can't find anybody who makes "fat enter key, no windows keys, full sized with numeric keypad" USB keyboards. That animal just doesn't seem to exist. I see a PS/2 to USB converter in my future...
Re:I will part with my (Score:3)
I've tried, but I can't find anybody who makes "fat enter key, no windows keys, full sized with numeric keypad" USB keyboards. That animal just doesn't seem to exist. I see a PS/2 to USB converter in my future...
Look at some of the ``Mac'' keyboards (not just from Apple). Of course you end up with Apple/Command keys, but they make swell Metas....
Re:I will part with my (Score:3, Interesting)
Beat that =)
Re:I will part with my (Score:3, Funny)
Beat that.
Re:I will part with my (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I will part with my (Score:3, Funny)
Clean your keyboard, for the children's sake. In your case, I suggest using a blow torch.
I'd like a hybrid: Buckling Spring x HHKb (Score:4, Interesting)
Summary of review: (Score:2, Funny)
Weird mouse good.
One handed Keyboards (Score:5, Funny)
Sure there have been "internet" keyboards for awhile now with little speed buttons to launch your e-mail client or a web address. But a one handed keyboard will be optimzed for the #1 use for the net these days
A special IRC client could be included with each unit sold... you could call it jIRC
Re:One handed Keyboards (Score:2)
One handed keyboard? (Score:5, Interesting)
No, it's NOT a pr0n reference.
Already have one. (Score:3, Interesting)
If you're in the US, just drop in on a Goodwill store and pick up a keyboard with interchangeable keys. Find your nearest flat-head screwdriver, and commence to modding.
If you need to get up to speed using it, check out KP Typing Tutor [fonlow.com]. It's free.
And I'm sure you can find a mod'able keyboard with a matching key cover as well
Does it matter if the design is over 100 years old (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does it matter if the design is over 100 years (Score:4, Insightful)
spam-magnet@tty1.org
Re:Does it matter if the design is over 100 years (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, that mouse they showed, though more erogronomical, doesn't work out all that well in practice. The mouse currently relies on very precise side-to-side movement of your wrists, something that is much more difficult to do with the sideways mouse.
devolution (Score:4, Interesting)
written launguage - 8,000 years old.
spoken word - as old as mankind.
gestures - part of the animal kingdom.
There you have it, computers by recognizing speach and gestures are bucking the communications trend. Who would have thunk that the silicone gods could not come up with a better way of interacting with our computers than a bunch of grunts and shifts?
Not for gamers? (Score:5, Informative)
Is a Special Mouse Necessary? Yes, it's not easy to flip between the SafeType keyboard and a standard mouse because it requires the forearm to swivel from a neutral position to a pronated position very frequently. After a day or two, the wrists can get a little sore.
The cost of the keyboard and special mouse is $329 USD, easily more expensive than some top of the line computer hardware and rivals some high quality monitors as bank breakers. With that considered, not to mention having to get used to games with this setup, few games will ever use this, let alone see or touch it in real life.
Sniff Test (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're typing on a standard QWERTY keyboard, and most of us are, then your keyboard design is over 100 years old (135 years old, to be exact). Can you imagine using a hard drive that was designed a decade ago? Or a processor from two centuries past?
I call bulls--t!
The hard drive of today is a highly refined, miniaturized version of a design that goes back at least to the 1970s.
My ergonomic keyboard was definitely *NOT* designed 135 years ago. Mechanically, it has as much in common with a mechanical typewriter as a lawn mower has in common with a vibrator. (basically, nothing)
Keyboard Layout (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Keyboard Layout (Score:2, Informative)
This is a fallacy. The QWERTY layout was designed to keep the keys from sticking, thereby increasing speed.
Re:Sniff Test (Score:4, Funny)
BWARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
You miss the point.... (Score:3, Insightful)
As a sidenote, I think the reason that why we don't change keyboard layouts as often as processors (or at all) is because of the time required to learning to use a new layout, let alone something like the vertical keyboard. And ma
Re:Sniff Test (Score:5, Funny)
pft, lightweight.
Vertical Board, Mouse (Score:5, Informative)
When I was out and about searching for something beyond the flat-as-a-pancake keyboard, I'd originally seen this design all over the web, but only as the product of research at Cornell, with no actual plans to put it into production. Seems they've changed their position on that front, though.
Here is [cornell.edu] Cornell's white paper on the vertical keyboard and its effects on posture and the like.
I ended up with a Goldtouch [goldtouch.com], which I am very happy with not only because it relieved any problems I was having, but because their customer service is among the best I've ever dealth with, anywhere, for *any* product or service out there. Wonderful people. They really stand behind their product.
Get a Goldtouch, everybody (Score:2)
I own two of these. I think there's actually better than the Safetype, or any other ergonomic keyboard I've seen.
I don't have any ergo or carpal issues. I bought my first GT because it has a small footprint and because they made some intelligent changes in the standard keyboard layout. But even though I didn't have any problems for the keyboard to cure, I could feel its ergonomic superiority.
Another thing Goldtouch did right was
Wacky input devices (Score:3, Interesting)
I believe the fellow who invented the mouse also had a matching one handed keyboard that never caught on.
Also lets not forget the game oriented sort of keyboard devices like the Nostromo [thinkgeek.com], and the claw [thinkgeek.com]. And I'm suprised noone mentioned things like the DVORAK and split-maltron keyboards and such that are designed to speed up touch typing rather than slow it down (turns out the gains are really offset by the amount of time it would take to have everyone relearn touch typing).
Empirical Research? (Score:5, Informative)
If you are interested Dvorak keyboards, I suggest you check out The Fable of the Keys [utdallas.edu] by Liebowitz and Margolis (1990). At a minimum, it is a long article on why Dvorak failed economically, but it covers more ground than that.
anybody remember.. (Score:5, Funny)
and a much more further.. anybody got info on some spherical keyboards that were in use in 'ancient' typewriters? i just remember reading about something shaped like a ball that you had your palms around, that got swept away by the qwerty(i don't rember exact years when they were tried even, might have been 1800's, or beginning 1900's)..
i tell you what i could use though, a keyboard that at the same time was dead silent, yet gave response to my fingers that the button was pushed, be totally flat too.
come to think of it, screw that. i want one of those "do what i mean to do" devices.
Re:anybody remember.. (Score:2)
They're worth having just to piss off the helpdesk guys everytime they put their greasy little hands on my machine.
But yes, I do like it. But no, my hands and wrists still ocasionally hurt. I'd love a better solution, but I'm afraid of spending $100+ on something that's unproven (I got this keyboard for 20 bucks).
Re:anybody remember.. (Score:3)
It also doesn't drive me nuts with clicking, and has the backslash key where God intended. Nothing drives me nuts faster than those keyboards that move the back
Re:anybody remember.. (Score:2)
Several comments (Score:5, Informative)
Neat, but not for $50.
Next, is it me or is that site even more cluttered than THG or Ananananandtech? But then again, it *is* a ZiffDavis owned site.
The Logitech Netplay is best keyboard (Score:5, Informative)
The keyboard is a little small but a nice touch that it's detachable making it a nice slim portable keyboard that happens to match my PowerBook G3. I hunt and peck anyway (but still 40 words a minute)
I'd suggest it to anyone.
Bluetooth? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm looking for new ones for a new computer I've built, and I want to get rid of as many cables as possible because it's going in a high-traffic part of my house.
The only keyboard/mouse set I've found with bluetooth is a Microsoft set. Looks nice, but I'm not keen on supporting them. Has anyone else done this search and had any luck finding anything?
BTW, I'm aware of other companies' proprietary wireless solutions. But if I'm getting bluetooth for my printer, PDA, etc., I'd like it for my keyboard and mouse as well. And with all the hype bluetooth has received I'd expect to see at least as many bluetooth sets as USB sets.
Side view mirrors (Score:4, Funny)
"keys in mirror are closer than they appear"
2.5 words: Hunt 'n' Peck (Score:2)
Solve that problem and a lot of strain/stress issues would fade I believe. Train them up!
Re:2.5 words: Hunt 'n' Peck (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:2.5 words: Hunt 'n' Peck (Score:2)
I read somewhere (great reference dufus)that typists never used to suffer from RSI when the typewriters were manual because they required a serious amount of muscle to move the keys - once we went electric that reduced (and typing speeds increased) and now there's no going back. But I'd pay for a keyboard that I could hook up to my PC that had a stiffer set of springs/whatever to reduce nerve twitching and
Re:2.5 words: Hunt 'n' Peck (Score:3, Informative)
Now if I can get my boss to pay for it (Score:5, Insightful)
I am getting carpal tunnel syndrome, and I am seeing a neruologist about it.
I wonder if I could get my work to shell out $1250 for the nifty-looking cyber keyborad thingy? Not likely.
When a cheap keyboard and mouse cost less than $12 each, I think they would rather I just suck it up and let me suffer dimishished capacity in my hands some 5-10 years down the road. Goodness knows if they will be my employers that far in the future.
Even $300 for the vertical keyboard is steep. Most of my attempts to get even basic office supplies at work make me feel like I'm robbing the company.
And darned if I am going to bring in one of those expensive gadgets to work, and risk that my investement in tech trinkets could be pilfered.
One of those wacky gizmos would stand out on someone else's desk. The would-be thief would have to take it home instead of keeping it at their desk.
Cool to look at though.
Re:Now if I can get my boss to pay for it (Score:2)
The problem with all of these devices, not to mention even the simple solutions like "re-arrange to Dvorak", is that all of the claimed gains on carpal tunnel syndrome vs. a normal keyb
Re:Now if I can get my boss to pay for it (Score:2)
If you hack for 8 hours every day and get CTS from it, I'm sorry. I've had symptoms of it myself, and I realized after a while it was because my job was just plain
The more they change, the more they stay the same (Score:5, Insightful)
Could you imagine speaking a language that's hundreds, if not thousands of years old? Could you imagine running an internal combustion engine that's almost 150 years old?
There's a reason human-computer interface hasn't really changed. The fact that the human hasn't either isn't a big coincidence.
Re:The more they change, the more they stay the sa (Score:4, Insightful)
There's a reason human-computer interface hasn't really changed. The fact that the human hasn't either isn't a big coincidence.
The English language has slowly evolved over time, as has the combustion engine. The human-computer interface has stagnated more through fear of change, than because of a good initial design.
The cost of re-training people to use a new interface is also a real reason for the human-computer interface's failure to evolve.
Unless someone can come up with a truly revolutionary interface (whose improvements to productivity are immense and can be measured) the QWERTY keyboard will remain as top dog.
Re:The more they change, the more they stay the sa (Score:2)
My current keyboard is very different from the one on my first computer. My current one has a bunch of extra buttons above the function keys. It has a numeric keypad. It has a few extra keys around the space bar. The relative sizes of the keys are different. And the shape of some has changed.
My mouse is different from my first mouse as well. My first computer didn't even have a mouse, and there wasn't one available for it either. It doesn't require a mouse pad to work, it has a bunch of extra bu
Re:The more they change, the more they stay the sa (Score:2)
Right you are (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Split Keyboards (Score:2)
Re:Split Keyboards (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.ergostar.com/split.shtml [ergostar.com]
http://www.comfortkeyboard.com/ergomagic_tm.htm [comfortkeyboard.com]
This one is adjustable, but doesn't come apart:
http://www.keyalt.com/keyboards/goldtouch.htm [keyalt.com]
There are links to several (including some of the above) here:
http://www.tifaq.com/keyboards/adjustable-split-ke yboards.html [tifaq.com]
DennyK
Maybe the weight helps? (Score:2)
Bunches of Alternatives (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe I missed it, but it didn't look like he reviewed several keyboards and mice; it just looked like one keyboard and one mouse.
I used the BAT [keyalt.com] for a few weeks. It was great for non-programming, but for programming it was very inefficient (having to hit a chord to say "now I'm going to shift, or ctrl, or alt", and then having to hit the chord for the actual key. Some situations even required three chords in series to generate one character.
But for writing, documenting, and emailing, it was really great. Mouse drivers would love it too, since it allows you to keep one hand on the mouse while your other hand does all the typing.
Datahand (Score:4, Interesting)
It looks small enought to be tucked into a laptop bag, and I would imagine it's fairly quiet as well. Could be very useful for taking notes at meetings or lectures, where you want to keep distracting noises to a minimum.
Of course, at $1295, I'll never get a chance to find out.
I use the datahand (Score:5, Informative)
The Datahand is not too bad to learn for the letters. But the numbers and symbols which are often used in programming take more time. It took me about 1 month to get used to it. I can type at a reasonable speed on it for English text. I use the built-in mousing feature, which is a drag. Cursoring around is not the way a mouse was designed to be used. But I learned a lot more keyboard shortcuts and it's not a huge hindrance. You can use a normal mouse with the datahand if you wish.
The big claim of the datahand is that they've minimized both the force and distance required to press a key, and I feel this was a good choice for people with tendinitis. Also, the placement of the control, shift, return, and backspace keys on the thumbs is a big win and has definitely helped out my pinkie fingers.
The datahand is about as noisy as any other keyboard.
However, the datahand is expensive, and there is a new keyboard on the market now which claims to have zero force. www.fingerworks.com. It is a traditional keyboard layout, and looks pretty cool. I have considered trying one of these, and I think it would be portable enough for laptop use, they even market one specifically for that.
If anyone is curious, my tendinitis has largely healed now due to physical therapy, stopping almost all keyboard activity for about 2 months, using the datahand after that and limiting my keyboard activities as much as possible for about 4 months, and taking frequent breaks from keyboarding even when using the datahand. I will probably always have to be careful about RSIs due to what happened, but I believe the datahand and a caring boss allowed me to get through a horrible time in my career.
Now that my hands are pretty well healed, I use the datahand at work and my normal laptop keyboard at home. I feel that the diversity of using two different keyboards is also helpful in keeping RSI away.
Tomorrow, and for the rest of the week... (Score:4, Funny)
Dasher (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately, I have a Palm-type Palm, but if I had PocketPC-type palm, I'd jump at this app.
-T
Re:Dasher (Score:2)
I prefer a better key layout (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I prefer a better key layout (Score:4, Informative)
Try the Kinesis [kinesis-ergo.com] keyboards. Enter is next to the space, under the right thumb. Control is just above it.
without having looked at it (Score:2)
Datahand (Score:3, Informative)
No need to peck keys, just move fingers.
The best thing is that the control, shift, alt etc keys are controlled with your thumb. I've had it for 3 years now, and I love it.
Here's a picture
http://www.datahand.com/images/proiitest
micro keyboard (Score:2, Insightful)
I just got a cool looking micro (or mini) keyboard at Fry's for 15 bucks. It's like a laptop. I remember on my old Apple II GS the keyboard didn't have all those extra number pad keys. I thought I was missing out. Now I got my PC and I've come full circle replacing my big keyboard. See the thing is the reaching for the mouse. With a bigger keyboard you gotta reach farther. Since most of those keys are redundant I don't really miss them.
I also feel a lot more symetrical now.
I really like my new setup. On
Standards? (Score:2)
So, what do you measure? Personally, I use my keyboard for typing (and gaming, but that doesn't really count so much since I use the mouse much more). I find sustained typing speed to be the real measure of a keyboard... If you can keep up 100 wpm for 10 minutes or more, that's a kick-ass keyboard... If you can do 120 wpm, but only for a minute and then have to
zboard (Score:3, Interesting)
He lost me ... (Score:4, Insightful)
your keyboard design is over 100 years old
Well, pardon me, but the circular form of a disk drive is a lot older than that! Electricity has been around longer. One could argue that telegraphs pioneered on/off electronic signals.
I am really tired of seeing these idiotic leadins. If the writer can't come up with something better than subtracting years to show how obsolete something is, then maybe it isn't quite so obsolete after all.
Hey, did ya ever think how old the alphabet is? Why are we stuck using such old fashioned characters when we have the graphical ability to invent our own? Why not rationalize spelling in English? Why not invent a new language? Geez, think of just about every programming language out there, they use keywords like for, while, exit. Old as dirt words in the computer age? What is wrong here?
Criminy.
Input will go to gestures (Score:5, Interesting)
Right now we have reached the beginning of the transition away from button inputs to gesture inputs. There are of course many projects working on gesture inputs. The first that are really viable are the 2D ones from fingerworks.com [fingerworks.com]. The next will be refined versions of the P5 Glove [essentialreality.com] or the sensible phantom [sensable.com]. I think eventually gesture based input will be the type used in Minority Report [minorityreport.com], (see the 1st and 10th images in the gallery).
Finally, I think we will move on to direct input. It's been shown that people can control very simple objects, (move a ball to the top or bottom of the screen), with electrodes connected to their head. Unfortunately so far it has not been responsive enough to see application. Input may also be of the form in Ghost in the Shell [manga.com] where people have wireless connections through implants in their body and also physical jacks in the back of their neck. (Another thing shown in the movie are fingers that come apart on wires to type. Rather than that I'd expect a low-power data transmission in the fingers so set the fingers in appropriately shaped cavities and have the data transmitted across the skin.)
Keyboards are nice. They have worked for a long time, but it is time to replace them. Slowly we can transition from keyboards, through the 2D gesture inputs of fingerworks to 3D inputs along the lines of minority report at which time, hopefully, direct input methods will be viable.
Gestures don't click! (Score:2, Informative)
BTW the same argument fully relates to different virtual keyboards projected by laser rays and, somehow, to the most modern non-clicking rubber-contact keyboards where you cannot be sure that the key was really
Re:Input will go to gestures (Score:2, Informative)
Why is there an problem with an interface based on pushing buttons? I can't imagine any gesture based interface becoming more useful than a keyboard. While quite primative, I use the gesture feature in Mozilla, and while it is useful to some extent, most of the gestures go unused because they're too complicated to learn and to use.
I like typing a whole lot better than writing wi
Vertical keyboards? (Score:2)
Hey, just for
Re:Vertical keyboards? (Score:2)
Inertia of the Interface (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, there are variations. Split key keyboards, the funky vertical keyboards, and the Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard, the best keyboard of all time (I have four).
But, all of these keyboards have QWERTY, despite the objections of many who think that there's a better way.
This is really a lesson in interface design. An interface becomes embedded in the subconscious quickly, and it's hard to change once it's in place.
This is why steering wheels, and brake and accelerator pedals haven't changed much in 100 years.
The keyboard and the mouse are the true interface to modern computers. It's not really Windows, Linux, and OSX, it's the damn things that you put hand to in order to make your computer work.
The UI has gone through about 15 years of evolution, but will eventually stop evolving. Keyboard design has been mostly stagnent, and the changes that are made after the first couple of years are usually the result of new technology (examples: Function keys, mouse wheels, fixed macro buttons (e-mail, calculator, etc.).
The UI (the on the screen) should be the same way too. Making radical changes to the UI - changes that seem to take place with every iteration of Windows or Apple's OS, confuse users and make things more difficult. In theory, these UI's should evolve into something more or less constant. The problem with this, of course, is economics and the needs of marketing. Hopefully, people will eventually come to recognize that they don't need a new version of Word this year, or most any other year.
dvorakk (Score:5, Funny)
Kinesis Keyboards (Score:5, Interesting)
BUT: it's not because of the strange design. It's nice, but after the adaption phase, I'm at about the same speed as before (albeit it feels better then before).
The real feature of the keyboard is its reprogrammability. I can remap all the keys, define macro commands, everything directly on the keyboard, without any drivers (it's a regular USB keyboard for the computer). It works fine for all OSes that support USB keyboards. You can plug it into another computer, and all your macros are still there.
It's really a great thing, especially if you want to scare visitors :) (that smilie is mapped to F1 btw, no need for shifting around)
Re:Kinesis Keyboards (Score:2, Funny)
Why use an mechanical I/O device... (Score:5, Funny)
Penultimate Interface (not anytime this decade) (Score:3, Insightful)
Programming would not be done by entering code line-by-line as is common today, but by instantiating entire design patterns that the computer would produce, customized to the programmer-supplied specification, on command. And, of course, it would be possible to create new design patterns for later use. In a pinch, manual keyboard entry could be used to fine tune some details, but would be about as common in regular programming as assembly programming is today in end-user applications.
The display would be projected onto any more-or-less neutrally colored flat surface that was conveniently located, for use anywhere and anytime.
-5 offtopic
Re:Penultimate Interface (not anytime this decade) (Score:2)
The sad thing is that the is the only 'strange'... (Score:2)
And even sadder that only 80% of the same readers even know what 'strange' is.
And still even sadder that you don't.
So flame away!
Press the "Next Page" Key (Score:2, Funny)
I rotated my screen in every direction but couldn't find the map description.
Why we still use QWERTY.. (Score:3, Insightful)
So basically, we are stuck with the most inneficient technique available. I think that keyboards should use the same interface but letters should be moved to different places. A few common letters like A and E should be available on "both sides" in order to speed up typing.
Why is the current input method perfect? Well everyone is already familliar with it. Most products can easily use it (try a vertical KBD on a PDA ou ATM??)
Maybe instead of having 3 longs lows, we should have 4 narrower lines of characters (not including #'s and control keys). While typing this article, I found out that my fingers were mostly moving horizontaly, not vertically. Having a "cube" of characters instead of a triangle would probably improve typing.
I say: why re-invent the wheel? Just align it
My left hand... (Score:5, Funny)
I went to the keyboard and tried some typing without looking. Then I tried the numeric keys. Hey, the placement of the 6 key actually did match how I typed, unlike how I was supposedly taught. I proudly shouted:
I use my left hand for six!
Needless to say, some people misunderstood what I'd said...
What I Want (Score:2)
I notice that I've never had problems in both hands at the same time.
So, what I want is a keyboard/pointer that can be reasonably operated with one hand. I expect to lose about half my typing speed, or more...that's OK. It needs to be good for both email/browsing type stuff AND coding!
Is there anything reasonable like that?
Insert Innuendo here (Score:2)
When did /. get into the business of sex toy reviews?
If it's EXTREME, it must be good (Score:2)
If you're typing on a standard QWERTY keyboard, and most of us are, then your keyboard design is over 100 years old (135 years old, to be exact). Can you imagine using a hard drive that was designed a decade ago? Or a processor from two centuries past?
Can't argue with logic like that.
The atoms that make up the air you're breathing were created billions of years ago. Can you imagine eating a burger that has been sitting in your car since last week?
From the article (Score:2)
I do use a processor that is more than two centuries old. It's called my brain.
PS: QWERTY still works for me. Should I switch it because that would increase new keyboard sales?
A contoured keyboard works wonders... (Score:3, Informative)
It also has total programmability -- which means that finally I can do something with the scroll lock key (I use it to toggle Japanese/English input).
Mine is from the mid 90's and is still working perfectly.
N.B. I do not work for Kinesis. I merely plug their keyboard all the damn time because I like it.
Re:Lacking are the asian devices (Score:2)
It seems like an entirely different device would be in order for this type of input. As you certainly know, there are workarounds known as "input methods" for the standard keyboards. From what I hear they are terrible to use.
If it's anything like the ALT-#### sequence on windows to generate accented and tilded characters of the Latin-1 set, then I know your pain.
Re:Lacking are the asian devices (Score:2)
Japan designs and produces a large chunk of our computer equipment, as does Taiwan. If the technology was there and feasable, it would get produced. I hardly see how you plan to touch type, though, and you're limited to the 4,000 keys on your keyboard, whereas an IM can be expanded to cover whatever characters get encoded.
Re:Lacking are the asian devices (Score:2)
Sorry, but you lose, sucker.
Re:Lacking are the asian devices (Score:2, Informative)
Oh that's so easy. Noone liked my idea so it's obviously racism.
People have been finding alternate solutions for Asian inputs for a long time, I'm sure if a 4,000 character keyboard was a good idea someone would have tried to sell it. I have to type in Pinyin and pick my characters from a list, but it really isn't that slow. Most of the Taiwanese computers I have seen use Zhuyin Fuhao (another phonetic system). 4000 keys would be impossible to look through and work for.
Other than one or two people,