keyboard trends

[bene-Gk2boCrsRs1AfugRpC6u6w at public.gmane.org (Ben Eisenbraun)]

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 10:53:49AM -0800, Dan Kressin wrote:
> --- On Wed, 1/19/11, Ben Eisenbraun <bene-Gk2boCrsRs1AfugRpC6u6w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > At that point I bought a Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate:
> > 
> > http://www.daskeyboard.com/model-s-ultimate/
> 
> "Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate is blank, i.e. no inscriptions on the keys. Nothing at all."
> 
> So..  It's for the Ultimate touch-typist?
> 
> I'm genuinely curious if the blank keys were a selling point for you, or
> if it took much getting used to.

It wasn't really a selling point per se.  I just saw it as an opportunity
to force myself to become better at touch typing.  I can usually hit 60-70
words per minute for standard text, but I slowed down considerably once you
add in special characters, brackets, braces, etc, and the blank keys have
definitely helped with that over the last ~4 months.

The f and j keys have the little plastic nublet that helps you identify the
home position, and they're absolutely critical on this keyboard, since you
can't hunt and peck or type one handed very easily.  You pretty much have
to put both hands on the keyboard in order to use it with any efficiency.

I am pretty used to it at this point, but it totally throws other people
for a loop when they try to use my keyboard.  Creating new accounts for
people and having them sit down to type their own password has been a 
non-starter.

Since I have to have both hands on the keyboard to use it effectively, I
have ended up becoming even more of a keyboard junkie.  The Awesome window
manager is totally keyboard driven by default, and I added the Vimperator
plugin to Firefox to get vi-style keybindings in my web browser.  I was
already a mutt user, and now I'm trying to switch from Pidgin to Finch, but
I'm not sure I like it very much.  Any suggestions on a multiprotocol,
command-line driven IM client?

-ben

--
research is what i'm doing when i don't know what i'm doing.
                                         <wernher von braun>