Diane’s sister, Carol, complained: “The letters on the keys of this keyboard are worn off!” Art Scott, during his last visit to North Tonawanda, also noticed the keys with worn-off letters. But Art’s complaint was the ergonomic design of my Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard. “How do you type with this thing?” Art demanded.
Actually, I type very well on my Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard (I know where the keys are!). When I was teaching at the College, I spent hours typing on the computer answering student emails (thousands!), typing up exams (hundreds), and filling out bureaucratic paperwork (tons!). Using conventional keyboards gave me a painful knot in the base of my neck. I read some reviews about ergonomic keyboards and bought the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard. It was love at first type! I could type for hours and not get that pain in my neck.
I requested a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard for my College computer, too. If you’re tired of neck and back pain from using a conventional keyboard, here’s the solution! Yesterday, the “P” key stopped working so I quickly bought a new Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard and I’m typing this post on the new keyboard right now! What kind of keyboard do you use? GRADE: A
I just use a basic keyboard. I only hunt and peck but can do up to 50 words a minute.
Steve, my handwriting was so bad that my Fifth Grade teacher suggested I learn how to type. I took his advice and signed up for a TYPING course in Summer School. I’ve been typing ever since.
My “computer stand” is something I fashioned out of one of those old sewing machine cabinets (I play with the treadle while waiting for it to fire up!) so my standard criteria for a keyboard it Will It FIt!
Dan, a lot of people at the College would type standing up with these fancy workstations. But, at the time, with my bad knees sitting was always preferable to standing.
(Turn off bolding please.)
So much of what I type is on a phone or pad—so I just use my finger—but on a regular computer, I use a standard rectangle keyboard. I’m a good typist—thank you, Mrs. Floyd, my ninth grade typing teacher.
Deb, thanks for the heads up on the bolding! I was always surprised by the number of students in my College COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN BUSINESS course who didn’t know how to type. I would recommend they drop COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN BUSINESS and add BASIC KEYBOARDING. Most of those non-typing students ignored my advice and struggled in the course while students who knew how to type sailed through.
I took typing in seventh grade. The teacher was a b!tch – she caught my friend Roy looking at the keyboard and made him use an 8 x 14 inch piece of paper to hide it – but I learned how to type. The only keyboard I have now is the one on the HP laptop, so that’s it.
Way to stimulate the economy! Jackie will have to up her game, though we did stay the night at the Marriott Long Island when we went to the Jimmy Buffett concert at Jones Beach on Thursday night, plus I had to get a new driver’s side visor for the car yesterday. Seems I was too rough on the old one and it snapped off.
Jeff, the visors in Diane’s new Nissan Altima are half as large as the ones in my Nissan Rogue. The sun always gets in my eyes when I ride in Diane’s car. Annoying!
Tell her to drive in the other direction.
Jeff, you could have used the Kelley method: when the visor stopped working, buy a sole new car. I would have pulled the key, cleaned the connection, popped it back on and saved the $$ for that fancy keyboard.
I use a standard flat rectangular keyboard and it’s just fine. No pains anywhere. These fancy curved keyboards look like instruments of the Devil if you ask me, which you did.
Rick, I engaged in “preventive maintenance.” I figured if the “P” key was shot, there had to be more keys on the verge of failing on my 7-year-old Micrcosoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 KEYBOARD. Now that I have a new keyboard, I’m good for years of happy typing!
OK, you’ve outed me as a hunt&peck typist. My muscle memory knows where to head for the next letter, but to hit the target reliably I have to see the keytops. I took a summer typing class in high school and sucked at it, by that time I was already 3 times faster with my own homegrown method. As far as keyboards, what really matters to me is positive feel of the keystroke, and the Gold Standard for that is the IBM M series, “buckling spring” technology, aka the “clicky keyboard”. These were made in the mid ’80s in several configurations; I have one in use every day and two spares for backup. I know how to take them apart and clean them thoroughly. Have yet to have a failure. There have been many attempts to market “clicky clones” and none were any good. Only the genuine will do.
Art, I completely agree with your fetish for the IBM M series keyboards. When the College bought over a 1000 IBM PCs in the mid-1980s for their computer labs and offices, I fell in love with the “clicky keyboard.” I, too, prefer the positive feel of the keystroke. Most contemporary keyboards are too “squishy” for me.
Here is more on the IBM M keyboard:
IBM Model M Keyboard
Average Price: $70
While much has changed in the computing world since the introduction of the IBM Model M keyboard 24 years ago, the iconic keyboard has remained almost entirely unchanged. The design, through shift of patent holder and production runs, has retained all the qualities readers listed as their reasons for loving the Model M so much. Most beloved was the tactile feedback provided by a buckling spring, as opposed to a membrane, key system. The spring system is responsible for the clickety-clack crispness of the keys. While IBM has long since ceased manufacture of the boards, devoted users have several options. Scouring old computer shops and forgotten back rooms at the office and such can often lead you to a Model M. They were built so well many readers noted they had boards still in service from the 1980s. Alternately you can shop at ClickyKeyboards, a web site devoted to selling new and used vintage Model M keyboards. The patent for the keyboard changed hands and is currently held by a company called Unicomp. New Model M style keyboards can be purchased there, ranging from a perfectly faithful reproduction to more modern model types that have a Windows key and eraser head style mouse built in. –LIFEHACKER.COM
I was quite aware of the semi-underground fandom for M boards. My friend Bob S bought a lot of 10 from an eBay listing. I refurbished them all in exchange for a couple for me. The absence of a Windows key on original M boards is a very occasional problem. I can either swap in a modern keyboard for a specific job, or use a utility like Sharpkeys to assign the Windows keycode to a function key or maybe the lonely tilda key.
Art, I wonder if those IBM M keyboard clones are any good.
I use the slightly sloped rectangle. Find the number pad useful also.
You have been typing nearly 60 years! Thank goodness you found the Ergo 4000. Surprised you did not give it A+ after relieving your pain.
Agree 100% about the Keyboarding class. Once the muscle memory is developed it is almost like speaking. By the way, did we have to take a NYS Regents for Keyboarding?
j. padrig, once I learned how to type, I typed all of my papers and homework assignments. Later, I made some money typing papers for my classmates who didn’t know how to type. I’m not sure there was a NYS Regents Exam for TYPING.
Yes, typing was a skill looked for!
One of my sisters made extra money by typing for colleagues and friends(40 years ago …) – Fortran programs which were just collections of Englsih words in a way. She wasn’t a programmer, but her English was very good – later she even married an English guy and after travelling the world on business they retired to a beautiful house south of London.
PS:
Though I couldn’t type too fast I had the advantage of knowing English, being able to speak up in conversations and write reports in Englsih – that was rare in Germany then and a big advantage for my career.
Wolf, I see English staying the Language of Business for the foreseeable Future. Knowing how to speak and write English will enhance job prospects all around the world.
George, you’re a lucky man!
I’ve always regretted not being able to type fast – unlike my sisters who learned it at “business school” when they were 16 or 17 years old and I had to learn Latin to go to university … 🙂
Since many years I’ve only be using laptops, not really fast but better than typing on a smartphone screen.
Wolf, most U.S. students learn how to type in High School. The few that slip through find they need typing to do well in College. The most frequently asked job interview question here–especially if a computer is involved in the job–is: “Do you know how to type?” For those applicants who don’t know how to type, the interview is effectively over.
and Trump says you have to have an ID to buy groceries…
Rick, I hope you weren’t involved in those riots in Portland!
I didn’t know about that – what a great idea!
Of course some day it will no longer be needed maybe because we’ll have voice recognition and AI – but then we humans might no longer be needed … 🙂
Maybe if I’d known how to type I would have become an SF author too …
PS:
I was lucky -when I started wotking in IT (it was called electronic data processing at the time) almost 50 years ago companies used to have secretaries very good at decyphering your handwriting and sometimes even correcting grammar mistakes!
Of course you had to be nice to them – no problem for me, but some managers were real assholes (probably still are …)
Wolf, as an avid Science Fiction reader, you know that many writers wrote about a Future where robots took over most of the jobs. We’re seeing that happen in the U.S. now. When I worked at General Motors in the 1990s at their Tonawanda Engine Plant, GM reduced the number of workers from 10,000 to 2,000. They did it with robots and high-tech equipment.
Re Trump’s groceries:
I’ve been reading The Onion and Borowitz’s column in The New Yorker for many years and got a good laugh from this. But in a way it’s horrible – will there be a collection of Trump’s tweets some day?
I feel ashamed that he’s of German descent!
Wolf, you can start with Gary Trudeau’s Yuge!: 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump. It includes plenty of direct quotes from Trump.