[rescue] Re: [geeks] ANYONE WANT A GMAIL ACCOUNT?

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Wed, 23 Jun 2004 @ 13:35 -0400, Joshua Boyd said:

> On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 12:16:05PM -0500, Mike Hebel wrote:
> > > email to me please if you want one.
> > 
> > ANYONE WANT A KEYBOARD WITHOUT A CAPS LOCK KEY?
> 
> Why?  Are you thinking of starting a company to make them?
> 
> I'd like:
> * No Caps Lock key

...or just put it out of the way.  I have occasionally needed to type in
all caps.

> * Ctrl in the right place (where caps lock usually is)

Yes!  What moron moved it to the bottom row where it is so hard to use?
I can hit ALT/META with my thumbs, but CTRL is always hard for me to
reach.

> * Esc in the right place (where ` is)

Where would you put ~/` then?  I also learned on keyboard with ESC where
~ is, but it also had terrible ~ placement.  I've not yet worked out
where I'd like to put ~.

> * Meta key (instead of Alt)

Would it be useful to have both?

> * Hyper and Super keys (instead of the windows keys, or whatever the
>   icon is on the linux and mac keyboards).

What is hyper and super?

> * A choice of clicky 4mm throw models and non clicky 2mm throw models.

* 4mm non-click

* no "mush" when a key goes down if you don't use something like
  buckling springs, make the hit hard, not a squish.  A few of the
  old Mac keyboards got this right, as did some of the 80s terminals and
  micros.

* function keys on the left side of the keyboard

* keyboard layout balanced so that if you center the keyboard on
  the monitor, your home row is in the center of the monitor.  I
  love my IBM Model M, but I'm off to the left of the monitor when
  using it (keyboard won't fit on my desk centered). 

* make some keyboards without the right-hand numeric pad for those who
  have no use for it.  That would also help the centering problem.

> * Make ( and ) not require a shift.
> * make { and } not require a shift.
> * [ and ] are allowed to require a shift.

Absolutely not.  People would have to retrain a lot to make this work
out.

Now for some computer mouse wish items:

* 3-button optical mice without a wheel
* bring back the old Logitech wedge shaped mice, final version was
  called the gamer or something like that
* if the mouse has a wheel, get rid of the irritating click, but still
  make it stiff enough you can effectively click
* make the mouse wheels a bit wider



-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["That which is overdesigned, too highly
specific, anticipates outcome; the anticipation of outcome garantees, if
not failure, the absence of grace." -- William Gibson, All Tomorrow's
Parties]