April Fools’ Day is around the corner. Do you find practical joke on friends, enemies or neighbors? Here is! Alphabetical Ordered Keyboard!

http://www.comfort-software.com/alphabetical-ordered-keyboard.html

My Mom was a secetary all her life.  I wonder how she would adjust to this

I am an ex associate - 28 March 2008 12:49 PM

My Mom was a secetary all her life.  I wonder how she would adjust to this

If she was a secretary all her live, then simply re-arranging the keys on just the keyboard itself probably wouldn’t affect her at all as she might not even ever actually look at them.  Having the keys and the software changed, though. . .heh heh heh. . .

Yeah, this would really only flummox people who need to look at the keyboard to work out where the letters are located.

Still, it’s an interesting idea - why are keyboard not in an alphabetical layout?

I think it was based on a theroitical idea on what keys are used more often.
Tho’ I could be totaly wrong.

M & N are still too close together. Too easy to prank people that way.

Smerk - 28 March 2008 07:12 PM

Yeah, this would really only flummox people who need to look at the keyboard to work out where the letters are located.

Well, it looks to also include software that actually makes the computer recognise the new layout.  So what is usually Q would be A on the keyboard, and would actually result in A when you typed with it.

Still, it’s an interesting idea - why are keyboard not in an alphabetical layout?

One story that I’ve heard is so that people couldn’t type too quickly and accidentally jam the little letter-arms on the old typewriters.  I have doubts about that, though.

Accipiter - 28 March 2008 10:45 PM

One story that I’ve heard is so that people couldn’t type too quickly and accidentally jam the little letter-arms on the old typewriters.  I have doubts about that, though.

I believe that’s true.  People tend to forget that keyboards originated with typewriters back in the early 20th century (or was it the late 19th).  Anyway, early typewriters were notorious for getting jammed.  The Qwerty layout was designed to allow the typist to type common words quickly without jamming and thus increasing typing speed.

Bebelicious - 30 March 2008 05:27 AM

I believe that’s true.  People tend to forget that keyboards originated with typewriters back in the early 20th century (or was it the late 19th).  Anyway, early typewriters were notorious for getting jammed.  The Qwerty layout was designed to allow the typist to type common words quickly without jamming and thus increasing typing speed.

And the not so early ones.  I remember when typing school papers I kept a fork handy for unjamming the type arms without getting my fingers all inky. 

And I’m not THAT old.  (I also had an uncle whose career was typewriter repairman.)

I could imagine it being the jams being worse in a different keyboard layout.