Our New Machine, Pandora

[atomicthumbs]

What do piplkins think about my PocketSphinx idea?

 

[God Ginrai]

Oh and it's Saturday evening already.... I demand NEWS!!!!11111elevenoneone

Craigix said "weekend" I believe, so that means tomorrow.


We've already had this conversation about how Sunday is the beginning of the week, and yet for some the end. Don't bring it up again by attempting to correct someone.

-God Ginrai

 

[migo]

I skipped ahead to page 301, as all 305 would be too much to get through, especially with the arguing at the beginning.

I hope that the keyboard supports alternate layouts, or comes with Dvorak or Colemak by default instead of QWERTY. Given the size, 10 finger typing is unlikely, and QWERTY is inefficient with 10 finger typing, it gets even worse having to thumb type. Both Dvorak and Colemak are set up to alternate sides, so if you have to type with your thumbs you'd get much faster than with a QWERTY layout where you'd have to type several letters with one thumb before you can get back to the other side.

 

[God Ginrai]

I skipped ahead to page 301, as all 305 would be too much to get through, especially with the arguing at the beginning.

If you don't want to read all the pages, but want the general gist, I suggest you read all the posts in this topic by Craigix, MWeston, Evil Dragon, Squidge, DaveC, and any posts that they are addressing, and that should generally give you a good understanding of most of what we've covered.

-God Ginrai

 

[Joshwaan2k]

I'm really looking forward to this handheld.

I can't wait to be able to play snes games with no slow down and ps1 games at full speed.

Do you think there's a chance this console would be powerful enough to run Mortal Kombat 2 on MAME emu?

It runs full speed on the xbox 1 without sound, I'd love to be able to play Mk2 on the move.

Can't wait for the Craigix unit I might buy two .

Cheers

Josh

 

[jmetal88]

I skipped ahead to page 301, as all 305 would be too much to get through, especially with the arguing at the beginning.

I hope that the keyboard supports alternate layouts, or comes with Dvorak or Colemak by default instead of QWERTY. Given the size, 10 finger typing is unlikely, and QWERTY is inefficient with 10 finger typing, it gets even worse having to thumb type. Both Dvorak and Colemak are set up to alternate sides, so if you have to type with your thumbs you'd get much faster than with a QWERTY layout where you'd have to type several letters with one thumb before you can get back to the other side.

Unfortunately for you, many people do not want an efficient keyboard, and instead, want something that they are used to. For these people, QWERTY would probably be the best layout, and thus, is the most likely to be chosen.

 

[atomicthumbs]

I skipped ahead to page 301, as all 305 would be too much to get through, especially with the arguing at the beginning.

I hope that the keyboard supports alternate layouts, or comes with Dvorak or Colemak by default instead of QWERTY. Given the size, 10 finger typing is unlikely, and QWERTY is inefficient with 10 finger typing, it gets even worse having to thumb type. Both Dvorak and Colemak are set up to alternate sides, so if you have to type with your thumbs you'd get much faster than with a QWERTY layout where you'd have to type several letters with one thumb before you can get back to the other side.

no

 

[migo]

I skipped ahead to page 301, as all 305 would be too much to get through, especially with the arguing at the beginning.

If you don't want to read all the pages, but want the general gist, I suggest you read all the posts in this topic by Craigix, MWeston, Evil Dragon, Squidge, DaveC, and any posts that they are addressing, and that should generally give you a good understanding of most of what we've covered.

-God Ginrai


How do I do that? I tried doing a search for CraigX in the search thread box, but it didn't limit it to posts by him.

I skipped ahead to page 301, as all 305 would be too much to get through, especially with the arguing at the beginning.

I hope that the keyboard supports alternate layouts, or comes with Dvorak or Colemak by default instead of QWERTY. Given the size, 10 finger typing is unlikely, and QWERTY is inefficient with 10 finger typing, it gets even worse having to thumb type. Both Dvorak and Colemak are set up to alternate sides, so if you have to type with your thumbs you'd get much faster than with a QWERTY layout where you'd have to type several letters with one thumb before you can get back to the other side.

Unfortunately for you, many people do not want an efficient keyboard, and instead, want something that they are used to. For these people, QWERTY would probably be the best layout, and thus, is the most likely to be chosen.


Does the same carry over to wanting something they're used to for the rest of the interface? I assume the keyboard is there for handling emulation of keyboard based systems, unless the only games that need it aren't action based, I would think people would be willing to go for more efficient.

Put it a different way, how many people would refuse to buy it on account of having a more efficient keyboard layout?

 

[DeadlyDad]

What do piplkins think about my PocketSphinx idea?

Can you say 'wearable computer'?

 

[DeadlyDad]

I skipped ahead to page 301, as all 305 would be too much to get through, especially with the arguing at the beginning.

I hope that the keyboard supports alternate layouts, or comes with Dvorak or Colemak by default instead of QWERTY. Given the size, 10 finger typing is unlikely, and QWERTY is inefficient with 10 finger typing, it gets even worse having to thumb type. Both Dvorak and Colemak are set up to alternate sides, so if you have to type with your thumbs you'd get much faster than with a QWERTY layout where you'd have to type several letters with one thumb before you can get back to the other side.

Unfortunately for you, many people do not want an efficient keyboard, and instead, want something that they are used to. For these people, QWERTY would probably be the best layout, and thus, is the most likely to be chosen.

...and something like this MiniKey Keyboard (Better picture) is probably what they would want. (Why re-invent the wheel, after all.) Again, a simple bracket, like the one I suggested for mounting the C32X on a gamepad, would do the trick pretty well.

 

[migo]

Having a Nokia E62, which is among the better designs for mini keyboards, along with the Blackberry 8700 series, I can say I definitely wouldn't want something like that. The E62 is a bearable minimum, the 8700 slightly better. Ergonomically, an inverted rainbow type design would be best, with 8700 like keys, slightly larger and with better spacing.

Several of the UMPCs have this type of design, although again, the layout is unideal.

It wouldn't be reinventing the weel, it would be designing it without holes. The QWERTY layout was specifically designed to be inefficient so that the keys wouldn't jam. Changing it would be merely removing the intentionally inefficient design.

 

[atomicthumbs]

What do piplkins think about my PocketSphinx idea?

Can you say 'wearable computer'?


Yes. And it would type it.

I've wanted one for quite a while (I considered Gumstix in a hat, and a Pentium II in a pack), but head-mounted displays are too expensive, and so are wrist-keyboards (especially with pointing devices).

And eyetaps, while being cool, are way too hard to make.

 

[Tobriand]

Put it a different way, how many people would refuse to buy it on account of having a more efficient keyboard layout?

Well, I wouldn't refuse to buy it. But I'd be pissed off.

Dvorak, cool though it is, confuses the hell out of me. Whereas I can two-finger type on a qwerty keyboard at about 60 wpm, if not a touch faster. Probably not that fast on a smaller device, but nonetheless...

That said, as I believe has already been mentioned in relation to requests for azerty layout, there's no reason the keyboard couldn't have it's layout changed.

But don't force us all to learn to type all over again. Please.

 

[JyCet]

I just saw a xbox360 chat keyboard this week end, it's very small and clear

 

[migo]

Put it a different way, how many people would refuse to buy it on account of having a more efficient keyboard layout?

Well, I wouldn't refuse to buy it. But I'd be pissed off.

Dvorak, cool though it is, confuses the hell out of me. Whereas I can two-finger type on a qwerty keyboard at about 60 wpm, if not a touch faster. Probably not that fast on a smaller device, but nonetheless...

That said, as I believe has already been mentioned in relation to requests for azerty layout, there's no reason the keyboard couldn't have it's layout changed.

But don't force us all to learn to type all over again. Please.


Two finger typing on a full sized keyboard is different than on a thumboard. It becomes very noticeable how inefficient QWERTY is when you have to type 3 or 4 letters in a row with the same thumb. I can probably do 15-20WPM (I can do 70 on QWERTY on a full sized keyboard), depending on what I'm typing, on my E62. That's not bad, but it would definitely be in the 30+WPM range if it was designed to have alternating thumbs like Dvorak. With the curve design, you'd find a good chunk of what you have to type on the home row, and wouldn't need to move your thumb much.

There also wouldn't be much of a learning curve given that it's a thumb board. I use Dvorak on my laptop, and I never got confused about the location of keys on the E62, it wouldn't be any different for people used to QWERTY (AZERTY, QWERTZ, etc.) on their laptops/desktops and going to Dvorak on a thumb board, particularly becuase blind thumbing is close to impossible with the current thumb board design.

 

[Yuglooc]

Put it a different way, how many people would refuse to buy it on account of having a more efficient keyboard layout?

Well, I wouldn't refuse to buy it. But I'd be pissed off.

Dvorak, cool though it is, confuses the hell out of me. Whereas I can two-finger type on a qwerty keyboard at about 60 wpm, if not a touch faster. Probably not that fast on a smaller device, but nonetheless...

That said, as I believe has already been mentioned in relation to requests for azerty layout, there's no reason the keyboard couldn't have it's layout changed.

But don't force us all to learn to type all over again. Please.


Two finger typing on a full sized keyboard is different than on a thumboard. It becomes very noticeable how inefficient QWERTY is when you have to type 3 or 4 letters in a row with the same thumb. I can probably do 15-20WPM (I can do 70 on QWERTY on a full sized keyboard), depending on what I'm typing, on my E62. That's not bad, but it would definitely be in the 30+WPM range if it was designed to have alternating thumbs like Dvorak. With the curve design, you'd find a good chunk of what you have to type on the home row, and wouldn't need to move your thumb much.

There also wouldn't be much of a learning curve given that it's a thumb board. I use Dvorak on my laptop, and I never got confused about the location of keys on the E62, it wouldn't be any different for people used to QWERTY (AZERTY, QWERTZ, etc.) on their laptops/desktops and going to Dvorak on a thumb board, particularly becuase blind thumbing is close to impossible with the current thumb board design.


Do you really need the keys labeled tho? I'm pretty sure you can map all the keys in software (it's linux ;D). So Dvorak wouldn't be such a problem for those who'd want it.

 

[migo]

Yeah, they'd have to be labeled. Since your thumb is moving so much, it'd be really hard to remember where the keys are. I can blind type 1 character per 1/2 seconds on my QWERTY thumb board, and that's not with perfect accuracy.

 

[Squidge]

I hope that the keyboard supports alternate layouts, or comes with Dvorak or Colemak by default instead of

Like its been already said, the keys will be labelled qwerty-style, but there's no stopping you selecting a different layout in the software. Just don't expect to learn Dvorak or Colemak using the keyboard, otherwise your going to be really confused

Which reminds me, I really confused someone who came to do some work at my PC. I don't bother looking at the keys myself, so the last time I cleaned the keyboard, I decided to save some time and put the keys back wherever they fitted (ie, a completely random order). They didn't notice for a while until they looked up at the screen and noticed a complete jumble of characters

 

[Samba Pa Ti]

Like its been already said, the keys will be labelled qwerty-style, but there's no stopping you selecting a different layout in the software. Just don't expect to learn Dvorak or Colemak using the keyboard, otherwise your going to be really confused

Which reminds me, I really confused someone who came to do some work at my PC. I don't bother looking at the keys myself, so the last time I cleaned the keyboard, I decided to save some time and put the keys back wherever they fitted (ie, a completely random order). They didn't notice for a while until they looked up at the screen and noticed a complete jumble of characters

lol thats classic, i might dremel all the letters off my keys just for the hell of it.

 

[Squidge]

Swapping them around is much more fun (and confusing) than just having a keyboard with no letters on