This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
As a straight dude, my first internal knee-jerk reaction was "this is such a stupid solution to a stupid problem", but then my mental "Don't be an asshat because not everybody is like you" guard rail kicked in.
Clearly this is a product for a market of people that it works for and I'm happy for them. Enjoy your neat keyboard thing, long nailed peeps.
This is awesome. Not really any notes, I'm just glad this exists.
Hmm. That's an interesting problem to have.
On one hand, I can't suggest a great alternative, but man, silicone keys...I guess if they work for the author.
Stenotypists -- people who have to professionally do very high-speed text entry -- do use these dinky specialized keyboards that IIRC from a Japanese-language one -- I think that there were multiple Japanese layouts -- can only have a home row or something. I think that they use chording or something. I don't know if that might address it, but learning one would be a huge change. Also, I have no idea what keys they can output...given that they're highly-optimized for text entry, they might not be able to do weird symbols.
goes looking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype
A steno machine, stenotype machine, shorthand machine, stenograph or steno writer is a specialized chorded keyboard or typewriter used by stenographers for shorthand use. In order to pass the United States Registered Professional Reporter test, a trained court reporter or closed captioner must write speeds of approximately 180, 200, and 225 words per minute (wpm) at very high accuracy in the categories of literary, jury charge, and testimony, respectively.[1] Some stenographers can reach up to 375 words per minute, according to the website of the California Official Court Reporters Association (COCRA).[2]
Hmm.
Looking at the key layout there, and here:
...it looks like English-language stenotype keyboards don't just use a single row, but rather two or more rows. So that's probably out.
There's apparently a second chording layout, the "palantype" layout, but that also doesn't do only one key per finger:
https://www.openstenoproject.org/palantype/tutorial/2016/08/21/learn-palantype.html
There are dedicated chording keyboards that do use only one key per finger, though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard
That has some examples of one-key-per-finger keyboards, like the BAT keyboard (well, that has three for the thumb, but given that you hit those with the side of the thumb, I assume that it'd be okay with long nails):
https://www.infogrip.com/bat-keyboard.html
The problem is that (a) the BAT is discontinued and (b) you really don't want a one handed keyboard, which is what the BAT does...it'd be better to have a two handed chorded keyboard, or you're taking half of your fingers out of the picture.
EDIT: Here's an open-source, two-handed chording keyboard, the Ialboard, based on the discontinued DataHand keyboard. I'm not sure that it'd work with very long nails in its current form -- they might collide with the structure of the keyboard -- but it's 3d printed and I'm pretty sure that if the format doesn't work as-is, a tweak to the 3d-printed keys would permit for arbitrarily long nails. Just need to create a space for 'em.
Gonna need some serious keyboard re-learning, though.
EDIT2: Here's another two-handed chording keyboard with one input device per finger, the CharaChorder. It uses an analog D-pad under each finger. I think that it'd have space for long nails as-is. It does have separate arrow key and mouse control sticks, and I'm not sure if those, given the placement, would be an issue for long nails. I'd imagine that if one were determined to work around that with an external mouse device and -- if you use arrow keys enough to need it; I rarely do -- maybe some dedicated arrow key keyboard, though I'd think that having the arrow keys in vim-style hjkl-style layout might be preferable to the inverted-T layout that seems common. I don't know whether the barrel connector's positioning there would be an issue, though the positioning of that is obviously not critical to the keyboard, and I imagine that if it is an issue, with a bit of work, one could relocate it.
EDIT3: It looks like there's another DataHand-based 3D-printed keyboard besides the above-mentioned Ialboard, the Svalboard. Same argument as with the Ialboard -- I'm not sure that it'd be usable with long nails as is, but I'm pretty sure that that design could be modified with approprately-different key shapes to permit long nails to extend through a gap. You can apparently buy the thing in kit form, 3D-print it, so I figure that if someone wants to make a "longnail" variant of a few of the 3D-printed parts, that'd probably be a pretty easy keyboard to start from.
The downside is that I don't think that -- unlike the above CharaChorder -- this comes with a travel carrying case, which might be important if you're a laptop user. I guess it'd probably be possible to craft something with foam and a shell, but that's not off-the-shelf any more.
Words per minute meaning literally words or characters? Because 3 - 4 words per second seems a bit much to me and whoever talks that fast?
Words per minute meaning literally words or characters?
Words. Well, IIRC in tests it's something like an abstract word of fixed length, something like 5 characters or something, as that's the average word length in English. Like, it doesn't mean you're typing "antidisestablishmentarianism" over and over, one word each time.
kagis
Yeah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute
Since words vary in length, for the purpose of measurement of text entry the definition of each "word" is often standardized to be five characters or keystrokes long in English,[1] including spaces and punctuation. For example, under such a method applied to plain English text the phrase "I run" counts as one word, but "rhinoceros" and "let's talk" would both count as two.
Karat et al. found in one study of average computer users in 1999 that the average rate for transcription was 32.5 words per minute, and 19.0 words per minute for composition.[2] In the same study, when the group was divided into "fast", "moderate", and "slow" groups, the average speeds were 40 wpm, 35 wpm, and 23 wpm, respectively.
With the onset of the era of desktop computers and smartphones, fast typing skills became much more widespread. As of 2019, the average typing speed on a mobile phone was 36.2 wpm with 2.3% uncorrected errors—there were significant correlations with age, level of English proficiency, and number of fingers used to type.[3] Some typists have sustained speeds over 200 wpm for a 15-second typing test with simple English words.[4]
Typically, professional typists type at speeds of 43 to 80 wpm, while some positions can require 80 to 95 (usually the minimum required for dispatch positions and other time-sensitive typing jobs), and some advanced typists work at speeds above 120 wpm.[5] Two-finger typists, sometimes also referred to as "hunt and peck" typists, commonly reach sustained speeds of about 37 wpm for memorized text and 27 wpm when copying text, but in bursts may be able to reach much higher speeds.[6] From the 1920s through the 1970s, typing speed (along with shorthand speed) was an important secretarial qualification, and typing contests were popular and often publicized by typewriter companies as promotional tools.
Stenotype
Stenotype keyboards enable the trained user to input text as fast as 360 wpm at very high accuracy for an extended period, which is sufficient for real-time activities such as court reporting or closed captioning. While training dropout rates are very high — in some cases only 10% or even fewer graduate — stenotype students are usually able to reach speeds of 100–120 wpm within six months, which is faster than most alphanumeric typists. Guinness World Records gives 360 wpm with 97.23% accuracy as the highest achieved speed using a stenotype.[7]
So it's not a typo or whatever, if that's what you mean.
Because 3 - 4 words per second seems a bit much to me and whoever talks that fast?
It's pretty fast, but then you're talking about a professional text-entry person using the fastest plain-text entry mechanism we know about in a speed test. I'm sure that that's not something demanded of a stenotypist in a normal real-time transcription session.
My guess is that you probably could still make practical use of it if you didn't need real-time transcription by doing a recording and then playing back with software that can do time stretching to accelerate the rate of playback; you could transcribe more-quickly.
'course, automated transcription's getting better too, and that might also be an answer on that front.
The thing that I can't understand about this product is why they didn't cover the function keys. They are literally functional.
Although using the top row of keys does not cause you to accidentally hit keys above it.
This article has the same approach to word count as a high schooler writing a paper.
I sometimes have medium length nails (3-5 mm past the fingertip), though I tend to just grow my own out, and I do it entirely for myself. I have a bunch of different kinds of nail polish and stencils for making cool patterns and it satisfies my inner elementary school librarian urge to dress up for even very minor holidays.
People have come up to me and told me that my nails are too long for them to find attractive, which is a bizarre non sequitur imo. I don’t know why the assumption is that any self-decoration is intended as a sexual signal: my ideal nail-based interaction is that a little kid asks about them and I get to tell them about Arbor Day or national soup day or something.
Sometimes they make life more difficult, and then I either find workarounds (opening pull tabs with a spoon, for example) or cut them, depending on how much time I have and how much I like my current nails.
I get that they’re not for everyone, but I like them, so I wear them. It’s okay if others don’t like them, they don’t have to wear them.
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Jesus these comments scream basement dweller. You don't have to like what someone does with their own body to accept it. It doesn't hurt you so don't worry about it. God forbid people have some self expression
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It doesn't hurt you so don't worry about it
Eh, not so sure. Beauty standards propagate, and pressure to conform to those standards is real.
That's just how fashion works. In this case fashion requires disabling a functional part of your body. It's at least a bit icky.
It's not though. It's got advantages, but typing isn't one of them. I can open stuff peel based way better etc.
God forbid people have some self expression
They do indeed forbid it.
10 "If you go to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your control, you may take some prisoners captive. 11 If you see among the prisoners a beautiful woman and you desire her, then you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her to your house, but shave her head and trim her nails
Deuteronomy 21
Oh man, religions are batshit crazy.
if the LORD your God delivers them into your control
AKA feel free to murder someone then fuck their wife (assuming you're Jewish, of course)
I accept that people sometimes keep their nails long. That acceptance comes with a caveat that I will not be eating anything handled by hands with long nails.
I'll snort the blow off their nail, though. I'm not a hater.
Long nails can look pretty, and while I'm sure this would help people with long nails, I think it would just give me an RSI or just be differently frustrating.
No thanks. I'll paint my short nails so I can—you know—use my hands. And that's free.
A solution to a self inflicted problem.
Ergonomic chairs are also a solution to an often self-inflicted problem. Mainly doing all kinds of things to your body when you're young that you don't realize you'll regret when you're older.
Are ergonomic chairs a bad thing?
And? Nearly everything is a self inflicted problem. You could just lay down and stop bothering, so why don't you do that?
Do I like long nails? Hell no. Does it affect me if somebody buys this keyboard to type and have long nails? Also hell no.
Typing with long nails is the embodiment of “beauty is pain.”
The pain is real, but the beauty is subjective.
It' was a status thing. Those with manual labor jobs usually can't have long nails, so long nails means they're above manual labor. So the rich in the past did that, and now everybody wants to do that so and it becomes a beauty thing.
To me long nails are ick
The longer the more ick
I will never forget when I had to help a coworker with her laptop, she had long nails that had worn grooves in her keyboard keys.
She typed on her nails, the sound it made was terrible.
I'm not a fan of the long nails because it hurts my insides.
Also fecal matter and bacteria are stored in abundance under long nails.
This thing costs about the same as one good set of nails
This thing costs less than one dose of antibiotics :
That part I like.
A chiclet membrane to go over your non-mechanical keyboard, it’s like double hell.
Actually, my giant mechanical Blackwidow keyboard is way easier to use than my laptop when my nails are long.
How can it be easier to use keys with traditional keyswitches? You'd have more key travel.
I've switched out keycaps to make them comfortable for me. You can customise them. I find it very hare to type on a laptop keyboard for a long time and it fucks up my posture.
Hmm. Interesting.
If you don't mind me asking, could you describe what alternate keycaps were used? Like, taller keycaps in the front, shorter in the back? Like, I still think that the amount of keytravel would be a negative, but maybe the issue is that the long nails descend into the keyboard given the normal position of a hand typing, and basically changing the angle improves that.
If that's the case, I'm wondering whether maybe it'd be possible to change the angle of the keyboard as a whole. Like, either use an external keyboard propped up differently, tilting away from the user, or a laptop with the front part of the base shimmed up to tilt away from the user.
I use softer keycaps, some are resin! I also have the back propped up like you mentioned with the built in lifts. I also have carpel tunnel so I don't want to cram my hands into a small space and it's OK to be slow sometimes. And a good wrist rest is key.
I also have the back propped up like you mentioned with the built in lifts
Ah hah!
Yeah, there are some ergo keyboards that have that "reverse tilt" built in. They're aimed more at being easier on the wrist than at trying to permit for long nails, but they do exist.
e.g.:
I also have carpel tunnel
That'd be an argument for a keyboard, like, a mechanical one where you don't bottom out the keys on press, and then training yourself to not bottom them out, which is a big argument mechanical keyboard fans have for theirs versus rubber dome keyboards. And you need a fair bit of key travel for that, yeah. Hmm.
I've convinced some if my girlfriends to switch as they have white versions and Blackwidows are fairly cheap on Ebay (£50-75). :) They like them as they're heavy writers.
Sounds like typing on a keyboard made of Jujubes.
I’d eat that in a heartbeat.
