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I sometimes like to freak the minions out by having a conversation with them while they are off to one side - I'll be looking at them and typing at the same time. Of course, it helps that I learned to type years ago. Mind you, if I'm given an unfamiliar keyboard (maybe the keys are slightly closer together), this throws me off for a little while until I'm used to it. I have just typed this entire message while looking out of the window.
This space for rent
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Yeah, the difference in key spacing between the keyboard on my desk and laptop sometimes throws me off.
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I'm pretty much okay with touch typing, except with a lappie I'm often looking at the keyboard when I look at the screen. When I was desk bound, I rarely looked at the keys as I typed.
When I first started work, our office was next to the typing pool and the girls gave me lessons; I got as far as the breast stroke before HR put a stop to it. 
veni bibi saltavi
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I'm pretty good: I did a computer typing course - Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing - back in the eighties and have never looked back.
Looking at the keyboard slows you down far too much, but you do get used to a particular keyboard, or I do. When I finally retired my original one (it was twenty years old) most of the key legends had worn off but I was still a heck of a lot slower on the new one because the key size and position was slightly different, too small and cramped. My current Logitech is good, nice keys, comfortable to use, and all in the "right place" except the "Delete" key which is double size.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I was sure it was Mavis BACON. Mmmm, BACON...
veni bibi saltavi
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I'm another graduate of Mavis's school but I originally learned to type on a manual typewriter so it took me a long time to learn not to hammer the keys.
I wish that we'd been able to type at school because the main reason that I never got on was that I struggle to write by hand, especially when forced to use some ridiculous device like a fountain pen*.
*If you don't know what a fountain pen is, ask your granddad!
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When I first went to school, our desks still had inkwells!
They no longer put ink in them, but the receptacle was there - and we used "cartridge" pens instead of the "pull the lever to suck it up" type. I was the last year that wasn't allowed to use a calculator in our exams, IIRC.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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We must be of a pretty similar vintage. My Maths 'O' level was the first (and last) time that I was ever allowed to use a calculator at school and I think we were the first year for that. We still had to show our log calculations so I don't think I actually used it anyway.
We did shift to cartridge pens but they were every bit as horrible to use as fountain pens. I have no idea why the school placed the humble biro on the official list of THINGS THAT CAN ONLY POSSIBLY BE THE WORK OF SATAN but as I recall, anyone found using one was bludgeoned to death prior to expulsion.
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I'm young, still no biro allowed until high school. Cartridge pens or fountain pens only - a PITA. Considering that I had a crazy teacher who would throw my desk upside down (on me) because "I was untidy!!!" breaking each and every nib of my pens...
First High School year I bough a 50 bic pack and never turned back.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
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OriginalGriff wrote: I'm pretty good: I did a computer typing course - Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
Memories! That was a 'big seller' when I was trying to make a living as a shareware distributor. All of my kids used that and touch type.
Myself? "Forced" to take typing in Junior High School (8th grade) on a real old-style (even for then) mechanical typewriter. My fingers have since become a bit gnarled, but I can still do 80 wpm bursts. Fortunately, with coding, typing is pretty much done in bursts. (that's 5-6 chars/second). Nothing like the speed of keyboard pros nor their sustainability.
A neat thing is having your fingers move so fast that few if any people could follow their motion to get a password.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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When I took typing in High School in the late '70s, it was manual typewriters with black keys - no letters at all. You learned to type by position because looking down would only help you confirm where your fingers were.
The 1 or 2 people that had typewriters with white lettering never really learned to type because they could look down.
While I enjoy the 'modern' conveniences - Intellisense, on-line help, etc., has it affected our programming ability? We haven't learned because we don't have to, or, we (of a certain age) learned because we didn't have a choice - pity the new generation.
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I can constantly type 100+ words/min. I could type faster than that, but accounting error correction, etc. It's usually just above 100 words a minute.
I think my best was a 131 words per minute as measured by one of those online typing game thingies.
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I hunt and peck. Apparently I peck quite hard as well much to the disdain of my colleagues.
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With old spring-keyed IBM keyboards either you pecked hard or you did not peck at all!
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
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(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
(I will not make comments about a hard pecker)
Damn - the flesh is weak.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I forced myself to learn to touch type on a Commodore PET (thankfully one with a real keyboard, not the chicklet thing).
It was a bit painful -- make a mistake, delete it (oops, that wasn't the delete key) and then try another key, oops, that was the same one, etc. But at this point, the only time I've looked at the keyboard in recent memory was to find the ` character as I never type it but I needed to for some unknown reason.
At one point I was using three different keyboards, two almost simultaneously (I was developing on one machine and testing on another) and I got good enough that I could look at the keyboard for a minute or so, learn where to position my hands, and off I'd go.
Marc
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I learned typing on a typewriter ( the one with a physical paper and at the end of the line you have a ding to notify )
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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Keyboard bumps helped me a lot to type faster. You can use it to correctly position your left and right hand on the keyboard without having to look at the keyboard.
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Take the test[^]
Sorry if Leslie already made the test, I have not been attending the Lounge a lot theses days.
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Completely worthless - it doesn't take nationality into condiseration! 
Anybody knows that 1 Dane is worth 20 people of other nationalities! 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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But can it figure out the shortest route to buy a Danish?
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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No. That's an additional add-on functionality that's only available for police vehicles!
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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Dogs[^] usually look up to their owners. 
Cats would brake for nobody.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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CDP1802 wrote: Cats would brake for nobody.
They can't park[^] either! 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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So you get bonus points for knocking down Danes? Kewl!
veni bibi saltavi
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