deskthority

Today I rotated from my reconfigured XT back to my SSK, which has been somewhat reconfigured to a hybrid Mac/HHKB layout. This change of keyboards coincided with a surge in work productivity. I think the reason might be that I can type on my reconfigured SSK without obsessively noticing the keyboard --perhaps because it is not so fascinating in itself, it does not get in the way of my work. This experience made me think of a criterion that might be considered when assessing the relative merits of keyboards: the distraction factor.

Does your keyboard distract you? Is your keyboard messing with your mind? Have you made your keyboard so interesting that you are constantly admiring the keycaps, noticing all the sounds it makes, or wondering if the layout is optimal?

Of course, many of us are continually striving to make our keyboards distinctive and interesting rather than dull, but at the same time, we want to use these human interface devices to help us get our work done efficiently and even with style. Therefore, we might aim for balance in a single keyboard; alternatively, we might reserve some keyboards for work and others for whimsicality and play.

Looking forward to seeing people's views on keyboard distraction.

I noticed this while playing an FPS game using a normal-layout Cherry MX blue keyboard yesterday. When I last played, I was at home and was using my Model F AT, so things were quite different: the location of ctrl, alt, the actuation force required, etc. It was really awkward to get used to the "standard" TKL layout again, and it really got on my nerves and distracted me while playing.

Things like this make me want to make a μBox so that I can just remap everything to be sensible!

Even with remapping, the XT's space bar is so vast that I make mistakes when I switch to mine. Specifically: hitting Command+Q instead of Command+W, which quits an app instead of closing the tab or window. Doh! It's a fine beast, but the mods are so far from centre that it's an awkward transition whenever I give it rotation.

My Kishsaver's proving pretty solid, metaphorically as well as literally. Like the XT, it has more mods than my Ms, but in much better places. I'm as fast on it as I am on my custom 60% now. Only so much louder!

I think you're talking about two topics in one, RJ. There's the purely objective matter of whether a different board slows you down. This can be measured. And then there's the subjective factor of "distraction".

I haven't encountered the latter. However good looking, feeling, or sounding a board: fondling time is for consideration of all that! Whether I'm on my custom, Kishsaver, NovaTouch, or anything else, I will type as best I can, when I need to. But bad layouts, yes, those surely get in the way.

Not everyone's a collector, plenty of us like to type on everything we've got. And, much the same, not all keyboard time is about the keyboard. Sometimes we're just working!

But DT, yes, I'm sure that distracts me. Willingly!

Muirium wrote:Even with remapping, the XT's space bar is so vast that I make mistakes when I switch to mine. Specifically: hitting Command+Q instead of Command+W, which quits an app instead of closing the tab or window. Doh! It's a fine beast, but the mods are so far from centre that it's an awkward transition whenever I give it rotation.

My Kishsaver's proving pretty solid, metaphorically as well as literally. Like the XT, it has more mods than my Ms, but in much better places. I'm as fast on it as I am on my custom 60% now. Only so much louder!

I think you're talking about two topics in one, RJ. There's the purely objective matter of whether a different board slows you down. This can be measured. And then there's the subjective factor of "distraction".

I haven't encountered the latter. However good looking, feeling, or sounding a board: fondling time is for consideration of all that! Whether I'm on my custom, Kishsaver, NovaTouch, or anything else, I will type as best I can, when I need to. But bad layouts, yes, those surely get in the way.

Not everyone's a collector, plenty of us like to type on everything we've got. And, much the same, not all keyboard time is about the keyboard. Sometimes we're just working!

But DT, yes, I'm sure that distracts me. Willingly!

It's a bit like when a colleague stops by the office and says, "Am I interrupting you?" I usually answer, "Yes, please do!" On the other hand, when an important deadline is breathing down my neck, I post a sign on the door saying, "Working on deadline -- Don't even think about interrupting!"

There is such a thing as positive reinforcement, too. Hearing your own work banging away from your keyboard can be a real pleasure. You're in the zone. A feeling of oneness with buckling springs! Or cup rubber, whatever floats your boat.

Xwhatsit wrote about this raised to the next level, with solenoid feedback closing the loop.

http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/any ... t8066.html

Muirium wrote:There is such a thing as positive reinforcement, too. Hearing your own work banging away from your keyboard can be a real pleasure. You're in the zone. A feeling of oneness with buckling springs! Or cup rubber, whatever floats your boat.

Xwhatsit wrote about this raised to the next level, with solenoid feedback closing the loop.

http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/any ... t8066.html

Yes, if the keyboard is working for you as it should, there will be a feeling of harmony and natural flow when typing. In contrast, if the feedback loop is somewhat disconnected, it almost creates a kind of cognitive dissonance, as if there were two contradictory streams of thought at war with each other.

I'm distracted by the keyboard, no matter which one is used. When using the beam spring, I am distracted by the lovely ivory feel and delightful rattle when touching the keys. I occasionally look down and admire the craftsmanship. When I am using the MacBook keyboard, I am distracted by the cheapness of the material and the crappy feel. Sometimes, in the middle of typing I stop and think, "This thing cost $3000 fucking dollars?!"

You MAC fanbois. Instead of falling for The ™ Logo, you oughtta snap out of it and look at the better hardware out there in the real PC world. Ever even looked at a beam spring HP laptop? Or a Topre ASUS? I didn't think so!

My portable is a Macbook Air. Because I accept it for what it is -- my portability machine, I accept its keyboard for what it is. Before I bought the Macbook, I was skeptical about its keyboard. I had intended to buy a small Dell or Lenovo, but I was able try them all before buying, and I was surprised by the fact that my typing speed and accuracy were better on the Macbook than on any other laptops in the showroom.

However, when I am in my office and if I want to access my Macbook, I do so via my desktop computers using screen sharing so that I can type on a real keyboard. I am rotating through my collection, and at the moment I am using my IBM SSK -- with a Mac/HHKB layout.

Same story here. I find that the NovaTouch has a millimetre perfect footprint for a 15" Retina MacBook Pro, so it's possible to plunk it down on top and type away like that, pretending we did live in a world of less-than-portable beasts!

I'm wary of putting my Kishsaver on top of my Mac, though, as 3 kg is a lot heavier than my entire computer…

Re: Apple laptop keyboards themselves, I prefer my 12" PowerBook's over the current ones. These chiclet guys feel extra flimsy. Even Apple's Bluetooth keyboard is a bit nicer. But they're all thomp-thomp-soulless-thomp of course. What future magic would it require for our laptops to project a tactile experience upwards from the base! A multi sensory version of Washu's projected computer in Tenchi Muyo (1992)…

No, no - you don't put a heavy keyboard on top of the MacBook. You put the MacBook on top of the keyboard, like this:
Actually, with a beam spring you have no choice or you end up with a mashed MacBook.

But look at that 60% block, waiting to be freed! How small could we hack a beam spring, I wonder…

You want it smaller? The bigger the better, I say.

Then you can keep your battleship scrubbing paws off my Kishsaver!

What was the biggest beam spring layout, anyway? The 122 keys didn't come along until the Model F, as far as I know.

I find myself most productive with bigger boards for whatever reason...whenever I use a larger keyboard I feel better about actual buttons to press like an actual function row, and an actual arrow cluster and nav cluster. I like having those a lot better and think I'm a lot faster with having the physical keys there, as opposed to a 60%, which I find maybe more fun to use as a break. Obviously have to deal with fn+xxx to use whatever keys you need to use.

My favorite boards to do actual schoolwork with is my G80-2100 and my SSK

I'd say a TKL is the optimal size, day to day. I love a 60%, and have the same HHKB derived function layer mapped on my larger boards for consistency, but they're not for everyone and even I like a bit of extra space for a change.

Trouble is, the SSK is short a few mods, so it slows me down, if anything. The size is great, and the key feel is superb, but how I'd love two extra keys on the bottom row, and a Fn key right of right Shift. The Kishsaver has it beat in the 60% block, although that is all it has, of course!

Fullsize keyboards, well, they're not for me. The XT is almost there, with its near symmetry. But that space bar! So glad the Kishsaver didn't make that mistake.

mr_a500 wrote:No, no - you don't put a heavy keyboard on top of the MacBook. You put the MacBook on top of the keyboard, like this:

Spoiler:

Beaming.jpg

Actually, with a beam spring you have no choice or you end up with a mashed MacBook.

Mashed Macbook ---> Mashbook

Muirium wrote:I'd say a TKL is the optimal size, day to day. I love a 60%, and have the same HHKB derived function layer mapped on my larger boards for consistency, but they're not for everyone and even I like a bit of extra space for a change.

Trouble is, the SSK is short a few mods, so it slows me down, if anything. The size is great, and the key feel is superb, but how I'd love two extra keys on the bottom row, and a Fn key right of right Shift. The Kishsaver has it beat in the 60% block, although that is all it has, of course!

Fullsize keyboards, well, they're not for me. The XT is almost there, with its near symmetry. But that space bar! So glad the Kishsaver didn't make that mistake.

Now that I have rotated back to my SSK, I am finding that I am getting more work done. Previously in the rotation I was using my XT. I like the feel of the XT switches, but perhaps the sharp metallic sound is almost too much, and the layout around the critical zone with the Enter and Backspace keys is far from optimal. As reconfigured, my XT has plenty of mods -- 6 on the bottom row, 2 Fn keys on the shift row, and another Control to the left of the A-key, but these do not make up for the mangled mess around Enter and Backspace.

For me, the SSK is just about ideal. A single Control to the left of the A-key is all I need, so that having Option/Alt and Command on each side of the Spacebar is fine. I use Right-Command + Right-Option as Fn. If it were not for my desire to maintain symmetry, I might consider converting the Right-Option to Fn. I tend not to make heavy use of mods, and with a TKL like the SSK, there is little use for Fn, except that I like to use it to maintain HHKB features on each of my keyboards.

It will be interesting to see what happens after I get my F-122 up and running. There is something to be said for having a key available for every purpose -- this ought to obviate the need for a Fn key!

Muirium wrote: <snip>
Fullsize keyboards, well, they're not for me. The XT is almost there, with its near symmetry. But that space bar! So glad the Kishsaver didn't make that mistake.

The XT does not seem quite full-size to me, as the arrow keys are embedded in the numpad, and even with the F-keys on the left, the overall width of the board is still less than that of a full-size Model M-101. Indeed, the XT spacebar is absurdly long, but at least it seems to work well.

Until recently, I thought I had finally settled on 60% as the ideal form factor, but now that I am rotating boards, I find a lot to like in the standard TKL layout, especially as embodied in the IBM SSK. That said, I am looking forward to getting my F-122 restoration underway so that I can try out a full-fledged control panel. To use a musical analogy, it's a bit like progressing from a chamber quartet to a full orchestra.