QWERTY
18/03/13 03:14
The way that I listen to radio has changed a great deal in the past few years. I used to listen to a fair amount of radio. I worked in radio for years and I became a fan of public radio before we could get clear reception in my small North Dakota town. Later, when we moved to Boise, Idaho, where we had access to multiple NPR stations, there were several programs that I listened to on a regular basis. I continued my habits when I moved to South Dakota and became a member of South Dakota Public Broadcasting. But these days I listen mostly to podcasts. I download episodes of my favorite shows to my phone and listen to them at my convenience. Using Bluetooth technology, I can listen in the car as I drive or through headphones as I work around the house. I even have a small set of speakers that I can use to listen to the podcasts wherever I like. The speakers are nice for the times when I want to share a program with someone else.
I remember reading about a presentation made at a National Association of Broadcasters convention years ago on the topic of on demand radio. At the time, it was a futuristic notion, but the basic idea was that radio listeners would be able to set their own schedules and listen to the programs they wanted to whenever they wanted to listen, not when the radio station chose to broadcast. The vision seemed wild at the time, but now it has come to pass. And it didn’t take many years for me to make the change.
I bring up the change because I have recently read of another change that may be in the works and it is one that seems to me at the present to be a bit challenging for old school folks like myself. But first a bit more background:
A while back I was listening to “Ask Me Another,” the NPR puzzle show. It features lots of word games and I enjoy trying to come up with the answers before the contestants. One of the quiz questions was to name four letters that are on the top row of a standard keyboard. Both contestants came up with four correct letters, but neither answered in order. I would have thought that anyone asked the question would begin “Q W E R.” After all, we call the letter arrangement “Qwerty.” If you think, you probably don’t have to look to know that the other letters in the top row are U, I, O, and P. I’ve been clicking the keys on a standard keyboard for a lot of years.
I made the adjustment from a typewriter to a computer easily in part because the keyboard is arranged in the same pattern. The QWERTY keyboard is arranged in its unique pattern because of a study of which letters are most used in standard English. Of course the studies are old and our vocabulary has changed, but we like to have our vowels handy. A is the only one not in the top row and it is assigned to the little finger of the left hand in its position as the first letter of the second row. Some of the most used consonants are arranged in the center of the keyboard were the pointer fingers area allowed to take charge of a bit more territory, with each of those fingers being responsible for six letters and two numbers.
I learned touch typing as a high school course, taught on manual typewriters in an office classroom. Susan and I had a single portable Olympus manual typewriter that saw us through our college and graduate school years. The first church we served bought a new electric typewriter during the time we worked there. Our second call saw the transition from typewriters to computers and while the church we currently serve does own a typewriter, it has been in storage for years. We don’t see it as a office tool these days. Susan and I still own that old portable typewriter, but I’m sure the ribbon has completely dried and it hangs around as an antique at this point. We don’t use it for practical work at all.
I have a QWERTY keyboard on my cell phone. Susan uses the 9-key numbers of a traditional phone pad to send text messages, and I know how to do that, but it seems cumbersome to have to hit the same key multiple times to come up with the right letter. I’ve seen teens that can clip along at an amazing rate sending text messages with a 9 key, however. In case you’ve forgotten, only 8 of the number keys (2 – 9) have letters assigned. The fourth row has * and # with the 0 in between, but isn’t used for alphabetic numbers.
There have been multiple attempts at developing other keyboards. I know about some of them because I did a fair amount of research on keyboards designed for one-handed typing when our son was learning to use a computer. We tried several different keyboards, but I never mastered any of them. Our son didn’t, either, and today uses a standard keyboard and types at an amazing rate of speed using only his left hand, with the right hand assisting on the shift key or space bar from time to time. He does a fair amount of two finger combinations, holding the shift key and typing a letter with the same hand, for example.
The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard was patented back in 1936, and had the letters arranged in yet another unique layout. It placed the vowels, except Y in the center row and assigned them to the left hand in this order: A, O, E, U, I. The claim is that the keyboard allows for shorter finger travels and results in fewer repetitive motion injuries. I never learned the system, but several modern operating systems, including Apple OSX and Windows, allow for a switch to such a keyboard.
But all of that is beginning to change. I have a program on my computer that takes dictation fairly reliably. Voice control is getting better and better. Now that we have switched to multi-touch track pads (oops, sorry Windows users – you’ll get them someday), we know that our devices can sense more nuanced gestures than a simple touch or jab. The 27 bones, 60 or so muscles and tendons and three major nerve groups of the human hand are so sensitive to variations in pressure, velocity, position, temperature and texture that we are bound to see new ways of inputting information into our computers.
The QUERTY keyboard may one day be replaced. I guess I’ll keep my old typewriter for a little while longer if for no other reason than to amuse my grandchildren.
Who knows, Susan and I may even replace the rotary dial telephone in our bedroom someday. Our grandson has no idea what the cord is for.
I remember reading about a presentation made at a National Association of Broadcasters convention years ago on the topic of on demand radio. At the time, it was a futuristic notion, but the basic idea was that radio listeners would be able to set their own schedules and listen to the programs they wanted to whenever they wanted to listen, not when the radio station chose to broadcast. The vision seemed wild at the time, but now it has come to pass. And it didn’t take many years for me to make the change.
I bring up the change because I have recently read of another change that may be in the works and it is one that seems to me at the present to be a bit challenging for old school folks like myself. But first a bit more background:
I made the adjustment from a typewriter to a computer easily in part because the keyboard is arranged in the same pattern. The QWERTY keyboard is arranged in its unique pattern because of a study of which letters are most used in standard English. Of course the studies are old and our vocabulary has changed, but we like to have our vowels handy. A is the only one not in the top row and it is assigned to the little finger of the left hand in its position as the first letter of the second row. Some of the most used consonants are arranged in the center of the keyboard were the pointer fingers area allowed to take charge of a bit more territory, with each of those fingers being responsible for six letters and two numbers.
I have a QWERTY keyboard on my cell phone. Susan uses the 9-key numbers of a traditional phone pad to send text messages, and I know how to do that, but it seems cumbersome to have to hit the same key multiple times to come up with the right letter. I’ve seen teens that can clip along at an amazing rate sending text messages with a 9 key, however. In case you’ve forgotten, only 8 of the number keys (2 – 9) have letters assigned. The fourth row has * and # with the 0 in between, but isn’t used for alphabetic numbers.
There have been multiple attempts at developing other keyboards. I know about some of them because I did a fair amount of research on keyboards designed for one-handed typing when our son was learning to use a computer. We tried several different keyboards, but I never mastered any of them. Our son didn’t, either, and today uses a standard keyboard and types at an amazing rate of speed using only his left hand, with the right hand assisting on the shift key or space bar from time to time. He does a fair amount of two finger combinations, holding the shift key and typing a letter with the same hand, for example.
The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard was patented back in 1936, and had the letters arranged in yet another unique layout. It placed the vowels, except Y in the center row and assigned them to the left hand in this order: A, O, E, U, I. The claim is that the keyboard allows for shorter finger travels and results in fewer repetitive motion injuries. I never learned the system, but several modern operating systems, including Apple OSX and Windows, allow for a switch to such a keyboard.
But all of that is beginning to change. I have a program on my computer that takes dictation fairly reliably. Voice control is getting better and better. Now that we have switched to multi-touch track pads (oops, sorry Windows users – you’ll get them someday), we know that our devices can sense more nuanced gestures than a simple touch or jab. The 27 bones, 60 or so muscles and tendons and three major nerve groups of the human hand are so sensitive to variations in pressure, velocity, position, temperature and texture that we are bound to see new ways of inputting information into our computers.
The QUERTY keyboard may one day be replaced. I guess I’ll keep my old typewriter for a little while longer if for no other reason than to amuse my grandchildren.